Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield

When people are taught about the Civil War, they are taught of the bloody battles that raged at Antietam, Gettysburg, and Shiloh.  Sadly, far too little is taught about the Atlanta Campaign that more than any other sealed the fate of the Confederacy.  The Atlanta Campaign was not just one battle, but a series of battles that occurred around the Atlanta area between May and September, 1864.  While not the capital, Atlanta had quickly become the most important city in the South, and was the manufacturing and transportation heart of the Confederacy.  General William Tecumseh Sherman and his Union Army of the Mississippi knew to cut off the supply line that had kept the Confederate forces fed, he needed to take Atlanta.  One of the major battles in this campaign was the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain.  There Sherman and his force battled the Army of Tennessee, under General Joseph Johnston.  While the battle occurred primarily on June 27th, 1864, the two armies had been setting up for battle in the region for weeks.  What came from this battle opened the path to Atlanta.

Getting to Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield is easy.  Take I-75 to the Exit 269 (Barrett Parkway).  Turn west and head for U.S. 41.  After crossing over the highway turn on Old U.S. 41, and the park will be on your right.  There is limited parking at the park visitor's center, so you may need to park at the overflow lot about a quarter mile away.  There are numerous trails that wander through park, so stroll through the visitor's center to get a map.  The park is 100% free, so it is a great way for a family to spend a day.  The park itself is enormous, and could cover multiple days if you wanted to spend that much time out there.

The main trail of the park takes you to the 1800 foot high granite peak of Kennesaw Mountain. The path itself is unpaved, and some patches are rugged, so make sure you wear good shoes to make it up safely.  The main path is around a mile to the top, and there is a substantial flat portion in the middle called the Confederate Road, which was a path the Confederate army used to move supplies up the mountain.  When you get to the top there is a wonderful overlook that provides you with site lines that include Stone Mountain, about thirty miles southeast, Chattanooga to the north, and a wonderful view of the skyline of modern Atlanta to the south. Keep taking the trail to get to Little Kennesaw Mountain, another wonderful site that is about three quarters of a mile farther down the path.  I was amazed to find carvings in the granite that dated back to the Confederate soldiers who manned the peak during the battle.  One carving read "Prepare to meet thy God," an ominous message from a young man who must have seen plenty of death in his time.  At this point you have walked about two miles. If you decide to follow the path all the way it is about six miles long.  That is more than doable in a day, just remember it is six miles back too.

When you return take another path back to the visitor's center.  We took the Camp Brumby Loop path which lets you see different sites like the Georgia Confederate Soldier Memorial, and is far less crowded than the main path.  When you get to the visitor's center, make sure you visit the free museum on site.  They have some wonderful examples of cannons, guns, and uniforms from the era.  They also have a neat bullet that was made at the Augusta ammunition arsenal for the Confederates that could have possibly been made by future president Woodrow Wilson, who lived and worked at the Augusta factory as a young boy while his father was a preacher there.  Look down and check on the section of a log that is resting on the floor as you are leaving the museum.  The log contains multiple six pound cannon balls that blasted the tree in 1864.  The tree lived, and over a century grew around the cannon balls in a miraculous example of the power of life.

While the outcome of the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain is considered a victory for the Confederacy, the Union Army lost more than 3,000 men trying to rush up the mountain, it was a short lived victory as Sherman drove his men mercilessly to keep pressing forward until the Confederate forces eventually withdrew inside the fortified city of Atlanta.  Sherman's forces eventually encircled Atlanta, conducted a prolonged siege, and eventually burned the town down after Confederate forces left the city in September of that year.  No single battle in the campaign would achieve the epic death tolls of other battles if distant states, but no victory would mark the beginning of the end for the Confederacy like the fall of Atlanta.  If you are in the Atlanta area, take the time to stroll through this beautiful park and see where brave men made history, and where two nations collided more than a hundred and fifty years ago.