Site of Historic Brentwood Hotel

May 16, 2016, 11:14 am

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Brentwood, California.
In 1884 the 1st Brentwood Hotel was built on this site. It was an ornate two story wooden structure in the Victorian style of architecture, with wood sidewalks, columns and a 2nd floor balcony. It was destroyed by a fire set by a dismissed employee on November 29, 1903.
The 2nd Brentwood Hotel was built in 1913. It was a beautiful example of Spanish and Moorish design, with a wide inventory of elements, including earth tone plaster walls and arches, columns, pitched roof, paseos, corbels and kickers. The two story Hotel was demolished in July 1967.
The appearance of the new Chevron station on this site was the result of a collaborative effort of City Community Development staff, the Planning Commission, and Chevron, to reflect the image of the 2nd Brentwood Hotel through the use of many of the design elements of that earlier structure.

(Notable Buildings) Includes location, directions, 3 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

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John and Abby Marsh

May 16, 2016, 11:14 am

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near Brentwood, California.
Builders of the stone house 1856
Abby Marsh died August 1855
John Marsh first doctor in California arrived 1836
Born 1799, Murdered Sept. 24 1856

(Settlements & Settlers) Includes location, directions, 5 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Coweta County Confederate Monument

May 16, 2016, 12:05 pm

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Newnan, Georgia.

(Front of base)
Our Confederate dead,
whom power could not corrupt,
whom death could not terrify,
whom defeat could not dishonor.

(Back of base) It is not in mortals
to command success.
But they did more,
deserved it.

(Right of base)
1861 - 1865
(Left side of base)
Erected in 1885

(War, US Civil) Includes location, directions, 4 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Old Marsh Creek Springs

May 16, 2016, 12:14 pm

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near Clayton, California.
This area in the mid 1850s, was a known hideout for legendary bandit Joaquin Murrieta, who worked as a vaquero for John Marsh on his rancho just east of here. It was also frequented by John "Grizzly" Adams, famed California mountain man.
In 1927 Old Marsh Creek Springs was the site of the first natural swimming pool in Contra Costa County. Gerould (Jerry) and Verna Gill founded Old Marsh Creek Springs, which consisted of four baseball fields, two swimming pools and a large dance hall. The grounds were a popular spot for recreation and entertainment, frequently attracting over 5,000 visitors in a given weekend. In 1965 the park was bought by John and Eloise McHugh and meticulously remodeled year by year to keep the natural beauty that is known as Old Marsh Creek Springs.

(Natural Features • Entertainment) Includes location, directions, 5 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

History of Marsh Creek Springs

May 16, 2016, 5:24 pm

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near Clayton, California.
Founded in 1927 by Gerald (Jerry) Gill and family, the park consisted of four picnic sections, over forty acres, four baseball diamonds, two swimming pools, a wading pool for children, large dance hall and two snack bars.
At one time the grounds entertained 5,000 people on a week end arriving in over 1,200 cars.
In 1957 a cloudburst on the east side of Mt. Diablo sent a twelve foot torrent of water down Marsh Creek destroying the park.
Rebuilt that year - it was again destroyed in 1962 by a second - flood.
In 1964 the John and Eloise McHugh family purchased the area, known as section number one, and began restoring its beauty.

(Natural Features • Entertainment • Waterways & Vessels) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Ohio Dominican University Est. 1911 / Early Sister-Founderesses of Ohio Dominican University

May 16, 2016, 6:58 pm

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Columbus, Ohio.

Ohio Dominican University Est. 1911
The Dominican Sisters of St. Mary of the Springs founded Ohio Dominican University on this site on October 5, 1911. It was incorporated that year as the Ladies Literary Institute of St. Mary of the Springs, a "literary college and institution of learning for the general education and training of girls and young women" and authorized to grant college credit. The name was changed to the College of St. Mary of the Springs in 1924 when the founding Sisters expanded the collegiate curriculum to grant the four-year degree of Bachelor of Arts. Following a decision in 1964 to admit men, the name was changed to Ohio Dominican College in 1968. With the addition of graduate degree programs, the name was changed to Ohio Dominican University in 2002. Today, the institution serves traditional and adult students, reflecting the Dominican belief in lifelong learning.

Early Sister-Founderesses of Ohio Dominican University
Two remarkable women helped to lead Ohio Dominican in its first two decades. Mother Vincentia Erskine, Order of Preachers, Mother General of the Congregation of Dominican Sisters, initiated in 1911 the process that enabled the Ladies Literary Institute of St. Mary of the Springs to grant college-level credit for courses. Mother Stephanie Mohun, Order of Preachers, served as the Prioress-President of the Institute from 1911 to 1914 and was elected Mother General of the Dominican Sisters in 1923. Under her leadership, the Institute received authorization to grant the Bachelor of Arts degree and became the College of St. Mary of the Springs in 1924. In the late 1920s, Mother Stephanie also launched the initiative that built Erskine and Sansbury Halls. Both were completed in 1929, just as the college and the nation were beginning to suffer the effects of the Great Depression.

(Churches, Etc. • Education • Arts, Letters, Music • Charity & Public Work) Includes location, directions, 4 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Spirit of the Springs

May 16, 2016, 7:00 pm

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Columbus, Ohio.
Honoring the history of Saint Mary of the Springs Academy founded 1830 flourished on this site 1868- 1966
Dedicated to the alumnae and the Dominican Sisters in celebration of the spirit that they have carried into the world

(Churches, Etc. • Education • Charity & Public Work) Includes location, directions, 4 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

A Brief History of Eastmoor / Eastmoor Polo Field

May 16, 2016, 7:07 pm

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Columbus, Ohio.

A Brief History of Eastmoor
In 1798, Articles of Confederation Congress provided land to British Canadians who lost property because of loyalty to American revolutionaries during the American War of Independence (1775-1783). This land was part of the Refugee Tract and the present-day Truro Township. In 1850, Henry Stanbery, first Attorney General of Ohio, purchased a portion of this land. In 1923, Charles Johnson bought a section of this land and had it platted as the Eastmoor Addition by the Jennings-Lawrence Company with the polo field at the center. Eastmoor has houses ranging in age from the 1920s to the early 21st century, including Lustron homes built after WWII.

Eastmoor Polo Field
This polo field was the centerpiece of an equestrian community developed by Charles Johnson in the early 1920s. The Eastmoor Polo Club played on this field until the facilities were destroyed by fire. The fire plus the rapid growth of Eastmoor's residential community, caused the club to be relocated to the Rocky Fork Hunt Club, established in 1925 exclusively for the Eastmoor Polo Club. The Eastmoor polo field, commonly known as Virginia Lee Circle, was named for Virginia Smith and Lee Huntington as a wedding gift from Charles Johnson. The mounted polo player, on granite stones at Eastmoor's entrances, is a replica of the mounted polo player on the original sign.

(Settlements & Settlers • Sports • Architecture) Includes location, directions, 5 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

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The 19th Century Italianate Town House

May 16, 2016, 7:14 pm

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Newark, New Jersey.

The Italianate Style Town House
The Polhemus House was a typical example of an Italianate town house, an urban residential building type popular between 1840 and 1870. The Italianate style is a characteristic by elaborate bold projecting exterior ornament with an emphasis on repetitive forms.

The Architect
The architect of the original portion of the house completed c. 1863 is not documented, but the first-story and basement extension to the rear of the house constructed by Charles and Elizabeth Wagner in 1883 was destroyed and built by Newark’s architect and “master builder” William H. Kirk, who also designed and built the North Reformed Church (dedicated 1850, with spire added in 1868).

Kirk established himself in business as a master builder in the 1830s and formed the Newark based firm of William H. Kirk & Co. In partnership with Thomas Kirkpatrick, Kirkpatrick died in 1860. In 1870, Kirk took his son Harmon H. Kirk and his son-in-law Nelson Jacobus into the firm as partners. For a period, the firm was known as William H. and Harmon H. Kirk & Nelson Jacobus. In 1884, Kirk employed between 100 and 150 men.

The Parlor Level
One of the hallmarks of Victorian-era house design is the organization of interior spaces into “public” and “private” zones. While guests were welcome in the areas of the house reserved for formal socializing, only the family and servants could access the more private spaces, such as bedrooms, kitchens, and baths. The Parlor or first-floor level was intended to be the most “public” space in the house, and as such, was the most elaborately designed, with 12’ high ceilings, large open volumes and vistas through rooms, and more impressive wood plaster trim”. Likewise, this floor was the most highly decorated and was reserved for showcasing the family’s cultural refinement and social position.

This separation into public and private spaces also proved useful during the house’s commercial period in the mid-to-date 20th century, when the parlor level could be easily adapted for upper-level executive offices and reception spaces, while the other floors contained more utilitarian work and office spaces.

(Industry & Commerce • Architecture) Includes location, directions, 4 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Roberson Museum

May 16, 2016, 7:20 pm

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Binghamton, New York.
A museum exhibit interprets the Sullivan-Clinton Campaign of 1779. The campaign destroyed Native American villages and crops throughout the Iroquois homeland.

(Native Americans • War, US Revolutionary) Includes location, directions, 6 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

The Truck of the First Commercial Electric Railroad Locomotive.

May 16, 2016, 7:23 pm

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West Orange, New Jersey.
Built by Tho’s Edison and operated with several cars at Menlo Park, N. J. in 1881.

(Railroads & Streetcars) Includes location, directions, 4 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

The Truck of the Second Commercial Electric Railroad Locomotive.

May 16, 2016, 7:24 pm

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West Orange, New Jersey.
Built by Tho’s A. Edison and operated with freight and passenger cars over three miles of Railroad at Menlo Park, N.J. in 1882

(Railroads & Streetcars) Includes location, directions, 4 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

"The Big Raid"

May 16, 2016, 7:36 pm

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near Newnan, Georgia.

You are standing on an old farm road where, on July 30, 1864, Union cavalrymen sweltering on tired horses were hurrying toward the Chattahoochee River. Confederate cavalrymen were hiding near the end of the road waiting for them. As the Yankees approached, the Rebels sprang a perfect ambush, and the Battle of Brown's Mill began.
These six interpretive panels relate the circumstances that propelled 4,000 men into battle, identify the commanders of the opposing forces, the outcome of the battle, and the significance of the battle within the context of America's Civil War. Visiting with a smart phone or tablet? Scan the QR code on this sign to reach additional information videos, slide shows, or a battle animation.

In May of 1864, Major General William T. Sherman led three Union armies from Chattanooga, Tennessee, into north Georgia. His orders were to "break up" the Confederate Army of Tennessee led by General Joseph E. Johnston. During May, June, and July, Sherman drove Johnston from Dalton to Atlanta. Alarmed and angered at Sherman's progress, Confederate President Jefferson Davis relieved Johnston of command on July 17 and replaced him with General John Bell Hood. By then, Sherman had crossed the Chattahoochee River and was 10 miles north of Atlanta. Formidable earthworks around Atlanta gave Hood a tactical advantage against a Union frontal assault, but Sherman closed within cannon shot and began firing on the city. Hood attacked Sherman at Peachtree Creek on July 20, and again near Decatur on July 21. Casualties were heavy on both sides.
Sherman's primary strategy was to strike Hood's supply lines. Three railroads supplied Hood's army with food and armaments. Between July 17 and 24, 1864, Sherman's cavalry successfully broke two of these vital connections. The raid on the Montgomery & West Point Railroad near Opelika, Alabama, destroyed 26 miles of track. Another column of raiders burned two long trestles over the Yellow and Alcovy rivers near Covington, crippling the Georgia Railroad. At a cost of fewer than 70 casualties, these raids severed Atlanta's access to supplies from Alabama arsenals and granaries and the Confederate gunpowder mill at Augusta.
On July 25, confident he could cut Atlanta's only remaining supply line and compel Hood to abandon the city, Sherman ordered his entire cavalry corps, nearly 9,000 officers and men to prepare for "the big raid." Sherman directed Major General George Stoneman to ride east of Atlanta while Brigadier General Edward M. McCook rode to the west. Both cavalry columns were to converge 30 miles south of Atlanta to wreck the Macon & Western Railroad. While this operation was underway, Sherman directed an infantry column to march around Hood's left flank to threaten the vital rail junction at East Point.
The day before the raid, Stoneman asked for permission after cutting the railroad to ride 100 miles farther south to liberate 30,000 Union prisoners of war held at Macon and Andersonville. Sherman admitted the idea was captivating and could not refuse permission. "The most stupendous cavalry operation of the war" was underway.

(War, US Civil) Includes location, directions, 5 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

McCook's Raid

May 16, 2016, 7:37 pm

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near Newnan, Georgia.

Before dawn on July 27, 1864, Yankee buglers sounded "Boots and Saddles." At Mayson's Church just west of Atlanta, McCook's 1,600 cavalrymen mounted their horses and crossed a pontoon bridge spanning the Chattahoochee River at Turner's Ferry.

East of Atlanta, Stoneman's 2,200 men broke camp along the South Fork of Peachtree Creek and rode into Decatur, where they joined Garrard's 4,000 troopers before heading east on the Covington Road.

After crossing the Chattahoochee on July 27, McCook waited while engineers dismantled the pontoon bridge and loaded it into wagons. Colonel Tom Harrison arrived with another 1,400 troopers, swelling the column's strength to 3,000 men. McCook planned to haul the pontoons downstream and cross the river that evening near Campbellton. However, weary mules delayed his progress and Confederate pickets watching from the opposite riverbank, kept him moving to Smith's Ferry six miles beyond. On the afternoon of July 28, as soon as the last pontoon was in place, he hurried his men across the river.

A day behind schedule, McCook sent Major Nathan Paine and the 1st Wisconsin Cavalry toward Campbellton to distract any pursuing Confederates. McCook and his raiders charged into Palmetto about 6:00 p.m., burned the depot, and tore up several hundred yards of the Atlanta & West Point Railroad.

Continuing southeast, they rode all night. Shortly before dawn, they surprised and captured 1,100 Confederate supply wagons parked on either side of Fayetteville. After capturing the teamsters, burning the wagons, and sabering hundreds of mules, the column headed east, reaching the Macon & Western Railroad at Lovejoy's Station early on July 29.

Seeing no sign of Stoneman, McCook sent scouts north and east while the rest of his men began pulling down telegraph wires and tearing up track. His scouts soon returned and reported cavalry coming fast, but not Stoneman's. Instead, they saw Confederate cavalry and Major General Joe Wheeler riding hard toward them.

To General John Bell Hood, McCook's activity seemed a diversionary tactic related to movement of the Union infantry toward his left. Reports of Stoneman's activity had Wheeler convinced the Yankees intended to cut the Macon railroad. Wheeler requested permission to pursue. Hood agreed but wanted Wheeler to remain near, sending only the troops he could spare "to bring the raid... to bay." Wheeler sent three brigades led by Brigadier General Alfred Iverson, Jr. Late on July 27, Wheeler was released to join the pursuit. Overtaking Iverson, he learned Garrard had halted at Flat Shoals on South River while Stoneman's command continued toward Covington.

Keeping only one regiment, Wheeler ordered Iverson to "follow Stoneman rapidly and attack him wherever found." Early on July 29, Wheeler received Hood's warning that Union raiders were approaching from the west, so he and his men rode toward Jonesboro.

(War, US Civil) Includes location, directions, 5 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Wheeler's Pursuit

May 16, 2016, 7:37 pm

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near Newnan, Georgia.

Alarmed at Wheeler's approach and puzzled by Stoneman's absence, McCook conferred with his officers. Some wanted to turn back. Others urged him to ride completely around the Confederate army. After listening to their arguments, McCook issued orders to "return to the Chattahoochee by way of Newnan." Anxious to avoid Rebel cavalry who must have found the smoldering wreckage in Palmetto and Fayetteville, McCook detoured around Fayetteville, steering his column south on the Panhandle Road.

Confederate Brigadier General William H. "Red" Jackson had been in the saddle since daylight. Following the Atlanta & West Point Railroad from Fairburn down to Palmetto, his two brigades soon found hundreds of burned-out wagons and bloating mule carcasses lining both sides of the road. Eager for revenge, they hurried through Fayetteville and reached the intersection of the Panhandle and McDonough roads, just as McCook's rear guard approached from the opposite direction.

Seeing the Rebel riders, Colonel John T. Croxton ordered the 8th Iowa Cavalry to charge. Drawing pistols, the Iowans spurred forward, their starry guidon nearly touching the red Rebel battle flag of the 9th Texas Cavalry as the two columns collided.

For the next 3 hours, charge met counter-charge before Croxton's men finally fought their way through the Rebel roadblock and caught up with the rest of McCook's column at Glass Bridge on the Flint River.

With darkness fast approaching, McCook found himself far behind Confederate lines with no reliable maps. After some hesitation and delay, he found a slave familiar with the maze of narrow rutted roads and ordered his column forward, leaving Croxton's battered brigade to bring up the rear.

Convinced the raiders were trying to reach the Chattahoochee, "Red" Jackson hurried his 2 brigades back to Fayetteville, hoping to get ahead of them. Joe Wheeler was not far behind. A 20-mile ride from Flat Shoals had brought him and about 500 men to the scene of the recent skirmish on the Panhandle Road. They followed Jackson as far as Fayetteville, then turned southwest.

That night gunfire blazed in the darkness at Whitewater Creek and Shake Rag as Wheeler repeatedly savaged the rear guard of the Yankee column toiling along the Lower Fayetteville Road.

About 8:00 a.m. on July 30, Companies D and E of McCook's 8th Indiana Cavalry crested the hill overlooking the railroad depot at Newnan. Sleepless and exhausted after 3 days and 3 nights in the saddle, they were just 9 miles short of the Chattahoochee.

They saw the northbound train stopped at the depot because of the broken tracks at Palmetto. Without hesitation, the Hoosiers dashed downhill just as the locomotive's whistle shrilled, alerting Brigadier General Philip D. Roddey and 550 dismounted Alabama cavalrymen clustered around the freight cars. "Yonder comes the Yanks now," exclaimed a startled Confederate. Grabbing their guns, Roddey's men aimed a flurry of shots up the hill and according to one Yankee cavalryman, “We charged out a damn sight faster than we charged in.”

(War, US Civil) Includes location, directions, 5 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

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The Battle of Brown's Mill: Detour to Battle

May 16, 2016, 7:38 pm

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near Newnan, Georgia.

Anxious to avoid a fight, McCook left the 8th Indiana to contend with the Confederates at the depot while the rest of his command detoured south on the East Newnan Road. Upon reaching Land Lot 38, near Turkey Creek, the column veered to the right on a country lane that emptied into the Griffin Road (now Ga. Highway 16) and then turned south on the Greenville Road (US Highway 27). After cutting the telegraph wire and tearing up a short section of the Atlanta & West Point Railroad at Wright's Crossing, 4 miles below Newnan, the raiders headed west on what is now Emmett Young Road.

Late that morning Joe Wheeler galloped into Newnan. In 24 hours he had ridden 55 miles. Already outnumbered 3 to 1, he quickly divided his small force, sending Colonel Henry M. Ashby and 200 Tennesseans spurring down the LaGrange Road Corinth Road) to intercept the head of the Yankee column. He was preparing to lead the rest of his men against the raiders' flank when one of his officers suggested waiting for reinforcements. "But we haven't a moment to lose," Wheeler snapped. "Form your men."

By this time McCook's column was south of Newnan, fording Sandy Creek at Brown's Mill. As Lieutenant Colonel William H. Torrey’s advance guard approached the LaGrange Road, a keening Rebel yell shrilled from the surrounding thickets. Ashby's Tennesseans opened fire, sending panic-stricken Yankee troopers bolting to the rear. While trying to rally them Torrey fell mortally wounded and most of his brigade soon fled from the field.

Hearing gunfire at the head of the column, McCook halted 2 brigades commanded by Colonels John Croxton and Tom Harrison and ordered them to cover a road on their right flank. Dismounting, these troopers faced north and advanced just in time to meet Joe Wheeler and 500 of his men coming through the tangled woods on foot.

After a short skirmish the Rebels retreated, enabling McCook to recall Croxton with orders to send a regiment to reopen communication with Torrey's men. Mounting their horses, the 8th Iowa Cavalry formed in column of fours. Wheeler, however, quickly rallied his troops. "Follow me!" he yelled as he led a fierce counterattack that drove Tom Harrison's brigade out of the woods and south of what is now the Millard Farmer Road. As Wheeler halted to realign his ranks, he heard heavy firing to his right and rear, where Brigadier General "Sult' Ross's Texas brigade had dismounted just as the 8th Iowa came dashing down the road with sabers drawn and bugles blaring "Charge!"

Blue-coated troopers captured Ross and most of his lead horses. The 3rd Texas Cavalry immediately about-faced and charged on foot. After a wild melee, they rescued Ross and reclaimed their horses. The rest of Wheeler's men also hurried toward the sound of the guns. Three times they surrounded the Iowa troopers. Three times the Iowans fought their way out. It was, said one Rebel cavalryman a Kilkenny cat fight for nearly an hour."

(War, US Civil) Includes location, directions, 5 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

The Battle of Brown's Mill: Ride for the River

May 16, 2016, 7:38 pm

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Newnan, Georgia.

Ashby's ambush and Wheeler's headlong assault cut McCook's column to pieces. Most of the raiders dismounted south of the present-day Millard Farmer Road, rallying around a section of the 18th Indiana Battery, which unlimbered next to a log cabin on the crest of a commanding ridge. As these 2 guns hurled shells and canister at the oncoming Rebel ranks, McCook turned around and around, imploring "What shall we do? What shall we do?"

As the confused fighting seesawed through the gullied fields and dense thickets, McCook suffered heavy casualties while Wheeler received a steady stream of reinforcements.

Brigadier General Robert H. Anderson arrived with 400 Confederate cavalrymen who had ridden all the way from Flat Shoals. Philip Roddey brought his dismounted cavalrymen and several hundred convalescent soldiers from Newnan's four military hospitals. By 5:00 p.m., Wheeler's horseshoe-shaped line had the raiders hemmed in on three sides. Convinced he was "completely surrounded" by "an overwhelming force," McCook summoned his senior officers and announced his intention to surrender.

"Gentlemen," replied Jim Brownlow, the 21-year-old colonel of the 1st Tennessee Cavalry, "you can all surrender and be damned. I'm going out with my regiment." When other officers echoed these sentiments, McCook agreed to let them try to break through the Confederate lines. After disabling their artillery, abandoning ambulances and dozens of dead and wounded, the raiders mounted their horses. As they spurred across Sandy Creek, McCook halted his rearmost regiment, the 8th Iowa Cavalry, and ordered them to cover the retreat.

Wheeler surrounded and captured the 8th Iowa. That night after sending several detachments to pursue McCook, he returned to Newnan and made his headquarters at Buena Vista, a white-columned house on LaGrange Street. Taking a seat at a parlor desk, he spread out his maps and then fell asleep.

While Wheeler slept, three columns of desperate demoralized Yankees raced for the river. At about 9:00 p.m., remnants of Torrey's brigade reached the Chattahoochee at Williamson's Ferry 15 miles above Franklin. Commandeering 3 old canoes they crossed without opposition, swimming their horses alongside.

At about 11:00 p.m., McCook and the largest group, about 1,200 strong, reached Philpott's Ferry 9 miles below Franklin. After refloating the sunken ferryboat, they were frantically shuttling men and horses across the river when the 5th Georgia Cavalry attacked at dawn, capturing all those still stranded on the east bank.

McCook led the survivors on a roundabout retreat through eastern Alabama and western Georgia. They reached Marietta on August 3 after an 8 day odyssey that had cost Sherman's cavalry more casualties than any other battle of the Atlanta campaign.

(War, US Civil) Includes location, directions, 5 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

The Battle of Brown's Mill: Aftermath

May 16, 2016, 7:38 pm

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near Newnan, Georgia.

The Battle of Brown's Mill killed or wounded about 100 of McCook's men. Wheeler's casualties probably numbered fewer than 50. "The dead lay around us on every side, singly and in groups and pile men and horses, -in some cases, apparently inextricably mingled," wrote Fannie Beers, a nurse who reached the battlefield shortly after the fighting ended. A veteran Confederate cavalryman called it "the greatest slaughter I ever saw in front of a cavalry line."

In Newnan, Confederate hospitals treated the wounded on both sides, and buried those who died in the cemetery just north of town. Three years later, the United States Army removed the remains of approximately 34 Union soldiers from Newnan and the Brown's Mill battlefield and reburied them in the National Cemetery at Marietta, Georgia, where they still rest today. Most of these graves bear the same haunting epitaph: "Unknown.”

During the days following the battle, Wheeler's cavalrymen herded nearly 1,300 captured Yankees into Newnan and confined them in a two-story cotton warehouse on Perry Street, midway between the courthouse and the railroad depot. As soon as section gangs repaired the damage done to the railroad at Palmetto and Lovejoy's Station, trains carried the captives to prisoner of war camps at Macon and Andersonville, where many subsequently died from the effects of malnutrition, disease, and exposure.

Against all odds, Wheeler's outnumbered troopers had out-marched, outmaneuvered, and out-fought the best of Sherman's cavalry. Their stunning victory at Brown's Mill on July 30, coupled with Stoneman's crushing defeat at the Battle of Sunshine Church on July 31, not only foiled what Wheeler called "the most stupendous cavalry operation of the war," but also changed the way the Atlanta campaign was fought.

The loss of so many men and horses compelled Sherman to change his tactics. With his cavalry crippled and his infantry stopped short of East Point at the Battle of Ezra Church on July 28, he reluctantly resorted to a siege. Day after day, shells rained down upon Atlanta. When this around-the-clock bombardment failed to dislodge the defenders, Sherman gathered up what was left of his cavalry and sent Brigadier General Judson Kilpatrick riding south on August 18 with orders to succeed where McCook and Stoneman had failed.

Kilpatrick tore up 1 miles of track at Jonesboro but within three days Rebel supply trains were rolling into Atlanta again. Convinced "that cavalry could not or would not work hard enough to disable a railroad properly," Sherman lifted his siege on the night of August 25 and marched his entire army around the west side of Atlanta, determined to destroy the city's railroads once and for all. Two days of bloody fighting at Jonesboro forced the Confederates to abandon Atlanta on the night of September 1. The next morning, the city surrendered. News of Sherman's victory helped assure President Lincoln's reelection at a crucial moment in America's history. That victory would have come sooner if Joe Wheeler had not won the Battle of Brown's Mill.

In 1863, Confederates wounded in the battles to defend Atlanta were sent to Newnan, where they were cared for in hospitals established in warehouses, churches, the courthouse, and in tents on the courthouse square. Four hospitals were located in Newnan from late 1863 until late summer of 1864: Bragg, Foard, Buckner, and Gamble Hospitals. The Surgeon-in-charge at the Newnan hospitals was I. B. Gamble.

(War, US Civil) Includes location, directions, 5 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

In Memoriam

May 16, 2016, 9:53 pm

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near Newnan, Georgia.

On June 17, 1908, a small group of ladies from Chapter 599 of the United Daughters of the Confederacy gathered at this place with a few Confederate veterans to dedicate a monument to "the only battle of the Civil War fought in Coweta county." Mrs. Catharine Wright Gibson, who had suggested the idea, shoveled the first spade full of dirt into the hole dug to set up a simple four-foot marble shaft with the inscription:

GEN. JOS. WHEELER, C.S.A.,
ROUTED GEN. E. M. MCCOOK, U.S.A
JULY 27, 1864
CAPTURING 900 OF HIS MEN
NEWNAN CHAPTER U.D.C.,
1908
Among those watching was Tom Carpenter. An eyewitness to the battle, he had grown up just down the LaGrange Road in a single-story clapboard house which still showed signs of the fighting on that hot July afternoon when he was thirteen years old.

For 5 dollars Carpenter had sold the U.D.C. the 5-foot-square parcel of land where the monument stood. After the dedication, he invited the ladies and their guests to his home for some relief from the summer heat. He pointed out several bullet holes in the walls as well as a faint stain which grew darker on cloudy days, discoloring the planks of the covered porch connecting the house with the kitchen. This stain he said, marked the spot where a badly wounded Union officer had lain. Dressed in a white linen shirt and wearing a diamond ring, the bleeding man had pillowed his head on his blue coat before apparently falling unconscious. When a straggling Yankee trooper knelt beside him and began tugging at the coat the officer suddenly revived and hurled a string of invectives at the thief. Carpenter claimed he never heard such cussing in all his life, before or since.

The man who made this profound impression upon young Tom Carpenter was almost certainly Lieutenant Colonel William H. Torrey, a rough-and-tumble Wisconsin lumberman. Shot in his left lung at the beginning of the Battle of Brown's Mill, Torrey was later taken to Newnan's Buckner Hospital, where he died on August 2, 1864.

The monument accurately marked the spot where Wheeler's cavalry had ambushed Torrey's brigade but it dated the battle incorrectly. This error was remedied when the shaft suffered significant damage sometime after February 1910.

Under the leadership of longtime president Helen M. Long, the Newnan chapter persuaded George L. Wynn, who had acquired the Carpenter farm, to deed them enough land for one dollar to double the size of the monument lot. After erecting an iron fence anchored by four granite posts, the U.D.C. dedicated a new and larger" marble marker on July 24, 1912, which read:



GEN. JOS. WHEELER, C.S.A.,
ROUTED GEN. E. M. MCCOOK, U.S.A
JULY 30, 1864
CAPTURING 500 OF HIS MEN
NEWNAN CHAPTER U.D.C.,
1908
This new monument corrected the date of the Battle of Brown's Mill, but it seriously undercounted the number of prisoners taken. Wheeler actually captured about 1300 of McCook's men, crippling Sherman's cavalry and changing the course of the Atlanta campaign.

(War, US Civil) Includes location, directions, 6 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

The Brick Store

May 17, 2016, 7:34 am

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West Caldwell, New Jersey.
Store site in Horseneck by 1798. Brick structure erected by Nath. Douglass, turnpike promoter with I. Crane, 1819, first Caldwell (Franklin) post office, J. Hudson P.M. A major trading and polling place through 19th C. From 1904, council chamber of new borough. Purchased in 1915; remodeled to include fire dept., police, and finally, a jail. Razed in 1968.

(Industry & Commerce) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.