Georgia, Bartow County, Allatoona
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Allatoona Pass is the site of significant and bloody Civil War battles that took place after the fall of Atlanta in September 1864. With no city to defend, the Confederate Army treated from Atlanta in 1864. With no city to defend, the Confederate Army retreated from Atlanta and began a new tactic of attacking federal supply lines to the north. On October 4, Confederate Major General Samuel G. French´s division of 3,276 men was ordered to march north from Big Shanty and attack the Federal Garrison of 976 troops defending the railroad cut it Allatoona. After an all-night march, the French´s troops surrounded this area and attacked on the morning of October 5 with plans to overrun the Federals, fill the railroad cut with debris, and cut off supplies to the Union Army in Atlanta. Unknown to French, Federal reinforcements arrived only hours before the battle on a train from Rome. It held General John Corse and 2,025 additional soldiers, many of whom were armed with Henry Repeating rifles. The new rifles gave the federals decisive advantage in firepower.
After hours of fierce fighting and the near capture the Federal positions, French withdrew his troops following warnings that his division might be cut off from the main Confederate Army. In a matter of hours, 1,603 men from both sides had been killed, wounded, or were missing. With a 35% Union casualty rate and 27% for the Confederate, Allatoona Pass ranks as one of the most deadly and stubbornly contested battles of the war.
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The first Henry rifles reach the hands of Union soldiers by mid-1862. The revolutionary design and rapid fire rate of this rifle quickly made it a favorite. Reports of the successful use of Henry rifles and Civil War were numerous. In Major William Ludlow´s account of the Battle of Allatoona Pass, he writes, "What saved us that day was the fact that we had a number of Henry rifles." " This company at 16 shooters sprang to the parapets and poured out such a multiplied, rapid and deadly fire, that no men could stand in front of it and no serious effort was made thereafter to take the fort by assault. " After an encounter with the 7th Illinois Volunteer Infantry, which had the good fortune to be armed with Henrys, one Confederate officer is credited with the phrase, "It´s a rifle you can load on Sunday and shoot all week long."
(War, US Civil) Includes location, directions, 4 photos, GPS coordinates, map.
Allatoona Pass is the site of significant and bloody Civil War battles that took place after the fall of Atlanta in September 1864. With no city to defend, the Confederate Army treated from Atlanta in 1864. With no city to defend, the Confederate Army retreated from Atlanta and began a new tactic of attacking federal supply lines to the north. On October 4, Confederate Major General Samuel G. French´s division of 3,276 men was ordered to march north from Big Shanty and attack the Federal Garrison of 976 troops defending the railroad cut it Allatoona. After an all-night march, the French´s troops surrounded this area and attacked on the morning of October 5 with plans to overrun the Federals, fill the railroad cut with debris, and cut off supplies to the Union Army in Atlanta. Unknown to French, Federal reinforcements arrived only hours before the battle on a train from Rome. It held General John Corse and 2,025 additional soldiers, many of whom were armed with Henry Repeating rifles. The new rifles gave the federals decisive advantage in firepower.
After hours of fierce fighting and the near capture the Federal positions, French withdrew his troops following warnings that his division might be cut off from the main Confederate Army. In a matter of hours, 1,603 men from both sides had been killed, wounded, or were missing. With a 35% Union casualty rate and 27% for the Confederate, Allatoona Pass ranks as one of the most deadly and stubbornly contested battles of the war.
(sidebar)
The first Henry rifles reach the hands of Union soldiers by mid-1862. The revolutionary design and rapid fire rate of this rifle quickly made it a favorite. Reports of the successful use of Henry rifles and Civil War were numerous. In Major William Ludlow´s account of the Battle of Allatoona Pass, he writes, "What saved us that day was the fact that we had a number of Henry rifles." " This company at 16 shooters sprang to the parapets and poured out such a multiplied, rapid and deadly fire, that no men could stand in front of it and no serious effort was made thereafter to take the fort by assault. " After an encounter with the 7th Illinois Volunteer Infantry, which had the good fortune to be armed with Henrys, one Confederate officer is credited with the phrase, "It´s a rifle you can load on Sunday and shoot all week long."
(War, US Civil) Includes location, directions, 4 photos, GPS coordinates, map.
Stanley's Brigade
This monument is dedicated to the memory of the 40,000 troops of the 37th and 91st Divisions together with the 53rd Artillery Brigade of the American Expeditionary Forces, who fought in this region between 30 October and 11 November of 1918. It was designed by the architect Harry Sternfeld of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and erected by the American Battle Monuments Commission in 1936.
This monument commemorates the achievements of the 27th and 30th Divisions which fought in the Ypres-Lys offensive with the British Army from 18 August to 4 September 1918. It was designed by the architect George Howe of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, an erected by the American Battle Monuments Commission in 1929.
Archeologists tell us there was a house here sometime around 500 A.D. and that the pottery found in the mounds was made before 700 A.D. Likely, the population was continuous over centuries with customs being handed from generation to generation, relying on field, forest, and stream for food. The simple social system was probably based on the family and close relatives.
At the end of the French and Indian War in 1763, Great Britain gained control of the territory between the Appalachians and the Mississippi River except for the New Orleans area. The northern boundary of West Florida was first established at 31° north latitude.
U.S. agents like Silas Dinsmoor lived among the Choctaw and represented their interests while implementing U.S. policy. His duties included surveying and preventing illegal settlement on Choctaw land. He also encouraged the Choctaw to be more dependent on modern farming practices. He was tasked to collect tribal debts owed to American companies and insure that the Choctaw were paid for land ceded to the U.S. The agency moved four times to stay within the shrinking boundaries of the Choctaw Nation. It was located here, along the Natchez Trace, from 1807 until just after the Treaty of Doak’s Stand in 1820.
Two portions of a nearly 200 year old wilderness road, the Old Natchez Trace, are preserved here. Nearly 500 miles long, it grew from Indian trails to a national road and communications link between the Old Southwest and the United States to the northeast.
To improve communication to the Old Southwest, the Natchez Trace was declared a post road in 1800. Afterwards, with Choctaw permission, improvements to this section of the Old Trace began. In 1805, the Choctaw allowed inns, known as stands, to be built along the route to provide basic food and shelter to travelers. By 1811, Noble Osburn opened a stand near this spot. He was known to treat equally his Choctaw neighbors and American travelers. In 1821 at LeFleur’s Bluff along the Pearl River, the city of Jackson was founded and a year later became the state capital. As a result, the postal route shifted slightly east from here to go through the new capital leading to the demise of the stands along this section of the Old Trace.
The Treaty of Doaks Stand, 1820, opened this land to white settlement. Land was quickly claimed, and pioneer families established themselves in this wilderness. William Dean and his wife Margaret settled near here on the Old Natchez Trace in 1823.
By the time of the Civil War, the Natchez Trace had lost its significance as a national road. One of the sections ran from Port Gibson toward Jackson but the route veered from the original Trace to reach Raymond. In the spring of 1863, General U.S. Grant marched his Union army over this route after crossing the Mississippi and taking Port Gibson.
After U.S. Grant had planned much of his campaign at Mrs. Bagnell’s, four miles west, he arrived at Rocky Springs on May 7. He remained until May 10, allowing the XV Corps to cross the Mississippi and rejoin the army. McClernand’s XIII Corps arrived here on May 6 and moved to Little Sand Creek, one and a half miles northeast and Big Sand Creek, three miles northeast, on May 7. Grant issued motivational orders to his troops at Rocky Springs and reviewed McClernand’s men at Big Sand Creek on May 8.
This is the Natchez Trace. For many years it served man well, but as with many things when its usefulness passed, it was abandoned.
