What Cause?

Bill Yopp went to war with his masteer, to be his man servant.  His master was wounded and left.  Bill stayed on as a drummer.

Bill died as an ex-slave.  Before his death he was a doorman of  the Georgia State Legislation Building.  He politicked state representatives to build a retirement home for Confederate Soldiers, which he succeeded.   

He is the only person of color buried in the Marietta Confederate Cemetery. 

I think he was nuts.

This Date in History, May 9th

On this date, May 9, 1865, President Andrew Johnson declared that the Civil War is officially over.  

But is it really?

Our DNA in Hisory

I just came across the below paragraph again (I forgot I have it).   The paragraph mentions several parts of history (Trail of Tears, Civil War, etc) that our relatives had a part in; This Samuel Hunter (1793-1852) is not an ancestor but an ancestor’s nephew.  Samuel  married Catherine Poteat and they had eleven children.

Samuel was born in the Hunter Homestead at the mouth of Big Ivy on the French Broad River.       Samuel and two of his sons are said to have assisted in the removal of the Cherokee Indians in 1838.       Part of the "Ocoee Purchase" of Cherokee land south of the Hiwassee River was organized in 1838 into Meigs County, Tennessee.  It was there, near the old post office in Limestone, that Samuel Hunter received a grant of land for a farm in  1838, and in the following year, December 11, 1838, he received an additional grant, No. 911 of Ocoee Grants, listed in Book B-430 of  the Tennessee State Archives.       Two of his sons served as officers in the Union Army during the Civil War; one of these sons was killed by bushwhackers at the close of the war, and the other died in a Confederate prison camp.  Two other sons of Samuel became ministers of the Gospel and held pastorates in the Methodist Episcopal Church.

PS. I don't know where the Big Ivy's mouth is on the French Broad River, but I do know the French Broad River flows through Buncombe County, and in Buncome it flows through the Biltmore Estate. it is feasible that Samuel Hunter's farm was on what would become the Biltmore property.

Land of Cotton, Look Away...

Not long ago we read in The Marietta Journal that giant  mural art would be on the side of some buildings in downtown Marietta and also at Brown Park is a freshly installed pedestrian bridge that crosses over South Marietta Parkway and we could not place exactly where, so while in the area we checked it out ourselves.  It is right beside Richard Hunter’s Memorial Bridge.  Richard Hunter is my uncle Dick.

Also, while there parking in the Brown Park small parking lot we saw a large group of people up on top of the hill in the Confederate Cemetery.  I couldn’t resist, I checked it out.  They were having a Confederate Memorial Day Ceremony.  With speakers, Taps, 21 Gun Salutes and all.

Look Away, Look Away, Dixie…

Throwback Thursday: The Great Locomotive Chase

Throwback Thursday:  Today in History, 1862, in Kennesaw, in front of the Lacy Hotel, Yankee spy James Andrew and his Raiders stole THE GENERAL Locomotive, and headed up the tracks for Chattanooga, saying "I think I can, I think I can!" They thought wrong.   

The day before Andrews' Raiders stayed in the Fletcher Hotel, by the tracks, now The Kennesaw House, which houses The Marietta Museum of 
History.

Disney made a movie about it and starred Fess Parker.

Look!  There is James Andrews now in his hotel room in Marietta, looking out the window at the GENERAL Locomotive  parked below (or maybe a Marietta History Museum depiction of it_.

Gone With Atlanta, This Date in History

On this date September 2, William T. Sherman burned Atlanta in 1864..  If you want to know the grizzly details see THE ATLANTA CYCLORAMA or movie GONE WITH THE WIND.

History of July the 13th

I found came across these on two separate history entries:

1821        Jul 13, Confederate cavalry commander Nathan Bedford Forrest was born in Tennessee's Bedford County.

1862        Jul 13, Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest defeated a Union army at Murfreesboro, Tennessee. 

Because of the above two I learned two things about General Nathan Bedford Forrest: 

First.  He is partially named after the Tennessee county he was born in.   

Second.  As a Confederate General  he had a major victory on his birthday.  

What a birthday present!

Allattona Pass

This is or was Allatoona Pass.   This picture was taken when our son Adam gave us a tour of Allatoona Lake.

 I suppose Allatoona Pass is below water level.  On October 5, 1864, there was a Civil War fight here, over control of the railroad.  Whoever controlled the railroad controlled the war, a distance probably over 25 miles.  I thought the curvature of the Earth would block their visuals, but apparently not.

When I learned my great grandfather William A. Hunter's unit, 139th N.C. Regiment, Company I, was one of the groups that fought there I perked up.  However, William could not have been involved, he got shot in the knee during the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain about four months earlier and he was then recuperating in a private home near Woodstock.

Interesting, in studying the fight I learned that Sherman's communications specialists  communicated from the top of Kennesaw Mountain and the top of the highest point at Allatoona Pass by light reflectors.

Some Cemeteries near Downtown Marietta

October is the month of cemeteries. 

Here I am jumping on the bandwagon and showing some parts of four most popular cemeteries in Marietta.  As a adolescent I have played in and hung out in three of the cemeteries often.  Saint James not so much.

The cemeteries in order: the Marietta City Cemetery, the Confederate Cemetery, Saint James Episcopalian Cemetery, and the National Cemetery.   All within a couple of blocks of the Square in Downtown Marietta. 

The music is Bach on the Moog.

click below:

Battle of Kennesaw Mountain Personally Changed this Family's Destin

In about two to three weeks will be another anniversary of the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain.  It will be 151 years this year.  My great grandfather William Hunter's  life changed that week and   his   200 to 300 descendants'  hometowns was destined to be Marietta and Woodstock.  If he was not shot in the knee during the battle we might  all be Texans now. 

Let me explain my reasoning:

Our Hunter ancestor that first came to this area was William A. Hunter. was first in the area when was in the CSA,  fighting on Kennesaw Mountain and got shot in the knee.

He recuperated in a private home near Woodstock.  He was there long enough to make friends with his caretakers' neighbors.

After the war he returned home to Macon County, North Carolina.  There, his uncle Van Trammell  got into a heated argument about the Civil War and he killed the person.  William was a witness saying Van could not have killed him because he was him all day.  Proof was provided against his statement and Van was wanted for murder and  William was wanted as an accessory to murder.

First they fled to Arkansas to Van's brother's home and  William went on to Texas.  He brought his family.  He had a hard time providing for his family and returned to Woodstock, Georgia, to look up  friends he had made when he was recuperating.  They helped him get emplopyed.

If William had made a go of it in Texas.....Yippee Ki Yay, Y'all!

Fort Sumter, the First Shot In the Civil War

This is Memorial Day Weekend.   This weekend we are trying to show appreciation for the American military.    So, here is another true war story, illustrated.

The time we went to war with ourselves.   We won.  We lost.  The actual first shot was fired at Fort Sumter in Charleston Bay, South Carolina, on April 12, 1861.  It was the first shot to start this nation's Civil War.

By the way, once we took a tour of Fort Sumter Island, out in the Charleston Bay.  Did you know it is not a natural island?  Huge rocks were shipped down the coast from New England and the rocks and boulders were dumped in the exact spot over and over.  Can you imagine how huge of a project this was?  Without the use of power machinery.... it boggles my mind to even think of the huge task involved.

The story was written by  EC's FRONTLINE COMBAT  Comicbook's editor Harvey Kurtzman, but to be honest, History wrote really wrote it.  Will Elder and John Severin  were the artists.

Kurtzman, Elder, and Severin were long time friends and business partners.  They were three of the five original artistic staff of MAD Comicbook.

click on each image in order to make it larger so you can make sense of what it is about.

From EC's FRONTLINE COMBAT Comicbook, #9

This Day In History, "Tutti Frutti" Jan 14th

On this date, in 1956, Little Richard recorded "Tutti Frutti!"

Also on this date in 1864 General Sherman started his troops marching south to whip some ass and leave a smoking wake.

Gerald Flinchchum's Book

Gerald Flinchum

In Monday's Marietta Daily Journal and the Cherokee Tribune there was an article about  Gerald Flinchum and his book CROSSROADS, CREEKS, AND CLASHES: CIVIL WAR SKIRMISHES IN CHEROKEE IN NORTH COBB COUNTIES: 1864.  It looks like an interesting book if you have a historical interest in the area.

In 2004 on my blog chick-fat I published pictures of the Tyson Cemetery near Hwy 82 and Bells Ferry Road.  It is a small cemetery with only 4 marked graves and 3 or 4 unmarked graves.  Gerald Flinchum emailed and called me.  We set up a meeting place in a close business parking lot near the cemetery and I took him to see it.  He took detailed pictures because he told me he believed that some of Sherman's horsemen came through the area a few months before The Battle of Kennesaw Mountain.

Months after our meeting and looking at the  Tyson Cemetery he called me told me something to the effect there was a big skirmish in of Yankee Calvary men and Rebels  in the cemetery itself.

I am more than curious, it appears that my great  great grandfather Robert  Graves Tyson (1821-1864) ( died about the same time the skirmish happened.  Maybe this book will open up new facts.

Tyson Cemetery:

Eugene Hargraves Tyson

Frances Herring Tyson

Robert Cabel Tyson

Sarah Moody Tyson

Atlanta's Best Kept Secret No Longer a Secret

On WABE public radio the other day when I turned it on  Cascade Falls off Sand Town Road in Atlanta was being discussed.  I only caught some of it.  My ears perked up when I realized they were talking about a little known Civil War site.  It isn't well known because it is not in the history books according to the speaker.  He said it is not in the history books because the winner s get to write the history books.  He was saying at Cascade Falls the Confederates lured a whole company into the Cascade Falls area and it is shaped like a horseshoe.   So, the Rebs got the Yanks in the area which was a trap and decimated them - so said the guy being interviewed, which I  take it he was a historian.  Also mentioned it got its name because there is a waterfall that falls down some rocks, cascade style.  The radio people stopped and asked several people that visited the falls - they said it was the best kept secret.  I suppose  it WAS - not now.   Thanks WABE!  Did you know Atlanta had a waterfall?

This Date in History, Sherman Captured Atlanta

On This date in history, September 2, 1864:  Union General William T. Sherman captured Atlanta.  I don't know what he wired and told President Lincoln about the capture.  I do remember reading about when he captured Savannah he wired the President and said something like "I present you  Savannah as a Christmas gift".

Maybe when he captured Atlanta he wrote the president and said something like, "I got you a Labor Day present, sorry about being late, but you wouldn't believe the mad crowds around here, but anyway, three guesses what I got you! - do you want some hints?"

Reliving the Civil War

We went to the Marietta Museum of Historylast night  to hear David W.  Vaughn show and talk about his collection of Confederate Soldiers portraits made on tintypes /daguerreotypes .  In the museum he has an exhibition that will be on display through August the 30th.... hey!  That's today!

Davie gave a very well versed educational lecture.  He will buy a picture from usually a dealer and research the person in the picture.  He looks for clues in the picture, which tells more of the story.   I think it would be a very interesting and awarding hobby,  and looking for clues is exactly what I do in my genealogy research.  He had a slide show of 40 of his daguerreotypes and the behind the scenes research that went into them and what various things in the picture might tell you.  David Vaughn has surely become an expert of Civil War battles and troop movements with all the research he has done.

Not only that but they had refreshments!

And I saw my high school science teacher Clara Howell.  We run into each other at all things like this. 

William D. Petty (my g-grandfather's brother)

Here is another one in my collection.  Evidently, it is of a young couple.  The handsome young man  was a dashing officer.  You can tell he was a good officer because of his alertness and wry look -  he was a handsome brute, in any time period.  They had this picture taken at a portrait studio in Helen, Georgia.  Afterwards, the dashing handsome officer  reported to the unit he was to be over.  But, as Sherman said, "War is Hell" and when he reported he heard  about the statistic that more young good looking dashing officers are shot in the back by their own men than in front from enemy fire.  He dashed right back to the arms of his wife.  

I Am No Mathew Brady

click on image to make it larger

Saturday I went to Kennesaw Mountain to witness the 150 Year Sesquicentennial observances *  of the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain.  Most of the Hunters of this area are descended from William A. Hunter, who fought in that Battle and was wounded in the knee there.

*I am uncomfortable using the word "celebrate" in this case, because it was a battle where many people were killed.

First I went  out to the big open field in the front facing the highway of because of a company of soldiers and white military tents.

On the walk out was a exhibit how a field hospital would be set up.  A man explained all about amputations and the survival rate of each type of amputation.  Like you are likely to live 90% to 99% if your hand is amputated.  Maybe 85% to 90% if you are amputated at the elbow.   The worse is being amputated at the hip.... less than a 10% survival rate. 

Look Men!  A long yella  horseless stagecoach!

Ya want to take a picture of me with my pipe I made myself?

"Yep!"

Reenactors really put their hearts into it.  They seem to take the responsibilities of real military men who primary job was the safety of citizens.   They also knew the history of their antique replica guns and the history of whatever role the are acting.

Then I walked by the trail leading up the mountain.  I asked myself, "Why not?" 

Right then, if I thought of it, I could list a bunch of reasons, "Why not".  For one, I haven't  went up the mountain by foot in over 15 years.  Another reason, I am in my 70s.  I could go on, if I had thought of it.

A period dress woman outside view of the camera was talking about buying some type of antique for their camp at a garage sale that was  just right for their camp.  

Up the trail.

The trail has a lot of protruding roots and rocks, which serve as Nature's steps.

Looking down where we been

Parking lot within sight.

A lot of people were walking up the trial.   And also coming down the trail.  What I did not know at the time, walking on the paved road that day was prohibited.  That was why there were so many people.

Over halfway I had to stop and rest and pant.   I saw my 90 plus retired school teacher, Clara Howell,  and her son coming down the mountain, just as hyper as the night before when we saw her looking at the CSS HUNLEY.

 

There two women walking near me that one was coaching the other one.  And the  one coaching was using for an inspiration - she said, see that old man, if he can do it, so can you!  The other woman just whined how tired she was.  She used me as an inspiration again, pointing out that I was at least 70.  I overheard that and said, "70?  I'm younger than that!  I bet I am younger than you!"  She was speechless.  I told her I was just joking and I would be 73 in two weeks, but that was, of course, if I could make it to the parking lot near the top.

The parking lot had a refreshment trailer selling cold Cokes and water.  I bought a bottle of water for $2.  I told the lady who sold it to me she was robbing me, but I said, it was going to a good cause.  The profits were going to the Parks.  Also there was a long row of Cobb County Policemen on their motorcycles.  Their mission was keep pedestrians off the paved road that went up the mountain.

Blackjack Mountain

Cobb County Motorcycle Cops

Above the parking lot a group of Civil War reenactors  were demonstrating   how to shoot a cannon.    As I walked by they said everybody needed to stand back, because of loud noise to their ears and some firing power may get them.  I walked almost a tenth of a mile up and there was a lady trembling with her hands covering her ears.  She looked like she was scared shitless what the cannon might do.

I heard the boom.  Later on the way down, I saw the same lady that had her hands to her ears sitting on the same rock.  I said, "Now,that wasn't so bad was it?"

"Because I am way up here." she said.  At least 20 people were only about 25 feet away and they seemed OK too, but if she felt safer there and can argue she survived it, who am I to doubt that.

Kennestone-Wellstar Hospital Complex

Up at the very tip top of the mountain, the scenery looking north and east is spectacular. 

At the top, down a slope you can look down on a trail.  I looked down and saw a group of men, joined in a circle by holding hands, looking down and their leader saying a prayer in a foreign language.    My first thought was Terrorists praying before a mission!   But my second thought, was they just didn't look like terrorist in my opinion... of were young and silly and playing chase - I saw them earlier.  Whoever heard of a silly terrorist?  They take life too seriously.

I was still pouring sweat so I decided to take the shuttle down.

At the bottom of the mountain, as the shuttle bus was stopping I saw Robert Meaders walk in front of the bus and started up the trail.  I hopped off the bus and ran up the trail up the hill looking for him.  He and his wife Haley Hunter Meaders and their two children Trey and Hunter Meaders.  They were watchingwere watching some ladies in costumed doing domestic things around a campfire.  Robert suggested I take a shuttle  to the 24 Gun demonstration on Gilbert Road**.  Which I did.  

**I think Gilbert Road used to be a road mostly with very few homes and little traffic.  It was called The Rabbit Farm on Saturday nights.

When I first aimed my camera at the two above men the man on the left looked for a place to put his cigar.  I asked him to leave it in, it would look more rough and ready.  He obliged. 

This reenactor is from east Tennessee.  He knew his Civil War History.  He also he has a Confederate uniform and a Yankee uniform.  When he arrives at something like this he never knows what side he will play, what ever side has the least number of men.

a contrast

It was a very interesting demonstration on firing on command and doing things like stuff your miniballs and gun powder in and military marching.  Good show!

A very interesting day.