ATLANTA - Preservationists recently declared the last undisturbed vestige of the Battle of Atlanta one of the nation's 10 most threatened Civil War sites.
The forgotten network of federal trenches has survived, unprotected for nearly 140 years on a densely wooded tract in southwest Atlanta that is earmarked for development.
"It's almost inconceivable that something like this could have survived unprotected in the middle of Atlanta for so long," says James Lighthizer, president of the Civil War Preservation Trust, the nation's largest battlefield preservation organization. "There aren't any more sites like this in Atlanta. And if this goes by the board, you can kiss that part of the city's history goodbye."
As Atlanta rose from the ashes of the Civil War, postwar development erased the earthen forts and trenches that once snaked across the landscape. Except, say Civil War historians, on the land that sprawls across a network of deep ravines south of the Peyton Forest subdivision. Just west of West View Cemetery, the site includes a large parcel once owned by jazz great Lionel Hampton.
A large blank
On contemporary city maps, the area is merely a large blank. To the casual observer, the 5-foot-deep trenches might look like overgrown drainage ditches.
They might not look like much, but for several weeks in August 1864, as Union troops tried to outflank Atlanta's defenders and the lines of trenches on both sides crept south and west of the city, these simple ditches defined the city's siege line.
A few miles away, Union troops won the battle on July 28 at Ezra Church, but they were repulsed by Confederate troops a week later at Utoy Creek. Unable to break through Confederate defenses, Union troops dug in and waited. Through the steamy August, they built hundreds of yards of earthen trenches and a circular fortification - now within sight of the grassy back yards along Cativo Drive - that probably held an artillery piece.
By September, with Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman's army finally victorious at Jonesboro, the earthworks were abandoned. In time, farms came and went. Then, trees took over. Neighborhood children played in the overgrown fortifications without ever realizing what they were. The city of Atlanta built a bike trail through the tract, but never noticed the trenches. A succession of increasingly affluent suburbs flowed around the site.
"It was never really lost," says Robert Price, a consultant to the Georgia Civil War Commission who has surveyed the fortifications. "A few Civil War relic hunters knew what was there, but most of us were surprised to see that something like this had survived for so long without any kind of protection."
Without protection, it isn't likely to survive much longer.
Late last year, a relic hunter scouring the trenches for bullets and belt buckles noticed brightly colored tags left on the trees by surveying crews. Cascade Partners LLC, a development firm headed by Atlanta architect Michael Landry, was planning to build more than 100 upscale single-family houses on the land.
The developers were as surprised as anyone when they were approached by Civil War buffs and informed that the tract was honeycombed with federal trenches - the only known structures of the kind in Atlanta. The company agreed to delay clearing the land while preservationists tried to piece together a coalition and acquire the money to buy the property.
"The project was moving full steam ahead when they came to us," says Cascade spokesman Bill Alexander. "We're willing to see it preserved, but we're also in the real estate business. We can't wait forever."
Within the past several months, apparently without Cascade's permission, someone cleared several acres of land adjacent to the circular fortification, cutting deep tracks through the western wall of the fort.
"It was apparently an accident," says Price. "But it was also an accident that more damage wasn't done. That's why this area needs protection now."
Preservationists estimate that it could cost as much as $4 million to buy the property. For the past several months, they have been mustering support for the project with the city of Atlanta, which plans to expand recreational lands in the Utoy Creek drainage area; the Conservation Fund; and the Arthur Blank Foundation, which has pledged millions to acquire inner-city green space.
By including the tract in its annual list of 10 most endangered battlefields, the Civil War Preservation Trust hopes to draw national attention to the effort.
'Almost nothing left'
"There's almost nothing left of the Battle of Atlanta, which was arguably one of the most important battles of the war," says Charles Crawford, president of the Georgia Battlefields Association. "Nothing except a few historical markers."
"Take the Battle of Peachtree Creek," he says. "That's all under Collier Road now. The site of the Battle of Atlanta is now Inman Park. The place where they fought the Battle of Ezra Church, now the general area of Mozley Park, is gone too. There is so little left of the Civil War in Atlanta that this site is amazingly precious."
Unlike Georgia's rural areas, Atlanta grew so swiftly in the postwar era, the remnants of the war were lost before anyone thought about saving them. Even William Scaife, author of the authoritative history, The Campaign for Atlanta, says he was astonished to discover earthen trenches within the city limits of Atlanta. "Everything else is long gone," he says. "Other than some of the earthworks in Grant Park, there is nowhere you can go and stand and get a sense of what it was really like."