Georgia

Kennesaw Mountain, the Battle for Atlanta, 1864

In the early hours of June 27, 1864 Union soldiers received orders from General William T Sherman, regarded by many to be a suicide mission. They were to assault Confederate forces entrenched along the Kennesaw Mountain line, an 1800 foot precipice known as the “Gibraltar of Georgia”. Sherman’s mission was to capture Atlanta, a critical rail center and industrial hub of the Confederate war machine. All that stood between Sherman and Atlanta was Kennesaw Mountain. The battle raged in rain and mud and cannon fire, the canons having been dragged up the mountain in the dark and torrential rain by the Confederate troops. By July 2 the Confederate soldiers had abandoned Kennesaw Mountain for other defensive positions closer to Atlanta, although the larger Union army went around them each time. Atlanta was captured on September 2, a bitter blow to the Confederacy.

Horton House – Jekyll Island, GA

British visionary and military leader, General James Oglethorpe, negotiated the settlement and founding of the colony of Georgia in 1732.

In 1735 a Major William Horton paid for his passage to America on one of General Oglethorpe’s ships. The significance of paying his own passage was that in America he was granted 500 acres of land on which to settle. A condition of this was, however, that he was expected to bring 10 indentured servants, one for every 50 acres, and have 20% of this granted land in cultivation within 10 years.

William Horton was the first European to settle on Jekyll Island. His closest neighbor was a settlement on St. Simmonds Island to the north. Fort Fredrica was also based here and provided protection to settlers from Spanish and Native American attacks. It was at Fort Fredrica that the British colony was defended in an attack by the Spanish in 1742. The tactical win by the English military here in the Battle of Bloody Marsh ensured that British rule was firmly established in Georgia. William Horton’s wooden house was, however, burned by the Spanish after this defeat. He subsequently built his second utilizing Tabby – which is a mixture of oyster shells, sand, water and lime. The ruins, pictured below, remain to this day.

Pioneer Cabin in Southern Georgia

In 1825 the Creek Indians ceded all their remaining land in present day Georgia and the state’s boundaries as they exist today became defined and settled.

Frontier land was distributed via lotteries and pioneers set out to farm and settle the land.

This is a South Georgia pioneer log cabin built in 1830. It is built from hand-hewn long-leaf pine logs.

Wells for water and smokehouses for food preservation were built by the pioneers on their properties.

A smokehouse is a structure used to cure meat and fish. This smokehouse was built in the 1800s. A slow burning fire dries the meat. Salt curing was often used in conjunction with smoking.