Latest news with #MarchtotheSea
Axios
13-05-2025
- General
- Axios
Project uses tree rings to determine age of historic Atlanta buildings
A metro Atlanta nonprofit is teaming up with college students to find the exact age of historic buildings using a unique area of study. Why it matters: While historical documents may say a building was constructed in a certain year, the wood used to create the structure could tell us a different story. Driving the news: Cobb Landmarks is using dendrochronology — the study of tree rings — to pinpoint when wood for metro Atlanta buildings was harvested for construction. What they're saying: Trevor Beemon, Cobb Landmarks' executive director, told Axios they are partnering with University of West Georgia students who, under the guidance of two professors, will take 12 to 15 samples from structures around metro Atlanta. Buildings in the study include the William Root House, Power-Jackson Cabin and Brumby Hall in Cobb County, Mimosa Hall in Roswell and several buildings in Atlanta's South Downtown neighborhood. "This is an opportunity for us to partner with science to help make sure that the history that we're sharing is as accurate as possible," Beemon said. Zoom in: Bryan Capps Jr., project manager for South Downtown, said samples will be taken from about three dozen buildings that are undergoing structural rehabilitation and stabilization. The partnership is "really the one chance" South Downtown has to learn about these buildings before they are redeveloped, Capps said. The intrigue: Throughout the process, Capps said, they've noticed that many buildings have been "stitched together" with cosmetic fixes over the years, including finding missing walls and plenty of windows that were bricked over. Beemon said there's a theory that part of the Root House, a Marietta-based museum managed by Cobb Landmarks that documents life in the mid-19th century, was built before the official established date of 1845. "It's already a significant structure, but it could be even more significant if it predates 1845," he said. "That would make it really one of the oldest structures in Marietta." The bottom line: Capps said the project could debunk misconceptions that Atlanta was reduced to ashes during Gen. William T. Sherman's March to the Sea.
Yahoo
03-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Historic cannonball discovery in Pickens County sparks bomb squad response
The Brief A cannonball was discovered in Pickens County, prompting authorities to call a bomb squad for safe disposal. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation's Bomb Disposal Unit was involved in disarming and disposing of the device found on Swan Bridge Road. The Talking Rock area has historical significance, having seen action during the Civil War and the Trail of Tears. TALKING ROCK, Ga. - Authorities in Pickens County were dealing with a blast from the past on Wednesday night. A bomb squad was called out after what appeared to be a cannonball was found. What we know The discovery was made in the area of Swan Bridge Road. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation's Bomb Disposal Unit was called into the area to properly disarm and dispose of the device. What we don't know It is unclear how long the object had been sitting there or who found it. Local perspective The Talking Rock area saw action during the Civil War and the Trail of Tears. While General William Tecumseh Sherman's army bypassed the area in his infamous "March to the Sea" in 1864, the Union's Third Kentucky Cavalry defeated the local Confederate Home Guard. Smaller skirmishes between the two forces also took place around the same time. The Source The details in this article were provided by the Pickens County Sheriff's Office. Additional details were provided by the Town of Talking Rock's website.
Axios
09-02-2025
- Politics
- Axios
Book examines Sherman's march and its massive emancipation
U.S. Army Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman's 1864 "March to the Sea" was not a "total war" campaign against the Confederacy as previously portrayed but a freedom movement that led to a great emancipation, a new book argues. The big picture: " Somewhere Toward Freedom: Sherman's March and the Story of America's Largest Emancipation," released last month, revisits a crucial moment of the American Civil War and shows how it sparked an emancipation — then refugee tragedy — that is often forgotten today. The book's release comes on the heels of the 160th anniversary of the march and is one of the latest historical analyses of the Civil War that challenges old narratives about the Lost Cause and white grievances. Zoom in: Bennett Parten, a history professor at Georgia Southern University, tells Axios that as a native of Georgia he's always been interested in the "March to the Sea." He grew up hearing the popular version of the march as told by white southerners: It was a total war campaign that brutalized the South and flattened Atlanta as the Confederacy was weakening. That version has been popularized by false images seen in the 1939 film, "Gone with the Wind," as a heartless Union military operation that forced any Antebellum white southerners into poverty without any regard to the enslaved people who welcomed that downfall. "We always assumed this was the case and it just never had a real good narrative of it." Reality check: Sherman's "March to the Sea" was a strict military operation where soldiers were ordered not to burn homes randomly, only those connected to cotton plantations, Parten writes. Soldiers couldn't enter the homes of private residents, and it wasn't a pillaging of innocent bystanders, yet the end of enslavement and its economy. Allegedly "loyal" enslaved people didn't run for the invading U.S. Army like their white owners but thousands fled toward it, creating a massive refugee of 20,000 people. The intrigue: Parten details that the refugee crisis of newly emancipated people grew as formerly enslaved people fled destroyed plantations and went searching for children, spouses and family members. "We're looking at the largest emancipation event in American history," Parten said. That alone counters the narrative that Sherman's campaign was heartless and brutal, but one offering hope, he said. Parten offers documented cases of unification and also shows how difficult it was for formerly enslaved people to reconnect with others who could not read or write. Yes, but: The massive number of refugees overwhelmed the city of Savannah, Georgia. A Sherman subordinate ordered pontoon bridges pulled up near Savannah, preventing Black refugees from crossing over and leaving hundreds of men, women and children to drown or be reslaved. Sherman would then issue Special Field Order No. 15, which set aside a vast strip of land for newly freed people. Zoom out: Parten said he wanted to write a story that didn't sanitize the past nor romanticize it: "I didn't necessarily expect that this would be the way the story would end, but the more you kind of start pulling the different threads, the more you ask the question of what happened to the refugees, this is where you know the story does end." What's next: Visitors to Georgia can take a tour through The March to the Sea Heritage Trail and visit sites mentioned in Parten's book.
