Artillery display at the site of the Union Army’s 24-Gun Battery, Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park

The 24-Gun Battery site is where the Union Army placed four artillery batteries (with six cannon each) and bombarded Kennesaw Mountain, Little Kennesaw Mountain, and Pigeon Hill in an attempt to knock out Confederate artillery at the top of these landmarks. The battery was located .7 mile to the west of Kennesaw Mountain. The Union artillery fired upon the Confederates off and on for ten days prior to the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain on June 27, 1864, as well as during the battle.

A wayside exhibit and four authentic Civil War-era cannon mark the general positions of the 2nd Illinois Artillery, the 5th Wisconsin Battery, the 7th Indiana Battery, and the 19th Indiana Battery. The earthen barriers they are positioned behind are remnants of the actual earthworks built by Union soldiers. The bronze cannon on display is a 12-pounder Napoleon gun, the same used by two of the batteries. The other three black cannon are 3-inch ordinance guns, which were not actually part of the batteries, but over 150 years later, they are the best representations that the National Park Service could find. The other two batteries had 10-pounder Parrott guns. (Note: pounder is the weight of the shell that could be fired.)