Kolb Farmhouse at the southern end of Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park

The Peter Kolb Farm is located at the very southern end of Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park near the corner of Powder Springs Road and Cheatham Hill Road. The farmhouse was used as the headquarters of Union general Joseph Hooker and possibly as a hospital after the Battle of Kolb’s Farm on June 22, 1864. The house is not open to the public due to it being used as housing for park Rangers, but visitors can stop by to see it and take photos. The Kolb Family cemetery is also on the grounds. Allow 15 minutes to see this site.

There is parking for six vehicles at the Kolb Farm. A permit is required to use any of the parking lots within the park. While many of them have on-site pay stations that take credit and debit cards, this is not the case at the Kolb Farm. Therefore, be sure to purchase a parking pass before arriving, either at the Visitor Center or online at Recreation.gov.

The Confederate Army of Tennessee under the command of General Joseph E. Johnston had been attempting to stall Union general William T. Sherman’s army from capturing Atlanta since March 1864. The Confederates were highly outmanned and outgunned and had no illusions of winning the war. The strategy was only to prolong it. The people of the North were tired of war, and because 1864 was an election year, they were ready to vote out President Lincoln and elect Democrat George McClelland, who was running on a campaign to end the war by making peace with the South. The election was set for that November, so the Confederates had to hold out for another six months or so. Lincoln had written letters in which he stated he was certain to lose. Only a victory in Atlanta, which would mean an inevitable victory for the Union, could save him.

By June 19^th, Johnston’s retreats had taken him to Kennesaw Mountain. Trenches were dug and cannon were hauled to the tops of the many mountains and hills in the area. The initial battle line ran from a little to the northeast of Kennesaw Mountain at the northern end to Cheatham Hill at the southern end, a six mile stretch. Sherman in turn set up his battle line to match Johnston’s, with his ultimate goal being to outflank the Confederates (move around the far left or right of the enemy line in order to attack from both the front and back, a tactic that usually ends in the enemy’s defeat).

On June 22^nd, Sherman sent General John Schofield’s XXII Corps and General Joseph Hooker’s XX Corps to the Kolb Farm in an attempt to outflank Johnston’s southern position. From the top of Kennesaw Mountain, this movement was in plain view of Johnston, so he sent 11,000 men under the command of General John B. Hood to the farm to block the Union flanking move. When Hooker and Schofield learned of the Confederate plan, they quickly dug defensive earthworks. Fighting broke out at the 600-acre farm that evening when Hood, without orders, decided to attack the Union line, which in hindsight could be considered a preemptive attack. While he successfully kept the Union troops from flanking him, the Confederates lost the battle in terms of casualties (1,500 Confederate casualties to 250 Union). This led Sherman to the conclusion that Johnston’s line, which was certainly stretched thin, must be even thinner now after the Confederate loses and the additional mile of coverage, so he prepared to attack the center of the line a few days later on June 27th. This attack is known as the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain.

The Kolb Farmhouse and fields were heavily damaged during the fighting. At the time of the battle, it was Kolb’s widow, Eliza, who owned the farm, and she and her children left the area when trouble came to town and did not return until after the Civil War had ended. The Kolbs sold the farm a few years after the war. Family members repurchased it in 1888 and then sold it for good in 1895. It was eventually aquired in 1941 by the federal government for inclusion in Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park. The house had been modified over the years, but the National Park Service restored it to its original form.