For the modern day visitor, the emotional connection between the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain and the Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park has, for the most part, long been lost. In very few places can one mentally transcend time, smell the gunpowder, hear the Minnie balls whizzing past, and in the chaos of the smoke and the deafening noise of gun and cannon fire, not know if your rifle had just fired or the man’s next to you. Preserved Civil War historic areas make up a small portion of the park. The mountain itself, which in terms of mountains is merely a pimple on the face of the earth, can barely be seen from a distance due to urban sprawl, tall trees, and multi-storied buildings. On summer weekends the park looks more like a county recreational park than a National Park, as hiking and jogging clubs meet before setting out on the trails, families and couples with panting dogs waddle by, and pedometers and other electronic devices are as common as shirts and shorts. The large majority of visitors—nearly all from the Atlanta area—couldn’t care if this was the Battle for Kennesaw Mountain or the Battle for the Planet of the Apes. I am not here to judge, for it is what it is. There simply isn’t much left of the battlefield.
The landscape that now blankets the park is not the same landscape of the 1860s. The majority of the park is now forest, even areas that were once farms. This is why you see many of the cannon that are on exhibit, all sitting in their historical positions, pointing at trees. In 1864 they were pointing at fields, with Union troops at the other end, or if atop the mountain, towards unobstructed views to the valley below.
The mountain, now entirely covered by forest, had been logged at the time of the battle and tree coverage was much thinner. Decisive battles that were fought on farmland went right back to being farmland after the war; no one gave any thought to preserving the battlefields. When the farmers left and the land was abandoned it became overgrown with brush, eventually becoming a forest. As the area grew in population, trenches dug by both armies were plowed under to make room for houses and stores. There was talk about putting a casino and hotel on the mountain when the U. S. War Department declared it a National Battlefield in 1917 (transferred to the National Park Service in 1933). If it hadn’t been for the government looking to preserve and commemorate the Atlanta Campaign, I doubt anything from the battle would remain. A few other Atlanta-campaign battlefields were under consideration, and while I do not know which ones, if Kennesaw Mountain was the best preserved, there must not have been much left of the others.
The area designated as the National Battlefield in 1917 included only the mountain section. However, the best preserved area of historical significance was Cheatham Hill, which is at the southern end of the battle line (and where the biggest battle took place).
Shortly after the Civil War ended, Illinois veterans of the Union Army who fought in the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain returned to Georgia to buy up land at Cheatham Hill with the intention of one day erecting a memorial to those Illinoisans who died. It took them until 1914 to raise the money and build the monument, which is the biggest in the park. As a result, the trenches at the top of the hill still exist, and the field below the hill on which the Union troops had to charge up has been kept free of trees. In 1933, Cheatham Hill was added to the National Battlefield.
Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park is the most visited national battlefield in the National Park system, and that includes infinitely more well-known battlefields such as Gettysburg. But as mentioned earlier, the park is used more as a National Recreation Area for the local population than a place of reverence for those who died in battle. I made an informal survey of the license plates in the parking lot and 95% of them were from Georgia, with nearly all of those from Cobb, Fulton, and other Atlanta area counties. I speculate that this may be the reason that the word “Park” was added to the battlefield’s official name.
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Last updated on February 15, 2020