their vantage point during the battle.
The trail up to the 14 various cannon positions. Imagine pulling these up a steep hill through woods like you see without any paths.4/3/07 Tuesday - Headed for TN
We are still in the Canton, GA area for a few more days before leaving to join family south of Nashville. The weather turned out to be very nice today so it was off to the Kennesaw National Battlefield Monument between Kennesaw and Marietta, GA. The flowers and trees that have come out, especially with a gentle rain yesterday, continue to provide immense pleasure seeing the hand of God at work.
The battlefield is not so much to see, as it is woods and two very large hills. Instead, you must stand there and realize what took place there in 1860 when Sherman from the North with about 100,000 men took on the South with about 65,000 men who were trying to hold a 10-mile line. The South hoped to keep the North from breaking through that would open attacks on Atlanta and the railroads and manufacturing that was supplied the Confederate forces. This battle took place for about 2-1/2 months before the Union Army was able to break the line and march into Atlanta.
The value of this area was the high ground it afforded the Confederate Army. The leaders did not think the top of the mountain (most would consider this a very high hill) to be that valuable, but one leader did take his forces up at night with 14 cannons and did so in one hour. Considering that this was forest and they had to cut trees to open a trail, that was quite an accomplishment by any standards. Although the cannon fire did not do a whole lot of damage, it did keep the Union Army jumping. The Union Army responded by shooting those firing the cannons with rifled barrel guns, a technology the South did not have. The rifling in the barrels made these guns more accurate at longer distances, leaving the Confederate Army unable to return fire with any accuracy.
