Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Atlanta Capitol Grounds

On one trip to Georgia we found ourselves with some unscheduled time before our flight home. So we went downtown to the capitol. I had heard that there were some monuments on the grounds. In fact its almost a monument garden there are so many monuments.

This is Joseph Brown, with his wife. Brown was governor of Georgia during the Civil War, and quite a thorn in Jefferson Davis' side. His monument also depicts scenes from two of the major battles in Georgia, Kennesaw Mountain and Dug Gap. This is a very well done monument and is in great condition.










There was also this very small marker for General William Wright. Apparently he was quite well liked as this marker was placed just three months after his death.
This is a somewhat strange monument that depicts the 33 Black state legislators who were expelled from the congress in 1868 because of their skin color. I don't remember seeing a date for the monument but I'm guessing from style that its a relatively modern piece.



One of the largest monuments on the grounds is for John B. Gordon. Another native son who became a general, but he also served as a US Senator and Georgia governor after the war. From 1873 to 1897 he was serving in one of those two jobs except when he took 1880-1886 off to work on his own railroad and mining interests. In the background you can also see the beautiful dome of the capitol.










There are also some information markers detailing events of the Atlanta campaign. For some reason though these were behind a metal barricade so that the pictures did not turn out well. I ended up taking these from a variety of angles so that I could later figure out what words were covered in these shots. They should install these somewhere else so that people could actually read them.










I can't find the guidebook right now but I know that this cannon's story is known, its not just a surplus barrel put here to look neat.
Finally, the capitol grounds were used as a campground by the 2nd Massachusetts while they served as Sherman's provost guard.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Too bad you didn't have time to visit Oakland Cemetery. Very historic and it is the place hood watched the Battle of Atlanta from. Oakland is open again after the 2008 tornado did damage to it.