Day 21

Our last pix from Red Top Mountain, Georgia

 We were on the road at 8:45 AM, heading north to Georgia’s Fort Mountain State Park which is about 50 miles south of Chattanooga.   It was raining this morning so we decided to just have cereal and juice in the van,  then pick up some coffee an everything bagel and a raspberry scone in nearby Cartersville.  

Continuing north, our next stop was the settlement of New Echota, which was the capitol of the Cherokee Nation.  The Cherokee were a peaceful people who quickly adopted and assimilated most of the customs, names, speech, dress, housing, government, and religions of the European settlers.  

The settlement of New Echota resembled many other communities in the United States in the 1800’s.  The Cherokee developed a written language, they had a newspaper, and a court system.  Touring the buildings of the restored village was no different than touring through Sturbridge Village in central Massachusetts.

The Cherokee Nation was recognized and operated as an independent country inside the United States.  However, in response to a continual series of treaty revisions and violations, the Cherokee sued the US government and won!  The lawsuit ended up in the US Supreme Court whose Chief Justice was John Marshall. Despite the fact that the Cherokee won the lawsuit President Andrew Jackson refused to honor the decision, and ordered US troops to enforce resettlement of all Cherokee people to Oklahoma.

The forced migration of the Cherokee to Oklahoma, which started in the fall of 1835, was known as the Trail of Tears.  Approximately 15,000 Cherokee started the 800 mile journey by foot, horse, wagon, and boat, but over 4,000 died along the way due to disease, exposure, and starvation.

In Georgia, the abandoned lands. farms, homes, and possessions were distributed to new settlers via a lottery!  The original village of New Echota was completely abandoned and essentially disappeared until it was rediscovered by archaeologists in the 1950’s.

This is the home of one of the most successful Cherokee, Chief James Vann, a businessman whose 1000 acre plantation employed over 100 Black slaves.  Vann was considered one of the wealthiest Americans of his time.  He was murdered, most likely by a disgruntled Cherokee who believed Vann was corrupt and taking bribes in order to agree to treaties that none of the Cherokee people supported.

Vann Plantation 

Leaving New Echota, our next stop was the town of Dalton where we had a fabulous lunch, probably our best meal of this trip, at “Cyra’s Simple Goodness”.

Knowing our dinner would be at the campground, Joni and I went big, sharing an appetizer, a mango curry burrata:  fried burrata (cheese( served over mango, cranberry and curry chutney, and accompanied with grilled stiratto bread.

My main dish was shrimp and zucchini fettuccine:  house made zucchini noodles tossed with a fresh chili garlic beurre blanc and served with grilled shrimp, spinach, corn, and peppers.

For a main dish, Joni chose a fried green tomato BLT with thick cut Nueske bacon, iceberg lettuce and a jalapeño bacon jame on grilled stiratto bread, served with Yukon Gold roasted potatoes.

We continued our splurge, sharing an Indian bread pudding with strawberries, raspberries, and whipped cream!

Leaving Dalton, which appeared to be a very prosperous and charming small city, we made one stop to take some pictures of the Vann Plantation, and then headed into the mountains to our campsite for the evening at Fort Mountain State Park.  The park, elevation 2500 feet, is nestled among the thick forests of the  southern Appalachians, very close to the southern end of the  Appalachian Trail at Springer Mountain.  This was our 4th or 5th visit to Fort Mountain….obviously we love it.

Day 20

 Our last full at Georgia's Red Top Mountain State Park.  We couldn't ask for a nicer site!

Site #12, Red Top Mountain State Park

We started the day making "Gary Gardner Specials":  egg & bacon breakfast sandwiches on a brioche!

Leaving our campsite around 10 AM, we headed to the Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History in Kennesaw; two of my favorite subjects ever since I took a course at Middlebury on Civil War Railroads.  Don't laugh, Bill Carlough!

The first exhibits focused on the Civil War with lots of photos and pieces of military equipment. Later exhibits focused on the development of the railroads in the U.S. with particular emphasis on the role the railroads played during the war.  

Railroad construction technology was in its infancy, so both rails and ties (aka sleepers) did not last more than 6 months and were very easy to sabotage.

A trestle bridge being constructed over the Tennessee River

Barrels of pine syrup, used for many purposes such as turpentine, being loaded onto the ships in background in Savanah.

Downtown Richmond with the Thomas Jefferson designed Capitol building.

Another view of downtown Richmond, focusing on the Tredegar foundry where the majority cannons and cannon balls for the Confederacy where made.  Today what's left of the foundry is now part of the American Civil War Museum which we visited earlier in this trip.

Railroads demanded many parts made of iron and steel, so machine shops were in high demand.  There were many exhibits of such shops in this museum.

One of the major exhibits at the museum focuses on the Great Locomotive Chase that took place in April 1862 when James Andrews led 21 Union volunteers to capture a Rebel train  near Kennesaw and tried to take it to Chattanooga. In the process the raiders hoped to destroy as much of the track and telegraph lines as possible. Most of the raiders were eventually caught from behind by another train.  They were put in prison, tried as spies, some were released in a prisoner exchange, but some, including James Andrews were hung.  Andrew was eventually awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor and in fact was the first civilian to receive this award. 

That chase has been celebrated in two different films,  a silent film starring Buster Keaton in 1927, and the second film, produced by Disney in 1956, starred Davy Crocket himself, Fess Parker! The General, is now on display in this museum.

More info on the Great Locomotive Chase

Another interesting exhibit in this museum was this "Dukes of Hazard" wrist watch.  More fascinating than the watch itself, was the explanation about Confederate battle flag, which many of us would equate to the Nazi swastika

To those of you leaving comments:  First of all thank you very much for the comments you have left, I do read them and I love hearing from you.  Many of you have let me know via email that you can't figure out how to leave a comment on the blog itself.  You're not alone, I've tried to reply on the blog to specific comments and can't figure out how to do it.  You'd think after publishing a blog on the same website all these years I'd be able to do it, but right now it escapes me.  

Day 19

 We are now about 60 miles north of Atlanta in the Red Top Mountain State Park.  Another impeccably maintained and equipped Georgia State Campground.  

These four joined us for dinner and breakfast.

A pair of blue birds has been entertaining us every morning.  

After a leisurely start to our day we drove south to the Kennesaw National Battlefield Park.

The battle on Kennesaw Mountain took place in late June and early July in 1864...that's one year after Gettysburg.  Sherman who was on his "March to the Sea" was approaching Atlanta.  It was an election year, Lincoln was trailing in the polls, and if the Union Army continued to struggle in the South and didn't gain a strong victory, Lincoln might be forced to negotiate a peace with the Confederacy.  

Recognizing the role Atlanta played via the railroads in supplying their army with supplies and ammunition, the  Confederate leaders knew they had to defend Atlanta at all costs.  So in anticipation of Sherman's approach, the  Confederate army built a lengthy system of earthworks, artillery, and men around Kennesaw Mountain, which is just north of Atlanta.

One of the many cannons perched on top of Kennesaw Mountain.

First of all I didn't know anything about this battle, but after this visit it was very evident that this was a very significant battle for the Union even though by all accounts the Confederates prevailed; suffering only 1000 deaths compared to 3000 deaths for the Union Army.  Despite the Union's casualties, the South ended up retreating from this battle when they were clearly in command.  The common explanation that the South withdrew from this battlefield in order to regroup in preparation for the ultimate assault on Atlanta. 

The insanity of war and the insanity of the battle strategies employed by the Confederate and Union Armies is so evident when you visit these battlefields.  Thousands of soldiers marching in line toward thousands of other soldiers are firing bullets and cannon balls.  It was suicide, and they knew it.  A two hour truce was called at one point during the battle on Cheatum Hill so that each army could bury their dead.  During this truce, soldiers from both sides intermingled, had friendly chats, and even shared water.  Once the true ended they resumed killing each other.

The Confederate soldiers were well entrenched behind the earthworks where this photo was taken, Cheatum Hill.  The Union soldiers charged up the sloped and were slaughtered, but did it again and again and eventually the Confederate troops retreated during the night.

One of the many victims at Cheatum Hill.

The Kolb farmhouse, the only building left standing from the battle that still exists.

Atlanta after Sherman

Destroying rail beds

In the middle of our tour of the Kennesaw Mountain battlefields we took a lunch break at Steak-n-Shake.  

It's not uncommon to find railroads running right through the center of towns, this one was in Marietta, but I don't really mind I love looking at trains of every size.

This "Big Chicken" was a prank by some Georgia Tech students, but it was so popular that it was not removed and has become a famous landmark in Marietta.

Day 18

Site #6, Indian Springs State Park, Flovilla, GA

We started the morning chatting with our campground neighbor who as you may notice if you look closely is also driving a Sportsmobile camper, their's a 2006 Ford E350.  Most of the campers that we've seen on this trip are the huge "Dolly Parton" which are bigger than a tiny house.  Talking to fellow campers is one of the joys of camping and really reminds you that despite all the assumptions that many of us make about people in Red States, there are very friendly people with whom we have much in common everywhere.

Leaving the Indian Springs campground our focus for the day was the Martin Luther King Jr. Historic Park which includes a visitors center, his boyhood home, his grave and the Ebenzer Baptist Church,

One of the first statues that we encountered on our walk from our parking space to the visitors center was this statue of Ghandi, who was an inspiration for MLK, who went to India in 1959 to study Ghandi's methods on non-violent resistance.

Inside the visitors' center we were incredibly moved by all of the exhibits which focused on segregation practices in the 1900's throughout our country, King's involvement and leadership in so many of the civil rights events in the 1960's, and his death.  After spending the previous day visiting the Andersonville prison "man's inhumanity to man" becomes overwhelming.

Outside the visitors' center is a beautiful garden.  The writings of elementary students were equally moving and beautiful.

The Ebenezer Baptist Church 

MLK's childhood home which was originally purchased by his maternal grandfather.  The guided tour of the home was delightful and revealed how MLK was just a typical boy growing up in Atlanta whose best friend was a White boy who lived across the street.  When the two boys were three, the White boy's parents forbid him from playing with ML (as the guide referred to MLK).  This rejection was MLK's first experience with prejudice, and forced his father to explain to him at an early age who a man's skin color impacted how some people treated Blacks.

Looking up "Sweet Auburn" Avenue which at one point was the wealthiest Black street in the country.  

The Reflection Pool which surrounds the graves of MLK and his wife Coretta.  

Our dinner, take-out barbecue: pulled pork and beans.

Site #12 at the Red Top Mountain State Park, 60 miles north of Atlanta.