I’m Appalled by This

The actual marker was knocked off the post by a truck last summer, and the state doesn’t have $300 to fix it.

“The problem is we don’t have a marker shop to repair or replace it,” said Linda Moye, who oversees monuments and signs at the state Department of Natural Resources. “We had a budget cut a few years ago so we don’t have a marker shop, and there’s no money in the budget for repairs.”

Moye said that up to 50 historic markers across the state are missing or have been taken down for maintenance. Several were in the repair shop when the money ran out and are still there. The state files insurance claims when it knows the driver or vehicle that damages a marker, but most times the signs are victims of hit-and-run accidents. Just in Fulton County, 10 markers are down, and the reasons for their demise vary, Moye said.

Some historic markers could disappear and few people would care. The Surrender of Atlanta sign isn’t one of them.

“This marked the site of a vital part of our history,” said Sen. George Hooks (D-Americus), one of the Legislature’s leading historians. “It marked the place that was the turning point of the War Between the States.”

Jim Bruns, president of the Atlanta History Center, noted the irony in the marker coming down just as the history center is acquiring 50 Special Field Orders that Sherman penned during the Battle of Atlanta, plus two written by his aides. The orders show Sherman’s determination in his campaign to capture and destroy one of the Confederacy’s largest cities. The lack of a marker will make it challenging to find the site of Atlanta’s surrender.

“But the real shame is that as we’re trying to develop collections and promote Civil War interpretation and tourism throughout Georgia, our battlefields are spread all over the state and these historic markers are an integral part of what we’re trying to promote,” Bruns said.

“Sherman’s March to the Sea was a progression, and trying to follow it without signs would be like going to the Pacific Northwest and trying to follow Lewis and Clark without any signs,” Bruns said. “You wouldn’t be able to appreciate the significance of where they were and what they were trying to do.”

The Surrender of Atlanta marker was erected in 1982 by the state Department of Natural Resources. It stood at the intersection of Marietta Street and Northside Drive, a few blocks west of the Georgia Aquarium. The sign presented a snapshot of the events of Sept. 2, 1864.

“General Hood … and the Georgia Militia abandoned the city, Sept. 1, as a result of Hardees’s defeat at Jonesboro August 31, and marched S. to Lovejoy’s Station. Federal forces at Chattahoochee River Crossings since Aug. 25, suspecting the evacuation of the city on hearing loud explosions, sent forward a reconnaissance to investigate.

“At this point it met Mayor James M. Calhoun with a committee, who tendered the surrender of the city, asking protection for citizens and property. Col. John Coburn [and] vice Maj. Gen. H.W. Slocum … received the surrender.”

Sherman’s field orders make it clear that he never intended to camp in Atlanta or garrison the city, Bruns said. So Sherman ordered the city destroyed. The field orders are to go on display by September at the Atlanta History Center, although Bruns is seeking $60,000 for the final payment.

A MARTA bus reportedly hit a sign in Fulton County that marked the Montgomery-DeFoor House site, which was a 1,000-acre farm owned sequentially by two men who ran ferries across the Chattahoochee River. Two roads were named for them. The state can’t file an insurance claim because no one got the number of the bus, Moye said.

Someone stole and tried to sell to a recycling company a marker of the Battle of Ezra Church, Right of 15 Corps, Moye said. It marked a failed assault by Confederate forces west of downtown Atlanta.

The fate of the Surrender of Atlanta marker is unclear. It’s now in a private storeroom because state parks workers are too busy to retrieve it and Moye said she’s too small to hoist the 70-pound sign into her car. Hooks, the senator, said he’ll make a few inquiries.

Bruns, of Atlanta History Center, reached for his wallet.