The River Line, 1864

[NewHopeChurch]

I've lived on or near battlefields almost my entire life. Pickett's Mill, GA was 5 minutes from my boyhood home, and my last apartment was on Mount Wikenson, from which Sherman first observed the spires of Atlanta.

I now live in Smyrna, GA, along a rolling set of steep hills that made up Johnston's River Line that he occupied following the evactuation of Kennesaw Mountain. This was the site, I'm sure you all know, of the shoupades that made up what Sherman called the strongest fortifications he'd ever seen.

Development is heavy, and roughly indiscriminate, here in Georgia. There's a Publix on top of the Union positions facing the line, and bland, repetitive townhomes blanketing the landscape that Johnston was defending. It's awful. Even "Fort Drive", with roadsigns graphically displaying that the area is part of "The River Line Historic District" contains no trace (that I could see) of the once impressive earthworks.

CWPT put the River Line on it's list of top ten endangered sites last year, but I frankly don't see anything being done. Even now, home development in the area continues.

What is the organiaztion able to do in a situation like this, where homeowners deliberately bulldoze earthworks on their property to prevent historical restrictions being placed on their land?

Sorry for the rant, but I'd like to be more involved with preservation in the face of such blatant disregard for our mutual past, and I don't know where to start/how to help/what to do.

Thanks for any responses, friends.

[Kanawha Riflemen]

Re: The River Line, 1864

Sad at times it is when you want to do something and really you can't. But there are other ways to help. In order to educate the public, you must first educate yourself. Ask yourself why is this such an important area. How will the community benefit if they understood what happened at this place. Our major problem with our battlefield at Monterey Pass was the fact that most of the community who had lived there all of their lives never knew what happened. They never heard of a battle taking place in their back yards. IS this the case for you?

It wasn’t until Kent Masterson Brown, Eric Wittenberg Mike Nuggent, JD, Petruzzi, Ted Alexander and myself had spent years researching this battle and finally published books and articles, did the community start to understand what had happened and how important our battle was and our community wanted to see something done. So we form a small committee, who shared the same interests not just for the Civil War, but other areas of historical interests too. We started with the Maryland Civil War Trails in which Pennsylvania rejected it forcing them to make a program all of their own. It then went to the county and to the township and all of a sudden Civil War Interpreter programs were announced along with living histories and lectures. Gettysburg got into the action with a walking tour that featured more than 500 attendees. Shattering their previous record!

We ended up starting a Heritage Days Weekend, Seminars and Interpreter Programs all of our own without any funding from the State. It wasn’t until recently when the right people in tourism heard about our success did they start helping us with grants and tourism ideas. We never went through the CWPT although I have talked to a few of their representatives for suggestions. The main point is this all started with just a few people who had the passion to see that our battlefield is placed back on the map and is being preserved for the community. It took since 2003 to do it and we’re still doing it today working with the state, the county and developers. Our community even stopped one of the developers. It's a balancing act. Remember it's people like yourself that can make a difference.

Try talking to other organizations in your area like historical societies and other heritage non profit organizations and your local representative(s). The main thing is do not feel as if your alone, but find other people in your community who share the same interest as you and then you can try to educate your community. Contact any author(s) who have written about the subject to see if they can help. Also get in touch with tourism officials and community leaders. Get the National Park Service involved by asking them about auggestions. Form a group and get a management plan written. It’s going to be a hard road, but you’re going to have to raise the awareness. Good luck and hope all for the best.

Sorry for the long repsonse.

John A. Miller