On Location: Atop Kennesaw Mountain

On June 19, 1864, Joseph Johnston’s Army of Tennessee slipped into its strongest defensive position of the Atlanta Campaign: Kennesaw Mountain. I went On Location, at the mountain’s crest, to take a look for myself; I also had the opportunity to talk with my colleague, Emerging Civil War historian Steve Davis, author of A Long and Bloody Task: The Atlanta Campaign from Dalton to Kennesaw Mountain to the Chattahoochee River, about the importance of Johnston’s line.

For more information: 

Check out Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park’s website.

In 2015, as part of a Western Theater road trip with my daughter and Dan Davis, I visited Kennesaw for the first time.

Lee White wrote an excellent series on the Kennesaw Line for the Sesquicentennial:

• Planning the Assault on Kennesaw Mountain
• The Kennesaw Line: Hell Breaks Loose in Georgia
• The Kennesaw Line: Charles Harker and the “tornado of fire”
• The Kennesaw Line: Eyewitness at the Dead Angle
• The Kennesaw Line: “Boys, This is Butchery”
• The Kennesaw Line: “Save Yourselves, Boys!”

Lee will be talking about the Kennesaw defense as part of this year’s Fourth Annual Emerging Civil War Symposium at Stevenson Ridge, Aug. 4-6. There’s still time to order your tickets!

I leave you today with a clip from the old song, “The Kennesaw Line,” performed by Bobby Horton.