March 2005

Battle Report

9th Edition

heart warming Visit to Stiles-Akin Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp 670

February 25th, 2005 we were honored and excited when the Stiles-Akin SCV Camp 670 invited us to talk to their group about our fight to save Fort Attaway from the GDOT's road widening project. Also there was Mrs. Ann Jones (president) and members of the General P.M.B. Young Camp 2373 for the United Daughters of the Confederacy. Everyone welcomed us with open and encouraging arms, and we did our best to answer all of the eager questions that were asked. Generous donations were given to the Fort Attaway Preservation Society that night, and they were greatly appreciated! So far this money has been used to pay our annual fees to the Georgia Secretary of State, and to pay for two ink cartridges for our HP printer and for 5 copies of the Injunction that we filed on March 18th.

We were very happy to meet the SCV members as well as the members of the UDC Camp that were there. Ann Bridges notified us that the Georgia Battlefields Association would be touring Rome's Civil War sites on March 11th, 2005, which was the first of a series of events that got us involved in the tour! Thank you again to the members of the Cartersville SCV and UDC; your interest and encouragement will never be forgotten.
 

Federal Injunction filed at Rome Federal Court

After we filed our Civil Action suit on February 22, 2005, the GDOT still continued with the project opening it up for bids from contractors. March 18, 2005 we filed a Federal Injunction to stop the project at the Rome Courthouse. The actual Injunction document was two inches thick with all of the supportive material attached to the back! After conducting the Georgia Public Information Act twice in the past two years we have come up with some incriminating documentation that has been used in the Injunction. Here is an excerpt from the Injunction:

Mr. Roper (GDOT's condemnation lawyer) sent a similar e-mail to Pam Digsby, GDOT Right of Way, wherein he stated that (GDOT historian) Mark Grindstaff's

bias is readily apparent and threatens to seriously undermine DOT's credibility. If DOT offers to the public , and acts upon, a report prepared by a historian who admits he is biased, set out with an agenda, and in the process produced a report that is highly misleading, we are going to appear incompetent at best and, at worst, like we are acting in bad faith so that we can proceed with our project and disregard the abundant evidence that works existed in the immediate vicinity of the railroad underpass...Make no mistake, will lose this battle and we deserve to do so if we rely upon Grindstaff's report.

Military Report of Fort Attaway,  Attach1, Attach2 - David Chuber
Letter - Mark Snell
Civil Action suit filed February 22, 2005
Federal Injunction filed March 18, 2005

A Civil War experience

March 11, 2005

Tour makes history personal 03/12/05 By Alan Riquelmy, Rome News-Tribune Staff Writer

John Harrison of the Cherokee Artillery covers his ear as a 3-inch Noble cannon fires at Fort Norton on Friday. The Cherokee Artillery gave a demonstration for about 50 Civil War buffs. R.Smith/RN-T A busload of Civil War enthusiasts descended on Rome on Friday in search of a history not often put in books or lectures. According to one Civil War expert, they found it. “For people, these tours give a special feeling of walking in the steps of history,” said Edwin Bearss, a historian who has appeared on the History Channel and Discovery Channel. “This year we’re picking up Rome. We’re going into great detail.” Bearss spoke as some 50 Civil War buffs toured the top of Myrtle Hill Cemetery, once Fort Stovall. The visitors, many of them members of the Atlanta Civil War Round Table, the Georgia Battlefield Association or other related organizations, heard Roman Legion Chairman John Carruth tell Rome’s Civil War story. “(Union General William) Sherman, of course, did not come through Rome, but he came back this way,” Carruth said. “He actually had a headquarters here on Fourth Avenue.” Tidbits such as that led Frank Harris of Griffin, as well as the others, to the 12-day tour across Georgia. “This whole thing, the David and Goliath nature of what the South could do, is more understood when you get out here and see it,” Harris said. “I didn’t know Rome was burned. It really gives you a tremendous appreciation of what the South could do.” The group visited several earthen fort sites, including Fort Norton near the Rome Civic Center and Fort Attaway, behind Sumo Japanese Restaurant on Martha Berry Boulevard. At Fort Norton they watched the cannons fire and heard the blasts of the Civil War. Grady Ireland of Marietta said he found mini-balls in his back yard, and that’s what interested him in the war. “This is an area that’s been somewhat neglected. That’s what the Georgia Battlefield Association is all about — preserving,” Ireland said. The tour is scheduled to finish Sunday at the site of the Battle of Altoona Pass.

All of us, David Fowler, Jr., John Carruth, Wayne Bates and the members of the Cherokee Artillery were very pleased with this first official tour of Rome's Civil War sites. We all reveled in the joy of showing the jewels of history that remain here in Rome, and look forward to future tours. President of the Georgia Battlefields Association, Charles Crawford wrote a letter to Rome's Mayor commending the tour and the individuals who helped put it on. Georgia Battlefields Association Letter