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.