Fort Attaway Earthwork Pictures

Fort Attaway was built onto Desoto Hill, and the fort’s overall structure can still be seen in the hill’s profile. There are earthen work fortification features and battle scars all over this hill. They reside along the bottom next to the railroad tracks up the military face to the top where it meets the Sumo Restaurant driveway and along the west side of the Sumo’s parking lot.  Personally visiting the fort will give you a good understanding of what a phenomenal secret Rome, Georgia has forgotten about for so many years.

Both Fort Attaway and Fort Stovall were said to have been designed by the top military engineer in his time, General Gustavus Smith, who was commissioned by the City of Rome to design the city's three forts in 1863.You can see that the terraces of Fort Stovall come down to the bottom of Myrtle Hill. You can see the terraces on Fort Attaway as well.

P810. Profile shot of Fort Stovall (Myrtle Hill). 

Having been forgotten and neglected for 140 years Fort Attaway's fortification features have been covered by brush and eroded soils have run into its lower ditches, which makes the features somewhat muted. However, the similarities between its ditch and the Vicksburg ditch are unmistakable.
 

 Ditch at Vicksburg National Military Park.

P787. Fort Attaway's northern most ditch on the bottom terrace that runs along the railroad.  The front of the ditch faces north protecting the Confederates from the Union troops.

                        GDOT bulldozers destroy
                  Fort Attaway's Northern Military face
                  May 14, 2007

                                         This lower ditch has now been destroyed by GDOT bulldozers.