‘The Battle of Atlanta’ Cyc Opens After Four Year Resto ATLANTA, Ga.—On Feb. 22, 2019, the Atlanta History Center opened The Battle of Atlanta cy-
million relocation and restorati project. The 360-degree painting is the centerpiece of the Center 25,000-square-foot multi-media exhibition Cyclorama: The Big Picture. In 2017, The Battle of Atlant and the locomotive Texas were moved from a 1921 building in Grant Park, Atlanta, to the newly-constructed Lloyd and Mary Ann Whitaker Cyclorama Building at the Atlanta History Center. Both artifacts have unde gone complete restorations. Created by the American Panorama Company Milwaukee during 1886, the cyclorama portrays the U.S. victor of July 22, 1864, when General William T. Sherman’s armies repulsed a determined Confederate attack directed by General John B. Hood along the Georgia Railroad east of Atlanta. A team of 17 mainly German artists painted the 18,000-squar foot painting in less than five months. Using sketches made
America’s Monthly New a n on the battlefield, they re-creat ed the moment at approximately 4:45 p.m. when General John A. “Blackjack” Logan led a counterattack against Confederates who had captured the DeGress Battery at the Troup Hurt House. The entire scene was composed from a Northern perspective so that it would appeal to Northern audiences. Only in large Northern cities were there enough paying customers to make the massive paintings profitable. The Battle of Atlanta was show in Minneapolis and Indianapolis through 1890. There was also a second copy of The Battle of Atlanta exhibited in Detroit and Baltimore. This second copy fell into disrepair and disappeared around 1900. In 1891, Georgia entrepreneur and showman Paul Atkinson purchased The Battle of Atlanta in Indianapolis after it had gone bankrupt. He moved it to Chattanooga and then Atlanta, where he advertised it as the “Only Confederate victory ever painted” to appeal to Southern audiences. After going bankrupt again, Th Battle of Atlanta was donated to the city of Atlanta in 1898. Afte nearly thirty years in a “temporary” wooden building, where it suffered considerable damage, the painting was enshrined in the 1921 steel, concrete, and marble structure in Grant Park, where it remained through 2017. Of at least 40 cycloramas that toured the United States depictin battles, biblical scenes, and dis ters, only The Battle of Atlanta and The Battle of Gettysburg survive. One inspiration for The Battle of Atlanta project was the move and restoration of The Battle of Gettysburg cyclorama between 2004 and 2008. In the 127 years that The Batt of Atlanta has been on display in Atlanta, the cyclorama has been the subject of periodic re-inter-
of the New South rising from the ashes left by Sherman. It has als been criticized as an anachronism
The Battle of Atlanta cyclorama foreground, restored 1930s plas Georgia red clay. meant to glorify the “Lost Caus of the Confederacy. Perceptions of history, and the painting it have depended on the eye of the beholder, as audiences viewed i in different times and places. In 2012, a task force convene by Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed recommended moving The Battle of Atlanta from its outdated ni decades-old building to a new o to be built at the Atlanta Hist Center. On July 23, 2014—one day after the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Atlanta, Re announced a 75-year licensing agreement with the non-profit Atlanta History Center for the relocation and restoration of The Battle of Atlanta cyclorama painting and the Texas.
pledge from Lloyd and Mary Ann Whitaker initiated fund-raising
8 – Black Powder, White Smok 36 – Book Reviews 38 – Critic’s Corner
d to its original 1886 dimension res rest on a new fiberglass dio (All photos for the project. The Center rais
private funds to design and construct a new building, relocate painting, restore it to its orig 1886 size and appearance, and create new interpretive exhibitions. From July 2014 through February 2019, a team of more than 200 architects, engineers, riggers, construction workers, and art conservators worked to bring The Battle of Atlanta back to life. The most significant ch lenges were erecting the buildin and engineering the move of the 10,000-pound painting as well as the 53,000-pound Texas. Today, three once missing sec tions of the painting have been restored: a 54-inch-wide vertical strip to the left of the Tro Hurt House (damaged and removed in 1893), a 22-inch-wide
22 – The Graphic War 24 – Inspection, ARMS! 20 – Preservation News
ppearance. In the fused with real sy of the Atlanta History Center vertical strip along the Decatur Road (excised in 1921 because the new Grant Park building was too small); and seven feet around the upper edge of the painting (removed incrementally as the painting was moved in the late 1880s and early 1890s). The sky, overpainted in 1922, ha also been restored to its origin appearance. Today, The Battle of Atlanta stands at its original s of 49 feet tall and 371 feet in cumference, just as visitors fir saw it in 1886. Entering the new exhibition, Cyclorama: The Big Picture, guests are greeted by an introdu tory video and a 10-foot-tall an mated map illustrating the cours of the Civil War in Georgia. Two levels of exhibitions examine th
10 – The Unfinished Fight 28 – This And That 14 – Through The Lens
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a free black man refused to come a slave by Brian McGin (Liveright Publishing Corp, York, 2016). However, I bel that Roosa’s and Leon Reed’ statements that the captain officers of the SJ Waring w set free in Cuba may be in ror. McGinty (page 92) asse that on July 9, two days af capturing the Waring near N
York City, the Confederate vateer Jeff Davis intercept Mary Goodell off Rhode Isla
and transferred all her pri ers, including those taken
Goodell promptly returned t Portland, Maine. So the cit of New York had word of the
and New York and Cuba, the lease of prisoners in the N
seems far more likely. “Let Them Rest” by Gould Hagler was also very good. Nancy M Sherman Oaks,
Letters to the Editor: Please email your letter to the editor to
Vol. 42, No. 3 Battlefield Of Franklin Land Pres
considered the bloodiest acreage the Nov. 30, 1864, Battle of Fran is now being reclaimed as part of evolving Carter Hill Battlefield Local preservation leaders recent
from owners Reid and Brenda Lovell after a months-long proces of coordinating various funding
sources for the critical 1.6 acre adjoin the Carter House, a major battle landmark.
Details were recently provided a press conference led by Frankli
Charge board member Julian Bibb, who praised the “remarkable transition” of the Franklin battlefie Franklin’s Charge is a coalition civic and preservation groups who
joined together more than ten yea ago to purchase local battlegroun
Over 150 years ago the Army of Tennessee stepped off in a series
of charges to be virtually destro by Federals under John Schofield hopes of taking Franklin and late Nashville. At that time, most of the terr
was open farmland on the outskirt of what was once a small Middle
Tennessee farming community. Over time development covered much of
the battlefield with houses, ligh dustry, and small businesses. All that remained of the criti area where the Confederates temporarily broke the Federal line w the small farmhouse and a few acr
The 1.6 acres purchased, which adjoin the southern boundary of t
Carter House property, is compris of two lots. Today, they are occu
that were turned over to the City of Franklin Parks Department by
Franklin’s Charge and the Battle Franklin’s Trust (BOFT), managers of the Carter House the nearby Ca ton Plantation. The structures wi removed in coming months, possibl
relocated for other use. The purchase is only the lates in a long and arduous effort to r build the Franklin battlefield.
“It had to be a miracle,” quip Civil War Trust (CWT) President James Lighthizer, referring to th
most recent acquisition. Local re ident Michael Grainger, long time
Trust board member and former chairman, said, “Local leadership has been incredible and will cont ue to be a partner [with the CWT] In 2005, after years of frustr
attempting to preserve Franklin b tleground, local preservationists
cided it would have to be done th hard way, by buying properties, o
ten with buildings on them. The largest parcel of land was originally a local golf course sl to be sold to a developer to buil houses on what was the right flan
of the Confederate attack north t ward the Federal lines just south
chase from private donors, the CW the City of Franklin and others. 110-acre segment, now fully inter preted and known as the Eastern
preservation ball rolling in Fran Since that time nine other par
in proximity to the Carter House have been purchased and have been or will be, turned over to the Fr
at the Lovell purchase regory L. Wade photos)
lin Parks Department, according t Bibb. But it was the land just south Carter House, long considered the most bloodied ground in Franklin, and some say in America, that was
BOFT Chief Executive Officer Eric Jacobson noted, “to not have
this ground reclaimed and preserv would be like having Omaha Beach cut out of Normandy.” The most recent acquisition evolved when Franklin’s Charge an the BOFT began discussions with t
Lovells, who have a strong sense the history of the land, having g
up in Franklin. “I was born and raised in Fran
lin on ground many believe should have been a national park,” said Lovell. He recalled when visitors came to town and had to envision what happened, not walk on ground
where it transpired. “My great-grandfather, who fou
here, and my parents would be pro of what we are doing here today,”
said at the press conference. The Franklin Board of Mayor and Aldermen voted unanimously in February to fund part of the remaining debt on the Lovell property purchase. The previously
paid by the city on a non-interes basis over seven years. These funds will cover the bal now bridged by a local bank and w
be derived from the city’s hoteltel tax. Local banker Chuck Isaac
by his employer, First Farmers an Merchants Bank.
