Video
Confederate Artillery of Kennesaw Mountain
Transcript
[audio description] Against a black backdrop the National Park Service arrowhead logo stands above the words Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park.
Hey guys it is Ranger Jake Boling here with another virtual program from Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park. This program will be as a part of our 157th battle anniversary and as you've seen with all the other programs, if you've seen any of the other ones. We are doing these to really explore a lot of the different aspects and functions of the military that were present and effective during the battle of Kennesaw Mountain. There was not just one location in one battle, even though we referred to it all as the battle of Kennesaw Mountain on that day the 27th of June, there was action happening everywhere across that 13 mile line, way bigger than the park currently is. Today's program is going to be from an iconic location. So I am dressed a little differently than you've seen me in some of the other programs. I'm not in my ranger uniform, today I'm dressed as a confederate artilleryman and the reason is because I am at the top of Big Kennesaw Mountain and this was the site of a notable Confederate artillery battery, a light artillery battery of four cannons. Now as a Confederate artillerymen, you can see I'm wearing brown pants that were made up of jean cloth, which is just a mixture of wool and cotton, so they're kind of homespun-ish. I've got my shell coat, which is a brownish yellow and with brass buttons here and it's just a waistcoat. I've got my canteen in case I get thirsty, and of course my black slouch hat. And as a good artilleryman, I'm standing near a cannon, never too far away from a cannon. Between me and that cannon is a split rail fence you can see the cannon sitting in its carriage is green, and we'll get to why that is green in a minute. The reason that this split rail fence is here is because that cannon was original to the civil war. Not to this battle, but to the civil war, so that is an actual artifact. Another reason that this fence is here is because of the mounds, the earthen mounds that you see surrounding the cannon. These earthen mounds were known as breast works and they protected not only the cannon but the men manning that cannon, or the crew of the cannon, from enemy fire. We'll get into that in just a second. So in an artillery battery, the cannons were put into earthworks or breast works, and that's what these are. If you were to continue past, you would see three more. Two more before you get to the peak, and one more on the other side. Now this battery was called Lumsden's battery. It was commanded by a Captain C. L. Lumsden of the Confederate army. Now this battery went into place somewhere when the Confederate forces initially moved into this area, so we'd say somewhere between the 18th and 19th. Now it was not very effective from this position during the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain because they actually moved, and we'll get into that in just a second. So after they got into position we actually have some interesting knowledge on what they did before they moved because we have letters written, or a book written, from a gentleman that was in Lumsden's battery, a Robert James Maxwell, and in his book he talks about life as an artilleryman. He talks about his time on the Atlanta Campaign, and he talks about some of the things they did here at Kennesaw Mountain. So after they moved to this position, he mentioned some of the times they fired upon Union forces, which is kind of interesting and a little bit humorous the way he writes it. He writes "there was a railroad water tank at the foot of the mountain to our immediate front. "One day we noticed a squad of federals getting water there, so we dropped a couple of shells into the tank and gave them a good drenching anyhow. Whether we hurt any of them we could not know." So they didn't they don't know if they hurt anybody, but they definitely gave them a nice bath during a really hot day, so it's kind of interesting. Now you would say 'why would they move from this position? It is a key location?' Another part is this view. If you look just on the opposite side of the earthworks, you see an extremely scenic view of the north looking to the northwest of the surrounding area. We can see for miles and miles in the distance. In the hazy distance, we can see the Allatoona Mountains and we can see Cobb Parkway stretching up that way. That was exactly why the Confederates put this position here. This was an awesome position, not only for line of sight, but for their cannons to be able to fire upon the enemy. So why did they move? Well as I mentioned this is a great sight for the Confederates to get line of sight and to see the surrounding area, but it is also very exposed. It was nowhere near as wooded at the top of the mountain as it is today back then. Today it is much more wooded than it was back then. And later in his works and through other sources from Maxwell, and from other sources we know that the Confederate artillery up here took a lot of Union fire because they were so exposed. In fact, just after the incident with the water tank, he writes about how his Lieutenant Hargrove went up to the top of Kennesaw Mountain just past this position with a pair of field glasses. They saw a puff of white smoke from a battery just below the mountain and they yelled "look out! The shell or shot hit the rocks below him and then bounced over his head turning over and over. We concluded it best not to give that fellow any more good chances to pot us." So that was only one incident. Another incident that is mentioned in some of the other works is the fire taken on this position from the Union 24 gun battery. So as I said earlier in the program this was the site of the Confederate light four gun battery. There were four cannons at this position but just over half a mile from this position were the Union 24 guns. So you can imagine that four guns versus 24 guns is a bit outmatched. Not only that but the types of cannons involved mattered. There were lots of different types of cannons, specifically here at the battle of Kennesaw Mountain going against each other. Two main types. And we'll get into why that's important in just a second. Behind me, as you can see, this cannon is green. That green patina is because it is a bronze cannon. It is a smooth bore, 12 pound Napoleon and has an effective range of almost one mile and one of the chief types of projectile to come out of this Napoleon was a 12-pound ball. A 12-pound Napoleon shoots a 12-pound solid shot. It could lob this cannonball up to one mile. Now that is nothing to shake a stick at, especially when you have clear view of the area. But (I won't get into too much detail because volunteer Andy Cole is doing an awesome program on this location) but at the 24 gun battery, not only did they have more cannons, three times as many cannons right, but no, I'm sorry. Ranger Jake doesn't do his math they have a lot more cannons. 24 cannons versus four cannons. So they have a lot more cannons and they have plenty of Napoleons, but they also have three-inch ordinance rifles and parrot guns. What those do is that they have rifling inside and instead of being smooth bore, they have rifling, which is a set of ridges that corkscrew towards the back and can spin the projectile on its way out. Instead of one mile they can lob their projectile up to three miles with extreme accuracy. So the accuracy and the quality of the cannons and their location and their amount caused this position to have to retreat prior to the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain on the 27th. Lumsden's battery specifically retreats further south to near Pigeon Hill and Little Kennesaw Mountain. Now that about wraps up our program on what on the Confederate artillery position here, what it did and what it ended up doing. And a little bit about cannons and what, and what their role was during the Civil War and during the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain.
We hope you enjoyed it. Thank you, as always thank you for attending another virtual program of ours. We hope to see you at the mountain and thank you again for paying attention to our Battle Anniversary. We'll see you next time.
Description
[Sat 12:00 pm ET] While the peak of Kennesaw Mountain is a popular spot for sightseeing and getting a workout, it was a key part of the Confederate defensive line in June of 1864. In this short program, ranger Jake Boling discusses the actions of the four gun battery under Captain C. L Lumsden at the mountain's summit.
This video highlights Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park Driving Tour Stop #1: Kennesaw Mountain.
Duration
8 minutes, 10 seconds
Credit
NPS/ J. Boling
Date Created
06/26/2021
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