Kennesaw Mountain Administrative History

[2] All information concerning the history of the Kennesaw Mountain Battlefield Association is from B. C. Yates, Origin and Expansion of Kennesaw Mountain Battlefield Park, 1941. 9

[3] Report of Commission Created to Inspect the Kennesaw and Lost Mountain and other Battlefields in the State of Georgia, 1926, War Department Records, 1892-1937, Record Group 79, Box 43; Report 117 to accompany H. R. 59, To Create a National Memorial Park, Kennesaw Mountain, Georgia.

[4] Ibid. The commission also made recommendations concerning the Peachtree Creek site. It discovered that property owners along the creek had offered to donate all the land from the city's boundary to the Chattahoochee River along Maj. Gen. George H. Thomas' line of march. The Fulton County commissioners had also made assurances that a road system would be built. But the deal was held up because the land which the city owned had been obtained under a city charter that stipulated it would be used for sewage disposal; using the land for any other purpose would require amending the city charter.

[5] Report of Inspection by William S. Browning, Acting Inspector General, June 9, 1931, War Department Records, RG79, Box 43.

[6] James M. Laubach, Lt. Colonel, Quartermaster Corps to Quartermaster, November 11, 1931; George Dern, Secretary of War to Representative Malcolm Tarver, July 3, 1933; War Department Records, RG79, Box 43.

[7] Report of Inspection by Inspector General, June 5, 1933, War Department Records, RG79, Box 43.

[8] Cobb County Times, June 27, 1935; Kennesaw Mountain NBP Files, hereinafter cited as KEMO Files.

[9] Memo from Oliver G. Taylor, Deputy Chief Engineer of the Eastern Division, Branch of Engineering, WASO to Mr. Holmes, October 11, 1935; Olinus Smith to Taylor, December 18,1935; KEMO Files.

[10] Smith to Taylor, December 18, 1935; Atlanta Constitution, January 8, 1936; Marietta Journal, January 13, 1936; KEMO Files.

[11] Holland to Tarver, November 9, 1935; Smith to Tarver, November 24, 1935; Smith to Demaray, December 23, 1935; NPS Central Classified Files, 1939-1949, RG79, Box 2590.

[12] Marietta Journal, "Three Additional Parcels of Land to be Condemned," December 12, 1936; Atlanta Constitution, "Land for Kennesaw is Condemned," January 22, 1937; KEMO Files.

[13] Cobb County Times, "Hearings Start on Kennesaw Suits," February 10, 1937; KEMO Files.

[14] Marietta Journal, "Park Tract Value Placed at $180,000," February 17, 1937; Cobb County Times, February 18, 1937; Marietta Journal, "Citizens Give Valuation of Park Section," February 22, 1937; KEMO Files.

[15] Cobb County Times, "Kennesaw Park is Endangered," March 11, 1937; Marietta Journal, "Brown Dissents with Valuation of Two Members," March 11, 1937; KEMO Park Files.

[16] Atlanta Constitution, "Stalemate Over Land May Balk Kennesaw Park Project," March 14, 1937; KEMO Park Files.

[17] Ibid; Atlanta Journal, "KMBA Group Asks Action Once and For All," April 13, 1937; KEMO Park Files.

[18] Cobb County Times, "Concerted Push Started to Get Kennesaw Land," July 15, 1937; KEMO Park Files.

[19] Marietta Journal, "$ 9000 Award May Result in Appeal," July 22, 1937; Cobb County Times, "National Park Seen as Certainty At Last," July 23, 1937; Atlanta Journal, "Kennesaw Land Valued at $9000," July 22, 1937; KEMO Park Files.

[20] Marietta Journal, "Federal Jury Awards $35 Per Acre to Cobb Woman for Proposed National Park Area," July 23, 1937; Mariettta Journal, "Land Valuation Agreed on Three Mountain Tracts," July 26, 1937; KEMO Park Files.

[21] Mariettta Journal, "Jurist Sets Value of Kennesaw Tract at $16,000," August 1937; KEMO Park Files. Transcript of Record, U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals, 5th Circuit. Kennesaw Mountain Association v. U. S. of A.; Federal Records Center, Atlanta, Georgia.

[22] Atlanta Constitution, "Kennesaw Verdict Will Be Appealed," August 12, 1937; KEMO Park Files.

[23] Marietta Journal, "KMBA Filed Appeal to Federal Verdict with Circuit Court," November 11, 1939; Marietta Journal, "U. S. Supreme Court Denies Plea," March 6, 1939; Cobb County Times, March 9, 1939; Atlanta Journal, "Lawyer Protests Government Offer for Kennesaw Mountain," May 22, 1939; KEMO Park Files.

[24] Atlanta Journal, "Kennesaw Land Dispute Entered by Bondholders," June 11, 1939; Marietta Journal, "Kennesaw Land Petition Dropped by U. S. Judge," July 24, 1939; Atlanta Journal, "Kennesaw Land Dispute Flares Up in New Front," April 27, 1941; KEMO Park Files.

[25] Memo, B. C. Yates to Director, January 3, 1939; Tarver to Acting Director, A. E. Demaray, January 10, 1939; Director Amo B. Cammerer to Tarver, January 31, 1939; NPS Central Files, RG79, Box 81, Folders I-5 "General."

[26] Marietta Journal, "Kennesaw Mountain Memorial Park Amended to Allow More Land Buying," August 3, 1939; Secretary of the Interior to Chairman Andrew J. May, Committee on Military Affairs, April 19, 1939; KEMO Park Files.

[27] Marietta Journal, "Park Heads Seek Title to 1000 Additional Acres," October 10, 1939; KEMO Park Files.

[28] Assistant Interior Secretary, E. K. Burlew to Harold D. Smith, Director of the Bureau of the Budget, November 11, 1939; NPS Central Files, RG79, Box 81, Folders l -5 "General."

[29] Chief Counsel, G. A. Moskey to Smith, January 24, 1940; NPS Central Files, RG79, Box 81, Folders l -5 "General."

[30] Cobb County Times, "New Section of Land Goes Into Park," July 17, 1941; KEMO Park Files.

[31] Moskey to Superintendent, May 5, 1941. One of the most fascinating aspects of the story of land acquisition at Kennesaw Mountain is the persistence with which Holland pursued his goal of obtaining what he felt was just compensation for the lands of KMBA. He was not a man who accepted defeat easily. Following the court's initial ruling Holland embarked on a relentless letter writing campaign. On November 28, 1938, he wrote to Senator Richard Russell that the government was being unfair. People like his mother had invested everything they had in the KMBA, he asserted. To settle for the government's offer would mean financial ruin for them. When he did not get the response he wanted, he began to write to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, again citing the impending doom for his "dear old mother." Mrs. Holland also became involved when she wrote to Interior Secretary Harold Ickes in 1940 and urged him to send someone to investigate. But Ickes, citing the court ruling, stated that the issue had been decided. But Holland would not give up. In 1943, and again in 1946, he wrote to Senator Russell, and when Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park was declared officially established in 1947, he responded by demanding to know who had decided the litigation was complete. The response from the government was that the Justice Department had made that decision and that it was final. See: Holland to Russell, November 28, 1938; Holland to Roosevelt, December 29, 1938; Mary Tate Holland to Ickes, May 27, 1940; Ickes to Mrs. Holland, June 13, 1940; Holland to Russell, May 28, 1943 and November 20, 1946; Holland to Yates, December 15, 1947; Acting Assistant Conrad Wirth to Holland, January 13, 1948; NPS Central File, RG79, Box 2590.