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Posted inDavid Pendered

Chickamauga Battlefield to benefit from “complete streets” project

by David Pendered

Visitors to the sacred grounds in the Chickamauga Battlefield in northwest Georgia will enter the park along an enhanced gateway in Fort Oglethorpe once the state completes a project that’s just received a $3 million federal grant

Casualties numbered 34,000 in the three-day Battle of Chickamauga in September 1863. The losses were second during the Civil War only to the 51,000 recorded the previous July at the Battle of Gettysburg.

Today, the main road leading to the battlefield is flanked by towering power lines and disjointed commercial developments. The federal grant will pay for a retooling of 0.8 mile of LaFayette Road to improve its appearance and use by pedestrians and bicyclists.

Posted inMichelle Hiskey, Michelle Hiskey & Ben Smith

War and cornbread make for savory history

by Michelle Hiskey

Samuel McKittrick’s Civil War correspondence described the food at the front line, and highlights were read last week at  “Cornbread Through the Ages,” one of 50 anniversary programs marking the 149th anniversary of the Battle of Atlanta last week.

His great-great-granddaughter Millie Huff Coleman, a dietary anthropologist and lifelong Atlantan, wore a period costume as she read from his letters. She also served up a savory taste for the audience members at the DeKalb History Center from two skillets filled with cornbread made in the style of different historical eras.

Letters and cornbread connected McKittrick's separate worlds of home and combat. From the battlefront near Marietta, he expressed his fears and expectations that he was going to die, instructions on the upkeep of the farm as well as a belief in the afterlife.

Posted inMichelle Hiskey

Cutting experts at Georgia Archives severs our access to history

by Michelle Hiskey

Threats to close the Georgia Archives put all of us at risk of losing access to critical records – and people.

Now more than ever, skilled information diggers, collectors and guides are needed to verify the story that begins where memory and Google end. Like blacksmiths were in the early days of the automobile, the work of archivists has transformed in the information age. They’ve grown more indispensable to saving what is easily lost and finding what cannot be replaced.

While the governor pledged last week to keep the Archives from closing, seven archivists on its staff face their jobs ending Nov. 1. Their peers around the state rallied last week at the Georgia Capitol to tell legislators how important this repository and its keepers are to all of us. Supporters also collected 10,000 signatures on a petition given to the governor.

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