NPS Website
WHAT IS IT?The Site of one of many Union-Confederate battles that constituted the Atlanta Campaign of 1864 whose result was Union victory and Gen. William T. Sherman’s famed burning of the city.
BEAUTY (6/10)
Kennesaw Mountain is one of the highest points in the greater Atlanta area. The Kennesaw Mountain Trail is a popular local hike and travels from the Visitor Center up an altitude of 700 feet to the mountaintop. The views are nice if not spectacular. The vistas are of houses and factories and even in the winter, Atlanta permeates a smoggy haze. The city skyline is too far in the distance to recognize fully.
The path up the mountain is a beautiful wooded climb that meanders past cannons, Confederate trenches and rifle pits. The Park area is an important bird refuge along the inland eastern migration corridor. Everyone needs a respite from Atlanta’s sprawl, it seems.
Not all of the Kennesaw Mountain NB is on Kennesaw Mountain. The roads in the lower altitude sections amble through private property and pillared neo Georgian-style mansions. On the weekends, pick-up soccer games, kite flyers and picnicking families stuff the large field in front of the Visitor Center.
HISTORICAL INTEREST (5/10)
We got the feeling that we were the only people at Kennesaw Mountain NB interested in the Civil War; an amazing fact in the South. Scarlett O’Hara’s Tara is not here, nor is much evidence of Battle. The Site contains none of the myriad monuments that clutter Gettysburg, Chickamauga, Shiloh and Vicksburg.
The Site aims to tell the story of the entire Atlanta campaign, as there is no National Park Site in the city. The early September capture of Atlanta secured the last remaining industrial town and railroad center in the South and helped to guarantee both the greater Union victory and President Lincoln’s October reelection.
The history books and the Museum tell us that the Kennesaw Mountain Battle was a Confederate victory. We found this assertion both confusing and practically wrong. Sherman may have lost more men and been temporarily stymied but just a few days later he outflanked the Confederates and moved on towards Atlanta, his ultimate target. Less than a month later, Atlanta was under siege and essentially defeated. How is that a Confederate victory?
To us, the War seemed well on a course of inevitability before it reached Atlanta. The South was starved, short of generals, soldiers and much of a chance. Sherman’s eventual fiery rout of Atlanta was far from pivotal. Besides, the charming old town of nearby Marietta and the thriving metropolis of Atlanta belie any notion of a tragic past.
CROWDS (7/10)Kennesaw Mountain felt more like a National Recreation Area than a National Battlefield Park. Atlanta residents were taking advantage of the nature trails up and around the mountain during these warm days. On Sunday, the parking lot was full and the trails packed. On Monday, the trails were populated, but not crowded. Leashed dogs are allowed on the trail, a National Park rarity. It’s nice to see people enjoying public lands.
EASE OF USE/ACCESS (4/5)
As the crowds attest, it is easy to get to Kennesaw Mountain NBP and it is near a large urban center. Get off at exit 269 of Interstate 75, travel southwest for 2 miles down route 5C a/k/a the Barrett Parkway. Turn left at Old U.S. 41. Go about a mile and then turn right at Stilesboro Road. You should see the Visitor Center on the right.
There are plenty of signs but be careful. Do not turn at the new U.S. 41 a/k/a Georgia Route 3 a/k/a the North Cobb Parkway. Georgia roads are not lined up on a grid pattern. They all seem to travel diagonally and connect at unexpected angles. They also change names often. It is easy to get lost. Make sure you have a good map.
CONCESSIONS/BOOKSTORE (5/5)
As a rule, Civil War-related bookstores are tremendous. Kennesaw Mountain is no exception. On sale are t-shirts, rebel and yank hats, miniature civil war figurines, Park Ranger dolls, thousands of books, CD’s, flags, maps and even Gone With the Wind paraphernalia. Michael never fails to be amazed at the plethora of Civil War-related biographies, strategy guides and memoirs.
COSTS (4/5)
The Site is free. In the summer, a $2 shuttle takes you to the top of the mountain.
RANGER/GUIDE TO TOURIST RATIO (1/5)
One Ranger, presumably security, was sitting in his car. An Eastern National employee operates the front desk and the bookstore. No Ranger-led tours occur at Kennesaw Mountain NBP, at least not in the winter months.
TOURS/CLASSES (5/10)
The newly refurbished Visitor Center Museum is terrific. Civil War Battlefields receive a lot of attention from the Park Service. The displays showcase original flags, weaponry and uniforms alongside informatively terse explanations of the Atlanta campaign and its aftermath. We enjoyed the larger than life headshots of Civil War generals and political leaders.
We loved the miniature headshots and short bios of those who fought here. Their stories show the horrible whimsy of war. Soldiers who died unfortunate and downright unlucky deaths are paired next to one who became president (Benjamin Harrison), some who survived and had famous scions (Douglas McArthur, Kennesaw Mountain Landis) and many who became governors, senators and famous writers. You cannot help but think, “What might have become of those who died” and “did the greatness of those who survived result from their fighting?”The video is a Ken Burns rip-off that spends much of its 19-minutes recounting soldiers’ diary entries of their gruesomely romantic fighting on the Mountain. It hardly discusses the Atlanta Campaign as a whole. The narrator’s wanton glee in recounting the deadly Kennesaw Mountain battleground seemed disturbingly pornographic. Nearly 3,000 Union and 800 Confederate soldiers died here in a strategically meaningless Battle. There is no glory in useless death. Skip the video and spend the saved time in the Museum and on the trail.
FUN (6/10)
After months in the altitude challenged environs of Louisiana, southern Alabama and Florida, it was nice to hike up a mountain so similar to those we know from our Pennsylvania home. It was also nice to see a Battlefield not littered with marble memorials and endless signs marking battle line locations. We are sure that Atlanta’s populace appreciates this as well. They have a suburban Park with 17 miles of hiking trails and wooded space, not a cemetery.
WOULD WE RECOMMEND? (5/10)
As a Civil War Park, only the bookstore and Museum are superlative. Kennesaw Mountain NBP is not a must-see historical destination. But if you are staying in the north of Atlanta and want a retreat from the traffic and general urban madness, the Park’s hikes are pretty nice.
TOTAL 48/80
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