Allatoona Pass (Ga.) Marker Dedication Oct. 5
By Joe Kirby
October 2002

MARIETTA, Ga. -- After spending 138 years in near-obscurity, the Battle of Allatoona Pass was remembered last year with the erection of its first battlefield marker. Now, plans are afoot to erect a second marble tablet on the anniversary of the clash this October.

The first monument honors Confederates from Missouri who fought at Allatoona and was dedicated on last year’s anniversary. The second will honor Confederates from Texas, with the unveiling to come Oct. 5.

The battlefield is about 40 miles northwest of Atlanta, a mile or so off Interstate 75, and remains in near-pristine condition. The battle took place after Sherman’s Atlanta Campaign, as Confederate Gen. John Bell Hood tried to lure Sherman back northward and/or cut his supply line, the Western & Atlantic Railroad.

The Texas monument is the work of three men: Jim Dale of Waleska, Ga., Thomas Williams of Abilene, Texas, and Chuck Carlock of Dallas-Fort Worth.

Carlock is the author of the recently published The Tenth Texas Cavalry Regiment in the Civil War 1861-1865, and also wrote Firebirds, an account of helicopter warfare in Vietnam.

Dale is a former Air Force historian and a management analyst with the Army Reserve Command at Fort McPherson, Ga. He recently completed an update of the official history of that post, and is a volunteer at Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park.

Dale assisted Carlock in the research on his book and met Williams by chance while helping facilitate a military staff ride, or guided tour for Army officers, at Chickamauga battlefield in northwest Georgia. The three also are officers in their respective
Sons of Confederate Veterans camps.

The idea for the marker came from Williams after he first visited Allatoona, where his great-grandfather and great-uncle fought, and after he saw the Missouri marker.

The Texas marker will be placed beside the Missouri one.

"The men from those two states maintained a friendly, but stiff, competition throughout the war," said Dale.

A contract has been signed with Roberts and Shields of Marietta for the 5-foot, 10-inch tall monument, and permission to erect it has been granted by the landowner, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

An elaborate ceremony is planned for the dedication. It will be hosted by Kennesaw’s Camp McDonald SCV camp, with an honor guard from the 28th Georgia Volunteer Infantry Regiment of reenactors. In addition, the Georgia Division of Reenactors will be holding an encampment at the site.

Speakers at the event are expected to include Carlock and Guy Parmenter, president of the Etowah Valley Historical Association.

Descendants of those who fought at Allatoona will take part in a "roll call" of the Texas troops who took part in the battle.

Proceeds of a June military staff ride to Allatoona Pass led by historian William R. Scaife were donated to the Texas Marker Fund.

The battle took place after Atlanta had fallen in 1864. The greatly weakened Confederate Army of Tennessee under Hood was out to cut the W&A Railroad, which ran through Allatoona Pass and was the main supply line of Union Gen. William T. Sherman’s Army of the Tennessee.

Sherman, however, was about to embark on his famed March to the Sea, living off the land as he went.

Hood began moving into northwest Georgia and Sherman feared that Rome was his objective. But after Hood tore up the W&A tracks between Acworth and what is now Kennesaw, Sherman realized his error and sent a small force under Gen. John Corse to defend the pass.
Corse occupied small forts atop the hills on either side of the pass as well as entrenchments further down the hills.

Confederate troops attacked the position, but were bloodily repulsed and failed to capture the pass. That ended the serious fighting in Georgia during the war, as Hood then decided to invade Tennessee. There, he was bloodily defeated in December at Nashville, effectively ending the war in this part of the country.

For information about the marker call Jim Dale at (770) 704-7220 or Guy Parmenter at (770) 382-5371. Tax deductible donations may be sent to EVHA, P.O. Box 1886, Cartersville, GA 30102, attn. Michael Garland.