Civil War Fighting, 1864

In May of 1864 Federal troops under General William T. Sherman began a campaign to take the Confederate logistics center of Atlanta. In June of 1864 Maj General John Schofield’s Army of the Ohio pursued Confederate Lt General William Hardee’s Army of Tennessee across what is now the Kemp Family Park. A skirmish took place on 16 June 1864, after the armies met at Pickett’s Mill and before the major battle at Kennesaw Mountain.

A synopsis of the event and description of the military units involved in the skirmish has been compiled by Cobb County PARKS historian Bradley Shumpert, available here.

Col Charles Olmstead letter

Details of the skirmish at Kemp Farm were captured in a letter written by 27-year-old Colonel Charles H. Olmstead on the day of the fighting. He had “but a few moments to spare for writing this morning…” but his first-hand account captures a historically invaluable insight into the scene playing out that day. The handwriting can be difficult to decipher, so here are some notable excerpts:

The men behaved beautifully under fire, there was no sign of flinching though shells were bursting all around us and mini balls were whistling in every direction

In the body of the letter written in the morning, Col Olmstead writes: Thanks to a merciful providence we had but one man slightly wounded

But in an update added to the upper margin around 6pm he states: we have been skirmishing heavily all day, have had quite a number of men killed and wounded… but adds I am quite well.

Federal Maps

Federal topographers drew two military maps of the area around Kemp Family Park as Sherman’s forces progressed toward Atlanta. As the maps were created using the help of local sources, Cobb County Historian Brad Shumpert notes that the Federal mapmakers were sometimes challenged by the local dialect, and the name Kemp appears as “Camp” in some locations on the maps.