Old Federal Road in Official Records (August 1864)

Old Federal Road

Official Records, Series 1, Volume 38, Part 5 (Correspondence, Etc.), 646

Dalton, August 23, 1864.
Major-General Steedman:
I sent out one company yesterday morning eastward to Holly Creek, beyond Spring Place, and another through Ship's Gap to Summerville via Broomtown Valley; the last will not return till to-night. The first company returned last evening, and report a body of 500 rebel cavalry lying on the Westfield turnpike at the foot of the Cohutta Mountain, about twenty miles from here on the road to Ellijay. They are apparently holding that gap for the protection of couriers or other communications between Wheeler and Atlanta. They came there on Sunday from the diretion [sic] of Columbus, having been sent to learn the old Federal road in the neighborhood of Cohutta Springs on Saturday evening, and to proceed in the direction of Ellijay. This body has two companies guarding the ford of Hold's Creek. I do not think they intend to harass the railroad but merely to hold that gap.
Wm. J. Palmer,
Colonel, Commanding Fifteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry.

____________________________________________________

Headquarters District of the Etowah,
Chattanooga, August 23, 1864.
Col. L. D. Watkins,
      Calhoun, Ga.:

   Send all your mounted force effective for a march by way of Spring Place and Cohutta Springs toward Savannah, on the Hiwassee River. Colonel Palmer sends a detachment from Dalton by way of Spring Place to Columbus; try to communicate with him. He reports 500 rebel cavalry at the foot of Cohutta Mountain on Westfield road, evidently keeping open communication between Wheeler and Atlanta. Try to break up the line and move on same route to the Hiwassee and co-operate with Colonel Palmer.
J. B. Steedman,
Major-General.


CITATION:
Title: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Ser. 1, Vol. 38, Part 5
Compiled by: Calvin Duvall Cowles
Contributors: United States. War Records Office, United States. Record and Pension Office, United States. Congress. House
Publisher: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1891

1865 Map: Detail of Cohutta Springs, Murray County, Georgia (North Georgia)

1865 MAP - Northern Murray County, Georgia (detail from LC Map, Mountain Region of North Carolina and Tennessee).

Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division
Mountain Region of NC and Tenn (dtl, North Georgia area)

This map shows Cohutta Springs as being east of Sumac Ridge. That is the location of the mineral springs and resort area. West of the ridge, but not designated on this 1865 map, is Cohutta Springs P.O. (est. 1836), suspended briefly during the Civil War. Some old maps show both locations as "Cohutta Springs."

For anyone researching this area, here are points to help identify the locations: 

(1) Cohutta Springs (P.O., west of Sumac Ridge) is associated with Col. Eli Long, Callaway Campbell, Euclid Waterhouse (Waterhouse's Mill, Waterhouse's house, later McCroskey's); the locale can be identified by land deeds in the Tenth District, 3rd Section, Murray County; by Callaway Campbell's description of the post office as being five miles west of the mineral springs of the same name (from letters in a collection at William and Mary College); and by the proximity of the Conasauga River (see the area south of Benton Pike, where the Conasauga River goes down and crosses the Tenn/Georgia line before curving to the west). The modern location would be on Georgia Highway 225 N, Crandall, Georgia, just before crossing the state line into Tennessee.

(2) Cohutta Springs (historic mineral springs, resort, east of Sumac Ridge, north of Hickory Ridge, in the mountainous area at the foot of Grassy Mountain) is associated with Alexander Stephens, vice president of the Confederacy, who once stayed there; and with Myra Inman of Cleveland, Tennessee, who summered there in the early days of the Civil War. (Myra identified the location as two miles from Summerhour's). It is in or near the 27th District, Second Section, Murray County. It can also be identified by an old advertisement by Dr. W. A. Hooten, placing the mineral springs at the foot of the Cohutta Mountains, 18 miles east of Dalton; by descriptions in other diaries (Wadley or Watkins, as I recall), which describe the boarding houses near the springs. The ruins of cabins and hotels are in the woods near the end of Cohutta Springs Road, Crandall, Georgia, as is the chimney of the old Cohutta Springs Mill (later known as the Coffey Mill). The modern-day location is accessed from U.S. Highway 411, and is located on Cohutta Springs Road, Crandall, Georgia, near the dead end of it.

(Above map is a cropped area of a larger Mountain Region map of North Carolina and Tennessee).

Citation for full map view:
Nicholson, W. L, A Lindenkohl, H Lindenkohl, Charles G Krebs, and United States Coast Survey. Mountain region of North Carolina and Tennessee. [S.l., U.S. Coast Survey, A. D. Bache, Supt, 1865] Map. Retrieved from the Library of Congress [Geography and Map Division], https://www.loc.gov/item/99447196. (Accessed July 04, 2016.)

Map Drafts, 1863-1864, are available from same source. Published 1865.

ALTERED FROM ABOVE MAP, TO SHOW APPROX. LOCATION OF COHUTTA SPRINGS POST OFFICE AND WATERHOUSE'S PLANTATION ("W"), WEST OF SUMAC RIDGE. IN THE MOUNTAINOUS AREA IS COHUTTA SPRINGS, THE MINERAL SPRING AND RESORT AREA:

LATER MAP, SMALLER AREA, SHOWING COHUTTA SPRINGS P.O. WEST OF SUMAC RIDGE. THIS MAP IS PROBABLY 1906-1910; THE RAILROAD (BUILT 1906) SHOWS ON THE FULL MAP:

Topographic Maps

Below (links): These topographic maps of the Fairy Valley and Sumac Ridge area of Murray County are interactive; it is possible to zoom in and out to view the features. The above segment of Murray County is slightly northwest of the Fairy community and west of Sumac Ridge (Below are two clips of a topographic map of Georgia, zoomed in to specific features in Murray County):

Topographic Map of Fairy Valley in Murray County
Link to Topographic Map of Fairy Valley
https://www.topozone.com/georgia/murray-ga/valley/fairy-valley/

Topographic Map of Sumac Ridge in Murray County
Link to Topographic Map of Sumac Ridge
https://www.topozone.com/georgia/murray-ga/ridge/sumac-ridge/