McDougall Map by Muse for Personal Research Project: Towns, Communities, Old Routes, Places Mentioned in Official Records

This informal map is part of my personal research project on McDougall, but I am making it public. I marked routes from McMinn County, Tennessee, down to Murray County, Georgia, some significant spots in Whitfield County, Georgia (near Rocky Face Ridge), Chickamauga, and places on Lookout Mountain and Sand Mountain. Not all of these places are historic. I have included some modern towns for orientation and reference. This is a work in progress, so some of my information may be inaccurate. This is my attempt to locate specific places mentioned in my own projects, including some obsolete towns, some places of significance during the Civil War, some historic markers, and some post-war towns. I've tried to figure out driving routes for a few places. In Murray and Whitfield Counties, in Georgia, I've included approximate locations for a few land lots, as best I could identify them. As I said, it's a work in progress, all very informal, and not perfectly accurate.

Sacks of Wheat Marked C.S.A.

Civil War, Minor Event in Murray County
Georgia, March 1864 (Just for Reference)

Murray County, Georgia, mid-March 1864
Callaway's Mill: U.S. troops find sacks of wheat marked "C.S.A." They considered burning the wheat--not sure if they followed through.

Callaway's Mill, Sacks of Wheat
O.R. I, Vol. 32, Pt. 3, page 101
https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth152650/m1/110/

Nearby areas: Conasauga River. Waterhouse's house, 4 miles from Callaway's Mill. Related correspondence is on the preceding page and perhaps subsequent pages.

Located in a rural area of Crandall, Georgia (modern postal route), just west of modern-day GA Hwy. 225, east of the segment of GA Hwy. 2 that runs to Beaverdale community, and on toward the town of Varnell. Local roads in area: Sugar Creek Road, Weber Road, Carlton Petty Road, Colvard Road, Halls Chapel Road (where it intersects Hwy. 225). For example: Colvard Road, Crandall, GA, is one I often use to get my bearings; then view the fields west of there. There were several old mills in the area, and they are long gone, so I can't get more specific than that right now. Besides, most of these sites are on private property.

Research Notes for Reference
(not specified in the linked source):

Cohutta Springs, as a town, is no longer extant. Cohutta Springs, as a place name, designated several different sites, including the area where these old mills were located.

Nearby Modern Cities and Towns, Creeks:

Cleveland, Bradley Co., Tennessee (11-15 miles north; Cleveland was extant in C.W. times. U.S. Army occupied it from about Dec. 1863 to May 1864, then marched out to fight at Dalton, Resaca, etcetera); site of some demonstrations and skirmishes.

Red Clay Station (or) Red Clay, Georgia (Tennessee border,  well northwest). Occupied by U.S. troops, late 1863 to at least 1864.

Varnell's Station (or) Varnell, Georgia (well west of area); some skirmishes; part of area of battles for Daltin, GA.

Tunnell Hill, Georgia (well northwest); site of several battles and skirmishes, related to Battles for Dalto, GA.

Dalton, Georgia (well west). Confederate Army headquartered there, late 1863 to May 1864. Later occupied by Federal Troops. Had battles and skirmishes.

Spring Place, Georgia (few miles south; is in Murray County). Occupied by Confederates in 1863 and 1864. Some skirmishing, guerrilla activity, 1864 to 1865. Cite of Chief Vann House, now part of the Georgia State Park system.

Some Modern References:

Cisco, Murray Co., Georgia, unincorporated town (northeast of mill area; appears on some old maps, but usually not referenced in old documents).

Chatsworth, Murray Co., Georgia; (few miles south of area: but the postal area of Chatsworth now encompasses a very large portion of Murray County, overlapping other "town" and GPS areas, such as Eton).

Crandall, Murray Co., Georgia. For locating certain sites by GPS, this place name encompasses an area all the way from GA Hwy. 225 to U.S. Hwy. 411 and a bit further east. The town of Crandall (such as it is/was) was just east of U.S. Hwy. 411. Crandall's Post Office, near the old historic mineral spring, is currently located on U.S. Hwy. 411, due south of Ocoee, Tennessee. Crandall Post Office is five miles east of the Civil War places in the above-cited O.R. I, Vol. 32, Pt. 3 (such as Callaway's Mill and Waterhouse's); nevertheless, the roads there will come up in GPS as "Crandall" addresses.

Scouting in Murray County, Georgia: near Waterhouse's Farm and Sumac Creek, March 1864

Official Records, Series 1, Vol. 32, Part 3 (Correspondence, etc.), 101.
https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth152650/m1/110/

A.P. Campbell, 21 Mar. 1864, Cleveland, Tenn., to Brig.-Gen. William D. Whipple

"One of my scouts left Sumac Creek south of Waterhouse's farm at 12 o'clock last night, and reports having heard drums in a southwest direction from there in the evening."

____________

Citation:

United States. War Department. The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union And Confederate Armies. Series 1, Volume 32, In Three Parts. Part 3, Correspondence, etc., book, 1891; Washington D.C.. (texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth152650/m1/110/?q=Sumac%20creek%20south%20of%20Waterhouse%27s%20farm: accessed August 26, 2017), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.

The following site has a text extract. The site references the Serial Set instead of the O.R. books, which makes it hard to find elsewhere; but it is searchable over a series of the official records.
https://ehistory.osu.edu/books/official-records/059/0101

Scouting, South of the Connesauga River - Murray County, Georgia, December 1863

(U.S. Scouting, Murray County, Georgia) "The country south of Connesauga River is infested by small parties driving off the stock and hunting conscripts."

15 Dec. 1863, Cleveland, Tenn., O.O. Howard to Major-General Sherman
Series 1, Vol. 31, Part 3 (Correspondence), p.416
https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth152608/m1/425/

_____________

Citation: 

United States. War Department. The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union And Confederate Armies. Series 1, Volume 31, In Three Parts. Part 3, Correspondence, etc., book, 1891; Washington D.C.. (texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth152608/m1/425/?q=Connesauga%20River%20is%20infested: accessed August 26, 2017), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.
_____________

Note: The name of the river in modern times is Conasauga River.

Burning of Mr. Southerland's house, Spring Place, Georgia (Feb. 1864)

Official Records, Series 1, Vol. 32, Part 2, page 375 

Reference to burning of Mr. Southerland's house in Spring Place, Georgia. Also, problems at Red Clay (Georgia or Tennessee).

D.S. Stanley to W.D. Whipple

12 February 1864

Ref: Spring Place, Murray County, Georgia, 1864

James G. Brown Scouting Reports in O.R.

Some scouting reports made by James G. Brown in Nov. 1864 are in Official Records.

Selected James G. Brown scouting reports - one mentions Murray County, Georgia

November 1864
Official Records, Series 1, Volume 45, Part 1 (Reports, Correspondence, etc.), 947
https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth142228/m1/979/?q=fort%20hill,%20dalton


January 1865
Official Records, Series 1, Vol. 45, Part 2 (Correspondence, etc.), page 601
A report from Robt. H. Ramsey to Maj.-Gen. Steedman mentions communications from James G. Brown, Dalton.
(Elsewhere indexed as serial 094).

Selected Correspondence of James G. Brown to General James B. Steedman

The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union And Confederate Armies. Series 1, Volume 45, In Two Parts. Part 1, Reports, Correspondence, etc. [Washington: Government Printing Office, 1896], page: 947

Correspondence from James G. Brown (scout) to General James B. Steedman
https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth142228/m1/979/?q=james%20g.%20brown

One of these mentions Murray County (Murray County, Georgia), and mentions Spring Place.
_____________________________

The following source mentions James G. Brown, the North Georgia scout, as a native of Murray County, Georgia, and it mentions his 1st Georgia State Troops Volunteers (U.S.):

A  Separate Civil War: Communities in Conflict in the Mountain South
Jonathan Dean Sarris
Google Books (short URL): http://bit.ly/James-G-Brown-brief-ref

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/