Reference to a Road Parallel to Federal Road. Mention of Waterhouse's Mill, Spring Place, and More. 1864

Official Records
Series 1, Volume 32, Part 3, page 342

April 13, 1864, Cleveland, Tennessee

Correspondence from Col. O. H. LaGrange to Capt. Robert Le Roy

Official Records
Series 1, Volume 32, Part 3, page 342

Note: This appears on the same page with correspondence about the captured rebel engineer, F.R.R. Smith: Short URL: http://bit.ly/I-32-3-FRR-Smith-captured

This letter references U.S. movement from Cleveland, Tennessee, into Murray County, Georgia, on April 13, 1864, referencing "the order to strike the Spring Place road." It mentions a road parallel to the Federal Road.

Officers and Units mentioned: 

Second Brigade (U.S.)

General Wheeler (Confederate)

Place names mentioned: 

Benton road
Cleveland, Tennessee
Spring Place road
Federal road
Road parallel to Federal road
King's Bridge
Connesauga River at Waterhouse's Mill
Barrett's Mills (26 miles from Cleveland)

Place names concluded or relevant, but not mentioned: 

Benton, Tennessee (nearby town, road to/from that town)
Bradley County, Georgia
Polk County, Tennessee
Murray County, Georgia
Tennga, Georgia (nearby town)
Cisco, Georgia (nearby town)
Cohutta Springs P.O. (nearby community and P.O.)
Crandall, Georgia (modern-day community/town reference)

Old Federal Road

Google Maps has a map of the Old Federal Road

Old Federal Road (Google Map)
http://bit.ly/GoogleMap-Old-Federal-Road


North Georgia website has a similar map. I came across it long before I did the other one:

Old Federal Road Route (NorthGeorgia.com)
http://www.aboutnorthgeorgia.com/ang/Old_Federal_Road_Route

The site below shows a fork in the Old Federal Road, which helps explain things. The description of the Federal Road as it relates to Murray County, Georgia, had been a bit confusing...

Landmarks on the Old Federal Road
http://www.georgia.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/federalroadmap_07_09.pdf

Quote from Tennessee County History Series: Bradley County:

BRADLEY 27
"To the early citizens of the county, roads were of vital impor-
tance. A map of 1838 indicates that the major roads were Ala-
bama, New Town, and Georgia, with all three roads leading
from Charleston southward. Old Federal Road, constructed in
1805 in nearby Polk County, was important to the citizens of
Bradley County also. Old Copper Road, leading from the Cop-
per Basin to Cleveland, was completed around 1853 and served
as a route through which a stream of wagons loaded with copper
ingots and bars poured to the railroad at Cleveland..."

Tennessee County History Series: Bradley County (text, w/link to eBook)
Tennessee county history series : Bradley County / by Roy G. Lillard ; Joy Bailey Dunn, editor, Charles W. Crawford, associate editor

by Lillard, Roy G.; Dunn, Joy Bailey; Crawford, Charles Wann, 1931-

https://archive.org/stream/tennesseecountyh06lill/tennesseecountyh06lill_djvu.txt

RELATED, THIS BLOG: 

OLD FEDERAL ROAD

http://musescivilwar.blogspot.com/search/label/Old%20Federal%20Road

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