Roads, References, Civil War Era: Spring Place, Georgia, and Red Clay, Tennessee

Roads, References, Civil War Era

Spring Place, Georgia
Red Clay, Georgia (Red Clay, Tennessee)

Reference to the main Dalton Road running between Spring Place and Red Clay:

In Original Records, Congressional Serial Set, House, 51st Congress, 2nd Session, 1890-1891 (Chapter 44), page 499, that is, O.R., Series 1, Vol. 32, Part 3 (Chapter 44), page 499:

Ed M. McCook makes reference to a place between Spring Place and Red Clay, and mentions a road in that vicinity that he calls "the main Dalton Road." (Originally, I interpreted this as a road running directly between Red Clay and Spring Place, and that he is referring to it as the main Dalton road. But he actually said his scouts were scouting "between Spring Place and Red Clay, on main Dalton road" (which could mean that the road is in that area, but may not specifically connect those two places, Red Clay and Spring Place).

--O.R., Ser. 1, Vol. 32, Part 3 (Ch. 44), pg. 499

Here is the letter:

Hdqrs. First Cav. Div., Dept. of the Cumberland,
    Cleveland, April 26, 1864.
Brig. Gen. W. D. Whipple, Chief of Staff, &c.:
    General: Everything has been quiet in our front to-day. Smith and Chandler, two of my scouts, went yesterday, between Spring Place and Red Clay, on main Dalton road, within 4 1/2 or 5 miles of Dalton. The rebel cavalry pickets are on this side of the Connesauga River at Kenyon's. They have a very strong line of infantry pickets 4 miles from town. Elijah Tucker, a Union citizen, left Dalton the day before yesterday. He says that there are very few troops there, not more, he thinks, than 500. Most of their troops are between Buzzard Roost and Tunnel Hill, and their number is given by rumor at from 30,000 to 40,000. Harrison's and Dibrell's brigades, with six pieces of artillery, are at the water-tank, 1 1/2 miles below Dalton. The rest of Wheeler's cavalry is between Tunnel Hill and Kenyon's place.
    No citizens are permitted to pass the lines. There are no fortifications at Dalton, but it is reported that the enemy is fortified at Buzzard Roost.
    I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
                             EDWARD M. McCOOK,
                                 Colonel, Commanding.

--O.R., Ser. 1, Vol. 32, Part 3 (Ch. 44), pg. 499

Red Clay was on the Georgia-Tennessee state line, north of Dalton, Georgia, and south west of Cleveland, Tennessee. The map of the Chickamauga Campaign shows Red Clay (the railroad station) right on the Tennessee line, the major area of it just slightly to the south of the line.

Map of the Chickamauga Campaign, Showing Red Clay
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chickamauga_campaign#/media/File:Chickamauga_Campaign_Aug-Sep.png

Current/Modern References:

Red Clay State Historic Park is in Tennessee: 1140 Red Clay Park Rd SW, Cleveland, TN 37311

The park relates to the history of the Cherokee Nation.

Relevance: References to Roads and Place Names, Civil War era

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)

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

Skirmish at Spring Place, Georgia ; Intelligence on Johnston's force at Dalton, April 1864

Thomas at Chattanooga, to Sherman at Nashville, April 22, 1864.

Thomas to Sherman, April 22, 1864

Intell: Johnston has 60,000 at Dalton; not moving...
           Rest of Wheeler's cavalry on way back to Dalton.

"Colonel La Grange returned to Cleveland to-day from a scout toward Spring Place, near which place he surprised an outpost of the enemy, capturing 2 commissioned officers, 12 men, 6 horses, 8 saddles, and 15 rifles."

Official Records, Series 1, Volume 32, Part 3 (Correspondence, etc.), 444.
https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth152650/m1/453/

Place References: Dalton, Georgia ; Spring Place, Georgia ; Cleveland, Tennessee

Movements toward Hiwassee River, advancing via Spring Place, Georgia

Sherman orders Schofield to move toward Hiwassee River and break railroad; advance via Spring Place. Send citizens to rear if necessary.

East Tennessee and North Georgia  ̶

Sherman to Schofield, Orders

Ser. 1, Vol. 32, Pt. 3 (Corresp., etc.--Union), 87.

[QUOTE pg. 87-88]:
 [p.87]
Headquarters Division of the Mississippi,
Nashville, March 18, 1864.
Major-General Schofield,
     Commanding Department of the Ohio, Knoxville:

  General: I am just arrived and assumed command. General Grant leaves for the East to-morrow. I have had a full conversation with him, and to enable him to fulfill his plans I can merely foreshadow coming events. You will push Longstreet from up the
 [p.88]
valley as far as you can, and prepare to break up the railroad back toward Knoxville. Hold Knoxville and the gap. Also arrange to have a force of cavalry, infantry, and light artillery on the waters of the Big Sandy in the direction of Prestonburg, which must subsist on the country, and not locate, but act so as to threaten or attack any force coming from the northeast. Your main army should at once be organized for offense, ready at the proper time to drop down to the Hiwassee, to move in concert with the main army. I am aware of the difficulties you have in maintaining your army. Appoint good officers to take charge of this branch of your business, and accumulate stores rather at the Hiwassee than at Knoxville. Your route of advance will be most probably by Spring Place. Keep your own counsel; discourage the presence of all stranger; make the citizens feed themselves, and if they are likely to consume the reserves of the country facilitate their removal to the rear. The necessities of war must have precedence of civilians. Write me fully and frankly always. I will see you in person as soon as I can.
W. T. Sherman,
Major-General, Commanding.
[END QUOTE]

Brief Citation: 
Official Records, Series 1, Volume 32, Part 3 (Corresp., etc.--Union), 87-88.

Link to s1, v32, pt3, page 87
https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth152650/m1/96/


REFERENCES: By the time of these events, Union troops were stationed in Calhoun, Charleston, and Cleveland, Tennessee. Johnston's Confederate Army of Tennessee was at Dalton, Whitfield County, Georgia. Spring Place is in Murray County, Georgia. It was, and is, the location of the historic Chief Vann House.

The source of the Hiwassee River is in Towns County, Georgia. The river flows north into North Carolina, then runs in a northwesterly direction into Tennessee to Delano, then down to Benton, and west to Charleston, Tennessee. The bridge across the Hiwassee River at Charleston, Tennessee goes north to Calhoun, Tennessee. That bridge was one of the bridges burned in the East Tennessee raid, November 8, 1861. From the Calhoun-Charleston area, the Hiwassee River runs northwest almost to Dayton, Tennessee, where the Hiwassee empties into the Tennessee River.

This area was important for the East Tennessee and Georgia Railroad.

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/