K-Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History

The Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History is a museum in

Kennesaw, Georgia Kennesaw is a suburban city northwest of Atlanta in Cobb County, Georgia, United States, located within the greater Atlanta metropolitan area. Known from its original settlement in the 1830s until 1887 as Big Shanty, it became Kennesaw under its ...

, that contains a collection of artifacts and relics from the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

, as well as from railroads of the state of

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

and surrounding regions. The centerpiece is the ''General'', a steam

locomotive A locomotive or engine is a rail transport vehicle that provides the Power (physics), motive power for a train. If a locomotive is capable of carrying a payload, it is usually rather referred to as a multiple unit, Motor coach (rail), motor ...

used in the

Great Locomotive Chase The Great Locomotive Chase (also known as Andrews' Raid or the Mitchel Raid) was a military raid that occurred April 12, 1862, in northern Georgia during the American Civil War. Volunteers from the Union Army, led by civilian scout James J. And ...

in April 1862. The Archives house a significant collection of company records, engineering drawings, blueprints, glass plate negatives, photographs and correspondence from various American businesses representing the railroad industry in the South after the Civil War. The Archives also contain a growing collection of Civil War letters, diaries, and official records.

History and evolution

The museum (then known as the ''Big Shanty Museum''), in a barn that once housed a cotton gin, initially opened on April 12, 1972, appropriately on the very date which the chase occurred one hundred and ten years prior, with the ''General'' as the centerpiece. Later, the theme expanded to include Civil War pieces as well. In the mid- to late 1990, the property of the former Glover Machine Works was to be demolished. The buildings on this site, having sat vacant for nearly 50 years, still contained records, locomotive parts, machinery for locomotive construction, and at least one complete locomotive, which had only seen a few months of active service before being repossessed. Descendants of the Glover family, who had retained ownership of the firm and its collection, in turn donated the collection to the museum in 2001. With the acquisition of the rather large collection of artifacts, the museum closed in late 2001 and began a massive expansion to house them. During the construction, a large "box" of plywood boards was built overtop of the ''General'' to protect it. The augmented museum reopened in March 2003 as the Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History. A further expansion was finished in 2007 to house the recently acquired French Merci Boxcar.

External links

Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History

Fansite devoted to the General (includes photos of the 2001-2003 construction).

Site devoted to the Merci Boxcars given to the US, such as the Southern Museum's car.

360 degree Panoramic photos of the Southern Museum

1916 Glover Machine Works Locomotive
historical marker

{{authority control Railroad museums in Georgia (U.S. state) Museums in Cobb County, Georgia American Civil War museums in Georgia (U.S. state) Kennesaw, Georgia Museums established in 1972 1972 establishments in Georgia (U.S. state) Smithsonian Institution affiliates Great Locomotive Chase