Johnston's River Line
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Johnston's River Line, also called Johnston's Line, the Chattahoochee River Line or simply The River Line, is a historic
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 ...
defensive line located in the communities of Mableton,
Smyrna Smyrna ( ; grc, Σμύρνη, Smýrnē, or , ) was a Greek city located at a strategic point on the Aegean coast of Anatolia. Due to its advantageous port conditions, its ease of defence, and its good inland connections, Smyrna rose to promi ...
, and
Vinings, Georgia Vinings is a census-designated place (CDP) in Cobb County, Georgia, United States that runs along the Chattahoochee River bank across from Buckhead. As of the 2020 census, the CDP had a total population of 12,581. Located next to the affluent P ...
that was used by the
Confederate Army The Confederate States Army, also called the Confederate Army or the Southern Army, was the military land force of the Confederate States of America (commonly referred to as the Confederacy) during the American Civil War (1861–1865), fighting ...
under General
Joseph E. Johnston Joseph Eggleston Johnston (February 3, 1807 – March 21, 1891) was an American career army officer, serving with distinction in the United States Army during the Mexican–American War (1846–1848) and the Seminole Wars. After Virginia secede ...
during the Atlanta Campaign in early July 1864. While no significant battles took place along the River Line, it remains one of the most impressive defensive fortifications ever constructed, often compared to the French
Maginot Line The Maginot Line (french: Ligne Maginot, ), named after the French Minister of War André Maginot, is a line of concrete fortifications, obstacles and weapon installations built by France in the 1930s to deter invasion by Germany and force the ...
built prior to World War II. Part of the River Line Historic Area and the Chattahoochee River Line Battlefield, the site today consists of the remains of Confederate earthwork battlements including unique
fortification A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...
s called Shoupades, named after their designer, Confederate Brig. General Francis A. Shoup. The remains are spread across a six to seven mile stretch along the northwest side of the
Chattahoochee River The Chattahoochee River forms the southern half of the Alabama and Georgia border, as well as a portion of the Florida - Georgia border. It is a tributary of the Apalachicola River, a relatively short river formed by the confluence of the Chatta ...
from a point just north of where
Nickajack Creek Nickajack Creek is a stream in Cobb and Fulton counties in the U.S. state of Georgia. It is a tributary to the Chattahoochee River. Groundwater serves as the water source, with the creek beginning in Marietta, Georgia. The creek runs through the ...
joins the Chattahoochee in Mableton to north of S. Atlanta Road in Smyrna/Vinings. It was added to the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
on July 5, 1973. Although many of the remains are on private property, visitors can access the site off
U.S. 78 U.S. Route 78 (US 78) is an east–west United States highway that runs for 715 miles (1,151 km) from Memphis, Tennessee, to Charleston, South Carolina. From Byhalia, Mississippi to Birmingham, Alabama, US 78 is concurrent with Interstate ...
in Mableton, and off S.R. 280 and S. Atlanta Rd in Smyrna/Vinings. The site's coordinates are .


History

From the beginning of the Atlanta Campaign in May 1864, the
Union Army During the American Civil War, the Union Army, also known as the Federal Army and the Northern Army, referring to the United States Army, was the land force that fought to preserve the Union (American Civil War), Union of the collective U.S. st ...
under the command of General
William T. Sherman William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...
had managed to out-maneuver Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston's
Army of Tennessee The Army of Tennessee was the principal Confederate army operating between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River during the American Civil War. It was formed in late 1862 and fought until the end of the war in 1865, participating i ...
throughout Northwest Georgia forcing them to fall back to a defensive position at
Kennesaw Mountain Kennesaw Mountain is a mountain between Marietta and Kennesaw, Georgia in the United States with a summit elevation of . It is the highest point in the core (urban and suburban) metro Atlanta area, and fifth after further-north exurban counties ...
in late June. Johnston saw the nearby Chattahoochee River as the largest natural boundary between his army and the city of
Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...
. He had already dispatched a hundred men to protect the
Western & Atlantic Railroad The Western & Atlantic Railroad of the State of Georgia (W&A) is a railroad owned by the State of Georgia and currently leased by CSX, which CSX operates in the Southeastern United States from Atlanta, Georgia, to Chattanooga, Tennessee. It was fo ...
bridge that crossed the river near the community of Bolton. Johnston feared the loss of thousands of men should Sherman's Army attack the Confederates during a retreat across the river. He also knew this would likely be the location of a final "last stand" in the defense of Atlanta.Chattahoochee River Line
aboutnorthgeorgia.com
On June 18, 1864, roughly a week before the
Battle of Kennesaw Mountain The Battle of Kennesaw Mountain was fought on June 27, 1864, during the Atlanta Campaign of the American Civil War. It was the most significant frontal assault launched by Union Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman against the Confederate Army of Tennes ...
, Johnston was approached by his Artillery Commander, Brig. General Francis A. Shoup, about the construction of a defensive line high atop a ridge along the northwest bank of the Chattahoochee River to which the Confederate Army could withdraw should Sherman continue his pattern of
flanking maneuver In military tactics, a flanking maneuver is a movement of an armed force around an enemy force's side, or flank, to achieve an advantageous position over it. Flanking is useful because a force's fighting strength is typically concentrated in ...
s. Shoup envisioned a line of such strength as to deter any direct assault and such efficiency as to require a mere fraction of Johnston's men to hold while the majority could defend the Chattahoochee against an attempted Federal bridgehead. Johnston approved Shoup's proposal and work began the next day. Construction of what was first called the Chattahoochee River Line started on June 19 and would take about two weeks requiring a labor force of both convalescing soldiers from nearby hospitals and over one thousand impressed
slaves Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
.Johnston's River Line
Michael K. Shaffer
While some trenches existed near the state railroad bridge that could be expanded and lengthened, most of the line would be built from scratch. Shoup's design consisted of a series of arrowhead-shaped infantry
forts A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...
—36 in total were built—spaced sixty to 175 yards apart and connected by trenches broken every thirty to 75 yards by artillery
redan Redan (a French word for "projection", "salient") is a feature of fortifications. It is a work in a V-shaped salient angle towards an expected attack. It can be made from earthworks or other material. The redan developed from the lunette, ...
s that would house two artillery pieces. Each fort consisted of an earthen foundation with log walls or
parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an extension of the wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/breast'). Whe ...
s extending fourteen to twenty feet high depending on the terrain. Interior earthen walls would stop short of the log exterior walls forming a platform on which infantrymen could fire over top the fort. At the rear or base of the fort and behind the line would be an entrance or
sally port A sally port is a secure, controlled entry way to an enclosure, e.g., a fortification or prison. The entrance is usually protected by some means, such as a fixed wall on the outside, parallel to the door, which must be circumvented to enter an ...
. From above, the line would look like a saw blade with the trenches connecting the forts receding at a backward angle to each redan and then at a forward angle to the next fort creating what Shoup called a re-entrant. Along the front of the trenches would be walls or
palisade A palisade, sometimes called a stakewall or a paling, is typically a fence or defensive wall made from iron or wooden stakes, or tree trunks, and used as a defensive structure or enclosure. Palisades can form a stockade. Etymology ''Palisade' ...
s made of
stockade A stockade is an enclosure of palisades and tall walls, made of logs placed side by side vertically, with the tops sharpened as a defensive wall. Etymology ''Stockade'' is derived from the French word ''estocade''. The French word was derived ...
s. Each fort could hold up to eighty men. Soldiers within the forts could load rifles and hand them up to riflemen on the earthen platforms who would provide interlocking fields of fire channeling an attacking force towards the re-entrant formed by the receding trenches where artillery fire from the redans would sweep the ground. If all the forts were manned at once, the River Line would prove to be a quite formidable opponent. About a week into the River Line's construction, Johnston, fearing another maneuver by the Union Army around his left flank, ordered a reluctant Shoup to extend the southwestern end of the line to a position covering the Mayson-Turner Ferry across the Chattahoochee. By the time Confederate troops began falling back to a temporary line in Smyrna on July 3 following the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain on June 27, most of what would now be called Johnston's River Line had been completed. When the first Confederate soldiers arrived at the River Line on the evening of July 4, many, including Lt. General
John B. Hood John Bell Hood (June 1 or June 29, 1831 – August 30, 1879) was a Confederate general during the American Civil War. Although brave, Hood's impetuosity led to high losses among his troops as he moved up in rank. Bruce Catton wrote that "the dec ...
, were skeptical of its design and even began modifying it into something more conventional.Johnston's River Line
sherpaguides.com
Maj. General
Patrick Cleburne Major-General Patrick Ronayne Cleburne ( ; March 16, 1828November 30, 1864) was a senior officer of the Confederate States Army who commanded infantry in the Western Theater of the American Civil War. Born in Ireland, Cleburne served in the ...
, however, judged the works to be excellent, and Maj. General
Gustavus W. Smith Gustavus Woodson Smith (November 30, 1821 – June 24, 1896), more commonly known as G.W. Smith, was a career United States Army officer who fought in the Mexican–American War, a civil engineer, and a Major General (CSA), major general in ...
remarked that the design would make Shoup famous even naming the forts "Shoupades." As Johnston had predicted, when Sherman first learned of the Confederates' retreat to a line within several miles of the Chattahoochee River, he impressed upon his commanders "the importance of the most intense energy of attack...at any cost of life and material." He was convinced that Johnston took up this position only in hope of delaying Federal pursuit. No general, Sherman told one of his officers, would invite battle with the Chattahoochee behind him. Upon first observing the River Line himself the morning of July 5 from a Vinings hilltop, however, Sherman sent a wire to Washington saying he would have to "study the case a little" before proceeding. Finding the area still occupied with a Confederate Army more than prepared for a repetition of the events a week prior, he deemed it "the best line of field entrenchments
e had E, or e, is the fifth letter and the second vowel letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''e'' (pronounced ); plur ...
ever seen."Foote, Shelby. ''The Civil War, A Narrative: Red River to Appomattox''. New York, NY: Random House, 1974. p. 403-404 His chief engineer, Captain
Orlando M. Poe Orlando Metcalfe Poe (March 7, 1832 – October 2, 1895) was a United States Army officer and engineer in the American Civil War. After helping General William Tecumseh Sherman's March to the Sea, he was responsible for much of the early lig ...
, reported that the line "was by far the strongest ehad yet encountered" and that "it would cost many lives to carry the position by assault." It wouldn't take Sherman long to revert to his time-tested method of attempting to maneuver rather than attack. Although Federal troops constructed both trenches and battery positions opposing Johnston's River Line, General Sherman had no intention of a direct assault—especially following his underestimation of Johnston's defensive position at
Kennesaw Mountain Kennesaw Mountain is a mountain between Marietta and Kennesaw, Georgia in the United States with a summit elevation of . It is the highest point in the core (urban and suburban) metro Atlanta area, and fifth after further-north exurban counties ...
. While half the Federal forces would eventually be positioned in front of the River Line, nothing more than a few daily artillery duels would take place. In contrast with his pattern of maneuvering around Johnston's left flank, Sherman sent divisions north to find a crossing around the right flank of the River Line. By July 8 and 9, Union troops led by Brig. General
Kenner Garrard Kenner Garrard (September 21, 1827 – May 15, 1879) was a brigadier general in the Union Army during the American Civil War. A member of one of Ohio's most prominent military families, he performed well at the Battle of Gettysburg, and then le ...
and Maj. General John M. Schofield had secured crossings near
Sope Creek Sope Creek is an U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed April 15, 2011 stream located in Cobb County, Georgia, United States. It is a significant tributary of the Chattahooc ...
and Roswell. Despite his claim that the position could be held for a month, Johnston had little choice but to abandon the River Line on the evening of July 9. This failure would lead to his dismissal from command by President of the Confederacy
Jefferson Davis Jefferson F. Davis (June 3, 1808December 6, 1889) was an American politician who served as the president of the Confederate States from 1861 to 1865. He represented Mississippi in the United States Senate and the House of Representatives as a ...
. Shoup was devastated by the abandonment of his novel defensive system and lamented, "I took a long look at the works into which my heart had gone to such a degree and felt that the days of the Confederacy were numbered. I made good all I proposed...the line...could have been held by three thousand men for any reasonable time against a hundred thousand."


The River Line today

As late as the 1950s, a person could walk the length of the River Line. Today, very little remains accessible as a result of commercial and residential development. While 36 Shoupades were originally constructed along the River Line, only nine remain in the form of earthwork foundations mostly covered by overgrowth. Only one exists on publicly owned land—a parcel along the Chattahoochee River south of U.S. 78 in Mableton—bought by Cobb County that also includes dozens of yards of infantry trench and a fort, all of which anchored the southwestern end of the River Line. Unfortunately, none of this land is easily accessible to the public. Three Shoupades and an artillery redan, while on private property, have been preserved by developers and can be accessed by the public. Two of the three Shoupades and the redan are partially enclosed by a fence installed by a residential developer who agreed to preserve the site and turn it into what is now called Shoupade Park in Smyrna, complete with interpretive signs. Five Shoupades in total originally existed within a half mile of the park, however two were destroyed by homeowners seeking to reuse the land for other purposes or preserve its value for future sale and development. The only other Shoupade that has been preserved and can be easily accessed is located in Mableton behind River Line Park. While the park is publicly owned, the Shoupade is on privately owned land that is part of a residential development bordering the park. This developer also agreed to preserve the Shoupade and install a fence and interpretive sign. The remaining Shoupades and many yards of infantry trench, both Confederate and Federal, still exist but are on private property buried within neighborhoods or along steep or inaccessible terrain. Other historic sites related to the River Line include the Howell Mill Dam, Hooper-Turner House, Turner-Sewell Cemetery and the Log Cabin Community Sunday School. The Howell Mill Dam is located in Mableton along Nickajack Creek on land purchased by Cobb County in 2006. Just upstream of the site where the mill once stood, the dam has yet to be made accessible to the public. Located just north of River Line Park, the Hooper-Turner House is an antebellum "hall and parlor" style home built in the 1850s and once owned by two of Cobb County's pioneering families, the Thomas Hooper family and the John R. Turner family—the latter of whom operated the Mayson-Turner Ferry that crossed the Chattahoochee River at today's U.S. 78.Hooper-Turner House
riverline.org
The house is presently owned by the city of Smyrna and, although listed on the Cobb County Historic Register, has been slated for demolition. The Turner-Sewell Cemetery is about a mile south of the Hooper-Turner House and is the final resting place of John Turner, his wife Jane and other members of the associated Sewell family. The Log Cabin Community Sunday School was built in the early 1900s in Vinings and was preserved by what is now Log Cabin Community Church.
logcabinchurch.com


Notes

{{reflist


References


River Line Historic Area


Further reading

William R. Scaife and William E. Erquitt, ''The Chattahoochee River Line: An American Maginot''. Atlanta: W.R. Scaife, 1992.


See also

*
National Register of Historic Places listings in Cobb County, Georgia This is a list of properties and districts in Cobb County, Georgia that are listed on the National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of distri ...


External links


Shoupade Park

River Line Park
Archaeological sites on the National Register of Historic Places in Georgia (U.S. state) Cobb County, Georgia National Register of Historic Places in Cobb County, Georgia