By Henry Bryant
Along Memorial at the outer edge of East Atlanta, a German discount Lidl grocery sprouted in the acres of a parking lot at a 1960s shopping center called Parkview Plaza on Memorial Drive.
A hundred years earlier that lot was involved in the opening salvo of the Battle of Atlanta. Moments earlier, Confederate General W. H. T. Walker was surprised first by a large lake in his path, and then by a sniper’s bullet from the hillside where today stands an Atlanta alternative high school. Since the 1950s there had been a historic marker there placed to mark the events from 1864 in preparation for the Centennial of the American Civil War. More recently the property had been sold to a developer who renovated the property and started placing stores in the parking lot. The Battle of Atlanta Commemoration Organization (BATL) reached out to the developer because the marker had gone missing.
Although there is some semi-regular vandalism, most cases of missing markers are caused by rampaging automobiles who leave the roadway and mow the signs down. That was the case for the Bate’s Battle Line marker. It also had been dragged and severely damaged in the accident. Because of that and the fact that the location references contained in its verbiage had changed since the 1950s, required that the sign be recast with rewritten verbiage.
The Georgia Historical Society is the nonprofit put in charge of the markers by the Georgia Legislature. They use donations to replace markers and BATL also contributes to that fund. The BATL organization collaborates with them, reporting downed markers, and repairing vandalism where possible. In this case, the damage required the Historical Society to completely rewrite and recast the metal marker. It was reinstalled near its original location earlier this fall.
The BATL Organization has been mounting monthly tours since the 2014 Sesquicentennial when they ceased after ten years of organizing a weeklong annual event. BATL’s website ticket sales for the tours have been down for most of this year due to technical difficulties. If you would like to go on a 2:00pm January 1 New Year’s Battle of Atlanta Tour, you can reserve a place by calling 404-377-6148 or emailing hbryantiii@comcast.net to reserve your spot. The cost is a nominal $15 per person. Tours are easy walking and take about an hour and 45 minutes. They include neighborhood history as they cross the neighborhood. Please call or email if you would like more information.
