GACS Welcomes "Mystery at the Loyd Homeplace"

This Thursday afternoon I will have a long-

awaited opportunity to share a presentation

about "Mystery at the Loyd Homeplace" with

over 100 fifth graders at Greater Atlanta Christian

School.  I am so excited about this event, partly

because they will be the first school group I have

shared with who live in the vicinity where all the

action of the book took place.  In fact, the school

is located just a few miles from the headwaters of

 famed Peachtree Creek, which enters into my tale.

This photo is a black-and-white of the Loyd

Homeplace as it still appears.  I will narrate

a slideshow that details not only the Loyd

mystery, but local history pre-dating and

including the Civil War.  My emphasis will

be on the triple themes of family, faith, and

history.  I hope all students come to realize

that they, too, have a story to tell.  And I

hope someday they'll tell it, perhaps to their

own children and grandchildren.

More about Railroads in Atlanta's Civil War Story

The story of Atlanta was intertwined with

the growth of railroads from the very

beginning.  The establishment of the

zero milepost of the Atlantic and Western

Railroad assured that commerce would one

day thrive in that location.  Of course, it wasn't

known as Atlanta then.  It was Marthasville.

And the original settlers set up shop around

seven streets and the railroad tracks.  One of

those seven streets was Loyd Street, now

known as Central Avenue.

In 1862, Atlantans got their first taste of wartime

drama when a band of Union soldiers disguised as

civilians stole the locomotive General.  Click on

the page below to read the exciting tale.  It was

later retold in the Buster Keaton silent film,

"The General," which was historically accurate

for the most part.

The following two maps show how

three important railroads intersected in

the heart of Atlanta at the time of the

Civil War.  They were the Atlantic and

Western, The Macon and Western, and

the Georgia Railroad, which passed near

Stone Mountain.

Because of these railroads, Atlanta was the

central artery for transportation of southern

war materials.  This also made it a strategic

target for General Sherman's assault.

The hustle and bustle of pre-war Atlanta's

train depot and area.

This photo was actually taken after the war,

when the trains were back in operation.  The

roundhouse on which they are positioned had

been destroyed by Sherman's army.

If you are familiar with modern Atlanta, you

may recognize some street names or other

landmarks on this map.

No, that's not a Civil War era locomotive below.

It's a modern diesel CSX engine.  I include it

here because in my book I refer to the love

my brother Buddy and I have always had

for trains.  After church at Prospect Methodist,

we could cross the road and watch the big

engines switching boxcars and flatcars on the

side tracks.  And I'm happy to say that everywhere

I've lived in my life I could hear the happy sound

of a train whistle at night.

A closing note about trains.  I was delighted

to find in the town of Sanford, North Carolina,

less than 30 miles from my home, an old steam

locomotive on display.

Imagine my amazement when I saw that it

was an Atlantic and Western locomotive!

I want to learn more about the history of

this old steam engine and how it ended up

in Sanford, North Carolina.

This dear old relic reminded me once again

how the history of railroads is tightly interwoven

with the story of our whole nation, not

just Atlanta.

The Civil War in "Mystery at the Loyd Homeplace"

In one chapter of "Mystery at the Loyd

 Homeplace" I have Professor Paul Hudson

 illustrating the march of General Sherman's army 

from Chattanooga to Atlanta in the spring and

summer of 1864.  Dr. Hudson is a real and

respected historian in Atlanta, and has written

extensively on Atlanta history.  In writing my

book I utilized other detailed local histories,

including those pictured below.

This guide to Atlanta's Cyclorama is
from the 1950's.  It portrays with both
paintings and large action figures the
drama of major occurrences in the
crucial Atlanta campaign.

This booket is filled with detailed articles
which helped me visualize the realities
of the attack on Atlanta for the residents
as well as for military strategists.

This decades-old magazine about Stone
Mountain tells all about the historic
confederate memorial carving.  The
mountain was a valued observation point
and strategic because of the nearby
Georgia Railroad.

This 1950's era magazine is about the
Battle of Kennesaw Mountain, one of the few
 southern victories during the Atlanta campaign.

This photo demonstrates a method by which both
northern and southern soldiers sought to disrupt
railroad shipments.  They would rip up rails, pile
the pine ties underneath and build a fire hot enough
to heat the iron rails until they could be twisted.
Both armies became equally efficient at repairing
damaged sections, often within a day or two.

An old lithograph of the Georgia Railroad stop
at Stone Mountain.

Long before Stone Mountain was developed as
a state park, it looked like this, with dirt roads
and no mammoth carving on its sides.  But it
was just as imposing a sight as it had been
for many centuries to all who beheld it.

Click on the map to try to identify towns,
rivers, or other geographical locations
you may have heard of.  Sherman's invasion
route roughly follows the path of modern
Interstate 75 from Atlanta to Chattanooga.

This scene from the Cyclorama depicts the destruction
of the Georgia railroad from Stone Mountain to
Decatur, with the mountain in the background.

This representation of Atlanta as it appeared in 1864
before Sherman's attack shows the city as a thriving
hub of economic activity.  Loyd Street, ending in the
area of the train depot, is one of the streets shown.

This railroad bridge over the Etowah River was a
major resource for the south, therefore, a major
target for the north.  General Sherman was familiar
with the area, called Allatoona pass, where he had
passed through years before as a young soldier.
He knew this pass would an unfavorable place to do
 battle with the rebels, and was determined to avoid it.

A black and white photo of two surviving bridge
supports have a lonely and haunting look.

The same scene viewed in color in springtime
seems to offer the hope that there is life after
war, while serving as a grim reminder of the
sacrifices of war.

Future blog posts will offer more documentation
of the destruction of Atlanta and the role of
railroads in the story.