Civil War Sesquicentennial to Be Observed Here

Most of Paulding’s Civil War sesquicentennial events will be in 2014, 150 years after three major battles were fought in the county.

2011 is the 150th year since the war began, and reminders of the conflict will soon be appearing around the county, which hopes to attract tourists interested in the war. Much of the activity has centered around Dallas, where the Battle of Dallas raged in May 1864.

A 20-acre site on the hill behind the Dallas Post Office has reverted from the county to the city, which is combining the historic parcel with adjacent 75-acre and 65-acre tracts the city has purchased. The Orphan Brigade was stationed in trenches and gun placements on the hill before making a fateful charge in the Battle of Dallas.

 “We’re looking at buying additional property to preserve for historic and natural aspects,” Dallas Mayor Boyd Austin said. He said Dallas has received national attention for its preservation of more than 160 acres that were hotly contested in 1864.

Austin said the Civil War Trust wrote about Dallas’ Civil War preservation in its spring 2011 newsletter, noting it was “one of few cities, much less small towns, that take that kind of effort.”

He said Dallas has applied for a federal TEA (Transportation Enhancement Act) grant to develop trails on the acreage to lead people to the site’s historic and natural areas. “Hopefully, by the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Dallas in 2014, people will be using the trails,” he said.

Dallas has sold the Sons of Confederate Veterans a plot in the city’s new trailhead park across from First Baptist Church, and the group plans to erect a monument with a 12-foot granite base and a 6-foot bronze soldier on top. The trailhead is also getting a Civil War Heritage Trail marker with details about the Battle of Dallas and past and present land markers, and a trail marker with information about the Orphan Brigade is scheduled for placement at Sara Babb Park.

The City Council recently renamed a dead-end road leading to the base of the hill behind the post office in honor of the Battle of Dallas. First Paulding Drive is now Orphan Brigade Drive.

Civil War sesquicentennial celebrations are beginning this year, “but my focus is on the 150th anniversary of the battles of Dallas, Pickett’s Mill and New Hope” in 1864 in Paulding County, Austin said.

He said Civil War history “is probably our biggest tourism draw,” adding that he’d like to see cross-publicizing of the Silver Comet Trail and Paulding’s history. With 1 million trail users every year, Austin said he’d like to entice them to explore the local Civil War history and encourage visiting Civil War history aficionados to explore the Silver Comet Trail.

“We need to make the town as interesting as possible for tourism and let people know the historic assets we have,” he said.

 Austin noted that the Genealogical Society and Sons of Confederate Veterans now have offices in the former Courthouse in downtown Dallas. With a variety of history-related organizations together in the Courthouse, “we need to do a better job of marketing and get somebody there full-time to serve as a one-stop resource for information people will be seeking.”