Photograph courtesy of Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park
In 1864 this was the major obstacle between General William T. Sherman and his ultimate goal: Atlanta. Standing atop the 1,808-foot peak today, it’s easy to see why the site was so strategic. The entire metropolis spreads out below, from the KSU campus to Downtown’s skyscrapers. Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park spares you the Lost Cause sentiment of many Southern Civil War memorials. In the small museum, one of the first faces you see is Lincoln’s, and the displays reflect a more human side of Sherman: “There is many a boy here today who looks on war as all glory, but, boys, it is all hell.” The one-mile hike from the visitors center to the top is fairly strenuous, but then you don’t have to feel guilty when you indulge with a ginormous cat-head sausage biscuit at nearby Mountain Biscuits (770-419-3311).
Photograph courtesy of Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park
A version of this article originally appeared in our April 2013 issue.
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