Notes from the Field

I have many blogs where I have written about various topics at one time or another.  Vanishing Calhoun and Yondering are about my hometown and about travels. I have a blog named Graves of Confederate Soldiers. Here I record the burials of Confederate soldiers. I have visited over 1000 cemeteries.  Somewhere on this I have placed links to these blogs if anyone strikes your fancy to visit.

In 1985 I recorded the encounter with a bluebird on a road sign in an orange engineering notebook. Since then I have recorded just about everything that has happened in my personal and professional life in one type of journal or another. Notes from the Field will be a place where I record things that I normally write about in my daybook.

In Search of Captain Westly Walden

June 8, 2021

Captain Westley Walden is buried in Nixburg United Methodist Church Cemetery in Coosa County, Alabama. I visited the cemetery on February 22, 2021 and photographed his military tombstone.

Captain Walden was wounded on September 20 on Snodgrass Hill at Chickamauga battlefield. Yesterday I followed the movements of Hilliard’s Legion across the woods and field of the national battlefield park. Late the in afternoon, about the time of day Captain Walden and his men arrived at the foot of this high ground photographed the terrain he and his men faced.

Slope of Hill – Captain Walden’s view

Sitting here looking up slope I read several accounts of battle. A witness to the engagement wrote of the red muddy slope.

Union view of the ground (red cicrle is where I took the picture of Captain Walden’s view)

It is said that Walden carried the attack forward when it faltered and that he penetrated the Union trenches or works. Here is was wounded in the “breast, arm, and shoulder”. The seriousness of the wound is not given, but he died a few weeks later in Academy Hospital in Marietta, Georgia.

Pickens County, Georgia Cemeteries and the Like

I left yesterday (January 13, 2021) headed to the intersection of Cove Road and Grandview east of Jasper, Georgia in Pickens County. I had learned from the Georgia’s Natural, Archaeological, and Historic Resources GIS website that there is where I would find an original Cherokee log structure. A cabin and trading post acting as a 21st Century health food store! Unfortunately all I found was a Dollar General. There is a story here but I have not got to the bottom yet.

Below is a pictures when it was a health food store. When Dollar General bought the place it was called Jasper Junction.

Picture of Cabin from GNAHGIS

I followed Highway 53 into Dawson County and took a short hike at the Amicalola Creek Trail in the Dawson Forest Wildlife Management Area.

Amicalola Creek Downstream from Georgia Highway 53 Bridge

I found three interesting cemeteries in Pickens County and one in Dawson County and one Geocache ( GC2MKC Hollow at the End).

Hunting Grosbeaks and Crossbills

Last week we drove into the Cohutta Wildlife Management Area unit of the Chattahoochee National Forest in search of two reported rare birds for our part of Georgia. Evening Grosbeaks and Red Crossbills had been reported in the Alaculsy Valley in extreme northern Murray County. I saw Evening Grosbeak over 20 years ago in Sumter County Alabama and I have never seen a Red Crossbill. We were treatedto cold weather and incredibly beautiful scenery.

Confluence of Conasauga River and Jacks River

We visited the turkey management fields leading from the Conasauga River bridge to the head of Iron Mountain trail and the trees around the Cottonwood Campground on Wednesday and did not find the birds. I went back Thursday and found both species. My photography skills is terrible. Below is the best I was able to get.

Evening Grosbeak (female)

The crossbills were in the top of large pines near the campgrounds. Forget any semblance of a descent picture.

Villanow, Georgia

January 7, 2020

I headed north this morning through the Chattahoochee National Forest to capture some new Geocaches in Villanow, Georgia.The caches were located at the Villanow Community Center. There was a couple hanging out doing what couple do in the middle of the most direct paths to all three caches, so I decided to ride around and come back after they had finished their conversation.

I ventured north on Georgia 201 from the crossroads with Georgia 136 to a relatively modern Phillips Cemetery. I also stopped to photograph Cavender Cemetery (Find A Grave # 33175).  This old family plot is in a field behind lock and key. Joseph Warren Cavender is buried here with his wife and in-laws.  A quick internet check suggests he was a Confederate veteran and quite the local business man after the war.

Cavender Cemetery, Walker County, Georgia

I also found a log corn crib built in the 1880’s by Archibald Reed. Reed was the son of a Confederate veteran that lived in Gordon County and died sometime after the Battle of Vicksburg. Arch Reedand his wife Rosa Kennemer raised a large family in this area.   More information and sources are posted at Vanishing Georgia on Facebook.

 

 

Arch Reeds Corn Crib and Sheep, Walker County, Georgia

I did find two of the three caches (#1728 and #1729) . phone died and I got hungry!

Coyote Encounter

Went into the field this morning for intentional birdwatching. I was making extended observation of briar patches in pastures along Moss Road in Gordon County, Georgia.  This guy walked up to within 25 feet of my truck.

Coyote @ 200 yards, Gordon County, GA

Later he showed up again running across the pasture with two more buddies.

Bird Skull, Resaca Battlefield

February 18, 2018 – The sun shined and the day warmed up. We took a jeep ride to the Resaca Battlefield Park in Resaca, Georgia. Walking along Camp Creek I encountered the bleached bones of a bird. The beak is several inches long and vertebrae near by were relatively large. I would thing it was a Great Blue Heron.

Possible Great Blue Heron Skull Feb 18, 2018

Downey Woodpecker, Calhoun Georgia

The weekend was wet and cold. We spent most of yesterday at a wrestling tournament and most of today playing cards and working on school work. Loaded all of my feeders yesterday and this guy cam to visit the peanut butter suet today. 

 

Abbott Cemetery

Abbott Cemetery

January 24, 2018

For years I have known about a cemetery that sets on a rise beyond Longhorns out across the interstate.  There was once a Geocache located on the slope beyond the graves. I found it but did not record anything about the cemetery. I visited the cemetery Sunday afternoon and found over 20 graves for Abbot, Faith, Fox, and Wyatt Families. This is an old Gordon County cemetery. The last burial that I could find was in 1921. The largest tombstones are those of the Abbott Family. Jacob Abbott came from Virginia to Gordon County. He died in 1863. Two of his sons were Confederate soldiers and are buried here.

Robert Ambrose Abbott was a member of Company K of the 3rd Georgia Calvary. he enlisted in the army with a horse valued at 200 dollars in 1862. He died at Camp Randolph in Calhoun.

Armstead Ambrose Abbott enlisted in the Confederate Army on May 7, 1862. He was a member of the Calhoun Blues, Company D, 40th Georgia Infantry Regiment. A.A> Abbott was captured at Champion Hill on May 17, 1863 and was a prisoner of war at Fort Delaware. At some point prior to 1864 he was paroled. He rejoined the army and was captured again at Atlanta on August 113, 1864. He spent time at as a POW at Louisville, Kentucky, Camp Chase, Ohio, and Point Lookout, Maryland. Here he took the oath of allegiance and was released on June 22, 1865.

Sources:

• Jacob Abbott Find Grave Memorial# 35643928
• Robert Ambrose Abbott Find a Grave Memorial # 159554608
• Muster Roll of Company D 40th Georgia Regiment,       http://www.generalbartonandstovall.com
• Gordon County Placenames, http://gordoncountyplacenames.wordpress.com
• Compiled Service Records of Confederate Soldiers Who Served in Organizations from the State of Georgia. Original data from: The National Archives, Retrieved from at 3-Fold January 22, 2018. (http://www.fold3.com)

A Long Hiatus and a Cool Butterfly

It has been several weeks since I blogged of my travels in the field. I have had content, but not the time or inclination to write. We ware starting our third week of school and football season is in full swing, so I have not took much time at this venture. At any rate very people are seeing the blog. I wonder if it will every be pictured up by Google.

Today was a big day for the backyard naturalist. A Monarch butterfly was passing through and stopped at a sunflower.