Kennesaw Mountain

Visitors to Kennesaw Mountain describe Confederate soldiers in bloody, war-torn clothing who vanish when approached, translucent figures marching back and forth, and, at night, cannon fire, screams, musket balls whizzing past and the smell of blood and gunpowder. Hikers hear voices from several directions and footsteps close around them, with the night insects falling silent just before; others tell of glowing-eyed deer that charge at people and vanish, and of a rider in Union blue who passed through a fence beside the battlefield road. Residents near the park say figures have appeared in their homes. From June 19 to July 2, 1864, Sherman's army of about 100,000 faced Johnston's roughly 50,000 Confederates here during the Atlanta Campaign; on June 27, Sherman ordered a frontal assault against fortified positions, including the spot both sides called the Dead Angle, and lost about 3,000 men to roughly 1,000 Confederate casualties, one of his worst tactical defeats. Now a National Battlefield Park, its trenches and earthworks remain visible across the mountain.