Battle of Lovejoy's Station

The Battle of Lovejoy's Station was fought on August 20, 1864, near what is now Lovejoy, Georgia, in Clayton County, during the Atlanta Campaign of the American Civil War. The two sides had arrived at something of a stalemate, with the Union army half-encircling Atlanta and the Confederate defenders staying behind their fortifications.

The battle

While Confederate cavalry commander Maj. Gen. Joseph Wheeler was absent raiding Union supply lines from North Georgia to East Tennessee, Union army commander Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman sent cavalry Brig. Gen. Judson Kilpatrick to raid Confederate supply lines. Leaving on August 18, Kilpatrick hit the Atlanta & West Point Railroad that evening, tearing up a small area of tracks. Next, he headed for Lovejoy's Station on the Macon & Western Railroad. In transit, on August 19, Kilpatrick's men hit the Jonesborough supply depot on the Macon & Western Railroad, burning great amounts of supplies. On August 20, they reached Lovejoy's Station and began their destruction. Confederate infantry (Patrick Cleburne's Division) appeared and the raiders were forced to fight into the night, finally fleeing to prevent encirclement. Although Kilpatrick had destroyed supplies and track at Lovejoy's Station, the railroad line was back in operation in two days.

Other Lovejoy's Station actions

The National Park Service considers the August 20 action to be a battle, but there were three other smaller actions at Lovejoy in 1864: Brig. Gen. Edward M. McCook's cavalry raid of July 29 and July 30, the September 2 to September 6 action, and the November 16 cavalry action.^[1] Historical archeology is currently underway to document unexplored portions of the battlefield that exist along Jonesboro Road, east of U.S. Highway 41.

The Battlefield Today

The area of this historic battle has mostly been lost due to suburban sprawl of Clayton and Henry Counties, Georgia. The last 100 acres (0.40 km²) on the Henry County side are the site of a battle of another kind. Local citizens, preservationists, and historians are fighting to stop the development of this rural farmland. The local community has offered to buy back the land to develop a historic park to commemorate the Civil War battle.

Henry County, Georgia announced the official opening of the Nash Farm Battlefield Park, which the county has claimed was the scene of Kilpatrick's Raid on August 20 and the action from September 2 to September 6, 1864. Plans for the 202-acre (0.82 km²) battlefield include converting the farmhouse into a museum and renovating the barn into a public meetings and event facility, as well as walking trails throughout the property.

A survey, "Summary Report of History and Archeology of the Nash Farm Battlefield", was completed in August 2007. On March 12, 2008, Lovejoy Station was placed for the second time on the Civil War Preservation Trust's List of Most Endangered Civil War Battlefields.

Controversy nonetheless rages over the inclusion of the Nash Farm site as part of the Lovejoy Station Battlefield. Contemporary sources (such as Four Years in the Saddle, by William Leontes Curry ^[2] ), state that the cavalry charge took place on the nearby Foster farm, not Nash Farm.

References

• National Park Service battle description
• Farm 2007 Report.doc Nash Farm Battlefield History and Archaeology
• Phisterer, Frederick, Statistical Record of the Armies of the United States, Castle Books, 1883, ISBN 0-7858-1585-6.
• Elliott, Daniel T., and Tracy M. Dean, Nash Farm Battlefield: History and Archaeology, LAMAR Institute Publication Series, Report 123. The LAMAR Institute, Savannah, Georgia, 2007.
• Curry, William Leontes, Four Years in the Saddle : History of the First Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Cavalry. War of the Rebellion, 1861-1865, published by Freedom Hill Press, 1898.

Notes

External links

• Henry County fundraising
• History of Nash Farm and the battles
• Animated History of the Battle of Lovejoy's Station"
• An article refuting Henry County's claims about Nash Farm