Nash Farm Historical Marker Or, Why I do not trust BJ Mathis

Neither the Georgia Historical Society nor the Georgia Battlefields Association placed the marker. The marker was placed by Henry County Government.

In part, the marker states, Kilpatrick formed his compact columns on a ridge just west of the Nash Farm. There is no comment, as found at the county website, stating the Union Charge actually happened on Nash Farm property. In response to a query to Mr. Charlie Crawford, President of the Georgia Battlefields Association, the following information was provided: Georgia Battlefields Association did not place the marker. The marker was placed by Henry County using the pattern of the Georgia Historical Commission markers from the 1950s. The Nash Farm buildings are post war, but the area appears on at least two maps: One by Captain Burns of the 4th Michigan Cavalry, which was involved in Kilpatrick's raid of late August 1864; and one from the Atlas of the Official Records, which shows the deployments of Federal and Confederate troops in early September 1864. There is a question as to the County s choice to erect the historical marker outside the normal and customary processes of either the Georgia Historical Society or the Georgia Battlefields Association. It is also curious the property bears a sign designating it as Nash Farm Battlefield. An observer may conclude the stringent GHS tests for impeccable historical accuracy, or specifically defined NPS criteria for Study vs. Core areas stood as prohibitions to naming the Nash property a battlefield. Using firsthand accounts of the famous cavalry charge, distance between the stated Nash Farm position of Ross Confederate Lines to McDonough-Fayetteville Road: About 1.5 miles. The distance is twice the reported three-fourths of a mile meaning, Henry County s placement of Ross s main line is too far to the east. The distance from the County s stated position of Ross Confederate line to the Crawford-Dorsey house is 1.0 mile. In order to meet the estimated distances of threefourths of a mile between enemy lines and a half-mile of open field behind us it is necessary to place Ross s Confederate line far to the west of the county s stated location at present

Nash Farm. The width of land lots and approximately 1,000 yards between the Crawford-Dorsey, John Dorsey and present Nash houses requires the Cavalry Charge engagement to have occurred one-quarter to one-half mile inside Clayton County. After the cavalry charge Confederates retreated across the Nash property to Walnut Creek. They met Union forces at Fosterville where a skirmish occurred. Fosterville, named for the Foster family home, was located near the present intersection of Jonesboro Road and North Mt. Carmel Road. The significance of the Nash property is that it lay between the cavalry charge to the west and the skirmish at Fosterville to the east. Describing the encounter at the Dorsey plantation, "The 4th Michigan and 7th Pennsylvania struck the Rebel line perhaps half a minute behind the Regulars, boring straight across a field at least a half-mile wide [Sul Ross s] skirmishers fled before the Yankee onslaught without attempting to make a stand, while his main line couched behind the hastily built barricade half-way across the field. The Brigade having not more than 400 men for duty was little more than a skirmish line. Before they could reload, the Yankee horsemen were upon them. The Texans threw down their guns and ran." In 2010, two years into Mathis tenure as County Chair, the National Park Service expanded their 1993 study to include the Fosterville skirmish into the core battlefield of August 10, 1864. That brought the Nash property into the new designation. Smart Purchase? Nash Farm Park, for which taxpayers of Henry County spent over $8 million and suffered wrongful use of eminent domain, has been controversial from the start. The property located at 4361 Jonesboro Road had a 2010 assessed value as follows: Land value: Building value: Misc value: Total value: $2,646,400 $368,300 $37,100 $3,051,800

Before invoking eminent domain the value was about $4 million. After legal proceedings for the compulsory taking the price doubled. A few short years later the taxpayers of Henry County have lost about $5 million on the deal. Readers interested in the Battle of Lovejoy Station and the surrounding area can go to these links:

The Nash Farm Collection. Clayton & Henry County history. Historical accounts, documentation and rebuttal of the Fiction depicted by Henry County s official civil war historian.

HTTP://WWW.SCRIBD.COM/DOC/58626490/VETERAN-ACCOUNTS HTTP://WWW.SCRIBD.COM/DOC/58626413/ACTION-AT-LOVE-JOY HTTP://WWW.SCRIBD.COM/DOC/58626216/HENRY-BORROWS-FROM-CLAYTON-S-HERITAGE-PART1 HTTP://WWW.SCRIBD.COM/DOC/58626280/HENRY-BORROWS-FROM-CLAYTON-S-HERITAGE-PART2 HTTP://WWW.SCRIBD.COM/DOC/58625972/FICTION-AT-THE-HENRY-COUNTY-BATTLEFIELD-WEBSITE