Although this inn wasn’t around when Atlanta was a battlefield, it is charming and friendly and located in one of the city’s oldest and nicest neighborhoods, a short walk from such attractions as the High Museum, Piedmont Park, and the Woodruff Arts Center.
The turn-of-the-century Tudor mansion became an inn a decade ago, but retains many of its manoral touches. The living room, where afternoon drinks and appetizers are served, has a marble fireplace and easy chairs. Many of the furnishings in the house are original.
Address: 253 15th St. NE, Atlanta, GA 30309; tel: 404-872-9000 or 800-446-5416; fax: 404-892-2318.
Accommodations: Twelve double rooms in main house, six in annex, one of which is a two-room suite, all with private baths.
Amenities: Air-conditioning, off-street parking; phones, cable TV, whirlpool baths, and wet bars in rooms. Convenient to MARTA, local rapid transit to downtown Atlanta.
Rates: $$-$$$, including continental breakfast and afternoon refreshments.
Restrictions: No pets.
Stone Mountain Park
Stone Mountain, Georgia
The centerpiece of this 3,200-acre family park is the largest piece of exposed granite in the world. It measures two miles in length, five miles in circumference, and 825 feet in height. General Sherman and his army passed this way on their famous March to the Sea. On the side of the monolith has been carved a spectacular 90-by-190-foot-high bas-relief sculpture of Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, and Stonewall Jackson, each astride a horse. It took three sculptors more than fifty years to create this Confederate symbol; it was finally completed in 1970.
On summer nights, a fifty-minute laser show is projected on the north side of the mountain. A replica of a Civil War-era train makes the five-mile trip around the base. A cable car takes visitors to the top for a view of Atlanta, sixteen miles to the west. Athletic visitors enjoy hiking to the top.
Elsewhere in the park, the Memorial Hall Museum has excellent collections of Civil War weapons, uniforms, flags, and other memorabilia, and displays on local history. Nearby are nineteen antebellum buildings, all restored and authentically furnished, which were brought here from various places in Georgia to show visitors the working life of a plantation.
Visitors can ride around the park on a vintage steam passenger train, departing from a reproduction of Atlanta’s remarkable 1853 railroad station. The park has a thirty-six-hole golf course, a miniature golf course, ten miles of nature trails on twenty wooded acres, a 363-acre lake with a beach, cabana, fishing, boat rentals, and a scenic boat called the Scarlett O’Hara. There are three restaurants and countless snack bars. And in the summer, from Wednesday-Saturday, there are concerts by a 732-bell carillon.
Stone Mountain Park is open daily, 6:00 A.M. to midnight. Attractions are open daily, 10:00-5:30, 10:00-8:00 in the summer. Admission is free; $6 parking fee per car. From I-285 take Exit 30B (Hwy. 78), go seven miles east, and follow signs. The park is sixteen miles east of Atlanta. For further information phone 770-498-5702.
1842 Inn
Macon, Georgia
Jefferson Davis passed through here as he, his wife, and some of his cabinet members fled south in April 1865 to avoid capture. Earlier, this vital railroad center manufactured ordnance and quartermaster supplies for the Confederacy. Union forces were twice repulsed, but the city finally fell to Wilson’s raiders on April 20, 1865.
Years later, when Jefferson Davis hosted a reunion ball in Macon for Confederate leaders, many dignitaries stayed at this inn. The inn was restored in 1986 and has won many preservation awards, and also many other awards for excellence, including the AAA’s Four Diamond Award.
The white-pillared porch is lit at night to welcome guests, and the comfortable guest rooms have many amenities. Some of the guest rooms are in the adjacent Victorian cottage that shares a quaint courtyard and garden with the main house. The 1842 Inn is in the city’s historic district.
Address: 353 College St., Macon, GA 32201; tel. and fax: 912-741-1842; reservations: 800-336-1842.
Accommodations: Twelve double rooms in the main house, nine in the cottage, all with private baths.
Amenities: Air-conditioning, off-street parking; phone, cable TV, and fresh flowers in rooms (some rooms have fireplaces and canopied beds); evening hors d’oeuvres in the library; dinner arrangements at a private club; tennis, swimming, and golf at affiliated country club; access to nearby health club.
Rates: $$-$$$, including continental breakfast. American Express, Visa, MasterCard, and personal checks.
Restrictions: No children under twelve, no pets, restricted smoking.
Robert Toombs House
Washington, Georgia
Outspoken and independent, Robert Toombs had a turbulent career as state legislator, congressman, and senator. A “founding father” of the Confederacy, he believed he should have been chosen president, not Jefferson Davis. He reluctantly accepted appointment as secretary of state, then resigned to be an officer in the Army of Northern Virginia. When his ambitions were frustrated, he resigned his commission and spent the remainder of the war years at his home in Washington, brooding and criticizing the Confederate government.
Federal troops came to the house to arrest him, but he escaped and fled the country. Returning home years later, he scorned the thought of accepting a pardon. In 1880 he boasted, “I am not loyal to the existing government of the United States and do not wish to be suspected of loyalty.”
The house, built between 1797 and 1885, has been restored and has period furnishings, exhibits, and an excellent audiovisual program about Toombs’s career.
The Robert Toombs House State Historic Site, 216 E. Robert Toombs Ave., Washington, GA 30673, is open Tuesday-Saturday, 9:00-5:00, and Sunday, 2:00-5:30. Closed Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Day. Admission is $2.50 for adults, $1.50 for children six to eighteen. For information phone 706-678-2226.
Maynard’s Manor
Washington, Georgia
President Davis, his wife, and a number of Confederate leaders were fleeing south when they paused in this central Georgia town on May 5, 1865, to hold the last Confederate cabinet meeting. On June 4, Union soldiers arrested Davis near Irwinville, Georgia, and seized $100,000 of the $500,000 in gold taken from Richmond and last held in a bank here.
Legend has it that some of the gold is buried around here, and fortune hunters still ply the old stagecoach road looking for the lost fortune. Whether you’re looking for Confederate gold or just Confederate sites, Maynard’s Manor is a good place to make your headquarters. The Robert Toombs house is a short walk away, for example, and just east of town is the house of the old Mount Pleasant plantation, where Eli Whitney was employed as a tutor when he invented the cotton gin.
This Victorian cottage offers both comfort and privacy. Hosts Ross and Louise Maynard pamper guests with wine and hors d’oeuvres in the late afternoon, dessert after they return from dinner, and sherry, fruit, and flowers await in the comfortable rooms. Their gourmet breakfast is a delight, and they know what to see and do in the Washington area.
Address: 402 N. Alexander Ave., Washington, GA 30673; tel: 706-678-4303.
Accommodations: Three double rooms.
Amenities: Air-conditioning, off-street parking, TV.
Rates: $$-$$$. Visa, MasterCard, and personal checks.
Restrictions: No children, no pets, no smoking.
Liberty Hall
Crawfordville, Georgia
Liberty Hall was the home of Alexander H. Stephens, the brilliant vice president of the Confederacy. He was sickly and weighed only ninety pounds but was said to have harbored sufficient “hostility and wrath … to burst ten thousand bottles.”
As a congressman, Stephens opposed secession but bowed to the will of his fellow Georgians, and later reluctantly accepted the vice presidency. Stephens absented himself from the capital for long periods of time and, when he did assume his duties as presiding officer of the senate, used the office as a platform from which t
o attack President Davis and his conduct of the war.
Arrested by Federal troops and imprisoned at war’s end, Stephens returned to Congress from 1873 to 1882, then was elected governor of Georgia.
A. H. Stephens State Historic Park, in Crawfordville, is reached from I-20; take Exit 55 and follow signs two miles to the park. The house contains Stephens’s furniture and law library. The adjacent Confederate Museum displays Civil War weapons, uniforms, and artifacts. Open Tuesday-Saturday, 9:00-5:00, and Sunday 2:00-5:00; the last tour is at 4:00. Admission is $2.50 for adults, $1.50 for children five to eighteen. There are many other park facilities, for camping and sports. For information phone 706-456-2602.
Fort Pulaski
Savannah, Georgia
This fort, a superb example of military architecture, was designed to protect the port of Savannah. It was considered invincible, “as strong as the Rocky Mountains,” but it fell in thirty hours to a Union attack, a victim of new technology.
Construction began in 1829 and it took eighteen years, a million dollars, and twenty-five million bricks to complete. When war came, the unmanned fort was seized by Confederate troops, but they couldn’t hold it for long. In 1861 Federal forces came ashore to prepare for siege operations. The defenders felt safe. The Federal artillery was positioned on Tybee Island, at a range of one to two miles, more than twice the effective range of the heavy ordnance of that time.
The defenders were unaware that the artillery included ten new experimental rifled cannon, which soon were sending projectiles crashing through the fort’s seven-and-a-half-foot-thick walls. Wide gaps were opened, and explosive shells passing through the holes threatened the powder magazine. Thirty hours after the bombardment began, the fort surrendered.
Fort Pulaski, on Cockspur Island, is located fifteen miles east of Savannah on U.S. 80; a causeway links the island to the mainland. Open daily, 8:30-5:00, except on Christmas. The Visitor Center contains a small museum and offers a fifteen-minute audiovisual presentation, lectures, weapon demonstrations, and guided tours by advance reservation. Admission is $2 for adults, children under sixteen free, maximum charge of $4 per car. For information phone 912-786-5787.
Green-Meldrim House
Savannah, Georgia
When William Tecumseh Sherman arrived in Savannah, he planned to make his headquarters in a hotel. Charles Green, a wealthy English cotton broker, offered him the use of his home. “If you don’t take it,” Green said, “some other general will. I much prefer you.”
The house, now called the Green-Meldrim House, is one of the city’s most striking, a blend of Georgian and Gothic revival styles with battlements and a cast-iron porch. Its rooms are filled with Italian sculpture and European paintings.
It was from this house that Sherman sent President Lincoln the telegram that read: “I beg to present to you, as a Christmas gift, the city of Savannah, with 150 heavy guns and plenty of ammunition; also, about 25,000 bales of cotton.”
Green-Meldrim House, St. John’s Church, 1 W. Macon St., Savannah, GA 31401, is now owned and operated by the St. John’s Episcopal Church. Tours Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, 10:00-4:00. It is closed the two weeks before Easter, December 15-January 15, and the week of November 10. Admission is $4 for adults, $2 for students. For information phone 912-232-1251.
The Manor House
Savannah, Georgia
Built for the Lester Byrd family in the 1830s, this handsome Georgian house was used by Union officers in 1864, after Sherman and his army arrived in Savannah just in time for Christmas. Now an all-suite inn, it is tucked away in the residential part of the city’s famed historic district, a short walk from the Green-Meldrim House where William Tecumseh Sherman made his headquarters after he marched through Georgia.
The Manor House is a luxurious town house. Each of the double parlors has a cozy fireplace, and all are furnished with fine English and American antiques. Oriental rugs grace polished heart-of-pine floors. Each guest suite has all the comforts of a luxury hotel—a gas fireplace in the comfortable sitting room, fresh flowers, milled soaps and bath salts, percale sheets, down-filled pillows, and a nightly turndown service with brandy and chocolates left by the bed.
Guests may choose to have breakfast, which comes with flowers and the morning paper, in their rooms or on their private verandas.
Address: 201 W. Liberty St., Savannah, GA 31401; tel: 912-233-9597 or 800-462-9597; fax: 912-236-9419.
Accommodations: Five suites with private baths.
Amenities: Climate-control, off-street parking; TV and VCR in rooms, some of which have whirlpool tubs. Private verandas. Honor bar in living room. Concierge service.
Rates: $$$, including continental breakfast and welcoming sherry.
Restrictions: No children under twelve, pets on first floor only, no smoking.
Inn Scarlett’s Footsteps
Concord, Georgia
If Gone with the Wind is your favorite movie, you are going to love it here. K. C. and Vern Bassham bought this white-columned plantation house in 1993 and made it a bed-and-breakfast with a GWTW theme. Scarlett and Rhett would be right at home. The strains of Tara’s Theme greet you when you approach the front door, which is framed by magnolias and live oaks.
The Basshams, who dress in period costumes, have assembled an impressive collection of GWTW memorabilia, and enjoy showing their prizes to guests. The inn is furnished in period antiques, and each bedroom is named for a different GWTW character.
A ball and a barbecue are held at Christmas, and a Civil War reenactment is a summer event.
Address: 40 Old Flat Shoals Rd., Concord, GA 30206; tel: 770-884-9012; E-mail: [email protected].
Accommodations: Four double rooms, one suite, all with private baths; five cottages, all with TV and whirlpools, one especially for honeymooners.
Amenities: Cable TV and phone in library, GWTW museum, gift shop in carriage house, golf course five minutes away.
Rates: $$-$$$. American Express, Visa, MasterCard, and personal checks.
Restrictions: No children under ten, no pets, restricted smoking.
The Veranda
Senoia, Georgia
When it was built in 1906, this was a Victorian-style hotel called the Hollberg Hotel, and William Jennings Bryan, the three-time Democratic candidate for president, was one of the notables who stayed here.
For years it was host to the annual reunion of Georgia’s Confederate Veterans, and a young reporter from the Constitution named Margaret Mitchell used to come down from Atlanta to listen to their stories, some of which found their way into a book she was writing called Gone with the Wind.
Everything about the place says relax, make yourself comfortable. No wonder the inn has built a loyal following among travelers. In the parlor are cozy rocking chairs and a rare 1930 Wurlitzer player piano-organ complete with chimes, and a collection of antique games and puzzles. The guest rooms have quilts and fresh flowers.
The hosts are Jan Boal, a college math professor, and his wife, Bobby, who has written several children’s books.
Address: 252 Seavy St. (Box 177), Senoia, GA 30276; tel: 770-599-3905.
Accommodations: Nine double rooms, all with private baths.
Amenities: Air-conditioning, parking, gourmet evening meal available, gift shop.
Rates: $$$, including full breakfast. American Express, Visa, MasterCard, and Discover.
Restrictions: No pets, no smoking.
Andersonville Prison
Andersonville, Georgia
Disease and malnutrition killed men in every military prison, North and South, but this one was the worst. One prisoner described prison life at Andersonville in his diary: “There is so much filth about the camp that it is terrible trying to live here. With sunken eyes, blackened countenances from pitch pine smoke, rags and disease, the men look sickening. The air reeks with nastiness.”
Nearly thirteen thousand Union soldiers perished here in fourteen months, and Andersonville became so notorio
us that its very name became a rallying cry for those who wanted to punish the Confederate States for leaving the Union. (The author’s great-great-grandfather, Charles S. George, an eighteen-year-old private in the Twelfth Vermont Infantry, was a prisoner at Andersonville for eleven months. When he enlisted he weighed 168 pounds; when he was released he weighed nearly half that, 88 pounds.)
When the war ended, the commandant, Captain Henry Wirz, was arrested and charged with “murder, in violation of the laws of war.” Wirz was tried by a military tribunal as a war criminal, found guilty, and hanged.
Today Andersonville has a new role: it is a memorial to all Americans ever held as prisoners of war. On the site is a National Cemetery, the final resting place of the 12,912 prisoners who died here. The cemetery is hauntingly beautiful, and to wander among the white headstones is an emotional experience.
Andersonville National Historic Site is sixty-five miles south of Macon and ten miles northeast of Americus on GA 49. It is open daily, 8:00-5:00, except Christmas and New Year’s Day. An audiotape to accompany the self-guided tour is available as well as an audiovisual presentation on the American Prisoner of War experience. On the last weekend in February, the opening of the prison is reenacted, and on the first weekend in October there is a reenactment of the opening of the National Cemetery. Admission is free. For information phone 912-924-0343.
A Place Away Cottage Bed and Breakfast
Andersonville, Georgia
Guests coming here to learn about the notorious Confederate prison camp will find no better teacher than Peggy Sheppard, the owner of this rustic bed-and-breakfast. A former teacher in the local school system, she wrote a small book about the prison’s history, Andersonville, Georgia, USA, and published it herself; it is now in its eleventh printing.
One of Ms. Sheppard’s recent guests was a direct descendant of Captain Henry Wirz, the prison camp commander. The guest, Heinrich Wirz, a Swiss army colonel, was here to take part in a program to help create a better understanding of his unfortunate ancestor’s role at the camp.
Chuck Lawliss Page 11
