Near this site stood the home of Captain John McIntosh Kell, executive officer of the Confederate cruisers Alabama and Sumter. After entering the United States Navy at age 17, he served in the Mexican War and in 1853 on Perry’s expedition to Japan. When Georgia seceded from the Union, Kell became the first U.S. naval officer to offer his services to the South. After the Civil War, at his home in Sunny Side, he entertained his friend, the Georgia poet Sidney Lanier, who during a visit in 1874 wrote the poem "Corn." Kell later served as Adjutant General of Georgia from 1887 until his death here in 1900.