Fort Walker

Fort Walker is one of the few remaining traces of the ring of entrenchments that encircled Atlanta during the summer of 1864. On May 22, 1863, the Atlanta City Council asked Confederate engineers to construct fortifications at the Chattahoochee River, and Lemuel P. Grant, an Atlanta resident, Confederate engineering officer, and former railroad builder, was chosen to lead the project. In August 1863, Grant proposed adding a full perimeter of works around the city, and the Confederate government approved the plan on the condition that the works be far enough from town to keep an enemy from coming within bombarding distance. Grant originally designed the perimeter with 19 artillery forts, each mounting four to six cannon and connected by rifle-pits. During the fall of 1863, hundreds of slaves built the works; each was hired for $1 per day or $25 per month, paid to their master. Where the lines crossed private property, fields were dug up, houses were torn down, even on Grant's own land, and trees were cut to create clear fields of fire. The original circle of fortifications extended 10-1/2 miles but averaged only 1-1/4 miles from the city center, well within range of enemy rifled cannon. A larger circle would have required more troops than the Confederate army could provide, and Grant estimated that at least 50,000 soldiers were needed to defend his fortifications. The forts at first had only alphabetic designations, and this position was fortification R, almost two miles from the city's center; to include this prominent hill within the lines, extra works created a bulge outside the main perimeter. Grant also planned extensions to the northeast and northwest of Atlanta, which were hastily constructed as Federal armies approached. When Union Major General William T. Sherman's armies reached Atlanta in July 1864, they found the third most heavily fortified city on the continent, after Richmond, Virginia, and Washington DC. Sherman judged the Confederate earthworks too strong to assault and too extensive to invest, so this fort never came under enemy fire. The nearest fighting occurred one-half mile northeast at the Battle of Atlanta on July 22, 1864, where Confederate Major General William H.T. Walker was killed, and the fort was later named for him. After Atlanta fell in September 1864, the Federal army occupied the works, and Sherman ordered a more compact line built closer to the city than Grant's fortifications. In 1882, Grant donated 100 acres to the city of Atlanta, and Grant Park, later enlarged and Atlanta's oldest park, was named in his honor.

Atlanta, Georgia · United States