In 1866, George N. Barnard photographed Allatoona looking north from approximately this location. Here the Western & Atlantic Railroad from Atlanta to Chattanooga passed through the Allatoona Mountain range in a 175 ft. deep cut, and the small community beside the railroad was crossed by several important wagon roads. On the far left stood the John Clayton, now Mooney, house, while immediately left of the tracks stood the Allatoona train depot. Across the tracks were warehouses and sheds where large quantities of Federal supplies were stored at the time of the battle. The Star Fort, built to defend the railroad below, stood atop the hill on the left, and the Tennessee Wagon Road wound northward up and over the hill to the right. A frame house once on top of the right hill served as headquarters for the 4th Minnesota Infantry Regiment garrisoned at Allatoona. During construction of the defenses, Union forces removed trees on both hills to create a clear field of fire, but over time heavy forest growth reclaimed most of the battlefield. Advances in photography shortly before the beginning of America's War Between the States gave the public unprecedented images of battles, heroism, and death, and photographers such as George Barnard, Mathew Brady, Alexander Gardner, Timothy O'Sullivan, and George Cook documented both major fighting and everyday life for Northerners and Southerners. As an official photographer for the U.S. Army, Barnard produced his well-known images of Allatoona, while other photographers worked independently or for newspapers and magazines. Because printing technology could not yet reproduce photographs directly, engravers turned photographs and sketches into published images, and artists including Alfred and William Waud, Thomas Nast, and Edwin Forbes supplied war illustrations for Harper's Weekly, Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, and The London Illustrated News.