Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park

Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park occupies a crescent-shaped ridge on the western edge of Marietta, Georgia, where Union and Confederate armies clashed in June 1864 during the Atlanta Campaign. Confederate forces held a ten-mile line here from June 18, and Sherman's major assault on June 27 failed, though his flanking moves forced the Confederates to abandon the line on July 2. Casualties numbered about 5,500. With the loss of Kennesaw, the last major geographic barrier shielding Atlanta was gone, and the city fell on September 1. The park preserves roughly 11 miles of earthworks, including rifle pits, trenches and gun emplacements, with the best examples near Strahl's Fort. It also protects the Kolb House, a hewn-log dwelling built in 1836 that served as General Hooker's headquarters, and monuments such as the Illinois Monument of 1914 at Cheatham Hill. Congress established the park in 1935.