Save the Dalton Battlefields

04/25/2026

Georgia Battlefields Association

04/24/2026

04/21/2026

ECW News: Jenkins Named Executive Director of Blue & Gray Education Society

Robert Jenkins has been selected to serve as the new executive director of the Blue & Gray Education Society BGES). Jenkins has previously served as the BGES’s field university coordinator.

He follows in the footsteps of Wade Sokolosky, who had assumed the position in June 2025. Sokolosky remains with the BGES, assisting with operations and administration.

Jenkins sat down for an exclusive interview with ECW to talk about his new role and his plans for BGES’s future.

Watch here 👇
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=e_WDMXpCEx0&t=11s&pp=2AELkAIB
For those on Instagram a link is available via our story

For more information on the Blue & Gray Education Society, visit their website.
https://blueandgrayeducation.org/

04/19/2026

Why do we fight to Save the Land?

Here are pictures taken in April 2014 before construction of the Hallmark Heights Apartments on Crow Valley Road but after the destruction of the earthworks and artillery battery site caused by the clear-cutting of the timber.

Dalton and Whitfield County have more Civil War earthworks than ANY OTHER county in the Nation! Cobb County used to have that distinction before the bulldozers caused their near-extinction.

This past weekend, we hosted a busload of people from all over the country for 4 days who came to see our Civil War sites and learn about our significant role in the American Civil War. We host bus loads and van loads and car loads of people by the hundreds and thousands to Dalton every single year! Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park has more than 1 million visitors annually, more than Gettysburg, Antietam or Vicksburg. So, too, does Chickamauga. 

Imagine one day Rocky Face Ridge and Resaca National Battlefield Park with over 1 million visitors to Dalton to stay in our hotels, eat in our restaurants, and shop in our stores EVERY single year! Clean industry? Tourism is absolutely clean industry.

But just because this will one day be economically feasible, marketable, and sustainable, is not the best reason to preserve our rare, rich, and endangered historic sites; the best reason is because it is the RIGHT thing to do: to save our lands so that our children and our children’s children may one day see, learn, and enjoy our Nation’s history!

Also, preserving our endangered earthworks, which are located in many instances atop fragile geologic ecosystems along our ridge lines and hillsides in and around Dalton, is not only good for history and good for business, it is also good for the environment.

Thank you to my friends Bill and Mary Porter for sharing these pictures and this sad memory when we walked on this lost historic land together. And thank you, Bill and Mary, and all of you for your continued support of our mission.

Thank you also to our friends and partners American Battlefield Trust, Georgia Battlefields Association, Open Space, The Community Foundation of Northwest Georgia, Civil War News, Whitfield-Murray Historical Society, County Government, of Dalton Government, Blue and Gray Education Society, Georgia Civil War Commission, P. Pierce Foundation, of Resaca, and so many other individuals and organizations.

Bob

04/18/2026

Robert Douglas Jenkins

Fittingly, the gathering occurred at the old Western & Atlantic train depot, itself the beneficiary of a commitment to honoring the past while looking to the future. The recently restored depot was one stop along the legendary “Great Locomotive Chase” of April 1862.

04/18/2026

Save the Dalton Battlefields
Blue and Gray Education Society
Civil War News

Fittingly, the gathering occurred at the old Western & Atlantic train depot, itself the beneficiary of a commitment to honoring the past while looking to the future. The recently restored depot was one stop along the legendary “Great Locomotive Chase” of April 1862.

04/11/2026

One person commented about his belief of the inappropriateness of the Confederate battle flag adorning these graves and he is certainly right to have his own opinion. That was the decision of the family and the individual who rediscovered the graves, which had been lost to history for over 100 years. (The post was blocked because this is not a place for political discussion or debate.)

For clarity, however:
It is the position of Save the Dalton Battlefields to protect, preserve, promote, and present American Civil War history—all of it—for Dalton and Whitfield County. That includes sponsoring and placing historic interpretive markers throughout the parks and historic sites in Dalton and Whitfield County. Previous posts will find stories and interpretive markers that we have sponsored and placed throughout the county which reflect the diversity and richness of our area’s history.

As for the flag issue, it has been well settled that the Confederate battle flag should not be flown at any living government organism, such as at a City Hall, County courthouse, or State government building. That has been well settled, and is not open to debate due to its post-Civil War mis-use and political meaning. The flag represents a cause that failed and has died. Therefore, it is not to be used at a living government organization today. 

However, it has also been well settled that the Confederate battle flag is appropriate at places of reflection, memory, and education, including historic parks, museums, and cemeteries.

04/10/2026

Today, we were honored to visit the Cavalry Hill Cemetery, where 10 Confederate soldiers were buried following the fighting at Varnell Station on May 9, 1864, and nine bodies remain (one of the 10 fallen was reinterred in a family cemetery in Alabama).

Thanks to the hard work by Dr. William Blackman, the Planzer family, Bryan and Bridgette Davis and Charleston Underground, and Marvin Sowder and others, the cemetery has been rediscovered, protected and preserved, and the names of the fallen have been identified.

Today, a group of 40 visitors from the Georgia Battlefields Association met with Dr. Blackman, Mr. Sowder, members of the Planzer family, and additional volunteers to view the cemetery and remember the fallen here for the first time in over 100 years.

Plans for an official dedication are underway and will be announced in the future.

 Thank you to Jack Melton, and Civil War News for publishing this story in the next feature of your outstanding magazine!

Thank you to Blue and Gray Education Society (BGES) for your support in interpretation.

And thank you to all of you who generously support the work of Save the Dalton Battlefields! 

04/10/2026

A great day in the field with Jim Ogden and our friends and partners with GBA!

03/18/2026

https://youtu.be/q6pvxuDeJdI?si=3JmeK-2IZKHgummj

We make the climb up beautiful Rocky Face Ridge in Dalton, Georgia, to detail the 160th Anniversary of the Atlanta Campaign. Thank you to the Rocky Face Ridg...