35-Acre Tract Is Added At Kennesaw Battlefield
By Joe Kirby

MARIETTA, GA. — Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park is now 35 acres larger, thanks to the generosity of U.S. taxpayers, the hard work of local elected and Park Service officials, and, most crucially, the big-hearted vision of the Sam Hensley family.

A ceremony marking the finalization of the transaction took place on the site on March 29.

The tract was sold to the park on favorable terms by the Hensleys. It marks the largest addition to the 2,888-acre park since its creation in the 1930s. The sale brings into the park a nice-sized chunk of a large “pocket” of non-park land created when farmers of that era refused to sell to the park.

The acquisition deal was announced several years ago, but later was divided into two components because of congressional-level funding issues. Roughly $3 million of the $3.6 million cost of the acquisition came from Federal Highway Administration funds. Another $500,000 came from Cobb County (Marietta) and the final $320,000 was donated by the Woodruff Foundation in Atlanta. The deal was orchestrated by the Trust for Public Land.

The tract includes Union trenches and was used as a campground and staging area for Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman’s bloody and unsuccessful June 27, 1864, assaults on nearby Pigeon Hill and Cheatham Hill. These two attacks collectively comprised most of the fighting during what is now known as the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain.

“I think for a long time we’ve been blinded by Virginia, Grant and Lee and we tend to overlook the fact that if Sherman doesn’t take Atlanta, Lincoln is not going to be re-elected,” said Dr. J.T. Fowler, professor of Civil War history at nearby Kennesaw State University, at the ceremony.

“We forget what a touch-and-go thing the Union victory was. It could have gone either way. So, this is one of the most important Civil War parks in the country. If this battle had turned out differently, the war would have turned out differently,” Fowler said.

“It’s just absolutely incredible that we have the opportunity to add this land to the park, not just for the good of the park, but for the good of the country,” Fowler said as he thanked the Hensley family and others who worked to make the heavily visited park a success over the years and add land to it.

Sam Hensley Jr. said his parents, Sam Sr. and the late Iris Hensley, were determined that the land be preserved.
“Our parents never let us forget that we stand on hallowed ground. They always told us that it was never going to be developed and that we would never see rooftops on this property,” he said.

Hensley related the pressures. “There was not a week that went by that my father did not have an unsolicited call from a developer or somebody that wanted to put a subdivision out here. He said his mother, especially, “insisted that it stay the way it is. We want it to be like this forever for people to enjoy.”

Hensley Sr., a retired civil engineer who was a star halfback on Georgia Tech’s National Championship football team in 1951, was unable to attend the ceremony due to illness. Also unable to attend was son Shuler Hensley, who is starring on Broadway as Frankenstein’s Monster in “Young Frankenstein.”

Sam Hensley Jr. said that when his grandparents bought the land in the 1950s it was “out in the boondocks” on the far side of Kennesaw Mountain from Marietta and Atlanta.

It was so dark and lonely “that my grandmother was scared to stay out here,” he said. “So they cancelled the sales contract on their old home in Marietta and moved back in, then sold this land to my parents.”

Cobb County has changed drastically since then, with development gnawing away at the park’s perimeter and land values skyrocketing.

National Park Service Southeastern Regional Director Art Frederick noted that with the growth of Cobb County and transformation of farms into subdivisions, “Mr. Hensley certainly could have sold his land for the development of another neighborhood.”

Helen Tapp, Georgia director of the Trust for Public Land, noted there were 24,000 residents of the county when the park was founded. There now are 670,000 residents and park visitation is in excess of 1.1 million per year.

The ceremony included the park’s cannon crew, the 8th Georgia Regimental Band and U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson, who noted that the transaction had been paid for via a congressional earmark.

“So the next time you read an article critical of how Congress funds things, know that there are good stories too — and you’re sitting on it. The heritage of the United States has been saved forever on these 35 acres.”