Johnston's River Line Defense, Atlanta-- Part 4: A Unique Design

Construction on what initially was called the  Chattahoochee River Line started on June 19 and took about two weeks using a labor force of soldiers well enough to work from local hospitals and over 1,000 impressed slaves.  I like to think this was when Scarlett O'Hara saw slaves from Tara going through the streets of Atlanta with picks and shovels in the movie "Gone With the Wind."

Some trenches already existed near the state railroad bridge but the vast amount of defenses had to be built from scratch.

THE SHOUPETTES

Francis A. Shoup's defensive design consisted of arrowhead-shaped infantry forts -- 36 were built -- spaced 175 yards apart and connected by trenches broken every  30 to 75 yards by artillery redans that each would house two cannons.

Each of the arrowhead forts, which came to be called Shoupades after the designer, consisted of an earthen foundation with log walls or parapets extending 14 to 20 feet high depending upon the terrain.  Interior earthen walls would stop short of the log exterior walls, forming a platform on which infantrymen could fire over the top of the fort.

And, There's More.  --Old Secesh