Welcome to Nash Farm
- Color & Glow 5K Running Event (WEBSITE)
- Help us Raise Money for A New Monument (PDF FILE)
You can almost see them. Even now,
nearly one hundred and fifty years later, when you look across the
rolling green fields at Nash Farm, you can almost see three compact
columns of blue-coated cavalrymen cresting that far ridge, their
swallow-tailed guidons fluttering in the breeze. The landscape still
looks pretty much the same as it did then, on August 20, 1864, and
if you know the story of what happened that day, when bugles blared
and cannon roared, it's easy to conjure up those bold troopers in
your mind's eye, charging across a gullied cornfield, boot to boot
and stirrup to stirrup, their drawn sabers gleaming in the hot
summer sun. You can almost feel the earth tremble under the pounding
of nearly twenty thousand hooves, and hear the ragged volley that
erupted from an opposing line of dismounted Confederate cavalrymen
who were quickly cut down, swallowed up, and swept away.
It was the most desperate, most dramatic cavalry charge
of America's Civil War, but more than that, the stirring events that
culminated on this hotly contested field helped shape the course of
history. The fight at Nash Farm convinced Union General William T.
Sherman his cavalry "could not or would not work hard enough to
disable a railroad properly." Reluctantly, he set his entire army in
motion in a last-ditch effort to cut the two railroads that fed and
supplied the Confederate army defending Atlanta. Sherman's shift in
strategy, and a two day battle at Jonesboro, ultimately forced the
city to surrender.
News of Sherman's success reenergized a war-weary
nation, and helped reelect President Abraham Lincoln. It is no
exaggeration to say the fight at Nash Farm changed the way the
Atlanta Campaign was fought, and that pivotal struggle helped decide
the outcome of a war that redefined America's destiny. Hurrah for
Henry County for preserving this historic and hallowed piece of
ground!
Dr. David Evans,
author, Sherman's Horsemen
“Although the battle sounds at the Nash Farm have been silenced for over 140 years, a conflict of another sort has raged, the conflict between preservation and progress."
As you gaze across these rolling hills you think about the cavalry charge that took place here. You think about the courage and fortitude those men displayed on this battlefield. Your heart and mind is filled with a sense of awe as you realize you are seeing the same view many of them saw for the last time while engaged in the heat of battle.
"When you weigh the cost of progress against the personal fortitude and the strength of character of the men who gave their lives for a cause, it's that gallantry which compels you to protect and preserve this site, and pay homage to those brave men.”
Elizabeth "B.J." Mathis
Former Henry County Commissioner
