Battle’s archaeological dig preserves Cobb history

Near Smyrna, the Battle of Ruff’s Mill project is one of 16 Battlefield Preservation Planning Grant winners awarded by the American Battlefield Protection Program.

From the federal government through the National Park Service, the $95,887 grant is being used for the LAMAR Institute to research this battlefield, according to Philip Ivester, president of the Friends of the Concord Covered Bridge Historic District (FCCBHD).

Since 1982, the LAMAR Institute has been a nonprofit based in Savannah.

During the Civil War, the Battle of Ruff’s Mill was fought in July 1864 when Union forces pushed across Nickajack Creek at the Concord Covered Bridge, according to a Cobb County statement.

So heavy was the assault that the Confederates abandoned the entire defensive line after an intense fight, the statement added.

The LAMAR Institute and FCCBHD worked with Cobb District 4 Commissioner and soon-to-be Cobb Commission Chair Lisa Cupid and the Cobb Parks and Recreation Department to ascertain the battlefield’s boundaries, artifacts, buildings, trench lines and other archaeological points of interest that still remain.

For more than two weeks, the LAMAR Institute team of Rita Elliot, Daniel T. Elliott and Philip T. Ashlock and photographer Mark Albertin of Scrapbook Video Productions worked in the Concord Covered Bridge Historic District and vicinity.