# Civil War trench lines



## PappyHoel (Oct 28, 2015)

Was there ever a battle fought in Southern Lumpkin County or East Dawson County?  There are what looks to me trenches dug all around our property.  Some are around the creek bottoms and some are in random parts.  They look like a ditch with burm on either side.  They are old.  

My other thought was irrigation or flood control for the creeks but that doesn't explain the random trenches around the property.

Similar to this picture?


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## westcobbdog (Oct 28, 2015)

More than likely those are old terraces from farming, imo. But you never know. I am not aware of any Civil War large scale troop movements or engagements through the Dawsonville area but may be wrong.


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## The mtn man (Oct 28, 2015)

I've found those in lumpkin county, the ridge to the right after the end of the runway from the little airport just up the ridge above the fields in the creek bottom .


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## PappyHoel (Oct 28, 2015)

Looks similar to this.  I don't see terrace.


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## RugerMag (Oct 28, 2015)

I also live in southern Lumpkin County next to 400 and ditches like that are dug all over our property. My Great Grandma always told me that the gold miners dug them to divert water, not sure.


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## RBM (Oct 29, 2015)

That runs from the top of the slope down so it looks like either a waterway or rock mining of some sort. Most likely rock mining. I know of an entire mountain top in Hiawassee that was mined. Big cut running right down the middle of the top. Scarred the whole top of the mountain. Fortifications usually have a defensive pattern to them whereas mining and waterways don't. Waterways follow gravity down. Mining works look random.


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## fishtail (Oct 29, 2015)

This is probably unrelated to the stuff up there but along the coast we had found similar ditches that look like massive fire breaks.
Best we could tell they may have been property lines of land grants from colonial period plantations.


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## PappyHoel (Oct 29, 2015)

I bet it's for mining since lumpkin county had the first gold rush in the U.S.


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## NCHillbilly (Oct 29, 2015)

Places that were logged back in the day with horses will sometimes have skid trails that look dug out like that, but they wouldn't be as big as the one in the re-enactment photo.


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## NCHillbilly (Oct 29, 2015)

fishtail said:


> This is probably unrelated to the stuff up there but along the coast we had found similar ditches that look like massive fire breaks.
> Best we could tell they may have been property lines of land grants from colonial period plantations.



Those probably have something to do with the old rice fields that were periodically flooded and drained.


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## GLS (Oct 29, 2015)

Go to google earth or google satellite and input "Savannah, GA."  To the north of City Hall into SC, you'll see the remnants of the old rice culture--straight lines cut through the marsh.  To the east towards Ft. Jackson, the same.  On the Ogeechee into Bryan Co., the same.  From Wilmington NC to the Ga/Florida line, along the major freshwater rivers as they enter the estuaries one can still see the remnants of the rice culture on Google earth.  Due north of the ocean side of Hutchinson Island, the remnants of King's Highway, after the revolution, Union highway, go north through what is now the Savannah River spoil area and old rice fields into the Carolina woodlands.  This was the route Hardee evacuated the CSA troops ahead of Sherman's troops when he entered Savannah.  Hardee constructed a pontoon bridge across the Savannah River to access the ferry road.


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## Dr. Strangelove (Oct 29, 2015)

Athens has some civil war trench lines and cannon emplacements above Barber's Creek, a brief skirmish took place there. They were saved from destruction by popular demand in the mid-late 1990's when the loop was completed and US 441 was rerouted.


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## Resica (Oct 29, 2015)

Macon had some visible civil war trenches along Pio Nono Avenue back in the 1960's I think. Not sure if they they are still visible.


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## macbeth (Oct 31, 2015)

gold miners.


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