36 hours in Columbus … if you treasure Civil War-era places

Columbus and the Civil War intertwine. Columbus served the Confederacy; the Confederacy served Columbus. Evidence is everywhere, if not in the war-time condition of 150 years ago: Factories that produced armaments and other war-time materiel. Antebellum homes that housed Civil War figures. Earthen fortifications from the Battle for Columbus, often cited as “the last battle of the Civil War.” Cemeteries where Civil War figures are buried. Plaques and monuments that commemorate their sacrifice.

Here are 13 Civil War-related things to see and do if you have 36 hours in Columbus.

#1 – Inspect an antebellum slave cabin

The Walker-Peters-Langdon House, 716 Broadway, is a simple, Federal cottage built in 1828, thought to be the oldest house in the city. Its antebellum interest is an outbuilding behind the house – a slave cabin moved to this site by historic preservationists. As many as 15 slaves would have lived in this 340-square-foot cabin, sleeping in its loft. Today, the Walker-Peters-Langdon House is owned by Historic Columbus Foundation. Tours of the house, outbuildings and grounds by appointment, $5. Self-tours of the grounds are free.

Get maps and directions: Walker-Peters-Langdon House

#2 – Visit a Confederate memorial as “defiant as a rebel yell”

Steps away in the Broadway median is the Confederate Monument, erected in 1879 by the Ladies of the Memorial Association. Like many such monuments, this one reflects the intensity of Confederate feeling almost two decades after the Civil War ended. “Defiant as a rebel yell,” writes historian William F. Winn. The obelisk – topped by a funeral urn draped in mourning – bears the seal of the Confederate States of America and the words: “To honor the Confederate soldiers who died to repel unconstitutional invasion, to protect the rights reserved to the people and to perpetuate forever the sovereignty of the states.”

Get maps and directions: Confederate Monument

#3 – Pharmacist John Pemberton was a wounded veteran before he invented Coke

Also nearby is the home of pharmacist John S. Pemberton. Pemberton commanded a Georgia cavalry unit during the Battle for Columbus, suffering a sabre gash and pistol wound, according to a Visitor Center display. Twenty years after the Civil War, and more famously, Pemberton concocted the tonic that became the world’s largest-selling soft drink, Coca Cola. Pemberton’s 11 2nd Avenue house was acquired and restored by Historic Columbus Foundation. Today, it’s a private residence.

Get maps and directions: Visitors Center, Pemberton House

#4 – See the last vestiges of Civil War-era factories that manufactured war-time goods

Columbus was the second most important manufacturing center in the Confederacy. (Only Richmond produced more war-time materiel.) The city’s population doubled during the Civil War as adults and children came to work in the often-makeshift factories. Most of these factories no longer stand, many burned by Union troops after the Battle for Columbus. Three that remain no longer function as factories, but have been preserved and adapted to other uses. One is Empire Mills (now a downtown hotel) that by war’s end was the largest meal and flour mill in the South, grinding more than 600 barrels of flour a day. Union troops spared the building because it was a food-producing factory. Another is the Eagle & Phenix Mills (now residential lofts) that wove cloth for uniforms, tents, knapsacks and shirts. By 1862, it operated two twelve-hour shifts and three-quarters of its production was consumed by the Confederate government, notes historian John Lupold. And, then there is the Columbus Iron Works (now a convention and trade center) that manufactured all manner of armaments. Tucked away on the second floor is a “Historic Display,” a dimly lit room accessible only to visitors behind a glass wall. But peer in for a glimpse of the “Ladies Defender,” a mobile cannon cast from brass objects collected by the women of Columbus and melted in the foundry. Captured by Union troops at Shiloh, the cannon was returned to Columbus by an act of Congress in 1904.

Get maps and directions: Empire Mills, Eagle & Phenix Mills, Columbus Iron Works

#5 – You’ll need a half day to explore the National Civil War Naval Museum

Set aside the afternoon to explore the National Civil War Naval Museum and its 40,000 square feet of Civil War ship hulls, artifacts, cannons, flags, and interpretive exhibits. The museum houses the largest surviving Confederate warship, the CSS Jackson, as well as the wreckage of the CSS Chattahoochee. Other exhibits include a full-scale replica of the USS Monitor’s famous turret. Its display of Civil War naval flags is the largest in the country. Shop the smartly curated museum store.

Get maps and directions: National Civil War Naval Museum

#6 – Stand on the ground where Columbus women rioted over food shortages

Walk south in Broadway’s grassy median to the point mid-way between 12th and 13th streets. Here, Columbus women rioted over food shortages mid-way through the Civil War. Sixty-five women armed with knives and pistols rallied on Broadway between 13th and 14th streets, according to the Georgia Historical Society, and then marched down Broadway raiding stores before police restored order. Seems that farmers ignored the Confederate government’s plea to grow food crops instead of more-profitable cotton, resulting in a food shortage. “Hoarding food and other commodities by speculating merchants made problems even worse,” the historical society writes. Angry women rioted across the South, including in every major city in Georgia.

Get maps and directions: Site of riot over food shortages

#7 – Mark the graves of Civil War dead in Linwood Cemetery

Some 200 Confederate army and navy dead are buried in Linwood Cemetery. Most of them died toward the end of the Civil War in Columbus hospitals organized by the Confederacy. Most of the graves are concentrated at two sites. The site in Linwood’s southwest corner is guarded by a cannon from a Confederate ship built in Columbus, and captured and burned by Union troops during the Battle for Columbus. There are eight ranks of twelve headstones, most with the names and units of soldiers and sailors, but many marked as “Unknown.” A Sons of the Confederacy group erected a flagpole in 1995 from which the Confederate battle flag flies. The flagpole was dedicated “In memory of those Confederate soldiers and sailors who rest in everlasting glory in Linwood Cemetery.” Henry L. Benning, defender of slavery, committed secessionist, and famous Confederate general, is also buried in Linwood Cemetery. “Old Rock,” the marker reads. “This was a man.” Nearby Fort Benning, one of the U.S. Army’s largest installations, is named for the Confederate general. Among other Civil War-era notables buried in Linwood Cemetery: Lizzie Rutherford Ellis, who initiated the practice that today is Memorial Day; James Warner, the naval engineer who commanded the navy yard that built the CSS Muscogee; and Francis Orray Tichner, who wrote the Civil War poem, “The Little Giffen of Tennessee.”

Get maps and directions: Linwood Cemetery

#8 – Learn of Shady Grove Baptist Church’s ties to a Civil War hospital

Late in the Civil War, Columbus emerged as a center for Confederate hospitals, some 1,500 beds distributed over eight rented buildings as well as cotton tents pitched on lawns. Remnants of one hospital – the Caines Convalescent Camp – are in the basement of the Greater Shady Grove Baptist Church, 1901 Second Avenue, according to Judith Grant. Church lore has it that its black congregants sang to and comforted patients. After the war, according to church history, congregants sought and received permission to use the building for indoor worship, later building its church on the same site. Tours available by appointment.

Get maps and directions: Greater Shady Grove Baptist Church

#9 – At The Cedars, learn of one family’s Civil War losses

During the Civil War, historian Nancy Telfair wrote of Columbus: “scarcely a home [was] not broken by a member absent at the front.” Columbus was said to have sent more of its men, as a percentage of its population, than any other Georgia city. Twenty companies were stood up, equipped, and sent to the war. Battle deaths were modest for most Columbus families, but not all. As one example, John and Sarah Banks raised nine sons and three daughters in their home, The Cedars, built in 1836 at 13th Street and Cedar Avenue. Seven of the sons served in the Confederate army. Three of them died in Civil War battles, writes Roger Harris, and two more died from battle-related wounds. Today, The Cedars is a private home, but can be viewed from the street.

Get maps and directions: The Cedars

#10 – See the earthen fortifications that remain from “the last battle of the Civil War”

The Battle for Columbus, Easter Sunday, April 16, 1865, is often cited as “the last Battle of the Civil War.” Union troops, led by General James H. Wilson, approached the city from the west, encountering resistance from Confederate army and “home guard” forces along a line that today is Summerville Road in Phenix City, Alabama. Wilson’s troops were unaware that General Robert L. Lee had surrendered at Appomattox seven days earlier. There is no “battleground” to be seen, but Confederate earthen fortifications remain on private property on 26th Street, east and west of Summerville Road, visible from the street. Historian Charles Misulla narrates a driving tour of Battle for Columbus sites on a compact disc sold by the National Civil War Naval Museum.

Get maps and directions: 26th Street in Phenix City

#11 – John Godwin’s grave is one part of Horace King’s remarkable legacy

Horace King’s remarkable legacy remains in sight in Columbus and Phenix City. Born a slave in 1807, King was later sold to contractor John Godwin. Godwin and King built the City Bridge spanning the Chattahoochee River between Georgia and Alabama that was destroyed in the Battle for Columbus. King superintended construction of City Mills that stands derelict along the river, awaiting restoration. King supplied the timber and pegs for the hull of the USS Jackson, on display in the National Civil War Naval Museum. King – later freed and successful in business and politics – designed the memorial atop Godwin’s grave at 18th Avenue and 13th Place in Phenix City. It reads: “This stone was placed here by Horace King in last remembrance of the love and gratitude he felt for his lost friend and former master.”

Get maps and directions: City Mills, National Civil War Naval Museum, John Godwin’s grave

#12 – Haiman, Rothschild and Moses – southern Jews and their role in the Civil War

Southern Jews played important – if not well known – roles in the Confederacy, including in Georgia and in Columbus, according to historian Robert N. Rosen. Louis and Elias Haiman, for example, manufactured swords, saddles and bayonets in their Muscogee Ironworks factory. By the end of 1863, the factory forged 250 swords and cutlasses daily. (A Haiman Confederate Foot Soldier’s Sword is displayed in the National Infantry Museum. Other Haiman swords, scabbards, and cutlasses are displayed in the Columbus Museum.) Simon Rothschild’s shops sewed 4,000 uniforms for the Confederate army and 1,500 for the Georgia militia. (A rare, Red Jacket militia coat, worn by a member of the Columbus Guards, is on display at Columbus Museum.) None, however, played as important a role as Raphael J. Moses, a planter and lawyer whose plantation, Esquiline, is at the peak of today’s Columbus neighborhood, Esquiline Heights. A major in the Confederate army, Moses served as General Longstreet’s supply officer and famously disbursed the Confederacy’s gold bullion reserves at the Civil War’s end. Moses served in the Georgia legislature during Reconstruction, which he detested and resisted. Emancipation meant the loss of 47 slaves and most of his life’s fortune. All that’s left of Esquiline is a small plot where Moses and other family are buried. It’s in a wood at the end of Keith Court. Though fenced, the gate is unlocked. Temple Israel maintains the cemetery, according to Rabbi Beth Schwartz.

Get maps and directions: Esquiline Cemetery

#13 – Visit the grave of Winter Canty, a slave known for loyalty and post-war success

Winter Canty, a slave owned by Brigadier General James Cantey, refused the general’s offer of freedom and is remembered for defending his master’s wife and valuables from Union troops who entered the city after the Battle for Columbus. “They put a rope around his neck and drew him up to the nearest limb,” a nephew recalled in a family reminiscence, but Canty refused to tell them where the valuables were kept. Twice more the noose tightened. “Although he was weak in body his brave spirit was undaunted and still he answered them not a word.” Canty died in 1913 and is buried with family members in Porterdale Cemetery. But he lived to become a successful farmer and to see his college-educated daughters become teachers. Canty Homes is named for his daughter, Elizabeth. Another daughter is the mother of painter Alma Thomas. In 2011, a marker was erected by the United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Columbus Black History Museum and Archives.

Get maps and directions: Porterdale Cemetery