Kennesaw Tutors

About Kennesaw

Located in Cobb County Georgia Kennesaw was founded in 1887. Like many small towns in the South the name of the town has a colorful history. When the Western & Atlantic Railroad came through town workers built temporary housing or shanties for themselves. These were near a spring and up a hill from the Etowah River. So the area was first known as "the big grade to the shanties." This was quite a mouthful so locals took to calling it Big Shanty Grade and finally just Big Shanty. Upon incorporation as a city in 1887, city fathers took the Cherokee word gah-nee-sah, meaning cemetery or burial ground and changed it to Kennesaw.

Kennesaw is home Camp MacDonald; the largest military training facility in the State of Georgia during the Civil War. Camp MacDonald served several thousand citizen soldiers. At 60 acres, with a water source and a nearby railway Camp Macdonald was uniquely suited for training and transporting troops. Training consisted of military drills, every day, for 60 days. It was not uncommon for civilians traveling through the area by train to get off at a nearby station and spend the afternoon watching the troops. Newspapers encouraged this. As the July 2, 1861 edition of the Southern Confederacy newspaper reported at the time: “A few hours spent at the encampment is very well ‘put in,’ and we advise every citizen, who can spare the time, to lay over one train at Big Shanty and see the soldiers.”

Today Camp MacDonald is designated with the National Register of Historic Places. Every year the park hosts Camp MacDonald Day where visitors can meet volunteers docents in period costumes, watch weapons demonstrations, take walking tours and learn more about what a civil war military camp was like. Kennesaw is also home to a Civil War Battle field. Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park is southeast of the current city limits. The battle took place June 27, 1864. 3 years into the war. Today the Battlefield is a national monument with 18 miles of nature trails, historic Civil War battle sites and an interpretive center.

Kennesaw is also the site of a Civil War era train heist known Great Locomotive Chase or Andrew's Raid. On April 12, 1862 Union soldiers and a civilian scout named James Andrews stole a locomotive from the station at Kennesaw. Kennesaw station was unique in that it did not have a telegraph so the raiders knew they could get a head start before the authorities could wire ahead and capture them. Confederate soldiers chased the stolen locomotive for 87 miles before they caught the perpetrators. As they went, Union soldiers on the stolen engine destroyed track, switches, telegraph cables and bridges. The rail route was very important to the confederate army. It was used to move troops and supplies from Atlanta to Chattanooga. The engine used in the chase is housed to this day in the Southern Museum of Locomotive and Civil War History in Kennesaw.

Today Kennesaw is a thriving city covering just over 9 square miles. In addition to the railroad and battlefield monument Kennesaw is also home to Kennesaw State University.