History book unearths Atlanta’s forgotten forts

Long before Interstate 285 surrounded the metro area, Atlanta had a perimeter 10 miles around. Instead of speeding cars going around the line, there were cannonballs screaming overhead.

That first perimeter was the defensive line built by the Confederate Army to protect Atlanta from the attacking Federal forces during the Civil War. That ring of 36 forts was never broken nor defeated. The defenses held back the Federal forces for six weeks before the Confederates were forced to abandon them.

Dr. Lawrence Krumenaker, primarily an astronomy and science educator and journalist, knows what happened to those forts, and he divulges that information in his first Civil War history book, “Walking the Line: Rediscovering and Tour- ing the Civil War Defenses on Modern Atlanta’s Landscape.”

Local Civil War history buffs can meet the author and learn more about the book when Krumenaker visits Barnes & Noble for a signing event on Saturday, Aug. 13.

Published in 2014, “Walking the Line” tells the story of how the forts and defense line came into being and how these mostly lost cannon emplacements were rediscovered 150 years later. Every fort site was photographed for the historical record and to help visitors identify them. The book details how many of the forts remain in modern Atlanta and gives maps and directions for walking, biking or driving tours.