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Macon Georgia: The Hay House
Macon, Georgia: Rose Hill Cemetery
Macon Georgia: The Hay House
Old Cannonball House & Confederate Museum 856 Mulberry St., Macon 912-745-5982 Built in 1853 by Judge Asa Holt, this beautiful antebellum house is considered an outstanding example of Greek Revival architecture of the Old South. It became known as the Cannonball House after it was struck by a cannon ball fired by Union cavalry forces under Gen. George Stoneman during the Battle of Dunlap Hill on July 30, 1864. Stoneman, located approximately 3 miles east on the Clinton Road, fired the shot which "struck the sand sidewalk, passed through the second column from the left on the gallery and entered the parlor over a window, landing unexploded in the hall. Its course may be traced by the mended column, a patch in the parlor plaster, and the dent in the hall floor." Stoneman was later captured 25 miles north of Macon on August 3. The unlucky Holts thought they could avoid the Yankees by fleeing to their plantation in Jefferson County, but they were right in the path of Sherman's "March to the Sea." Their plantation home, used by Union officers, was spared, but all their livestock was slaughtered, their granary and cotton gin house and warehouse were burned with 200 bales of cotton, all their household goods stolen, food confiscated and well ropes and buckets destroyed. Worse, Asa Holt was hanged three times, as Union troops tortured him to learned where they thought he had hidden gold. He survived each time, revived by servants, although the third time he was described as being "barely alive." The home was bought in 1863 by the Sidney Lanier Chapter, United Daughters of the Confederacy, and is managed by them today. Two rooms honor the founding of the first two sororities in the United States — Alpha Delta Pi and Phi Mu — at nearby Wesleyan College. The servants quarters and kitchen behind the house serve as the Macon Confederate Museum and have many interesting and rare relics. The house and museum are open to the public. I-75 South to I-16. Take the Spring St. exit and take a right onto Spring St. Follow Spring up the hill, and turn left onto Mulberry.
Macon, Georgia: A Home
Macon, Georgia: Rose Hill Cemetery 1071 Riverside Dr., Macon 912-751-9119 Rose Hill, designed by Macon City Councilman Simri Rose in 1839, remains an outstanding example of 19th century picturesque landscape design, and is one of the oldest surviving public cemetery/parks in the U.S. Many rare and exotic specimens were planted here with native species, including oriental cypress, balm of Gilead, Norway and silver firs, hemlock, arbor vitae, cedar, juniper, wild olive, broom, furze and thorn grown alongside poplar, oak, beech and sycamore. Confederate Square is the final resting place of approximately 600 Confederate and Union soldiers, some from the Battle of Griswoldville, others reinterred from various plots around hospitals located in Macon. Three Confederate generals are buried in Rose Hill: Philip Cook, Alfred Colquitt, and Edward Dorr Tracy. Tracy, a Macon native and lawyer, was killed leading his 1,500 men into battle at Port Gibson, Mississippi on May 1, 1863. Cook fought in the Eastern Theater and was wounded at Chancellorsville and Petersburg. He was captured in a hospital in Richmond on April 3, 1865. After the war, Cook was appointed Secretary of State for Georgia by Gov. John B. Gordon, and he served in this capacity until his death in Atlanta on May 21, 1894. Cook County is named for him. Colquitt was the son of a Georgia senator and secessionist. He graduated from Princeton College and settled in Monroe, Georgia, as a lawyer, planter and states' rights politician. He was a staff officer during the Mexican War. Colquitt led the Confederate army's 6th Georgia in the Peninsular Campaign, was promoted to brigadier general in September 1862, and led Colquitt's brigade at Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, The Wilderness, Spotsylvania and Petersburg. He and his command surrendered at Greensboro N.C. on April 26, 1865. His greatest victory was at Olustee, in February 1864, where he stopped the Union incursion into Florida. He served as Georgia's governor from 1876-82 and U.S. senator from 1882-94, when he died. In adjacent Riverside Cemetery are the remains of a Confederate battery. Rose Hill was the scene of the first Confederate Memorial Day celebration in Macon, on April 26, 1866. I-75 South to I-16. Take the Spring St. exit and take a right onto Spring St. Turn right onto Riverside Dr.
Macon, Georgia: The Hay House
Macon, Georgia: The Hay House 934 Georgia Ave., Macon 912-742-8155 The Hay House is one of the finest antebellum homes in America, and a must see if you visit Macon. Open to tours, this unique, elegant Italian Renaissance Revival Villa mansion contains 18,000 square feet on four levels in 24 rooms, crowned by a three-story cupola. When it was finished in 1859 after five years of hard labor, it was declared "The Palace of the South." A sophisticated water system allowed the house's three indoor bathrooms to have hot and cold running water. Gas lighting illuminated the interior, and an ingenious ventilation system kept the house cool in the summer, while a central heating system, along with 19 fireplaces, warmed the house in the winter. The house also had an elevator and intercom system. Furnished with many treasures of fine art, furnishings, and antiques, the house features some of the finest decorations of the day with stained glass windows, exquisite plasterwork, gold leafing, grained woodwork and some of the country's finest examples of marbleized and trompe l`oeil finishes. The builder of the house, William Butler Johnston, was a successful banker. He is buried in Rose Hill Cemetery. In 1862, the Confederate Treasury established a major depository at Macon, and Johnston was the receiver of Confederate deposits. Macon became the most important depository in the South, second only to Richmond. Legend states that a hidden room in a staircase in the house stored the Confederate gold. When Stoneman fired on Macon, he aimed at the prominent cupola on the Hay House. The shot instead hit the Holt House, now known as the Cannonball House. The Hay House is open to tours and has a bookstore and gift shop. I-75 South to I-16. Take the Spring St. exit and take a right onto Spring St. Follow Spring up the hill.
Macon Georgia: The Hay House
Macon Georgia: The Hay House
Macon Georgia: The Hay House
See photo in original gallery.
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