from top of Whitehall

This is the same view as shown on the Home Page. The view is also almost identical to that seen in View 1, except the buildings on the west side of Whitehall are visible. Once again I have artificially colored the sky and part of the ground to enhance the effect.

As the locator map to the right shows, this is the viewpoint of someone looking northeastward while standing in the middle of Whitehall Street, which slopes upward from this point. Behind the viewer is the intersection with Alabama Street. On the right are the vacant offices of the Atlanta Intelligencer newspaper; the presses and staff having been relocated in July to Macon to avoid Sherman's armies. To the left is Muhlenbrink’s block, a series of wooden buildings containing at least one saloon and two cigar factories. In the center of the block is Thomas Ripley's crockery store, located over Thomas Frazer & Co., (formerly Crawford, Frazer & Co.), an auction company that sells many things including - as a sign across the storefront boldly declares - enslaved human beings. Straight ahead, on the other side of the railroad gulch, is (from the center of the picture to the right) the Georgia Railroad Bank Building, the Atlanta Insurance and Banking Co., and the Atlanta Hotel. Beyond the hotel can be seen the front of the Masonic Hall, which is located on Decatur Street which runs behind this row of buildings. This portion of what was then Whitehall Street in the foreground is now covered with a system of viaducts and has been renamed Peachtree Street. In modern times, the area on the right is below the

Thie first picture that makes up this panorama is essentially the same picture as V1-1, but there is one more detail worth looking at. Inset A shows a sign mounted on the right side of the entrance to Wittgenstein's wholesale wines and liquors. The sign is hard to read because the image is divided by a lamppost, but it appears to advertise "The Atlanta News Depot." It also seems to have a list of several words which may be a list of publications which can be obtained at or through the News Depot.

On the left side of the lamppost I can make out the words "morning" and "city." On the right, only one word appears to be legible: "budget" and possibly "budget of" At the bottom of the sign appears to be a slogan, motto or quote beginning with the word "A" and ending with the words "strong nation." Does anyone have a guess as to what the sign may actually say?

This picture, or at least this viewpoint, has also been seen before but there are some remarks to be made about some of the people.

In Inset A, the people sitting atop the boxcars have often been called refugees. From the variety of their clothing and personal goods sitting around them - and the fact that one of them appears to be a woman - I think it is clear they are certainly civilians. But are they really refugees, or civilians attached to the Federal Army? Or both?

It is worth noting that all remaining Atlantans with Southern sympathies would have been transported through the lines under truce to Rough and Ready. These people, like the fire equipment on the boxcars behind them, are clearly headed north.

This photo would have been taken, at the latest, in early November 1864. It is obviously a sunny, but very cold day, since most are wearing heavy coats. Perhaps the weather answers why these people would be atop the boxcars in the first place, since that doesn't seem to be a very safe place to be, given the condition of the railroads. I think the most likely explanation is that they are sitting up in the warm sun on a cold day, taking advantage of whatever radiant heat may be coming from the roof, while waiting for their train to be made up.

Inset B simply captures one of many scenes on the once-fine piazza of the Atlanta Hotel. Two and possibly three soldiers and/or civilians are sitting in improvised chairs around an improvised table The bearded man on the left is leaning forward, hands crossed on his chest,

In this final picture of the "panorama," we are at the top of the hill with the intersection of Alabama Street behind us and we are looking down into Five Points.

Inset A shows either a mast or some sort of flagpole. These poles appear in several points in the city and are so tall they must be of some significance. I discuss them further in the "Mysteries" section.

Inset B shows a group of men sitting outside the Thomas Ripley / Thomas Frazer store on west Whitehall. The store is obviously not in operation - so why are they there? It is certain that the building is very prominent; after all, it has the phrase "Negro Sales" emblazoned in large letters across the storefront. In Picture V3-1, we see that Markham's Iron Front commercial building has been commandeered by the U.S. Sanitary Commission. That building is also designated by a prominent landmark: the "giant hat" of Holbrook's hat store. Like Ripley / Frazer, Markham's building also has a gathering of soldiers by its doorstep. I think that it is likely that some department that provides services to the soldiers established its headquarters at Ripley / Frazer, and the prominence of the store's "Negro Sales" sign helped the soldiers find the building.

Finally, Inset C shows a curiousity: a pile of bricks neatly stacked. Where did these bricks come from? Perhaps they fell from the Lynch building, seen in the far left of the picture, and were stacked to clear the sidewalk. Perhaps they were gathered for some other purpose. Nevertheless, the stacking of bricks is an incongruous gesture by soldiers who, in only a few days time, would burn this entire section of the city.

This supplemental view of west Whitehall Street shows a more direct angle than the one above. Barnard has taken this on a separate day and has chosen to focus on the Ripley/Crawford store - no doubt because its sign reflects what the Civil War was all about.

Inset A, however, is a portion of the "Concert Hall" building across the railroad tracks. It shows scorch marks on the side of the building. Perhaps by the time this photo was taken the building had been gutted by fire and this is the trace of smoke left from some hole in the side of the building. Or perhaps the wooden staircase which was on the side of the building - or even one of the small trees on the sidewalk - has burned.

Inset B is one of our mysteries - the "soldier who should not be here." This man, stationed outside Crawford/Frazer with a rifle, appears to be a black man - except there were no black soldiers in Atlanta during the occupation and, if there were, they would not have weapons. This curious inconsistency is discussed further in the Mystery Section.

Inset C shows a gas main leading from the sidewalk into the Lynch Building, specifically Theodore Gilbert's jewelry and watchmaking store. Atlanta's stores and residences had been lit by gas since 1855 when the Atlanta Gasworks, forerunner of Atlanta Gas Light, were built.

Inset D is an enhancement of the sign outside Gilbert's jewelry shop making it more legible. I have not been able to find out much about Gilbert, except that he was born around 1804 in Tolland, Conn., and first worked in Oswego County, N.Y. He apparently went "west" afterwards for some years, becoming separated from his family in the process. When he finally did return he was a "confirmed inebriate" and lived off charity for the rest of his life before dying in a New York county almshouse.