Self-Guided Tour of Civil War History

Separated into 3 areas, the Civil War tours are a great chance to see sites in Athens that played a role during the Civil War. From the world’s only double-barreled canon, to the newly restored T.R.R. Cobb House the tours will guide you through Antebellum Athens.

A. University of Georgia Campus

1. UGA-Franklin College ca. 1801

The site of America’s oldest state chartered university, established in 1785. Enrollment at the University of Georgia declined as the Civil War approached. During the war, classes were suspended in September 1863, and the university did not resume operations until 1866. During the War, campus buildings were used as hospitals and lodgings for refugees. In 1865, the university was occupied by Federal troops. Following the Civil War through the end of the Reconstruction period (1865– 1877), economic conditions in the South following war precluded much in the way of new construction, and few buildings were constructed on the University campus.

2. Old College ca. 1806

Athens’ oldest building, where Alexander H. Stephens and Crawford W. Long were roommates. During the Civil War, the Confederate army used Old College as a military hospital, specializing in the treatment of eye injuries. During the early 1890s, economic conditions remained strained at the University. Old College was allowed to fall into a state of disrepair, and was slated for demolition several times.

3. Demosthenian Hall 1824

Robert A. Toombs and Benjamin Hill belonged to the Demosthenian Literary Society and Debate Club. This building served as the headquarters for the Federal troops after the Civil War.

4. Phi Kappa Hall 1836

Alexander H. Stephens, Joseph Henry Lumpkin, Howell Cobb, T.R.R. Cobb, and Henry W. Grady belonged to the Phi Kappa Literary Society and Debate Club. It is the seventh-oldest building on the University of Georgia's campus. The Phi Kappa Literary Society has disbanded and reformed many times in its history. The first occurrence was in 1863 due to student enlistment in the Civil War, which left only five members remaining. Meetings resumed on January 5, 1866.

5. UGA Chapel 1832

Completed in 1832 to replace an earlier wooden structure that had burned, the Chapel was designed in a Greek Revival style. The building originally featured a bell tower that was removed in 1913 due to poor condition. The bell was relocated to a wooden tower located behind the chapel.

6. The Toombs Oak Marker

A Doric column pedestal marks the site of an oak tree where old stories have told of Robert Toombs giving a legendary speech in 1820s. In 1985, 100 years after Robert Toombs died, the Georgia General Assembly passed a resolution to have an historical marker placed on the University of Georgia campus, commemorating the Confederate Brigadier General Toombs and the "legend" of Toombs Oak.

According to A. L. Hull’s Historical Sketch of the University of Georgia,

“A story of Robert Toombs has swung round the circle of the papers of late years, which represents him expelled from college for gambling, standing beneath the old oak in front of the chapel at commencement, pouring forth such burning words of eloquence that the chapel is deserted and the speakers left to declaim to empty benches. And from this circumstance, the old tree has ever since been known as the ‘Toombs Oak.’ It has even been said that on the day of Mr. Toombs' death, the old oak was struck by lightning and destroyed. There is not the semblance of truth in the story. It was a fabrication of Henry W. Grady, who, in an admiring sketch of the great Georgian, wrote charmingly of his overwhelming eloquence and pointed it with a story drawn from his own vivid imagination.”

7. UGA Arch 1858

Wrought-iron arch modeled after the state seal of Georgia forms the entrance to the original campus. This arch was the symbol used on Georgia Confederate soldiers’ uniform buttons and belt buckles.

8. UGA Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library

One of the nation’s largest collections of rare Confederate documents, including the Howell Cobb collection and the Constitution of the Confederate States of America.

B. Prince Avenue & Civil War Figures’ Homes

9. T.R.R. Cobb House 1842

175 Hill St.

T.R.R. Cobb, Howell Cobb’s younger brother and Joseph Henry Lumpkin’s son-in-law, graduated first in the University of Georgia class of 1841 and became one of Georgia’s most noted lawyers. He was one of the signers of the Georgia Ordinance of Secession and was the principal author of the Confederate Constitution. He later served as a brigadier general in the Army of Northern Virginia and commanded Cobb’s Legion. Ironically, he was killed in December 1862 at the Battle of Fredericksburg, within sight of the birthplace of his mother. Cobb was buried in Oconee Hill Cemetery. In 1985 the T.R.R. Cobb home was moved from its original site on Prince Avenue to Stone Mountain Park. The park was never able to restore the house and in 2004 it was moved back to Athens and restored by the Watson-Brown foundation at its new location at 175 Hill Street. The house now serves as a period house museum that interprets T.R.R. Cobb’s life.

10 & 11. Howell Cobb Homes

425 Hill St. and 698 Pope St.

Howell Cobb graduated from the University of Georgia in 1834. He was elected to the U.S. Congress from 1843-1850 and was Speaker of the House in 1849. He served as governor of Georgia from 1851-1853 and as Secretary of the U.S. Treasury from 1856-1860 during the James Buchanan administration. In 1861 Cobb was President of the Montgomery Convention, which created the Confederate States of America. He became a brigadier general in the Army of Northern Virginia and later commanded the District of Georgia. Two of Howell Cobb’s homes remain in Athens. One is a private residence located at 425 Hill Street. The other, owned by Emmanuel Church, is at 698 N. Pope Street. Cobb is buried in Oconee Hill Cemetery.

12. James Camak House 1830s

279 Meigs St.

Businessman and surgeon James Camak built this home on Meigs Street. In 1864, Dr. Camak was sent by the state of Georgia to Richmond to look after the needs of Georgia soldiers. His son, Captain Thomas Camak, fought in the Confederate States Army and died at the Battle of Gettysburg, PA.

13. Joseph Henry Lumpkin House 1830s

248 Prince Ave.

Joseph Henry Lumpkin, a native of Oglethorpe County, later moved to Athens and briefly attended the University of Georgia before graduating from Princeton. Lumpkin was the first Chief Justice of the Georgia Supreme Court, serving from 1845-1867. He founded the University of Georgia Law School along with his son-in-law, T.R.R. Cobb, and William Hope Hull. He had four sons who fought in the Confederate States Army, including Captain Samuel P. Lumpkin, wo did at the Battle of Gettysburg, and Captain Edward P. Lumpkin, who fought at the Battle of Barber’s Creek nearby. His older brother, Wilson Lumpkin, was a Governor of Georgia. Lumpkin’s home, has been restored and is used by the University of Georgia Law School.

14. Benjamin H. Hill House 1857

570 Prince Ave.

A controversial presence in Georgia state politics for more than three decades, Benjamin Hill was by turns a prosperous lawyer, opponent of secession, ardent supporter of the Confederacy, apologist for Reconstruction, and, at his death in 1882, Democratic U.S. senator from Georgia.

15. Taylor-Grady House ca. 1840

640 Prince Ave.

Henry W. Grady was born in Athens in 1850. The son of Captain W.S. Grady, who commanded the Highland Guards, Henry often accompanied his father during the recruiting of this company. After the Civil War, Henry attended the University of Georgia and became a famous Southern journalist and orator. He became a leading voice in trying to reunify the nation with his speeches on “The New South.”

16. Lamar Cobb House ca. 1850s

749 Cobb St.

Lamar Cobb, Howell Cobb’s elder son, lived here. He was aide-de-camp to his father in the Army of Northern Virginia and later joined the Macon Volunteers.

D. Other Civil War Landmarks

19. Ware-Lyndon House ca. 1850

293 Hoyt St.

This 19th-century house museum displays historic artifacts, documents, furniture, and items of the period. Both private owners, Edward Ware and Edward Lyndon, were Civil War physicians.

20. Double-Barreled Cannon 1862

College/Clayton Sts. - Downtown

The world’s only double-barreled cannon was designed by Athenian John Gilleland and manufactured at the Athens Foundry and Machine Works. The imaginative inventor’s theory was to load two cannon-balls connected by a chain into the gun. The chain and cannonballs were intended to sweet evenly across the battlefield upon firing. In repeated testing, the balls traveled unpredictably, and the cannon was never used in battle.

21. Athens Confederate Monument 1871 (now moved)

In the median strip of Broad Street used to stand a Carrara marble obelisk mounted on a granite foundation engraved with names of the city's soldiers who were killed during the American Civil War. In 2021, the monument was relocated. It's current placement is near the site of the Battle of Barber Creek, a skirmish that occurred on August 2, 1864 between a detachment of General George Stoneman's cavalry forces and the Athens Home Guard during the Atlanta campaign.

22. Oconee Hill Cemetery ca. 1855

E. Campus Rd.

Designed by Dr. James Camak, this Athens cemetery overlooks the banks of the Oconee River, near the University of Georgia. Four Confederate Civil War Generals: Howell Cobb, T.R.R. Cobb, William M. Browne, and Martin L. Smith, are buried here.

23. Cobb-Treanor House 1840s

1234 S. Lumpkin St.

This house one belonged to John Addison Cobb and Sarah Robinson Rootes Cobb, the parents of Howell and T.R.R. Cobb.

24. Cobb-Erwin House 1828

126 Dearing St.

John Addison Cobb, father of Howell and T.R.R. Cobb, constructed this house.

25. Lucy Cobb Institute 1858

201 N. Milledge Ave.

In 1854, a daring letter to the editor was published in the Southern Watchman (an Athens weekly newspaper at the time) entitled "The Education of our Girls." The letter said that "girls have the same intellectual constitution as men and have the same right as men to intellectual, cultural development" and was signed "Mother." T.R.R Cobb, who later discovered that "Mother" was his sister, Laura Cobb Rutherford, read the article and set out to raise funds for a "College for Girls." The complex was completed in 1858 and named after Cobb’s daughter, who died at age 13 of scarlet fever. The school began its first session in January of 1859 and closed in 1931, having earned the reputation of being one of the top girls’ schools in the United States. There were two interesting rules at the institute: young ladies were not to wave to young men from the second story windows, and students could not wander past the magnolia trees without a chaperone. After the Lucy Cobb Institute closed, the property was leased to the University of Georgia in 1932 and transferred entirely to UGA in 1953.

26. Winnie Davis Memorial Hall 1902

Prince Ave. - UGA Health Sciences Campus

The United Daughters of the Confederacy raised $25,000 for this memorial to Winnie Davis, the daughter of the first and only Confederate President, Jefferson Davis.