The Coweta

County Commission, along with the Jaeger Company and New South Associates,

presented the preliminary design for the proposed Brown's Mill battlefield

site last week.

The two firms

were hired by the county to draw the preliminary plans. Jaeger Company

specializes in landscape architecture and historic preservation, and New

South Associates is responsible for the archeological and historical site

information.

Nearly 50 people

turned out at the fairgrounds complex to get an overview of just how the

104-acre site would be used. The majority seemed to have a different idea

of how to preserve a battlefield site than either of the two proposals.

Anne T. Wilfer,

senior project manager for the Jaeger Company, explained the first proposal,

which would feature a small kiddie park at one entrance, walking trails,

and a small exhibit hall. The second proposal would feature less passive

recreation and more green space for reenactments, and festivals.

Senoia resident

George Piner explained that it either had to be a park exclusively or

a battlefield site exclusively.

"And frankly,"

he said, "if it's a park site, I'm not interested in going there.

If you stand at the Chancellorsville battlefield site, you are in silence

and awe, imagining what took place at Lee's greatest victory, and what

part your ancestor had in that victory."

Piner added

that people would be coming from California and Wisconsin to stand where

their ancestors fought, and they wouldn't want kids on skateboards whizzing

Others spoke

up relating their feelings at the Civil War sites they have visited and

agreed that an entertainment park should not even be in the equation.

Former Coweta

Commission Chairman Jim McGuffey and former Newnan-Coweta Historical Society

director Ellen Ehrenhard also agreed the plans should only address the

site as honoring the 45,000 Confederate and Union soldiers who fought

each other in a fierce six-hour battle. The exchange was a Confederate

victory.

Dr. David Evans,

author of "Sherman's Horsemen," a book describing the cavalry

battle, told the audience, "We have a Civil War battlefield in your

backyard. It was an important part of the Atlanta campaign and certainly

one of the few Confederate victories in the area."

A policeman

in the audience, Joel Fetner, mentioned that the preliminary brochure

passed out at the meeting mentioned the Union general, Edward McCook,

13 times, yet the Confederate general, Joe Wheeler, was only mentioned

six times.

Since this

was only one of the few Confederate victories in the course of the four-month

long Atlanta campaign, he felt this should be addressed when the preliminary

brochure is reconsidered.