Kolb Farm

The site of the Battle of Kolb's Farm on June 22, 1864, which claimed 1,350 casualties. The original Valentine Kolb farmhouse still stands, along with a small family cemetery, as a reminder of the bloodshed.

On June 22, 1864, the fields around Valentine Kolb's farm witnessed carnage during the Battle of Kolb's Farm, a prelude to the devastating Battle of Kennesaw Mountain. Estimated casualties reached 1,350—350 Union and 1,000 Confederate soldiers falling in the Georgia heat. Today, only the Valentine Kolb House and a small family cemetery on Powder Springs Road remain.

When the Kolb Ridge housing development was built on this blood-soaked ground, the dead apparently refused to leave. The Tatum family's experience became local legend. After building their contemporary home in 1986, they lived peacefully for a year before an uninvited presence moved in. Mrs. Tatum saw a shadowy solid figure walk past her bathroom door—a man in a hat and long overcoat, the uniform of Civil War soldiers, swinging his arm purposefully as he descended the dark stairs before vanishing.

Cold spots plagued the upstairs hallway. One guest bedroom felt oppressively uncomfortable, as if intruding on someone's private space. Most unnerving was the little angel bell in a guest room that would ring on its own. Mr. Tatum would climb the stairs and the ringing would stop—only to resume the moment he headed back down.

As paranormal researcher Melissa Davis observed in her study of North Georgia ghosts: "It is generally not a good idea to build houses on old battlefields since ghosts are more often than not still haunting the place where they died."