The Civil War in Georgia News

Georgia’s Civil War Home Front Comes Alive with Opening of Yellow River Post Office Park
at Hudson Nash farm in Lilburn, June 19, 2012

Built in the 1840s by Gwinnett County pioneer Thomas Parks Hudson, the Yellow River Post Office building was part of a complex of structures on Five Forks Trickum Road. Serving as a general store and post office, the wood-framed building supported by field stone posts was also a community center for the small dispersed rural community of Yellow River.

In 1861, Thomas Hudson, a prosperous farmer, was one of the three delegates invited to the state convention in Milledgeville for the adoption of the Ordinance of Secession. In spite of Hudson’s vote against the act, he was a patriotic southerner who fed the poor in his community and helped to raise the 10th Georgia Regiment State Line troops also known as the “Hudson Guards.” This regiment held rifle practice in the ravine northeast of his store.

In the 1940’s, a package of Civil War letters was retrieved from a trash bin in downtown Atlanta. These letters were sent through the Yellow River post office during the Civil War between Confederate private Eli Pinson Landers and his mother Susan Landers. In 1997, the book In Care of Yellow River: The Complete Civil War Letters of Pvt. Eli Pinson Landers to His Mother was published. The letters give great insight into the trials and tribulations of common people in Gwinnett County during the Civil War.

On June 19, 2012, the 5.1 acre Yellow River Post Office at Hudson Nash Farm Park will celebrate its grand opening at 11:00 am. If you are planning to attend – park at the Maranatha Baptist Church (3340 Five Forks Trickum Road) and a shuttle will take you to the park. For more information, call 770-904-3500.