The Latest: Last piece of Civil War battle painting on move

ATLANTA – The Latest on moving the Atlanta Cyclorama “Battle of Atlanta” painting (all times local):

11 a.m.

A military historian says the second of two big pieces of an enormous painting depicting the Battle of Atlanta has been loaded onto a flatbed truck to be relocated from the building where it was on display for nearly a century.

Gordon Jones, curator of the Atlanta History Center, says the second half of the painting that stretches a football field in length when fully unfurled has been rolled into a large scroll and placed on a flatbed truck to be driven nine miles across town to the centre — its new home.

The other half of the rolled-up painting — the Atlanta Cyclorama — was loaded onto a truck for the move earlier.

The move into painting’s new home is expected to be completed by Friday night. The painting, which was made in the 1880s and depicts the pivotal Civil War battle, has been housed for nearly a century in a building in Atlanta’s Grant Park.

“There’s a sense of relief but to me it’s a sense of excitement. There’s a sense of making history,” Jones says. “This is the first time this painting has been out of this building since 1921.”

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7:50 a.m.

The Atlanta History Center says the first of two pieces of the enormous Atlanta Cyclorama painting have been removed from the building where it’s been on display for nearly a century.

Officials said in a Friday morning update that the first section of the 15,000-square-foot painting, wrapped around one of two giant steel spools, was then transported a few miles north to the Atlanta History Center overnight.

Historians are hailing the move as a milestone for the Cyclorama, one of the world’s largest paintings. It weighs 6 tons and is as long as a football field.

The painting vividly depicts charging soldiers, rearing horses, battle flags and broken bodies. Painted in the 1880s, it’s one of only two such panoramas with the other at Gettysburg.

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3 a.m.

The colossal task of moving a huge panoramic painting of the Battle of Atlanta is entering a second day as crews with a crane get set to hoist the depiction of a key Civil War clash through the roof of one building for a ride to a new home.

Historians are hailing the move as a milestone for the Cyclorama — one of the world’s largest paintings at a football field in length. It’s being trucked from the city’s Grant Park to the Atlanta History Center.

The painting vividly depicts charging soldiers, rearing horses, battle flags and broken bodies. Painted in the 1880s, it’s one of only two such panoramas with the other at Gettysburg.