Decatur, Georgia

City: Decatur

County: DeKalb

State: Georgia

Lat/Long: 33.7667, -84.2833

Located in northwest central Georgia approximately five miles east of Atlanta, Decatur is the county seat of DeKalb County. Settled in the early 1820s by Scots-Irish and English migrants from Virginia and the Carolinas, Decatur became the county seat of the newly-formed DeKalb County in 1822. A year later, the Georgia General Assembly incorporated it as a town. During William T. Sherman's campaign against Atlanta, Decatur became the site of a strategic victory for the Confederates, as on July 22, 1864, Confederate forces, under General Joseph Wheeler, attacked Union troops commanded by General James McPherson who were occupying the town, forcing them to retreat northward.

Frank R. Abate, ed., American Places Dictionary (Detroit: Omnigraphics, 1994), 2:210; Paul T. Hellmann, Historical Gazetteer of the United States (New York: Routledge, 2005), 142.