Built in 1848 by Dalton’s first mayor, Ainsworth Emery Blunt, the Blunt House was used as a Federal hospital and headquarters for General Joseph E. Johnston’s staff. The soldiers damaged the house, and following the war, Blunt applied for and received compensation from the federal government due to his reported Union sympathies. The house is on the National Register of Historic Places.
While in Dalton, Johnston used the Cook-Huff House as his headquarters. It was also here, during the winter of 1863-1864, that Major General Patrick R. Cleburne presented his controversial proposal to emancipate slaves and arm them for service in the Confederate army.