Year Erected: 2001

Marker Text: Near this site was the home of Captain John McIntosh Kell, Executive Officer of the Confederate cruisers Alabama and Sumter. After entering the United States Navy at the age of 17, he served in the Mexican War and in 1853 on Perry's expedition to Japan. Upon Georgia's secession from the Union, Kell was the first U.S. Naval officer to offer his services to the South. After the Civil War, at his home here in Sunny Side, Kell entertained his friend, the famous Georgia poet Sidney Lanier, who, during a visit in 1874, wrote the poem "Corn." Kell served as Adjutant General of Georgia from 1887 until his death here in 1900.

Erected by the Georgia Historical Society and Griffin-Spalding Historical Society