Georgia Civil War Heritage Trails: The Atlanta Campaign, Part 1
Originally published April 2023 · pp. 22–23
the Southern defenders held a naturally strong position, one made stronger when they created a lake by damming up the creek. Further south along Rocky Face Ridge is Dug Gap, where one finds a narrow passage at the top of a very steep climb. The GCWHT markers explain that the Federals probed and tested the Confederate positions at these strong points. A Northern officer reported that the works at Crow Valley were “too strong to be carried without great slaughter.” The commander of the Federal force at Dug Gap described “the palisades of rock impossible to scale.” Regarding Mill Creek, a Yankee sergeant wrote that “The enemy was concealed from our view and we did not have the poor satisfaction of shooting at them.” The Federals occupied the Confederates’ attention, as one
with some 100,000 Federals and 60,000 Confederates engaged. The marker here, just south of the Oostanaula River some distance from the battlefield, describes the battle. The fighting was heavy, with about 6,000 total casualties, roughly equal on both sides. The battle was a tactical draw, but Johnston was forced to retreat late on the 15th when he received word that the Federals had begun crossing the river in his rear. There were three bridges here, one for the railroad, one for wagons, and a pontoon bridge. “The Confederate army secretly on Tunnel Hill, the first shots of commanded by Gen. Joseph E. withdrew overnight, spreading Georgia Civil War straw over the bridges before Heritage Trails: The the Atlanta Campaign were fired Johnston. from a Federal battery on a hill The next three stops are at marching across undetected and Atlanta Campaign, near the Clisby Austin House.” Crow Valley, Mill Creek Gap, setting them afire.” Part 1 After artillery and infantry drove and Dug Gap, Confederate The movements between May away Confederate cavalry, Maj. positions protecting Dalton. The 7 and May 16 presaged much “They came with their heads Gen. William T. Sherman’s force defenses across the mile-wide of the action during the Atlanta bowed down and their hats pulled moved against Dalton and the Crow Valley were well-built and Campaign. Johnston would take a over their eyes as if to hide from Confederate Army of Tennessee capably manned. At Mill Creek defensive position and prepare to view their inevitable death.” face Sherman’s advancing force. Part of Sherman’s army would Last year I devoted four occupy the attention of the dugcolumns to Georgia Civil War in Confederates, while another Heritage Trails’ interpretive part marched around Johnston’s markers that trace Sherman’s left flank to threaten the Western March to the Sea. Now we step and Atlantic lifeline. Johnston’s back in time several months to outnumbered army would be learn about the earlier Atlanta forced to pull back, undefeated Campaign. We will drive through and intact, but ever closer to northwest Georgia toward Atlanta. Atlanta, pausing at GCWHT’s About 40 miles south of Resaca, various stops along the way. What the W&A cuts through Allatoona decisions did the commanders Pass, another strong defensive make during this campaign? position. Sherman declined What did the privates do? How to attack in force. On May did the region’s geography affect 20, according to the GCWHT the fighting? And what happened marker, Johnston “hoped that… to civilians in this area in the Sherman would attack his spring and summer of the war’s army in this stronghold.” In his fourth year? GCWHT will tell us. memoirs Sherman explained Our first stop is at Tunnel Hill, why he forewent the opportunity. a few miles north of Dalton. Sherman had served in this area The GCWHT marker here 20 years earlier and knew the states that “On May 7, 1864, as terrain. “I therefore knew that Union Major General John M. Clisby Austin House at Tunnel Hill, Sherman’s HQ during the first few days of the Allatoona Pass was very strong,” Palmer’s 14th Corps advanced campaign. (All photos by Gould Hagler) he wrote, “would be hard to force, and resolved not even to Federal commander put it, but attempt it.” He chose instead “to they made no concerted attack. turn the position by moving from They did not have to. Further Kingston to Marietta via Dallas.” south was another way through So we also head southwest to Rocky Face Ridge. Maj. Gen. Dallas, 20 miles or so from the James McPherson was headed W&A. Markers in and near there with his 24,000 men. Dallas tell us what happened in At Snake Creek Gap late May. McPherson found an undefended Several roads converge at New route to the valley below and Hope where, on May 25, the first the railroad at Resaca. As the of three battles in the vicinity of Federals debouched from the gap, Dallas was fought. The GCWHT they saw Confederate infantry marker in a small “pocket park” in the valley. The commander describes the action. Johnston had overestimated the Confederates’ moved so rapidly from Allatoona strength and hesitated while that Sherman was unaware a Johnston pulled his entire force Confederate force was already at back. The GCWHT marker quotes the crossroads. Maj. Gen. Joseph Sherman, who said to McPherson Hooker’s XX Corps, a force of “Well, Mac, you have missed the 16,000 men, moved forward and opportunity of a lifetime.” was met by Maj. Gen. Alexander The ensuing Battle of Resaca Stewart’s Division. “The Federals on May 14 and 15 was the first advanced…one brigade at a major battle of the campaign, time,” according to the marker. Tunnel Hill: Original tunnel (1850) on right and modern tunnel (1928) on left.
Each brigade, therefore, “bore the brunt of the massed enemy fire along a narrow front.” With 4,000 infantry and 16 cannon the Confederates repelled the attack and inflicted heavy casualties. One Federal division lost 800 men “in only a few minutes.” The brochure for the Atlanta Campaign Trail includes a
CivilWarNews.com number of “points of interest,” sites shown on the brochure’s large map but not interpreted by GCWHT markers. One point of interest is Pickett’s Mill Battlefield State Historic Site. The state of Georgia has created an excellent facility to educate visitors about the battle fought here on May 27, two days after
Dug Gap Battle Park near Dalton.
The terrain at Dug Gap, on the west side of Rocky Face Ridge.
New Hope. Here, as at New Hope, a poorly-executed Federal assault resulted in a bloody repulse. The day after Pickett’s Mill, the armies clashed again in the Battle of Dallas. Two markers tell the story of a failed Confederate assault on the Union right. Believing the Federals were withdrawing from this part of the line, and hoping to catch the enemy on the move, the Confederates probed with dismounted cavalry to determine the Federals’ strength. Finding that the works were still fully manned, the cavalry commander sent word to call off the attack. A Florida brigade and the famed Orphan Brigade of Kentuckians did not get the message. They attacked. Moving against the well-prepared Federals, these brigades suffered severe losses. The GCWHT marker quotes an Ohio soldier who wrote that “they
came with their heads bowed down and their hats pulled over their eyes as if to hide from view their inevitable death.” A marker in a downtown park provides only a brief description of the May 28 engagement, stressing instead the effects the fighting had on the town and its vicinity. For two weeks “nearly 170,000 soldiers in the Federal and Confederate armies faced each other in Dallas and throughout Paulding County.” Many wounded Confederates were taken to Dallas, where they received inadequate care in the town’s “impromptu hospitals.” A Confederate captain later wrote of wounded soldiers “lying in hospitals and uncared for, some of them with limbs amputated, and undressed for two days, until from neglect – the weather being warm – insects had found a lodgment in every wound.”
GCWHT marker at Oostanaula Bridges.
The GCWHT marker at the Oostanaula River is at the Gordon County Sheriff’s Office. GCWHT marker located in New Hope’s pocket park.
The story of the Orphan Brigade is told on this marker in a Dallas city park.
If you ever get to Gordon County, stop by and visit Sheriff Mitch Ralston, collector of artifacts and restorer of old wagons.
CivilWarNews.com
Even before the action at Dallas on his right, Sherman had decided to move his force east, back to the railroad. Johnston hastened toward Kennesaw Mountain and the prepared works on terrain highly favorable to the defending Confederates. The story of the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain is well-known. Kennesaw is mapped by GCWHT as another point of interest. As at Pickett’s Mill, GCWHT has installed no marker here, leaving the interpretation of this battle to the Kennesaw National Battlefield Park. Most readers will be familiar with the story: Sherman attacked on June 27 and was checked with serious losses. The Federals still held the advantage, however, and again moved around Johnston’s left flank, forcing another retreat. We will pause here, and resume our tour next month at the Battle of Peachtree Creek, where the Army of Tennessee, under a new commander, attacked the Federals at the very gates of Atlanta. Gould Hagler is a retired lobbyist living in Dunwoody, Ga. He is a past president of the Atlanta Civil War Round Table and the author of Georgia’s Confederate Monuments: In Honor of a Fallen Nation, published by Mercer University Press in 2014. Hagler speaks frequently on this topic and others related to different aspects of the Civil War and has been a regular contributor to CWN since 2016. He can be reached at gould.hagler@gmail. com.
Georgia Civil War Heritage Trails has clearly marked the route with directional signs that lead to interpretive markers. The organization’s website (https://www. civilwarheritagetrails. org/) also contains each marker’s GPS coordinates. Brochures for the Atlanta Campaign Trail and other driving routes, available from GCWHT, contain much useful information, including excellent maps. I suggest that travelers make use of all three resources. If you use only the GPS coordinates to get from one stop to the next you will be led upon modern roads and miss much of the fun. If you are like me you will miss a sign now and then or take a wrong turn. When this happens the GPS coordinates will get you back on track. GCWHT’s address is P.O. Box 1864, Evans, Georgia, 30809.
Photographs from the Original Article
Captions and credits appear in the article text as originally printed.