The Day Dixie Died: The Battle of Atlanta

by Gary Ecelbarger

  16 [Gilbert D. Munson], “A Matter of War History. The Capture and Fortification of Leggett’s Hill,” Cincinnati Daily Gazette, September 12, 1879; Gilbert D. Munson, “Battle of Atlanta,” p. 216; A. G. Wray, “Battle of Bald (or Leggett’s) Hill, Atlanta, July 27 [21], 1864,” Janesville Daily Gazette, April 6, 1912.

  17 OR 38 (3), p. 752; John Randolph Poole, Cracker Cavaliers, pp. 130–31. Most secondary accounts of this action mention only two brigades of cavalry under attack. This is refuted by Wheeler who makes it clear that three brigades were eventually forced back. See OR 38 (3), pp. 952.

  18 James M. McCaffrey, ed., Only a Private: A Texan Remembers the Civil War: The Memoirs of William J. Oliphant (Houston, Texas: Halcyon Press, 2004), p. 68; James M. McCaffrey, This Band of Heroes: Granbury’s Texas Brigade, C.S.A. (College Station, Texas: Texas A & M University Press, 1996), pp. 115–16; OR 38 (3), pp. 746, 752–53.

  19 A. G. Wray, “Battle of Bald (or Leggett’s) Hill,” Janesville Daily Gazette, April 6, 1912.

  20 “Cousin Tom” to the editor, August 4, 1864, in William B. Styple, ed., Writing and Fighting the Civil War: Soldier Correspondence to the New York Sunday Mercury (Kearny, N.J.: Belle Grove Publishing Co., 2001), p. 279; Walker, “In Front of Atlanta,” NT, October 11, 1883.

  21 Munson, “Battle of Atlanta,” p. 216; Walker, “In Front of Atlanta,” NT, October 11, 1883; Brown, ed., One of Cleburne’s Command, p. 109.

  22 Walker, “In Front of Atlanta,” NT, October 11, 1883; E. B. Quiner, The Military History of Wisconsin: A Record of the Civil and Military Patriotism of the State in the War for the Union (Chicago: Clark & Co., 1866), p. 583.

  23 Marcus D. Elliott to the editor, n.d., in Chapman Brothers, Portrait and Biographical Album of Oakland County, Michigan (Chicago: Chapman Brothers, 1891), p. 819; OR 38 (3), p. 753.

  24 Munson, “Battle of Atlanta,” p. 217.

  25 Ibid.; W. S. Ayres, “The Position Held by the Seventeenth Corps, July 22,” NT, July 23, 1891; OR 38 (3), pp. 543, 566.

  26 OR 38 (3), p. 543; Jack D. Welsh, Medical Histories of Union Generals (Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 1996), pp. 308–309.

  27 Dana, Recollections of the Civil War: p. 66.

  28 W. H. Goodreli, “From the Fifteenth,” [Des Moines] Iowa State Register, August 10, 1864; OR 38 (3), pp. 580, 596–97, 601, 605.

  29 Ibid.; Munson, “Battle of Atlanta,” p. 217; McCaffrey, ed., Only a Private, p. 69.

  30 OR 38 (3), pp. 580, 596–97, 601, 605; H. H. Rood, “Sketches of the Thirteenth Iowa,” MOLLUS-Iowa Vol. 1 (Des Moines, Iowa: Press of P. C. Kenyon, 1893), p. 148.

  31 OR 38 (3), p. 580; Chapman Brothers, Portrait and Biographical Album of Oakland County, Michigan, pp. 819–20; Richard S. Tuthill, “An Artilleryman’s Recollection of the Battle of Atlanta,” MOLLUS-Illinois Vol. 1 (Chicago: A.C. McClurg and Co., 1891), pp. 293, 304–5; McCaffrey, ed., Only a Private, p. 70.

  32 Quote reproduced in Strayer and Baumgartner, eds., Echoes of Battle, p. 219. Confederate losses are estimated and greater than previously considered. General James A. Smith details losses for July 21. (OR 38 [3], p. 746) Cleburne’s other brigades also sacrificed men that day. Govan’s brigade losses were not negligible (see Mark K. Christ, ed., Getting Used to Being Shot At: The Spence Family Civil War Letters [Fayetteville, Ark.: University of Arkansas Press, 2002], p. 99). Lowrey’s official report states 6 killed (including Colonel Adams) and 42 wounded (OR 38 [3], p. 734). The Confederate cavalry also sustained losses that were never officially tallied. For example, one Georgia cavalry regiment suffered 9 losses, including its commander (see Poole, Cracker Cavaliers, pp. 131–32). Given that up to fifteen regiments in three cavalry brigades were involved in the initial attack, total losses for the cavalry likely exceeded 50 men and could have approached 100.

  33 F. McC. To the editor, July 26, 1864, Cedar Valley Times, August 11, 1864; A. G. Wray, “Battle of Bald (or Leggett’s) Hill,” Janesville Daily Gazette, April 6, 1912; McCaffrey, ed., Only a Private, p. 70.

  34 Buck, Cleburne and His Command, p. 234; Ann York Franklin, comp., The Civil War Diaries of Capt. Alfred Tyler Fielder, 12th Tennessee Regiment Infantry, Company B 1861–1865 (Louisville, Kentucky: Ann York Franklin, 1996), p. 189; OR 38 (5), pp. 898–99. Confederate division strength estimated. See OR 38 (3), p. 679.

  35 W. F. Beyer and O. F. Keydel, eds., Deeds of Valor: How America’s Civil War Heroes Won the Congressional Medal of Honor (1903 Reprint: Stamford, Conn.: Longmeadow Press, 1993), p. 383.

  36 Franklin, comp, Civil War Diaries of Capt. Alfred Tyler Fielder, p. 189; Samuel K. Adams to J. Kebler, July 23, 1864, Manning F. Force Papers, LOC.

  37 OR 38 (3), pp. 544, 581, 590, 594.

  38 Mamie Yeary, comp., Reminiscences of the Boys in Gray, 1861–1865 (McGregor, Texas: 1912), p. 656.

  39 Buck, Cleburne and His Command, p. 233.

  CHAPTER 3—THE PLAN

  1 OR 38 (5), p. 899.

  2 T. B. Roy, “General Hardee and the Military Operations Around Atlanta,” Southern Historical Society Papers (Hereinafter cited as SHSP) Vol. 8 (September, 1880), p. 353.

  3 Stephen W. Sears, To the Gates of Richmond: The Peninsula Campaign (New York: Ticknor & Fields, 1992), pp. 249, 307, 335, 343. Hood’s plan in OR 38 (3), p. 631.

  4 Warner, Generals in Gray, pp. 124–25; Castel, Decision in the West, pp. 28–29, 355–57.

  5 John B. Hood, Advance and Retreat (New Orleans, La.: G. T. Beauregard, 1880), pp. 174–75.

  6 Ibid.; OR 38 (3), p. 679.

  7 Hood, Advance and Retreat, p. 177; OR 38 (3), p. 631. The light before dawn appeared at 5:14 A.M.; dawn officially entered Atlanta at 5:42 A.M. on July 22, 1864. See http://aa.usno.navy.mil/cgi-bin/aa_pap.pl

  8 Hood, Advance and Retreat, p. 177.

  9 Ibid., pp. 176–78.

  10 Route location and length described in Roy, “General Hardee,” p. 356; Wilbur G. Kurtz, “Civil War Days in Georgia: The Death of Major-General W. H. T. Walker,” Atlanta Constitution Magazine, July 27, 1930.

  11 Russell K. Brown, To the Manner Born: The Life of General William H. T. Walker (Mercer, Ga.: Mercer University Press, 2005), pp. 151, 257–58.

  12 Ibid., pp. 12, 263; James S. Robbins, Last in Their Class: Custer, Pickett and the Goats of West Point (New York: Encounter Books, 2006), p. 46.

  13 Evidence for this important meeting and its outcome found in OR 38 (3), p. 699; Roy, “General Hardee,” p. 354; Roy to Cheatham, October 15, 1881, Cheatham Papers, Tennessee State Library and Archives, Nashville. After the battle Hood maintained that Hardee violated his original attack plan (OR 38 [3], p. 631), thus denying that he ever adjusted that plan. That the plan was modified as claimed by the aforementioned citations has been convincingly concluded by biographers of Hood and Hardee (see McMurry, John Bell Hood and the War for Southern Independence, p. 43, and Nathaniel Cheairs Hughes Jr., General William J. Hardee: Old Reliable (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1965), p. 226.

  The time of the meeting is estimated based on when the column started.

  14 Nathaniel Cheairs Hughes Jr., The Civil War Memoir of Philip Daingerfield Stephenson, D. D. (Conway, Arkansas: UCA Press, 1995), p. 217.

  15 SOR (7), p. 100.

  16 SOR (7), pp. 80, 100; Roy, “General Hardee,” pp. 357–59.

  17 SOR (7), p. 100; Hamilton Branch to his mother, July 23, 1864, in Mauriel Phillips Joslyn, Charlotte’s Boys: Civil War Letters of the Branch Family of Savannah (Berryville, Va.: Rockbridge Publishing Company, 1996), p. 270; Kurtz, “Major General W. H. T. Walker,” Atlanta Constitution Magazine, July 27, 1930.

  18 Lot D. Young, Reminiscences of a Soldier of the Orphan Brigade (Louisville, Kentucky: Courier-Journal Job Printing Co., 1918), p. 90; Kurtz, “Major General W. H. T. Walker,” Atlanta Constitution Magazine, July 27, 1930.

  19 Hughes, ed., Civil War Memoir of … Stephenson, p. 217.

  20 Hughes, General William J. Hardee, p. 227; SOR (7), 100. This lengthy and detailed campaign report of G
eneral Bate was submitted with a postscript by the officer transcribing it, claiming it was copied in a hurry “and not with much accuracy.” (p. 103). The region can be seen on a detailed Georgia map used by General Hood. See George B. Davis, Leslie J. Perry, and Joseph W. Kirkley, The Official Military Atlas of the Civil War (New York: Gramercy Books, 1983), Plate LX.

  21 Van Buren Oldham diary, July 22, 1864, University of Tennessee.

  22 OR 38 (5), p. 231. General Leggett claims that two of his men were sent toward Atlanta and came back with the news that Hood’s men were attempting to flank them (see Leggett, “The Battle of Atlanta,” p. 11). It appears Leggett, writing twenty years later, was influenced by his knowledge of subsequent events, for those pickets would only have been able to see troops heading south, not east. That Sherman believed they were heading to East Point appears to be the response to the intelligence gathered from Leggett’s pickets.

  23 OR 38 (3), p. 369; Grenville M. Dodge, The Battle of Atlanta and Other Campaigns, Addresses, Etc. (Council Bluffs. Iowa: Monarch Printing Company, 1911), p. 40.

  24 Ibid.; William E. Strong, “The Death of General James B. McPherson,” MOLLUS-Illinois, Vol. 1 (Chicago: A.C. McClurg, 1891), pp. 319–20.

  25 Sherman’s order reproduced in Strong, “Death of General James B. McPherson,” p. 319.

  26 Ibid., pp. 319–20.

  27 Hughes, General William J. Hardee, p. 227; Roy, “General Hardee,” p. 365.

  28 Kurtz, “Major General W. H. T. Walker,” Atlanta Constitution Magazine, July 27, 1930.

  29 Hughes, General William J. Hardee, p. 229.

  30 Brown, To the Manner Born, pp. 265–66.

  31 Reed, History of Atlanta, p. 180; OR 38 (3), p. 699.

  CHAPTER 4—BEHIND THE LINES

  1 William Tecumseh Sherman, Memoirs of General W. T. Sherman (New York: Literary Classics of the United States, Inc., 1990), pp. 544, 548–49.

  2 Strong, “The Death of General James B. McPherson,” pp. 320–22.

  3 Stephen Ambrose, Nothing Like It in the World: The Men Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad, 1863–1869 (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000), pp. 23–24, 32–33, 86–88.

  4 John Wallace Fuller, “A Terrible Day: The Fighting Before Atlanta July 22, 1864,” NT, April 16, 1885; OR 38 (3), p. 369. General Fuller’s report places the meal closer to 1:00 P.M. than noon (see OR 38 [3], p. 475), but this assertion is overwhelmed by evidence that this event took place “within fifteen to twenty minutes of 12 o’clock (noon).” See Dodge, The Battle of Atlanta, p. 41.

  5 W. G. Hamrich, “Incidents of the Battle Before Atlanta,” NT, July 26, 1883.

  6 H. I. Smith, History of the Seventh Iowa Veteran Volunteer Infantry During the Civil War (Mason City, Iowa: E. Hitchcock Printer, 1903), p. 153.

  7 William H. Chamberlin, History of the Eighty-first Regiment Ohio Infantry Volunteers During the War of the Rebellion (Cincinnati: Gazette Steam Printing House, 1865), p. 132.

  8 “Report of Major-General William Brimage Bate,” [July] 30, 1864, SOR I (7), pp. 101–102.

  9 Charles B. Wright, A Corporal’s Story: Experiences in the Ranks of Company C, 81st Ohio Vol. Infantry (Philadelphia: Published by author, 1887), pp. 127–28.

  10 Ibid.; Fuller, “A Terrible Day,” NT, April 16, 1885; W. H. Chamberlin, “Recollections of the Battle of Atlanta,” in Theodore F. Allen, Edward S. McKee, and J. Gordon Taylor, eds., Sketches of War History 1861–1865, MOLLUS-Ohio Vol. 6 (Cincinnati: Montfort & Company, 1908), p. 279; Dodge to General W. E. Strong, October 10, 1885, William E. Strong Papers, ALPL.

  11 J. R. Donaldson, “Sweeny’s Fighters,” NT, May 19, 1898; Warner, Generals in Blue: Lives of the Union Commanders (Baton Rouge, La.: Louisiana State University Press, 1992), 491–92; Welsh, Medical Histories of Union Generals, p. 330; Ronald H. Bailey and the editors of Time-Life Books, Battles for Atlanta: Sherman Moves East (Alexandria, Va.: Time-Life Books, Inc., 1985), p. 103; W. M. Sweeny, ed., “Man of Resource. Active Service of Gen. T. W. Sweeny, as Told by His Letters,” NT, October 17, 1895.

  12 Captain James Compton, “The Second Division of the 16th Army Corps in the Atlanta Campaign,” MOLLUS-Minnesota, p. 112.

  13 Donaldson, “Sweeny’s Fighters,” NT, May 19, 1898; OR 38 (3), p. 418; Sweeny to Bodge, July 30, 1864, in “Man of Resource,” NT, October 17, 1895.

  14 “Logan in Battle,” Indianapolis Journal, December 30, 1886; Strong, “The Death of General James B. McPherson,” pp. 321–22.

  15 Number is estimated. A claim persists that Bate’s entire division at this time had no more than 1,200 men has merit if it is assumed that the number refers to privates only. See Edwin Porter Thompson, History of the Orphan Brigade Vol. 2 (Louisville, Kentucky: Lewis N. Thompson, 1898), p. 263. Bate confirms the 1,200 estimate, but implies it was for the two-thirds of his division that attacked the XVI Corps. See “Report of Major-General William Brimage Bate,” [July] 30, 1864, SOR I (7), p. 102.

  16 The Florida Brigade may have been commanded by Colonel Robert Bullock that day as it is unclear if General Finley had recovered from a wound received earlier in the campaign to take the helm on July 22.

  17 Fuller, “A Terrible Day,” NT, April 16, 1885; OR 38 (3), p. 538.

  18 OR 38 (3), p. 538; Woodworth, Nothing but Victory, p. 548.

  19 John William Green, Johnny Green of the Orphan Brigade: The Journal of a Confederate Soldier (Lexington, Ky: The University Press of Kentucky, 2001), p. 148; Gervis D. Grainger, Four Years With the Boys in Gray (Franklin, Ky.: n.p., 1902), p. 19.

  20 Ibid.; Donaldson, “Sweeny’s Fighters,” NT, May 19, 1898.

  21 Ezra J. Warner, Generals in Blue, pp. 400–402; OR 38 (3), p. 418.

  22 Donaldson, “Sweeny’s Fighters,” NT, May 19, 1898; OR 38 (3), pp. 468–70.

  23 Strong, “The Death of General James B. McPherson,” p. 323.

  24 Thompson, History of the Orphan Brigade, p. 263; Grainger, Four Years With the Boys in Gray, p. 19; Hugh Black to his wife, July 26, 1862, in E. C. Frano, ed., Letters of Captain Hugh Black to his Family in Florida During the War Between the States, 1862–1864 (Newburgh, Ind.: n.p., 1998), p. 68; OR 38 (3), p. 419; Smith, Seventh Iowa, p. 153.

  25 Thompson, History of the Orphan Brigade, p. 263; OR 38 (3), p. 419; Smith, Seventh Iowa, p. 153; Green, Johnny Green, pp. 148–49.

  26 H. E. Hayes, “From the 14th Ohio Battery,” Western Reserve Chronicle, August 17, 1864; Green, Johnny Green, pp. 148–49; John McKee diary, July 22, 1864, USAMHI.

  27 Green, Johnny Green, pp. 148–49; John McKee diary, July 22, 1864, USAMHI; J. R. Donaldson, “Sweeny’s Fighters,” NT, May 19, 1898.

  28 Nathaniel Cheairs Hughes Jr., The Pride of the Confederate Artillery: The Washington Artillery in the Army of Tennessee (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1997), p. 202.

  29 “Report of Major-General William Brimage Bate,” [July] 30, 1864, SOR I (7), p. 102; Grainger, Four Years With the Boys in Gray, p. 19; Thomas D. Christie to Sandy, July 25, 1864, “Civil War Letters of the Christie Family,” Minnesota Historical Society, http://www.mnhs.org/library/Christie/letters/transcripts/td640725.html.

  30 Hugh Black to his wife, July 26, 1864, in Frano, ed., Letters of Captain Hugh Black, p. 68; L. D. Young, “Kentucky Confederate Visits Scenes of Battle and Siege During the Civil War,” Lexington Herald, May 19, 1912.

  31 OR 38 (3), p. 538; Woodworth, Nothing but Victory, p. 548; Typo to the editor, August 13, 1864, Western Reserve Chronicle, August 24, 1864.

  32 Traditionally, Smith’s brigade (often referred to as Tyler’s brigade for its former commander) has been placed on the right (north) of the Orphan Brigade in the initial assault against Rice’s brigade, but General Rice specifically reported that the Confederates “burst forth from the woods … in front of my right.” (OR 38 [3], p. 418) Here he refers to the Kentuckians but never mentions troops attacking his center or left. The shifting of Union regiments to the southern part of the brigade line is also consistent with heavy action against the righ
t and lack of pressure against the left. A member of the Orphan Brigade insisted that no more than 1,200 members of Bate’s division were engaged on July 22 (see Thompson, History of the Orphan Brigade, p. 263); even factoring in straggling this is a nearly unfathomably low number for three brigades and can only be consistent with two small brigades engaged.

  33 Hugh Black to his wife, July 26, 1864, in Frano, ed., Letters of Captain Hugh Black, p. 68.

  34 Washington Ives to his sister, August 21, 1864, Ives Papers, Florida State Archives, Tallahassee.

  CHAPTER 5—REPULSE

  1 Russell K. Brown, Our Connection With Savannah: A History of the 1st Battalion Georgia Sharpshooters (Macon, Ga: Mercer University Press, 2004), p. 112.

  2 Nisbet quote reproduced in Strayer and Baumgartner, eds., Echoes of Battle, p. 224; Wright, A Corporal’s Story, p. 129.

  3 James Compton, “The Second Division of the 16th Army Corps in the Atlanta Campaign,” p. 118.

  4 Dodge, The Battle of Atlanta, p. 42; OR 38 (3), p. 370.

  5 W. M. Sweeny, ed., “Man of Resource,” NT, October 17, 1895.

  6 Strayer and Baumgartner, eds., Echoes of Battle, p. 224.

  7 Thomas J. Shelley, “Atlanta: The Battle of July 22 as Seen by an 81st Ohio Comrade,” NT, September 15, 1887.

  8 Robert N. Adams, “The Battle and Capture of Atlanta,” MOLLUS-Minnesota (4th Series), p. 159.

  9 OR 38 (3), pp. 370, 454, 463; Typo to the editor, August 13, 1864, Western Reserve Chronicle, August 24, 1864; “A Month’s History of the 81st Ohio Regiment,” (Chillicothe, Ohio) Scioto Gazette, August,16, 1864.

  10 Shelley, “Atlanta,” NT, September 15, 1887; OR 38 (3), p. 454; Brown, Our Connection with Savannah, p. 113; Wright, A Corporal’s Story, p. 129; Chamberlin, History of the Eighty-first Regiment, p. 132; Adams, “Battle and Capture of Atlanta,” p. 159.

  11 Fuller, “A Terrible Day,” NT, April 16, 1885; OR 38 (3), p. 475.

  12 Strayer and Baumgartner, eds., Echoes of Battle, pp. 224–25.

  13 Churchill diary, July 22, 1864, in Thomas W. Lewis, ed., “Battle of Atlanta as Told by Colonel Churchill’s Diary,” Zanesville (Ohio) Sunday Times-Signal, December 5, 1926.