Major-General William T. Sherman was now convinced that General Joseph E. Johnston’s entire Confederate Army of Tennessee opposed his three Federal armies east of Dallas in northern Georgia. Sherman looked to turn both Johnston’s right (north) and left (south) flanks, with emphasis on the right. Sherman hoped to get around Johnston and secure strong positions at Allatoona Pass.
Federals and Confederates spent much of May 26 maneuvering and skirmishing. Major-General James B. McPherson’s Federal Army of the Tennessee came up and was deployed by Sherman on his right, southeast and east of Dallas. This was now Sherman’s right flank. Major-General George H. Thomas’s Army of the Cumberland held the center to McPherson’s left, and Major-General John Schofield’s Army of the Ohio held the Federal left.
The next day, Sherman became convinced that Johnston’s right flank could be turned. He therefore changed his mind about attacking both flanks. Sherman wrote, “We don’t want to turn the enemy’s left flank, but his right, so as to put our concentrated army between him and the railroad. Of which we want to make use.” Sherman directed Major-General Oliver O. Howard’s Fourth Corps and supporting divisions to attack Johnston’s right.
Howard led 14,000 Federals through dense woods to Pickett’s Mill, a grist mill two miles northeast of the “Hell Hole” near New Hope Church. By the time the Federals approached, Johnston had strengthened this sector of his line with Major-General Patrick R. Cleburne’s division.
The Federals struggled through the brush to find the end of the Confederate line, and therefore did not get into attack positions until early evening. Both sides began exchanging fire around 6 p.m., when Howard received a message from Sherman urging him to disengage: “It is useless to look for the flank of the enemy, as he make temporary breastworks as fast as we travel.”
As Howard tried to pull back into the woods, the Confederates counterattacked and inflicted heavy losses. Howard, who was shot through the foot, later wrote:
“That opening in the forest, faint fires here and there revealing men wounded, armless, legless, or eyeless; some with heads bound up with cotton strips, some standing and walking nervously around, some sitting with bended forms, and some prone upon the earth–who can picture it? A few men, in despair, had resorted to drink for relief. The sad sounds from those in pain were mingled with the oaths of the drunken and the more heartless… That night will always be a sort of nightmare to me. I think no perdition here or hereafter can be worse.”
The Federals sustained about 1,600 casualties, while the Confederates less than 500. Sherman made no mention of this defeat in his official report or his personal memoirs. He merely notified Washington, “We have had many sharp, severe encounters, but nothing decisive. Both sides duly cautious in the obscurity of the ambushed ground.”
The engagement at Pickett’s Mill prompted Johnston to try probing for weaknesses in other parts of Sherman’s line. He ordered Lieutenant-General William Hardee’s corps to conduct a reconnaissance in force southeast of Dallas on the 28th. The Confederates advanced to a sector of the enemy line held by Major-General John A. Logan’s Fifteenth Corps of McPherson’s army.
Fighting began around 3:45 p.m., with the Confederates pushing the Federals out of their entrenchments. Logan rushed up to his straggling men, shouting, “Damn your regiments! Damn your officers! Forward and yell like hell!” The Federals then counterattacked and drove the Confederates off. Both sides returned to their original lines as Sherman continued trying to find a way to outflank Johnston.
Sherman had initially planned for McPherson to pull out of the line and move north to extend the Federal left flank. But this changed when Sherman learned of the fight with Hardee’s Confederates. Sherman suspended the orders for McPherson to move, hopeful that the dense forest between the two armies would prevent Johnston from noticing a wide gap between the armies of McPherson and Thomas. Johnston did not notice it, and Sherman did not notice a similar gap in Johnston’s line either. As McPherson’s Federals engaged Hardee’s Confederates to the south, Sherman recalled the other activity along the lines on the 28th:
“Meantime Thomas and Schofield were completing their deployments, gradually overlapping Johnston on his right, and thus extending our left nearer and nearer to the railroad, the nearest point of which was Acworth, about eight miles distant. All this time a continual battle was in progress by strong skirmish-lines, taking advantage of every species of cover, and both parties fortifying each night by rifle-trenches, with head-logs, many of which grew to be as formidable as first-class works of defense. Occasionally one party or the other would make a dash in the nature of a sally, but usually it sustained a repulse with great loss of life. I visited personally all parts of our lines nearly every day, was constantly within musket-range, and though the fire of musketry and cannon resounded day and night along the whole line, varying from six to ten miles, I rarely saw a dozen of the enemy at any one time; and these were always skirmishers dodging from tree to tree, or behind logs on the ground, or who occasionally showed their heads above the hastily-constructed but remarkably strong rifle-trenches.”
Johnston held a council of war on the night of the 28th, where it was decided that Lieutenant-General John Bell Hood would shift his corps beyond Cleburne’s division and attack the Federal left flank while the two corps of Lieutenant-Generals Leonidas Polk and Hardee held the Federals in line on the center and right. However, this attack was aborted the next day when Hood discovered a Federal division blocking his proposed line of march. Johnston ordered the Confederates to resume strengthening their defenses.
The two armies remained within striking distance of each other on the 29th, with continued maneuvering and skirmishing at various points along the line. Sherman tried moving McPherson’s army to the left that night, but Confederate picket fire prevented any major movements.
The next day, Sherman resolved to try getting his forces to Allatoona Pass, on the Western & Atlantic Railroad beyond his left flank to the northeast. He hoped to use Major-General Francis P. Blair, Jr.’s Seventeenth Corps to seize the pass, but Blair still had not arrived from Vicksburg. Sherman wrote, “As Blair cannot be expected as soon as I contemplated, I must use the cavalry to secure Allatoona Pass.”
Having a notoriously low opinion of cavalry, Sherman reluctantly tasked Major-General George Stoneman and Brigadier-General Kenner Garrard to lead their troopers in seizing the objective. He instructed them, “If you find the road occupied, attack the cavalry with cavalry and the infantry with dismounted men, and force your way into and through the pass along the railroad till you secure some commanding position… Do not be deterred by appearances, but act boldly and promptly; the success of our movement depends on our having Allatoona Pass.”
Sherman met with McPherson on his front to get a firsthand look at his situation. They were accompanied by Logan and their staffs. They came up so close to the action that a Confederate sharpshooter’s bullet grazed Logan and wounded a staff officer. Sherman concluded that the fire was so intense that McPherson would not be able to disengage and move left at this time.
During the night of the 30th, McPherson’s Federals successfully fell back from their entrenchments and closed the gap with Thomas’s army. Schofield’s Army of the Ohio on the Federal left launched diversionary attacks to prevent the Confederates from discovering McPherson’s shift. As May ended, Sherman was ready to shift his massive force northeast, around Johnston’s flank once more, to reconnect with the railroad and resume his drive on Atlanta.
Bibliography
- Bailey, Ronald H., The Battles for Atlanta: Sherman Moves East. Alexandria, VA: Time-Life Books, 1983.
- Castel, Albert (Patricia L. Faust ed.), Historical Times Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Civil War. New York: Harper & Row, 1986.
- Davis, Jefferson, The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government: All Volumes. Heraklion Press, Kindle Edition 2013, 1889.
- Foote, Shelby, The Civil War, A Narrative: Red River to Appomattox. New York: Vintage Civil War Library, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group (Kindle Edition), 2011.
- Long, E.B. with Long, Barbara, The Civil War Day by Day. New York: Da Capo Press, Inc., 1971.
- Sherman, William T., Memoirs of General William T. Sherman, Vol. I. New York: D. Appleton and Co. (Kindle Edition), 1889.
- Woodworth, Steven E., Nothing but Victory: The Army of the Tennessee, 1861-1865. New York: Vintage Civil War Library, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Kindle Edition, 2005.