01-12-2025, 08:50 AM
(This post was last modified: 01-14-2025, 03:26 PM by Top Row Dawg.)
Battle of Utoy Creek
August 5th 1864
The Battle of Utoy Creek was fought August 4 - 7, 1864. It was not really a set battle. Instead it was more a series of small engagements along the Utoy Creek - Sandtown Road area in search of the flank of the Confederate line. With each day's advance, the Union lines inched closer and entrenched as they went. The Federals cautiously pushed forward his lines, erecting a new line of works as they advanced.
Schofield's advance put the skirmish lines a mere 75 yards in front of the Louisianans. Construction of redoubts along the Louisianans skirmish line was still underway when the Battle of Utoy Creek began. A small detachment of three men from the 19th Louisiana were forced to lay prostate with one pick as they built their redoubt while taking fire from an enemy picket. That Fed was having a picnic all by himself. Once their redoubt was complete, the men each took a shot at the picket and sat proud champions of their accomplishment, only to be moved to a new location to undergo the same work.
Today, Schofield made a movement to exploit this situation on the morning of August 5. From his location in the Utoy Valley, Schofield's force combined with elements of Major General John M. Palmer's XIV Corps to launch an offensive movement that succeeded in driving the Confederate forces before them until a halt was ordered for regrouping.
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Valley of Utoy Creek Marker is on the North Side of Utoy Creek. The marker is on Peyton Road, on the left when traveling north. It is located at the Bridge over the North Fork of Utoy Creek. The prominence of this site is it was the site of the Combat Crossing of the swollen North branch of Utoy Creek. The troops in Major General William T. Sherman's Army made the forced combat crossing under intense fire from Confederate Cavalry of Armstrong's Brigade supported by Florida Infantry on the Ridge immediately to the south.
On the 4th, Brigader Absalom Baird's division and Colonel Newell Gleason led the way. Gleason's brigade was given the job of feeling out Confederate General Henry DeLamar Clayton's line and performed an excellent job in capturing several of the skirmishers redoubts to General Randall Lee Gibson's front.
With no support marching to his flanks from other divisions, Baird pulled Gleason back for the night. Gibson reoccupied the line and orders were given to fight to the last rather than give up their positions so easy.
https://ec.yimg.com/ec?url=http%3a%2f%2f...EZ1VvQ--~B Gleason.
Somehow in the early morning hours of the 5th, skirmishers of Gleason's brigade were able to sneak up to within yards of the picket line of Gibson's brigade and make a sudden assault. Gleason accredited the stealthy move to having fought on the same ground the evening before. The Louisiana units on skirmish duty were caught off guard but put up a stiff fight. Two heavy lines of skirmishers, followed by solid reserves, fell on the 16th and 25th regiment. The 4th regiment and Austin's battalion were also on picket duty. Members in the units blamed supporting elements from other brigades for allowing the enemy to swing around and capture a lot of the men in the redoubts. About 100 men were captured by Gleason's quick rush. Both W.H. Duff of the 25th Louisiana, who was among those captured, and Gleason agreed that the orders to hold the line to the last extremity allowed for men to be captured more than anything. The small obstinate fight on the 4th and 5th cost Baird about 83 men, with 26 being in Gleason's command.
There was also an attack by the Regular Brigade of Milo Smith Hascall against J. Patton Anderson's Division CSA of Stephen Dill Lee's Corps that was successful. Hascall's division crossed Utoy Creek at Herring's Mill in the face of a stubborn resistance, and found the enemy in a strongly fortified in front. His troops entrenched under heavy artillery fire. At about 8 AM he moved his command gallantly forward, drove in the enemy's entrenched skirmish line, and captured 140 prisoners. The whole line then advanced to the west bank of the creek but no effort was made to cross the stream. During the night before, Hood strengthened his line by adding a part of Hardee's Corps and felled trees along the east side of the Utoy Creek to form an abatis.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/e...ascall.jpg Hascall.
Although initially successful, Schofield had to regroup his forces, which took the rest of the day. In addition the Confederates dismounted a brigade of cavalry, Frank Crawford Armstrong's, in the front of the federals in a deception plan, a feinted attack that was successful in delaying the combined force of the XXIII and XIV Corps USA. The heated disagreement between Schofield and Palmer over seniority and command issues resulted in Palmer's resignation on August 5, halting further progress and allowing the Confederates to strengthen their fortifications in preparation for the expected onslaught. Many of the skirmishers were captured on both sides in a contest for the high ground above the North Fork of the Creek near Herrings Mill. A feint attack was also made here on 6 August 1864 to cover the Main attack along the South Fork of the Creek in an outwork prepared by the Confederates of Bates Division.
Tangent Frank Crawford Armstrong was a United States Army cavalry officer and later a brigadier general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. He is also known for being the only Confederate general to fight on both sides during the Civil War. Armstrong was born on the Choctaw Agency in the Indian Territory, where his army officer father had been stationed. Armstrong's father, Francis Wells Armstrong, died three months before his son's birth. In 1854, Armstrong's mother married Mexican-American War General Persifor Smith. In 1854, Armstrong accompanied his stepfather on an expedition of the United States Army troops into the New Mexico Territory. His gallantry in a battle against Indians near Eagle Spring gained him a commission as a lieutenant of the 2nd Dragoon Regiment in 1855, following his graduation from College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. Armstrong then fought with Albert Sidney Johnston against the Mormons during the Utah War.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/e...strong.jpg Armstrong.
In June 1861, Armstrong was promoted to captain in the regular army. He led a company of Union cavalry at the First Battle of Bull Run. However, Armstrong resigned his commission and on August 10, 1861, he joined the Confederate Army. As Armstrong's Union resignation did not go into effect until August 13, he was technically on both sides at the same time. He served as a staff officer under Confederate generals James M. McIntosh and Benjamin McCulloch before their deaths at the Battle of Pea Ridge, and was standing only feet away as McCulloch was killed. In 1863 Armstrong was elected as colonel of the 3rd Louisiana Infantry Regiment, and was soon given command of the cavalry of Major General Sterling Price. Two months later, he was promoted to brigadier general and commanded a cavalry division under Nathan Bedford Forrest at the Battle of Chickamauga.
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In February 1864, Armstrong requested a transfer to the command of Maj. Gen. Stephen D. Lee. He was assigned command of a brigade of Mississippi cavalry previously led by Colonel Peter B. Starke. Armstrong and his men accompanied Lt. Gen. Leonidas Polk's corps to Georgia and served in the Atlanta Campaign, before participating in Lt. Gen. John B. Hood's disastrous campaign. He saw action during the campaign against Murfreesboro, and led much of Forrest's rear guard after the Hood's defeat at the Battle of Nashville.
On March 23, Armstrong was assigned to the defenses of Selma, Alabama, one of the Confederacy's last remaining industrial centers. On April 2, 1865, his troops participated in efforts to defend the town against a much larger Union force under Maj. Gen. James H. Wilson. Armstrong was captured later that day.
https://ec.yimg.com/ec?url=http%3a%2f%2f....Cbrzw--~B Late in life.
With the return of peace Armstrong worked for the Overland Mail Service in Texas. Because of his frontier and military experience, he served as United States Indian Inspector from 1885 until 1889, and was the Assistant Commissioner of Indian Affairs from 1893 to 1895. He married Maria Polk Walker, daughter of Col. Joseph Knox Walker. Col. Walker is the brother of Lucius Marshall Walker, who also served as a Confederate general. Armstrong died in Bar Harbor, Maine in 1909, and was buried in Rock Creek Cemetery in Washington, D.C.
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We find these selected Union reports for today in Atlanta………..
HDQRS. DEPT. OF THE CUMBERLAND, August 5, 1864.
Major-General SHERMAN:
I am surprised to receive such a report of the Fourteenth Corps, for it has always been prompt in executing any work given to it heretofore. If General Palmer is an obstacle to its efficiency, I would let him go. I had the Fourth and Twentieth Corps demonstrate strongly on the enemy's line from 12 m. until night. They found the intrenchments heavily manned. I will have the skirmishers feel forward again to-night to see if the enemy have left. The Fourth and Twentieth Corps now occupy the whole line held by the Twenty-third, Twentieth, and Fourth Corps before the movement on the right commenced, consequently they are in single line, and it will be impossible to form an assaulting column. I sent Whipple to the right to-day. He has just returned and informed me that all that was done to-day on the right was done by Baird's division, which advanced in obedience to Schofield's orders, but not being supported either on its right or left, General Baird fell back to his former position after having driven the enemy from two lines of rifle-pits, and capturing 160 prisoners, losing about 100 men himself.
GEO. H. THOMAS, Major-General.
https://ec.yimg.com/ec?url=http%3a%2f%2f...aw--~BThis map shows the battle lines around Atlanta. Note the line extended above East Point west of the City. That is the focus of the battle of Utoy Creek.
HEADQUARTERS FOURTH ARMY CORPS, August 5, 1864--10 p. m.
Brigadier-General KIMBALL, Commanding First Division, Fourth Army Corps:
Direct the artillery on your front to fire six volleys at intervals of ten minutes into Atlanta. Let your skirmishers keep up fire and notice if the rebels return fire. Do you see any sign of their quitting? If so, push skirmishers up. General Sherman thinks they may quit. Our forces did nothing on the right to-day. Baird captured 150 on skirmish line, but not being supported fell back to his intrenchments. Please answer.
D. S. STANLEY, Major-General.
HEADQUARTERS FOURTEENTH ARMY CORPS, Before Atlanta, Ga., August 5, 1864--10.05 p. m.
[General SHERMAN:]
GENERAL: I confess my surprise at the contents of your telegraphic note, this moment received. Waiving any statement of what were my purposes and intentions in respect to quitting the service, I will frankly say that if I were in your place, at the head of an army, I would require of my subordinates the faithful and energetic performance of their respective duties.
And if my plans failed of execution, I would ascertain the cause and punish the delinquent vigorously, as no man is to be regarded when contrasted with the great cause of the country.
I am not surprised that you are dissatisfied with the operations of the army of this flank on yesterday and today, for I am also dissatisfied, and think much more ought to have been done, and readily confess myself in some measure responsible.
Still I do earnestly protest against your inference of a want of interest in our operations. On yesterday you were present, and I will not speak of what I said or did. Today I exerted myself more, I think, than any officer on the field to carry out General Schofield's orders, until the afternoon, near night, I found that aside from Baird's handsome operation in the forenoon nothing would be accomplished. I am to blame, however, in this, that I have not done as you obviously intend doing in my case--hold some one responsible for the failures. I think I could select the proper objects of responsibility more accurately than you have done in selecting me. I am so well convinced that this campaign has been lengthened out by the negligence and inattention of officers, and will be hereafter lengthened and drawn out from the same cause, that I accept your intimation to me not as offensive (though I think unjust), but as a sign of a purpose on your part, in future, to inquire into the causes of our almost daily failures to meet your avowed expectations, and when the cause is discovered to apply the correction. If you will do this justly, without favor or affection, I will venture my life that you will be astonished at the result. I will accept your offer to relieve me, not upon the ground that your suspicion of a want of interest is well founded, nor that I am in any other than the manner already admitted responsible for the unsatisfactory results on this flank, but upon the principle that as you are responsible to the country for this campaign every subordinate officer employed ought upon the first intimation from you of a want of confidence step out of the way promptly and feel that he is serving the country in doing so. Pardon this long letter. I will call upon you to-morrow morning and present a formal application to be relieved.
Respectfully,JOHN M. PALMER, Major-General.
https://ec.yimg.com/ec?url=http%3a%2f%2f...X.ULLA--~B John McCauley Palmer went on to be Governor of Illinois from 1869 to 1873. He later served a term as a US Senator form Illinois.
https://ec.yimg.com/ec?url=http%3a%2f%2f...0aJpAA--~B Inside the Cascade Springs Nature Preserve on Utoy Creek.
The only selected rebel report from today
AUGUST 5, 1864-2 p. m.
General MARTIN, Commanding, &c.:
If the enemy should attempt to move around our right resist him to the full extent of your ability. He is pressing our picket-line with some vigor.
[F. A. SHOUP, Chief of Staff.]
August 6th 1864
The Battle of Utoy Creek was fought August 4 -7, 1864. It was a slow series of small skirmishes until today. The delay of Schofield's and Palmer's command squabble from yesterday's attack allowed the Confederates to strengthen their defenses with an abatis, which slowed the Union attack when it restarted on the morning of August 6. On the morning of the 6th general Jacob Dolson Cox commanded the 3rd Division of the XXIII Corps of the Army of the Ohio, under Maj. Gen. John M. Schofield. His 3rd Division provided the main effort in the assault at the Battle of Utoy Creek.
Cox was ordered to make a reconnaissance with one brigade, supporting it with the rest of his division ready to follow up any advantage gained. James W.Reily's brigade was selected to lead the movement, 200 men were added to the skirmish line, which advanced and drove the enemy back from the works in front of the Union right center, where the timber offered some protection. The 104th Ohio was then sent forward to support the skirmishers in a farther advance, which resulted in the enemy being driven into his works along the entire length of the ridge above the Utoy Creek Valley. Encouraged by conditions thus far developed, Reilly now advanced with his whole brigade and assaulted the main line of entrenchments. After crossing Utoy Creek, the men became entangled in the network of fallen trees, many of which were cut only half off, then bent over and interlaced, forming an almost impassable barrier. This was all along present day Cascade Road in SW Atlanta.
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While the men were struggling with these obstructions, they were subjected to a merciless fire from the Confederate works on yet another higher ridge above the Sandtown Road in the present day Cascade Springs Nature Preserve. Now this heavily wooded park still retains the feel for the battle scene 150 years ago today. Confederate reinforcements were constantly arriving. Reilly thought he had flanked the Southerners, but they enveloped him in a ravine of sorts just like at Picketts Mill. Florida troops firing down on Michigan men. The Federals were repulsed with heavy losses by William B. Bate's division and failed in an attempt to break the main defenses to gain the railroad. The route of the Union attack of August 6 traversed across the Sandtown Road and up a steep incline through rough terrain and well-prepared barricades against positions defended by Kentucky's famed Orphan Brigade of Major General William B. Bate's division. The Federals could get no closer to the Confederate trenches than 30 yards before the fierce resistance forced them to fall back. Reily held his ground however, until Casement's brigade was sent to cover his withdrawal.
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In the meantime, back up present day Cascade Road, Hascall had moved his division to the right to endeavor to capture a battery that enfiladed Cox's position. There is still a long trench just south of Cascade up crossing Woodland Terrace where the Confederates had the high ground. Cooper's and Swaine's brigades were moved through the woods beyond Sandtown Road back east toward Atlanta. They were in a position to make the assault before they were discovered. Then both brigades charged up the hill and pressed forward. Taking heavy losses, they drove the enemy back into his secondary works, though they managed to save the guns.
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Late in the afternoon, one of Schofield's divisions managed to flank Bates out of his position, and Hood came to the conclusion that his left flank was being turned. The Confederates fell back to a new line of prepared earthworks closer to the railroad that night. In a complete reversal of the lopsided numbers against the Confederates at Ezra Church, the Union losses today were put at 850, and the Confederate line held with a loss of only 35 killed, wounded, or missing.
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Battle of Utoy Creek Marker is at the intersection of Cascade Road (Georgia Route 154) and Woodland Terrace, on the right when traveling west on Cascade Road. Local Atlanta Artist Mark Stewart, Commander USN, Retired and Major Perry Bennett view the painting by Mr. Stewart on the 145th Anniversary of the Main Attack at Utoy Creek on Cascade Road, SW Atlanta, GA
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The Embattled Ridge Marker is at the intersection of Cascade Road (Georgia Route 154) and Woodland Terrace, on the right when traveling west on Cascade Road. Located between between Dodson Road and Woodland Terrace.The marker is at the base of the ridge assaulted three times by Major General Schofields 23rd Army Corps (USA) and near the junction with the 14th Army Corps under Major General Jefferson Davis (USA) defended by Bate's Division attached to Lt. General Steven D. Lee's Corps (CSA).This marks the Western position held by Bate's Division (CSA) attached by order to LTG Steven D. Lees's Corps (CSA) for defense of the Railroad lines. This was the Main attack on 6 August 1864. Bate's Division received a commendation for its being three times assaulted by superior numbers and in capturing two stands of colors from the Federal Forces engaged. Bate and his division withdrew to the next ridge South West on 7 August 1864. US Forces lost 800 killed and over a thousand wounded and the Confederates lost twenty killed on in this decisive engagement.
https://ec.yimg.com/ec?url=http%3a%2f%2f...2heHtQ--~B A reenactment of Utoy Creek at the Nash Farm near Jonesboro last summer.
Private Samuel Grimshaw of the XIV Army Corps, USA was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his actions against a Confederate Artillery Battery along the Sandtown (Cascade Road) during the main attack on 6 August 1864. He picked up a red hot unexploded Confederate shell and threw it in the Creek saving all the men in his regiment. He suffered severe burns and had scars on his hands for the rest of his life. This happened right at the front parking lot of the present day Episcopal Church of the Incarnation off Cascade Road.
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Private Van Raalte was nominated for the Congressional Medal of Honor for the recovery of the Unit Colors of the 25th Michigan Infantry, Hascalls Division, XXIII Army Corps, USA. The Twenty Fifth Michigan Volunteers took part in the heavy fighting at Utoy Creek, near East Point on the outskirts of Atlanta. On August 6 the regiment lost both color bearers, and the regimental flag was left on the field when the Union forces were driven back. During the night, Ben Van Raalte crept through the Confederate lines and somehow laid hands on the flag which they had lost. He brought it back to his own position, and for the rest of the war he carried the flag which he had rescued. In later years he always proudly carried the flag when the regiment was on parade. It's also interesting that in this fighting, there were Tennessee Union troops, fighting alongside the 14th Michigan as part of the overall XIV Corps, and fighting against brothers, cousins and neighbors from the same place in Tennessee who were in the Confederate ranks. A very amazing battle and piece of the story not often told or much known about.
The Federal Colors were captured by the Confederates of Armstrong's Brigade of Cavalry dismounted as infantry. The Confederate Corps Commander, Lt General Steven D. Lee cited Bate's Division and especially Tyler's and Lewis's Brigades for the repulse of a superior enemy force, capture of 200 prisoners and three stands of Colors.
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Confederate Entrenchments 1864 Marker can be reached from Adams Park Golf Course 1.2 miles from Campbellton Road. Located on the prominent hill upon the Adams Park Golf Course. Looking North West from the former lines of Bates Division CSA immediately after the Main Assault on their advanced position along the Sandtown (Campbellton) Road, at Cascade Springs Nature Preserve. Major General William B. Bate was wounded near this site while inspecting his lines.
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Much evidence of the fighting that took place at Utoy Creek is still evident today in Atlanta's West End neighborhood along Cascade Road. The Confederate trench is still found faintly, between homes up on Woodland Terrace.
Cascade Springs Nature Preserve (2800 Cascade Road) consists of 137 wooded acres and is the core area of fighting for the Battle of Utoy Creek. Many earthworks and rifle pits remain on the property along with the cascading waterfall for which the area was named. They are trying to put up a monument to the Michigan men killed there.
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Here are a few of the Earthworks from the Battle of Utoy Creek. These pics actually didn't come out very good. The trenches are much more obvious in real life than they appear in these pics.
Lionel Hampton Park (Autobahn Park at Flamingo Road) is a wooded 105-acre park that contains hundreds of yards of well-preserved Federal earthworks used during the fighting around Utoy Creek.
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The trenches are just off the new Belt Line Bike Path in the park, but no actual fighting took place in here.
Historic Utoy Primitive Baptist Church and Cemetery (1911 Venetian Drive, SW) is the site of the oldest Baptist Church in Fulton County. During the 1864 Battle of Utoy Creek, Utoy Church served as a military field hospital for captured Union and wounded Confederate soldiers. There are at least twenty-three unknown Confederate soldiers, from Gen. S.D. Lee's Corps of Bate's Division, buried at the Utoy Cemetery. These were among the 35 Confederate casualties of the Battle of Utoy Creek, who died from wounds treated at the Utoy Church field hospital. One additional known casualty of this conflict and eleven known other Confederate veterans are also buried at the Utoy Cemetery. Additionally, a portion of the Rebel defensive line still exists, only a few feet north of the Confederate graves.
http://georgiainfo.galileo.usg.edu/image...marker.jpg
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Historic Utoy Church Marker is at the intersection of Cahaba Drive and Bayberry Drive, on the left when traveling north on Cahaba Drive.
The primary surgeon during the battle, and at the Utoy Church field hospital, was Dr. Joshua Gilbert, who was assisted by Miss Sarah Hendon as a nurse, and other volunteers from the area. Both Dr. Gilbert and Miss Hendon are buried in the Utoy Cemetery with DAR and UDC memorial recognition. Dr. Gilbert was Atlanta's first doctor. He was born in 1815 in South Carolina and was graduated from the old Augusta Medical College in 1845 and then came to Atlanta.
At that time, Atlanta was called Marthasville. Here Dr. Gilbert practiced medicine until his death in 1889. Dr. Gilbert and Miss Hendon treated both Confederate and captured Union soldiers.
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Colonel James S. Boynton, commanding the 30th Georgia Infantry of Brigadier General H. R. Jackson's Georgia Brigade, was treated here after being wounded at the Battle of Utoy Creek.
Colonel Boynton later became President of the Georgia Senate and, on March 5, 1883, the day after the death of Governor Alexander H. Stephens, he became of Governor of Georgia, to serve until a special election could be held. A week after Colonel Boynton's wound and treatment, his division commander, Major General William B. Bate, was treated here (10 August 1864) from wounds received at the Battle of Utoy Creek, and was evacuated to Barnesville, Georgia to recuperate. Union casualties were interred here until 1866, when they were moved by the US Quartermaster's Office at Atlanta, to the National Cemetery in Marietta, Georgia.
https://ec.yimg.com/ec?url=http%3a%2f%2f...onfederate Graves in the Utoy Primitive Baptist Church Cemetery.
We found this recollection of the battle from a member of the Orphan Brigade…..
On August 6th at Utoy Creek on the Sandtown road leading Southwest from Atlanta. The Orphan Brigade and Tyler's Tennessee Brigade had been pushed forward on a kind of salient to the left and front of the main line and touching the little stream known as Utoy Creek. Here occurred the battle known by the above name. I here recognize more distinctly than any other place, so far visited, the general appearance of the ground and especially the falls of the little creek at which on the day previous to the battle I enjoyed the only refreshing bath for several days. It is quite an interesting place to the writer. I here witnessed on the morning of the battle the capture of Lieut. Isham Dudley, in command of the videttes, together with some half dozen men of the Orphan Brigade, they having been completely surprised just at daybreak by a sudden and unexpected rush of the enemy.
https://ec.yimg.com/ec?url=http%3a%2f%2f...xN0nNA--~B
Waterfall still at Cascade Springs nature center.
The writer had the honor to command the skirmish line covering the Confederate position and had a fine opportunity to witness the charge of the two Federal brigades, which were composed chiefly of East Tennesseans, as they swept past the right of our skirmish line, they doubtless not knowing that they were about to encounter breastworks of a formidable character, receiving at the same time a scathing flank fire from the Fourth Kentucky and the skirmish line above alluded to. But they were plucky fellows and charged to within a few yards of our works, paying dearly for their courage and temerity. In this affair we were attacked by a force somewhat superior in numbers, but the advantage that our breastworks afforded us made the victory easily won. I here quote the order of General S. D. Lee, commanding corps, congratulating them and incidentally complimenting the defenders.
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The springhouse still at Cascade Springs.
"The lieutenant general commanding takes pleasure in announcing to the officers and men of this corps the splendid conduct of a portion of Bates' Division, particularly Tyler's Brigade and the Second and Fourth Kentucky regiments of Lewis' Brigade, in sustaining and repulsing on yesterday afternoon three assaults of the enemy in which his loss in killed, wounded and prisoners was from eight hundred to a thousand men, with three stands of colors, three or four hundred small arms and all of his entrenching tools. Soldiers who fight with the coolness and determination that these men did will always be victorious over any reasonable number."
In this engagement we lost only about eighteen men all told, while the enemy's loss in killed alone was 160. I walked over the ground ten minutes after it occurred and found the crest of the hill covered with the dead and wounded, swords, guns, cartridge boxes and other paraphernalia of war.
I found here the thing I need and coveted most of all at this time, a fine black sombrero, which furnished me ample protection thereafter from the intense rays of the August sun. I "swapped" my spoon-bill cap with the fellow who had worn this hat, to which he, of course, raised no objection. Others provided themselves in like manner, which was entirely legitimate, of course, the original owners having no further use for such things. But a flanking column that night, as usual, compelled us to abandon the position of our recent victory and we retired to our original position in the circle of entrenchments.
I have this day, May 13, 1912, carefully and studiously reviewed the very spot on which those 160 men lay dead, and I feel safe in saying that it is not larger than one-half a city block. They were met square in front and were fired on from both flanks, and had they attempted to remain there as much as one hour there would not have been a man of them left on his feet. It was a death trap similar to the one into which we Orphans fell at Dallas.
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I could hardly control my emotions when viewing this place, and my mind was almost overwhelmed as I walked along on top of these still distinct and undisturbed parapets, stopping now and then to pick up a "Yankee bullet" lodged in them, or a small stone that had been thrown out by the Confederates. The surroundings here are perfectly familiar to me, notwithstanding opinions of friends at home to the contrary. So interesting is this spot that I have made the second visit to it.
Here the time from August 7 to 29, 1864, was spent in listening to the music of the rifle and the cannon and an occasional sweet, faint and harmonious symphony from the enemy's brass bands as they played, seemingly for our entertainment, "The Star Spangled Banner," "Hail Columbia," "Yankee Doodle" and, to taunt us, "Dixie." At night they would vary the entertainment by sending up innumerable rockets, which some of the men interpreted to mean the arrival of a new command or shift of position, but to most of us it was "Greek and Hebrew."
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The Battle of Utoy Creek was a major victory for the Confederates and a terrible loss to the Union Army under Sherman. Sherman's original plan for capturing Atlanta, poorly executed as it was by Schofield, forced Sherman into an unwinnable siege war. The significance of the Battle of Utoy Creek has long been underemphasized by historians, because General Sherman underreported his battle casualties and battle failures to Washington, so as not to impair President Lincoln's re-election chances. It was only after General Sherman outflanked the Confederate Army to the south of East Point, and cut the railroad ties at Jonesborough, that he secured a Confederate victory in the Battle of Atlanta, thus ensuring President Lincoln's re-election, and the fall of the Confederacy.
Mixing corps cost the Union unit integrity, Schofield did not have good intelligence on the enemy and Sherman goaded him to make an ill-fated attack at Utoy Creek. The Army major quotes advice he said Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant once gave to Sherman. "Never call an attack an attack if it is not successful."
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Here we find the Union reports for today…..
NEAR ATLANTA, GA., August 6, 1864--9 p. m.
Major General H. W. HALLECK, Washington, D. C.:
We have now developed our line along with the enemy from the Augusta railroad, on our left, to Utoy Post-Office, on our right, and the enemy faces us in force at all points with equal force and superior works.
General Schofield tried to break through at a point near our right with a brigade (General Reilly's), but his men were caught in the entanglement and lost probably 500. We have skirmished heavily along the whole line, using artillery freely, but have made no impression. I will continue to work to the right to find the extreme flank and threaten the railroad, if possible, to draw him out of Atlanta or force him to attack us; but our line is already too extended and weak. By means of his militia (of which he has the whole population of Georgia) he is enabled to use his three regular corps as reserves. Our loss to-day will foot up 1,000. I will soon need re-enforcements, and if you can replace General A. J. Smith at Memphis with African American or fresh troops I would order him here via Decatur. He must now be en route for Columbus, Miss. I have called forward a brigade from Decatur. I am now convinced that General Stoneman surrendered near Macon with 700 of his men, ordering two small brigades to break out and get in. One (Colonel Adams'), with 900 men, is in, but their time is out and they will be discharged. The other brigade (Capron's) I fear was scattered and picked up in detail. His entire loss will be about 1,300. General McCook's loss is 500. Damage done road, cars, and bridges was very large, but the enemystill run cars into Atlanta from Macon.
W. T. SHERMAN,Major-General.
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HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE OHIO, Near Atlanta, Ga., August 6, 1864.
Major-General SHERMAN:
In my movement this morning I made a circuit to the right far enough to strike beyond what appeared to be, and probably was, yesterday the enemy's flank, but found intrenchments of ordinary strength with extensive entanglements in front. Reilly assaulted gallantly and energetically, and I believe with more than ordinary confidence of success on the part of himself and men. But the obstructions were so great that it was found impossible to reach the parapet. Reilly's loss is about 500 men, including many valuable officers. After this failure, I made a much larger circuit to the right for the purpose of reaching the enemy's flank or a point of his line not protected by abatis.
I struck the point where the Sandtown road crosses the main Utoy Creek. Here the enemy's line makes a sharp salient, bending back along the north bank of the creek. The main line was prolonged by cavalry, with artillery, toward the Chattahoochee. General Hascall sent two brigades, under General Cooper, to clear this flank, which he did by crossing the creek, but too late for any further operations. We are intrenching the ground we have gained, and will be ready for work again in the morning. The losses in Cox's and Hascall's divisions are probably not more than 1,000 men. I have not thought it advisable to put in more men than the Twenty-third Corps to-day, except in making demonstrations to draw the enemy from the points of attack. General Johnson has been with me during the day and has promptly executed all my orders. Colonel Warner, who left me late this evening, can explain to you more fully our situation. If you take the blue colored map of Atlanta and vicinity, the forks of the Utoy Creek southeast of the town of Utoy is, I believe, Hascall's position. I will determine more accurately tonight.
J. M. SCHOFIELD, Major-General.
https://ec.yimg.com/ec?url=http%3a%2f%2f...L7zc8A--~B
Clearing the Utoy Cemetery.
The rebel reports of course were more succinct....
ATLANTA, August 6, 1864.
Honorable J. A. SEDDON:
The enemy made two assault to-day on Finley's and Lewis's brigades, of Bate's division, in Lee's corps, both of which were handsomely repulsed, with loss to them.
J. B. HOOD, General.
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Historic Cascade Mansion and Gardens Bed and Breakfast, Circa 1860 the home of Dr William F. Pool, son in law of the first Physician in Atlanta, Dr Joshua Gilbert. Used as a Headquarters during the Civil War, Battle of Utoy Creek Ga, Aug 6-7, 1864 by Confederate Major General William B. Bate and occupied by troops of Major General Jacob D. Cox of the US XXIII Army Corps. Period Antebellum home with a large porteco, beautiful heart pine floors and great character. Used as a private residence by the Pool and Stevens Family. Established as a Bed and Breakfast by Dr. Walker and beautifully furnished by Lieutenant Colonel Bennett as a historic home in the 18th century. Located inside the library is the museum of the Battle of Utoy Creek and siege of Atlanta. Bus tours of the Battlefield, walking tours and mounted horseback excursions are available. Battlefield tours are given each Sunday at 1:00 PM until 4:00 PM for $10.00. Please RSVP by calling (404)-564-1283.
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August 5th 1864
The Battle of Utoy Creek was fought August 4 - 7, 1864. It was not really a set battle. Instead it was more a series of small engagements along the Utoy Creek - Sandtown Road area in search of the flank of the Confederate line. With each day's advance, the Union lines inched closer and entrenched as they went. The Federals cautiously pushed forward his lines, erecting a new line of works as they advanced.
Schofield's advance put the skirmish lines a mere 75 yards in front of the Louisianans. Construction of redoubts along the Louisianans skirmish line was still underway when the Battle of Utoy Creek began. A small detachment of three men from the 19th Louisiana were forced to lay prostate with one pick as they built their redoubt while taking fire from an enemy picket. That Fed was having a picnic all by himself. Once their redoubt was complete, the men each took a shot at the picket and sat proud champions of their accomplishment, only to be moved to a new location to undergo the same work.
Today, Schofield made a movement to exploit this situation on the morning of August 5. From his location in the Utoy Valley, Schofield's force combined with elements of Major General John M. Palmer's XIV Corps to launch an offensive movement that succeeded in driving the Confederate forces before them until a halt was ordered for regrouping.
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Valley of Utoy Creek Marker is on the North Side of Utoy Creek. The marker is on Peyton Road, on the left when traveling north. It is located at the Bridge over the North Fork of Utoy Creek. The prominence of this site is it was the site of the Combat Crossing of the swollen North branch of Utoy Creek. The troops in Major General William T. Sherman's Army made the forced combat crossing under intense fire from Confederate Cavalry of Armstrong's Brigade supported by Florida Infantry on the Ridge immediately to the south.
On the 4th, Brigader Absalom Baird's division and Colonel Newell Gleason led the way. Gleason's brigade was given the job of feeling out Confederate General Henry DeLamar Clayton's line and performed an excellent job in capturing several of the skirmishers redoubts to General Randall Lee Gibson's front.
With no support marching to his flanks from other divisions, Baird pulled Gleason back for the night. Gibson reoccupied the line and orders were given to fight to the last rather than give up their positions so easy.
https://ec.yimg.com/ec?url=http%3a%2f%2f...EZ1VvQ--~B Gleason.
Somehow in the early morning hours of the 5th, skirmishers of Gleason's brigade were able to sneak up to within yards of the picket line of Gibson's brigade and make a sudden assault. Gleason accredited the stealthy move to having fought on the same ground the evening before. The Louisiana units on skirmish duty were caught off guard but put up a stiff fight. Two heavy lines of skirmishers, followed by solid reserves, fell on the 16th and 25th regiment. The 4th regiment and Austin's battalion were also on picket duty. Members in the units blamed supporting elements from other brigades for allowing the enemy to swing around and capture a lot of the men in the redoubts. About 100 men were captured by Gleason's quick rush. Both W.H. Duff of the 25th Louisiana, who was among those captured, and Gleason agreed that the orders to hold the line to the last extremity allowed for men to be captured more than anything. The small obstinate fight on the 4th and 5th cost Baird about 83 men, with 26 being in Gleason's command.
There was also an attack by the Regular Brigade of Milo Smith Hascall against J. Patton Anderson's Division CSA of Stephen Dill Lee's Corps that was successful. Hascall's division crossed Utoy Creek at Herring's Mill in the face of a stubborn resistance, and found the enemy in a strongly fortified in front. His troops entrenched under heavy artillery fire. At about 8 AM he moved his command gallantly forward, drove in the enemy's entrenched skirmish line, and captured 140 prisoners. The whole line then advanced to the west bank of the creek but no effort was made to cross the stream. During the night before, Hood strengthened his line by adding a part of Hardee's Corps and felled trees along the east side of the Utoy Creek to form an abatis.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/e...ascall.jpg Hascall.
Although initially successful, Schofield had to regroup his forces, which took the rest of the day. In addition the Confederates dismounted a brigade of cavalry, Frank Crawford Armstrong's, in the front of the federals in a deception plan, a feinted attack that was successful in delaying the combined force of the XXIII and XIV Corps USA. The heated disagreement between Schofield and Palmer over seniority and command issues resulted in Palmer's resignation on August 5, halting further progress and allowing the Confederates to strengthen their fortifications in preparation for the expected onslaught. Many of the skirmishers were captured on both sides in a contest for the high ground above the North Fork of the Creek near Herrings Mill. A feint attack was also made here on 6 August 1864 to cover the Main attack along the South Fork of the Creek in an outwork prepared by the Confederates of Bates Division.
Tangent Frank Crawford Armstrong was a United States Army cavalry officer and later a brigadier general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. He is also known for being the only Confederate general to fight on both sides during the Civil War. Armstrong was born on the Choctaw Agency in the Indian Territory, where his army officer father had been stationed. Armstrong's father, Francis Wells Armstrong, died three months before his son's birth. In 1854, Armstrong's mother married Mexican-American War General Persifor Smith. In 1854, Armstrong accompanied his stepfather on an expedition of the United States Army troops into the New Mexico Territory. His gallantry in a battle against Indians near Eagle Spring gained him a commission as a lieutenant of the 2nd Dragoon Regiment in 1855, following his graduation from College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. Armstrong then fought with Albert Sidney Johnston against the Mormons during the Utah War.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/e...strong.jpg Armstrong.
In June 1861, Armstrong was promoted to captain in the regular army. He led a company of Union cavalry at the First Battle of Bull Run. However, Armstrong resigned his commission and on August 10, 1861, he joined the Confederate Army. As Armstrong's Union resignation did not go into effect until August 13, he was technically on both sides at the same time. He served as a staff officer under Confederate generals James M. McIntosh and Benjamin McCulloch before their deaths at the Battle of Pea Ridge, and was standing only feet away as McCulloch was killed. In 1863 Armstrong was elected as colonel of the 3rd Louisiana Infantry Regiment, and was soon given command of the cavalry of Major General Sterling Price. Two months later, he was promoted to brigadier general and commanded a cavalry division under Nathan Bedford Forrest at the Battle of Chickamauga.
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In February 1864, Armstrong requested a transfer to the command of Maj. Gen. Stephen D. Lee. He was assigned command of a brigade of Mississippi cavalry previously led by Colonel Peter B. Starke. Armstrong and his men accompanied Lt. Gen. Leonidas Polk's corps to Georgia and served in the Atlanta Campaign, before participating in Lt. Gen. John B. Hood's disastrous campaign. He saw action during the campaign against Murfreesboro, and led much of Forrest's rear guard after the Hood's defeat at the Battle of Nashville.
On March 23, Armstrong was assigned to the defenses of Selma, Alabama, one of the Confederacy's last remaining industrial centers. On April 2, 1865, his troops participated in efforts to defend the town against a much larger Union force under Maj. Gen. James H. Wilson. Armstrong was captured later that day.
https://ec.yimg.com/ec?url=http%3a%2f%2f....Cbrzw--~B Late in life.
With the return of peace Armstrong worked for the Overland Mail Service in Texas. Because of his frontier and military experience, he served as United States Indian Inspector from 1885 until 1889, and was the Assistant Commissioner of Indian Affairs from 1893 to 1895. He married Maria Polk Walker, daughter of Col. Joseph Knox Walker. Col. Walker is the brother of Lucius Marshall Walker, who also served as a Confederate general. Armstrong died in Bar Harbor, Maine in 1909, and was buried in Rock Creek Cemetery in Washington, D.C.
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We find these selected Union reports for today in Atlanta………..
HDQRS. DEPT. OF THE CUMBERLAND, August 5, 1864.
Major-General SHERMAN:
I am surprised to receive such a report of the Fourteenth Corps, for it has always been prompt in executing any work given to it heretofore. If General Palmer is an obstacle to its efficiency, I would let him go. I had the Fourth and Twentieth Corps demonstrate strongly on the enemy's line from 12 m. until night. They found the intrenchments heavily manned. I will have the skirmishers feel forward again to-night to see if the enemy have left. The Fourth and Twentieth Corps now occupy the whole line held by the Twenty-third, Twentieth, and Fourth Corps before the movement on the right commenced, consequently they are in single line, and it will be impossible to form an assaulting column. I sent Whipple to the right to-day. He has just returned and informed me that all that was done to-day on the right was done by Baird's division, which advanced in obedience to Schofield's orders, but not being supported either on its right or left, General Baird fell back to his former position after having driven the enemy from two lines of rifle-pits, and capturing 160 prisoners, losing about 100 men himself.
GEO. H. THOMAS, Major-General.
https://ec.yimg.com/ec?url=http%3a%2f%2f...aw--~BThis map shows the battle lines around Atlanta. Note the line extended above East Point west of the City. That is the focus of the battle of Utoy Creek.
HEADQUARTERS FOURTH ARMY CORPS, August 5, 1864--10 p. m.
Brigadier-General KIMBALL, Commanding First Division, Fourth Army Corps:
Direct the artillery on your front to fire six volleys at intervals of ten minutes into Atlanta. Let your skirmishers keep up fire and notice if the rebels return fire. Do you see any sign of their quitting? If so, push skirmishers up. General Sherman thinks they may quit. Our forces did nothing on the right to-day. Baird captured 150 on skirmish line, but not being supported fell back to his intrenchments. Please answer.
D. S. STANLEY, Major-General.
HEADQUARTERS FOURTEENTH ARMY CORPS, Before Atlanta, Ga., August 5, 1864--10.05 p. m.
[General SHERMAN:]
GENERAL: I confess my surprise at the contents of your telegraphic note, this moment received. Waiving any statement of what were my purposes and intentions in respect to quitting the service, I will frankly say that if I were in your place, at the head of an army, I would require of my subordinates the faithful and energetic performance of their respective duties.
And if my plans failed of execution, I would ascertain the cause and punish the delinquent vigorously, as no man is to be regarded when contrasted with the great cause of the country.
I am not surprised that you are dissatisfied with the operations of the army of this flank on yesterday and today, for I am also dissatisfied, and think much more ought to have been done, and readily confess myself in some measure responsible.
Still I do earnestly protest against your inference of a want of interest in our operations. On yesterday you were present, and I will not speak of what I said or did. Today I exerted myself more, I think, than any officer on the field to carry out General Schofield's orders, until the afternoon, near night, I found that aside from Baird's handsome operation in the forenoon nothing would be accomplished. I am to blame, however, in this, that I have not done as you obviously intend doing in my case--hold some one responsible for the failures. I think I could select the proper objects of responsibility more accurately than you have done in selecting me. I am so well convinced that this campaign has been lengthened out by the negligence and inattention of officers, and will be hereafter lengthened and drawn out from the same cause, that I accept your intimation to me not as offensive (though I think unjust), but as a sign of a purpose on your part, in future, to inquire into the causes of our almost daily failures to meet your avowed expectations, and when the cause is discovered to apply the correction. If you will do this justly, without favor or affection, I will venture my life that you will be astonished at the result. I will accept your offer to relieve me, not upon the ground that your suspicion of a want of interest is well founded, nor that I am in any other than the manner already admitted responsible for the unsatisfactory results on this flank, but upon the principle that as you are responsible to the country for this campaign every subordinate officer employed ought upon the first intimation from you of a want of confidence step out of the way promptly and feel that he is serving the country in doing so. Pardon this long letter. I will call upon you to-morrow morning and present a formal application to be relieved.
Respectfully,JOHN M. PALMER, Major-General.
https://ec.yimg.com/ec?url=http%3a%2f%2f...X.ULLA--~B John McCauley Palmer went on to be Governor of Illinois from 1869 to 1873. He later served a term as a US Senator form Illinois.
https://ec.yimg.com/ec?url=http%3a%2f%2f...0aJpAA--~B Inside the Cascade Springs Nature Preserve on Utoy Creek.
The only selected rebel report from today
AUGUST 5, 1864-2 p. m.
General MARTIN, Commanding, &c.:
If the enemy should attempt to move around our right resist him to the full extent of your ability. He is pressing our picket-line with some vigor.
[F. A. SHOUP, Chief of Staff.]
August 6th 1864
The Battle of Utoy Creek was fought August 4 -7, 1864. It was a slow series of small skirmishes until today. The delay of Schofield's and Palmer's command squabble from yesterday's attack allowed the Confederates to strengthen their defenses with an abatis, which slowed the Union attack when it restarted on the morning of August 6. On the morning of the 6th general Jacob Dolson Cox commanded the 3rd Division of the XXIII Corps of the Army of the Ohio, under Maj. Gen. John M. Schofield. His 3rd Division provided the main effort in the assault at the Battle of Utoy Creek.
Cox was ordered to make a reconnaissance with one brigade, supporting it with the rest of his division ready to follow up any advantage gained. James W.Reily's brigade was selected to lead the movement, 200 men were added to the skirmish line, which advanced and drove the enemy back from the works in front of the Union right center, where the timber offered some protection. The 104th Ohio was then sent forward to support the skirmishers in a farther advance, which resulted in the enemy being driven into his works along the entire length of the ridge above the Utoy Creek Valley. Encouraged by conditions thus far developed, Reilly now advanced with his whole brigade and assaulted the main line of entrenchments. After crossing Utoy Creek, the men became entangled in the network of fallen trees, many of which were cut only half off, then bent over and interlaced, forming an almost impassable barrier. This was all along present day Cascade Road in SW Atlanta.
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While the men were struggling with these obstructions, they were subjected to a merciless fire from the Confederate works on yet another higher ridge above the Sandtown Road in the present day Cascade Springs Nature Preserve. Now this heavily wooded park still retains the feel for the battle scene 150 years ago today. Confederate reinforcements were constantly arriving. Reilly thought he had flanked the Southerners, but they enveloped him in a ravine of sorts just like at Picketts Mill. Florida troops firing down on Michigan men. The Federals were repulsed with heavy losses by William B. Bate's division and failed in an attempt to break the main defenses to gain the railroad. The route of the Union attack of August 6 traversed across the Sandtown Road and up a steep incline through rough terrain and well-prepared barricades against positions defended by Kentucky's famed Orphan Brigade of Major General William B. Bate's division. The Federals could get no closer to the Confederate trenches than 30 yards before the fierce resistance forced them to fall back. Reily held his ground however, until Casement's brigade was sent to cover his withdrawal.
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In the meantime, back up present day Cascade Road, Hascall had moved his division to the right to endeavor to capture a battery that enfiladed Cox's position. There is still a long trench just south of Cascade up crossing Woodland Terrace where the Confederates had the high ground. Cooper's and Swaine's brigades were moved through the woods beyond Sandtown Road back east toward Atlanta. They were in a position to make the assault before they were discovered. Then both brigades charged up the hill and pressed forward. Taking heavy losses, they drove the enemy back into his secondary works, though they managed to save the guns.
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Late in the afternoon, one of Schofield's divisions managed to flank Bates out of his position, and Hood came to the conclusion that his left flank was being turned. The Confederates fell back to a new line of prepared earthworks closer to the railroad that night. In a complete reversal of the lopsided numbers against the Confederates at Ezra Church, the Union losses today were put at 850, and the Confederate line held with a loss of only 35 killed, wounded, or missing.
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Battle of Utoy Creek Marker is at the intersection of Cascade Road (Georgia Route 154) and Woodland Terrace, on the right when traveling west on Cascade Road. Local Atlanta Artist Mark Stewart, Commander USN, Retired and Major Perry Bennett view the painting by Mr. Stewart on the 145th Anniversary of the Main Attack at Utoy Creek on Cascade Road, SW Atlanta, GA
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The Embattled Ridge Marker is at the intersection of Cascade Road (Georgia Route 154) and Woodland Terrace, on the right when traveling west on Cascade Road. Located between between Dodson Road and Woodland Terrace.The marker is at the base of the ridge assaulted three times by Major General Schofields 23rd Army Corps (USA) and near the junction with the 14th Army Corps under Major General Jefferson Davis (USA) defended by Bate's Division attached to Lt. General Steven D. Lee's Corps (CSA).This marks the Western position held by Bate's Division (CSA) attached by order to LTG Steven D. Lees's Corps (CSA) for defense of the Railroad lines. This was the Main attack on 6 August 1864. Bate's Division received a commendation for its being three times assaulted by superior numbers and in capturing two stands of colors from the Federal Forces engaged. Bate and his division withdrew to the next ridge South West on 7 August 1864. US Forces lost 800 killed and over a thousand wounded and the Confederates lost twenty killed on in this decisive engagement.
https://ec.yimg.com/ec?url=http%3a%2f%2f...2heHtQ--~B A reenactment of Utoy Creek at the Nash Farm near Jonesboro last summer.
Private Samuel Grimshaw of the XIV Army Corps, USA was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his actions against a Confederate Artillery Battery along the Sandtown (Cascade Road) during the main attack on 6 August 1864. He picked up a red hot unexploded Confederate shell and threw it in the Creek saving all the men in his regiment. He suffered severe burns and had scars on his hands for the rest of his life. This happened right at the front parking lot of the present day Episcopal Church of the Incarnation off Cascade Road.
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Private Van Raalte was nominated for the Congressional Medal of Honor for the recovery of the Unit Colors of the 25th Michigan Infantry, Hascalls Division, XXIII Army Corps, USA. The Twenty Fifth Michigan Volunteers took part in the heavy fighting at Utoy Creek, near East Point on the outskirts of Atlanta. On August 6 the regiment lost both color bearers, and the regimental flag was left on the field when the Union forces were driven back. During the night, Ben Van Raalte crept through the Confederate lines and somehow laid hands on the flag which they had lost. He brought it back to his own position, and for the rest of the war he carried the flag which he had rescued. In later years he always proudly carried the flag when the regiment was on parade. It's also interesting that in this fighting, there were Tennessee Union troops, fighting alongside the 14th Michigan as part of the overall XIV Corps, and fighting against brothers, cousins and neighbors from the same place in Tennessee who were in the Confederate ranks. A very amazing battle and piece of the story not often told or much known about.
The Federal Colors were captured by the Confederates of Armstrong's Brigade of Cavalry dismounted as infantry. The Confederate Corps Commander, Lt General Steven D. Lee cited Bate's Division and especially Tyler's and Lewis's Brigades for the repulse of a superior enemy force, capture of 200 prisoners and three stands of Colors.
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Confederate Entrenchments 1864 Marker can be reached from Adams Park Golf Course 1.2 miles from Campbellton Road. Located on the prominent hill upon the Adams Park Golf Course. Looking North West from the former lines of Bates Division CSA immediately after the Main Assault on their advanced position along the Sandtown (Campbellton) Road, at Cascade Springs Nature Preserve. Major General William B. Bate was wounded near this site while inspecting his lines.
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Much evidence of the fighting that took place at Utoy Creek is still evident today in Atlanta's West End neighborhood along Cascade Road. The Confederate trench is still found faintly, between homes up on Woodland Terrace.
Cascade Springs Nature Preserve (2800 Cascade Road) consists of 137 wooded acres and is the core area of fighting for the Battle of Utoy Creek. Many earthworks and rifle pits remain on the property along with the cascading waterfall for which the area was named. They are trying to put up a monument to the Michigan men killed there.
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Here are a few of the Earthworks from the Battle of Utoy Creek. These pics actually didn't come out very good. The trenches are much more obvious in real life than they appear in these pics.
Lionel Hampton Park (Autobahn Park at Flamingo Road) is a wooded 105-acre park that contains hundreds of yards of well-preserved Federal earthworks used during the fighting around Utoy Creek.
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The trenches are just off the new Belt Line Bike Path in the park, but no actual fighting took place in here.
Historic Utoy Primitive Baptist Church and Cemetery (1911 Venetian Drive, SW) is the site of the oldest Baptist Church in Fulton County. During the 1864 Battle of Utoy Creek, Utoy Church served as a military field hospital for captured Union and wounded Confederate soldiers. There are at least twenty-three unknown Confederate soldiers, from Gen. S.D. Lee's Corps of Bate's Division, buried at the Utoy Cemetery. These were among the 35 Confederate casualties of the Battle of Utoy Creek, who died from wounds treated at the Utoy Church field hospital. One additional known casualty of this conflict and eleven known other Confederate veterans are also buried at the Utoy Cemetery. Additionally, a portion of the Rebel defensive line still exists, only a few feet north of the Confederate graves.
http://georgiainfo.galileo.usg.edu/image...marker.jpg
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Historic Utoy Church Marker is at the intersection of Cahaba Drive and Bayberry Drive, on the left when traveling north on Cahaba Drive.
The primary surgeon during the battle, and at the Utoy Church field hospital, was Dr. Joshua Gilbert, who was assisted by Miss Sarah Hendon as a nurse, and other volunteers from the area. Both Dr. Gilbert and Miss Hendon are buried in the Utoy Cemetery with DAR and UDC memorial recognition. Dr. Gilbert was Atlanta's first doctor. He was born in 1815 in South Carolina and was graduated from the old Augusta Medical College in 1845 and then came to Atlanta.
At that time, Atlanta was called Marthasville. Here Dr. Gilbert practiced medicine until his death in 1889. Dr. Gilbert and Miss Hendon treated both Confederate and captured Union soldiers.
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Colonel James S. Boynton, commanding the 30th Georgia Infantry of Brigadier General H. R. Jackson's Georgia Brigade, was treated here after being wounded at the Battle of Utoy Creek.
Colonel Boynton later became President of the Georgia Senate and, on March 5, 1883, the day after the death of Governor Alexander H. Stephens, he became of Governor of Georgia, to serve until a special election could be held. A week after Colonel Boynton's wound and treatment, his division commander, Major General William B. Bate, was treated here (10 August 1864) from wounds received at the Battle of Utoy Creek, and was evacuated to Barnesville, Georgia to recuperate. Union casualties were interred here until 1866, when they were moved by the US Quartermaster's Office at Atlanta, to the National Cemetery in Marietta, Georgia.
https://ec.yimg.com/ec?url=http%3a%2f%2f...onfederate Graves in the Utoy Primitive Baptist Church Cemetery.
We found this recollection of the battle from a member of the Orphan Brigade…..
On August 6th at Utoy Creek on the Sandtown road leading Southwest from Atlanta. The Orphan Brigade and Tyler's Tennessee Brigade had been pushed forward on a kind of salient to the left and front of the main line and touching the little stream known as Utoy Creek. Here occurred the battle known by the above name. I here recognize more distinctly than any other place, so far visited, the general appearance of the ground and especially the falls of the little creek at which on the day previous to the battle I enjoyed the only refreshing bath for several days. It is quite an interesting place to the writer. I here witnessed on the morning of the battle the capture of Lieut. Isham Dudley, in command of the videttes, together with some half dozen men of the Orphan Brigade, they having been completely surprised just at daybreak by a sudden and unexpected rush of the enemy.
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Waterfall still at Cascade Springs nature center.
The writer had the honor to command the skirmish line covering the Confederate position and had a fine opportunity to witness the charge of the two Federal brigades, which were composed chiefly of East Tennesseans, as they swept past the right of our skirmish line, they doubtless not knowing that they were about to encounter breastworks of a formidable character, receiving at the same time a scathing flank fire from the Fourth Kentucky and the skirmish line above alluded to. But they were plucky fellows and charged to within a few yards of our works, paying dearly for their courage and temerity. In this affair we were attacked by a force somewhat superior in numbers, but the advantage that our breastworks afforded us made the victory easily won. I here quote the order of General S. D. Lee, commanding corps, congratulating them and incidentally complimenting the defenders.
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The springhouse still at Cascade Springs.
"The lieutenant general commanding takes pleasure in announcing to the officers and men of this corps the splendid conduct of a portion of Bates' Division, particularly Tyler's Brigade and the Second and Fourth Kentucky regiments of Lewis' Brigade, in sustaining and repulsing on yesterday afternoon three assaults of the enemy in which his loss in killed, wounded and prisoners was from eight hundred to a thousand men, with three stands of colors, three or four hundred small arms and all of his entrenching tools. Soldiers who fight with the coolness and determination that these men did will always be victorious over any reasonable number."
In this engagement we lost only about eighteen men all told, while the enemy's loss in killed alone was 160. I walked over the ground ten minutes after it occurred and found the crest of the hill covered with the dead and wounded, swords, guns, cartridge boxes and other paraphernalia of war.
I found here the thing I need and coveted most of all at this time, a fine black sombrero, which furnished me ample protection thereafter from the intense rays of the August sun. I "swapped" my spoon-bill cap with the fellow who had worn this hat, to which he, of course, raised no objection. Others provided themselves in like manner, which was entirely legitimate, of course, the original owners having no further use for such things. But a flanking column that night, as usual, compelled us to abandon the position of our recent victory and we retired to our original position in the circle of entrenchments.
I have this day, May 13, 1912, carefully and studiously reviewed the very spot on which those 160 men lay dead, and I feel safe in saying that it is not larger than one-half a city block. They were met square in front and were fired on from both flanks, and had they attempted to remain there as much as one hour there would not have been a man of them left on his feet. It was a death trap similar to the one into which we Orphans fell at Dallas.
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I could hardly control my emotions when viewing this place, and my mind was almost overwhelmed as I walked along on top of these still distinct and undisturbed parapets, stopping now and then to pick up a "Yankee bullet" lodged in them, or a small stone that had been thrown out by the Confederates. The surroundings here are perfectly familiar to me, notwithstanding opinions of friends at home to the contrary. So interesting is this spot that I have made the second visit to it.
Here the time from August 7 to 29, 1864, was spent in listening to the music of the rifle and the cannon and an occasional sweet, faint and harmonious symphony from the enemy's brass bands as they played, seemingly for our entertainment, "The Star Spangled Banner," "Hail Columbia," "Yankee Doodle" and, to taunt us, "Dixie." At night they would vary the entertainment by sending up innumerable rockets, which some of the men interpreted to mean the arrival of a new command or shift of position, but to most of us it was "Greek and Hebrew."
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The Battle of Utoy Creek was a major victory for the Confederates and a terrible loss to the Union Army under Sherman. Sherman's original plan for capturing Atlanta, poorly executed as it was by Schofield, forced Sherman into an unwinnable siege war. The significance of the Battle of Utoy Creek has long been underemphasized by historians, because General Sherman underreported his battle casualties and battle failures to Washington, so as not to impair President Lincoln's re-election chances. It was only after General Sherman outflanked the Confederate Army to the south of East Point, and cut the railroad ties at Jonesborough, that he secured a Confederate victory in the Battle of Atlanta, thus ensuring President Lincoln's re-election, and the fall of the Confederacy.
Mixing corps cost the Union unit integrity, Schofield did not have good intelligence on the enemy and Sherman goaded him to make an ill-fated attack at Utoy Creek. The Army major quotes advice he said Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant once gave to Sherman. "Never call an attack an attack if it is not successful."
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Here we find the Union reports for today…..
NEAR ATLANTA, GA., August 6, 1864--9 p. m.
Major General H. W. HALLECK, Washington, D. C.:
We have now developed our line along with the enemy from the Augusta railroad, on our left, to Utoy Post-Office, on our right, and the enemy faces us in force at all points with equal force and superior works.
General Schofield tried to break through at a point near our right with a brigade (General Reilly's), but his men were caught in the entanglement and lost probably 500. We have skirmished heavily along the whole line, using artillery freely, but have made no impression. I will continue to work to the right to find the extreme flank and threaten the railroad, if possible, to draw him out of Atlanta or force him to attack us; but our line is already too extended and weak. By means of his militia (of which he has the whole population of Georgia) he is enabled to use his three regular corps as reserves. Our loss to-day will foot up 1,000. I will soon need re-enforcements, and if you can replace General A. J. Smith at Memphis with African American or fresh troops I would order him here via Decatur. He must now be en route for Columbus, Miss. I have called forward a brigade from Decatur. I am now convinced that General Stoneman surrendered near Macon with 700 of his men, ordering two small brigades to break out and get in. One (Colonel Adams'), with 900 men, is in, but their time is out and they will be discharged. The other brigade (Capron's) I fear was scattered and picked up in detail. His entire loss will be about 1,300. General McCook's loss is 500. Damage done road, cars, and bridges was very large, but the enemystill run cars into Atlanta from Macon.
W. T. SHERMAN,Major-General.
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HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE OHIO, Near Atlanta, Ga., August 6, 1864.
Major-General SHERMAN:
In my movement this morning I made a circuit to the right far enough to strike beyond what appeared to be, and probably was, yesterday the enemy's flank, but found intrenchments of ordinary strength with extensive entanglements in front. Reilly assaulted gallantly and energetically, and I believe with more than ordinary confidence of success on the part of himself and men. But the obstructions were so great that it was found impossible to reach the parapet. Reilly's loss is about 500 men, including many valuable officers. After this failure, I made a much larger circuit to the right for the purpose of reaching the enemy's flank or a point of his line not protected by abatis.
I struck the point where the Sandtown road crosses the main Utoy Creek. Here the enemy's line makes a sharp salient, bending back along the north bank of the creek. The main line was prolonged by cavalry, with artillery, toward the Chattahoochee. General Hascall sent two brigades, under General Cooper, to clear this flank, which he did by crossing the creek, but too late for any further operations. We are intrenching the ground we have gained, and will be ready for work again in the morning. The losses in Cox's and Hascall's divisions are probably not more than 1,000 men. I have not thought it advisable to put in more men than the Twenty-third Corps to-day, except in making demonstrations to draw the enemy from the points of attack. General Johnson has been with me during the day and has promptly executed all my orders. Colonel Warner, who left me late this evening, can explain to you more fully our situation. If you take the blue colored map of Atlanta and vicinity, the forks of the Utoy Creek southeast of the town of Utoy is, I believe, Hascall's position. I will determine more accurately tonight.
J. M. SCHOFIELD, Major-General.
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Clearing the Utoy Cemetery.
The rebel reports of course were more succinct....
ATLANTA, August 6, 1864.
Honorable J. A. SEDDON:
The enemy made two assault to-day on Finley's and Lewis's brigades, of Bate's division, in Lee's corps, both of which were handsomely repulsed, with loss to them.
J. B. HOOD, General.
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Historic Cascade Mansion and Gardens Bed and Breakfast, Circa 1860 the home of Dr William F. Pool, son in law of the first Physician in Atlanta, Dr Joshua Gilbert. Used as a Headquarters during the Civil War, Battle of Utoy Creek Ga, Aug 6-7, 1864 by Confederate Major General William B. Bate and occupied by troops of Major General Jacob D. Cox of the US XXIII Army Corps. Period Antebellum home with a large porteco, beautiful heart pine floors and great character. Used as a private residence by the Pool and Stevens Family. Established as a Bed and Breakfast by Dr. Walker and beautifully furnished by Lieutenant Colonel Bennett as a historic home in the 18th century. Located inside the library is the museum of the Battle of Utoy Creek and siege of Atlanta. Bus tours of the Battlefield, walking tours and mounted horseback excursions are available. Battlefield tours are given each Sunday at 1:00 PM until 4:00 PM for $10.00. Please RSVP by calling (404)-564-1283.
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