Embarking on his mission “to move upon the enemy’s line of communications, (and) destroy them at various points between Marietta and Chattanooga,” Maj. Gen. Joe Wheeler and his Confederate cavalrymen rode northward from Atlanta on Aug. 10, 1864.
Federal armies had the city under siege, and Wheeler’s mission was to break the stranglehold by striking the Northerners’ supply line, the Western & Atlantic Railroad.
Over the next few days, the Southern horsemen achieved some success. Wheeler’s dispatch to his superior, Gen. John Bell Hood, claimed the destruction of a mile of track near Big Shanty (today’s Kennesaw), additional rail damage near Calhoun, and the capture of over 1,000 “beef-cattle and a few wagons.” A mention of damage to the W&A “for several miles between Resaca and Tunnel Hill” closed his report.
Wheeler shifted his attention to the next target, Dalton.
Approaching the city on Aug. 14, Wheeler and his riders found a Federal garrison under the command of Col. Bernard Laiboldt. The Southern troops soon surrounded the town, and skirmishing broke out along the opposing lines. The gray coats, for once, vastly outnumbered the invaders: Wheeler fielded some 5,000 troopers against a force of fewer than 500 Northern soldiers.
Wheeler sent a note across the lines to Laiboldt. “To prevent the unnecessary effusion of blood, I have the honor to demand the immediate and unconditional surrender of the forces under your command at this garrison,” Wheeler said, taking a page straight from the U.S. Grant’s book of surrender terms.
He probably was surprised by the Laiboldt’s reply: “I have been placed here to defend this post, but not to surrender.”
Wheeler granted a one-minute pause to reconsider. Laiboldt held fast and refused to personally meet with the Southern general.
Having exhausted his arsenal of negotiation tactics, Wheeler ordered his troops to open fire. After enduring two hours of flying Southern lead, Laiboldt ordered his men to fall back to a previously prepared position east of the railroad. Here they held, despite the arrival of artillery to assist Wheeler’s assault. Refusing a flag of truce from Wheeler, the Federals continued to resist. Skirmishing went on for most of the night and into the early morning hours.
Arriving reinforcements – Northern troops out of Chattanooga under Maj. Gen. James Steedman – prompted Wheeler to vacate the area around Dalton. This renewed the hopes of the Northerners. A Federal soldier wrote afterwards that the men, “with an uncommon cheering … rushed out of the works and drove the enemy … out of sight.”
Col. Thomas J. Morgan, leading the 14th U.S. Colored Infantry, accompanied Steedman’s Force. Morgan boasted of his men’s performance in his after-action report: “It was their first encounter, and they evinced soldierly qualities; the men brave and the officers cool.” Newspaper accounts of the African-American troops mentioned more than one soldier uttering the cry, “Remember Fort Pillow” – a reference to the alleged massacre of black Federal soldiers in a Tennessee battle – as they attacked the Confederates.
Wheeler’s decision to vacate the field placed a victory in the Federal tally sheet for the Atlanta Campaign; and despite the damage inflicted upon some of the rail between Marietta and Dalton, Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman claimed Wheeler’s raid “has injured us but little, the railroads being repaired about as fast as he broke them.”
In his post-raid report, Wheeler stated, “The interruption of railroad communication by the destruction of the road was for 14 days, commencing on … the day the road was first struck near Marietta.”
Absent his cavalry, Hood operated without his main reconnaissance force. Sherman would attempt to exploit this opportunity.
Michael K. Shaffer is a Civil War historian, author and lecturer. He can be contacted at: www.civilwarhistorian.net
For more on the Civil War in Georgia, follow the AJC: http://www.ajc.com/s/opinion/ and http://www.myajc.com/s/battleofatlanta/
About the Author
Keep Reading
The Latest
Featured
