Kennesaw Mountain was the site of a critical battle in the Union’s campaign for Atlanta during the Civil War. After the Union penetrated Confederate lines at Chattanooga, the Confederates retreated to Atlanta. General William T. Sherman outflanked Confederate General Joseph Johnston for months, continuously driving his forces back. On June 27, 1864, at 8 a.m., Sherman’s force of over 100,000 men launched an attack on Kennesaw, specifically Pigeon Hill and Cheatham Hill. Sherman believed Cheatham Hill to be a weak point in the Confederates’ line, because it lay outside of the Southern fortification and could not be reached by the fire of the surrounding Confederate soldiers, also known as the “dead angle.”

The Union soldiers faced heavily entrenched “hardened confederate veterans,” while trying to scale the significant hillside, and were completely vulnerable to enemy fire. Union Lieutenant Joseph Boyce wrote, “It was really sickening to see those brave fellows struggling up that valley….No troops could stand such a concentrated fire.”

While General Daniel McCook’s Union brigade awaited the order to advance, Fife Major Alason F. Webber of the 86th Illinois Infantry borrowed a rifle and positioned himself behind a tree inside the “dead angle.” Musicians usually served as stretcher-bearers, but Webber acted beyond the call of duty by providing significant cover fire allowing his Union comrades to crawl to safety. Webber’s bravery that day eventually earned him the Medal of Honor, thirty-two years after his heroic act.

After just three hours, the major fighting at Kennesaw Mountain ended in a stalemate that would last for the next seven days. With bodies rotting under the blistering summer heat, Confederate troops offered a two-hour armistice to bury their brothers, friends, and comrades. “I am sick. Yes sick and tired of bloodshed,” said US Army Surgeon Claiborne J. Walton.

After the armistice, the soldiers returned to their respective sides and continued their deadlock. Finally, on the far right flank, Union troops broke through and pressed forward towards Atlanta, forcing General Johnston to pull all troops out of Kennesaw and back to a more suitable defensive position along the Chattahoochee River. The battle resulted in 3,000 Union and 1,000 Confederate deaths.

Credits and Sources:

Researched and written by Davis Conway, Lee Rolader, and Armaan Painter, students at the Westminster Schools

Object label. Battle of Kennesaw Mountain. Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park, Kennesaw, GA.

Baumgartner, Richard A., and Larry M. Strayer. Kennesaw Mountain, June 1864: A Bitter Standoff at the Gibraltar of Georgia. Huntington, WV: Blue Acorn Press, 1998.

Fowler, John D. "Battle of Kennesaw Mountain." New Georgia Encyclopedia. Dalton State College. Last updated September 12, 2005. http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/battle-kennesaw-mountain.

Key, William. The Battle of Atlanta and the Georgia Campaign. Atlanta, GA: Peachtree, 1981.

Scaife, William R. The Campaign for Atlanta. 4th ed. Atlanta, GA: W. R. Scaife, 1993.

Wall text. The Battle at Cheatham Hill.Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park, Kennesaw, GA.