A Glimpse of Humanity At Kennesaw Mountain
When opposing forces paused in the middle of heated battle to help one another rescue the wounded.
The Setup
In late 1864, William Tecumseh Sherman and his forces began their March to Sea. Sherman used Atlanta as his jumping point on his way to the Atlantic. But before taking Atlanta, the Union forces engaged the Confederate Army in the Atlanta Campaign.
The Confederate Army of Tennessee, under the command of Joseph E. Johnston was tasked with one deliverable. That was to halt Sherman’s advance on Atlanta. Through the early summer of 1864, Sherman and his forces attempted several flanking maneuvers against the Confederate Army of Tennessee. Each was successful.
The Confederates were forced to withdraw from several heavily fortified positions. For nearly 70 miles the two forces would engage in on and off skirmishes. That is when Johnston took up position on Kennesaw Mountain.
Digging in at Kennesaw Mountain
With a summit of 1,808 feet, Kennesaw Mountain stands tall and offers views to downtown Atlanta. The Confederate Army had dug in atop Kennesaw Mountain. They were well positioned to defend any Union attack.
The fighting at Kennesaw Mountain was as ferocious as any prominent Civil War battle. A Union soldier said of the Confederate artillery response to a Union bombardment: “Kennesaw smoked and blazed with fire, a volcano as grand as Etna.”
Major General Benjamin F. Cheatham’s and his Confederate division hunkered in behind their breastworks. In front of them they had placed sharpened stakes and obstacles. They awaited a Union charge.
The Union forces were planning to drive the Confederates off the hill with brute force. If they were successful, the road to Atlanta would be wide open. If not, they would sustain massive casualties.
An Unexpected Truce
The morning of June 27th, the Union soldiers advanced. Their assault included crossing over 500 yards of exposed slope to reach the Confederate line. Twelve pound cannons opened fire from Confederate positions on the hillside.
Troops who escaped the artillery and onslaught of gunfire found themselves bogged down by stakes and obstacles. One Tennessee officer recalled the scene in a simple sentence: “The slaughter was terrific.” Despite many attempts to break the Confederate line, the Union Army failed. As the lines of blue uniformed men began to break, the Confederates increased the barrage.
The dry grass along the hill caught fire, sparked by embers from the artillery and musket fire. The fire spread quickly. As it did, it consumed wounded Union soldiers. Both sides could hear the agonizing screams of those unable to crawl to safety.
A colonel in the Arkansas regiment named William H. Martin couldn’t take the scene any longer. He ordered his men to help the wounded soldiers. Under a white flag, the Confederates clambered out of their trenches. Union forces across the battlefield saw what their enemy was doing and joined the effort. Friend and foe had entered a temporary truce.
Seconds ago the two sides were engaged in heated battle. Now they teamed up in a frantic effort to pull the wounded from the flames. For a brief moment, the two armies were unified in goal.
When they had finished their work, the two sides returned to their respective positions. Shortly after, the battle would start again. But, for a brief moment, in the throes of an awful civil war, there was a glimmer of humanity.
Not Long to Atlanta
In the aftermath of Kennesaw Mountain, Sherman’s armies suffered 3,000 casualties. Johnston and the Confederates sustained 1,000. It would be Sherman’s last large-scale frontal assault.
Though some consider Kennesaw Mountain a Union defeat, Sherman did not let the casualties deter his strategy. On July 2nd, Sherman’s forces flanked the Confederates and they were forced to withdraw from Kennesaw Mountain.
Just six days later, Sherman would outflank Johnston again. The Union Army successfully crossed the Chattahoochee River. The last major geographic barrier to Atlanta had now been overcome.
History for the Hurried:
August 17, 1943: Allied troops complete the conquest of Sicily after just 38 days during World War II. This gave the Allies control of the Mediterranean and also led to the downfall of Benito Mussolini and Italy's eventual withdrawal from the war. Alex Kershaw has a great book called “The Liberator” that starts at the beaches of Sicily.
August 24, 1572: Thousands of Protestant Huguenots were massacred in Paris and throughout France by Catholics, in what became known as the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre.
Nice article.