The Gales of November - Part 5

"To the Rear, March!"

Confederate defenses on the south bank of the Chattahoochee River in the summer of 1864.

The day after the June 27 Battle of Kennesaw Mountain, Johnston issued orders to prepare for the inevitable retreat.  Now sitting just under 30 miles from Atlanta, the field of operation for Joe Johnston and the Army of Tennessee was narrowing considerably. For the next three days Sherman sent subordinates scrambling to continue their probing actions in an effort to discover a way around the Confederate left flank.  Skirmishing continued all along the Kennesaw line but no major effort was made to push forward.  The Union forces had suffered their second largest single battle loss of the campaign on the slopes of Johnston’s mountain defenses and were in no hurry to repeat the ordeal.  On July 1, Johnston pulled out of the Kennesaw trenches and fell back the Smyrna line which was a shorter and stronger position.  Sherman gave pursuit but did so only with an abundance of caution for fear of running headlong into another Confederate citadel dug into the North Geogia clay.

The building of the Smyrna line had been ordered by Johnston sometime around June 30, after he was satisfied that Sherman was temporarily held at bay and he felt at liberty to begin preparations to pull back.  As the Southern men continued to hold position in front of their Northern foe, Confederate engineers began construction of this new defensive line of trenches.  This position straddled the Western & Atlantic Railroad which was the vital rail supply line for Sherman’s armies. This same rail line that supported Johnston from the South, was from the northern approach, aimed like a dagger at the heart of Atlanta, Sherman’s hard-fought objective and military goal.  The line was bordered on the east by Rottenwood Creek and Nickajack Creek on the west which lay before the rural industrial site known as Ruff’s Mill.  This location formed the right anchor of Johnston’s army.

Nickajack Creek, the extreme western flank of Johnston's army, where the Army of the Ohio forced their crossing.

Although the Sawmill is no longer there, the 19^th century Grist Mill still stands on Nickajack Creek.

On July 3, the Union Army of the Ohio under Major General Schofield moved into position opposite Ruff’s Mill and began probing the Confederate line.  Skirmishing intensified as artillery joined in.  On the next day, July 4, Independence Day, Sherman, having regained his nerve as well as his impatience, ordered a general attack on both Confederate flanks.  As the attack got underway, Union troops forced a crossing of the Nickajack Creek and drove in the Army of Tennessee’s skirmishers. The advance continued with the attack directed at Ruff’s Mill where the fighting became sharp and sustained as the Union pressure mounted.  Confederate forces fell back but continued to be effective in slowing the Union’s advance.  By the end of the day, Johnston received word that both flanks were being actively engaged and that there was a real threat of having them turned.  If this happened, the Army of Tennessee might well be surrounded and completely cut off from its route of retreat.  The end result would surely be the loss of Atlanta and possibly the complete destruction of Johnston’s army.  That evening he ordered a withdrawal to the Chattahoochee River line, the strongest prepared position yet of the entire campaign.

Georgia Governor Joseph E. Brown. The Governor became increasingly alarmed at Johnston's Fabian tactics and became an outspoken critic of the General.

In seven days, General Joseph E. Johnston had given up two strong defensive positions, fallen back some 12 miles, and was now falling back once again to the Chattahoochee River, a location that would narrow the distance to Atlanta to roughly 11 miles.  In Richmond a crisis was brewing as President Jefferson Davis was growing increasingly frustrated with Johnston’s retrograde movements.

Throughout the campaign thus far, Johnston had abandoned one strong defensive position after another.  It was true that he was “bleeding” Sherman’s army.  However, Sherman had a lot of army to bleed and Johnston didn’t.  These retrograde movements, no matter how militarily sound, began to draw the ire of the political class.  After the Battle of Resaca, Johnston’s retreat prompted Georgia Governor Joseph E. Brown to exclaim Johnston was “falling back too rapidly… and would give up Georgia without a fight”, eventually making the claim that the beleaguered General would continue “retreating to the Gulf”.  Fears spread and growing criticism of Johnston reached President Jefferson Davis in Richmond.  Other politicians joined in as rumors were circulating that the Army of Tennessee’s morale was collapsing and civilians were beginning to panic.  As Johnston took up the Chattahoochee line, Davis, after repeated telegrams to Johnston failed to get a convincing response, decided to act.  After Davis’s cabinet and military advisors unanimously concluded that Johnston would not fight for Atlanta, Davis was convinced only a more aggressive commander can save Atlanta if it could be saved at all.  On July 15, Davis drafts an executive order relieving Johnston of command.  The next day, July 16, 1864, Johnston is formally relieved and Major General John Bell Hood is promoted to full General and named as the new commander of the Army of Tennessee.

President Jefferson Davis and General Joe Johnston had endured a strained relationship since the beginning of the war.  His growing concerns over Johnston’s strategy as well as the General's cautious and secretive manner led to the General’s dismissal. In his place, President Davis made the decision to elevate John Bell Hood to Lieutenant General and command of the Army of Tennessee.

Hood was a fighter and everyone knew it.  Now he was the choice to lead the Southerners of the Army of Tennessee forward.  The hour was late and to some, there was a growing awareness that the sun was beginning to set on the Southern Confederacy.  On Hood’s shoulders rested the hope of a people under siege.  To the north in Virginia, Lee was doing all he could to hold Grant at bay in the fighting that raged around Richmond and Petersburg.  There would be no more reinforcements lumbering down the tracks from Lee’s army.  There were no more men to be brought over from neighboring states.  Hood was a fighter, that was sure. He had proved his worth on many fields of battle. Beginning as a Captain of cavalry at the outbreak of the war, he was quickly promoted to Major and placed in command of the cavalry on the Virginia Peninsula under Brigadier General John B. Magruder's forces. Early on he caught the eye of General Lee and soon had command of his own infantry regiment, the 4th Texas. By February of 1862, Hood had been promoted to Brigadier General of the soon to be famed Texas Brigade. Hood distinguished himself at the Battle of Gaines Mill on June 27, 1862, when he led the Texas Brigade in a frontal assault against the Union V Corps under Brigadier General Fitz John Porter. Late in the day Hood's Brigade, leading Whiting's Division, crossed Boatswains Swamp and crashed into Brigadier General George Sykes’s Regular Division United States Regulars along with units of Brigadier General John H. Martindale's and Brigadier General Charles Griffin’s brigades and elements of Brigadier General Daniel Butterfield’s Brigade. The Texans shattered the Union right collapsing Porter’s line and forcing the Union soldiers to retreat toward the Chickahominy River, setting the stage for the fights at Savage's Stations, Glendale, and the bloody Battle of Malvern Hill fought on July 1, after which the invading armies of General George Brinton McClellan were successfully turned back from the gates of Richmond.

Porter's line atop the heights at Gaines Mill. Whiting's Division led by Hood's Texas Brigade is seen in the distance emerging from the woods along Boatswains Swamp.

At Gaines Mill, Hood survived without a scratch, but 566 officers and men in the Texas

Flag of Hood's Texas Brigade with battle honors for Seven Pines, and Gaines Farm (Gaines Mill) painted on the hoist.

Brigade were killed or wounded. As the battle subsided in his area and shots sputtered out and moved away from the immediate scene, Hood broke down and wept at the sight of the his men on the field as they lay dead and dying, strewn about the slopes of the heights where the Union line had been. Walking the scene of action and the place where Hood's Texans broke through the Union position, Major General Stonewall Jackson remarked, "The men who carried this position were truly soldiers indeed." By late July, Hood had been promoted to Major General and commanded his own Division in the Corps of Lieutenant General James Longstreet. Hood had most definitely shown his metal in battle. His eagerness for the fight was obvious, his devotion complete, his bravery was without question. Hood was a warrior in every sense of the word, this was true, but could he captain a great army?  Time would tell.

Sitting just outside Atlanta, news came into the Union camps about the dismissal of Johnston.  At first a rumor then confirmed, it quickly became common knowledge that the man appointed to take Johnston’s place was the gallant Texan, General John Bell Hood.  The reactions were mixed among Generals and staff.  Having honed his martial instincts over four years of war, Sherman seemed to grasp the situation quickly identifying its character on the fighting that was sure to come in the next days and weeks.  Holding a stoic presence among his Lieutenants, once he heard the news, he answered this revelation by stating simply, “Hood is a bold fighter. I know him well. He will hit hard—and that is what I want.” - JLB