SIMPLY CRIMINAL
William T. Sherman never mentioned the Battle of Pickett’s Mill in his memoirs, even though—or perhaps because—it was his second bloodiest defeat in the 1864 Atlanta Campaign, after Kennesaw Mountain. Yet in the embittered memory of one Union officer, Lieutenant Ambrose Bierce, Pickett’s Mill was a “criminal blunder.” As examined here, it is also a tragic Civil War example of how an intended flank attack could turn into a bloody frontal assault, with catastrophic results.
Sherman launched his campaign from Chattanooga, Tenn., on May 5, 1864. Two weeks later, in Georgia, he had pushed General Joseph E. Johnston’s Army of Tennessee from Dalton through Resaca and Cassville. Despite being reinforced by more than 20,000 Confederates (including coastal garrison troops and Lt. Gen. Leonidas Polk’s three Mississippi infantry divisions), Johnston kept retreating along the Western & Atlantic Railroad, his supply line to Atlanta. By May 21 he had taken a position at Allatoona Mountain, some 45 miles south of Dalton. About that time, Sherman commanded 92,000 men against Johnston’s 70,000—the most favorable odds Southerners would hold in the campaign, actually.
“Cump” Sherman knew the strength of this position, having visited the area in 1844 during his younger U.S. Army days. For the first time in his advance, Sherman ordered his troops to pack rations for a march away from the railroad, heading for Dallas, Ga., 12 miles southwest of Allatoona. Before Sherman’s men set out on the morning of May 23, Rebel cavalry had alerted Johnston about the likely enemy movement. Johnston was able to reach Dallas first, lay out a defensive line, and wait for the Yankees to test it.
Test it they did on the afternoon of May 25 at New Hope Church—a Methodist chapel four miles northwest of Dallas. This was the right of Johnston’s six-mile line, held by Lt. Gen. John B. Hood’s Corps. A testy Sherman, annoyed that his movement was being blocked by Johnston’s rapid deployment, ordered an attack. In two hours, the Federals were repulsed with losses of 1,664 killed, wounded, and captured or missing. Casualties
