The Battle of Noonday Creek was a series of combat events in the Atlanta campaign of the American Civil War that took place between June 10 and July 3 of 1864.
Brigadier General Kenner Garrard was ordered by Major General William Tecumseh Sherman to interpose between Major General Joseph Wheeler's Confederate cavalry and detached infantry at Noonday Creek, which was just a few miles from Sherman's headquarters at Big Shanty. When, after a week, Garrard failed to do so, two brigades of infantry and three brigades of cavalry with artillery support were advanced against the Confederate positions on June 9. Two charges failed, and the Union Army retired from the field. However, Wheeler's cavalry was moved to a position between Bell's Ferry and Canton Road.
On June 10, the 17th Indiana Infantry Regiment pushed the enemy across Noonday Creek after heavy fighting.
On June 15, a division of Union cavalry attacked and was repelled. On June 17, the Federals pushed Wheeler down Bell's Ferry Road, where he retired to Robert McAffee's house located at the intersection of today’s Barret Parkway and Bells Ferry Roads. This location is often confused with the house of Doctor John McAfee, which was located at the intersection of the Canton and Marietta Road, and the Old Alabama Road in Woodstock. On June 10 Colonel Robert H. G. Minty’s First Cavalry Brigade (U.S.) consisting of the 4th U.S. Cavalry, 4th Michigan Cavalry, and 7th Pennsylvania Cavalry Regiments, and the Chicago Board of Trade Battery crossed Noonday Creek on the Old Alabama Road, and proceeded to McAfee’s Crossroads, where Doctor McAfee’s Home was located. Upon approaching the crossroads the 7th Pennsylvania became heavily engaged, but drove in the Rebel pickets, and occupied the crossroads. While Minty was deploying his line he was attacked by two brigades of Major General William T. Martin’s division, and the entire division of Wheeler's cavalry. After fighting for about an hour the 7th Pennsylvania made a saber charge, and drove the Confederates south on the Canton and Marietta Road for a mile, until they entrenched on the crest of a hill. After an unsuccessful assault on that position, Minty withdrew back across Noonday Creek on the Old Alabama Road. Minty’s Brigade remained in position near McAfee’s Crossroads skirmishing daily with Wheeler’s Confederate Cavalry until June 20.
On June 19, the Union Army attacked but was driven off with heavy losses.
On June 23, Colonel Eli Long, USA, crossed Noonday Creek with his brigade. He was attacked at that time, and repelled the attackers.
The 4th Michigan Cavalry was attacked by 4,500 of Wheeler's cavalry at Latimar's Mill on Little Noonday Creek near Noonday Church.
The American Civil War (1861–1865) was the deadliest conflict in American history, killing an estimated 620,000 to 750,000 soldiers and an unknown number of civilians. The Confederate States of America, formed by eleven seceding Southern states, faced the Union in four years of warfare across 23 states and territories. Major engagements included First and Second Bull Run, Antietam (the bloodiest single day in American history, September 17, 1862), Chancellorsville, Gettysburg (July 1–3, 1863), Vicksburg (surrendered July 4, 1863), and Sherman's March through Georgia and the Carolinas (1864–1865). President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, transforming the war's stated purpose to include the abolition of slavery and enabling the enlistment of approximately 180,000 Black men in the United States Colored Troops. Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. The war resolved the question of secession and ended American slavery, though Reconstruction would face sustained resistance in its attempt to secure civil rights for formerly enslaved people.
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