The Battle of Pickett's Mill (May 27, 1864) was fought in Paulding County, Georgia, between Union forces under Major General William Tecumseh Sherman and Confederate forces led by General Joseph E. Johnston during the Atlanta campaign in the American Civil War. Sherman sent Brigadier General Thomas J. Wood's division, supported by other formations, to turn Johnston's right flank, but the Federals were repulsed with heavy casualties when they ran into tenacious Confederate opposition. Author Ambrose Bierce, an eyewitness, later wrote an account of the battle titled The Crime at Pickett's Mill.
Earlier in May 1864, Sherman's army successfully compelled the Confederate Army of Tennessee to fall back to a strong defensive position at Allatoona Pass. Unwilling to attack Johnston's lines frontally, Sherman attempted a wide sweep around the Confederate western flank. Johnston quickly shifted his army southwest to block the move, and Sherman's first thrust at his opponent's defenses was defeated at New Hope Church. Both sides entrenched their positions. A day after Sherman's troops were beaten at Pickett's Mill, the Confederates launched an attack on the Union right flank which was repelled at Dallas. The two armies faced each other in the New Hope Church and Dallas lines until Sherman extended his left flank toward the railroad, compelling Johnston to retreat to a new position on June 4.
In the Atlanta campaign, William T. Sherman commanded a force made up of three armies drawn from the Military Division of the Mississippi. On April 30, 1864, the Army of the Cumberland led by Major General George H. Thomas included 73,000 troops and 130 guns, the Army of the Tennessee under Major General James B. McPherson numbered 24,500 soldiers and 96 guns, and the Army of the Ohio directed by Major General John Schofield reported 11,362 infantry, 2,197 cavalry, and 28 guns. Sherman's forces were supported by 25,000 non-combatants consisting of railroad employees and repair crews, teamsters, medical staff, and Black camp servants. Thomas' army was made up of Major General Oliver Otis Howard's IV Corps, Major General John M. Palmer's XIV Corps, Major General Joseph Hooker's XX Corps, and the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Cavalry Divisions led by Brigadier Generals Edward M. McCook, Kenner Garrard, and Hugh Judson Kilpatrick, respectively. McPherson's army consisted of Major General John A. Logan's XV Corps and Brigadier General Grenville M. Dodge's Left Wing of the XVI Corps. Major General Francis Preston Blair Jr.'s XVII Corps joined McPherson's army on June 8. Schofield's small army included his own XXIII Corps and a cavalry division led by Major General George Stoneman. The IV and XX Corps each counted 20,000 soldiers, the XIV Corps had 22,000, the XV Corps numbered 11,500, and the XVI and XVII Corps each included about 10,000 men.
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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