Dalton I was a Civil War engagement fought in Georgia, 1864. It was a Confederate victory.
From Vicksburg, Mississippi, Sherman launched a campaign to take the important railroad center at Meridian and, if the situation was favorable, to push on to Selma and threaten Mobile, in order to prevent the shipment of Confederate men and supplies. To counter the threat, Confederate President Jefferson Davis ordered troops into the area. While these operations unfolded, Thomas determined to probe Gen. Johnston's army in the hope that Johnston's loss of two divisions, sent to reinforce Lt. Gen. Leonidas Polk as he withdrew from Meridian to Demopolis, Alabama, would make him vulnerable. Skirmishing and intense fighting occurred throughout the demonstration. At Crow Valley on the 25th, Union troops almost turned the Rebel right flank, but ultimately it held. On the 27th, Thomas's army withdrew, realizing that Johnston was ready and able to counter any assault.
Between February 22 and February 27, 1864, Union and Confederate forces clashed repeatedly around Whitfield County, Georgia, in a string of engagements that came to be known as the First Battle of Dalton.
Grant, then a Union major general, floated an idea to George H. Thomas: test Johnston's defenses and see whether sending two divisions away to bolster Confederate forces elsewhere had left the Army of Tennessee exposed to attack. Acting on this, Thomas launched a reconnaissance in force on February 22, sending three columns of troops forward. Days of fierce skirmishing followed, but Thomas ultimately pulled his army back, recognizing that Johnston's men remained strong enough to fend off any serious push against them. The toll fell unevenly, with 300 Union officers and soldiers killed or wounded compared to only 140 casualties on the Confederate side.
Interstate 75 has cut through significant portions of the site where fighting once took place, while commercial growth along US Route 41 has further altered the terrain. Dalton's expansion as a city has also encroached upon the historic ground, and the once-open spaces of Crow Valley and Tunnel Hill have since been carved into subdivisions.
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