Marietta [Operations] was a Civil War engagement fought in Georgia, 1864. It was a Union victory.
During the Atlanta Campaign, Sherman maneuvered Johnston's Confederate army out of several successive defensive positions in Cobb County. This strategy spared the Union army from making costly frontal attacks on the well-situated Confederates.
Sherman first found Johnston's army entrenched in the Marietta area on June 9. The Confederate's had established defensive lines along Brushy, Pine, and Lost Mountains. Sherman extended his forces beyond the Confederate lines, causing a partial Rebel withdrawal to another line of positions. After further pressure and skirmishing from Union forces, Johnston withdrew to an arc-shaped position centered on Kennesaw Mountain on June 18 and 19. Sherman made some unsuccessful attacks on this position but eventually extended the line on his right and forced Johnston to withdrawal from the Marietta area on July 2-3.
Between June 9 and July 3, 1864, fighting unfolded in stages across Cobb County, Georgia, as Union and Confederate armies clashed during the Civil War. Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman commanded the Union side in this engagement, coming up against Gen. Joseph E. Johnston's Confederate Army of Tennessee, which had dug in around Marietta, Georgia.
Across those four weeks, fighting flared up in several separate clashes. Union and Confederate troops met at Pine Mountain on June 14, then at Gilgal Church the following day. Kolb's Farm saw action on June 22, and Kennesaw Mountain became the site of a major clash on June 27. Pressure from Sherman compelled Johnston to pull his men back partway on June 18, a move made necessary to keep his supply lines secure. Complete success for the Union side, however, would not come until July 3.
While examining Union troop movements outside Marietta, Georgia on June 14, 1864, Leonidas Polk, a Confederate general and second cousin to former president James K. Polk, lost his life at Pine Mountain when a Federal 3 inch (76 mm) artillery shell struck him. He had been accompanied by his staff at the moment of his death.
The shelling began after Sherman noticed a group of Confederate leaders standing together in plain view. Polk, William J. Hardee, and Johnston, along with their respective staffs, had gathered in a spot that left them dangerously exposed. Sherman identified the group to Maj. Gen. Oliver O. Howard, who led the IV Corps, and instructed him to open fire on the men.
Capt. Peter Simonson's 5th Indiana Battery carried out the order almost immediately. Two rounds landed near the officers in quick succession, the second closer than the first, prompting the men to scatter. Before Polk could escape, a third shell tore into his left arm, passed through his chest, and exited through his right arm before striking a nearby tree and detonating. The blast nearly severed him in two.
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