More #Onthisday

Jun 27, 2025, 7:47 PM

By all accounts, the day of June 27th, 1864 dawned hot, humid, and miserable. Three days prior, Sherman issued orders to his generals to assault the Confederate position along the Kennesaw Line. While Johnston's army may not have known exactly what was coming, there was still a palpable tension in the air.
Private Samuel Watkins of the 1/27th Tennessee wrote "On the fatal morning of June 27th, as the sun began to mount toward the zenith, everything became quiet... We all knew it was but the dead calm before the storm".
Between 8 and 9am, U.S. forces made coordinated attacks against the Confederate positions. The first of these would be a diversionary attack at the base of Kennesaw Mountain and up the saddle between it and Little Kennesaw.
At the same time, 3 federal brigades of roughly 5,500 attack the Confederate works on Pigeon Hill and to the south of Little Kennesaw. Private Joseph Grecian of the 83rd Indiana wrote "The scene of this day's fight beggars all description".
Shortly after this, 5 brigades of U.S troops assaulted the Confederate salient known as the "Dead Angle' at Cheatham's Hill. With almost 20,000 engaged between the two armies, this was the largest and costliest attempt to break the line that day.
The one Union success of the day was made at the far south of the Confederate line when Schofield's Army of the Ohio pushed the Confederates back a mile along Olley's Creek. While this position would allow Sherman to reinforce and push the flank later, the cost was significant. Roughly 4,000 casualties between both armies were later reported. To quote Private Watkins again, "Hell had broke loose in Georgia, sure enough".