Battle of Atlanta, July 22, 1864

The Battle of Atlanta, fought east of the city on July 22, 1864, was the bloodiest day of Sherman’s Atlanta Campaign. Confederate Gen. John Bell Hood tried to roll up the Union left, and Union Maj. Gen. James B. McPherson was killed in the fighting.

• DateJuly 22, 1864
• WhereEast Atlanta, Fulton County
• CasualtiesAbout 12,140 total
• ResultUnion victory

What Happened

Two days after the Battle of Peachtree Creek, Hood pulled his main army back from Atlanta’s outer defenses to the inner line, hoping Sherman would follow. He sent Lt. Gen. William J. Hardee’s corps on a 15-mile night march to strike the exposed Union left and rear east of the city, with Wheeler’s cavalry raiding the supply line and Cheatham’s corps ready to hit the Union front.

The march took longer than planned, and Hardee could not attack until afternoon. By then McPherson had moved Grenville Dodge’s XVI Corps to guard his flank, and two of Hardee’s divisions ran straight into it. As McPherson rode out to see the fighting, he was shot and killed, the second-highest-ranking Union officer killed in action in the war.

Around 4 p.m. Cheatham’s corps broke through the Union line at the Hurt House. Sherman massed 20 cannon on a knoll near his headquarters to shell the breach, and Maj. Gen. John A. Logan’s XV Corps counterattacked to restore the line. Hood’s losses were heavy, and Atlanta fell to Sherman six weeks later.

Quick Facts

More Civil War Sites

• Georgia Civil War Battles
• Pickett’s Mill Battlefield
• Civil War Sites