Battle of Griswoldville | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Part of the Sherman's March to the Sea of the American Civil War | |||||||
| |||||||
Belligerents | |||||||
![]() | ![]() | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Charles C. Walcutt Charles R. Woods | Joseph Wheeler Pleasant J. Philips | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
3,000 [1] | 2,300 [1] | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
94 total, 13 dead, 79 wounded, 2 captured [1] | 1,123 total, ContentsDaily Constitutionalist (Augusta, GA, December 6, 1864) reported a loss of 614 killed, wounded and missing. |
The Battle of Griswoldville was the first battle of Sherman's March to the Sea, fought November 22, 1864, during the American Civil War. A Union Army brigade under Brig. Gen. Charles C. Walcutt fought three brigades of Georgia militia under Brig. Gen. Pleasant J. Philips, at Griswoldville (an industrial town), near Macon, Georgia, and continued its march toward Savannah.
Sherman, victorious in the lengthy Atlanta Campaign, had refitted his army and recently departed from Atlanta on a march designed to reach the Atlantic Coast at Savannah. The right wing of Sherman's force was the Army of the Tennessee, commanded by Maj. Gen. Oliver Otis Howard. It encountered the first resistance to its march in Griswoldville. Walcutt was ordered to make a demonstration with his brigade (2nd Brigade, 1st Division, XV Corps) of six infantry regiments and one artillery battery (Battery B, 1st Michigan), toward Macon to ascertain the disposition of enemy troops in that direction. Union cavalry under Brig. Gen. Hugh Judson Kilpatrick had struck Griswoldville on November 21, capturing a train of 13 cars loaded with military supplies, and burning the station and some factory buildings.
Early on November 22, a detachment of Confederate cavalry under Maj. Gen. Joseph Wheeler attacked the 9th Pennsylvania Cavalry on the Gordon Road, killing one man, wounding two, and capturing eighteen. The 9th then charged the Confederates and drove them back nearly a mile across a creek, where the enemy was found in force, posted in order of battle. The Confederates advanced and drove in the Union skirmishers, but the 9th Pennsylvania and 5th Kentucky Cavalry made a saber charge that forced the Confederates to retire to their works. At this point, Walcutt's infantry brigade and artillery battery joined the cavalry.
Walcutt threw out a strong skirmish line that drove the Confederates back through Griswoldville, after which, by orders of division commander Brig. Gen. Charles R. Woods, he fell back to the Duncan farm and took up a position on the edge of the woods, with an open field in his front and his flanks protected by a swamp. Here he threw up a barricade of rails and logs and a battery of artillery was also brought up. About 2 p.m., three brigades of Georgia militia under the command of Brig. Gen. Pleasant J. Philips attacked. The Georgia Militia had been ordered from Macon to Augusta, thinking the latter was Sherman’s next objective, and only accidentally collided with Walcutt's force.
The militia advanced in three compact lines, but were met by a shower of canister. They succeeded, however, in reaching a ravine about 75 yards from Walcutt's works, where they reformed their lines and from which they made three desperate charges on the Federal position, all repulsed with heavy losses. The militia then tried to turn the Federal flanks, but finding these well protected by cavalry, retired to the ravine, remained there until dark, and then withdrew from the field. General Walcutt was wounded early in the engagement, and brigade command fell to Col. Robert Francis Catterson of the 97th Regiment Indiana Infantry.
The Union losses were 13 killed, 79 wounded, and two missing. Confederate losses are estimated at 51 dead, 472 wounded, and about 600 captured. General William Tecumseh Sherman's march to the sea continued. [2]
After the Civil War, this industrial community of Griswoldville—a source for Confederate military supplies during the war—was not rebuilt.
The American Battlefield Trust and its partners have saved a 17-acre tract of the battlefield on Baker Road near Little Sandy Creek. It is managed by Georgia State Parks. A roadside monument and interpretive wayside markers are at the site on Baker Road near the intersection with Griswoldville Road. [3]
The First Battle of Bull Run, called the Battle of First Manassas by Confederate forces, was the first major battle of the American Civil War. The battle was fought on July 21, 1861, in Prince William County, Virginia, just north of the city of Manassas and about thirty miles west-southwest of Washington, D.C. The Union Army was slow in positioning themselves, allowing Confederate reinforcements time to arrive by rail. Each side had about 18,000 poorly trained and poorly led troops. The battle was a Confederate victory and was followed by a disorganized post-battle retreat of the Union forces.
The Battle of Stones River, also known as the Second Battle of Murfreesboro, was a battle fought from December 31, 1862, to January 2, 1863, in Middle Tennessee, as the culmination of the Stones River Campaign in the Western Theater of the American Civil War. Of the major battles of the war, Stones River had the highest percentage of casualties on both sides. The battle ended in Union victory after the Confederate army's withdrawal on January 3, largely due to a series of tactical miscalculations by Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg, but the victory was costly for the Union army. Nevertheless, it was an important victory for the Union because it provided a much-needed boost in morale after the Union's recent defeat at Fredericksburg and also reinforced President Abraham Lincoln's foundation for issuing the Emancipation Proclamation, which ultimately discouraged European powers from intervening on the Confederacy's behalf.
The Battle of Perryville, also known as the Battle of Chaplin Hills, was fought on October 8, 1862, in the Chaplin Hills west of Perryville, Kentucky, as the culmination of the Confederate Heartland Offensive during the American Civil War. Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg's Army of Mississippi initially won a tactical victory against primarily a single corps of Maj. Gen. Don Carlos Buell's Union Army of the Ohio. The battle is considered a strategic Union victory, sometimes called the Battle for Kentucky, since Bragg withdrew to Tennessee soon thereafter. The Union retained control of the critical border state of Kentucky for the remainder of the war.
The Battle of Missionary Ridge, also known as the Battle of Chattanooga, was fought on November 25, 1863, as part of the Chattanooga Campaign of the American Civil War. Following the Union victory in the Battle of Lookout Mountain on November 24, Union forces in the Military Division of the Mississippi under Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant assaulted Missionary Ridge and defeated the Confederate Army of Tennessee, commanded by Gen. Braxton Bragg, forcing it to retreat to Georgia.
The Battle of Kennesaw Mountain was fought on June 27, 1864, during the Atlanta Campaign of the American Civil War. It was the most significant frontal assault launched by Union Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman against the Confederate Army of Tennessee under Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, ending in a tactical defeat for the Union forces. Strategically, however, the battle failed to deliver the result that the Confederacy desperately needed—namely a halt to Sherman's advance on Atlanta.
The First Battle of Kernstown was fought on March 23, 1862, in Frederick County and Winchester, Virginia, the opening battle of Confederate Maj. Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson's campaign through the Shenandoah Valley during the American Civil War.
The Battle of Cross Keys was fought on June 8, 1862, in Rockingham County, Virginia, as part of Confederate Army Maj. Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson's campaign through the Shenandoah Valley during the American Civil War. Together, the battles of Cross Keys and Port Republic the following day were the decisive victories in Jackson's Valley Campaign, forcing the Union armies to retreat and leaving Jackson free to reinforce Gen. Robert E. Lee for the Seven Days Battles outside Richmond, Virginia.
The Battle of Belmont was fought on November 7, 1861 in Mississippi County, Missouri. It was the first combat test in the American Civil War for Brig. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, the future Union Army general in chief and eventual U.S. president, who was fighting Major General Leonidas Polk. Grant's troops in this battle were the "nucleus" of what would become the Union Army of the Tennessee.
Alfred Iverson Jr. was a lawyer, an officer in the Mexican–American War, a U.S. Army cavalry officer, and a Confederate general in the American Civil War. He served in the 1862–63 campaigns of the Army of Northern Virginia as a regimental and later brigade commander. His career was fatally damaged by a disastrous infantry assault at the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg. General Robert E. Lee removed Iverson from his army and sent him to cavalry duty in Georgia. During the Atlanta Campaign, he achieved a notable success in a cavalry action near Macon, Georgia, capturing Union Army Maj. Gen. George Stoneman and hundreds of his men.
The Battle of Iuka was fought on September 19, 1862, in Iuka, Mississippi, during the American Civil War. In the opening battle of the Iuka-Corinth Campaign, Union Maj. Gen. William Rosecrans stopped the advance of the Confederate Army of the West commanded by Maj. Gen. Sterling Price.
The siege of Corinth was an American Civil War engagement lasting from April 29 to May 30, 1862, in Corinth, Mississippi. A collection of Union forces under the overall command of Major General Henry Halleck engaged in a month-long siege of the city, whose Confederate occupants were commanded by General P.G.T. Beauregard. The siege resulted in the capture of the town by Federal forces.
The Orphan Brigade was the nickname of the First Kentucky Brigade, a group of military units recruited from Kentucky to fight for the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War. The brigade was the largest Confederate unit to be recruited from Kentucky during the war. Its original commander was John C. Breckinridge, former United States vice president, and Kentucky's former senator, who was enormously popular with Kentuckians.
The Battle of Buck Head Creek was the second battle of Sherman's March to the Sea, fought November 28, 1864, during the American Civil War. Union Army cavalry under Brig. Gen. Hugh Judson Kilpatrick repulsed an attack by the small Confederate cavalry corps under Maj. Gen. Joseph Wheeler, but abandoned its attempt to destroy railroads and rescue Union prisoners of war.
The Battle of Honey Hill was the third battle of Sherman's March to the Sea, fought November 30, 1864, during the American Civil War. It did not involve Major General William T. Sherman's main force, marching from Atlanta to Savannah, Georgia, but was a failed Union Army expedition under Brig. Gen. John P. Hatch that attempted to cut off the Charleston and Savannah Railroad in support of Sherman's projected arrival in Savannah.
Robert Houstoun Anderson was a West Point graduate, an infantry officer in the United States Army and later served as a Brigadier General in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War, After the war he served as the Chief of the Police for the city of Savannah for 23 years and was twice appointed to serve on the Visitor's Board of the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, NY. He played an important role with reunification efforts after the war.
The Knoxville campaign was a series of American Civil War battles and maneuvers in East Tennessee during the fall of 1863 designed to secure control of the city of Knoxville and with it the railroad that linked the Confederacy east and west, and position the First Corps under Longstreet for return to the Army of Northern Virginia. Union Army forces under Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside occupied Knoxville, Tennessee, and Confederate States Army forces under Lt. Gen. James Longstreet were detached from Gen. Braxton Bragg's Army of Tennessee at Chattanooga to prevent Burnside's reinforcement of the besieged Federal forces there. Ultimately, Longstreet's Siege of Knoxville ended when Union Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman led elements of the Army of the Tennessee and other troops to Burnside's relief after Union troops had broken the Confederate siege of Chattanooga. Although Longstreet was one of Gen. Robert E. Lee's best corps commanders in the East in the Army of Northern Virginia, he was unsuccessful in his attempt to penetrate the Knoxville defenses and take the city.
The 80th Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment was an infantry regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. The regiment was composed of ten companies that drew primarily from eight southern Illinois counties. Over the course of the war the regiment traveled approximately 6,000 miles, and was in over 20 battles.
Charles Carroll Walcutt was an American surveyor, soldier, and politician, and a maternal cousin to Davy Crockett. He served as a general in the Union Army during the American Civil War, in which he was wounded twice.
Pleasant Jackson Philips was an American planter, banker, and soldier. He served as a Confederate colonel and brigadier general in the Georgia Militia during the American Civil War. In his capacity as a militia general, he commanded the Confederate infantry force of Georgia militia in the 1864 Battle of Griswoldville, Georgia. After the war he resumed his banking career.
The Helena Artillery (1861–1865) was a Confederate Army artillery battery during the American Civil War. The unit was known by several other designations during the war including; Clarkson's Battery, Company A, Shoup's Artillery Battalion, Calvert's Battery and Key's Battery. The unit was occasionally assigned to artillery battalions from other states, so the Arkansas unit was at various times designated as Company C, 20th Alabama Light Artillery Battalion and later as Company H, 28th Georgia Artillery Battalion.