Video
Pigeon Hill: Going to the Top
Transcript
Hey guys, Ranger James here with Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park, welcome to our awesome 157th Anniversary of our battle virtual programming. I'm standing here at Pigeon Hill, which was one of the engagements during the battle and around me you'll see a rocky terrain. Behind me you'll see a green forestry as well which was pertinent to the battle itself.
Now very quickly I'd like to kind of give an overview of what exactly happened here and how it pertains to the rest of the assault on the Kennesaw line. After the failed encroachment on the on the confederate line of June 22, 1864 at the Kolb Farmhouse, Sherman realizes that he's not going to be able to rely on his old tactics of outflanking the confederates as he had been throughout the Atlanta Campaign so what he does is he settles in on an idea to engage in a full-on assault of the confederate line. So we have one assault that takes place as this diversionary assault in the front field in front of the visitor center that comes up against the foot of the mountain and the skirmishers there, then we have two main assaults- one at Pigeon Hill here and another one at a place called Cheatham Hill, just about three miles to the south of us and the idea there was to overrun the confederate line with union troops, try to push past them, capture Marietta and drive the confederates back towards the Chattahoochee River. Now in each of those instances that doesn't work out at all and the assault is a is a failure. Sherman is eventually able to get around the confederates down near Ollie's Creek and they fall back to Smyrna on July 3rd but today we're going to be talking specifically about the engagement that took place here at Pigeon Hill. Now Pigeon Hill wasn't called Pigeon Hill during the battle- that name was actually given to the hill at the turn of the century because of the pigeons that used to roost here. They don't roost here anymore but they used to back then. At the time of the battle, it was just known as a hill or it was basically a 200 foot precipice and a spur off of Little Kennesaw mountain. And commanding the confederate line there along Little Kennesaw and here at Pigeon Hill is Samuel French. After the war, Samuel French is going to pin an autobiography called "Two Wars" and he describes what had happened here on this day. He goes on to say: "My position was established on Kennesaw Mountain on June 19, 1864 with my left on the Gilgal to Marietta road (modern- day Burnt Hickory Road) connected with Walker's Division of Hardee's Corps and running up the spur of Little Kennesaw, across its top and up to the top of Big Kennesaw connecting with General Walthall on the right. Observations of the enemy and artillery dueling continued from June 19th to June 26th and on the morning of June 27th there appeared great activity among the staff officers of the enemy all along my front and up and down the lines. To better observe, my staff and I stationed ourselves on the brow of the mountain sheltered by a large rock where we had a commanding view of the surrounding country as far as the eye could reach." If any of you guys have ever hiked along Big and Little Kennesaw you might encounter a place called French's Rock and that's where we believe this particular occurrence took place. "Presently as if by magic they're sprung from the earth a host of men. In one long wavering line of blue the infantry advanced and the battle of Kennesaw Mountain began. We sat there perhaps an hour enjoying a bird's eye view of one of the most magnificent sights ever allotted to man- to look down upon a hundred and fifty thousand men awaiting the strife of battle on the plane below. As the infantry closed in, the blue smoke of muskets marked out our line for miles. Through the rifts of smoke we could see the assault on Cheatham and there the struggle was hard and lasted longest. At nine o'clock a courier informed me that General Cockrell's position was being attacked in force and General Ector was directed with his brigade to Cockrell's aid. The assaulting column struck Cockell's and Ector's works near the center, recoiled under the fire, swung around into a steep valley, were exposed to fire from right and left flank. They seemed to melt away or sink into the earth to rise no more. The assaulting column to our front was that of General McPherson who selected our position for the attack as General Thomas had selected Cheatham's for his main assault." So that was the Confederate perspective, namely that of General French and it's interesting when we talk about the perspective of the actual foot soldiers who fought here that sort of dichotomy of perspective between the General safe in his perch on top of the mountain describing this in a sort of poetic way versus the guys down here fighting for their lives. The Union attack that occurred here on Pigeon Hill it was actually on three different fronts there were three brigades, 16 regiments, comprising about 5500 men. You had a Walcutt's brigade which attacked the gorge- the little space in between Pigeon Hill and where it connected to Little Kennesaw. Then you had General Smith's brigade which actually attacked just behind me up the slope the western slope of the hill. Then you also had Lightburn's brigade which we'll get into a little bit later on but they swung around just south of Burnt Hickory Road and uh attacked across the open field near where the parking lot is today for Pigeon Hill and then eventually tried to come up the hill on the flank. Now just talking about the individual soldiers and their experiences here we have a quote from Corporal George S. Richardson who is with the 6th Iowa uh he was actually attacking with Walcutt's brigade in the gorge and he had seen fighting as far back as Shiloh in 1862 so he was not a stranger to combat- he'd seen some of the worst fighting of the war but the way that he describes this is uh pretty visceral. He says: "Our lost and killed and wounded was heavy. I was not hurt though a ball came near enough through to cut off my canteen and then put three holes in another man's coat, but without any other injury. The assault was an awful battle. I was thankful to get out so easy for it looked like almost certain death to charge where we did over the piles of fallen timber of a mountainside and right onto the very points of their bayonets. I have thought that I seen men look fiendish but I never did before. They stood by their work until we rushed within 50 yards of them then they poured death and destruction among us but we did not stop for that but crouching as low as possible we went up. They saw that we had come for everything they had." Now the best way that I can describe the fighting at Cheatham Hill is frenzied; the best way I can describe the fighting here at Pigeon Hill is basically a confused mess. In a lot of different cases the union army had no idea where the confederate line was at and they were taking fire from a lot of different angles at this point and they really did the best they could to try and make it up this hill and they got to within a stone's throw of the confederate line. Now the fighting that occurred in the field just across Burnt Hickory Road where Lightburn's brigade came across this road to the southern side of it and they had to navigate through some more or less impassable marshy terrain. It had been raining for about two weeks before this battle and then what they did is they assaulted a picket line that was consisting of seven companies of the 63rd georgia. Now the 63rd georgia at this time was an entirely green uh troop it had been serving as a guard for railways in Savannah up until they were brought and this was one of their first engagements. There's seven companies of them in a picket line versus six entire regiments under Lightburn. They're outnumbered almost six to one. So what ends up happening is these inexperienced troops they wait until the union army is within 30 yards of them before they fire their first volley but by then it's too late- the union army falls on them and the fighting devolves the hand-to-hand combat. Lieutenant Colonel Robert A. Fulton of the 53rd Ohio who is part of that assault he writes: "The rebels fought with the desperation worthy of a better cause. His own men never showed more gallantry- mounting the works, shooting the enemy and beating them over their heads with the butts of their guns." They were basically able to break through the 63rd Georgia's line. The 63rd Georgia fell back to the main line. They tried to get reinforcements to come up in the confusion they were unable to so the union army was able to turn around and actually start fighting up Pigeon Hill and we have another couple of quotes from that brigade as they were trying to make their way up the hill that really shows you how how visceral again and violent this fighting was. Major Thomas T Taylor of the 47th Ohio says: "This regiment at Pigeon Hill faced the sheeted flame filled with missiles giving forth ten thousand shrieks and tones intensified by the cries of agony and the torture of the wounded." On his belly, he crawls up the hill in search of cover: "When I got up with the line I lay down behind a small rock from which I could see the greater portion of the material part of the line. The rebs soon got the range of the rock and every time I opened my mouth or gave an order zip became a bullet across the stone. At various points I sheltered myself behind trees and had the infinite time and again of hearing balls intended expressly for my body strike the tree behind which I stood or sat and more than once the dirt and bark was knocked in my face." Private Joseph Gressan of the 83rd Indiana says: "The scene of this day's fights beggars all description. The ground all around the mountain is exceedingly rough- deep ravines, steep hills, sloughs, open fields and thickets are intermingled together in indescribable confusion. Over such and all of these we had to charge so it was difficult to tell our position or see from what quarter danger threatened us most. Sometimes the missiles of death were showered upon us and seemed to come down from over our heads and shells would strike and plow up the ground covering us in dirt and, bursting in the earth, would kill or wound some and hoist others from a chosen position. These things mingled with the cries of the wounded and dying of both armies made the scene terrible." Within an hour of the attack the confederates had more or less expended all of their ammunition. It was said that each confederate soldier fired at least 60 rounds apiece and so we actually have a description of a couple of brothers with the 3rd and 5th Missouri who went back to the rear of the line to try and get more ammunition. At that point, the confederates were actually using the natural terrain to their advantage so they're actually rolling boulders down against the union army as they were coming up. But William Irvin of the 3rd/5th Missouri says: "Side by side we climbed the rugged heights, crossed over the summit and reached the safety of the ordnance train asking for 3000 rounds of Enfield ammunition. We found red tape there. The officer wanted a requisition. We had no time to comply. An old musket stood nearby. I picked up the old and familiar gun which was loaded and capped and said 'here's my requisition! Give us three thousand rounds now and do it quickly!' It was done. We took one box each on our shoulders and one between us. We climbed the rugged heights from the east and began the descent to the west. Two or three hundred feet from the summit, a shell coming from the front burst between us (front and rear I know not which) and scattered us 30 or 40 feet apart. The box between causing a lively miniature battle it all exploded as so many firecrackers in a barrel were more terrific. When the shock was over I asked John if he was hurt and he answered that he was not (that's his brother). In the midst of the bursting shell we gathered each 1000 rounds. Once in line the ammunition was distributed." Within just a few hours the troops of the 15th Corps as described by French basically melted out into the ground and they took what cover that they could but the assault again was not successful. So in many cases those that weren't captured or killed they had to wait until nightfall to occur before they were able to actually get back to the union line. In total it is said that the 15th Corps that participated in this attack took on about 571 killed or wounded which ended up being about four times as many as the confederate defenders, which is typical in a battle where you're attacking an entrenched enemy as was the case here.
Well that wraps up our talk here on Pigeon Hill. I hope that you guys enjoyed and I hope that you come back next time. We're going to have another series of videos uh airing today exclusively about Cheatham Hill and the fight that happened there so I'll see you there. Have a good one!
Description
[Sun 10:00 am ET] For the 157th Battle Anniversary of Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park, please join Ranger James at the top of Pigeon Hill, one of the three main locations the Union army disastrously tried to assault on June 27th, 1864.
This video highlights Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park Driving Tour Stop #4: Pigeon Hill.
Duration
12 minutes, 33 seconds
Credit
NPS/ J. Pratt
Date Created
06/27/2021
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