Video
June 22, 1865: The Battle of Kolb Farm
Transcript
[audio description] Against a black backdrop the National Park Service Arrowhead logo stands above the words Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park. Against a dark gray backdrop are the words the 157th Commemoration of the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain, June 22, 1864, The Battle of Kolb Farm, presented by volunteer Andy Cole.
Welcome to Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park and our 157th Battle Commemoration. Now what we have here in front of you is a log cabin that was owned by the Kolb [Kulb] family, sometimes pronounced Cobb. I've even seen it pronounced Culp. And you see all the trees around you. These are not original to the battle. And something that's going to be very important to the battle though is going to be the roads that you see. Especially, the road to the left side of your screen. That's going to be a key part of this battle. Now, additionally looking around you, this would have been somewhere, it's a working farm, so it would have been much more clear, especially the woods behind me would have been clear-cut and actually to the right and left of me. So that being said, Kolb farm, this is going to be the reason you know why we have a Battle of Kennesaw Mountain. See as Sherman sees the position that he's going to have to assault, he says, “you know I don't want to attack.” He knows he doesn't want to attack, a head-on attack at Kennesaw Mountain. So he decides to turn the Confederate flank. To go around behind the Confederates, hopefully getting along one of these roads to Marietta. And that's what you're seeing on the left side of your screen right now. You're seeing a lot of traffic that is moving into Marietta. This is was originally the Powder Springs Marietta Road and it is still in use today, greatly expanded, as you can see. And this is the direction Sherman is going to be coming from basically, my front, behind you, moving towards Marietta. Now what the Confederates did is they realized that Sherman had moved, was moving towards their flank and Johnston, instead of withdrawing, which is basically what he did throughout the entire Atlanta Campaign, he decided to shift one third of his army from the far Confederate right over at Brushy Mountain, through Marietta and then basically down the road behind me. So, if you're, you know, looking down this road, there are Confederates down that road on the eve of the battle. Now the battle is going to be on June 22, 1864. So that's five days prior to the main battles here at Kennesaw Mountain. Now in this instance the Confederates are going to be attacking. They are going to be moving down the Powder Springs Road, heading to the Union line and what will happen is the Confederates are going to put out what are called skirmishers. Skirmishers, their job, is designed to screen any attack to make sure nothing surprises the army. Well some of those skirmishers will be captured and the Union army knows, “Oh wait a minute, the Confederates are now in front of us and not over on Brushy Mountain.” And they know that an attack is imminent. So immediately, the Union line will stop and they will entrench and wait for the late afternoon attack that they know is coming. And on the afternoon of June 22nd, 1864, battle will break upon the Union line. 11,000 Confederates under General Hood's Corps will move through, basically the right and left of us, moving towards the Union line and attempt to crush the Union flank. Under General Hooker, who is the 20th Corps commander, he will have from your screen the left side of your screen, he has the left part of the Union line. And then the Union line will actually bend at a 90-degree angle farther back with the 23rd Corps under John Schofield. And the Confederates are going to move into this position. Now in the trees you see around me, in this area would have been the 14th Kentucky, under Colonel Gallup. And the 14th Kentucky they're going to be fighting from behind trees in a very untraditional style. It's not linear. They're going to slow down and try and break up some of the Confederate attack. So, the Confederates on the left-hand side of the road, they are going to be separated from the Confederates on this side of the road, and that's where the Union artillery will come into play. You see, Hood, he's hoping that he hits the Confederate the, pardon me, the Union flank and what he's going to hit is an entrenched position with artillery all along it. And many of the accounts talk about how the artillery was the definitive part of the Union defense here at Kolb farm, because all along the line there are artillery batteries that are firing into the Confederates. In many cases, the Confederates are getting within canister range. Which is in in Civil War parlance, that's very close combat. And they're firing directly into the Confederate lines. Now with Hood, I need to address something. Many people talk about you know if you read enough about Hood, people will inevitably say that he was, he was a wounded Confederate general and he was, um, how shall we say under the effects of laudanum, which is an opium derivative. And if you look at some of the recent research, actually he probably wasn't. He probably was not under any kind of external influence when he decided to attack here. Now as he's attacking, as I said earlier, he's trying to crush the Union flank and he is not going to be able to catch them in motion. He catches entrenched soldiers. So, in this battle, this battle is a Confederate defeat. Approximately 1,000 Confederates are casualties, and these are casualties that the Army of Tennessee can ill afford to lose. But when you think about it, Hood's orders were very simple. They were to stop the Union advance. And while the attack is not successful in the terms of turning the Union flank, it is successful in stopping the Union advance. Now you may be asking yourself, okay fine, so it stopped the advance. Why didn't Sherman just go farther around? So, Sherman here after the battles of June 22nd, he decides, well in his words, he says, “Flanking is all played out.” So, after the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain, Sherman determines, “I’m going to attack the Kennesaw Mountain Line, I’m going to break through the Confederate line here.” And instead of going around, Sherman is having a hard time supplying his troops. Right now we're approximately, we're at the basically the end of the Battlefield Park, approximately eight miles from the visitor center. This is at the extreme limit of Sherman’s supply line. As far as he's having a hard time supplying his troops who are at this end of the army. And the reason being is just like the roads that are here beside me, well, the roads back then are going to be dirt and they are going to be very much affected by the rain. And about two weeks prior to this battle it had rained constantly. One Confederate general, he said, “It rained for 40 days and 40 nights and the ark, it rested upon Kennesaw Heights.” So, when you look at the fact that we're already at the end of the supply line, Sherman has encountered a massive Confederate force. Sherman makes the determination, “You know what, let's go ahead and attack now at Kennesaw. Hopefully break the line before the Confederates can withdraw even further into Georgia." So, I want to thank you very much for my brief talk here about the Battle of Kolb Farm. If you get a chance, please as you go throughout this anniversary weekend, there are a number of programs that over a myriad of topics. We encourage you to watch any of those. If you get a chance, like us on multiple social media platforms. We're out there, just hit that subscribe button or hit that like button and we'll be happy to show you some great content. Thank you very much for attending our program and have a great day.
[audio description] Against a dark gray backdrop are the words Thank you for joining us for the 157th Battle of Kennesaw Mountain. For more programs please like and subscribe to our social media sites.
Description
[Sat 10:00 am ET] Five days prior to the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain, on June 22, 1864, Union and Confederate forces met near the Kolb Farm. Please join volunteer Andy Cole as he discusses the importance of this location and how this battle effected the large conflict five days later. This video highlights Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park Driving Tour Stop #7: Kolb Farm.
Duration
9 minutes, 31 seconds
Credit
NPS/ A. Cole
Date Created
06/26/2021
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