Video
Rocky Face Ridge: The Atlanta Campaign's Opening Number
Transcript
Hey guys. This is Ranger Jake Boling here with another virtual program from Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park. I'm standing a beautiful May day here in our open, in our front memorial field here at Kennesaw Mountain with the illustrious Kennesaw Mountain behind me.
Today's program is going to be on Rocky Face Ridge which is the first real battle in opening actions of the Atlanta Campaign. Now, if you have paid attention to our upcoming event newsletters and kind of our things that we post online you may have seen in the details that we were hoping to have author and historian Robert Jenkins helping us do this presentation. Unfortunately, due to scheduling conflicts we were unable to kind of cinch that in and so today you're stuck with your favorite, Ranger Jake.
So while I am not the subject matter expert that Mr. Jenkins is, I will do my best to give you a solid program and and talk about this really interesting battle. We do hope to work with Mr. Jenkins a little bit later on through the campaign. So stay tuned for that.
So Rocky Face Ridge was not the biggest or bloodiest battle of the Atlanta Campaign by far, but it is a super interesting opening action for a lot of different reasons. Number one, it would foreshadow a lot of the things that would later happen and kind of the strategies both by Sherman and Johnston. Number two, it really highlights the mutual respect and kind of chess match that is going on between these men and that the Atlanta Campaign would be. And number three, there's a there's use of a lot of really interesting strategies. Um, there's use of, Johnston's use of geography is really highlighted here and so on. And and really there is a big what-if moment at the end of this battle that a lot of historians and folks that talk about this think that things would have gone a lot different had this battle changed and had a certain detail been different.
So to to set the stage for you, after their defeat in the Battles of Chattanooga and Chickamauga, the Army of Tennessee under Bragg at the time, Braxton Bragg, has wintered in the north Georgia town of Dalton, just a tiny town just off, uh, several miles uh east of the Western Atlantic Railroad. So after Joseph Johnston takes control of that, he, um, he starts preparing, making his preparations for the Atlanta Campaign and his Army of Tennessee, which is about 44-ish thousand strong, is in the town of Dalton.
Now between Dalton and the railroad, the Western Atlantic Railroad, is Rocky Face Ridge. Rocky Face Ridge is a huge --as the name you know details --a rocky ridge. It stands about 1500 feet at its highest point and it is a huge rock wall that is between the railroad and Dalton. Johnston knows. Again, we can't, when we talk about the Atlanta Campaign, we can't overstate the importance of that railroad to both sides. Johnston knows that when Sherman comes into Georgia in early May that he has got to stick to that railroad, and lucky for Johnston, that railroad cuts through Rocky Face Ridge and makes it a heavily, easily defendable position. And Johnston takes full advantage of this.
So, you're going to see a map popping up on the screen right now of kind of the geography of, of that area. You're gonna see, kind of um, you see Rocky Face Ridge. You'll see where the railroad cuts through and you'll see where the town of Dalton is in relation to that. So you can kind of get an idea of what I'm talking about when we go through this. Now through Rocky Face Ridge, there are only three paths that any number of people can get through. Okay, there is the main path that goes along the railroad which is Mill Creek Gap. Okay, that is where the railroad passes through and while that's the biggest pass, it is still narrow, rocky and again easily defendable. Just south of that is the even smaller Dug Gap, okay. And 14 miles south of that, near the town of Resaca, is the tiny Snake Creek Gap that cuts through. These are the only three passes through Rocky Face Ridge. Sherman knows this. Johnston knows this.
So to give an idea of some of that, you're going to see a picture now. It's a George Barnard picture, black and white picture of Buzzard's Roost which was kind of a high point just between Mill Creek Gap and um Dug Gap there. Or I'm sorry just around Dug Gap. That you can kind of see the terrain here and again, see how, what what these two men are working with. Johnston is using this to his advantage. He knows that Sherman is going to see this and he knows that this is a very easily defendable position. So what he does is, he takes his, the strongest of his forces. He takes Hood's corps and Hardy's corps. Hood on the Confederate right. Hardy just south of him and lines them up along Rocky Face Ridge, making this into an armed fortress. Okay, now knowing, again this is where that concept of a chess match comes in, knowing that Sherman will not be likely to try and attack and force his way through the gap there, he, he anticipates what Sherman is going to do. He anticipates that Sherman is going to try a flanking maneuver to the Confederate, to the far Confederate left and try to take advantage of Snake Creek Gap.
So while Johnston's strength, main strength, is on the face of that at his heavily... at his easiest and most strongest defensive position, he has a few regiments that are put down there to keep eyes on Snake Creek Gap. Not only that, but he cuts pioneer roads, with the Pioneer corps, he cuts roads connecting Dalton, the towns of Dalton and Resaca, 14 miles of them. So that if he needs to reinforce that position, he can do so quickly. Or if he needs to retreat, he can do so quickly.
And on top of all of this, when he gets word that Jefferson Davis, the president, is sending Polk's corps who's in Alabama to reinforce Johnston's position, Johnston's idea is that he's going to have Polk's corps shore up that Confederate left to really try and, you know, hedge all his bets.
Now, we have an interesting quote to kind of, to kind of set the stage for what's going to happen. And this is from a Lieutenant in Kentucky, who is a Confederate, who's on the top of Rocky Face Ridge there. And this kind of again gives you an idea of the geography and kind of sets the stage and shows these men's connection to history, which is interesting. So Lieutenant Lot Young says, "We indulged the hope and wondered whether Sherman would undertake to force the pass in Rocky Face Mountain through which the railroad and wagon road both ran. We thought of Leonidas and the Spartans and hoped for an opportunity to imitate and, if possible, eclipse that immortal event at Thermopylae. But not so, the wily Sherman, that old fox, was too cunning to be caught in that or any other trap." And that's exactly true.
So Sherman, not being any dummy and knowing Johnston's strategy, when he comes around the corner and he sees what he's presented with. He does exactly that. That wily, old Sherman hedges his bets and does something that kind of akin to what happened here at Kennesaw Mountain. So starting on May 8th, Sherman starts demonstrations or fake attacks to, on the Confederate right and to just south of that, with Schofield's Army of the Ohio and, uh, Thomas's Army of the Cumberland. Starts demonstrations at Johnston's, at the, at the biggest part of his defensive position to distract from McPherson's Army of Tennessee, which just like Sherm... just like Johnston thought that he would do, is McPherson sweeping wide to the south to the Confederate left to take advantage of Snake Creek Gap.
So I'm going to, you're going to see a battle map here that put together by the American Battlefield Trust. And you'll see some of those true positions. You'll see, of course, the red for the Confederates; the blue for the Union to give you an idea of these men's position.
Now, McPherson and Resaca and Snake Creek Gap is not on that map because it's just south of that map, just at the bottom. So you're not going to see that. So on the 8th everything kicks off. We have demonstrations happening at the Confederate, at the far Confederate right and just south of that at Mill Creek Gap and Dug Gap. Okay, not a lot of casualties there but that's where the heaviest of the fighting is happening. Sherman is, uh, is sending men out there, sending heavy artillery. Johnston's men are having no problem defending that position. There's, and again we talk about interesting strategies, at one position where, uh, Mill Creek, is toward the center of the line, where it cuts west, the men or the Union are trying to push through. And what, what the Confederates do there is, actually the Pioneer Corps, actually uh dam up the river and flood that area.
Okay, the um it makes it, again that's kind of an interesting strategy and it's fairly effective. Okay, not to mention the rest of the geography. So everything's kicking off. The demonstrations are happening. McPherson sweeps wide and cuts through Snake Creek Gap and makes it. Now, here's where this is a big deal. He makes it almost completely undetected and gets out of the gap on May 9th. And this is why this is such a key moment. Sherman is elated. He's quoted as saying, "I've got Joe Johnston dead!" All McPherson has to do is push. He pushes, he cuts the railroad off, because again the railroad, another railroad runs from connecting Dalton to Rasaca. He cuts the railroad off. He can surround Johnston's Army of Tennessee, cut him off from supplies. And the Atlanta Campaign could be over right now.
Sherman is elated. BUT this is that moment that hysteria...historians, there's always a what-if moment and this is one of the biggest ones for the Atlanta Campaign. McPherson holds. And the reason he holds look good on paper. He sees the pioneer roads that Johnston has cut and he knows that Johnston's position could be easily reinforced. And he also begins getting shelled by Polk's artillery. And Polk's corps is now sitting there, which is 15 to 20,000 strong. And he gets spooked. He knows that if he pushes too hard and gets caught out in the open that he could be surrounded and his men would be overwhelmed. So he falls back to the entrance of Snake Creek Gap.
Sherman was less than pleased and McPherson, he would kind of criticize McPherson for that until the end of his days even in his memoirs later on. McPherson holds his position at Snake Creek Gap and the fighting continues. Now, it's as again you know, it's not quite over yet. Johnston seeing...What Sherman then does over the next several days until around May 14th or so is starts reinforcing McPherson's position. Since McPherson was unable to cut off the Army of Tennessee, he begins to reinforce his position slowly. Johnston, seeing that his flank is being threatened and knowing that Polk's corps could be overwhelmed down there, makes an artful retreat. And I say an artful retreat in that he takes his men and quickly moves them down those pioneer roads and holes up in the town of Resaca in his prepare, pre-prepared works. This would be kind of foreshadowing for how many, most of the rest of the Atlanta Campaign would go. And then we get, shortly after, the Battle of Resaca, which we'll talk about in another program. So, as I mentioned at the start of this, okay, this was not the biggest, bloodiest battle of the Atlanta Campaign. But it really highlighted the chess match that this campaign was between Joseph Johnston and William Sherman.
I hope you guys enjoyed this program. Please stay tuned for more. We're very excited to highlight some of these parts and these key parts of the Atlanta Campaign for you this summer. and again thank you for sticking around with us. We will see you next time at the mountain.
Description
Join Ranger Jake Boling as he discusses the first real action of the Atlanta Campaign. While this would not be the bloodiest or longest battle of this campaign, it would set the stage for Johnston and Sherman's infamous contest.
Duration
11 minutes, 26 seconds
Credit
NPS Video/ J. Boling
Date Created
05/08/2021
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