63rd Georgia Picket Line

While peaceful and picturesque, this location was the site considerable fighting during the battle.

NPS Photo

Quick Facts

Location:

Burnt Hickory Rd.

Significance:

Former Confederate Defensive Position

Designation:

National Battlefield Park

Amenities

3 listed

Cellular Signal, Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits, Parking - Auto

In this approximate location, running North to South, was the Confederate picket line held by the 63^rd GA regiment. A picket line is a forward defensive position, usually made up of several shallow depressions or ‘rifle pits’. The men in these positions were the first to be engaged in the frontal assault on Pigeon Hill. Just a few weeks prior, the 63^rd GA troops had been on the relatively quiet assignment of garrison duty in Savannah, GA. Many of them were very inexperienced in the hard marching and fierce fighting that would make up much of the Atlanta Campaign. A few hundred of these green troops would attempt to defend these positions.Under Brigadier General Joseph Lightburn, 7 regiments of battle hardened Union troops made the first push here at around 8:00 am. The untested and outnumbered GA troops waited too late to fire their first volley and quickly became overrun. In their haste to retreat, they collided with another regiment trying to reinforce the position. Private Celathiel Helms describes this chaotic moment and the officer that ordered the reinforcements: “This loss wold not have been verey mutch if it had not been for the [Major]. He made them charge on the yankys and the yankys had ten men to thir one. I recon the [Major] wanted to git his wants but I think it will com [contrary] to his [expectations] or at leas the [privates] will not think any the more of him for his bravery and not so mutch the bravery as the fool”.Shortly after the Confederates had been pushed back from this spot, the Union soldiers came under heavy artillery fire from Pigeon Hill ahead. Major Thomas T. Taylor, of the 47^th Ohio said that they “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..”. The new Union position was extremely exposed in an open field with little to no cover. Despite pushing past the Confederate picket line, Union soldiers here were forced to seek shelter and wait for nightfall before they fell back to their main line.