May 14, 1864

May 14, 1864

 

---Battle of Spotsylvania, Day 7:  Grant’s grand flank march continues, as do the rains.  Grant has ordered an attack on this day, but Meade’s troops are sluggish and, in the mud, unable to get there.  There is little fighting today.

---Atlanta Campaign—Battle of Resaca, Georgia, Day 2:  Having probes the Confederate lines all along the front of Johnston ‘s position, Sherman  orders a series of attacks by most his corps.  First, about 11:30 AM, attacks from Oliver O. Howard’s IV Corps and Schofield’s XXIII Corps, both on the left, get underway.  Camp Creek is hard to cross, with steep banks and, reportedly, quicksand in places, so the Federal attacks move forward slowly.  One of Schofield’s brigades does not even get past Camp Creek.  Palmer’s XIV Corps sends forward Baird’s and Johnson’s divisions, but they are also driven back.  John “Black Jack” Logan sends forward an attack from his XV Corps also, but to no avail.  The fighting dies down around 3:00 PM.

Later, in the evening, Johnston notices that the Federal flank is exposed, or “in the air”, and order Gen. John Bell Hood to attack.  Hood sends forward Stevenson’s and Stewart’s divisions, who have some success in driving back Stanley’s two-brigade division.  But Gen. Hooker, who has not been engaged yet today, is ordered to send relief from his XX Corps, and so he sends Alpheus Williams’ division, which arrives in time to stop Hood’s assault and drive his troops back to their fortifications.

Meanwhile, all day long Gen. Thomas Sweeney’s division has marched southward to a ferry on the Oostanaula River, beyond the Union right flank, in an attempt to cross the force that could threaten the railroad and turnpike that were the Confederate line of supply.  Sweeney’s men contest a fairly heavy force of Southerners on the south bank of the river, but are finally able to get a pontoon bridge across.  After a hotly contested crossing, the Federals held the south bank of the river, ready for Sherman’s splanned crossing the next morning.

 

(Maps courtesy of The Civil War Trust, www.civilwar.org

Used by permission)