In 1864, as signs in Atlanta pointed to a new offensive by Gen. Sherman’s army, which had occupied the area since Sept. 2nd, units of Gen. Wheeler’s Confederate cavalry corps were posted on all roads to the south. On Nov. 15th, the advance of Osterhaus’ 15th Corps, marching that day from White Hall (West End) by way of Rough and Ready, was halted near Stockbridge by Brig. Gen. Joseph H. Lewis’ Orphan Brigade, made up of the 2nd, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 9th Kentucky Mounted Infantry. Though greatly outnumbered, the brigade delayed the enemy until it was flanked out of position, then retired in good order to Lovejoy Station. This was the first real resistance encountered by the right wing of Sherman’s army on its destructive March to the Sea. These Kentucky Confederate regiments were called orphans because the secession movement had failed in Kentucky, leaving them with no home state in the Confederacy. The Orphan Brigade was first commanded by Maj. Gen. John C. Breckinridge, formerly Vice President of the United States and later Secretary of War in the Confederate cabinet, and it served with great distinction through all four years of the War Between the States.