On July 20, 1864, as Union forces under Maj. Gen. W.T. Sherman, USA, closed in on Atlanta, Brig. Gen. Kenner Garrard’s 2nd Cavalry Division was at Decatur, six miles east of Atlanta, guarding bridges over the Chattahoochee River and picketing the left flank. Ordered that night to assemble his command and move to Covington, Garrard was to burn bridges over the Yellow and Ulafauhachee (Alcovy) rivers and destroy the railroad between Lithonia and the Alcovy. He marched late on July 21 and by noon on July 24 had returned to Decatur with 200 prisoners and fresh horses and negroes. In three days his command marched more than 90 miles, destroyed three wagon bridges, the railroad bridge over the Yellow River, and more than six miles of track. At Covington, his men burned the depot, a newly built army hospital center, 2,000 bales of cotton, and large quantities of quartermaster and commissary supplies. At Conyers, at Covington, and near the Alcovy, trains were captured and burned, and a detached brigade burned the depot at Social Circle and destroyed other facilities en route. The raid cut off all communication between Atlanta and Augusta and destroyed any hope that the Army of Tennessee, the hard-pressed defenders of Atlanta, might receive supplies or reinforcements from the Eastern Confederacy.