Garrard’s Cavalry Raid

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, with its three brigades scattered from Decatur to Roswell guarding bridges over the Chattahoochee River and picketing the left flank. That night Garrard was ordered to assemble his command and march to Covington, thirty miles southeast, to burn bridges over the Yellow and Ulcofauhachee (Alcovy) rivers and destroy the railroad between Lithonia and the Alcovy. Marching late on July 21 and returning to Decatur on July 24 after almost ninety miles, he destroyed four wagon bridges, two railroad bridges, and more than six miles of track. At Covington, his force burned the depot, a newly built army hospital center, two thousand bales of cotton, and large quantities of quartermaster and commissionary supplies, and captured and burned three trains. 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, but Garrard’s absence from the Union left also allowed Hardee’s Corps to approach undetected and launch the smashing blow at that unguarded flank that became known as the Battle of Atlanta.

Decatur, Georgia · United States