After the failed McCook and Stoneman raids, Union Maj. Gen. W. T. Sherman made one last effort to cut Atlanta's railroads with his cavalry. Just before dark on August 18, 1864, Brig. Gen. Judson Kilpatrick led 4,500 troopers of the 2nd and 3rd Cavalry Divisions from their bivouac at Sandtown. After crossing Camp Creek, they collided with Brig. Gen. Sul Ross's Texas cavalry, and a running fight began as the outnumbered Texans retreated toward the Atlanta & West Point R.R. After tearing up track near Fairburn, Kilpatrick's men fought their way into Jonesboro on August 19, where they wrecked four miles of the Macon & Western R.R. As Confederate forces closed in, the raiders slipped away and reached Lovejoy the next morning. Overtaken by Rebel infantry and Ross's pursuing cavalry, Kilpatrick formed compact columns on a ridge just west of the Nash farm. With sabers drawn and bugles blaring, his men rode over Ross's Texans in one of the most dramatic cavalry charges of the Civil War. Escaping across South River, the raiders reached Sherman's lines on August 22, but by then hasty Confederate railroad repairs had already restored train service into Atlanta.