A Fake Attack

In the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain, Union troops tried to draw Confederate attention with a feint on the face of Big Kennesaw and along the low ridge between the peaks while the real assaults took place more than a mile away at Pigeon Hill and beyond. Confederate General Johnson, used to the Union tactic of attacking the sides or edges of his lines, was not fooled and refused to pull troops from the center to protect the northern flank, as Union General Sherman had hoped. Repeating rifles, then a new idea, were useful in such a feint because rapid fire from one Henry or Spencer repeating rifle with 120 rounds could make a single soldier sound like a multitude.

Georgia · United States