By late July 1864, after the battles of Peach Tree Creek, Atlanta, and Ezra Church had weakened but not defeated the Confederate army defending Atlanta, Union Major General William T. Sherman shifted his troops southwest around the city to try to destroy the railroads carrying vital supplies from Montgomery and Macon through East Point to Atlanta. To protect those lines, the Confederates built a new trench line stretching about eight miles southwest from their main entrenchments, with Confederate Major General William B. Bate's division holding high ground near the Sandtown road. At Utoy Creek, Sherman launched a two-pronged attack against the western end of this extended line. On August 6, Brigadier General James W. Reilly's brigade in Brigadier General Jacob D. Cox's division advanced against Brigadier General Joseph H. Lewis's "Orphan Brigade," where some of the first troops engaged were the Federal 11th Kentucky and Confederate 4th Kentucky Infantry Regiments. The Confederates, entrenched behind obstacles of felled trees, repelled repeated assaults, and Cox's division withdrew after two failed attempts with several hundred casualties, while Bate's division lost fewer than twenty men. Farther west, Brigadier General Milo S. Hascall's division crossed South Utoy Creek and pushed back Confederate dismounted cavalry and two cannon a short distance, but advanced no farther, and a late afternoon supporting attack by part of the Federal 14th Corps quickly failed. Although the Confederate position held, General John B. Hood, worried about his exposed left flank, ordered Bate's division to retire east to its previous position. The strength of the extended Confederate siege line from Atlanta to East Point led Sherman to increase pressure with heavy artillery bombardment, but in late August he moved six of his seven infantry corps farther southwest to outflank the line and threaten the last two railroads supplying Atlanta, leading to renewed fighting at Jonesborough.