In July, 1864, as Maj. Gen. W.T. Sherman’s U.S. army closed in on Atlanta and found its fortifications too strong to assault and too extensive to invest, he sent Maj. Gen. Geo. Stoneman with three cavalry brigades, 2112 men and 2 guns, of the Army of the Ohio cavalry to cut the Central of Georgia R.R. that supplied the Confederate defenders. On the 27th, Stoneman moved south through Decatur, crossed the Ocmulgee (Yellow) River near Covington, camped two miles west of Covington at 4 A.M. on the 28th for four hours, passed through Covington about 9 A.M., and marched to Monticello, twenty-seven miles southeast. There he learned that no bridges over the Ocmulgee above Macon would let him reach the railroad, so he decided instead to destroy it at and beyond Macon. Near Macon on the 30th, he detached part of the 14th Illinois Cavalry, which wrecked railway facilities at Griswoldville, Gordon, McIntyre, and Toomsboro east of Macon, and burned trains, trestles, and the railway bridge over the Oconee River. At Macon, sixty-five miles southeast, Georgia Militia strongly entrenched turned him back. As he attempted to retreat, Brig. Gen. Alfred Iverson, Jr., who had marched with only 1300 Confederate cavalry to intercept him, brought him to bay the next morning at Sunshine Church, nineteen miles northeast of Macon. Believing he was being surrounded, Stoneman covered the northward escape of Adams’ and Capron’s brigades and then surrendered with about 600 men to what Iverson had led him to think was a superior force.