The Assault Falters

Beaten Federals entrenched within thirty yards of the Confederate earthworks after their attack stalled. Two surviving Federal colonels quickly weighed retreat, but because withdrawal under heavy fire would have caused more bloodshed, they chose to dig in along a brow of the hill beyond the fire from the Confederate earthworks. While half of the Federals fired toward the earthworks, the rest dug shallow trenches with bayonets and tin cups. After nightfall, they brought tools from the rear and built two lines of entrenchments. For the next six days, both sides traded sniper fire and expected an attack at any moment, with only a seven-hour truce on June 29 to bury the dead breaking the tense stalemate. During the standoff, the Federals began a tunnel there with the intention of blowing up the Southern earthworks on July 4, but in the night of July 2 the Confederates quietly withdrew, forced to retreat after Sherman's Union Army outflanked them again. A small stone arch erected in 1914 marks the tunnel entrance.

Georgia · United States