The Dead Angle

At 9 a.m. on June 27, 1864, this bend in the Confederate line became the battle's focal point as thousands of yelling, blue-clad Federal soldiers charged across the field toward Tennessee soldiers in the earthworks. Advancing at double time in successive lines, the Federals were raked by Confederate rifle-musket fire, yet despite hundreds of casualties they surged toward the protruding angle in the defense line. Union Col. Daniel McCook, a brigade commander, fell mortally wounded on the brink of the earthworks while leading his troops. When Federals reached the Southern line, savage hand-to-hand combat broke out, but Confederate Maj. Gen. Frank Cheatham's Tennesseans stubbornly held their line, and Federal soldiers not shot, clubbed down, bayoneted, or captured sought shelter. The Union charge was broken, and survivors from both sides named this area the Dead Angle.

Georgia · United States