Allatoona Pass

Allatoona Pass on the Western and Atlantic Railroad between Chattanooga and Atlanta was a rugged and strategically important Civil War location in three major episodes. On Saturday, April 12, 1862, Federal soldiers disguised as civilians and led by civilian James Andrews stole the locomotive General at Big Shanty, Georgia, and drove it north toward Chattanooga in Andrews' Raid, or the Great Locomotive Chase, attempting to pull up rails, burn bridges, and disrupt Confederate telegraph communications; at Allatoona, another railroad crew watched the train pass suspiciously but, not understanding what was happening, did not stop it, and the raiders were later captured just north of Ringgold. On Friday, May 20, 1864, Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston retreated south roughly parallel to the railroad and prepared to defend the pass, hoping Union Major General William T. Sherman would attack there, but Sherman, already familiar with the region, judged the position too strong to force and instead turned it by moving from Kingston to Marietta via Dallas, a maneuver later praised by Colonel Robert N. Adams of the 81st Ohio Volunteer Infantry Regiment; during the fighting around Dallas, Federal cavalry captured Allatoona Pass unopposed on June 1, after which Johnston eventually retreated east toward Marietta and Sherman's armies returned to their railroad lifeline, making Allatoona Pass a fortified forward supply base. After the capture of Atlanta in September 1864, Confederate forces moved north in hopes that attacks on Sherman's railroad lifeline would compel him to abandon the city, and on Wednesday, October 5, at Allatoona Pass, Confederate Major General Samuel G. French demanded the surrender of Brigadier General John M. Corse, who refused and held fortifications consisting of two redoubts encircling a star fort on a 175-foot-high embankment; more than 3,200 Confederates attacked and drove about 2,000 Federals into the star fort but could go no farther, and French withdrew after suffering 897 casualties to 706 Federal losses. A Union signal officer, Second Lieutenant J. Q. Adams, wrote that losing the million and a half rations there would have been a great disaster, and Allatoona Pass remained under Federal control; the railroad was relocated in the 1940s before Lake Allatoona was created.

Georgia · United States