Demand For Surrender

On the morning of October 5, 1864, after a two hour bombardment by Confederate artillery under Major John D. Myrick from Moore's Hill 1,200 yards south of Allatoona, Confederate Major General Samuel G. French sent his adjutant, Major David W. Sanders, under a flag of truce to demand the unconditional surrender of the Federal forces there, warning that they were surrounded and allowing five minutes for a decision while promising honorable treatment as prisoners of war. The Federals under Major General John Corse refused to surrender. After waiting fifteen minutes without a response, Sanders ended the truce and French ordered an immediate assault, with Cockerell's Missouri and Young's Texas brigades attacking from the west and Sears' Mississippi Brigade attacking from the north. French, born in New Jersey and a West Point graduate, had first served in the Mexican War and later served under General J.E. Johnston in the 1864 Georgia campaign, while Corse, born in Pennsylvania and raised in Iowa, studied at West Point for two years, attended law school, and became a politician; in official records, Corse's reply was that his forces were prepared for the "needless effusion of blood" whenever it was agreeable to French.

Georgia · United States