by Randy Golden

Civil War Sites in Dalton.

War came to Dalton's door on April 12, 1862 when a group of 21 northern spies rode past the Western and Atlantic Railroad's Dalton Depot in the stolen locomotive The General. In pursuit of The General was the train's conductor, William Fuller, and others on The Texas. In Dalton The Texas slowed to drop off Fletcher Henderson, an 18-year old telegraph operator, with orders to warn Confederate General Ledbetter in Chattanooga of the approaching train. The Great Locomotive Chase ended unsuccessfully in Ringgold, Georgia, with the spies not succeeding in destroying any targeted infrastructure.

When Union forces occupied Chattanooga on September 8, 1863, Dalton began to play a major role in the Confederate war effort, moving fresh reinforcements to the beleaguered Army of Tennessee [C. S. A.]. As the massive Union Army began a move through the gaps in the mountains to the west, Confederate General Braxton Bragg turned to fight, engaging William S. Rosecrans in the rolling hills a few miles west of Dalton. The result was the largest Confederate victory of the Civil War, The Battle of Chickamauga, September 19 and 20, 1863. The battlefield of Chickamauga is a major Civil War attraction in the Dalton area.

Retreating to Chattanooga, Union forces were besiege in the city. Lincoln sent his best men to rescue the stranded Army corps. From the West came William Tecumseh Sherman. From the North came Joseph Hooker and placed in command of the force was Ulysses S. Grant. They defeated the Rebel army in October and November of 1863. With General Sherman sitting a scant 10 miles away General Joseph Johnston, the newly assigned commander of the Army of Tennessee, began to reinforce the town of Dalton, Georgia and the adjoining mountains. He didn't have long to wait.

On February 22, 1864, General George Thomas began a "demonstration" on the mountains west of Dalton. Although Thomas nearly turned the Confederate line, he withdrew on February 27, following the completion of a federal attack on Meridian, Mississippi.

Cool May air greeted General Thomas on his next foray towards Dalton. At Tunnel Hill he ordered a division to attack a line of skirmishers securing the forward Rebel position. Overwhelmed, the Confederates withdrew, unable to complete their orders - destroy the tunnel through Chetoogetta Mountain. The Army of the Cumberland then began a slow march to Rocky Face Ridge and Dug Gap, to give James McPherson's Army of the Tennessee a chance to move south to Resaca along Taylor Ridge and to let John Scofield's Army of the Ohio move south from Chickamauga Station, Tennessee.

Fighting began on the west side of Rocky Face Ridge on May 8, 1864. This is generally considered the first engagement of the Atlanta Campaign. General Thomas succeeded in gaining Rocky Face Ridge on one occasion, but his men lacked the needed support to consolidate the gains and had to withdraw. Two miles south of Rocky Face Ridge a second pitched battle was fought at Dug Gap, where Confederate forces fought with every weapon at their disposal, including large boulders rolled downhill. The men at Dug Gap successfully held off a Union Army that outnumbered them 10 men to 1.

On the morning of May 11, 1864, Carter Stevenson awoke to something that concerned him - silence. He reported to Joe Johnston that there was no army in front of him and Johnston ordered Joseph Wheeler to sweep the area with cavalry. Indeed, the Union Army had moved south, and Johnston was faced with a difficult dilemma - an enemy of superior numbers to his rear. Johnston withdrew from his fortified position at Dalton.

In October, 1864 General John Bell Hood returned briefly to the Dalton area with about 35,000 men. He attacked a blockhouse at Tilton, Georgia, a few miles south of Dalton on October 13, 1864. Hood continued north to the disastrous Battle of Nashville while Sherman headed west to Savannah on the March to the Sea.

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