Surrender of Gen. George H. Stoneman at the Battle of Sunshine Church (149th Anniversary)

Sunshine Church Battlefield - Round Oak, Georgia

149 years ago today on August 1, 1864, Maj. Gen. George H. Stoneman became the highest ranking Union officer to surrender during the entire War Between the States (or Civil War).

Stoneman's surrender took place on a hilltop 10 miles north of Gray, Georgia, at the end of the Battle of Sunshine Church. The engagement, which had begun the previous day, was one of the greatest Union disasters of the Atlanta Campaign.

Maj. Gen. George H. Stoneman

The Northern politician/general had left Decatur on July 27, 1864, at the head of a column of 2,104 officers and men and only two pieces of artillery. His objective - as approved by Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman - was to break the railroad between Atlanta and Macon and then liberate the thousands of Union prisoners of war being held at Camp Oglethorpe (Macon) and Camp Sumter (Andersonville).

Sherman warned Stoneman, however, to let caution be his guide. He was to focus first on breaking the railroad, but he was not to try to make the long ride to Andersonville unless he was all but assured of success. The cavalry commander did not heed Sherman's advice and paid for his mistake with his reputation.

Driving south from Decatur, Stoneman and his men broke the railroad and did as much damage as possible, but also unleashed a fury of terror on civilian families, particularly women and children. Their targeting of civilians outraged people across the South and in particular outraged the Georgia Reserves and Militia assembling to meet them at Macon.

Confederate Earthworks at Dunlap Hill

Instead of sweeping aside reserves and militia as he appears to have expected to do, Stoneman ran into a buzzsaw when he reached Macon. Maj. Gen. Howell Cobb commanded the well-fortified Confederate forces at the Battle of Dunlap Hill on July 30, 1864. The Federals tried a poorly organized attack up the Clinton Road, but Cobb's forces drove them back and the sun set to the sound of "rebel yells" coming from the Confederate earthworks on the Dunlap Farm and at nearby Fort Hawkins.

It was then that Stoneman made the mistake that would destroy his reputation. Instead of immediately falling back to the safety of Sherman's army, he began looking for another way to get across the Ocmulgee River to continue his planned raid on Andersonville - a ride that would make him a hero across the North if he could complete it with success.

Brig. Gen. Alfred Iverson

Gen. Cobb, however, outsmarted his Union counterpart by sending Brig. Gen. Alfred Iverson with a large force of Confederate cavalry to take up a position between Macon and Sherman's army.

Iverson, who had not performed well at the head of an infantry brigade at the Battle of Gettysburg the previous year, was in his element as a commander of cavalry and was especially ready to carry out Cobb's orders. He had grown up in Clinton and knew the roads, farms and woods of Middle Georgia like the back of his hand. Swinging around behind Stoneman, he chose the site for the coming battle in an area of ravines, hills, woods and farms about 10 miles north of Gray and just south of the community of Round Oak.  A small rural chapel named Sunshine Church stood nearby.

When Stoneman learned that Confederate cavalry was moving to cut him off, he fell back from Macon to try to get to safety before it was too late. He reached Sunshine Church on July 31, 1864, to find that he had waited too long.  Iverson was entrenched along a ridge cutting off his route of retreat.

Iverson's Ridge at Sunshine Church

The Union general tried to cut his way through, but Iverson was too much for him.  A fierce battle raged through the ravines, hollows and ridges at Sunshine Church. Things got worse for Stoneman when troops sent north by Cobb to attack him from behind appeared to his rear.  With Confederates now holding the ridge ahead of him and coming up from behind, he decided he was trapped.

During the night of July 31-August 1, he met with his senior officers and ordered two of his brigades to try to cut their way out and escape while he remained behind with the rest of his men to sacrifice himself and buy time. They urged him not to resort to such action, but George Stoneman was already a a defeated man.

Sunshine Church II
Built north of the battlefield after
the War Between the States.

Capron's and Adams' brigades did break out (although Capron's brigade was soon cut to pieces at the Battle of King's Tanyard near Athens). Stoneman held on a hilltop - known today as Stoneman's Hill - for a short time before surrendering to Iverson. He barely escaped being hanged from the nearest tree by the Confederates, who were infuriated over the attacks on civilians carried out by the Union raiders.

149 years ago today, George H. Stoneman began his journey to a Confederate prisoner of war camp. It would be months before he was released and he holds the dubious distinction of being the highest ranking Union officer captured during the four years of bloody war.

To learn more about the Battle of Sunshine Church, please visit www.exploresouthernhistory.com/sunshinechurch.

To learn more about the preliminary action at the Battle of Dunlap Hill, please visit www.exploresouthernhistory.com/dunlaphill.

149th anniversary of the Battle of Dunlap Hill - Macon, Georgia

Dunlap House at Ocmulgee National Monument

Today is the 149th anniversary of the day that "Stoneman's cavalry came to tear up the tracks again" at Macon, Georgia (to borrow a line from the old song, "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down").

Confederate Gen. Howell Cobb was waiting at Macon with a force of Georgia Reserves, militia and a few regular troops. With them he would turn on Union Gen. George H. Stoneman who was raiding south from near Atlanta with 2,000 men in hopes of liberating the Federal prisoners of war at Camp Oglethorpe in Macon and Camp Sumter at Andersonville. 

Confederate Fortifications at Dunlap Hill

The action, fought on the northern edge of Macon and in part on the grounds of today's Ocmulgee National Monument, is remembered today as the Battle of Dunlap Hill or Battle of Dunlap's Farm. A Confederate victory, it ended any hopes Stoneman had of riding on to Andersonville and instead set in motion a change of events that would lead to him becoming the highest ranking Union officer captured during the entire Civil War!

A preliminary action to the coming Battle of Sunshine Church, but an important encounter that turned the tide of Stoneman's Georgia Raid, the Battle of Dunlap Hill was a significant event in the history of the Atlanta Campaign.

Read more about the battle at:

• http://southernhistory.blogspot.com/2013/07/battle-of-dunlap-hill-149th-anniversary.html.
• www.exploresouthernhistory.com/dunlaphill.

And be sure to watch for more tomorrow and throughout the week on the Battle of Sunshine Church!

Old Governor's Mansion - Milledgeville, Georgia

Old Governor's Mansion

One of the finest examples of Greek revival architecture in the nation, Georgia's historic Old Governor's Mansion has been a landmark of Milledgeville for 175 years.

Built of brick faced with stucco, the magnificent old mansion was designed and constructed in the days when Milledgeville was still the "new" capital of Georgia. The Old Capitol Building stands just up the street and the landscape of the charming historic city is dotted with other reminders of its days as capital of the state.

The home was built in 1836-1839 and first occupied by Governor George Gilmer, who moved in as the mansion was completed in 1839.  Other occupants over the years included Governor (and later Confederate general) Howell Cobb and Georgia's noted Confederate governor, Joseph Brown.

Old Governor's Mansion

A less popular temporary resident - General William Tecumseh Sherman - occupied the house for a night during his infamous March to the Sea. Union troops camped in the yards after their occupation of Milledgeville.

The house remained the home of the state's governor until the Reconstruction era when the post-war legislature voted to relocate the capitol to Atlanta. It later served as a barracks for cadets of what is now the Georgia Military College and as the resident for the president of today's Georgia College and State University.

Now a museum, the Old Governor's Mansion has been beautifully restored. Learn more by visiting www.exploresouthernhistory.com/gaoldmansion.

The Last Major Battle of the Civil War - Columbus, Georgia

What can rightfully be called the last major battle of the Civil War took place on April 16, 1865, an Easter Sunday, for control of the industrial city of Columbus, Georgia.

Robert E. Lee had already surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia and Columbus was one of the last remaining centers for the production of military supplies in the Confederacy. Factories in the city produced weapons, swords, uniforms and other supplies and one of the largest ironclad warships undertaken by the Confederate Navy was floating in the Chattahoochee River and nearing completion. Time, however, was running out.

The Union army of General James Wilson was storming across Alabama aiming to take both Columbus and Macon. The massive Union raid had already disrupted and destroyed much of the iron industry in Alabama, demolished the Confederate facilities at Selma and captured the state and former Confederate capital of Montgomery. Wilson was now closing in on the line of the Chattahoochee.

One wing of his army, led by Colonel O.H. LaGrange, stormed Fort Tyler at West Point on the afternoon of the 16th, even as Wilson with the main body closed in on the Columbus bridges.

The primary fortifications of Columbus were located on the ridges surrounding Girard (today's Phenix City), a small community on the Alabama side of the river. The Confederates under Major General Howell Cobb did not have enough men to man the entire line, so Cobb concentrated on the forts, batteries and breastworks along the most likely avenues of attack.

Wilson tried to bypass this force by sending a column of cavalry dashing forward at around 2 p.m. in a desperate effort to seize one of the bridges. The attack failed and he was forced to bring up his full command for an assault on the Confederate defenses along the Summerville Road.

It was dark before Wilson's main attack began. At around 9 p.m., the 3rd Iowa and 10th Missouri Cavalry regiments stormed an advanced Confederate line, but came under a heavy fire from artillery and small arms in the main Southern defenses. A second charge up the Summerville Road, however, sliced through Cobb's main line and rolled over the hill and down to the Chattahoochee. Union troops became so mixed in with retreating Confederates that Southern artillerymen on the Georgia side of the river could not fire without hitting their own men.

The Federals stormed across the bridge and into Columbus. His lines in shambles, Cobb withdrew. The last major battle of the Civil War was over, but continues to be studied today because it is a classic example of confused night fighting. More fighting would still take place in Georgia, Texas, Alabama and elsewhere, but the Battle of Columbus was the last major battle of a major campaign.

To learn more, please visit www.exploresouthernhistory.com/battleofcolumbus.