Dallas | May 28, 1864

The Opportunity

This opportunity at Dallas protects battlefield land with remarkably tangible connections to the Atlanta Campaign. Capt. Francis DeGress’s four-gun Battery H, 1st Illinois Light Artillery, occupied a ridgeline on the target property, while surviving infantry trenches surrounding the battery were dug and occupied by Illinois, Indiana, Iowa and Ohio regiments of the Fourth Division, XV Corps. Those historic earthworks remain visible today but could be destroyed by residential development if the property is not preserved.

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The History

On May 28, 1864, Lt. Gen. William J. Hardee’s corps probed the Union line near Dallas held by Maj. Gen. John A. Logan’s XV Corps from the Army of the Tennessee. Hardee’s orders were to exploit any weakness or possible withdrawal in the Yankee line. The Confederates attacked Logan’s right and up the Powder Springs Road (modern day Main Street in Dallas). Fighting ensued but the Rebels were repulsed, suffering high casualties. Other divisions in Hardee’s corps like Maj. Gen. H. T. Walker’s further north pressured the Union line for three days, preventing an unobserved withdrawal. Sherman abandoned his lines at Dallas on June 1 and moved toward the Western and Atlantic Railroad, forcing Johnston to follow.