Beneath the red clay hills of Georgia, Union General William T. Sherman ordered a rare frontal assault on Confederate lines fortified by General Joseph E. Johnston. Fierce fighting at Pigeon Hill and Cheatham Hill yielded high Union losses, with Sherman’s troops marching directly into a deadly crossfire of artillery and musketry. Though a tactical defeat for Sherman, who deeply regretted the unnecessary loss of life, the overall Union march toward Atlanta pressed relentlessly onward.
The battle is particularly remembered for the harrowing conditions faced by the wounded soldiers trapped between the lines. As the intense gunfire set the surrounding underbrush on fire, injured men faced the horrific prospect of being burned alive in the no-man’s-land. In an extraordinary moment of shared humanity amid total war, Confederate Lieutenant Colonel William H. Martin stood atop his parapet, waved a white handkerchief, and shouted for a temporary truce so that the Union troops could rescue their wounded comrades from the advancing flames.
