Under Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, the Army of Tennessee had retired south of Peachtree Creek, an east to west flowing stream, about three miles north of Atlanta. Sherman split his army into three columns for the assault on Atlanta with George H. Thomas’s Army of the Cumberland moving from the north.

After the Union defeat at New Hope Church, Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman ordered Maj. Gen. O.O. Howard to attack Gen. Joseph E. Johnston’ s seemingly exposed right flank. The Confederates were ready for the attack, which did not unfold as planned because supporting troops never appeared. The Rebels repulsed the attack causing high casualties.

Gen. Joseph E. Johnston had withdrawn from Rocky Face Ridge to the hills around Resaca. On the 13th, the Union troops tested the Rebel lines to pinpoint their whereabouts. The next day full scale fighting occurred, and the Union troops were generally repulsed except on the Rebel right flank where Sherman did not fully exploit his advantage.

Following the Union victory at Missionary Ridge and the Rebel retreat, Yankee troops set out in pursuit. Maj. Gen. Patrick Cleburne’s command fell back to Ringgold Gap where the Western & Atlantic Railroad passed through Taylor’s Ridge. Maj. Gen. Joseph B. Hooker sent his force forward to seize the ridge, which it failed to do after five hours of heavy fighting.

Gen. Joseph E. Johnston had entrenched his army on the long, high mountain of Rocky Face Ridge and eastward across Crow Valley. As Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman approached, he decided to demonstrate against the position with two columns while he sent a third one through Snake Creek Gap, to the right, to hit the Western & Atlantic Railroad at Resaca.

After failing to envelop Hood’s left flank at Ezra Church, Sherman still wanted to extend his right flank to hit the railroad between East Point and Atlanta. He transferred John M. Schofield’ s Army of the Ohio from his left to his right flank and sent him to the north bank of Utoy Creek. Although Schofield’s troops were at Utoy Creek on August 2, they, along with the XIV Corps, Army of the Cumberland, did not cross until the 4th.

As Sherman’s infantry marched southeast through Georgia, his cavalry under Brig. Gen. Judson Kilpatrick rode northeastward. He set out on the morning of December 4 to attack Waynesborough and destroy Joseph Wheeler’s cavalry command.