The Dead Angle

[The Walking Dead]

Painting by Rick Reeves

Seeking obscure and little known accounts of the Union assault on the Dead Angle (Cheatham Hill).

Are there any descendants of soldiers who fought at the Dead Angle on this forum?

 

[Luke Freet]

View attachment 403182
Painting by Rick Reeves

Seeking obscure and little known accounts of the Union assault on the Dead Angle (Cheatham Hill).

Are there any descendants of soldiers who fought at the Dead Angle on this forum?

I think Sam Watkins of the 1st Tennessee (at the center of the angle) has an account of the action in Company Aytch.

 

[TSJ]

I think Sam Watkins of the 1st Tennessee (at the center of the angle) has an account of the action in Company Aytch.

I'm reading Sam Watkins book now

 

[The Walking Dead]

Numerous accounts can be found online. I'm searching for accounts which are locked away in private and institutional collections.

Here's one by Captain James Hall, 9th Tennessee Infantry:

https://emergingcivilwar-com.cdn.am...e-kennesaw-line-eyewitness-at-the-dead-angle/

 

[The Walking Dead]

Sam Watkins, 1st Tennessee Infantry:

https://www.battlefields.org/learn/primary-sources/dead-angle

 

[TSJ]

Numerous accounts can be found online. I'm searching for accounts which are locked away in private and institutional collections.

Here's one by Captain James Hall, 9th Tennessee Infantry:

https://emergingcivilwar-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/emergingcivilwar.com/2014/06/28/the-kennesaw-line-eyewitness-at-the-dead-angle/amp/?amp_gsa=1&amp_js_v=a6&usqp=mq331AQHKAFQArABIA==#amp_tf=From %1$s&aoh=16227746501627&referrer=https://www.google.com&ampshare=https://emergingcivilwar.com/2014/06/28/the-kennesaw-line-eyewitness-at-the-dead-angle/

I love reading accounts of those who were actually doing the fighting. Awesome read

 

[The Walking Dead]

The story of Colonel Oscar Harmon, 125th Illinois Infantry:

https://kennesawmountain.wordpress.com/category/the-dead-angle/

 

[JeffBrooks]

I think the Rick Reeves painting makes the assault look much more favorable for the Union than it was. In the painting, it looks as though the Yankees are about to overrun the position. If I recall correctly, very few of the Northern soldiers even reached the parapet.

 

[highplainsdrifter59]

I think the Rick Reeves painting makes the assault look much more favorable for the Union than it was. In the painting, it looks as though the Yankees are about to overrun the position. If I recall correctly, very few of the Northern soldiers even reached the parapet.

This is true, very few even made it to the Confederate entrenchments, especially center point the dead angle. Properly or best I can tell or have read about was just to the left of the center part of the angle was the closest the Union came to forming any type of force to overrun that line. This area was about where McCook was mortailly wounded.

 

[SoAlaNorthGeorgian]

Are there any descendants of soldiers who fought at the Dead Angle on this forum?

Yepper, see signature line. Interestingly, I used to live nearby for a decade or so. I never knew my genealogy until I got old (I guess that's how it works). I always had an eerie feeling around certain places in that area and asked questions in my head about the oddness of it all. I didn't even know much about the specifics of the history other than "something happened here during the burning; darn I'm going to be late for work."

The town got a new name. So, I guess they have that going for them.

 

[dgfred]

SANG... I have a relative in the 51st NC too. Cheers!

 

[KianGaf]

https://ironbrigader.com/2014/06/09...gade-battle-kennesaw-mountain-june-27th-1864/

I remember hearing an account of this man in a documentary. The whole attack seemed a very sad affair for the men involved. I'm always amazed by the thinking of lifetime soldiers like Sherman. He had to know that ordering men to take such a position was a death sentence.

 

[James N.]

This is true, very few even made it to the Confederate entrenchments, especially center point the dead angle. Properly or best I can tell or have read about was just to the left of the center part of the angle was the closest the Union came to forming any type of force to overrun that line. This area was about where McCook was mortailly wounded.

Dead Angle in the background:

 

[James N.]

Yepper, see signature line. Interestingly, I used to live nearby for a decade or so. I never knew my genealogy until I got old (I guess that's how it works). I always had an eerie feeling around certain places in that area and asked questions in my head about the oddness of it all. I didn't even know much about the specifics of the history other than "something happened here during the burning; darn I'm going to be late for work."

The town got a new name. So, I guess they have that going for them.

Likewise, see my signature as well. I too knew NOTHING about my genealogy growing up; only a dozen or more years ago I sent away for a copy of his 1902 Louisiana pension application (he was living there from the 1870's and the application had been filled out for him by the Parish clerk) and found "Lightly wounded in the hip at Tennesaw Mountains" which I'm satisfied was Kennesaw Mountain, placing him in Lowrey's brigade of Cleburne's Division just to the right of Cheatham's at the Dead Angle.

 

[Luke Freet]

I should note, back on the 28th of May, me and my buddies stopped by Kennesaw on the end of my leg of our trip. Rainy day, it was absolutely pouring, but we got to the Angle and the Illinois monument. Wonderful view from there on the clearing. Not so wonderful when you think of all the troops running across it getting torn apart by rifle fire.