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Civil War

Augustus Hurt Plantation

Atlanta, Fulton County, Georgia

Marker Inscription

Augustus Hurt Plantation. The outer Confederate defense line of Atlanta, located on E. slope of this hill, July 18, was evacuated the night of the 21st, 1864. July 22. The Federal 23d A. C., under Schofield marching from the N. E. via Williams Mill Rd. intrenched a line W. & S. of Augustus Hurt's house, where it supported the rt. wing of the Army of the Tenn. in the Battle of Atlanta. July 26. With the shift of that army to the W. side of Atlanta, the 23d A. C. became the extreme right S. W. of the city. The 4th A. C., its left resting at the Augustus Hurt house, became the left of the line until Aug. 25. 060-80 GEORGIA HISTORICAL COMMISSION 1956

Erected by Georgia Historical Commission

The Story

This hill overlooking the Augustus Hurt plantation was a hinge of the Union lines outside Atlanta in July and August 1864. After Confederate defenders abandoned the outer defense works on its eastern slope, Schofield's 23rd Corps marched in via the Williams Mill Road and entrenched, supporting the right of the Army of the Tennessee during the Battle of Atlanta. As Sherman shifted forces around the city, this position swung from the far right to the far left of the Federal line.

Why it matters

The maneuvering recorded here shows how Sherman methodically encircled Atlanta, a campaign that broke the Confederacy's western heartland.

The story behind this marker

AI context

The era

In July and August of 1864, the countryside east of Atlanta was a chessboard of trenches, roads, and hills, and the armies contesting it were locked in the decisive struggle for the city. Atlanta's railroads and factories made it one of the most important places in the Confederacy, and General William T. Sherman's campaign to take it had reached its climax in a series of battles and siege operations ringing the city.

The hill above Augustus Hurt's plantation was one of many pieces of high ground that armies fortified, abandoned, and re-occupied as the lines shifted. Here the fighting was as much about earthworks and maneuver as about pitched assault — soldiers dug in, extended their flanks, and slid their corps around the city like men repositioning heavy weights.

The roads mattered enormously. In an age before highways, a route like the Williams Mill Road was the artery along which a whole army corps could march, and control of such roads shaped where and how the battle could be fought.

People & events

The marker traces a sequence of movements on and around this hill with almost surveyor-like care. On its eastern slope ran the outer Confederate defense line of Atlanta, held on July 18 but evacuated on the night of the 21st as the defenders pulled back toward the city.

Then came the Federals. On July 22 — the day of the Battle of Atlanta — the Union 23rd Corps under John Schofield marched in from the northeast by way of the Williams Mill Road and entrenched a line west and south of Augustus Hurt's house, where it braced and supported the right wing of the Army of the Tennessee as that army withstood the Confederate assault.

The following days show Sherman's methodical hand at work. On July 26, when the Army of the Tennessee shifted to the west side of Atlanta, Schofield's 23rd Corps found itself the extreme right of the Federal line, southwest of the city. The 4th Corps, meanwhile, anchored its left at the Hurt house and became the left of the line, holding that role until August 25. In a matter of days this single position had swung from one end of the Union line to the other — a small window onto the constant, grinding repositioning of a siege.

Its place in the American story

The maneuvering recorded on this hill is a lesson in how Sherman actually took Atlanta. He did not simply batter the city head-on; he wheeled his armies around it, extending and shifting his lines to cut the railroads that kept it alive. Positions like this one, changing hands and changing roles within days, are the fine-grained reality behind the broad arrow on a campaign map.

Atlanta's fall in early September 1864 was a hammer blow to the Confederacy and a lifeline to the Union cause in a difficult election year. It helped secure Abraham Lincoln's reelection and opened the way for Sherman's subsequent march across Georgia. The slow strangulation traced here was part of what broke the Confederacy's western heartland.

There is also value in the marker's precision itself. By recording exactly which corps held which ground on which dates, it preserves the kind of detail that lets later generations reconstruct a battle honestly, rather than through legend — a reminder that history is built from careful specifics.

If you visit

This site sits amid modern Atlanta, so the trenches and cornfields are gone and the landscape has been transformed. The best tool you can bring is the marker's own text: read it slowly, note the compass directions and the roads, and try to feel how the ground rises and falls beneath the present-day streets.

Because the story here is about maneuver rather than a single dramatic charge, it rewards a thoughtful visitor. Picture Schofield's corps coming in from the northeast, digging in west and south of the vanished house, then imagine the whole line sliding around the city over the following weeks. You are standing at a hinge point that swung from one flank to the other.

For anyone tracing the Atlanta Campaign, this position pairs naturally with the other markers and overlooks on the city's eastern side. Together they let you follow Sherman's encirclement step by step, turning a sprawling siege into something you can actually walk and understand.

Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.

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Related people

  • · Augustus Hurt
  • · John Schofield

Related events

  • · Battle of Atlanta

Themes & tags

Civil WarLandmark

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