HistoricSiteMarkers
Civil War

Bate's Division

Atlanta, Fulton County, Georgia

Marker Inscription

Bate's Division. The outer Atlanta defense line crossed Clear Cr. a short distance S. W. of Walker's (or Jones') Mill (just below the present R.R. bridge). July 20, 1864, the right of Bate's division (rt. of Hardee's corp) [Confederate] rested on Clear Creek. From this sector Bate's div. moved N.W. to attack Newton's 4th A.C. div. posted on the ridge just above Collier Rd. Bate led off in the concerted attack by Hardee's & Stewart's corps (by divisions obliquely in echelon) - his route through the forest wilderness just west of Clear Creek. In line E. of the creek was Hood's old corps (under Gen. B. F. Cheatham) - not actively engaged in the Battle of Peachtree Creek. 060-72 GEORGIA HISTORICAL COMMISSION 1956

Erected by Georgia Historical Commission

The Story

On July 20, 1864, at the Battle of Peachtree Creek, the right of Bate's division of Hardee's corps rested here on Clear Creek before joining the Confederate assault. Moving northwest through wooded ground, Bate led off the attack against Newton's Union division posted on the ridge above Collier Road. The stroke was part of Hood's aggressive first battle after taking command of the Army of Tennessee, an attempt to smash the Federals before they could close on Atlanta.

Why it matters

Peachtree Creek marked the Confederacy's shift from defense to costly offensive around Atlanta, a gamble that failed to halt Sherman's advance.

The story behind this marker

AI context

The era

The summer of 1864 found the Civil War grinding toward its climax in Georgia. Union armies under William Tecumseh Sherman had spent months pushing southeast through the state, and by July they were closing on Atlanta—a rail hub whose loss would cripple the Confederacy and shake Southern morale. The city's outer defense lines threaded through creeks, ridges, and forest on ground that is now part of Atlanta itself.

The Confederate high command was in turmoil. The army defending Atlanta had just changed hands, passing to a general known for aggressive, offensive fighting after a campaign of cautious withdrawals. The new leadership was determined to strike the Federals in the open rather than simply yield ground, and the terrain north of the city—creeks like Clear Creek, wooded ridges, and country roads—would become the stage for that gamble.

On July 20, 1864, the armies collided at the Battle of Peachtree Creek. This marker fixes one small but real piece of that fight: the sector where the right of a Confederate division rested on Clear Creek before the assault began.

People & events

The marker follows the movements of Bate's division, on the right of Hardee's corps. On July 20, 1864, its right flank rested on Clear Creek, near the site of an old mill, before the Confederates went over to the attack. From there Bate's men pushed northwest through wooded, broken country toward the Union line.

Their target was Newton's division of the Federal Fourth Corps, posted on the ridge just above Collier Road. General William B. Bate led off the concerted assault, part of a coordinated stroke by the corps of Hardee and Stewart, whose divisions were meant to go forward obliquely, in echelon—one after another, like a closing fan—to roll up the Union position. Bate's own route carried him through the forest wilderness just west of Clear Creek.

Not every command was in the thick of it. To the east of the creek stood the troops of Hood's old corps, led that day by General Benjamin F. Cheatham, who were not actively engaged in the fighting at Peachtree Creek. The marker's careful geography—who rested where, who advanced, who stood idle—captures how a battle is really a mosaic of separate local struggles stitched together by terrain and timing.

Its place in the American story

Peachtree Creek marked a turning of the tide in temperament as much as in territory. After a long campaign of Confederate withdrawal toward Atlanta, this was the army's bid to seize the initiative—to catch the advancing Federals and strike them before they could tighten their grip on the city. The attack that Bate's division helped lead off was the opening move of that new, aggressive posture.

The gamble did not pay off. The Confederate assaults at Peachtree Creek failed to break the Union hold, and the costly effort did nothing to halt Sherman's advance. Within weeks Atlanta would fall, a blow whose effects reached far beyond Georgia, helping to steel Northern resolve in a pivotal election year and hastening the end of the Confederacy.

That is why a wooded creek bank and a ridge above a country road matter to the national story. The fighting here was one of the hinges on which the Atlanta Campaign—and with it a good deal of the war's momentum—began to turn against the South.

If you visit

This is a landscape marker, and reading it well means reading the ground. The clues are geographic: Clear Creek, the low country near an old mill site, and the ridge above Collier Road where the Union line stood. Even amid modern Atlanta, the lay of the land—the creeks and the higher ground—still explains why the fighting unfolded as it did.

Stand near the creek and picture the difference the terrain made. Attacking troops had to move northwest through wooded, broken country before they could even reach the enemy on the higher ridge. That forest and those slopes were not scenery; they were obstacles that shaped who could strike, and when.

The marker fits naturally into a driving tour of the Atlanta Campaign's battle sites, which are threaded through the city's neighborhoods and parks. Take it slowly, watch how the ground rises and falls, and let this one sector stand in for the larger battle—a reminder that a great campaign is decided in dozens of places just like this creek bank.

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

  • · William B. Bate
  • · William J. Hardee
  • · John C. Newton
  • · Benjamin F. Cheatham

Related events

  • · Battle of Peachtree Creek

Themes & tags

Civil WarLandmark

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