HistoricSiteMarkers
Civil War

Battle of Jonesboro: The First Day

Clayton County, Clayton County, Georgia

Marker Inscription

Battle of Jonesboro The First Day. Aug. 31, 1864. This immediate area was occupied by the Army of the Tenn. [US], commanded by Gen. O. O. Howard. These troops Logan's 15th, Ransom's 16th & Blair's 17th corps, marched to this position from Fairburn the previous day; the 15th & 17th cast up intrenched lines on this side of Flint River, the 16th, W. of it. S. D. Lee's A. C. [CS], moving from lines W. of the town, attacked 15th & 17th A. C. fronts while Hardee's corps assailed the refused flank of the 15th & part of the 16th (which had been shifted E. of the river)-- a drawn battle that awaited final conclusion until the next day. 031-26 GEORGIA HISTORICAL COMMISSION 1958

Erected by Georgia Historical Commission

The Story

On August 31, 1864, the opening day of the Battle of Jonesboro, Gen. O.O. Howard's Army of the Tennessee entrenched along the Flint River after marching up from Fairburn. Confederate corps under S.D. Lee and Hardee attacked the Union lines but could not break them, leaving the contest drawn and unresolved until the following day.

Why it matters

Jonesboro was fought over the last railroad supplying Atlanta, and this first day's stalemate set the stage for the decisive blow that forced the city's evacuation.

The story behind this marker

AI context

The era

By the end of August 1864, the struggle for Atlanta had come down to its railroads. The city could hold as long as trains could reach it, and Sherman had spent the campaign working to cut those lifelines one by one. When the fighting shifted south of the city, toward the little town of Jonesboro, it was because the last open rail line ran through there, and both sides knew it.

This ground in Clayton County was farm and river country, crossed by the Flint River and stitched together by the roads that armies used to move fast. Troops had marched hard to get here, and the first thing they did on arriving was to dig. Entrenched lines thrown up along a riverbank tell you everything about the stakes: men do not fortify ground they intend to give away.

What unfolded here was the opening act of a battle that would decide a city. The date, the last day of August 1864, sits right at the hinge of the whole campaign, when maneuver finally forced the long-delayed reckoning.

People & events

The Union troops holding this immediate area belonged to General O.O. Howard's Army of the Tennessee, made up of Logan's, Ransom's, and Blair's corps. They had marched up from Fairburn the day before and gone straight to work, throwing up entrenched lines along the Flint River, with most of the army on this side of the water and one corps shifted across to the west.

The Confederates came out to meet them. S.D. Lee's corps moved up from the lines west of the town and struck the fronts of Blair's and Logan's men, while Hardee's corps drove at the bent-back, or refused, flank where the Union line curled to protect itself. It was a coordinated blow aimed at both the center and the vulnerable angle of the position.

And it did not break through. The Union works held, the attacks were checked, and the day ended without a decision. The marker calls it plainly a drawn battle, one whose real conclusion would have to wait for the following day. The men dug in overnight knowing the hardest work was still ahead.

Its place in the American story

Jonesboro was fought over the last railroad feeding Atlanta, and that single fact lifts this stalemate into national significance. A drawn battle here was not a quiet outcome. It set the stage for the decisive fighting that followed, which finally severed the city's supply line and forced its evacuation not long after.

The fall of Atlanta was one of the great turning points of the war's final year. It lifted Northern spirits, strengthened Abraham Lincoln's hand in a bitterly contested election, and confirmed that the Confederacy's heartland could be pierced. All of that pressed down through the railroad these lines were dug to defend and to take.

That is why an unresolved first day matters. Great outcomes are often built on days that ended without a winner, where exhausted men held their ground and waited. The armies that faced each other across these entrenchments were fighting over the thread by which a city, and a good deal of the war's momentum, still hung.

If you visit

This is Clayton County, south of Atlanta, near the line of the old railroad that everything here was about. Look for the lay of the land toward the Flint River, because the water and the ground beside it shaped where the lines went and how the fighting fell. The river is the key that unlocks the map.

Remember that you are standing on the first day of a two-day story. There is a particular mood to a place where a battle paused rather than ended, where soldiers held their works through the night knowing more was coming. Let the site carry that sense of suspense rather than resolution.

Jonesboro makes a fitting final stop on a tour that follows the Atlanta Campaign southward from the city, since this is where the long chase for the railroads came to its crisis. Take time with the terrain, and the plain markers along these roads will start to connect into the shape of a decision that changed the war.

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

Plan your visit

Nearby

Make a day of it — museums, food, and places to stay near this marker.

Museums & culture

Attractions

Places data © OpenStreetMap contributors. Hours and details change — call ahead.

Own a business near here? Add it to the map.

Related people

  • · O.O. Howard
  • · John A. Logan
  • · S.D. Lee
  • · William J. Hardee

Related events

  • · Battle of Jonesboro
  • · Atlanta Campaign

Themes & tags

Civil WarBattlefield

Nearby & related markers

Attack by Lee's Corps

Jonesboro, GA

When Gen. John Bell Hood tried to protect Atlanta's last open railroad, the fighting at Jonesboro on August 31 and September 1, 1864, decided the city's fate. On August 31, the corps of Hardee and S.D. Lee attacked the entrenched Federal 15th Corps between the town and the Flint River. Lee's three divisions struck the Union line at the river but, lacking support on their left, were driven back.

Civil War

Battlefield Landmark

Clayton County, GA

The deep gully south of this marker — the bed of a small stream running to the Flint River — was one of the few natural landmarks of the fighting here on August 31, 1864. Along and north of it, Union divisions of the 15th and 16th Corps formed a refused line bent back to the river. When Hardee's Confederate divisions attacked from south of the gully, the ravine became a fatal obstacle, breaking up their assault against the entrenched Federal infantry and artillery near Jonesboro.

Civil War

Battle of Jonesboro: The Second Day

Jonesboro, GA

On September 1, 1864, the final pitched battle of the Atlanta Campaign was fought around Jonesboro. Hardee's Confederate corps, posted in a salient near the Warren house, was assaulted late in the day by three divisions of Davis's 14th Corps, aided by Stanley's 4th Corps advancing down the railroad. With nightfall Hardee withdrew south to Lovejoy's Station.

Civil War

Bethsaida Baptist Church and Cemetery

Fulton County, GA

Bethsaida Baptist Church was formed in 1829 and served for decades under Pastor John S. Dodd, who led it for 50 years. In 1864 Union forces occupied the original wooden church as a headquarters, reportedly using its pews as horse troughs. The sanctuary later burned, the congregation merged with another to form United Baptist Church, and the Bethsaida site eventually closed, leaving behind a cemetery with graves dating to the 1800s.

Civil War