Battle of Pickett's Mill
Paulding County, Paulding County, Georgia
Marker Inscription
Battle of Pickett's Mill. After the successful defense at New Hope Church by Hood's Corps [Confed.], May 25, 1864, Johnston [Confed.] extended his right N.E. to keep pace with the Federal leftward shift to outflank him. Elements of the 4th, 14th and 23rd Corps under Maj. Gen. Oliver O. Howard [Union] with over 18,000 men passed this point seeking the extreme right of the Confederate army. The Federal forces attacked a point where the Army of Tennessee's line bent back to the south. The brigades of Hazen, Gibson and Scribner blundered into a deep ravine one-half mile east of here to attack the Confederates under Maj. Gen. Patrick Cleburne. The brigades were defeated one after another in the heavily-wooded ravine where fired upon from three directions. The Confederates were the clear victors of the five-hour battle. The result of the victory was a few days delay in Sherman's [Union] Atlanta Campaign. 110-27 GEORGIA HISTORIC MARKER 1996
Erected by Georgia Historical Commission
The Story
On May 27, 1864, following the fighting at New Hope Church, Union Maj. Gen. O.O. Howard pushed over 18,000 men toward the Confederate right, hoping to find and turn its flank. Instead, three Federal brigades blundered into a deep, wooded ravine and were cut down one after another by Maj. Gen. Patrick Cleburne's Confederates firing from three directions, handing the South a clear victory in a five-hour battle.
Why it matters
Pickett's Mill was one of Cleburne's finest defensive stands and a sharp check that briefly stalled Sherman's advance, illustrating the punishing terrain of the north Georgia campaign.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
By the spring of 1864, the Civil War had ground into its fourth exhausting year, and the Union had settled on a strategy of relentless pressure. While Ulysses S. Grant pinned down Robert E. Lee in Virginia, William T. Sherman was ordered to drive from Chattanooga into Georgia, aiming for Atlanta — a rail and manufacturing hub whose fall would gut the Confederacy's ability to feed and move its armies.
The country here in the hills northwest of Atlanta is not the open farmland many people picture when they imagine a Civil War battlefield. In late May 1864 it was a tangled landscape of dense second-growth timber, brushy hollows, and steep, hidden ravines. Roads were few and poor, and a marching column could lose sight of the enemy — and of itself — within a few hundred yards.
That terrain shaped everything. As Sherman's larger army tried to slide around the Confederate flank, and Joseph E. Johnston shifted his lines to block each move, the fighting broke into a series of sharp, close-quarters clashes in the woods rather than one grand set-piece battle. Pickett's Mill, on May 27, 1864, was one of the most brutal of these, fought on ground that hid the danger until men were already in it.
People & events
After the hard fighting at New Hope Church on May 25, where the corps under John Bell Hood turned back a Union assault, Johnston extended his right to the northeast, refusing to let the Federals get around the end of his line. Sherman, in turn, sent Maj. Gen. Oliver O. Howard with elements of three corps — more than 18,000 men — probing eastward to find and turn that flank.
The plan looked sound on a map and went badly on the ground. Howard's men pushed past this point searching for the true end of the Confederate line, but the country was so broken and wooded that they could not see what waited for them. Where the Army of Tennessee's line bent back to the south, Patrick Cleburne's veterans — among the finest defensive troops in the Confederacy — were posted and ready.
The assaulting Federal brigades of Hazen, Gibson, and Scribner pushed into a deep ravine and were caught in a killing ground, taking fire from three sides at once in the thick timber. Because of the terrain and the timing, the brigades went in one after another rather than all together, and each was beaten in turn. After roughly five hours of close and bloody fighting, the Confederates held the field as clear victors.
Its place in the American story
Pickett's Mill belongs to the story of how the Atlanta Campaign was actually won and lost — not in a single decisive battle, but in a long chain of maneuvers and hard local fights across north Georgia. It stands as a reminder that superior numbers meant little when they were fed piecemeal into ground the defenders knew and had prepared.
For the Confederacy, it was a genuine tactical triumph and one of Cleburne's most impressive defensive stands. Yet the marker is honest about its limits: the reward was a delay of a few days in Sherman's advance, not a reversal of it. That gap between a battlefield victory and its strategic consequences is the essential tragedy of the campaign for the South — they could bloody Sherman repeatedly and still be pressed steadily backward toward Atlanta.
Atlanta's eventual fall that summer would ripple far beyond Georgia, steadying Northern resolve in a war-weary election year. Every hard day like this one was part of the grinding arithmetic that led there.
If you visit
Stand at this marker and then look toward the ground to the east, where the fighting actually raged in the ravine about half a mile away. The lesson of Pickett's Mill is written in the land itself: the folds, the timber, and the sudden drop of the terrain are what turned a flanking probe into a slaughter. Give yourself a moment to notice how quickly the ground can hide what lies ahead.
The wooded, quiet feel of the area today makes it easier, not harder, to imagine the confusion of that afternoon — soldiers advancing into brush so thick they could not see the enemy until the volleys came from several directions. It is a place that rewards slow walking and imagination rather than sweeping vistas.
If you're touring the Atlanta Campaign by car, this site pairs naturally with the other markers scattered across these Paulding County hills. Treat it as one stop in a larger drive through the terrain that shaped the whole campaign, and let the difficulty of the ground be the thing you carry away.
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
- · O.O. Howard
- · Patrick Cleburne
- · Joseph E. Johnston
- · John Bell Hood
Related events
- · Battle of Pickett's Mill
- · Atlanta Campaign
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Battle of Pickett's Mill
Paulding County, GA
After the defense at New Hope Church in late May 1864, Confederate Gen. Johnston extended his right to counter Sherman's flanking moves. At Pickett's Mill, more than 18,000 Union troops under Maj. Gen. O.O. Howard sought the Confederate flank, but their brigades were funneled into a deep ravine and defeated in detail by Patrick Cleburne's men, who held the field after a fierce five-hour fight.
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