HistoricSiteMarkers
Civil War

Brown's and Clayton's Divisions

Atlanta, Fulton County, Georgia

Marker Inscription

Brown's and Clayton's Divs.. July 22, 1864: 3:30 P.M. Gen. Hood [Confed.] launched an attack from the east line of the city fortifications, on the 15th A.C. astride the Ga. R.R. (at DeGress Ave.) - a mass assault by two divs. of Cheatham's A.C.: Brown's & Clayton's. Brown's brigades were: Manigault's, Sharp's, Coltart's & Benton's; Clayton's brigades were: Stovall's, Baker's, Gibson's & Holtzclaw's. The impact of these eight small brigades dislodged four Federal brigades from their intrenched line at and each side of the R.R. - where the spear-head of the attack was aimed. This, the critical molment of the battle is pictured in the Cyclorama at Grant Park. 060-100B GEORGIA HISTORICAL COMMISSION 1956

Erected by Georgia Historical Commission

The Story

At 3:30 on the afternoon of July 22, 1864, during the Battle of Atlanta, Confederate divisions under Gen. John Bell Hood struck the Union Fifteenth Corps astride the Georgia Railroad. The eight brigades of Brown's and Clayton's divisions smashed through four entrenched Federal brigades at the point of the assault, the battle's critical moment, later immortalized in the Atlanta Cyclorama at Grant Park.

Why it matters

The Battle of Atlanta was a decisive step toward the city's fall, a blow that helped secure Lincoln's reelection and hasten the war's end.

The story behind this marker

AI context

The era

By late July 1864, Atlanta was a city bracing for its life. Sherman's Union armies had fought their way down through north Georgia across a grinding campaign, and now they stood at the gates of one of the Confederacy's most important cities. Around Atlanta's eastern edge ran a line of fortifications, and beyond them, the armies maneuvered for the killing blow.

The Confederacy had just changed hands in the field. Command of the army defending Atlanta had passed to General John Bell Hood, a soldier known for aggression, and the shift in temperament showed almost immediately. Where his predecessor had maneuvered and defended, Hood attacked.

The marker captures one such attack at close range — not the whole battle, but its hinge. It reads like a stopwatch clicked at the decisive instant: a specific hour, a specific stretch of the line, a specific collision of thousands of men along the Georgia Railroad.

People & events

The time given is exact: 3:30 in the afternoon of July 22, 1864. Hood launched an assault from the city's eastern fortifications against the Union Fifteenth Corps, which sat astride the Georgia Railroad. The spearhead struck near what the marker calls DeGress Avenue, and it was delivered by two divisions of Cheatham's corps — Brown's and Clayton's.

The inscription names the brigades with the care of a battlefield tour guide, because at this scale names are the story. Brown's brigades were Manigault's, Sharp's, Coltart's, and Benton's; Clayton's were Stovall's, Baker's, Gibson's, and Holtzclaw's. Eight brigades, described as small — worn down, like all armies by that point in the war — and yet their combined weight told.

At the point where the attack was aimed, those eight brigades dislodged four entrenched Federal brigades from their line along and beside the railroad. For a moment, the Confederate assault broke through the Union position — the high-water instant of a furious afternoon, when the momentum of the whole battle hung in the balance.

Its place in the American story

The Battle of Atlanta was one of the great pivots of the Civil War, and the moment this marker describes is its beating heart. Hood's decision to attack rather than merely defend defined the summer's fighting, and the breakthrough along the railroad was as close as the Confederates came to turning the day.

But a breakthrough is not a victory, and the larger current ran against the Confederacy. The Battle of Atlanta was a costly step toward the city's fall that September — a fall that reverberated far beyond Georgia. The capture of Atlanta lifted Northern morale at a critical hour, strengthened President Lincoln's political standing, and helped set the stage for the war's final act.

That national weight is why this particular half-hour was remembered and, as the marker notes, painted. Americans understood even at the time that something decisive had happened here, and they wanted to preserve the sight of it — the instant a nation's future seemed to teeter on a single stretch of railroad.

If you visit

This is a battlefield marker in the middle of a living city, and that contrast is part of its power. Atlanta grew up over the ground where these brigades collided, so you'll be reading about a mass assault while modern life hums around you. Let the specificity of the marker do the work — a time, a place, a direction of attack — and the streets rearrange themselves in your mind.

The marker itself points you to the best companion experience in the city: the Atlanta Cyclorama, the enormous circular painting that depicts this very battle. It was created to put viewers inside the fighting, and seeing it after reading the marker lets you connect the named brigades on the plaque to the vast, immersive image of the assault.

For anyone tracing the Atlanta Campaign, this stop anchors the whole story in a single dramatic afternoon. Stand where the line was aimed, then go stand inside the painting. Together they turn July 22, 1864, from a date into a place you can almost step into.

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

  • · John Bell Hood

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  • · Battle of Atlanta

Themes & tags

Civil WarBattlefield

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