The Capture of Covington
Covington, Newton County, Georgia
Marker Inscription
The Capture of Covington. On July 22, 1864, Union Cavalry from Wilder's and Minty's Brigades, armed with Spencer repeating rifles, entered Covington under orders of General Keener Garrard. As the Battle of Atlanta raged to the west, Covinton was unprotected by Confederate troops. Covington citizen Presley Jones fired at the soldiers and was shot for killing two Union men. Troops also executed George Daniel, a furloughed Confederate soldier suspected of resistance. The Federal cavalrymen then destroyed or took with them anything useful to the Confederate war effort before riding on to Oxford. 2002.4 Erected by the Georgia Historical Society, Main Street Covington, Management Services Network, and the Newton County Historical Society 107-1
Erected by Georgia Historical Society
The Story
As the Battle of Atlanta raged to the west in July 1864, Union cavalry armed with rapid-firing Spencer repeaters swept into the undefended town of Covington. In the violence that followed, a resisting citizen and a furloughed Confederate soldier were killed, and the raiders destroyed or carried off supplies useful to the Confederacy before riding on toward Oxford.
Why it matters
The raid shows how Sherman's campaign brought the hard hand of war to Georgia's civilians far from the main battle lines.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
In July 1864 the eyes of the nation were fixed on Atlanta, where Union and Confederate armies were locked in the climactic struggle for the city. But the war did not confine itself to the front lines. As the great battles raged, cavalry raiders ranged out across the Georgia countryside, striking at the railroads, supplies, and resources that kept the Confederate armies alive.
Covington, in Newton County, sat in that vulnerable middle ground — a town with useful stores and rail connections but, at that moment, no soldiers to defend it. This was the reality of war for countless Southern communities in 1864: the fighting men were away at the front, and the town's fate rested on the sudden arrival of horsemen who could appear almost without warning.
The raiders carried a technological edge that made such raids especially fearsome. Union cavalry increasingly wielded Spencer repeating rifles, which could fire several shots before reloading at a time when most infantry still used single-shot muzzleloaders. A body of horsemen so armed could deliver a startling volume of fire, and towns in their path had little hope of resistance.
People & events
On July 22, 1864 — the very day the Battle of Atlanta was raging to the west — Union cavalry from Wilder's and Minty's brigades rode into Covington under the orders of General Kenner Garrard. With no Confederate troops to oppose them, the town lay open.
But open did not mean bloodless. A Covington citizen named Presley Jones fired on the soldiers and, according to the marker, killed two Union men before he was shot down in return. The troops also executed George Daniel, a furloughed Confederate soldier they suspected of resistance. In a matter of hours, an undefended town had become the scene of killing on both sides.
Having secured the town, the Federal cavalry did what such raids were designed to do: they destroyed or carried off anything useful to the Confederate war effort, then rode on toward nearby Oxford. The marker names these people and moments plainly, and in doing so it preserves the human texture of a raid that might otherwise be reduced to a line in a report.
Its place in the American story
The capture of Covington is a small episode, but it illuminates one of the defining features of the war's final year: the deliberate extension of the conflict from soldiers to the society that sustained them. Sherman's strategy recognized that armies ran on supplies, railroads, and civilian labor, and that striking those resources could hasten the end of the war.
Raids like this one brought that hard logic home to ordinary Georgians far from any battlefield. Barns, storehouses, and rail lines became military targets, and civilians found themselves suddenly on the front line of a war that had seemed to belong to distant armies. The deaths of a resisting townsman and a furloughed soldier show how quickly the line between combatant and civilian could blur.
This foreshadowed the more famous March to the Sea later that same year, when Sherman's columns would cut a broad swath across Georgia. Covington was an early, local taste of that campaign's philosophy — proof that in 1864 the war was coming to everyone in its path.
If you visit
Covington today is a graceful Georgia town, and the contrast between its present calm and the events recorded on this marker is exactly what makes the stop worthwhile. Placed as a landmark on the town's Main Street corridor, the sign asks you to look past the pleasant streetscape and picture a July day when armed horsemen filled these roads.
Read the marker slowly, because it does not flinch. It names a citizen who killed and was killed, and a furloughed soldier who was executed. These are difficult, human details, and the marker's willingness to record them — rather than offer a tidy tale of glory — is a mark of good history.
If you are following the sweep of the Atlanta Campaign or tracing the routes of Sherman's raiders through Georgia, Covington makes a natural and thought-provoking stop. Stand on Main Street, look toward the road to Oxford where the raiders rode off, and consider how the great national struggle reached into one ordinary town's streets and left its mark on the people who lived there.
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
- · Kenner Garrard
- · Presley Jones
- · George Daniel
Related events
- · Battle of Atlanta
Themes & tags
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