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Battle of Gilgal Church (1864), US Civil War

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  • Pvt. Asel Horton, (USA) (1838 - 1883)
    Civil War Soldier Pvt. Asahel Horton /Asel Horton 136th New York Infantry Adjutant General: Horton, Asahel--Age, 25 years. Enlisted, August 28, 1862, at Leicester, to serve three years; mustered in as...
  • Maj. Gen. Oliver Otis Howard, (USA) (1830 - 1909)
    Otis Howard (November 8, 1830 – October 26, 1909) was a career United States Army officer and a Union general in the American Civil War. He was a corps commander noted for suffering two humiliating def...
  • Maj.-Gen. Francis Preston Blair, U.S. Senator (D-MO) (1821 - 1875)
    Preston Blair, Jr. (February 19, 1821 – July 9, 1875) was an American politician and Union Army general during the American Civil War. He represented Missouri in both the House of Representatives and t...
  • Major General Daniel Adams Butterfield (USA) (1831 - 1901)
    Daniel Adams Butterfield (October 31, 1831 – July 17, 1901) was a New York businessman, a Union General in the American Civil War, and Assistant U.S. Treasurer in New York. He is credited with composin...
  • Gov./Brevet Maj. Gen. John White Geary, USA (1819 - 1873)
    John White Geary was an American lawyer, a Colonel in the Mexican War, politician, and a Union General in the American Civil War. He was the final alcalde and first mayor of San Francisco, California, ...

The Battle of Gilgal Church (June 15, 1864) was an action during the Atlanta Campaign in the American Civil War. The Union army of William Tecumseh Sherman and the Confederate army led by Joseph E. Johnston fought a series of battles between June 10 and 19 along a front stretching northeast from Lost Mountain to Pine Mountain to Brushy Mountain. At Gilgal Church, attacks by the divisions of John W. Geary and Daniel Butterfield from Joseph Hooker's XX Corps were repulsed with about 700 casualties by Confederates from William J. Hardee's corps. That day in a separate action, other Union troops overran a Confederate skirmish line, capturing about 300 men. Gilgal Church was part of a series of minor actions that included the Battle of Latimer's Farm on June 17–18.

After the Battle of Dallas on May 28, Sherman moved northeast until he reached the Western and Atlantic Railroad at Acworth. On June 4, Johnston abandoned his defensive positions near Dallas and New Hope Church and withdrew to a new line of entrenchments. Sherman was reinforced by Francis Preston Blair Jr.'s XVII Corps, and on June 10 he resumed his offensive. Confederate corps commander Leonidas Polk was killed by an artillery round on June 14 at Pine Mountain. That evening, Johnston withdrew from Pine Mountain and Sherman's forces followed, bringing on the clashes near Gilgal Church. Shortly after the Union attacks failed, Johnston pulled Hardee's corps back to a new line behind Mud Creek. At Latimer's Farm, Union troops from Oliver Otis Howard's IV Corps gained a foothold in the Confederate line. On June 19, Johnston's Army of Tennessee fell back to fresh defenses based on Kennesaw Mountain.

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