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Photo Gallery: The Stoneman Raid Battle of King's Tanyard
 Marker text:
Closing in on Atlanta in July, 1864, Maj. Gen. W.T. Sherman found it "too
strong to assault and too extensive to invert." To force its evacuation, he
sent Maj. Gen. Geo. Stoneman's cavalry to cut the Macon railway by which its
defenders were supplied. At the Battle of Sunshine Church (19 miles NE of
Macon), Stoneman surrendered with 600 men to Brig. Gen. Alfred Iverson, Jr.,
after covering the escape northward of Adams' and Capron's brigades. Both
units retreated via Athens,intending to resupply their command there and to
"destroy the armory and other government works," but were stopped at the
river bridge south of Athens by Home Guard units with a battery of guns.
Unable to cross, they turned west; Capron on the Hog Mountain road through
Jug Tavern (winder), and Adams on roads farther north by which he reached
the Union lines near Marietta without further losses.
Capron pushed through Jug Tavern late that night and marched
to King's Tanyard (5 miles NW on State 211) where he halted for two hours to
rest his exhausted command. Before dawn on August 3rd, he was surprised by
Williams' Kentucky brigade. About 430 of his men were captured and sent to
Athens, a few escaping through the woods. Capron himself, with six men,
reached the Union lines near Marietta four days later - on foot.
This action, known also as the Battle of Jug Tavern, was the
final event of the Federal fiasco called the Stoneman Raid.
007-4 Georgia Historical Commission 1957
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