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Photo Gallery: The Stoneman Raid
Marker text:
In July, 1864, Maj. Gen. W.T. Sherman's army closed in on
Atlanta. Finding its fortifications "too strong to assault and too extensive
to invest," he sought to force its fall by sending Maj. Gen. George Stoneman,
with three cavalry brigades (2112 men and 2 guns) to cut the Central of
Georgia R.R. by which the city's defenders were supplied. On the 27th,
Stoneman left Decatur, crossed the Ocmulgee (Yellow) River near Covington
(27 miles NW), and turned down the left bank toward Monticello. Arriving
here at dark on the 28th, he learned that there were no bridges over the
Ocmulgee above Macon by which he could reach the railroad.
Deciding to destroy the railroad at and beyond Macon instead, Stoneman
departed at dawn and marched to Clinton (26 miles SE). Next morning, he
detached part of the 14th Illinois Cavalry which wrecked railway facilities
at Gordon, McIntyre and Toomsboro (SE of Clinton) and at Griswoldville
(SSE), and burned trains, stocks of supplies, trestles and the railway
bridge over the Oconee River.
At Macon (38 miles S), he was turned back by Georgia Militia, strongly
entrenched, and begun a retreat which was intercepted next morning at
Sunshine Church (19 miles S) by Brig. Gen. Alfred Iverson, Jr., who, with
only 1300 cavalry, managed to delude him into believing that he was being
surrounded. Stoneman covered the escape northward of Adams' and Capron's
brigades, then he surrendered, with about 600 men and his artillery and
train, to what Iverson had led him to believe was a superior force.
079-6B Georgia Historical Commission 1957
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