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Feature Article on Atlanta Battle.
Topic: CIVIL WAR
Written by Rich Wallace in July,
1996
ATLANTA OLYMPICS RECALL GREAT SACRIFICE OF SHELBY COUNTY
SOLDIERS |
| The eyes of the entire world are on Atlanta,
Georgia this week as the pomp and pageantry of the Centennial Olympics unfolds. Over ten
thousand athletes from around the globe and millions of visitors marvel at this sports
spectacle, and the crown jewel of the south the city of Atlanta has become. So much has
changed. One hundred and thirty-two years ago this same soil bore witness to a decisive
struggle between two massive, determined armies. At the epicenter of the Battle of Atlanta
were many men from Shelby County. July 22, 1864, marked the turning point in the battle,
and some say in the entire Civil War, as
the Union army defeated the Confederate forces led by General John Bell Hood, and went on to capture Atlanta. From
there, General Sherman led the Union Army on the decisive "Sherman's march to the
sea." More Shelby County boys died on that day than on any other in the history of
our county. This is the story of that dark day. The Twentieth Ohio Volunteer Infantry was recruited from Shelby and
surrounding counties in May of 1861. Of the nearly one thousand recruits, four hundred
were from Shelby County. Although the regiment saw early action at the battles of Fort Donelson and Pittsburgh Landing in
1862, the men first experienced the reality of war at Raymond, Mississippi when they along with
other Union units were ambushed by several Confederate brigades. The Twentieth lost twelve
men that day. The soldiers also participated in the battle of Vicksburg, and after the war told vivid
stories of General Grant and his steely-eyed determination during the battle.
However, nothing was to compare to
the horrors that would confront the soldiers from Shelby County as they marched to the
outskirts of Atlanta, Georgia late in July of 1864. This story is written in part from the
first person accounts of Capt. E.E. Nutt and Pvt. William W. Updegraff of the Twentieth
Ohio. Nutt recalled the action in a letter he wrote in 1884, and Updegraff reported his
experiences in a letter to the Sidney Journal on August 7, 1864.
The twentieth, sixty-eighth and the
seventy-eighth Ohio Regiments were ordered into the Union line on its far left flank
during the afternoon of July 21, 1864. For most of the night, the men dug fortifications
and braced them with logs cut from a woods nearby.
No one expected any action. The next
day dawned hot and hazy. The soldiers lounged around, tired from the night's labors. To
the west, Rebels could be seen leaving Atlanta in a steady stream, heading south. Perhaps
there would not be a fight after all. Capt Nutt remembered sitting on a log writing a
letter when the first salvo opening the battle was fired. It was just after noon. The men
scrambled for their weapons. What was going on - weren't the Rebs retreating?
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