Granbury's Texas Brigade at Pickett's Mill
Though it was formed late during the Civil War, Brigadier
General Hiram Granbury’s Texas Brigade would establish a legendary reputation
for bravery and ferocity in the Western Theater. The brigade was formed in November, 1863 at
Chattanooga before the Battle of Missionary Ridge. Eight Texas regiments, including Granbury’s 7th
Texas, were consolidated into a single brigade under the command of General
James Argyle Smith. A lawyer before the
war, Granbury had commanded the 7th Texas from the Fort Donelson Campaign until
the Battle of Chickamauga. The new brigade was attached to the Confederate
division commanded by Arkansas Irishman, Major General Patrick Cleburne. Smith
was wounded during the Battle of Missionary Ridge and replaced with
Granbury. During the Confederate retreat
from Chattanooga, Granbury assisted Cleburne in performing a remarkable rearguard
action at Ringold Gap, saving the Confederate Army of Tennessee from annihilation.
The Texans waited until the Yankees came within fifty yards then unleashed a wave
of gunfire that decimated General Ulysses S. Grant’s XV corps. After a five
hour stand, Cleburne withdrew into Georgia and received the official gratitude
of the Confederate Congress. The
following spring, Union forces, under General William Tecumseh Sherman,
advanced into Georgia. General Joseph
Johnston tried to hold off Sherman by forming a series of defensive lines which
Sherman skillfully bypassed, forcing Johnston to retreat. Sherman’s objective was Atlanta, not a single
decisive battle. On May 22, 1864,
Johnston again established a defensive line, this time, thirty miles east of
Atlanta at New Hope Church. General
Thomas Hooker, the former Commander of the Army of the Potomac, struck the
entrenched Confederate division of General Alexander P. Stewart. Hooker was repulsed with heavy casualties,
but the worst was yet to come. Further to
the right on Johnston’s line, near an abandoned grist mill owned by the Pickett
family, Patrick Cleburne was waiting.
Though repulsed at New Hope Church, Sherman decided to try
flanking the Confederate right. He
dispatched General Oliver Howard’s Corps for the attempt. The one-armed Howard was known as “Old Prayer
Book” by his men for his fervent Christian beliefs. The rocky ravines and jungle-like growth made
marching difficult. Companies became
lost in the vines and could only find their way through bugle calls to and from
the companies marching in front. The
Confederates heard the bugles as well and positioned themselves
accordingly. Cleburne’s men had the
advantage of height above a vine-chocked ravine. On May 27, the brigade of General William
Hazen moved up ravine toward Granbury’s Texans.
Cleburne’s artillery opened fire, cutting down trees and men alike. Hazen’s tough Ohioans continued their advance
to within thirty yards of the Texans. Like
Rngold Gap, a brutal standup fight ensued along Granbury’s line.
Future author, Lieutenant
Ambrose Bierce witnessed the battle firsthand and later penned an account
entitled “The Crime at Pickett’s Mill.” Bierce
later wrote, “With its well-defined edge of corpses-those of the bravest, where
both lines are fighting without cover-as in a charge met by a
counter-charge-each has its deadline and between the two is a clear spot-neutral
ground, devoid of dead, for the living cannot reach it to fall there.” Confederate Sergeant A.G. Anderson also left
an account of the deadline. “They seemed
to be drunk, and line after line would charge us and be cut down,” he wrote,
“They came so close to us that they endeavored to plant their colors (flags)
right in our lines, and when the flag would go down another man would raise it
again. Many of their men rushed into our
lines and were clubbed and bayoneted to death.”
An exception to the many was noted by Private William Oliphant. Dropping his musket, one young Union soldier
grabbed one of the implanted flags, waved it in the Texans faces, and then
retreated down the ravine. “One of the
Texans,” recalled Oliphant, “shouted out don’t shoot him, he’s too brave.” A cheer went up as the young bluecoat
retreated down the ravine with the flag.
By 6:00 PM, Sherman decided to call off the attack. Union casualties were 1,600 killed and
wounded. Cleburne suffered 600. In
General Cleburne's official report on Pickett’s Mill, Cleburne wrote, "The
piles of dead on this front was but a silent eulogy upon Granbury and his noble
Texans." Faced with further losses and tired of the rugged, wooded
terrain, Sherman decided to pull his army from their trenches and head northeast
toward the railhead at Allatoona Pass.
Johnston could only follow. Blankets
of dead horses and humans filled the ravines from New Hope Church to Pickett’s
Mill. Union troops gave the ravines an
appropriate moniker - “The Hell Hole.” Impatient
with his retreats and lack of success, Confederate President Jefferson Davis
replaced Johnston the following July with General John Bell Hood.
