On the road to Atlanta: War comes to LaFayette
On June 24 two brigades of Confederate cavalry attacked a Union garrison at LaFayette, Georgia, in an attempt to strike Sherman’s supply lines. The Confederates under Gideon Pillow surprised a portion of Union Col. Louis Watkins’s Kentucky cavalry brigade, which had occupied the town just a few days before. The defenders took refuge in the jail and courthouse, both solid brick buildings. The Rebel attempt to storm those structures failed.
From Atlanta, Volume 3:
The Kentuckians now occupied “the courthouse, jail, and several [other] strong brick buildings in the vicinity, barricading the doors and windows with sacks of grain and making loop-holes in the walls.” A number of Rebel prisoners taken in the melee, “about forty,” were secured in the courthouse. The courthouse was bounded on the north by modern-day Villanow Street and on the south by Patton Street. The Marsh store and the jail sat on the block east of the courthouse, with the latter building on the corner of Villanow and Duke Streets. The Globe Tavern stood on the southwest side of the square, on the northeast corner of Patton and Chattanooga streets. The prominent Presbyterian Church stood a block north of the courthouse on the west side of Chattanooga Street. In contrast, the two-story wooden Goree Hotel sat opposite the church on the east side of Chattanooga Street, notable for its long, two-sided porch. The brick buildings provided very strong protection, impervious to anything but artillery—of which Pillow had none.[1]
Confederate Col. Charles G. Armistead had already twice tried to dislodge the Yankees when Col. J. J. Neely’s Tennesseans joined the fight, both of which ended in costly failure. Colonel Charles Ball reported that the 8th Alabama faced “a destructive fire” upon entering the square, losing among others, “2 gallant officers—Capt. C. E. England Company E, and First Lieut. S. S. Johnson, commanding Company F.” England was only wounded “slightly in [the] thigh,” but Johnson was “killed within twenty steps of the courthouse.” According to Lieutenant Colonel Lemuel Hatch (who was also wounded here) he was shot “in the neck, the ball cutting his jugular vein and he died in a few minutes, without much pain.” Alabama Maj. Thomas Lewis was mortally wounded while leading a portion of his battalion against the jail, though not without a last gasp, a moment recorded by the ever-eloquent Captain Harrell: “As the spirit of the lamented Lewis was about to bid adieu to its earthly tenement, his feeble voice was heard saying, ‘Charge them, boys! Charge them!’ and right nobly did his gallant boys respond.” Armistead found that that “the doors [of the courthouse] were too strongly barricaded to be forced without the necessary implements, forcing him to order the men to fall back, “encircling the courthouse from north to east at a distance at no time greater than fifty yards. . . . Finding their mode of warfare cowardly,” Armistead angrily ordered the buildings to be set ablaze, but he also fell wounded before that “order could be commenced.”[2]
Lieutenant Colonel Philip B. Spence, leading the 12th Mississippi, felt the same frustration. He dourly reported that though the charge was conducted with “great coolness and gallantry,” and that his men “succeeded in reaching the walls of the jail and other brick buildings . . . the enemy was too strongly posted to be dislodged, and my command was ordered to fall back in rear of the fences and houses within fifty yards of the jail.” As Spence’s men fell back, they were further stung by a short-lived Federal counterattack: “Major Fidler sallied from the jail, open[ing] fire on their flank from the rear of the [Goree] Hotel barns, and captured some prisoners.” With Armistead out of action, Colonel Ball took charge of the brigade, instructing the men to occupy the surrounding houses and begin “sharpshooting the enemy.”[3]
Neely’s troopers completed the encirclement of the courthouse. Both the 14th and 15th Tennessee dismounted—the 14th leaving their horses in an alley “about two blocks” west of the square. The 14th connected with Armistead’s (now Ball’s) right, Stewart’s 15th occupied the southeast corner of the perimeter around the Methodist Church, while the 12th Tennessee extended the 15th’s right towards the jail.[4]
While the Tennesseans were deploying, Pillow essayed a bluff. At about 6:00 a.m., via a flag of truce, he sent the following note “To the Commanding Officer U. S. Forces, La Fayette, Ga.:
Sir: To prevent an unnecessary shedding of blood I demand of you an immediate surrender of this post and your forces. I have the force to take the place and am determined to do it. If necessary, I will resort to the torch as well as to shot and shell to drive you from your present position. An immediate answer is required.
Upon receiving the demand, Watkins reported that he answered promptly, “respectfully declining to comply,” but according to Lieutenant Colonel Robert Kelly, “his actual reply was much less formal and more emphatic.” One Louisville newspaper account deemed it “profane but expressive: ‘Burn the town and be d____d.’”[5]
Shortly thereafter, the arrival of the 4th Kentucky Mounted Infantry, 700 strong, chased the Rebels out of town, ending the siege before Pillow could make good that threat.
[1]OR 38, pt. 2, 793; locations provided by Robert D. Jenkins, Jr., based on personal research, 12/14/2024. Note that the extant maps of the battle all have the jail in the wrong place.
[2]OR 38, pt. 3, 999-1000, 1003-4, L. D. Hatch, “The Battle of LaFayette,” Walker County Messenger, January 18, 1900.
[3]OR 38, pt. 3, 1002; Kelly, “A Brush with Pillow,” 328.
[4]OR 38, pt. 3, 1006.
[5]OR 38, pt. 2, 795; Kelly, “A Brush with Pillow,” 329; “Gideon J. Pillow with Two Brigades at LaFayette,” Louisville Weekly Journal, July 5, 1864.
