May 9, 1864
In late November 1863, Union forces commanded by Major General Ulysses S. Grant successfully lifted Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston's siege of Chattanooga. Union victories at Lookout Mountain (November 24) and Missionary Ridge (November 25) forced Johnston to withdraw 30 miles south near Dalton, Georgia.
In late November 1863, Union forces commanded by Major General Ulysses S. Grant successfully lifted Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston's siege of Chattanooga, Tennessee. Union victories at Lookout Mountain (November 24) and Missionary Ridge (November 25) forced Johnston to withdraw thirty miles south to near Dalton, Georgia.
After the Federal breakout from Chattanooga, Grant was promoted to the special rank of Lieutenant General and placed in command of all Union armies. Grant moved his headquarters to Washington, DC, leaving his trusted subordinate, Major General William T. Sherman, in command of Federal operations in the western theater. Upon arriving in Washington, Grant and Sherman devised a "total war" policy aimed at the Confederate military, transportation systems, and anything else abetting the Rebel cause. Grant's primary military strategy was a coordinated effort to attack and defeat the two main Confederate armies in the field, Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia in the east, and Joseph E. Johnston's Army of Tennessee in the west. On May 5, 1864, Grant launched his Overland Campaign against Lee in Virginia. Two days later, Sherman led three armies, the Army of the Tennessee, commanded by Major General James B. McPherson; the Army of the Ohio, commanded by Major General John M. Schofield; and the Army of the Cumberland, commanded by Major General George H. Thomas, out of Tennessee in pursuit of Johnston's army in northern Georgia.
On May 7, 1864, Sherman's forces approached the Army of Tennessee, which was entrenched near Dalton, in rugged, mountainous terrain on and around Rocky Face Ridge. On May 7 and 8, General George Thomas's Army of the Cumberland tested the Rebel defenses with limited gains. Foreseeing little prospect for success through frontal assaults, Sherman sent General James McPherson's Army of the Tennessee southwest, in search of a way around the Confederate defenders. On May 9, elements of Major General George Thomas's Army of the Cumberland attacked Johnston’s main line of defense at a gap in the mountains, known locally as Buzzard's Roost Gap. Meanwhile, McPherson moved his army to an unprotected gap in the mountains farther south at Snake Creek. Leaving Thomas to demonstrate before the main Confederate line, Sherman moved the remainder of his forces south through the Snake Creek Gap, threatening to disable the Western and Atlantic Railroad behind Johnston's lines. In danger of being outflanked and having his supply line severed, Johnston withdrew twelve miles to Resaca, Georgia on the night of May 12-13.
Although the Rebel defenders were able to rebuff Thomas's army at the Battle of Buzzard's Roost, the engagement accomplished Sherman's objective of holding the Confederates in check as he successfully outflanked Johnston's army.
Ohio units that fought in the Battle of Buzzard's Roost Gap included:
Infantry units:
1st Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
2nd Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
5th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
6th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
7th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
10th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
13th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
15th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
19th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
21st Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
29th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
33rd Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
40th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
41st Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
49th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
51st Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
52nd Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
55th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
59th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
61st Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
64th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
66th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
71st Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
73rd Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
74th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
79th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
82nd Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
90th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
93rd Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
94th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
97th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
98th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
101st Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
108th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
113th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
121st Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
124th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
125th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
Artillery units:
Battery A, 1st Ohio Light Artillery
Battery C, 1st Ohio Light Artillery
Battery I, 1st Ohio Light Artillery
6th Ohio Light Artillery
Related Entries
- William Tecumseh Sherman
- George Henry Thomas
- Battle of Rocky Face Ridge
- James Birdseye McPherson
- Ulysses S. Grant
- John McAllister Schofield
- Overland Campaign
- Ohio Volunteer Infantry
- Robert Edward Lee
- 98th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
- 113th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
- 40th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
- 33rd Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
- 59th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
- 51st Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
- 61st Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
- 66th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
- 71st Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
- 101st Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
- Atlanta Campaign
- 108th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
- 125th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
- 121st Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
- 124th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
- 97th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
- Joseph Eggleston Johnston
- 29th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
- 94th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
- 64th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
- 73rd Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
- 74th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
- 79th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
- 82nd Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
- 93rd Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
- Army of the Ohio 1861?1862
- 10th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
- 4th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
- 24th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
- 55th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
- 52nd Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
- 49th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
- 41st Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
- Army of the Tennessee
- Army of the Cumberland