The Union raids around Atlanta in late July and August 1864.
The first raid is known as McCook's Raid (Union General Edward M. McCook) was part of two raids around Atlanta at that same
time. General Ross' Texas Cavalry Brigade was sent to fight General McCook. The following are four versions of this raid. The
first comes from the Adjutant of the 9th Texas Cavalry Regiment, George L. Griscom who maintained a diary for the War which
was later published. The second comes from S. B. Barron of Company C, 3rd Texas Cavalry Regiment who wrote of his
adventures during the War. And the 3rd is from Victor Rose's Fighting with Ross' Texas Cavalry Brigade which gives an account,
but leaves out Ross' capture and the 4th version comes from the McCook raid reports filed by Union units after the raid. From
these lively accounts, Ross' Brigade is described like a full brigade of 5,000 plus men, where in actual count, the brigade rarely
had 500 fighting men on the ground during this part of the War.
Because General Sherman was unhappy with the first result he decided to send out another stronger force under the command
of General Kilpatrick to accomplish the same objectives. Again the Ross' Brigade, though smaller than any of Kilpatrick's
brigades it was able to fight Kilpatrick time and time again till Kilpatrick felt he was in a box and had to extradite his unit or fail as
did McCook. In doing so he ran over the Texas Brigade, but the brigade regrouped so fast hardly anyone realized it had
happened. The end result was that Kilpatrick was unable to completely disrupt Hood's communications and in turn lost a
disproportional amount of men and material and he could have captured the whole Brigade. This raid is described from 4 views plus the Nash Farm's version which follows.http://henrycountybattlefield.com/Kilpatricks%20Raid%20and%20Minty's%20Calvery%20Charge.html
First that described by Lt George L. Griscom, the second by S. B. Barron and a third by Victor Rose. The 4th comes from Barron's
book, but is a union version from a man who saw a lot of what happened.
It is almost funny the difference in the data reported and how it was reported. At times it is hard to see who is winning, Please
read this information and know that this is not the whole story.
McCOOK'S
RAID
KILPATRICK'S
RAID