Battle of Dallas

Battle of Dallas
Part of the American Civil War
General Logan at the Battle of Dallas, May 1864
Date May 28, 1864 Location Paulding County, Georgia Result Union victory
Belligerents
United States	Confederate States
Commanders and leaders
William T. Sherman John A. Logan	Joseph E. Johnston William B. Bate Frank C. Armstrong
Units involved
Military Division of the Mississippi	Army of Tennessee
Strength
Dallas: ~11,500 May 23–June 6: ~100,000	Dallas: ~10,000 May 23–June 6: ~65,000
Casualties and losses
Dallas: 379 May 23–June 6: 4,500	Dallas: 1,000–1,200 May 23–June 6: 3,000

The Battle of Dallas (May 28, 1864) was an engagement during the Atlanta Campaign in the American Civil War. The Union army of William Tecumseh Sherman and the Confederate army led by Joseph E. Johnston fought a series of battles between May 25 and June 3 along a front stretching northeast from Dallas toward Acworth, Georgia. At Dallas a probe launched by William B. Bate's and William Hicks Jackson's Confederate divisions accidentally turned into a full-scale assault against the defenses of John A. Logan's XV Corps. The attack was driven off with heavy Confederate losses. The previous Union defeats at New Hope Church and the Pickett's Mill are sometimes considered with Dallas as part of one battle.

On May 23, Sherman moved away from his railroad supply line when he launched a wide sweep that aimed to turn Johnston's left flank. Johnston adroitly shifted his army toward Dallas to block Sherman's maneuver. The result was ten days of close fighting that resulted in more Union than Confederate casualties. After the Dallas battle, Sherman shifted his army to the northeast, looking for a way to turn the right flank of Johnston's entrenched defenses. On June 1, Union forces occupied Allatoona Pass on the Western and Atlantic Railroad line. This allowed the railroad to be repaired as far as that location and promised that future supplies could reach Sherman's army by train. On June 3, Union troops arrived at a flanking position that convinced Johnston to abandon his lines and fall back to another entrenched position that covered Marietta.