The Battle of Peach Tree Creek: "They Fought Like Very Devils"

The Union soldier who uttered those words was referring to Brigadier General Winfield Scott Featherston's Mississippi Brigade of Major General William W. Loring's division, Lieutenant General Alexander P. Stewart's corps, at the Battle of Peach Tree Creek fought on this day in 1864.

By the summer of that year, General Joseph E Johnston had completely fallen out of favor with Jefferson Davis.  The defensive-minded approach the general had been taking was not the direction the  Confederate president desired the army to go.  Davis wanted a commander who would take the fight to the Federals in order to help alleviate pressure from General Robert E. Lee in the east.  Johnston was simply not getting the job done, and so Davis replaced him with someone he believed would:  General John Bell Hood.  What Hood lacked in personal mobility due to a bum arm and a missing leg, he made up for with an aggressive mentality.  Just three days after Davis made him commander of the Army of Tennessee, the eager general attacked Major General George H. Thomas' Army of the Cumberland in order to garner momentum during the Atlanta campaign.

Approximately 3 p.m. on July 20th, 1864,  Featherston's Mississippians rose from their chalky, red clay trenches and charged through marsh grass of Tanyard Branch, crossed an open field, and dashed up Collier Ridge toward the mill that bore its name.  There, the Confederates ran into Colonel John Coburn's brigade, which had rushed to plug a gap between the divisions of Brigadier General John W. Geary and Brigadier General John Newton.  This gap had been the objective of Featherston and was

Featherston's guidon in the Mississippi Museum of History
It was captured at the Battle of Franklin, 11/30/1864.
Photo by me.

now the scene of ferocious hand-to-hand fighting.  Unfortunately, Hood's series of bloody attacks that day were uncoordinated, and the Mississippians' determined charge went unsupported due in part to a lack of communication and the rough terrain.  They soon found themselves surrounded on three sides by Federals, who shot them to pieces.  The Mississippi Brigade fought fiercely against an entire Federal division, leading Sergeant John March Cate of the 33rd Massachusetts to remark, "They fought like very Devils." At the end, Featherston had no option other than to withdraw what was left of his mutilated command.  The Mississippi Brigade had suffered an astounding casualty rate of approximately 55 percent, higher than Brigadier General William T. Ward's entire Federal division whom Featherston faced.   To illustrate just how destructive this engagement was to Mississippians, there were only four soldiers left of Company E of the 31st Mississippi Infantry after their ill-fated charge.  They had entered the battle with only twenty members out of 124 who marched away from Choctaw County, Mississippi at the beginning of the war.

Joining this regiment in the Mississippi Brigade at Peach Tree Creek was the 3rd Mississippi Infantry, the unit in which several of my relatives served.  They somehow made it out alive.

Also among Featherston's "Devils" were at least two women who fell that bloody day.  One ultimately lost her foot.  She had served in the Confederate army for over two years.  Private Judson L. Austin of the 19th Michigan Infantry mentioned another one in a letter home to his wife.  "She was shot through the breast & through the thy & was still alive & as gritty a reb as I ever saw."

With such grievous wounds, it is doubtful this woman soldier made it back to the Magnolia State.

Letter of Pvt. Judson L. Auston, 19th MI Infantry mentioning a wounded female soldier
Available online from the Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan

George Barnard photograph of the Peach Tree Creek battlefield, Library of Congress
Notice the headboards marking graves.
The Mississippi women soldiers of Featherston's brigade gazed out upon
this very landscape.

From a plaque at Tanyard Creek Park
The green camera marks the location where
Barnard took the picture above

Development has swallowed almost all of the battlefield.  There are some markers at least.
This picture was taken by Mark Hidlebaugh from Tanyard Creek Park
and shows the vantage point of Featherston's brigade as they
attacked the Federals.  The road in front is Collier Road.

Photo by me

mill stones from Collier's Mill
the location of murderous fighting
photo by Mark Hidlebaugh

Tanyard (Branch) Creek
Featherston crossed this branch and then advanced to the right of it, through
what is now Tanyard Creek Park in the picture above.
Photo by Mark Hidlebaugh

These women were not the only ones who remained on the field after Hood abandoned it, along with his casualties, to the Federals.

Pennsylvania surgeon James L. Dunn mentioned that Federal medical personnel treated several female soldiers who were picked up and brought to the hospital.  Another Pennsylvanian serving in Geary's division said that two women were discovered among the Confederate prisoners.  Unfortunately, there is not enough information to determine if these female fighters were the same women included in Dunn's tally.

Meanwhile, an Illinois soldier in Newton's division recorded in his diary that there were seven dead women and one wounded found among the Southern casualties.  These were not the only uncommon Confederates at the Battle of Peach Tree Creek.  Interestingly, the Illinoisan also mentioned that a male mulatto was among the wounded prisoners.

With these tallies, this places the number of women soldiers who were killed, wounded, or captured at the Battle of Peach Tree Creek at approximately ten, rendering it the bloodiest battle of the Civil War for them.

At least one survived the horrendous battle, an unnamed young and freckled woman with Brigadier General Francis M. Cockrell's Missouri Brigade, which was held in reserve.behind Major General Edward C. Walthall's division.   Though the Missourians, commanded by Colonel Elijah Gates in the absence of Cockrell who was recovering from a wound, was not directly involved in the battle, they nevertheless received artillery fire.

Peachtree Creek
Photo by Mark HIdlebaugh

In my book, I go into more detail about the experiences of the women who fought at this battle.

*Note:  today, you will commonly see the name of the battle and the creek written as one word.  However, back then, it was spelled as two words, which is why I have chosen to spell it "Peach Tree Creek."

Until next formation....rest.