The attack was made on the 27th, and failed to carry the enemy's works, though our troops were able to hold positions close to the ditch and to intrench themselves on a new line there. The casualties in the action were 2164. [Footnote: In Logan's Corps, 629 (Official Records, vol. xxxviii. pt. iii. p. 85); in Howard's, 756 (_Id_., pt. i. p. 205), and in Palmer's, 779 (_Id_., p. 509).] Some of the best officers who took part in the assault were of the opinion that had the supports been well in hand, so as to have charged quickly over the first line when it was checked and lost its impetus, the works in front of Davis's division would have been carried. [Footnote: McCook's Brigade at Kennesaw Mountain, by Major F. B. James of the Fifty-Second Ohio; Ohio Loyal Legion Papers, vol. iv. pp. 269, 270.] It is hardly necessary to say that at the present day an entirely different deployment and organization of the attacking forces would be considered essential, and the preparation by concentrated artillery fire would be much more thorough than was practicable then. The dense forest made the cannonade almost harmless at the points chosen for assault, and the attack was one of infantry against unshaken earthworks. [Footnote: For description of the battle, see "Atlanta," chap. x.]

In Sherman's visit to our position on the 25th, he had arranged with Schofield the general plan for our demonstrations on the 26th and 27th. Hascall's division was to make a feint of attack near the Powder Springs road, whilst mine should force the crossing of Olley's Creek near Cheney's, on the Sandtown road, build a temporary bridge over the creek a mile or two above, and make a strong show of a purpose to attack beyond Hascall's right flank by crossing with a brigade there. [Footnote: Official Records, vol. xxxviii. pt. iv. pp. 589, 592.]

The valley of Olley's Creek was broad and open, and the country beyond my right was more practicable than the tangled wilderness on the northern slope of the watershed. We had got beyond the denser thickets of the loblolly pine, and could better see what we were about. The old Sandtown road south of Cheney's crossed the creek on a wooden bridge which was commanded by a fortified hill a little beyond where a battery of artillery swept the bridge and its approaches. The stream widened out after passing the bridge and ran between low and marshy banks with bluffs further back. I had placed Reilly's brigade astride the road at Cheney's with Myer's Indiana battery of light twelves, smooth-bore bronze guns. A gap of more than a mile lay between Reilly and the other three brigades of the division after I had marched to Hascall's support on the 22d. The lower branch of the Powder Springs road was parallel to the creek and not far from it, and my artillery near the right of the three brigades was on an advancing knoll where the guns not only commanded the valley before them, but Cockerill's Ohio battery of three-inch rifles swept nearly the whole space to Reilly's position. [Footnote: _Id._, p. 568.]