In May of 1864, Union Gen. William T. Sherman began his Atlanta campaign, which was rapidly closing in on Rome. On May 14, 1864, Sherman dispatched Brig. Gen. Kenner Garrard’s cavalry division from Villanow in Walker County toward Rome. Confederate Brig. Gen. William Hicks “Red” Jackson took command of Rome. On May 15, the Union’s Brig. Gen. Jefferson Columbus Davis was also commanded to take his troops to Rome to add more strength to federal forces. Jackson, with two Confederate brigades, marched to Calhoun to fight.

On May 16, Maj. Gen. Samuel G. French took over command of Rome’s defenses after learning of the Union’s approach. French readied and positioned his troops for battle near Fort Attaway. On May 17, between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m., a fierce battle ensued at Fort Attaway. About 10,000 Union troops invaded Rome, defended by about 5,000 Confederate soldiers.

Davis’ Union troops drove a small Confederate army toward Rome, within range of Fort Attaway’s cannon fire. After several hours of battle at Little Dry Creek, the group of Confederate soldiers retreated behind Fort Attaway. Fighting ceased as the Union troops constructed earthworks to the northeast of Fort Attaway on a high hill across the Little Dry Creek floodplain. After Davis saw Fort Attaway, he reported to his headquarters that “the works looked so strong that I thought it imprudent to storm them hastily and ordered my troops to hold the positions gained, close up under the rifle pits.”

About 50 Confederate soldiers and 150 Union soldiers were wounded or killed in the battle. The morning of May 18, Confederate troops were given orders to proceed to Cassville and Kingston. French was ordered to evacuate his troops from Rome, but he left behind a small group of men to slow the Union’s progress. As fog lifted that morning, the Union troops prepared to storm Fort Attaway only to discover it marginally defended. The fort was quickly captured and Davis’ Union troops began firing on Fort Stovall and Fort Norton from positions atop Fort Attaway. Rome was under complete Union control within a few hours, and the Union troops raised their flag at the city’s courthouse. The Battle of Rome had ended.

Davis reported that his troops were “in possession of the strongest fortified place I have seen in Dixie.” By May 22, Union troops set up a garrison in Rome and about 30,000 of its troops had moved through the city. Sherman reported that the Union now had “possession of Rome with its forts, some eight or ten guns of heavy caliber and its valuable mills and foundries.”