This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/xhC.2ACE/820.3 Message Board Post: It's good to have the Florence issue settled. If you are interested in this ancestor, you may wish to look over the 4th Tennessee (U.S.) website: http://www.tngennet.org/civilwar/usacav/usa4cav.html Little has been written about the fighting near Newnan, which probably saved the town from destruction. Here's the historical marker for this battle: http://www.cviog.uga.edu/Projects/gainfo/gahistmarkers/battlebrownsmillhistmarker.htm McCook's raiders were on the last leg of their mission and eager to cross the Chattahoochee River to safety. About 8:00 AM on July 30th the advance of the 8th Iowa Cavalry rode into Newnan to find Confederates blocking the way. This was an unpleasant surprise, since Wheeler's cavalry was pressing McCook's column from the rear. The Confederates were dismounted cavalry under Gen. Philip D. Roddey being sent by rail to reinforce Hood's army at Atlanta. They had been delayed because Rousseau's raiders tore up the tracks near Opelika two weeks earlier, and just happened to be in Newnan that morning. Gen. McCook realized that he would have to bypass the town and directed his column around the town. The delay allowed Wheeler's cavalry to overtake McCook's raiders, forcing them to stop and fight near Brown's Mill. The Confederates were badly outnumbered, but as Grant discovered in the Wilderness, superior numbers and weaponry count for less when your troops are tangled up in thickets. After bloody hand-to-hand fighting lasting most of the day, Union troops began surrendering in large groups late that afternoon. Someone else who happened to have an ancestor in the 4th Tennessee (U.S.) captured near Newnan that day has a web link. This man was sent to Andersonville GA; http://www.rootsweb.com/~iaappano/barrett.htm We have to distinguish 4th Tennessee (U.S.) from 4th Tennessee (C.S.) because both commands fought each other that day. Newnan today has twenty-two antebellum homes which survived the war due to the efforts of Generals Wheeler, Roddey, Humes and other Confederate cavalry leaders. If you're interested in reading more about this raid and others during July-August of 1864, find a copy of David Evans, "Sherman's Horsemen": http://members.aol.com/BookKritik/evansb.html