Lee was promoted to lieutenant general on June 23, 1864, making Lee the youngest at this grade in the Confederate States Army. On July 26 he was assigned to lead the Second Corps, Army of Tennessee, commanded by John Bell Hood. During the Atlanta Campaign, Lee fought at the Battle of Ezra Church on July 28 and was in command of the extended line in south west Atlanta in August 1864. His troops, with the attachment of William B. Bate's Division and a Brigade of Georgia militia, defeated Schofield's movement to break the railroad lines at East Point at the Battle of Utoy Creek. For this action he published a general order recognizing Bate's Division for defeating the attack of the combined U.S. XXIII Corps and XIV Corps. He was also in command of his corps at the Battle of Jonesborough on August 31 and September 1. Lee fought in the Franklin-Nashville Campaign and was severely wounded in the foot at the Battle of Spring Hill on November 29, but did not give up the command until an organized rearguard took over the post of danger. In regard to the confused and disappointing fight at Spring Hill, Lee considered it "one of the most disgraceful and lamentable occurrences of the war, one that is in my opinion unpardonable." He then participated in the Battle of Franklin on November 30. Lee's men arrived at Franklin at 4:00 p.m. with orders from Hood to support Benjamin F. Cheatham's force if necessary. Meeting with Cheatham, Lee decided the situation was dire and attacked at 9:00 p.m., taking serious losses from the Union position and from Confederate artillery as well. Following the campaign's Battle of Nashville on December 15–16, Lee kept his troops closed up and well in hand despite the general rout of the rest of the Confederate forces. For three consecutive days, they would form the fighting rearguard of the otherwise disintegrated Army of Tennessee. Lee was wounded in the foot by shell fragments on December 17.