page_title: Sope Creek
section_title: Civil War history
hierarchical_section_title: Sope Creek / Civil War history
caption_attribution_description: English: Chattahoochee River at East Palisades, Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area, Atlanta
context_page_description: Sope Creek is an 11.6-mile-long stream located in Cobb County, Georgia, United States. It is a significant tributary of the Chattahoochee River. It was known as Soap Creek during the 19th century. A section of Sope Creek runs through the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area.
  The Sope Creek Ruins are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
context_section_description: During Sherman's Atlanta Campaign, troops first crossed the Chattahoochee at Sope Creek.
  On May 4, 1864, Major-General William T. Sherman took control of the Military Division of the Mississippi and began to engage Confederate General Joseph Johnston and his Army of Tennessee.  From the beginning, Johnston was persistent in his effort to fight a defensive battle, rather than offensive.  Rightly so, as Sherman had a two-to-one advantage on Johnston.  Additionally, Johnston claimed he was waiting for the right opportunity when Sherman would leave himself exposed.  Sherman, unwilling to charge headlong against Johnston, decided to outmaneuver Johnston.  Thus, every time Johnston found a superior defensive position, Sherman would maneuver around Johnston, forcing Johnston to retreat to a tactically superior position.  The two engaged in this 'dance' for nearly two months, with one exception, the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain, in which Sherman lost his nerve, attacked head on, and suffered a bloody defeat.
  Author David Conyngham best described it in his book Sherman's March Through the South, when he wrote "True, such movements would not break up Johnston's Army, but it gave us a victory; besides, Sherman and Johnston were watching each other's movements, like two expert wrestlers, to know who would make a slip, for they knew that to attack an intrenched [sic] position was likely to prove a defeat."
  Even though this was the strategically sound theory, this was a personal gamble for Johnston, for every time he retreated, despite the fact that he was outmanned by Sherman, he aggravated Confederate President Jefferson Davis.
  Sherman's troops were divided into three armies.  These were the Army of the Cumberland, the Army of the Ohio, and the Army of the Tennessee, commanded by Major Generals George H. Thomas, John M. Schofield, and James B. McPherson, respectively.  Johnston was waiting for one of these three armies to be exposed.  While they all moved together, they were in fact, three separate units.
  The largest body of water between Chattanooga, where Sherman started, and Atlanta, was the Chattahoochee River.  If there was any time in which the one portion of the Army of the Mississippi could become separated, and therefore vulnerable, crossing the Chattahoochee was it.
  As the Union Army approached the Chattahoochee, they moved in from the west and took up positions at Vinings Station.  Johnston held the bridgehead on the west side of the river, and had a majority of his troops just across the railroad bridge.  On the night of July 7, Sherman gave orders to Schofield to move his troops around and to the left, bypassing Johnston.  Sherman had given Schofield orders to find a location between Roswell and Sope Creek in which to ford the Chattahoochee.  Sherman said, "I wish you to make an examination thereabouts and secure a foothold, fortified on the other side, anywhere about Roswell or mouth of Soap Creek.  I also know that Johnston's cavalry has moved to the south flank.  It is important to do this at once, for the fords are very important to us."  Schofield located a ford on the Chattahoochee one half mile upstream of the mouth of Sope Creek.
   
  He then sent to Sherman the following:
  I have not been able to reconnoiter as far as Roswell to-day.  I find a pretty good crossing near mouth of Soap Creek.  Half a mile above the creek is a shallow ford where infantry can cross easily, but there is no road leading to it and it would be difficult to make one.  Isham's [sic] Ferry just below mouth of the creek is a good place for a bridge.  About 400 yards from the river on east side is a commanding ridge very favorable for a bridge-head.  The crossing would be very difficult if that ridge were held in force; but there appears at present only a squad of cavalry and one or two pieces of artillery.  If there be no greater force to oppose it, the crossing can be effected very easily by crossing infantry at the ford above, to clear the ridge and cover the construction of the bridge.  The ground on this side is favorable for our artillery. 
caption: East Palisades near mouth of Sope Creek. Site of the Union crossing
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