Battle of Adairsville The Battle of Adairsville was a battle of the Atlanta Campaign fought during the American Civil War on May 17 , 1864 , just northeast of Rome , Georgia . The brief engagement was a Confederate delaying action that allowed General Joseph E . Johnston to bait a trap for the Union army at Cassville . Prelude . Following the Battle of Resaca , May 13 – 15 , General Joseph E . Johnston ' s army retreated southward while Major General William Tecumseh Sherman pursued . Failing to find a good defensive position south of Calhoun , Georgia , Johnston continued to Adairsville , while the Confederate cavalry fought a skillful rearguard action and kept Sherman away from Atlanta . The battle . Once across the Oostanaula River , Johnston sought to make a stand and draw the Federals into a costly assault . He expected to find favorable terrain near Calhoun , but in this he was disappointed and during the night of May 16 – 17 he led the Confederates southward toward Adairsville . Sherman followed , dividing his forces into three columns , and advancing on a broad front . There were skirmishes all along the route , but the main bodies were not engaged . Two miles north of Adairsville Oliver Otis Howard and the Union IV Corps began skirmishing with entrenched units of William J . Hardee ' s Confederate corps . The 44th Illinois and 24th Wisconsin infantry regiments led by Maj . Arthur MacArthur , Jr . ( father of Douglas MacArthur ) attacked Benjamin F . Cheatham ' s division and suffered heavy losses . The rest of Howard ' s corps prepared for battle but further attacks were called of by General Thomas . At Adairsville , Johnston again hoped to find a position in which he could give battle but there too the terrain was unsuitable for further defense and the Confederate commander was forced to continue his withdrawal . As he fell back , however , Johnston devised a strategy that he hoped would lead to the destruction of a part of Sherman ' s forces . There were two roads leading south from Adairsville — one south to Kingston , the other southeast to Cassville . It seemed likely that Sherman would divide his armies so as to use both roads . This would give Johnston the opportunity to attack one column before the other could come to its aid . When the Southerners abandoned Adairsville during the night of May 17 – 18 , Johnston sent William J . Hardee ' s Corps to Kingston , while he fell back toward Cassville with the rest of his army . He hoped that Sherman would believe most of the Southerners to be in Kingston and concentrate the bulk of his forces there . Hardee would then hold off the Northerners at Kingston while Johnston , with Leonidas Polk and John B . Hood , destroyed the smaller Federal column at Cassville . Sherman reacted as Johnston hoped , ordering James B . McPherson and the bulk of George Henry Thomas ' s army toward Kingston while sending only John Schofield and one corps of Thomas ' army along the road to Cassville . On the morning of May 19 , Johnston ordered Hood to march along a country road a mile or so east of the Adairsville - Cassville Road and form his corps for battle facing west . While Polk attacked the head of the Federal column , Hood was to assail its left flank . As Hood was moving into position , he found Northern soldiers to the east . This was a source of great danger , for had Hood formed facing west , these Federals would have been in position to attack the exposed flank and rear of his corps . After a brief skirmish with the Northerners , Hood fell back to rejoin Polk . Johnston , believing that the opportunity for a successful battle had passed , ordered Hood and Polk to move to a new line east and south of Cassville , where they were joined by Hardee who had been pushed out of Kingston . Johnston formed his army on a ridge and hoped that Sherman would attack him there on May 20 . As usual , the Southern commander was confident of repulsing the enemy . During the night , the Confederates withdrew across the Etowah River . As they fell back , their feelings were mixed . They had lost a very strong position at Dalton , and had fallen back from Resaca , Calhoun , and Adairsville . Now they were retreating again under cover of darkness . That morning as they prepared for battle , their spirits had been high . Now their disappointment was bitter . Although morale would revive in the next few days , many Southern soldiers would never again place as much confidence in Johnston ' s abilities as they once had . Aftermath . That night the Confederate leaders held a council of war . Exactly what happened at the council is a matter of dispute . According to Johnston , Polk and Hood reported that their lines could not be held and urged that the army retreat . Believing that the fears of the corps commanders would be communicated to their men and thus weaken the army ' s confidence , Johnston yielded to these demands , even though he thought the position to be defensible . According to Hood , whose recollection of the council differs markedly from Johnston ' s , he and Polk told Johnston that the line could not be held against an attack but that it was a good position from which to move against the enemy . Johnston , however , was unwilling to risk an offensive battle and decided to fall back across the Etowah . No definite resolution of this dispute is possible , but most of the available evidence supports Hood ' s version of the conference . Certainly Johnston was not required to allow the advice of subordinates to overrule his own judgment . The responsibility for abandoning the Cassville position rests on the Southern commander .