Shortly after dawn on June 27, 1864, Union artillery crews sprang into action on 200 guns facing miles of the Confederate defenses along the Kennesaw Line near Marietta, Georgia.
Jostled and jarred awake by the tremendous barrage, Private Sam Watkins and his fellow riflemen of the 1st/27th Tennessee Regiment (Consolidated) stood up in their trenches and watched, enthralled as hundreds of Yankees surged toward them from the Federal lines 400 yards away.
Although the concentrated shelling did little more than alert the defenders that a ground attack was imminent, the Confederates marveled at the volume and intensity of the fire. To them it was one more manifestation of Yankee wealth and ingenuity. “All at once a hundred guns from the Federal line opened upon us, and for more than an hour they poured their solid and chain shot, grape and shrapnel right upon this … point,” wrote Watkins. For the next three hours one tightly packed Federal column after another charged into the teeth of the Confederate rifle fire.
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