Federal Trenches - Allatoona Pass Battlefield - Allatoona, GA.
Posted by: 
Lat34North
N 34° 06.991 W 084° 42.991
16S E 710607 N 3777429
This marker is located along the walking path, west of the eastern redoubt at the Allatoona Pass Battlefield on Old Allatoona Rd, Allatoona, GA. Remember – do not walk on the earth works of the trenches. Help protect them.
Waymark Code: WM92RV
Location: Georgia, United States
Date Posted: 06/19/2010
Views: 1
Federal Trenches
During the battle, these trenches were manned by troops at the 12th Illinois Infantry Regiment who repulsed Confederate troops for the 35th and 39th Mississippi regiments to their front and delivered enfilading fire into the ranks of the 36th Mississippi Infantry Regiment advancing up the slope on the opposite side of the railroad track.
Enfilade or Enfilading fire - fire from the flank that swept along the length of the parapet or a line of battle. Enfilading fire could be particularly destructive as incoming rounds might strike multiple targets and no return fire could be brought to bear. Traverses were often constructed behind the parapet to limit casualties caused by enfilade.
A Southern General
Massachusetts born, Claudius Wister Sears graduated from West Point in 1841. From 1845 to 1859, he resided as a mathematics professor at the University of Louisiana (now Tulane) and then president of St. Thomas´s Hall until 1861. Commissioned as a colonel at the 46th Mississippi, he was captured and paroled after Vicksburg, returned to his command, and appointed brigadier general of the Mississippi Brigade, Army of Tennessee. After Allatoona, Sears lost a leg at the Battle of Nashville and was captured only a few days later. Following the war, he served as the chairman of mathematics at the University of Mississippi. He died in 1891.
Georgia State Parks & Historical Sites
Help us to preserve our history -- please do not walk on the earthworks or trenches.