Assault on the Star Fort - Allatoona Pass Battlefield – Bartow Co., GA
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Lat34North
N 34° 06.921 W 084° 43.011
16S E 710579 N 3777299
This historic marker is located near the Star Fort on the south side of the RR cut at the Allatoona Pass Battlefield on Old Allatoona Rd, Allatoona, GA.
Waymark Code: WM9422
Location: Georgia, United States
Date Posted: 06/25/2010
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Assault on the Star Fort
By 11:00 a.m., after overrunning Rowett´s Redoubt , Confederate attack swept up his hill and the west and the north, forcing the Federals to retreat inside the Star Fort. As the last of the fleeing Federals entered the fort, a three-inch ordnance rifle was made ready to slow the Confederate pursuit.
"A moment later it fire. As leaves before a hurricane that mass of enemy was swept from the road. That double charged with grape and canisters struck in the front rank and cut a swath, broad and deep, and in continually increasing breadth from the front to the rear of the column … the road was red with blood covered with dead and dying and wounded It was appalling!" Harvey M. Trimble, 93rd Illinois Regiment.
Between 11:00 a.m. and noon, the Confederate made four separate charges of Star Fort from the ravine below this point.
"Each time, when they rose into sight out of the ravine, less than a hundred yards away, Union forces in front rose up and poured a sheet of flame and lead … full in their faces. Each time there lines were riddled and their columns broken, again they returned to the protection of the ravine." Harvey M. Trimble 93rd Illinois Regiment
3 inch ordnance rifle
This weapon was the second most common rifled field artillery in both armies. The 3 inch ordnance rifle was made hammer-welded, formed, machined iron. It was popular because of its accuracy and reliability, at least those examples built in Federal shops. Less precise machining and lower-grade iron gave their Confederate counterparts more trouble. The 3-inch rifle normally fired Hotchkiss or Schenkel shells weighted between 8 and 9 pounds. In an emergency, it could use 10 lb. Parrot ammunition. It could also be used fire canister shot, but as a rifle, was not as effective with this as howitzer or Napoleons.
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