The situation changed dramatically in 1871. As the raids against Texas settlements continued unabated, Texas politicians complained to the Grant administration. No traveler on the northwestern prairie was safe. In January, about 25 Kiowa ambushed Britton Johnson and three other black freighters. Teamsters who found their mutilated bodies reported 173 spent rifle shells at the spot where Britt Johnson's skill, resolve, and courage finally were not enough.

William T. Sherman, commanding general of the army, embarked on a tour of inspection across the Texas frontier in the spring, on the new "line" of forts, McKavett and Concho on the Edwards Plateau, Griffin and Richardson on the northern prairie. He traveled through Young County with a light escort, although 14 settlers had been reported killed there since January. He was accompanied by Colonel Randolph Marcy who, on May 17, wrote in his journal that the prairie-plains country did not contain as many white settlers as it had when he was last there in 1853.

The day after Marcy's entry, more than 100 Indians, mostly Kiowa led by Satanta, Satank, and Big Tree, let Sherman's entourage pass the Little Salt Creek Prairie unmolested, then attacked a train of wagons owned by freighter Henry Warren. The wagon master and five teamsters were killed outright. A sixth was tortured to death. Five escaped. One of the escapees reached Fort Richardson and told the story to Sherman and Colonel Ranald S. Mackenzie, the new commander of the 4th Cavalry, headquartered at the post.

Sherman sent Mackenzie in pursuit of the raiders, then continued on to Fort Sill, on the Comanche-Kiowa reservation, where Indian agent Lawrie Tatum expressed his concern that his charges had been marauding in Texas. Summoned by Tatum, Satanta boasted of his role in the Warren wagon train massacre. After a tense confrontation in which 10th Cavalry commander Benjamin Grierson saved Sherman from a Kiowa bullet, Satanta, Satank, and Big Tree were arrested. Mackenzie came in shortly thereafter to report that the Indians' trail had been lost in the rain near the Red River.

The three Kiowa leaders were sent by wagon to Jacksboro to stand trial for murder. While en route, Satank overpowered and badly wounded a guard, then was killed trying to escape. Satanta and Big Tree were tried with the expected result-both were sentenced to hang. Eastern "peace politics" intervened, however, and Reconstruction Governor Edmund J. Davis commuted the sentences to life imprisonment. Within two years, both Indians were paroled.

But the significance of events on the Little Salt Creek Prairie—"the most dangerous prairie in Texas"—was that they were the beginning of the end of the Peace Policy.

When the war began Roswell Mill produced the famous "Roswell Gray" that is so closely associated with the Rebel troops. During the Atlanta Campaign, Roswell Mill was a major target for William Tecumseh Sherman's forces. He ordered Brigadier General Kennar Garrard to advance and take the mill and attempt to secure the bridge across the Chattahoochee River south of the mill.

Garrard met little resistance and secured the mill on July 5, 1864. He was not as lucky with the bridge, which Rebel forces burned. The owners transferred ownership to Theodore Roche, a French national who was a manager at the mill. Roche raised the French flag and attempted to save the mill for his employers. Garrard reported the development to Sherman, who ordered the mill destroyed and the mill workers shipped to the railhead in Marietta.

On Sunday, July 10, the workers (who were women and female children) may have been sexually assaulted by Union infantry soldiers prior to the arrival of Garrard's cavalry to take them to Marietta.

What happened to the women once they reached Marietta is known. Some were taken north to Louisville, Kentucky, where they were released north of the Ohio River. Some remained in Marietta, according to contemporary accounts of the incident. Northern papers reacted strongly to the transportation and imprisonment of the women, and to releasing the women in the north.

Although Sherman's frontal attack on Johnston's Kennesaw Mountain line had failed, Schofield had managed to improve his position during the fight, giving the Federals an opening for a flanking move around the formidable Confederate line of defense. Sherman waited for the roads to dry out and then moved out on July 1. McPherson and Schofield's armies curved around the rebel defenses to the southeast, while Thomas and dismounted cavalry blocked any Confederate counterthrust.

Sherman didn't believe for a second that he would catch Joe Johnston napping, particularly because the rebels had a commanding view of the countryside from their eagle's roost on Kennesaw Mountain. Sherman ordered that scouts be sent out to check the Confederate line at sunrise on July 3, and to nobody's surprise the scouts found the trenches empty.

Sherman hoped he could catch the rebels on the march, where they would not be able to offset their inferior numbers with stout earthworks. He was in a great rush that morning, pushing his people to move as fast as possible. However, in mid-day he found out that Johnston had already taken refuge in preprepared defenses at Smyrna, five miles to the southeast.

Sherman performed another flanking move. Johnston pulled out during the night. The Chattahoochie River, the last major natural barrier in front of Atlanta, was about 6 miles to the south. Sherman believed that Johnston was too good a general want to fight with a river to his back and would probably take his men across to dig in along the south bank. That would give the Federals an opportunity to catch the rebels astride the river, but when Sherman got to the Chattahoochie on the morning of July 5, he found the rebels snugly holed up in yet another preprepared line of defense, to his surprise set up on the north bank of the river.

These were no ordinary fortifications. One Federal officer judged the Confederate works to be the most formidable the Yankees had encountered in the whole campaign, a neatly laid out deathtrap that protected six bridges spanning the river, allowing the rebels to skedaddle quickly if it came to that.

Johnston's wagons were parked south of the river, behind a secondary line of earthworks that could be quickly occupied. His cavalry patrolled the south bank beyond the limits of the rebel line, making sure that any bridges that the Federals could use to cross the Chattahoochie were burned. Sherman's frustration with this development was mixed with admiration of his adversary. Sherman had a much higher opinion of Johnston than Johnston's own superiors did. Sherman wrote later: "No officer or soldier who ever served under me will question the generalship of Joseph E. Johnston. His retreats were timely, in good order, and he left nothing behind." Johnston's superiors would have likely emphasized the use of the word "retreat".

Sherman did get a bit of satisfaction from his current situation. He and Thomas went to the top of a hill to see the lay of the land, and were rewarded with a view of the distant buildings of Atlanta, the goal of the whole campaign. The unexciteable Thomas showed no particular emotion at the sight, but Sherman was clearly exhilarated, "his eyes sparkling and his face aglow", as a witness said. One of his majors shared the emotion, writing home: "Mine eyes have beheld the promised land."

The Battle of Lebanon occurred July 5, 1863, in Lebanon, Kentucky, during Morgan's Raid in the American Civil War. Confederate troops under Brig. Gen. John Hunt Morgan fought for six hours to overcome the small Union garrison before moving northward, eventually riding through Kentucky, Indiana, and much of Ohio before surrendering.

General Morgan and his 2,460 handpicked Confederate cavalrymen rode west from Sparta in middle Tennessee on June 11, 1863, intending to divert the attention of the Union Army of the Ohio from Southern forces in the state. On June 23, the Federal Army of the Cumberland began its operations against Gen. Braxton Bragg’s Confederate Army of Tennessee in what became known as the Tullahoma Campaign, and Morgan decided to it was time to move northward. By July 2, Morgan had crossed the rain-swollen Cumberland River at Burkesville, Kentucky. After being defeated by Michigan troops along the Green River at the Battle of Tebbs' Bend on July 4, Morgan withdrew and circled to the west, hoping to reach Louisville, then lightly defended.

Morgan surprised and captured the Federal garrison at Lebanon. With minimal time to prepare, Union Lt. Col. Charles S. Hanson (a brother of Confederate general Roger Hanson) quickly deployed his 350 - 400 men from the 20th Kentucky Infantry behind overturned wagons, hastily erected barricades, fences, and other cover. Arriving at the town, Morgan formally requested that Hanson surrender, an offer that was refused. With a huge numerical advantage, Morgan quickly pushed Hanson's advance pickets back through the town's streets. He trapped many of the Union soldiers in the Louisville and Nashville Railroad depot, but the well fortified brick building provided considerable protection. Morgan ordered nearby buildings set on fire, hoping to force Hanson to surrender. In a sharp six-hour fight, Federal troops killed Morgan’s 19-year-old brother, Lt. Thomas Morgan, during the final charge. General Morgan finally captured and paroled the enemy soldiers. His men burned the offices of the Circuit Clerk and County Clerk, as well as 20 other buildings.

Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman's IX, XIII, and IV corps set out from Oak Ridge, Mississippi within hours of the Confederate surrender of Vicksburg on July 4. From positions northeast of the city, they marched southeast from Oak Ridge to the Big Black River and Birdsong Ferry on the 5th, 2 divisions of the XVI Corps under Maj. Gen. John G. Parke taking the advance. So began the campaign against Confederate Gen. Joseph E. Johnston's army at Jackson.

Johnston's advance held the Big Black's east bank at Birdsong Ferry; the west bank was hit by element's of Parke's division after 7:00 A.M., on the 5th, beginning an all day small-arms fight with Confederates on the east bank. Under fire, the Federals could not test the Big Black's depth; the ferryboat they had expected to find was scuttled. Union troops sent scouting parties north and south searching for fords after deploying skirmish companies.

At dark, the water at Birdsong was tested and found "swimming deep". Maj. Willison and Pvt. Joseph Weston swam to the ferry, were fired on, and returned, the fire concealing operations to raise the ferryboat. Fords found north and south were also contested. The next day, the ferryboat was raised, bridges were constructed at fords above and below, the Confederates retired, and the Federals advanced southeast to their first objective, the Vicksburg & Jackson Railroad. A 2nd skirmish followed on the railroad at Bolton Station, east of Jackson on the 8th. Casualties at Birdsong Ferry were insignificant.