The battle for Kennesaw Mountain in Georgia was the scene of tireless fighting between Sherman's and Johnston's troops. A series of Union charges on the strong Confederate positions on the eminence resulted in extremely high casualties for both sides. On one occasion, following a failed Federal charge on General Patrick Cleburn's Arkansans, hundreds of wounded Union soldiers laid helplessly between the temporary Federal position and the Confederate lines. Gunfire had soon ignited the underbrush along the mountainside, and many men were either burnt alive or were in danger of being so.
"Watching in horror from the Confederate entrenchments, Lieutenant Colonel William H. Martin, commander of the 1st and 15th Arkansas, ordered his regiment to cease firing. He tied his handkerchief to a ramrod and jumped onto the parapet to offer a truce: 'Come and remove your wounded; they are burning to death,' Martin shouted to the Federals. 'We won't fire a gun until you get them away. Be quick'" (Bailey, 1985, p. 71). While the rest of the line was ablaze, a "merciful quiet" rested upon this portion of the line. The men, both from North and South, emerged from their lines to work together in carrying the wounded Federals to safety. After the wounded were taken behind Union lines, A Union major presented Martin with two colt revolvers as a token of appreciation. Soon, the two lines once again opened fire in their savagery. Martin was mortally wounded in the ensuing combat.
On June 29, two days after the aforementioned occurrence, Sherman's men were preparing to begin another march south. However, they had to wait for the sun to dry the roads that were previously drenched by torrential rains. While in waiting and as both sides remained in the same positions from two days prior, the ominous smell of bloated corpses overwhelmed the field. The smell was so repulsive that both sides agreed to a seven-hour truce. During this time, Union and Confederate soldiers worked together to move their dead comrades into deep trenches for burial. This truce also afforded them the opportunity to trade coffee and tobacco. "Several Confederate officers mingled with blueclads; some Federals crowded admiringly around General Cheatham to get the autograph of the commander responsible for their bloody repulse at the Dead Angle" (Bailey, 1985, p. 75).
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