The men from Missouri, Texas and Mississippi were defending homes of fellow Southerners in Georgia, much as patriots banded together during the American Revolution to drive back British invaders. Confederate soldiers from other states frequently reported devastation caused by Federal troops, and Sherman's deliberate targeting of helpless civilians made them angry.

Their motivation to fight did not include burning and looting.

General Hood, who sent French's Division to take Allatoona, clearly misunderstood the situation there. It wasn't the last time this ill-fated general ordered an attack which should not have been made. Sherman called Allatoona a "natural fortress" which had been improved by his engineers to the point of being impregnable. The forts were circled by ditches six feet deep and surrounded by abatis and telegraph wire. Plus, a ratio of 3:2 (attackers vs. defenders) heavily weighs in favor of the Federals.

The Confederates achieved the impossible by driving Federals from some of the defenses. Henry M. Trimble of the 93rd Illinois recalled the scene --

Solid shot and shells, grape and canister from double-shotted cannon, and a hailstorm of bullets were rapidly and accurately poured into the ranks of the Confederates as they recklessly advanced... And yet, notwithstanding their fearful losses at every step, they still advanced, faster and faster, until their whole force, west of the railroad cut, burst into an impetuous charge. The spectacle was sublime.

Once Corse's men were crowded into the last fort, they were exposed to a "constant and intense" fire from all sides. Capt. William Ludlow, one of those inside the fort, later wrote, "It is true that there were men in the fort ready to surrender or do anything else to get out of it alive." Among the mass of men, Ludlow described some "playing dead" and others, including Corse himself, sat on these "living corpses".

By noon most of Cockrell's and Ector's men were short of ammunition, and General French had been alerted of Federal forces moving against his men. Ammunition had to be carried by hand from the rear, and French saw little point under the circumstances of making a final assault on the last fort. General Hood had no intention of holding Allatoona even if it had been captured, and Confederate transportation was not sufficient to carry off even a fraction of the stores warehoused at the pass.

Over the objections of his senior officers, French determined to extricate his troops and withdraw.

Phil Gottschalk writes,

Despite desperate efforts of French's soldiers, who made repeated attacks against a strongly fortified position and suffered staggering losses of brave men, their heroic effort was dismissed by General Hood in his postwar memoir with the words: "Our soldiers fought with great courage...General Corse won my admiration for his gallant resistance, and not without reason the Federal commander complimented this officer, through a general order, for his handsome conduct in defense of Allatoona." Imagine the feelings of Cockrell's, Young's and Sears' veterans who read Hood's book in 1880 and found the only "admiration" expressed was for the "gallant resistance" made by Corse!

Emboldened by all the praise heaped upon him and his men, Corse made several inaccurate and self-serving remarks in his report. Having read nothing but adulatory descriptions of the Federal defense of Allatoona, Confederate veterans must have been galled by their own general's ill-suited remarks.