The primary sources seem to indicate that there were scattered snow ball battles of various sizes and duration going on throughout the morning of March 22. Many of these scattered fights involved Lewis' Orphans, Tyler's and Finley's Brigades, Stovall's, Clayton's, and Gibson's Brigades, Govan and L. Polk's Brigades of Cleburne's Division, among others.

Nevertheless, that afternoon, the "big" snowball battle according to one source began as a result of when Cheatham's Division was sent west to Demopolis, Alabama to reinforce Gen. Polk that while they were gone, Jackson's Georgians tore down their shanties and used them for firewood. Cheatham's Tennesseans (encamped just across a ravine from the Georgians)upon returning to find their shanties disassembled and burned were wanting to "take vengence" on the Georgians, so they did it by attacking their camp with snowballs on the afternoon of March 22, thus resulting in the "Great Snowball Battle of 1864."