On the morning of October 5th, 1864, Confederate Major General Samual G. French's division of 3,276 men attacked the federal garrison at Allatoona with orders to fill up the railroad cut and disrupt the flow of supplies to William T. Sherman's army to the south of Atlanta, then march northward to the Etowah River and burn the railroad bridge there. French was opposed at Allatoona by a Federal force of 2,025 men under the command of Major General John M. Corse. Corse occupied a heavily fortified position, anchored by two large earth forts, the Star Fort on the west and eastern redoubt east of the cut. Many of the Federal troops, including the entire 7th Illinois Regiment, were armed with Henry repeating rifles, which probably gave them equal, if not superior, firepower. By noon, most of the federal troops had been driven back into their main or Star Fort, and its capture seemed eminent, but French received a false report from his cavalry that a large federal force was coming up the railroad from the south. Fearing his division would be cut off from the main Confederate army, French withdrew, leaving Allatoona in Federal Hands. The Federals lost 706 men and the Confederates 897, in what was one of the most bloody and stubbornly contested battles of the entire war.