Around the 14th of June, 1864, Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston's rebels abandoned their works in the Dallas / New Hope Church area and moved to new positions near Kenesaw Mountain, Georgia. For the next several days, the men of the 55th Ohio, along with their brigade, did much marching and skirmishing with rebel skirmishers. On the 22nd of June, the 55th Ohio, along with its brigade, was ordered to take an enemy position atop a hill 500 yards in front of Union lines. Brigade commander Colonel James Wood reported "I moved my brigade forward and formed a line of battle in the edge of a piece of woods near some open ground which lay between the foot of the hill and the woods, in which the brigade was formed and about 100 yards distant from the hill. This open ground was swept by the enemy's skirmishers. I threw out a strong line of skirmishers . . . In this formation the brigade advanced across the open ground in double-quick, pushed up the hill, which was occupied by the enemy's skirmish line, entrenched, drove the enemy from the hill, and occupied it as ordered. The enemy occupied a strong position of another hill still in our front, in which position he had entrenched himself, and from which he kept up a galling and destructive fire on my line. With a great promptitude and dispatch the men in the face of this fire constructed a line of breastworks which covered them from the enemy's fire. The enemy made an ineffectual attempt to drive us from the hill--drove in our pickets, but was quickly repulsed by the line and retreated." The 55th Ohio paid for this little adventure with three killed and at least one wounded.On the 27th of June, 1864, the 55th's commander, Captain Edwin Powers, was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel. Captain Charles Wickham (Co. I) was promoted to Major. This day the regiment, along with the rest of the 20th Corps, was present but did not take part in the disastrous assault upon Kenesaw Mountain. By the 29th, General Dan Butterfield resigned command of the 3rd Division, 20th Corps. He was replaced by Brigadier-General William T. Ward (formerly commanding the Division's 1st Brigade).
Sources:
Trials and Triumphs: A Record of the Fifty-Fifth Ohio Volunteer Infantry by Hartwell Osborne, 1904, A.C. Clurg & Co., Chicago.