Peachtree Creek Battlefield Monument honoring American Soldiers through World War I on Peachtree Battle Road. This is on the north side of Peachtree Creek. Union Soldiers of Ward’s Division of the 20th Corps passed through here on the way to the battle already in progress.

Memorial to the battle at Tanyard Branch Park on Collier Road.

Plaque with a description of the battle at Tanyard Branch Park.

Plaque showing the opposing forces at Tanyard Branch Park.

Plaque, at Tanyard Branch Park, outlining the Union advance from the Chattahoochee River to the crossing of Peachtree Creek and into battle.

Plaque describing the rest of the Union advance and the Confederate emplacements when General Hood took command on the Peachtree Creek lines at Tanyard Branch Park.

Plaque describing the Confederate attack at Tanyard Branch Park.

Plaque continuing the description of the Confederate attack at Tanyard Branch Park.

Northside Drive crossing Peachtree Creek. This was the site where Geary’s and William’s Divisions of the 20th Corps crossed Peachtree Creek on July 19 and 20, 1864. The troops were still in the process of crossing when they were attacked by the Confederates of General Walthall’s Division.

Another view of the Northside Drive crossing site.

Memorial in front of Piedmont Hospital on Peachtree Street. This photo shows the direction of the attack from a part of Bates’ Division and Walker’s Division. They were attacking a gap in Newton’s 4th Corps, that was detached from the rest of the 4th Corps for the battle.

Newton’s lines stretched across this segment of Peachtree Street and along Collier Road on the grounds of Piedmont Hospital.

Another view showing direction of Walker’s attack. Newton’s troops were pushed back from this line toward the hospital in the background. The fighting on this front was severe with Union troops fighting on both sides of the entrenchments as they were attacked from 3 sides. They were relieved by a part of Ward’s Division that crossed Peachtree Creek at Peachtree Road late in the battle.

View of Piedmont Hospital from Collier Road. This was still part of the lines occupied by Newton’s Corps.

Another view of Piedmont Hospital, Newton’s lines, from Collier Road.

Going north on Collier Road. Following the northward running Confederate attack along Collier Road.

Still following Collier Road going north.

Historical marker for Collier’s Mill on Collier Road.

Marker for some mill stones from Collier’s mill.

Mill stones from Collier’s mill.

Historical marker for Harrison’ Brigade on Collier Road. This is at the same place as the mill stones from Collier’s mill. Harrison’s troops were part of Ward’s Division that crossed Peachtree Creek at Peachtree Road after the battle had started. They joined the battle when Geary’s troops were being pushed back towards Peachtree Creek, halting the Confederate advance.

Collier Road bridge over Tanyard Branch, inside Tanyard Branch Park. Colliers mill was at this location and was a central feature of the battle. This was the center of the Confederate line of attack. This photo shows the direction the Confederate troops of General Maney’s Division followed into the gap between Newton’s Division and Geary’s Division. The Confederates succeeded in pushing the Union troops of Geary’s Division from this line.

Another view of Tanyard Branch inside Tanyard Branch Park. After the Confederates pushed Geary’s troops back Harrison’s Brigade of Ward’s Division counter charged. They had just crossed Peachtree Creek at Peachtree Street and were successful in pushing the Confederates back from Newton’s front and Geary’s front, thus saving the Union line until night fell and the Confederates called off the attack. The bridge was occupied by Harrison’s Brigade of Ward’s Division while pushing Loring’s and Maney’s Confederates back from the gap between Newton’s and Geary’s Division. This was the site of some of the most severe fighting of the battle.

Marker showing location of break in Geary’s line on Collier Road.

Marker showing center of Union line that was held by Geary’s Division on Collier Road.

Another marker for action by Geary’s troops on Collier Road.

Peachtree Creek from Peachtree Road. This was where Ward’s Division of the 20th Corps crossed Peachtree Creek to join the battle. They reinforced Newton’s line by going south on Peachtree Street and Geary’s line by heading north. In both places they were successful in pushing the Confederates back out of the gaps, thus saving the Union lines.

Peachtree Creek from the middle of the Peachtree Street bridge. 

Peachtree Street bridge over Peachtree Creek. Ward’s Division followed Peachtree Road south to the battle from here.

Marker on Collier Road showing where O’Neal’s Confederates attacked Geary’s line on Collier Road.

This was the end of the Union right that was involved in the battle. The photo is looking south on Collier Road from Howell Mill Road.

This intersection marks the far right of the Union line that was engaged in the battle. It is pointing from the Union side to the far left of the Confederate line that was engaged in the battle. Palmer’s 14th Corps kept the Union line running north from this point to the Chattahoochee River on the left of this photo.

          The fighting at the Battle Of Peachtree Creek was very severe. The Confederates were successful, at first, but were driven back by Ward’s counter attack. The fighting took place in the 2 mile stretch of Collier Road, starting at Peachtree Street and working its way north to Howell Mill Road. Throughout the battle General Hardee had kept General Cleburne’s Division in reserve to bolster the attack where needed. As night fell, General Hardee was getting ready to send Cleburne into the fight against Geary’s front, where the Confederates were the most successful. Instead, General Hood ordered him to send Cleburne to help the Confederates further east against another Union assault. This assault would climax two days later as the Battle of Atlanta.

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A Fact, Not a Fiction?

In those dark days, Mons was also made famous by another, much darker legend. On a night in November, Captain Yeskes and four of his London Fusiliers went on a patrol in No Man’s Land. Several days later their corpses were found, with teeth marks at the throats. And in the British trenches a weird, blood-curldling howl was heard… the howl of the Hell Hound of Mons.

Afterwards, on the battlefields of the Marne and the Somme, near Verdun and Ypres, patrols that ventured out in the darkness between the trenches, were found with the same telltale marks at their throats, while the howl continued to roam through No Man’s Land. Sentries declared they saw a grey form flashing past the barbed wire. The giant Hound of Hell was running there, silently…

In August 1919, the Evening News of Oklahoma published a story of the Canadian veteran Captain F.J. Newhouse. The Terror of No Man’s Land that was stalking among the corpses and dragged soldiers down to their death, was no apparition of a fear-crazed mind, he said. It was no phantom, no hallucination, no fiction… but a gruesome reality of the Great War. 

Captain Newhouse stated that certain facts had been brought to light, as a result of the recent death of Dr Gottlieb Hochmuller in a Berlin riot. Secret documents were found in his house, which proved the Hell Hound of Mons really existed. The creature had come out of maybe the most repulsive scientific experiment the world had ever known, as a giant hound with the brain of a human madman.

Indeed, Dr Hochmuller had roamed the German hospitals until he found a man gone mad because of his hatred of England. With the sanction of his government, Hochmuller removed the brain of this man and inserted it in a giant Siberian wolfhound. The dog lived, grew rapidly stronger and after careful training was released in No Man’s Land.

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Only an Urban legend, and Nothing More?

Could there be any truth in this monstrous horror tale? The surgical procedure Captain Newhouse described, is quite impossible. And the story reminds us of other tales – what we would call now “urban legends” – of alleged atrocities committed by “the Hun”. Most of these World War One horror tales have been proven to be war propaganda and nothing more.

Theo Paijmans, who wrote for the Fortean Times an interesting article on The Hound of Mons, could find no traces of a Dr Gottlieb Hochmuller and his bizarre medical procedures that remind us of the very fictional experiments of Baron von Frankenstein. The sudden disappearance of the creature also has elements of the various legends concerning demon dogs and hounds from hell.

But, as Paijmans points out, perhaps a giant dog really did haunt the trenches, abandoned by his master, hungry prowling the battlefield. And maybe Agatha Christie had some good reason for choosing Belgium during World War One as the setting for one of her supernatural short stories, titled… The Hound of Death (1933).

Other Great War Articles:

A Poet of the Great War, Wilfred Owen

In Flanders Fields

Phantoms of the Great War