The brief engagement was a Confederate delaying action that allowed General Joseph E. Johnston to bait a trap for the Union army at Cassville.

Failing to find a good defensive position south of Calhoun, Georgia, Johnston continued to Adairsville, while the Confederate cavalry fought a skillful rearguard action and kept Sherman away from Atlanta.

[2] At Adairsville, Johnston again hoped to find a position in which he could give battle but there too the terrain was unsuitable for further defense and the Confederate commander was forced to continue his withdrawal.

When the Southerners abandoned Adairsville during the night of May 17–18, Johnston sent William J. Hardee's Corps to Kingston, while he fell back toward Cassville with the rest of his army.

Hardee would then hold off the Northerners at Kingston while Johnston, with Leonidas Polk and John Bell Hood, destroyed the smaller Federal column at Cassville.

This was a source of great danger, for had Hood formed facing west, these Federals would have been in position to attack the exposed flank and rear of his corps.

Johnston, believing that the opportunity for a successful battle had passed, ordered Hood and Polk to move to a new line east and south of Cassville, where they were joined by Hardee who had been pushed out of Kingston.