The failure of McCook's column and a concurrent ill-fated raid by George Stoneman forced William T. Sherman to lay siege to the city of Atlanta.

Crossing the Chattahoochee River on a pontoon bridge erected at Smith's Ferry, McCook's cavalrymen reached Palmetto, where they cut the Atlanta & West Point Railroad.

Early the next morning, his raiders reached Lovejoy's Station, twenty-three miles south of Atlanta, and began wrecking the Macon & Western Railroad.

Nevertheless, as they tried to return to the main army, McCook's division was attacked near Brown's Mill, three miles south of Newnan, by Confederate cavalry under Joseph Wheeler.

McCook fought with distinction during the rest of the war, with his stunning defeat to a lesser force at Brown's Mill the major blemish on his service record.