When a Union Army officer surrendered the garrison of Fort Hill in Dalton to Confederate forces that were superior in strength on Oct. 13, 1864, 600 of the bluecoats were members of the 44th United States Colored Troops. Many of them were former slaves from Northwest Georgia and Chattanooga, and some were reclaimed by the plantation owners who had held them as chattel before Union forces had originally freed them. Others were shot and killed after they were disarmed.