Loring temporarily took command of Polk's III corps when Polk was nearly cut in two by an artillery round and killed at Pine Mountain on June 14, 1864. He led the corps during the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain but was soon replaced on July 7, 1864 by Lt. Gen. Alexander P. Stewart. Loring returned to divisional command, fighting at the Battle of Peachtree Creek, and at Ezra Church, where he was wounded. Loring was out of action until after the fall of Atlanta. Upon returning he commanded his division in Stewart's corps of army now commanded by John Bell Hood, seeing combat at the Franklin on November 30, 1864, and Nashville in mid-December. In the last year of the war, the remnants of Hood's smashed forces returned east to participate in the Carolinas Campaign, seeing action at the Battle of Bentonville before being surrendered by Johnston at Durham, North Carolina a month later.