Secondary Sources for the Atlanta Campaign
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Atlanta Campaign — American Battlefield Trust
In early May 1864, Federal forces under Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman began battling the Confederate Army of Tennessee. At stake was Atlanta, major manufacturing center and railroad hub. Sherman had 110,000 men in three armies around Chattanooga. Facing them at Dalton, eighty miles north of Atlanta, Gen. Joseph E. Johnston had 53,800 officers and men present for duty. Within the month the Confederates received 15,000 reinforcements, making Johnston’s army at the time the South’s largest. Despite his large numbers, Johnston’s plan hinged on taking a strong defensive position and waiting for the enemy to attack him.
Source: Battlefields.org
Atlanta Campaign — History Channel
In the summer of 1864, during the U.S. Civil War (1861-65), Union General William T. Sherman faced off against Confederate generals Joseph E. Johnston and John B. Hood in a series of battles in northern Georgia. Sherman’s goal was to destroy the Army of the Tennessee, capture Atlanta and cut off vital Confederate supply lines. While Sherman failed to destroy his enemy, he was able to force the surrender of Atlanta in September 1864, boosting Northern morale and greatly improving President Abraham Lincoln’s re-election bid. With Atlantaunder Union control, Sherman embarked on his March to the Sea, which laid waste to the countryside and hastened the Confederacy’s defeat.
Atlanta Campaign — Georgia Encyclopedia
By early 1864 most Confederate Southerners had probably given up hopes of winning the Civil War (1861-65) by conquering Union armies. The Confederacy had a real chance, though, of winning the war simply by not being beaten. In spring 1864 this strategy required two things: first, Confederate general Robert E. Lee’s army in Virginia had to defend its capital, Richmond, and keep Union general Ulysses S. Grant’s forces at bay; and second, the South’s other major army, led by Joseph E. Johnston in north Georgia, had to keep William T. Sherman’s Union forces from driving south and capturing Atlanta, the Confederacy’s second-most important city.
Source: Georgia Encyclopedia
Atlanta Campaign — The American Civil War
In the Western Theater during 1864, the principal operation was the Atlanta Campaign followed by Sherman’s “March to the Sea” Savannah Campaign. By the first week in May, Union forces from the lower Tennessee to the Virginia coast were in motion. They were participants in a coordinated offensive devised by Gen.-in-Chief Ulysses S. Grant. One of the most strategically significant of these operations involved a movement south from Chattanooga by the armies of the Military Division of the Mississippi, under Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman. These 98,000 men and 254 cannon (divided among Maj. Gen. George H. Thomas’ Army of the Cumberland, Maj. Gen. James B. McPherson’s Army of the Tennessee, and Army of the Ohio under Maj. Gen. John M. Schofield, and 4 cavalry divisions) constituted, Sherman felt, “one of the best armies in the world.”
Source: The American Civil War
Atlanta Campaign — Atlanta Campaign, Inc.
The Atlanta Campaign, Inc. is a non-profit, living history organization based in Georgia. Their goal is to perpetuate public awareness of, and stimulate interest in, the historical significance of the American Civil War.
Source: Atlanta Campaign, Inc.
Atlanta Campaign: A Virtual Tour — Civil War Album
In the summer of 1864 things did not look good for Abraham Lincoln. On August 28th, he wrote, “This morning, as for some days past, it seems exceedingly probable that this administration will not be reelected.” Lt. General U. S. Grant was stalled in front of Petersburg, after several months of horrific fighting with Gen. Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. And Confederate Gen. Joseph E. Johnston had managed to delay Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman’s aspirations for the conquest of Atlanta by the western Federal armies.
Source: Civil War Album.com
Atlanta Campaign — U.S. History
In the spring of 1864, while Grant was in The Wilderness, William T. Sherman and 90,000 Union soldiers moved southward from Chattanooga toward Atlanta. A smaller Confederate force, about 60,000 men, was under the command of Joseph E. Johnston. Their role was to slow the Union advance and to try to disrupt the lines of supply as Sherman went farther into Southern territory.
Source: u-s-history.com
Atlanta Campaign — Son of the South
Source: Son of the South
An account of the Atlanta Campaign from the memoirs of William T. Sherman.