By Maj. William Carraway
Historian, Georgia Army National Guard
Imagine the
contemporary monuments our nation might erect to commemorate the loss of 18,000
Soldiers. Such grievous losses defy our ability to fathom in modern combat, and
yet, in 1864, two mighty armies were bled of 18,000 Soldiers while contending
for the prize of Atlanta. Aside from the occasional sign or plaque, the Battle of
Atlanta is commemorated more in asphalt and development than in obelisks and
contemplation. In the shadow of skyscrapers three major battles were fought for
control of a city, for control of the White House and for the future of the
United States of America.
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Federal troops open fire during a 2014 reenactment of the Atlanta Campaign. Photo by Capt. William Carraway |
Federal Situation
Major General William Sherman had,
through a series of flanking maneuvers, brought his three armies to the
threshold of Atlanta. Despite his defeat at Kennesaw Mountain, Sherman had
managed to again slip around the defenses of Confederate General Joseph Johnston.
Now his 70,000 men drew nearer to the vital rail hub of Atlanta. It was July
10. The air was hot and thick with humidity. Already Sherman’s forces were crossing
the Chattahoochee River after Federal cavalry secured ford sites.
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Atlanta and Vicinity. McCarley, J. Britt, The Atlanta and Savannah Campaigns, 1864 Map 4. Washington DC: United States Army Center of Military History, 2014. |
Sherman’s three armies were moving
against Atlanta from the north and east. The stakes were high. In Virginia, Lt.
Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s Overland Campaign had inflicted 100,000 casualties without
delivering a decisive victory to the North. As Sherman was crossing the
Chattahoochee, Grant and Lee were settling in for a war of attrition in the
trenches surrounding Petersburg. 1864 was an election year, and for an
electorate increasingly weary of war, the Democrat presidential candidate,
George McClellan was gaining support. The former commander of the Army of the
Potomac, “Little Mac” proposed suing for peace – a strategy Southern leaders desperately
desired. Unless the Federal armies could produce a clear victory, the Lincoln
administration would face a challenging reelection bid. With Grant bogged down
in Virginia, Washington’s eyes turned to Sherman’s armies in hopes of a great
victory that would convince voters that the war was indeed winnable.
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Georgia Soldiers of Maj. Gen. William Walker's Division prepare to advance during a 2014 reenactment of the Atlanta Campaign. Photo by Capt. William Carraway |
Confederate
Situation
On July 13, 1864, Gen. Braxton Bragg,
former commander of the Army of Tennessee arrived at Gen. Johnston’s Atlanta
headquarters, on behalf of the Confederate government, to determine Johnston’s plans
for defense of the city. In the two days that followed, Bragg determined to
advise Confederate President Jefferson Davis to remove Johnston as commander of
the Army of Tennessee. This was a risky decision, as Johnston was enormously
popular with his men, but Johnston’s tactic of trading battle space for time
had not endeared him to the Confederate leadership. While preserving his force
of 40,000, Johnston seemed intent to fight a defensive (or timid) campaign.
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Battle of Peachtree Creek. McCarley Map 5 |
On July 17, Davis relieved Johnston
and replaced him with the fiery Lt. Gen. John Bell Hood. Hood had built a
reputation as an aggressive commander. His actions at the head of his Texas Brigade
in 1862 earned him promotion to major general, and divisional command. At
Gettysburg, his division, including two Georgia brigades, attacked the Little
Round Top in some of the fiercest fighting of the battle’s second day. Hood was
wounded in the left arm by a shell which rendered his arm useless. He returned
to command in time to serve as a corps commander at Chickamauga where he was severely
wounded and lost his right leg inches below the hip. Now, at the head of the
Army of Tennessee, Hood determined to utilize the same methods of direct attack
which had served him in Virginia.
The Battle of
Peachtree Creek: July 20, 1864
Hood saw an opportunity to strike
Sherman almost immediately after taking command. Two Federal armies were
maneuvering east towards Decatur while Maj. Gen. George Thomas’ Army of the
Cumberland was crossing Peachtree Creek north of Atlanta. With a gap thus
formed, Hood ordered an attack on Thomas’s isolated force.
The Confederate Army
attacked north in a line roughly spanning the distance between present day I-75
and I-85. To the right, Georgians in the divisions of William Walker and
William Bate struggled through thick terrain. Bate’s Division became entirely lost
and was not engaged, but Walker’s Georgians attacked Federal positions near the
present location of Piedmont Hospital. Brigadier General Clement Stevens, one
of Walker’s brigade commanders, was killed in the attack that cost the
Confederates 2,500 men and failed to dislodge the Federals from their
positions.
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Battle of Atlanta. McCarley, Map 6. |
The Battle of Atlanta: July 22, 1864
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Maj. Gen. James McPherson. LOC |
Having failed in his attack against
one half of Sherman’s forces, Hood next attempted to strike the second half
composed of the armies of Maj. Gen. James McPherson and John Schofield. Having severed
the railroad to Augusta, McPherson perceived his position to be isolated. His
intuition was correct as Hood had massed two corps to strike his army. The
corps of Maj. Gen. Benjamin Cheatham attacked from the west with his battle
line positioned along modern-day Moreland Avenue. A second corps under Lt. Gen.
William Hardee struck McPherson from the south moving parallel to modern-day
Interstate 20. McPherson was riding to observe the actions when his party encountered
the 5th Confederate, a veteran Irish regiment in Maj. Gen. Patrick Cleburne’s
Division. Ordered to surrender, McPherson rendered a salute and spurred his
horse to escape. He was shot from his horse mortally wounded. McPherson became
one of the highest-ranking federal casualties of the war.
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Maj. Gen. William Walker
LOC |
Less than a mile from the spot where
McPherson fell, Maj. Gen. William Walker was leading his veteran division of
Georgians past the Terry Mill Pond near the present location of Interstate 20’s
exit 61. As his men reformed on a ridge, Walker advanced and surveyed the
federal line. Conspicuous by the glint of his sword and field glasses Walker
was spotted by a Federal sharpshooter and shot through the head.
Fighting continued until nightfall
with no net benefit to the Confederates who lost 5,500 men to the Federals
4,000.
Battle of Ezra
Church: July 28, 1864
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Battle of Ezra Church. McCarley, Map 7 |
On July 27, Sherman dispatched his
Army of the Tennessee west of Atlanta. Their mission was to sever the Macon Railroad:
the last remaining source of supply for Hood’s beleaguered army. Detecting Sherman’s
intent, Hood dispatched a corps and two divisions to fix the Army of the
Tennessee in place and then maneuver by flank to destroy it. Newly promoted
corps commander Stephen Dill Lee established blocking positions as ordered, but
instead of entrenching, Lee chose to attack. Unfortunately for Lee and his
corps, the Federal commander, Maj. Gen. Oliver O. Howard (for whom Howard University
is named) had anticipated the attack and had ordered his men to entrench and
fortify defensive positions. Lee’s attack turned into a pitiful massacre. Three
thousand Confederate Soldiers were killed or wounded while the Federals lost
only 600.
Siege and Fall of
Atlanta
Three times Hood had attacked and
three times he had been thrown back with horrendous irreplaceable losses.
Having bled his army of 25 percent of its strength without gaining a single
advantage, Hood settled in for siege warfare. With Grant stalled in Virginia, Hood
hoped he could hold Atlanta through the November election and possibly force a
change of leadership in Washington.
Sherman, cognizant of the political
urgency, resolved to make Atlanta untenable. In August he ordered the shelling of the city. Although civilians were killed by the
bombardment, no military advantage was realized. More successful were Sherman’s
efforts to sever rail lines supplying Atlanta. Having already cut rail lines to
the north and east, Sherman set sights on the Macon Railroad south of Atlanta. By
August 30, 1864, Sherman’s forces had slipped quietly away from the trenches
opposing Atlanta and had marched on Jonesboro. Repulsing an attack by the
Confederate corps of William Hardee, Sherman reached the Macon Railroad on
August 31, 1864 – the same day the Democrat National Convention officially
nominated George McClellan for President.
With his final supply line severed,
Hood had little choice but to abandon Atlanta in hopes of preserving his army.
On Sept. 2, 1864, Federal troops entered the city. The next day, Sherman telegraphed
to Washington “Atlanta is ours and fairly won.”
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According to the research of historian Michael Hitt, this image depicts Fort Hood looking southwest. Fort Hood was located on Marietta Street
approximately 1.5 miles northwest of the present location of Centennial Park. The troops in the fort are Federal. LOC |
Aftermath
The effect was immediate. The fall of
Atlanta demonstrated that the war could be won and was being effectively
prosecuted. The South’s last-best hope for suing for peace under favorable terms
evaporated with the fall of Atlanta, and the North was empowered with the will
to see an end to the war; a war that was about to become all the more savage.