The Atlanta Campaign

Details Sherman’s grueling advance from the Etowah River to Kennesaw Mountain during the 1864 Atlanta Campaign.

The scope, drama, and importance of the 1864 Atlanta Campaign was on a par with Ulysses S. Grant’s Overland Campaign in Virginia. Despite its criticality and massive array of primary source material, the operations in North Georgia have lingered in the shadows. Award-winning author David A. Powell’s first of five installments, The Atlanta Campaign: Volume 1: Dalton to Cassville, May 1–19, 1864, treated the opening phase of the campaign—weeks of maneuver and several days of heavy fighting at Resaca, after which the Confederates slipped out of Sherman’s traps and escaped across the Oostanaula and Etowah rivers. This second volume, From the Etowah River to Kennesaw Mountain, May 20–June 27, 1864, marches with the armies and their leaders deeper into Georgia.

The heavyweight match unfolding between U. S. Grant and Robert E. Lee from the Wilderness to the trenches of Cold Harbor increased the pressure on Sherman to do everything he could to prevent Joe Johnston from sending troops to reinforce the Virginia army. Sherman had closed half the distance to Johnston’s base at Atlanta, but the Army of Tennessee had grown in numbers and the odds that were once 2 to 1 in his favor were now nearly even.

Sherman opened the second phase of the campaign on May 23 by throwing his army across the Etowah. Instead of moving down the railroad to Allatoona, however, he marched west of Marietta to Dallas. The next five weeks were by some measures the hardest of the entire summer as maneuvering gave way to trench warfare, first along the New Hope Line, then Pine and Lost mountains, along the Mud Creek Line, and finally, atop the imposing slopes of Kennesaw Mountain. The daily grind, punctuated by periodic assaults at New Hope Church, Pickett’s Mill, Gilgal Church, Pigeon Hill, and Cheatham Hill took a terrible toll on both armies. The heavy rain through most of June made life in the field a misery, sick lists spiked, and men and horses broke down or died. Neither side could claim victory as June drew to a close. Sherman remained undaunted. He would return to flanking. And this time Atlanta was a mere dozen miles distant.

This multivolume study is based heavily on hundreds of primary accounts (many of which have never been used), 21 original maps, a firm understanding of the terrain, and a keen grasp of military strategy and tactics. Powell’s The Atlanta Campaign is this generation’s definitive treatment of one of the most important and fascinating confrontations of the entire Civil War. And it will stand the test of time.