Sherman's Part In The Atlanta Campaign

On September 19th, 1863 General Braxton Brag from the Confederates met General James Longstreet also from the Confederates at Chickamauga Creek. They devised a plan to defeat the Union General William S. Rosecrans. They wanted to gain back the town of Chattanooga, this land had been taken from them in an earlier battle. The Confederates had 65,000 soldiers and the union had 60,000 soldiers. The battle resumed the next morning at 9:30, the Confederates gained Lt. General Leonidas K. Polk who reorganized the Confederate army. The Union's left flank was targeted, Rosecrans thought that there was a hole in their line, so he ordered Brig. General Thomas Wood to fill it. Wood knew there was no hole, but to prevent from being reprimanded for not listening,

On June 27, 1864 the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain was fought. The Union Army was currently carrying out Sherman's March. Richard T Sherman was the commander of the Union Army and was going up against the Confederate Army of Tennessee, commanded by Joseph E. Johnston. Sherman was beating Johnston again and again with flanking maneuvers pushing the Confederates back all the way to Kennesaw Mountain. Sherman decided to change his tactics and ordered a frontal assault rather than another flanking maneuver. John Logan and his men assaulted Pigeon Hill while George Thomas led his men on another aggressive attack on Cheatham Hill. Both failed miserably with costly casualties. The Union did however manage to gain position on the Confederate's left flank. With their left flank exposed, the Confederates withdrew. Sherman did suffer a tactical defeat at Kennesaw Mountain but he still managed to continue his march to Atlanta It was a costly battle for the Union because Sherman lost around 3,000 soldiers

Despite a series of defeats within the closing days of Nov, 1864, Confederate General John Bell Hood continuing to tug his bloody Army of Tennessee, around thirty thousand strong, north towards capital of Tennessee. The town was protected by fifty five thousand men, that ought to have precluded any offensive operations, however Hood made up our minds and his state of affairs was dire. Hood reached capital of Tennessee on December second and staked out a foothold south of the town, hoping to draw the Union forces into a expensive attack. Ulysses S. Grant and President urged ranking general George Thomas to attack however he delayed for nearly time period, citing phase transition weather and restricted cavalry support. On December fifteenth,

Before the fall of Atlanta, various battles resulting in Union defeat had left crushed hopes for the Union, General Sherman even having to stand down from his attacks on Kennesaw Mountain and Pigeon Hill when he foresaw their defeat. Despite this, he remained resilient and due to Atlanta’s role as a significant rail and supply hub for the Confederacy, the Union targeted the city and General Sherman consequently cut through Georgia from Atlanta to Savannah in a blaze of flames after evacuating its citizens, crushing the Confederate army’s supplies and morale. His success not only ensured Abraham Lincoln’s reelection but also wreaked havoc across vital Confederate railroads, damaging the Confederacy’s war efforts beyond repair. The reelection of Abraham Lincoln boosted the spirits of the Union and secured Union victory in the nearby

During November 15 to December 21, 1864, Union General William Tecumseh Sherman launched a military campaign known as the Savannah Campaign; during the campaign, the City of Atlanta was captured by Union troops and the campaign ended with the capture of the port of Savannah. During the campaign, the Union forces destroyed civilian infrastructure as well as military infrastructure, and key industrial targets to sustain Confederate’s economy. Some people might view the tactics employed by General Sherman through the Savannah Campaign as excessive and immoral; however, during an armed conflict, such tactics might be necessary to terminate a prolonged conflict. Moreover, the tactics used by Gen. Sherman have been used since ancient times, known

Only to reach Savannah and find it well defended. On December 13 a Union division lead by William B. Hazen captures Fort McAllister located on the coastline of Georgia. This allowed Sherman’s men to link up with the Navy Ships holding supplies. They prepared to surround the town of Savannah and the Confederate forces escaped, forcing the city to surrender to Sherman on December 21.

Before Sherman’s march to the sea, Georgia was relatively untouched by the war and suffered very little. These attacks came as a shock to the population and many families were in awe. The Confederate forces were taking a blow that was absolutely impossible to

An important series of battles, during the American Civil War, the March to Atlanta, took place in northern Georgia. The Union forces were led by General Sherman with General Johnston commanding the Confederate forces. The Union troops had two objectives, to defeat Johnston’s army and to take the city of Atlanta (Mitchell). The Confederate had three objectives, to defeat the Union armies, to defend Atlanta, and to extend the war for as long as possible (Mitchell). By delaying General Sherman’s arrival in Atlanta, the Confederate armies hoped that the North would believe that the war was too expensive and ultimately blame President Lincoln. The effects of the march to Atlanta would be long term, as the fall of Atlanta unified the Republican

In 1861 two armies went head to head, one had the best military leaders and one had a massive amount of soldiers. The Union and the Confederate armies were brawling over slavery. During the Civil War soldiers weren't involved in a lot of combat, but when battles broke out, there was much blood shed and death. Gettysburg, the biggest and bloodiest battle, persisted a total of three days, leaving approximately 7,000 Americans dead and 30,000 wounded. The Confederate leaders didn’t do a phenomenal job at Gettysburg, therefore they lost . One leader, Richard Ewell, was indecisive, and dilatory towards the Union Army because he didn't pursue them on Cemetery Hill during the battle of Gettysburg.

They had anticipated the town would offer heavy resistance, but it only took a handful of shots fired to take the town. Before leaving Milledgeville, Sherman ordered the town courthouse and armory, along with several other military structures, to be burned to the ground. They continued to burn many structures of Confederate importance along the way, ending at Fort McAllister, which was the gateway to Savannah.

Sherman, with Grant’s authority, attacked the civilian and material support of the confederate war effort; “Sherman perceived that these raids also a had a psychological impact, undermining the South’s morale by demonstrating the incapacity for defense (MM - 152)”. With Grant’s approval, Sherman’s March to the Sea, occurred in from Atlanta to the Sea then North toward Grant’s position in Virginia. Sherman’s March to the Sea caused terror into the hearts of the confederacy and destruction of property, but relatively few causalities. “By 1865 the Union relied almost exclusively on raids against enemy logistics (MM -152)”, Yet, Sherman’s prewar ties to the south were shown as he gave Johnston mild peace terms, which upset the Union Government

General William Sherman was in charge of the Union Army of the West. Under General Sherman, the Union essentially tore through the deep south and the southeastern seaboard, destroying any factories, warehouses or farmland that was used to supply Southern troops. His use of total warfare absolutely decimated the South. I believe Sherman’s March to the Sea was the most important event we’ve covered this trimester, because it purged the South of any supplies and destroyed their economy.

men, Sherman started on his famous march of 400 miles (645 kilometers) "from Atlanta to the sea." For 32 days no news of him reached the North. He had cut himself off from his base of supplies, and his men lived on what they could get from the country through which they passed. They covered a path 60 miles (95 kilometers) wide in their march, and in that path everything that they could not use but that might prove of use to the enemy was ruthlessly

“A house divided against itself cannot stand.”1 These words, spoken by Abraham Lincoln, foreshadowed the war that became the bloodiest in all of the United State's history. The Civil War was a brutal conflict between the North and South; brother against brother. With slavery as the root cause, Southern states had seceded from the Union and were fighting for their independence. They became the Confederate States of America (CSA) and were a force to be reckoned with. The Union, however, put up a fierce struggle to preserve the country. If the Civil War was to be a war of attrition, the North had the upper hand because of its large population, industrialization, raw materials, railroad mileage, and navy. But if the war was short lived, the

1. The war in 1862 was only more than a year old and the people in both the Union and Confederate sides didn’t anticipate it would last that long, but it is going to go on. Close to the end of the summer in this same year, the Union has made huge progress in claiming confederate lands, winning some major battles. They have put the confederacy in the defensive. They have taken over New Orleans, with even black troops major on the ground of New Orleans. They have taken Missouri and are working hard to take over the Mississippi Valley and maybe even Richmond itself. Bruce Catton puts it this way in The Civil War, “Except for guerrilla activity, Kentucky and Missouri has been swept clear of armed confederates, Western Tennessee had been reclaimed, there was a Yankee army in Cumberland Gap, another one was approaching chattanooga, and a third was sprawled out from Memphis to Corinth, preparing to splice down through Mississippi and touch hands with the Union occupation forces in Baton Rouge and New Orleans” (85) So not only that they Union had taken over regions, they are advancing as well, but they did not win the way this year for some reason. Firstly, because they did not have generals and army heads capable of taking them to victory. General Halleck, chief of the Union Armies and Pope in charge of one of the Union armies in Virginia, were major examples of this.