Originally aired on July 21, 1995 - In part 47 of our Civil War series, Virginia Tech history professor James Robertson discusses the two back-to-back battles in Atlanta that served as the backdrop for the conflicts portrayed in Margaret Mitchell’s novel, Gone with the Wind.
#47 – The Fight for Atlanta
July was always a bloody month in the Civil War. That summer period was witness to major battles at Manassas, Malvern Hill, Gettysburg, Vicksburg, Port Hudson (Louisiana), and Fort Wagner (South Carolina). It was also in July that two major engagements occurred back to back for control of the largest city in the Deep South. These were the battles that Margaret Mitchell used as a backdrop for her famous novel, Gone with the Wind. They were the major fighting at Atlanta, Georgia.
Early in May, 1864, General William T. Sherman and his large Union army left their base at Chattanooga and began following the rickety, single-track railroad that led to the vital supply depot at Atlanta. General Joseph E. Johnston and his Confederate army could not stop Sherman’s advance. By mid-July, Federal forces were on the outskirts of the Georgia city.
Southern president Jefferson Davis at that juncture removed Johnston from command and appointed in his place the crippled General John B. Hood. This Kentuckian had been badly wounded in the arm at Gettysburg, had recovered in time to fight at Chickamauga, and there had lost a leg. Undeterred, Hood now rode strapped to the saddle. A West Point classmate who was now a Union general gave Sherman a warning: Hood was not too smart, but he was as combative as anyone who ever lived.
Sherman discovered that fact quickly. Only two days after taking command of the Southern army, Hood ordered a major assault. Sherman’s army was momentarily divided. General George Thomas’ wing was bearing down on Atlanta from the north; General James B. McPherson’s men had swung out toward Decatur to come in on Atlanta from the east. That was the situation when, on July 20, 1864, Hood slammed into Thomas, and slammed hard.
That was an unfortunate move on Hood’s part. George Thomas, a Virginia-born officer loyal to the Union, was as good a defensive fighter as America ever produced. He placed his infantry on high ground, his guns on the flanks, and he blew away the Confederate assault waves with mathematical and pitiful efficiency.
John Hood never seemed to know when he was beaten. His energy was unlimited if his intelligence was not. Aware that he could not blast “Old Pap” Thomas off the high ground above Peachtree Creek, Hood decided on a different move. He took his soldiers east to face McPherson’s portion of Sherman’s army.
Jim McPherson was one of the attractive men in the Union army. Young, brilliant, and honor graduate at West Point, McPherson commanded attention and obedience. Sherman regarded him as a younger brother. McPherson was having lunch on July 22 when he learned that the Confederate army had assailed his weak left flank.
The young general galloped to the front. In the heat of battle, he inadvertently rode into the Confederate lines and was killed. Yet his men held their position, beating off attacks that kept coming throughout the afternoon. By nightfall, Hood and his Southerners were back inside Atlanta. Two battles within three days had crippled the Confederate army and sealed the fate of Atlanta.
Sherman spent the next month slowly tightening his lines around the city. Confederates were too few and too weak to stop the encirclement. On September 2, Sherman sent President Lincoln a simple telegram: “Atlanta is ours, and fairly won.”
The capture of that key Southern city came on the heels of another Union success, tough old Admiral David Farragut’s victory at Mobile Bay. Those twin victories insured Lincoln’s re-election in the autumn. That in turn meant not peace at any cost (as many Northern Democrats urged) but a prosecution of the war to ultimate Union triumph.
