Kennesaw Mountain National Park Service National Battlefield Park U.S. Department of the Interior Kennesaw Mountain Georgia The Battle of Kennesaw Mountain, morning of June 27, 1864. The orig- by Thure de Thulstrup, depicts inal painting is on display in the The Road Past Kennesaw: The 1864 Atlanta Campaign Sherman’s feint against Confeder- Kennesaw Mountain visitor center. ates on Big Kennesaw on the NPS When Ulysses S. Grant assumed command of all Federal armies The war-making capacity of the Confederacy remained formi- northwest to Chattanooga and was the axis along which the in March 1864, he ordered a coordinated offensive to destroy dable after three years of fighting. By spring 1864 the Federals You cannot qualify war in Atlanta Campaign was fought. The Georgia Railroad ran east Confederate resistance and end the war. The major efforts controlled the Mississippi River and the Confederates had to Augusta, where it connected with lines to Charleston, focused on eastern Virginia and northwest Georgia. Grant accom- been expelled from most of Tennessee and much of Mississippi. harsher terms than I will. Raleigh, and Richmond, the Confederate capital. The Macon & panied Maj. Gen. George G. Meade’s Army of the Potomac in Still, the heartland of the Confederacy, stretching from Western ran southeast, with connections to Savannah. Just Virginia and aimed to finally defeat Gen. Robert E. Lee’s Army Alabama through Georgia to the Carolinas, was virtually un- War is cruelty and you south of Atlanta, at East Point, the Atlanta & West Point of Northern Virginia. Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman, in charge touched by the war. Atlanta, 125 miles southeast of Chatta- extended west into Alabama. of the Georgia offensive, commanded 100,000 soldiers, divided nooga, was a significant manufacturing city, the center of a cannot refine it . among three armies concentrated near Chattanooga, TN. belt of manufacturing communities extending from Augusta, From May to September 1864, Federal and Confederate forces Opposing them was the 53,000-man Army of Tennessee under GA, to Selma, AL. —William T. Sherman, General, US Army fought across north Georgia from Dalton to Atlanta, with Gen. Joseph E. Johnston entrenched at Dalton, GA, along almost daily skirmishing and frequent maneuvering for posi- Rocky Face Ridge. Grant ordered Sherman to “move against Even more importantly, Atlanta was a vital Confederate rail tion punctuated by fierce battles. During the final seige of Johnston’s army, to break it up, and to get into the interior of junction. Four railroads met here, linking the southern Atlantic Atlanta Sherman’s troops cut the city’s rail links. Confederate the enemy’s country as far as you can, inflicting all the damage seaboard states with the western Confederacy. The Western & troops evacuated the city on September 1; Sherman entered you can against their war resources.” Atlantic, upon which both sides depended for supplies, ran the following day. Atlanta had fallen. The Civil War in the Western Theater, 1861–1864 Southern states secede; Kentucky ends neutality, Union takes Forts Henry Union takes Island No. Union victory at Battle Union victory at Shiloh Union navy takes New Battle of Stones River Grant takes Vicksburg, At Chickamauga, South Union victory in Chatta- Atlanta Campaign; Fort Sumter bombarded; comes under Union & Donelson, gains con- 10, then Memphis on of Pea Ridge establishes opens way into north- Orleans; gains access secures middle Tennessee opening Mississippi R. & gains greatest victory nooga Campaign opens Sherman takes Atlanta, war begins. control. trol of Tennessee R. Mississippi R. control of Missouri. ern Mississippi. to Mississippi R. for Union. splitting Confederacy. in western theater. way to lower South. begins March to the Sea. Dec. 1860–April 1861 September 1861 February 1862 February, June 1862 March 1862 April 1862 April 1862 January 1863 January–July 1863 September 1863 November 1863 May–November 1864 The Campaign Begins Battle for Kennesaw The Atlanta Campaign Sherman began his march on Atlanta on By June 19, although hampered by weeks of fire drove them under cover. From Little and replaced him with General Hood. May 7. Two days later he approached Gen- of continual rain, Sherman’s troops forced Kennesaw and Pigeon Hill Confederates Meanwhile, Sherman was closing on eral Johnston’s position on a steep ridge Johnston to withdraw again, this time to a rolled rocks down on them. As soon as it Atlanta from the north and east. Hood called Rocky Face. Sherman sent a column prepared defensive position anchored by was obvious the attack could not succeed, tried unsuccessfully to destroy the army through Snake Creek Gap to threaten the Kennesaw Mountain, a lofty humped ridge Sherman recalled it. of Gen. George H. Thomas as it crossed Western & Atlantic Railroad, Johnston’s with rocky slopes rising above the surround- Peachtree Creek on July 20. supply connection with Atlanta. After an ing plain. Confederate engineers using slave Meanwhile, south of Dallas Road (now engagement at Rocky Face, Johnston moved labor had laid out a formidable line of Dallas Highway), 8,000 Union infantrymen Two days later at the Battle of Atlanta south and dug in at Resaca, where on May entrenchments covering every approaching attacked two divisions of Johnston’s army. Hood struck at Gen. James B. McPherson’s 13–15 he repulsed Sherman’s attacks. ravine or hollow with cannon and rifle fire. Many of those in the assaulting waves army and was repulsed with heavy losses. were shot down. Some advanced to close When Sherman tried to outflank Atlanta’s When a Union column swung west to cross Again Sherman extended his lines to the quarters, and for a few minutes there was outnumbered defenders by maneuvering the Oostan aula River and again threaten south to get around the Confederate flank. brutal hand-to-hand fighting on top of the west of the city, Hood lashed out with the railroad, Johnston retreated to Adairs- Again Johnston countered, shifting 11,000 de fenders’ earthworks. Both sides grimly another attack at Ezra Church on July 28. ville, where the two forces skirmished on the men under Gen. John Bell Hood to meet nicknamed this place the “Dead Angle.” Again Hood was defeated. 17th. They halted only with the approach the threat. At Kolb’s Farm on June 22 Hood of darkness, when Johnston fell back. struck savagely but unsuccessfully, his at- Sherman resumed his flanking strategy, In August Sherman placed Atlanta under tack failing to repel the Northerners. forcing Johnston to abandon his Kennesaw siege, continually shifting troops to cut the Time and again during Sherman’s advance lines during the night of July 2. The Con- railroads that linked Atlanta with the rest to Atlanta this situation was repeated as Stalemated and immobilized by muddy federates had lost 800 men, the Northern- of the South. On August 31 he seized the the generals engaged in a tactical chess roads, Sherman suspected that Johnston’s ers 1,800, but the Union diversionary move- last one, the Macon & Western. Hood, after match. When Sherman found the Confed- defenses, though strong, might be thinly ment on the Confederate left had an losing a two-day battle near Jonesboro, erates entrenched, he tried to hold them manned and that one sharp thrust might unforeseen benefit, placing Sherman closer ordered all public property destroyed and with part of his force while sending another break through. His plan called for diversion- to Chattahoochee River crossings. He sur- the city evacuated. Sherman entered on column around their flank—always trying to ary moves against Kennesaw and the Con- prised Johnston by sending a small force September 2 and triumphantly telegraphed cut the Western & Atlantic. Johnston repeat- federate left while a two-pronged assault across the river upstream from where the news to Washing ton: “Atlanta is ours, edly withdrew to intercept the threats. hit Johnston’s center. Confederates guarded the railroad bridge. and fairly won.” Outflanked again, Johnston had to retreat By late May he had pulled back to a posi- The attacking brigades moved into position across the Chattahoochee. The fall of Atlanta was a crippling blow tion in the Allatoona Mountains. Sherman before dawn on June 27. At 8 am, after an to the Confederacy’s capacity and will to swung wide to the southwest, but John- artillery bombardment, they surged for- make war. Coupled with Union victories ston, ever alert to Union movements, side- ward. Both attacks were brief, bloody fail- The Fall of Atlanta elsewhere, the war’s end was now in sight. stepped to slow him with stub born fighting ures. Astride Burnt Hickory Road three The rest of Sherman’s army crossed the In the North there was rejoicing, and on May 25–28 at New Hope Church, Pickett’s Union brigades totaling 5,500 men crossed Chattahoochee on July 9 and Johnston with- November 8 voters reelected President Mill, and Dallas. When Sherman resumed swampy, heavily wooded terrain. Before drew to the fortifications of Atlanta. For Abraham Lincoln, endorsing a fight to the his advance on June 10, he was forced to they could reach their objective—a moun- Confederate President Jefferson Davis, finish. A week later Sherman left Atlanta swing back east, following a bend in the tain spur today named Pigeon Hill—sheets already exasperated by Johnston’s fallbacks in ruins and began his soon-to-be-famous railroad so he would not stray too far from and lack of aggressiveness, this was the last “March to the Sea.” his own supply line. straw. He relieved Johnston of command Left: View from behind Confederate earth- works on Pigeon Hill. This was part of the formidable line of entrenchments erected by Confederate engi- neers to defend against Union and Confederate Leadership Union attacks.