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Fulton County, GA | Jul 22, 1864. The Union victory in the largest battle of the Atlanta Campaign led to the capture of that critical Confederate city and opened the door for Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman’s most famous operation—the March to the Sea and the capture of Savannah. How it ended.
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Battle of Atlanta, (July 22, 1864), American Civil War engagement that was part of the Union’s summer Atlanta Campaign. Union Major Generals William Tecumseh Sherman and James B. McPherson successfully defended against a Confederate offensive from Lieut. Gen. John Bell Hood on the eastern outskirts of Atlanta, Georgia. Although the Union victory in...
In May of 1864, Sherman began his Atlanta Campaign. At the direction of Lieut. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, Sherman intended to advance on Atlanta, Georgia, from his station in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Atlanta was a major strategic city for the Confederacy that served as a railroad terminus, supply depot, and manufacturing hub. Given Atlanta’s position south of the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia, capturing the city would severely threaten the stability of the Confederacy. If Atlanta fell, Union leadership hoped that it would bring the already bloody war to a swift end. Furthermore, the Atlanta Campaign held a special significance for Union Pres. Abraham Lincoln. In the North, 1864 was a presidential election year, and, with the war dragging on longer than either side expected, both Republicans and Democrats wanted hostilities to cease. War dissatisfaction already threatened Lincoln’s chances at reelection. His ability to serve a second term thus largely hinged on the Atlanta Campaign’s success or failure.
American Civil War Events
Battle of Fort Sumter
April 12, 1861 - April 14, 1861
Shenandoah Valley campaigns
July 1861 - March 1865
Upon hearing of Sherman’s departure from Chattanooga earlier in the summer, Atlanta’s Confederate defenders had forced their slaves to construct two rings of fortifications around the city. The inner ring was heavily defended, and the outer ring had a series of earthen palisades and trenches to slow Union troops. Cannon batteries were positioned along both rings of defenses. It was from these fortifications that Hood’s army departed on the night of July 21. He left two corps behind the inner ring and ordered an infantry and cavalry corps numbering 17,000–18,000 soldiers to separately advance south and east in the general direction of Sherman’s left flank. In the early morning the infantry would swing north and strike the Union army in a weakened rear. The cavalry would wheel around to destroy Sherman’s supply train in hopes that it would be mostly unprotected.
Meanwhile, Sherman had sent the Army of the Tennessee, under the command of young Maj. Gen. James B. McPherson, to cut off and destroy the Georgia Railroad that entered Atlanta from the east. Sherman himself had moved his field headquarters to nearby Decatur, Georgia, and established temporary headquarters at the Augustus Hurt House, located on a hill some 2 miles (3.2 km) east of central Atlanta. While McPherson advanced westward toward the Georgia capital, Sherman took in a commanding view of Atlanta’s defenses from the hilltop. When he learned just before dawn on July 22 that Hood’s forces had left the outer ring, he ordered his army to hunt them down. However, Union intelligence noted the continued presence of some Confederate defenders, which contradicted his initial survey of the situation. Sherman retracted his orders. Sherman would have also sent an infantry corps away from his left flank had McPherson not cautioned his superior to consider the serious vulnerability that would result from such a strategy. Sherman took McPherson’s advice and left the infantry in place, a decision which proved crucial in maintaining the Union’s position during the ensuing battle. McPherson arranged his nearly 35,000 troops in a lengthy L-shape, with the vertical arm running north-south and the horizontal arm running east-west. He reinforced his flank by placing cannon on Bald Hill (later renamed Leggett’s Hill for the Union general who captured it) and fortifying his line with trenches.
While Hood’s plan of attack was logical, his forces suffered from difficult terrain and a delayed start to their march. Furthermore, he possessed little intelligence about the extent of McPherson’s line, which meant that the commander of his infantry corps could not accurately determine when to swing north. Instead of surprising McPherson from the rear, Hood’s infantry assumed its final position both six hours behind schedule and to the south of an entrenched left flank.
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The Confederate infantry engaged McPherson’s east-west line shortly after noon. McPherson could hear the gunshots from his post and made sure that the Union leaders on that flank were holding the line before inspecting the rest of his army. There was a sizable chink in his position at the intersection of the vertical and horizontal arms. McPherson galloped toward this intersection, which happened to be the site of an intensifying Confederate assault. Hood’s infantry in this area quickly noticed the Union general and shot him from his saddle. He died shortly thereafter. McPherson, a youthful and promising protégé of Grant, was one of the highest-ranking Union generals to be killed in combat.
Of the 34,863 Union troops engaged at the Battle of Atlanta, 3,722 were killed, wounded, captured, or reported missing. Confederate forces suffered an estimated 5,500 casualties (of 40,438 engaged). While the Union victory at the Battle of Atlanta dealt a crippling blow to the Confederacy’s defensive forces, it was not itself decisive. Sherman had succeeded in cutting off Atlanta from the eastern railroad and killing, wounding, or capturing over 10 percent of Hood’s army, but Atlanta remained a heavily fortified city with two major railroads still accessible from the west. Given this, Sherman began intensifying his shelling of Atlanta and repositioned the Army of the Tennessee in order to sever the city’s western railroads. He would not force a surrender, however, until the first week of September. After torching everything of military value in Atlanta, Sherman and his men would lay waste to the Georgia countryside on his momentous and utterly devastating March to the Sea.
For Lincoln’s part, the repeated victories at Atlanta and the eventual capture of the city bolstered his reelection campaign. With Grant and Sherman having turned the tide in the war, an end to the death and destruction was now in sight.
The Battle of Atlanta was a major battle of the Atlanta Campaign of the American Civil War fought on July 22, 1864, just southeast of Atlanta, Georgia.
- July 22, 1864( 1864-07-22)[1]
- Union victory [1]
Battle of Atlanta, (July 22, 1864) American Civil War engagement that was part of the Union’s summer Atlanta Campaign. Union Major Generals William Tecumseh Sherman and James B. McPherson successfully defended against a Confederate offensive from Lieut. Gen. John Bell Hood on the eastern outskirts of Atlanta, Ga.
Battle Of Atlanta Summary: The Battle of Atlanta was fought on July 22, 1864, just southeast of Atlanta, Georgia. Union forces commanded by William T. Sherman, wanting to neutralize the important rail and supply hub, defeated Confederate forces defending the city under John B. Hood.
Jan 9, 2024 · The Battle of Atlanta was fought between the United States of America and the Confederate States of America on July 22, 1864, during the American Civil War.
Atlanta - July 22, 1864 (May 2021) American Battlefield Trust. On the evening of July 21, 1864, Lt. Gen. John Bell Hood ordered Lt. General William J. Hardee’s corps to make 15-mile night march and assault the Union left flank, commanded by Maj. Gen. James B. McPherson’s Army of the Tennessee.
