Read Ebook: The Road Past Kennesaw: The Atlanta Campaign of 1864 by McMurry Richard M Wiley Bell Irvin Author Of Introduction Etc

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SPRING 1864

One of the most important military campaigns of the American Civil War was fought in northwestern Georgia during the spring and summer of 1864 between Northern forces under Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman and Confederates commanded first by Gen. Joseph E. Johnston and then by Gen. John B. Hood. This campaign resulted in the capture of Atlanta by the Unionists, prepared the way for Sherman's "March to the Sea," and, in the opinion of many historians, made inevitable the reelection of Abraham Lincoln and the consequent determination of the North to see the war through to final victory rather than accept a compromise with secession and slavery.

To realize these hopes, Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, commander of the Northern armies, planned a simultaneous move on all fronts, with the greatest efforts devoted to Virginia, where he would personally direct operations, and to the region between the Tennessee and Chattahoochee Rivers, where the Federals would be led by Sherman and Maj. Gen. Nathaniel P. Banks. Grant hoped that Banks would move from New Orleans, seize Mobile, and advance northward toward Montgomery, while Sherman's force struck southward from Chattanooga. Had these plans succeeded, the Confederacy would have been reduced to a small area along the coast of Georgia, the Carolinas, and Virginia. Confederate victories in Louisiana, however, made Banks' projected campaign infeasible, and Sherman's drive southward into Georgia, with Atlanta as the initial goal, became the major Union effort in the West.

Leaders on both sides had long recognized the importance of Atlanta, located a few miles south of the Chattahoochee and about 120 miles from Chattanooga. In 1864, only Richmond was more important to the South. Atlanta's four railroads were not only the best means of communication between the eastern and western parts of the Confederacy but they were also the major lines of supply for the Southern armies in Virginia and north Georgia. The city's hospitals cared for the sick and wounded and her factories produced many kinds of military goods. In the words of a Northern editor, Atlanta was "the great military depot of Rebeldom." In addition, the city's capture would give the Union armies a base from which they could strike further into Georgia to reach such vital manufacturing and administrative centers as Milledgeville, Macon, Augusta, and Columbus. All of these things were clear to the men who led the opposing armies.

William Tecumseh Sherman was a thin, nervous, active man, with a wild shock of reddish or light-brown hair. A 44-year-old native of Ohio, he had been graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in 1840 and, after several years' service in the Army, had resigned his commission to go into banking and later into education. The outbreak of war had found him serving as superintendent of a military college in Louisiana. He resigned this position and returned to the North, where he entered Federal service. Rising rapidly in the Army, he was chosen as supreme commander in the West in early 1864. His soldiers liked him and affectionately called him "Uncle Billy." An officer who was with him in 1864 described the Federal commander as "tall and lank, not very erect, with hair like a thatch, which he rubs up with his hands, a rusty beard trimmed close, a wrinkled face, prominent red nose, small bright eyes, coarse red hands ... he smokes constantly." Sherman was also a dogged fighter unawed by obstacles that would have broken lesser men, and Grant knew he could be counted on to carry out his part of the grand strategical plan for 1864.

Opposed to Sherman's host was the Confederate Army of Tennessee, commanded by Gen. Joseph E. Johnston. Johnston was a Virginian and, like Sherman, a graduate of West Point . He had served in the U.S. Army until Virginia seceded in the spring of 1861, when he resigned and entered Confederate service. In December 1863 he was named commander of the major Confederate force in the West and given the mission of defending the area against further Northern advance. Johnston had an almost uncanny ability to win the loyal support of his subordinates. An Arkansas officer who met the Southern commander in early 1864 noted in his diary: "General Johnston is about 50 years of age--is quite gray--and has a spare form, an intelligent face, and an expressive blue eye. He was very polite, raising his cap to me after the introduction."

Unfortunately for the Confederacy, Johnston was also secretive, stubborn when dealing with his superiors, petulant, and too prone to see difficulties rather than opportunities. He constantly worried about defeat and retreat, and was hesitant to act. In sum, he was a man whose personality prevented him from effectively utilizing his many abilities.

At the beginning of May, the 55,000 men of Johnston's army were concentrated around Dalton, Ga., 35 miles southeast of Chattanooga. The Southern force consisted of two infantry corps commanded by Lt. Gens. William J. Hardee and John Bell Hood, and a cavalry corps led by Maj. Gen. Joseph Wheeler. What Johnston would do with these troops was still very much in doubt. The Confederate government wanted him to march into Tennessee and reestablish Southern authority over that crucial State. Johnston, however, believed that conditions for such an offensive were not favorable and that he should await Sherman's advance, defeat it, and then undertake to regain Tennessee. At the opening of the campaign in early May, this issue had not been settled. The lack of understanding and cooperation between the government in Richmond and the general in Georgia, illustrated by this incident, was to hamper Confederate efforts throughout the campaign.

RESACA

Three major rivers--the Oostanaula, the Etowah, and the Chattahoochee--flow from northeast to southwest across northern Georgia, dividing the area into four distinct geographical regions. Between Chattanooga and the Oostanaula, several parallel mountain ridges slice across the State in such a manner as to hamper military movements. The most important of these was Rocky Face Ridge which ran from near the Oostanaula to a point several miles north of Dalton. This ridge rose high above the surrounding valleys and was the barrier between Johnston's army at Dalton and Sherman's forces at Chattanooga. There were three important gaps in this ridge: Mill Creek Gap west of Dalton, Dug Gap a few miles to the south, and Snake Creek Gap west of the little village of Resaca near the Oostanaula.

Dalton is on the eastern side of Rocky Face Ridge. The Western and Atlantic Railroad, which connected Chattanooga and Atlanta and served as the line of supply for both armies, crossed the Oostanaula near Resaca, ran north for 15 miles to Dalton, then turned westward to pass through Rocky Face Ridge at Mill Creek Gap, and continued on to Chattanooga. During the winter, the Confederates had fortified the area around Dalton to such an extent that they believed it to be secure against any attack. Johnston hoped that the Federals would assault his lines on Rocky Face Ridge, for he was confident that he could hurl the Northerners back with heavy loss.

Johnston had not been idle. He had deployed his men in strong positions to block the expected advance. He had also requested reinforcements, and these were on the way. Some coastal garrisons had been withdrawn from their posts and were being sent to join Johnston. More important, though, was the large body of troops from Mississippi that was moving across Alabama toward Dalton. These men, numbering about 15,000, constituted the Army of Mississippi and were commanded by Lt. Gen. Leonidas Polk. A West Point graduate , Polk had resigned from the Army to enter the Episcopal ministry. In 1861 he was Bishop of Louisiana and entered the Confederate service where he was known as the Bishop-General. When Polk joined Johnston the Confederate strength would be raised to about 70,000.

Before Polk arrived, however, Sherman sent Thomas and Schofield against Johnston's position. On May 7 and 8, there was heavy fighting all along the lines from the area north of Dalton south along Rocky Face Ridge to Dug Gap. The Federals made no real headway, but the demonstration served its purpose, for McPherson reached Snake Creek Gap on the evening of the 8th and found it open.

James Birdseye McPherson, who stood at Snake Creek Gap on the morning of May 9 with an opportunity to strike Johnston a crippling blow, was one of the Civil War's most attractive leaders. Like Sherman, he was an Ohioan and a West Pointer . In 1864 he was only 35 years old. His entire adult life had been spent in the Army, and in the Civil War his abilities had carried him from captain to major general in slightly more than a year's time. Both Sherman and Grant looked upon him as an outstanding leader--a belief shared by the Confederate editor who called McPherson "the most dangerous man in the whole Yankee army." He was handsome, with flowing hair and whiskers, and he had a special reason for wanting the war to end: when it was over he would be able to marry the beautiful girl who was waiting for him in Baltimore. He was courteous to men of all ranks, and his adoring soldiers remembered long afterwards his habit of riding in the fields to leave the roads open for them.

On May 9, while skirmishing continued about Dalton, McPherson led his army eastward, hoping to reach the railroad near Resaca and break Johnston's communications with Atlanta. Unknown to the Federals, there were some 4,000 Confederates in Resaca. These included the advance elements of Polk's army, as well as infantry and cavalry units assigned to guard the Oostanaula bridges and to protect the area.

The Northern advance met these Southerners near the town. McPherson, surprised at finding so large a force in his front, moved with great caution. Late in the afternoon, he became worried that Johnston might rush troops southward and cut him off from Sherman. This fear, and the fact that some of his men were without food, led him to break off the engagement and fall back to a position at Snake Creek Gap which he fortified that night.

In the following days, both armies shifted to the Resaca area. Sherman began by sending a division of Thomas' army to aid McPherson. Soon orders followed for almost all of the Federals to march southward, with only a small detachment left to watch Johnston. All day on the 11th the roads west of Rocky Face were crowded with troops, wagons, and guns. Although the march was slowed by a heavy rain, nightfall of the 12th found the Northern army concentrated at Snake Creek Gap. Johnston discovered the Federal move and during the night of May 12-13 ordered his men to Resaca where Polk's troops had been halted.

Skirmishing on the 13th developed the positions of the armies. Johnston had posted his men on the high ground north and west of Resaca. Polk's Corps held the Confederate left, Hardee's men occupied the center, and Hood was on the right, with his right flank curved back to the Conasauga River. The Federal advance, McPherson's army, had moved directly toward Resaca. When the advance was slowed, Thomas moved to the north and formed his army on McPherson's left. Schofield moved into position on Thomas' left.

The heaviest fighting on the 15th occurred at the northern end of the lines. There, both sides made attacks that achieved some local success but were inconclusive. Meanwhile, a Federal detachment had been sent down the Oostanaula to attempt a crossing. At Lay's Ferry, a few miles below Resaca, it got over the river and secured a position from which to strike eastward against Johnston's rail line. The Southern commander believed that this left him no choice but to retreat. Accordingly, during the night of May 15-16, the Confederates withdrew and crossed to the southern bank of the Oostanaula, burning the bridges behind them.

As is the case with many Civil War battles, no accurate casualty figures are available for the engagement at Resaca. Federal losses were probably about 3,500; Confederate casualties were approximately 2,600.

TO THE ETOWAH

South of the Oostanaula, steep ridges and heavy woods give way to gently rolling hills with only a light cover of vegetation. The area was almost without defensible terrain and thus afforded a great advantage to Sherman, whose larger forces would have more opportunities for maneuver than they had found in the mountainous region to the north.

Once across the Oostanaula, Johnston sought to make a stand and draw the Federals into a costly assault. He expected to find favorable terrain near Calhoun, but in this he was disappointed and during the night of May 16-17 he led the Confederates on southward toward Adairsville. The Federals followed--Sherman dividing his forces into three columns and advancing on a broad front. There were skirmishes all along the route during the 16th and 17th, but the main bodies were not engaged.

At Adairsville Johnston again hoped to find a position in which he could give battle, but there too the terrain was unsuitable for defense and the Confederate commander was forced to continue his retreat. As he fell back, however, Johnston devised a stratagem that he hoped would lead to the destruction of a part of Sherman's forces. There were two roads leading south from Adairsville--one south to Kingston, the other southeast to Cassville. It seemed likely that Sherman would divide his armies so as to use both roads. This would give Johnston the opportunity to attack one column before the other could come to its aid.

When the Southerners abandoned Adairsville during the night of May 17-18, Johnston sent Hardee's Corps to Kingston while he fell back toward Cassville with the rest of his army. He hoped that Sherman would believe most of the Southerners to be in Kingston and concentrate the bulk of his forces there. Hardee would then hold off the Northerners at Kingston while Johnston, with Polk and Hood, destroyed the smaller Federal column at Cassville.

Sherman reacted as Johnston hoped, ordering McPherson and the bulk of Thomas' army toward Kingston while sending only Schofield and one corps of Thomas' army along the road to Cassville. On the morning of May 19, Johnston ordered Hood to march along a country road a mile or so east of the Adairsville-Cassville Road and form his corps for battle facing west. While Polk attacked the head of the Federal column, Hood was to assail its left flank. As Hood was moving into position, he found Northern soldiers to the east. This was a source of great danger, for had Hood formed facing west, these Federals would have been in position to attack the exposed flank and rear of his corps. After a brief skirmish with the Northerners, Hood fell back to rejoin Polk. Johnston, believing that the opportunity for a successful battle had passed, ordered Hood and Polk to move to a new line east and south of Cassville, where they were joined by Hardee who had been pushed out of Kingston. Johnston formed his army on a ridge and hoped that Sherman would attack him there on May 20. As usual, the Southern commander was confident of repulsing the enemy.

That night the Confederate leaders held a council of war. Exactly what happened at the council is a matter of dispute. According to Johnston, Polk and Hood reported that their lines could not be held and urged that the army retreat. Believing that the fears of the corps commanders would be communicated to their men and thus weaken the army's confidence, Johnston yielded to these demands, even though he thought the position to be defensible. According to Hood, whose recollection of the council differs markedly from Johnston's, he and Polk told Johnston that the line could not be held against an attack but that it was a good position from which to move against the enemy. Johnston, however, was unwilling to risk an offensive battle and decided to fall back across the Etowah. No definite resolution of this dispute is possible, but most of the available evidence supports Hood's version of the conference. Certainly Johnston was not obligated to allow the advice of subordinates to overrule his own judgment. The responsibility for abandoning the Cassville position rests on the Southern commander.

During the night, the Confederates withdrew across the Etowah. As they fell back, their feelings were mixed. They had lost a very strong position at Dalton, and had fallen back from Resaca, Calhoun, and Adairsville. Now they were retreating again under cover of darkness. That morning as they prepared for battle, their spirits had been high. Now their disappointment was bitter. Although morale would revive in the next few days, many Southern soldiers would never again place as much confidence in Johnston's abilities as they once had.

Thus far our campaign has succeeded though it must be confessed the rebels have retreated in very good order and their army is still unbroken. Our hard work is still before us. We are still 53 miles from Atlanta and have to pass over a rugged Country. We will have some bloody work before we enter that place.

NEW HOPE CHURCH

The region south of the Etowah was one of the wildest parts of north Georgia. The area was sparsely settled, hilly, heavily wooded, and, in 1864, little known and poorly mapped. Sherman expected to push through this region with little delay. On May 23 he wrote, "The Etowah is the Rubicon of Georgia. We are now all in motion like a vast hive of bees, and expect to swarm along the Chattahoochee in a few days." His optimism was ill-founded, for the rough terrain and heavy rains favored Johnston's smaller force and helped delay the Federal advance for 5 weeks.

Johnston posted his army around Allatoona Pass, a gap in the high hills south of the Etowah through which the railroad ran on its way southward to Marietta. He had again occupied a strong position hoping that Sherman would attack it. The Federal commander, however, aware of the natural strength of the terrain, was determined to avoid a direct assault and crossed the river to the west where the country was more open. Dallas, a small town about 14 miles south of the river and about the same distance west of the railroad, was the first objective.

The Northerners began their advance on the 23d. McPherson swung far to the west through Van Wert and then moved eastward toward Dallas. Thomas was in the center moving via Stilesboro and Burnt Hickory. Schofield was on the left, closest to the Etowah. The day was hot and the men suffered greatly from thirst. Nevertheless, the Federals made progress toward their objective and, on the 24th, were closing in on Dallas.

On May 25, some troops of Thomas' army ran up against Hood's line at New Hope Church. In a late afternoon battle fought under dark skies and rolling bursts of thunder, Thomas' men made a series of gallant assaults against the Southern line. The Federals met a withering hail of bullets and shells that quickly halted each advance. In this short engagement, Thomas lost about 1,500 men. The Confederates suffered little during the battle and were elated at their success.

Sunrise on the 26th found both commanders working to position their men in the woods east of Dallas. Except for skirmishing, there was little fighting during the day.

On the following day, Sherman attempted to defeat the right of the Southern line by a surprise attack. In a battle known as Pickett's Mill, the Northerners were hurled back with about 1,500 casualties. For the Federals, this engagement was one of the most desperate of the campaign. One company of the 41st Ohio Regiment lost 20 of its 22 men. The 49th Ohio carried slightly over 400 men into the battle and lost 203 of them. The commander of another regiment wrote that he lost a third of his men in the first few yards of the advance. "The rebel fire ... swept the ground like a hailstorm," wrote another Unionist, adding, "this is surely not war it is butchery." A third Northerner noted in his diary that evening, "our men were slaughtered terribly 2 brigades of infantry were almost cut to pieces." The Southerners lost about 500 men.

Over the next few days fighting continued almost incessantly. Both sides made assaults with strongly reinforced skirmish lines, seeking to hold the enemy in position. This type of combat was very tiring on the men. One soldier wrote after a night battle, "O God, what a night. They may tell of hell and its awful fires, but the boys who went thru the fight at Dallas ... are pretty well prepared for any event this side of eternity."

The days spent in the jungles near New Hope Church were among the most arduous of the war for the soldiers of both armies. In addition to the normal dangers of combat, the men had to undergo unusual physical hardships. Rain, heat, constant alarms, continuous sharpshooting, the stench of the dead, the screams of the wounded, and a serious shortage of food all added to the normal discomforts of life in the field. One Federal soldier described the time spent near Dallas as "Probably the most wretched week" of the campaign. Another wrote of it as "a wearisome waste of life and strength." A third Northerner, referring to an unsuccessful foray against the Confederate lines, wrote, "We have struck a hornet nest at the business end." So severe had the fighting been that Sherman's men would ever afterward refer to the struggle around New Hope Church as the "Battle of the Hell Hole."

When it became clear that no decisive battle would be fought at Dallas, Sherman gradually sidled eastward to regain the railroad. On June 3, advance elements of the Federal forces reached the little town of Acworth, and within a few days, almost all the Northern troops were in that general area. Sherman had outmaneuvered Johnston and bypassed the strong Confederate position at Allatoona, but he had not seriously weakened his opponent. Once again the Federal commander ordered a short halt to rest his troops and allow time to repair the railroad and for reinforcements to arrive.

KENNESAW MOUNTAIN

When Sherman encountered this strong position, he extended his lines to the south to try to outflank Johnston. He moved most of McPherson's army to the area directly in front of Kennesaw Mountain and placed Thomas' army in line on McPherson's right with orders to extend to the right. In the days that followed, McPherson and Thomas were engaged in what amounted to a siege of the Southern position. Little progress could be made on the ground but the artillery on both sides was used in attempts to batter and weaken the enemy. Day after day, the big Union guns pounded the Southern line, their fire being answered by Confederate cannon high on Kennesaw Mountain.

Meanwhile, Sherman drew Schofield's army in from the Lost Mountain area and ordered it to move south on the Sandtown Road, which ran west of the Federal position toward the Chattahoochee. After a long and muddy march, Schofield's men reached Nose's Creek at dark on June 19. On the following day, they crossed the swollen stream and drove the Southerners away. The bridge was rebuilt; on the 21st their advance was resumed. That same day, the right of Thomas' army established contact with Schofield near Powder Springs Road.

In the early part of the afternoon, the Federals captured several Southerners from whom they learned that Hood had moved to the Confederate left. From this they concluded that an attack upon the Federal line was imminent. Quickly the Northern commanders closed up their units and began to construct protecting works, using fence rails or whatever material was at hand. Skirmishers were thrown out, and they soon encountered an advancing line of Southerners. Just what brought about this attack is not clear. Perhaps the activities of the Northern skirmishers led the Confederates to think that the Federals were attacking. Hood may have believed that when the skirmishers fell back he had defeated an assault on his new position and decided to pursue the beaten enemy. At any rate, the Southern advance precipitated a battle at the Kolb farmhouse in which several Confederate attacks were hurled back by the Federals. Hood lost about 1,000 men. Northern casualties were about 300. After the battle, Hood fell back to his original position, extending the Southern line southward to Olley's Creek. For several days, there was relative calm along the lines which now ran from the railroad north of Marietta to Olley's Creek southwest of the town. Meanwhile, the rains ceased and the June sun began to dry the land.

Several days after the battle at Kolb's farm, Sherman decided on a change in tactics--he would make a direct assault on Johnston's lines. It was a bold decision that offered the possibility of a great victory. The Southern line was thinly held and a successful attack could lead to the isolation and destruction of a large part of Johnston's army. The Federal commander decided to strike the Confederates at three points: McPherson would assault the southern end of Kennesaw Mountain, Thomas would move against a salient known as the "Dead Angle" several miles to the south, and Schofield would push south on Sandtown Road and attempt to cross Olley's Creek. June 27 was set as the date for the assault, but Schofield was to begin demonstrations on the 26th to draw Southerners away from other portions of the line.

Early on the 27th, the Federals began to probe at various points along the Confederate trenches to distract the defenders. At 8 a.m. the Northern artillery opened a brief but heavy fire to prepare the way for the assaults. A few minutes later, the Federal infantry moved forward. McPherson's troops, advancing on both sides of Burnt Hickory Road, swept over the Southern outposts and moved rapidly across the broken ground toward the main Confederate trenches. Although their lines were disordered, the blue-clad soldiers scrambled over rocks and fallen trees until they were finally halted by the heavy fire from their entrenched enemies. A few reached the Confederate line and were killed or captured while fighting in their opponents' works. Southerners on Little Kennesaw added to the Northerners' discomfort by rolling huge rocks down the mountainside at them. When the Union troops realized that their attack could not reach the Confederate lines, they broke off the engagement. Some were able to find protection in the advanced Confederate rifle-pits they had overrun and some managed to reach the positions from which they had begun the assault. A few were forced to seek shelter among the trees and large rocks on the slopes of the mountain where they remained until darkness offered a chance to return to their own lines.

To the south, Thomas fared no better. Two columns were directed against the Southern position--one at Cheatham's Hill, the other a short distance to the north. The Southerners expected no attack. Many of them were off duty and others were relaxing in the lines. The Federal artillery, however, alerted them to the danger and when Thomas' infantry started forward, the Confederates were ready.

As soon as the dense blue columns appeared in the cleared area between the lines, the Confederates opened what one Northerner called a "terrible" fire upon them. Men dropped rapidly but the columns continued up the long slope toward the Southern position. "The air," one Federal remembered, "seemed filled with bullets, giving one the sensation experienced when moving swiftly against a heavy rain or sleet storm." As the Union soldiers neared the crest of the ridge, they met the full fury of the defenders' fire. To one Federal it seemed as if the Confederate trenches were "veritable volcanoes ... vomiting forth fire and smoke and raining leaden hail in the face of the Union boys."

Most of the attackers never reached the Confederate line. Those who did were too few to overpower the defenders and were quickly killed or captured. For a few brief seconds, two Northern battle flags waved on the breastworks, but the bearers were soon shot down and within a short time the attack had failed.

As Thomas' left assaulting column struck that portion of the Southern line held by the consolidated 1st and 15th Arkansas Regiments, the gunfire ignited the underbrush and many wounded Federals faced the terrifying prospect of being burned to death. In one of the notable acts of the war, Lt. Col. William H. Martin, commanding the Arkansans, jumped from his trenches waving a white handkerchief and shouting to the Northerners to come and get the wounded men. For a few minutes, fighting was suspended along that short stretch of the line and some of Martin's soldiers went to assist in moving their helpless enemies away from the flames. When the wounded had been removed to safety, the two sides resumed hostilities, but here too it was clear that the attack would not be able to break Johnston's lines.

At the Dead Angle, some of the attacking Northerners remained under the crest of the ridge within a few yards of the Confederate trenches. There they dug rifle pits of their own and started to burrow under the hill, hoping to fill the tunnel with gunpowder and blow up the salient. However, before this project had progressed very far, the Southerners abandoned the position and thus rendered the subterranean attack unnecessary.

While the attacks of McPherson and Thomas were being repulsed, Schofield was gaining a clear success at the extreme right of the Union line. On the 26th, one of his brigades crossed Olley's Creek north of Sandtown Road and, on the following day, cleared their opponents from the area, securing a position several miles to the south which placed the right of their line closer to the Chattahoochee than was the left of Johnston's army. From this position the Northerners could strike at the Confederate line of supply and perhaps cut Johnston off from all sources of help by breaking the railroad.

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