A Long and Bloody Task: The Atlanta Campaign from Dalton through Kennesaw to the Chattahoochee, May 5-July 18, 1864

by Stephen Davis

Overview

Spring of 1864 brought a whole new war to the Western Theater, with new commanders and what would become a new style of warfare. Federal armies, perched in Chattanooga, Tennessee, after their stunning victories there the previous fall, poised on the edge of Georgia for the first time in the war.

Atlanta sat in the far distance. Major General William T. Sherman, newly elevated to command the Union’s western armies, eyed it covetously—the South’s last great untouched prize. “Get into the interior of the enemy’s country as far as you can, inflicting all the damage you can against their War resources,” his superior, Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, ordered.

But if Atlanta sat some 100 miles away as the crow flies, it lay more than 140 miles away for the marching Federal armies, which had to navigate snaking roads and treacherous mountain passes.

Blocking the way, too, was the Confederate Army of Tennessee, commanded by one of the Confederacy’s most defensive-minded generals, Joseph E. Johnston. All Johnston had to do, as Sherman moved through hostile territory, was slow the Federal advance long enough to find the perfect opportunity to strike.

And so began the last great campaign in the West: Sherman’s long and bloody task.

The acknowledged expert on all things related to the battle of Atlanta, historian Steve Davis has lived in the area his entire life, and in A Long and Bloody Task, he tells the tale of the Atlanta campaign as only a native can. He brings his Southern sensibility to the Emerging Civil War Series, known for its engaging storytelling and accessible approach to history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781611213171
Publisher:	Savas Beatie
Publication date:	06/14/2016
Series:	Emerging Civil War Series
Pages:	192
Sales rank:	1,086,774
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Stephen Davis, longtime Atlantan, has been a Civil Warrior since the fourth grade. He served as Book Review Editor for Blue & Gray magazine for more than twenty years, and is the author of more than a hundred articles on the Civil War in both scholarly and popular journals. His book Atlanta Will Fall: Sherman, Joe Johnston and the Yankee Heavy Battalions, was published in 2001. He is also the author of What the Yankees Did to Us: Sherman’s Bombardment and Wrecking of Atlanta (2012).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments viii

Prologue xiii

Chapter 1 The War in the Spring of 1864 1

Chapter 2 Sherman Launches His Campaign 9

Chapter 3 Resaca 21

Chapter 4 The Affair at Cassville 37

Chapter 5 Along the Etowah River 43

Chapter 6 New Hope Church and the Hell Hole 49

Chapter 7 The Crime at Pickett's Mill 55

Chapter 8 Pine Mountain 61

Chapter 9 Kennesaw Mountain 67

Chapter 10 To the Chattahoochee 79

Chapter 11 Sherman Grosses the Chattahoochee 89

Chapter 12 General Johnston is Relieved of Command 95

Epilogue 103

Driving Tour 107

Appendix A The Battle of Pickett's Mill: Evolving Presence Stephen Briggs 121

Appendix B My Time with "Company Aytch:" Personal Memory and the Kennesaw Line Robert W. Novak 127

Appendix C The Chattahoochee River Line Today Michael K. Shaffer 133

Appendix D Federal Logistics During the Atlanta Campaign Britt McCarley 137

Appendix E Why do People Believe Joe Johnston Could Have Saved Atlanta? Stephen Davis 145

Appendix F What We've Learned about John Bell Hood since the Centennial Stephen Davis 151

Order of Battle 156

Suggested reading 172

About the Author 174

List of Maps

Maps Hal Jespersen

Theater of Operations 2

Union Movements, May 7 to 8 10

Battle of Resaca, Actions May 14 22

Battle of Resaca, Actions, May 15 24

Union Movements, May 18 38

Federal Approach to Dallas, May 23 and 24 44

Testing the Opposing Lines May 25 to May 28 56

Johnston Gives Ground Before Marietta, June 5 to July 2 62

Battle of Kennesaw Mountain, June 27 68

Johnston's Final Three Positions North of the Chattahoochee River 80

Driving Tour 106

Kennesaw Mountain Driving Tour 118