the battle of atlanta

The Battle of Atlanta

Civil War Timeline around the Battle of Atlanta

1864

June 27 : Sherman and Johnston fight at Kennesaw Mountain , Gerogia

July 14 : Battle of Tupelo , Mississippi , forces Forrest to end raiding

July 17 : Hood replaces Johnston as commander of Army of the Tennessee

July 20 : Union victory at battle of Peachtree Creek , Georgia , weakens Hood 's army with heavy casualties

July 22 : Union victory at battle of Atlanta

Aug 31 : Democrats nominate General George McClellan for president

Sep 2 : Union army moves into Atlanta (Anderson 44

p The Battle of Atlanta was a decisive victory for the Union forces . It also had crucial political implications . Around that time , George McClellan was running against President Abraham Lincoln . McClellan 's Democrats were calling for a truce in the Civil War . But the victory of Atlanta boosted Northern morale and turned the tide of war . If there was no Battle of Atlanta , or if it was delayed , both the sides could have gone for a truce , and that would have been very bad for the future of America . Hence , the Battle of Atlanta was very important in the historical context

The North was already running victorious before the battle . But it was that Battle of Atlanta that led the Union Army to capture the city of Atlanta over a month after their victory at the battle of Atlanta , which was fought beyond the outskirts of the city . The capture of Atlanta by the Union forces established the Union army as undoubtedly a superior force

Immediately before the Battle of Atlanta there was the Peachtree Creek battle in which too the Union forces won . During the Battle of Atlanta the main unit of the Union army was under the command of General James McPherson . Sadly , however , McPherson dies on the battlefield , shot by the infantry of the Confederate Army . Besides this major loss , the Union force loses between 3500 to 4000 men on that one day of July 22 . But in comparison with confederate armies which lose about 8500 men , the Union losses are much lesser (Golden

Besides McPherson 's Army of Tennessee that was in the lead , there were three Union corps to give support to it . These Union corps were under the commands of General John Logan , General Grenville Dodge and General Frank Blair Jr . Overseeing and in charge of the all the Union armies was General William Sherman

On the opposing Confederate side was the Confederate Army of Tennessee under the command of General John Hood . But the main corps leading the Southern army was headed by General William Hardee

For sometime before the Battle of Atlanta , the Union army led by General Sherman was continuously dominating the Confederate army led by General Joseph Johnston . Johnston 's army was forced to take either a defensive position or retreat . Both sides avoided direct frontal attacks . At the Battle of Resaca that preceded Battle of Kennesaw Mountain , Johnston 's army was withdrawing . But this was because Johnston 's army was clearly...