The Civil War made its way into Georgia in 1864 as Major General William T. Sherman pushed the Union forces into Georgia to destroy Confederate resistance and end the war. Three years of civil war had laid waste to large parts of Virginia, Mississippi and Tennessee. Only two major battles, Chickamauga and Ringgold Gap, had been fought within Georgia's borders. Union troops occupied only a small part of Georgia. The farms and factories, cities and towns, railroads and seaports, were still intact, and still a vital cog in the Confederate war machine. Why was the battle on Kennessaw Mountain so significant? Let's find out.
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), which was formed in 1861 by states that had seceded from the Union to preserve slavery in the United States, which they saw as threatened because of the election of Abraham Lincoln and the growing abolitionist movement in the North. The war lasted a little over four years, ending with Union victory, the dissolution of the Confederacy and the abolition of slavery.
The Battle of Kennesaw Mountain was fought on June 27, 1864, during the Atlanta campaign of the American Civil War. The most significant frontal assault launched by Union Major General William T. Sherman against the Confederate Army of Tennessee under General Joseph E. Johnston, it produced a tactical defeat for the Union forces but failed to deliver the result that the Confederacy desperately needed: a halt to Sherman's advance on Atlanta, Georgia.
Sherman's 1864 campaign against Atlanta began with a series of flanking maneuvers that compelled Johnston's forces to withdraw from heavily fortified positions with minimal casualties on either side. After two months and 70 miles of such maneuvering, Sherman's path was blocked by imposing fortifications on Kennesaw Mountain, near Marietta, Georgia. The Union general chose to change his tactics and ordered a large-scale frontal assault on June 27.
Major General James B. McPherson feinted against the northern end of Kennesaw Mountain, while his corps under Major General John A. Logan assaulted Pigeon Hill on its southwest corner. At the same time, Major General George H. Thomas launched strong attacks against Cheatham Hill at the center of the Confederate line. Both attacks were repulsed with heavy losses, but a demonstration by Major General John M. Schofield achieved a strategic success by threatening the Confederate army's left flank, prompting yet another Confederate withdrawal toward Atlanta and the removal of General Johnston from command of the army.
The Campgaign Begins ~~
Sherman began his march on Atlanta on May 7, 1864. Two days later he approached General Johnston's position on a steep ridge called Rocky Face. Sherman sent a column through Snake Creek Gap to threaten the Western & Southern Railroad, Johnston's supply connection to Atlanta. After leaving Rocky Face, Johnston moved south and dug in at Resaca, where he repulsed Sherman's attack from May 13 to 15.
As Sherman advanced toward Atlanta, he tried to contain the entrenched Confederates with part of his force while sending another column around their flank -- always trying to sever the Western & Atlantic Railroad supply lines. Johnston repeatedly withdrew to intercept the threats.
Battle for Kennesaw ~~
By June 19, despite weeks of continual rain, Sherman's troops forced Johnston to withdraw again, this time to a prepared defensive position anchored by Kennesaw Mountain, a lofty ridge with rocky slopes rising above the surrounding plain. Using enslaved labor, Confederate engineers had laid out elaborate trenches from which cannon and rifle fire greeted the enemy's approach from any direction.
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| Slaves digging trenches |
Again Sherman extended his lines to the south to get around the Confederatee flank. Again Johnston countered, shifting 11,000 men under Gen. John Bell Hood to meet the threat. At Kolb's Farm on June 22, Hood struck savagely but unsuccessfully. He failed to repel the Federals.
Immobilized by muddy roads, Sherman suspected that Johnston's defenses, though strong, might be thin. One sharp thrust might break through. He diverted Johnston's attention with attacks on Kennesaw and the Confederate left flank, then leveled a two-pronged attack on the enemy's center.
The attacking brigades moved into position before dawn on June 27. At 8am, after an artillery bombardment, they sured forward. Both attacks were brief, bloody failures. Astride Burnt Hickory Road, three Federal brigades totaling 5,500 men crossed swampy, heavily wooded terrain. Before they could reach their objective -- a mountain spur today called Pigeon Hill -- sheets of artillery fire drove them under cover. From Little Kennesaw and Pigeon Hill, Confederates rolled rocks down on the Federal soldiers. Sherman recalled the attack when he saw it could not succeed.
Sherman resumed his flanking strategy, forcing Johnston to abandon his Kennesaw lines during the night of July 2. The Confederates had lost 800 men, the Federals 1,800, but the Federals' diversionary movement on the Confederate left had an unforeseen benefit. It placed Sherman closer to Chattahoochee River crossings. He surprised Johntson by sending a small force across the river upstream from where Confederates guarded the railroad bridge. Outflanked again, Johnston had to retreat across the Chattahoochee.
The Fall of Atlanta ~~
The Fall of Atlanta ~~
The rest of Sherman's army crossed the Chattahoochee on July 9, and Johnston withdrew to the fortifications of Atlanta. For Confederate President Jefferson Davis, already exasperated by Johnston's fallbacks and lack of aggressiveness, this was the last straw. He relieved Johnston of command and replaced him with Gen. Hood. Meanwhile, Sherman was closing on Atlanta from the north and east. Hood tried unsuccessfully to destroy the army of Gen. George H. Thomas as it crossed Peachtree Creek on July 20.
Two days later, at the Battle of Atlanta, Hood struck at Gen. James P. McPherson's army. The Confederates suffered heavy losses. Planning to outflank Atlanta's defenders, Sherman swung west of the city, where at Ezra Church on July 28, Hood lashed out again. He met with defeat.
In August Sherman placed Atlanta under siege, continually shifting troops to cut the city's rail links to the rest of the South. On August 31 he seized the last one, the Macon & Western. After Hood lost a two-day battle near Jonesboro, he ordered all public property destroyed and the city evacuated. Sherman entered on September 2 and triumphantly telegraphed the news to Washington: "Atlanta is ours, and fairly won."
Atlanta's fall crippled the Conferderacy's capacity and will to make war. Coupled with US victories elsewhere, the war's end was now in sight. In the North people rejoiced. On November 8 they reelected President Abraham Lincoln, endorsing a fight to the finish. A week later Sherman left Atlanta in ruins and began his "March to the Sea."
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By the beginning of 1864, the war has claimed the lives of 250,000 Union soldiers. The three-year enlistments of half of Lincoln's army are about to expire, and there is violent opposition to the draft. Anti-war protests in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois have compelled Lincoln to resort to arbitrary arrests and press censorship, and the conflict is costing taxpayers $2,500,000 per day. If Northern voters cannot see some hope of victory before the November elections, the Union may not survive.
In order to win the war, Lincoln must restore the Union. To resore the Union, he must defeat the Confederacy. To defeat the Confederacy, he must destroy slavery. This is no longer a matter of choice. It is a military necessity, designed to disrupt the South's economy, deplete her armies, and deprive her of any allies among European nations which have already abolished slavery.
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| Escaped Slaves fleeing to freedom |
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| Slave cabin in Georgia |
Nineteenth-century America has prospered under an economic and political system which allows some people to make slaves of others. In the eyes of the law, slaves are simply property that can be bought and sold, just like horses or cattle. Most Americans accept this idea as part of everyday life. They naively assume the end of the war will mean a return to the way things were before the war began.
But Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, freeing all the slaves in the rebellious Southern states, has changed the entire complexion of the conflict. What started as a struggle to restore the Union has now become a revolution, a cataclysmic cultural, economic, and political upheaval that will change America forever.
Emancipation will cost slave owners an estimated 4 billion dollars in human property. But freeing the slaves without compensating their owners violates a long cherished American principle, that government cannot forcibly take property from its citizens.
To implement this radical policy, Lincoln must have the support of Northern voters and his soldiers in the field. That support hinges on the North's fervent hope that abolishing slavery will help bring this terrible war to an end.
With elections looming in November, Lincoln knows if he is going to win votes at the ballot box, he needs victories on the battlefield. He pins his hopes and the three stars of a lieutenant general on the shoulders of Ulysses S. Grant.
"We are going into battle with the highest hope of success -- but God help us if we fail." ~~ Orlando M. Poe, Captain U.S. Army, April 30, 1864
Grant Takes Command ~~
Critics whisper Grant drinks too much. But this quiet, 41-year old soldier has one undeniable virtue. He wins battles. His victories at Forts Henry and Donelson, at Shiloh, Vicksburg, and Chattanooga have reclaimed much of the seceded South, reopened the Mississippi River, and restored the war-weary North's hope of victory.
Grant can field more than twice as many men as the South, but he compares the Union armies to "a balky team," with no two pulling in the same direction at the same time. When one attacks, the other stands idle, allowing the outnumbered Confederates to rush reinforcements from quiet areas to threatened ones. Determined to bring the full weight of his superior numbers to bear, Grant orders all his armies to advance at once.
"Find out where your enemy is. Get at him as soon as you can. Strike at him as hard as you can, and keep moving on." ~~ Ulysses S. Grant, Lieutenant General, U.S. Army
Sent from the Army of the Potomac to help lift the seige of Chattanooga in the autumn of 1863, eastern troops like these New Jersey soldiers are generally better dressed, better drilled, and better disciplined than Sherman's rough-and-tumble westerners, who scornfully call them "paper collar soldiers."
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| Union troops, 1864 |
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| Sherman's supply hub, the Nashville & Chattanooga Railyard in Nashville, Tennessee |
A woman's touch ~~ Sherman's ban on civilian traffic does not sit well with Mary Ann Ball Bickerdyke, a tireless, gray-haired widow who has been caring for sick and wounded Union soldiers since 1861. Bullying her way aboard a train to Chattanooga, she storms into Sherman's headquarters and insists he must allow the relief supplies she has collected to get to the field hospitals.
"Have some sense about it ...," she cajoles. "Write an order for two cars a day." Sherman meekly obeys.
When asked why he lets "Mother" Bickerdyke have her way, he simply says, "She outranks me."
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| Men of the 5th Georgia Infantry |
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| Snowball fight at Dalton |
The best sign of the Army of Tennessee's renewed spirit comes on March 22, 1864, when five inches of snow blankets the ground at Dalton. Instead of huddling around their fires, the men take to the fields with boyish enthusium. Bugles blare and drums beat. Regiments form into brigades. Brigades swell into divisions, and the air turns white with "terrible missiles" as everyone, from major generals down to the lowest privates, pitches into the biggest snowball fight Georgia has ever seen.
That night, as victors and vanquished trudge back to camp with raw fingers, black eyes, and bloody noses, Johnston orders a whisky ration issued to every man. At that moment, he wins perhaps his greatest victory of the war. He captures the hearts of an entire army.
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| Lieutenant John W. Comer, 57th Alabama Infantry and his servent, Burrell |
"Burrell is not afraid of anything. He came to us the other day whil we were on Picket and borrowed some of the boys guns & shot at the Yankees. [S]aid he wanted to kill one Yankee before the war ended." ~~ John W. Comer, Lieutenant, 57th Alabama Infantry, C.S. Army, June 14, 1864
Blacks on the battlefront ~~ There are no black soldiers in the Confederate Army of Tennessee. However, slaves often follow their masters into battle as personal servants and sometimes join in the fighting. In 1864, the Confederate Congress approves the use of blacks as teamsters, cooks, and hospital attendants, to replace white soldiers previously assigned to those duties.
Arming the slaves ~~ The Army is desparately short of manpower, Major General Patrick R. Cleburne notes at a meeting of Johnston's senior officers on January 2, 1864. Unless that is remedied, the war is surely lost. Cleburne, an Irish-born immigrant, then shocks his listeners by reading a 25-page memorandum, proposing to arm the slaves and give them their freedom if they will fight for the South.
Most of those present oppose the idea, but none more vehemently than Major General William H.T. Walker. Denouncing Cleburne's memorandum as "incendiary," he sends a copy directly to President Davis. Thoroughly alarmed, Davis orders Johnston to suppress any further discussion of the idea.
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| The Car Shed, Atlanta's main passenger depot |
Railroads ~~ "No one goes anywhere without passing through Atlanta," declares a newspaper reporter, and rightly so. Four rail lines: the Western & Atlantic, Atlanta & West Point, Macon & Western, and the Georgia Railroad, converge on the city from all points of the compass. Atlanta is "the crossroads of the Confederacy."
Arms & Ammunition ~~ Georgia is perhaps the most heavily industrialized state in the Confederacy. Its arsenals, foundaries, machine shops, and factories produce a wide variety of military goods, as well as ammunition, armor plate, belt buckles, bits, bridles, buttons, canteens, cartridge boxes, chemicals, freight cars, gun carriages, holsters, knapsacks, nails, pistols, shoes, saddles, spurs, uniforms, and wagons.
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| Sullivan's Branch No. 2 Trestle on the Nashville & Northwestern Railroad |
Sherman's Lifeline ~~ To get supplies from his warehouses in Nashville and Chattanooga and into the haversacks and cartridge boxes of his men, Sherman is utterly dependent on the Western & Atlantic Railroad. "A spider swinging from the ceiling by a single fibre from his web is not an inapt illustration of the situation ..." notes a Macon newspaper. Cut that railroad, interrupt the flow of supplies, and Sherman must retreat.
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| Trestle Bridge over the Chattanooche River |
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| Supply Wagons |
Sherman begins the campaign with 5, 180 wagons, capable of carrying enough food and ammunition to supply his armies for 20 days. Pulled by a team of six mules, each wagon can haul about 4,000 pounds of supplies, but part of this load is corn for the mules. The 60,000 horses and mules in Sherman's armies consume 600,000 pounds of grain every day.
Battlefield Communications ~~ For centuries, generals have relied on couriers, either on foot or horseback, to carry orders to distant parts of the battlefield. The Civil War is no different, but several inventions enable Union and Confederate commanders to send messages farther and faster than ever before.
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| Sherman receiving messages during the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain |
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| Union soldier loading his rifle |
Unlike the smoothbore, the bore of a rifle musket has spiraled grooves cut into it. When the gun is fired, these grooves force the bullet to spin on its axis as it moves down the barrel. This makes the bullet travel farther, faster, and more accurately.
While a smoothbore musket has an effective range of about 100 yards, a rifle musket is accurate at three times that distance and can kill at up to 1,000 yards. This enables defenders to open fire at longer ranges than ever before, shooting down attackers long before they reach their objective.
An estimated 85% of Civil War soldiers are infantrymen, who fight on foot with single-shot rifles and muskets. To maximize their firepower, they stand shoulder to shoulder in straight lines. These linear tactics date back to the days of Frederick the Great and Napoleon.
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| Rebel trenches in front of Atlanta |
The improved range and accuracy of rifle muskets and artillary soon force changes in tactics. Troops on both sides still form lines to mass their firepower, but, by 1864, they are digging trenches to protect themselves from rifle and cannon fire.
Soldiers standing in trenches or behind breastworks, with only a small portion of their upper body exposed, make relatively small targets. This gives defenders an even greater advantage over attackers.
"One rifle in the trench was worth five in front of it," declares Major General Jacob D. Cox of Sherman's XXIII Corps. This will have a profound effect on the way the battles for Atlanta are fought.
May 1864 ~~ The Atlanta Campaign Begins
Skirmaches at Tunnel Hill ~~ May 6-7, 1864. Union infantry drives back the Confederate cavalry guarding Tunnel Hill. Sherman is "agreeably surprised" to find the 1,477-foot Western & Atlantic Railroad tunnel still intact. Its destruction would have made supplying his armies "impossible."
Demonstrations at Rocky Face Ridge, Combat at Buzzard's Roost (Mill Creek Gap), and Dug Gap ~~ May 8-11, 1864. As Johnston's men watch from the crest of Rocky Face Ridge, Union troops advance with flags flying and bands blaring, but Sherman has no intention of attacking these formidable heights. His show of strength at Buzzard's Roost and a furious uphill fight at Dug Gap mask a more important maneuver ten miles to the south.
Missed Opportunity at Snake Creek Gap ~~ May 8-13, 1864. Determined to destroy Johnston's army at the outset of the campaign, Sherman sends General James P. McPherson's men through Snake Creek Gap with orders to cut the Western & Atlantic Railroad that Johnston depends on for his supplies. McPherson gets his troops through the unguarded gap, but then stops just short of the railroad. After a brief skirmish near Resaca with a much smaller force of Confederates, he timidly withdraws.
Battle of Resaca ~~ May 14-15, 1864. Realizing the threat McPherson poses to the railroad his army depends on for supplies, Johnston abandons Rocky Face Ridge and retreats to Resaca, where he is reinforced by Lt. General Leonidas Polk. The Confederat troops dig in and hold Sherman at bay for two days, until another Union flanking maneuver compels Johnston to retreat across the Oostanaula River.
Combat at Kennesaw ~~ On the night of June 18, Johnston's army slogs southward, through the ankle-deep mud, and begins digging in on the slopes of Kennesaw Mountain. Towering 700 feet above the surrounding countryside, the camel-humped crest of Kennesaw commands most of the roads converging on Marietta, as well as the nearby Western & Atlantic Railroad. Sherman must find a way to go around the mountain or drive Johnston off it.
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| Attacking Kennesaw Mountain |
Believing Johnston's army is stretched thin, Sherman decides against another flanking maneuver. Instead, on June 24, he orders preparations for a direct frontal assault, intending to break through the center of Johnston's line and drive him off the mountain.
It is, he admits, a dangerous plan. To give it every chance of success, he orders two simultaneous attacks on the far left and far right of the Confederate line. Designed to mask his true intentions, these feints will pin down the defenders and keep Johnston from shifting troops to reinforce his threatened center.
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| Assault on Pigeon Hill -- June 27, 1864 |
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| Sherman's assault on the Dead Angle |
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| Truce at Cheatham Hill |
Confederates call a truce ~~ During the savage fighting in front of Cheatham Hill, a small flame flickers to life. Ignited by a cannon's fire, it feeds on dry twigs and pine needles and quickly kindles into a blaze. Soon the piercing screams of wounded men being burned alive keens above the battle's roar.
Flourishing a white hankerchief, Confederate Lt. Colonel William Martin calls a truce: "Cease firing," he yells, "come and remove your wounded," he calls to the Yankees, "they are burning to death. We won't fire a gun until you get them away. Be quick."
Sherman's headlong assaults on Kennesaw Mountain, Pigeon Hill, and the Dead Angle have left 3,000 of his men killed, wounded, or captured. Johnston's casualties number only about 800. The battle is over.
A few blue-coated soldiers cautiously step from the woods. Rebels clamber out of trenches. Together they carry away the wounded and soon beat out the flames. A grateful Union officer presents Colonel Martin with a fine pair of pistols. Then the fighting begins again.
Sherman's headlong assaults on Kennesaw Mountain, Pigeon Hill, and the Dead Angle have left 3,000 of his men killed, wounded, or captured. Johnston's casualties number only about 800. The battle is over.
Occupation ~~ September 2 - November 15, 1864. The Yankees enter Atlanta. About noon, troops from Sherman's XX Corps march down Marietta Street and trimumphantly raise the Stars and Stripes over City Hall.
"You Must All Leave Atlanta." These words stun residents of the ravaged city the day after Sherman's arrival. "As many of you as want to go north can do so," Mayor James M. Calhoun announces on September 8; "and ... as many as want to go south can do so," but no civilians can remain. Determined to make Atlanta a "pure military town," Sherman orders the "the entire, complete and prompt evacuation" of the population.
During the next two weeks, an estimated 500 families board trains that carry them north. Another 1,651 Atlantans choose to go south. Most of them are women and children. They crowd into wagons and boxcars piled high with "poodle dogs, tabby cats, asthematic pianos, [and] household furniture" for the trip to Rough and Ready, 12 miles below Atlanta. From there, Confederate wagons haul these refugees past a broken, fire-blackened section of the railroad to Lovejoy's Station, where trains wait to carry them to Macon. Despite Sherman's order, about 50 white families remain in Atlanta.
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| Union soldiers guarding Confederate prisoners |
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| Refugees leaving Atlanta |
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| Sherman destroys Atlanta |
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| Locomotives in the wreckage of the Georgia's Railroad's engine house |
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| Four white columns are all that remain of Marietta's courthouse |
"Nearly all the public buildings & some twenty or more private residences have been destroyed ... The army has gone South but no one knows their destination." ~~ Louisa Warren Patch Fletcher, Marietta resident, November 20, 1864
Reconcilation and Remembrance ~~ The Civil War changes America forever. Restoring the Union and abolishing slavery redefines the role of government, reshapes society, and reaffirms America's legacy, "that all men are created equal." But the war also claims 625,000 lives and leaves millions more scarred, crippled, widowed, or fatherless. Just as John Brown predicted, America has been purged with blood.
Turbulent times in the Postwar South ~~ The struggle for political power in the postwar South leads to the creation of secret societies, such as the Ku Klux Klan. Originally intended to protect white Southerners from the abuses of "corrupt" Republican regimes and "negro rule," the Klan soon becomes an instrument of intimidation and terror.
Hooded, white-sheeted night riders, claiming to be the ghosts of Confederate soldiers, use threats, beatings, and murder to keep blacks from voting. This ensures the election of white Southern Democrats, who begin whittling away the rights of the black citizens.
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| The Blue and the Gray, Demorest, Georgia, 1905 |
After the war, soldiers from both North and South form regimental associatons. At annual reunions, the old veterans renew wartime friendships, honor their fallen comrades, and remember the stirring days of their youth, when "our hearts were touched by fire."
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After looking at all the displays in the Visitor's Center, Jim went back to sit in the car, and Lucy and I took the trail up to the top of the mountain. The road going up there was closed except for the Park's bus that took people up. It was a hefty walk, and we were bushed by the time we got to the top.
The first thing we went by was a display talking about the main battle on Kennesaw Mountain ~~
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| General Sherman and General Johnston |
For the Union soldiers ordered to line up and march into battle here on June 27, 1864, these fields were a death trap. Confederate guns were only yards away -- and Union soldiers advanced straight into enemy fire. With only scattered pine trees to block the bullets, Union soldiers fell by the hundreds.
To military historians, General Sherman's order of a "linear frontal assault" here stands out as one of the last of its kind. By 1864, faster, better-aiming weapons had left this older style of fighting dangerously out of date.
Even so, the Union's frontal assault accomplished what General Sherman had been stubbornly pursuing for months -- pushing the Confederates back to Atlanta.
Hallowed Ground ~~ This peaceful place once trembled with the roar of cannon, rumbled with explosions, and echoed with the cries of the wounded and dying. Here those, who before 1861 had been fellow citizens, fought each other to the death over two ideals about what America should be. During the early 1900s, former enemies returned to Kennesaw Mountain under a banner of peace and reconciliation to preserve this hollowed ground where thousands of Americans made the ultimate sacrifice. Their losses and courage are forever linked to this battlefield park.
At the top of the mountain were a few more plaquards telling about the war on Kennesaw Mountain ~~
Confederate Gen. Joseph Johnston intended to delay or stop Sherman. Kennessaw Mountain offered Johnston a strong defensive position from which to draw Sherman's larger army into battle.
The fate of Atlanta -- with its citizens, factories, armories, warehouses and railroads -- hung in the balance.
This northern Georgia landscape of 1864 consisted of dense woods, boggy creeks, dirt roads, and sparcely settled towns. One Federal general called it a "wilderness of mire."
The 1860 census listed Atlanta's population at 7,741. By 1864 it had jumped to more than 20,000 and has not stopped growing since.
A Mountain Stronghold ~~ In 1864 Confederate troops used Kennesaw Mountain as a fortress. Looking down across the rolling Georgia Piedmont, you can easily see why. In a war fought before modern communications, both armies sought high ground where they could see the enemy and thwart enemy tactics.
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| Atlanta 2026 |
I took this picture while standing at the top of Kennesaw Mountain looking out over the same area as the above picture of the Georgia landscape of 1864.
Dueling Cannons ~~ On June 10, Capt. Charles L. Lumsden's Alabama battery on Big Kennesaw Mountain hit a railroad water tower, "scattering both water and nearby Yankees" -- lucky shooting for smoothbore Napoleon cannon. But after the Confederates fired at the 1st Minnesota Battery on Brushy Mountain, one mile north, the Rebel gunners were pounded by the Northerner's accurate, long-range rifled guns. After dark, the Confederates dragged their own rifled cannon up the mountain and positioned them on the peak.
Despite steady rainfall, the Federals and Confederates bombarded each other intermittently day and night for a week. Although the cannonades inflicted little damage on either side, their intensity provoked one Federal to write, "I never saw such firing in a rainstorm or a worse mud hole."
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