Atlanta and the War, by Webb Garrison

Atlanta and the War, by Webb Garrison
Rutledge Hill Press, 1995
249 pages plus Notes, Bibliography and index. A few b&w photos and illustrations scattered throughout the book
Library: 975.8 GAR
Description
In the summer of 1864, the Federal armies of the Division of the Mississipp swept over northern GEorgia and toward Atlanta. The Confederate Army of Tennessee was tenacious, and thus the Union victory came slowly.

The fall of Atlanta was crucial to the outcome of the Civil War because with the loss of Atlanta, morale in the South plummeted, one of the Confederact's last significant manufacturing centers was destroyed, and the flow of food and supplies to the Virginia battlefields were halted. Moreover, the publicity surrounding the taking of Atlanta played a large role in Abraham Lincoln's reelection campaign, thus ensuring that the war would continue until the Union was restored.

Webb Garrison tells the story of Atlanta and the war as if he were one of the correspondents following in the wake of William Tecumseh Sherman's armies or hovering near the headquarters of Joseph E. Johnston and John B. Hood. Drawing from the memoirs of Sherman and other generals, Garrison describes the campaign as a contest between two armies, not a struggle to gain or defend the ultimate prize of Atlanta. That moment did come, but it was long after the two sides had marched across the vast northern Georgia countryside.

Table of Contents
Introsuction
Part 1: Three Armies Head for DAlton
1. Indian country seemed just the place for an inland port
2. Hit hard on both fronts at once!
3. Far too strong for a frontal assault
4. Ready to destroy Joe Johnston
5. Ordrly withdrawal in lieu of all-out combat

Part 2: Slugging it out, mile by mile
6. Over the Oostenaula
7. Three or four miles a day
8. The Rubicon of GEorgia
9. Into the hell hole
10. The enemy must be in a bad condition
11. Judgment day at Kenesaw

Part 3: A Fresh Target and a New Foe
12. Joe Johnston Can Withdraw, Atlanta cannot
13. John B. Hood takes command
14. Peach Tree Creek
15. The Battle of Atlanta

Part 4: Too Strong to Attack, Too Large to Invest
16. Atlanta's defenses were something to see
17. iron rain poured during a red day in August
18. Firing never ceased, day or night
19. Atlamta is ours, and fairly won!

Part 5: New Gibraltar of the West
20. You must all leave
21. Am empty town, barely occupied
22. SAlywater!
23. Atlanta tipped the scales for a despondent Lincoln
24. Up from the ashes

Notes
Bibliography
Index