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Casemate Illustrated
volume xv, issue i, summer 2024
The Atlanta Campaign, 1864

The Atlanta Campaign, 1864

Sherman's Campaign to the Outskirts of Atlanta

by David A. Powell

Series: Casemate Illustrated

Imprint: Casemate

128 Pages, 6.7 x 9.5 in, 100+ illustrations

Paperback
9781636242897
April 2024
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$24.95

$16.50

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Description
Contents
Authors
Praise

A fully illustrated narrative of the Atlanta campaign complete with maps, illustrations, and diagrams.

The campaign for Atlanta was pivotal to the outcome of the American Civil War. Roughly 190,000 men waged war across northern Georgia in a struggle that lasted 133 days. Today a national park at Kennesaw commemorates this titanic fight, and there are a surprising number of physical reminders still extant across the state.

The struggle for Atlanta divides naturally into two stages. The first half of the campaign, from May to mid-July, can be defined as a war of maneuver, called by one historian the “Red Clay Minuet.” Under Joseph E. Johnston the Confederate Army of Tennessee repeatedly invited battle from strong defensive positions. Under William T. Sherman, the combined Federal armies of the Cumberland, the Tennessee, and the Ohio repeatedly avoided attacking those positions; Sherman preferring to outflank them instead. Though there were a number of sharp, bloody engagements during this phase of the campaign, the combats were limited. Only the battles of Resaca and Kennesaw Mountain could be considered general engagements.

Johnston’s repeated retreats and the commensurate loss of terrain finally forced Confederate President Jefferson Davis to replace him with a more aggressive commander—John B. Hood.

This work will portray the first half of the Atlanta Campaign in text and images, using both historic sketches and photographs, as well as post-war and modern images. Extant trenches, rifle pits, redoubts, shoupades, and other works, as well as the battlefields, will be covered, as well as surviving historic structures and the monuments and cemeteries that commemorate the campaign.

Timeline

Chapter 1 — Opposing Forces
Chapter 2 — Dalton and Snake Creek Gap
Chapter 3 — The Battle of Resaca
Chapter 4 — From Calhoun to Cassville
Chapter 5 — New Hope Church, Pickett’s Mill, and Dallas
Chapter 6 — The Death of Polk
Chapter 7 — West of Marietta
Chapter 8 — The Fight at Kolb’s Farm
Chapter 9 — The Battle of Kennesaw Mountain
Chapter 10 — To the Chattahoochee
Chapter 11 — The Last River Barrier
Chapter 12 — Johnston is Replaced

David A. Powell is a graduate of the Virginia Military Institute (1983) with a BA in history. He has written dozens of books, articles, and historical simulations, including the award-winning Chickamauga Campaign trilogy, The Maps of Chickamauga, and Failure in the Saddle. He is currently finishing the first of what promises to be a five-volume history of the Atlanta Campaign. David and his wife Anne live with their brace of bloodhounds in the northwest suburbs of Chicago.

“After decades of relative neglect, the Atlanta Campaign no longer lacks capable storytellers. This brief overview of the Atlanta Campaign succeeds in providing its audience with an accessible and visually compelling overview of one of the war’s most pivotal moments.” ~The Civil War Monitor

“The Civil War’s first historians and authors reaching back into the mid-1800s can only tremble with envy how David arranged historic images […] to depict his narrative, page by page, chapter by chapter, for the real stuff: placing you in the sad pivotal heart of it all.” ~ARGunners.com

“[I]n addition to the tight narrative text there is a campaign timeline, orders of battle, color maps, photographs (both period and modern), classic artwork and illustrations, and army/leader profiles and sidebars.” ~Civil War Books and Authors

“Powell’s detailed and illuminating narratives in both books are richly illustrated by historical photographs, artwork and maps combined with modern images.” ~Toy Soldier Collector & Historical Figures

“…a handy reference guide that is convenient for research at home or a helpful traveling companion on tours of the battlegrounds and other places described in the books. … useful for both the veteran campaigner and newcomers to the study of the Civil War.” ~Military Images Magazine