The Atlanta Campaign

In May 1864, Union Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman led his 100,000-man army from Chattanooga, Tennessee, into Georgia to fight the Confederate army and seize its supply center, while Gen. Joseph E. Johnston's 65,000 troops dug in to oppose the invasion. As Sherman advanced, the armies clashed at Rocky Face Ridge, Resaca, Cassville, New Hope Church, Pickett's Mill, and Dallas. Although Union attacks failed to dislodge the Confederates, Sherman's swift flanking movements threatened the Southerners' railroad line and repeatedly forced them to retreat. By June 3, the Union army had reached Acworth, a railroad town eight miles north of here, but three weeks of hard rains mired Union troops and wagons in the Georgia mud. Unable to move his army quickly, Sherman temporarily abandoned his flanking maneuvers and drove straight ahead. For two weeks, his thrusts pressured Johnston's thin, ten-mile line of defense until the Confederates fell back to Kennesaw Mountain on June 19, where Johnston's army dug in on this natural stronghold to protect the railroads and roads to Atlanta.

Marietta, Georgia · United States