Major-General William T. Sherman’s three Federal armies had just sustained a sharp defeat at Kennesaw Mountain in northern Georgia. Sherman had been unable to break the defenses of General Joseph E. Johnston’s Confederate Army of Tennessee, but he was able to extend his right (southern) flank beyond Johnston’s left, which gave him the opportunity to outflank Johnston and turn a tactical defeat into a strategic victory.
But a Federal move to the right would separate the Federals (if only temporarily) from their supply line on the Western & Atlantic Railroad. On the night of June 27, Sherman wrote to Major-General George H. Thomas, commanding the Federal Army of the Cumberland, “Are you willing to risk (a) move on Fulton, cutting loose from the railroad?” Thomas responded that such a move was risky, but, “I think it decidedly better than butting against breastworks 12 feet thick and strongly abatised.”
Sherman later wrote, “Satisfied of the bloody cost of attacking intrenched lines, I at once thought of moving the whole army to the railroad at a point about 10 miles below Marietta, or to the Chattahoochee River itself…” Kennesaw Mountain proved to be Sherman’s last large-scale frontal attack of the war.
Two days later, Federals and Confederates agreed upon a seven-hour truce to bury the dead and alleviate the overwhelming stench around Kennesaw Mountain. Confederates helped Federals drag bodies, using bayonets as grappling hooks, into deep trenches. The opposing soldiers fraternized, and some Federals impressed by Major-General Benjamin F. Cheatham’s leadership at the “Dead Angle” asked for his autograph.
Meanwhile, Sherman wrote to his wife, “I begin to regard the death and mangling of a couple of thousand men as a small affair, a kind of morning dash. It may be well that we become hardened… The worst of the war is not yet begun.”
Johnston soon learned that Sherman was trying to flank him again. But he was confident that Sherman would eventually overextend his supply line, leaving him isolated in enemy territory. This did not satisfy Johnston’s superiors, who were growing more impatient with each of his retreats. When Johnston told Richmond that he could not take the offensive without more men, Chief of Staff Braxton Bragg expressed frustration:
“Every available man, subject to my control, has been sent to General Johnston, and he had retained several commands deemed absolutely necessary elsewhere, after receiving orders to move them. No doubt he is outnumbered by the enemy, as we are everywhere, but the disparity is much less than it has ever been between those two armies.”
Since this campaign began, Sherman lost nearly 17,000 men while Johnston lost just over 14,000. This represented 14 percent of Sherman’s total force and 25 percent of Johnston’s. Contrary to Johnston’s boasts that Federal supplies would soon run out, Sherman still had enough men to guard the supply line all the way back to Chattanooga.
As June ended, Georgia Governor Joseph E. Brown issued a third call for state militia to oppose Sherman’s drive toward the vital industrial city of Atlanta. Brown then wrote to President Jefferson Davis about the importance of defending Atlanta:
“I need not call your attention to the fact that this place is to the Confederacy almost as important as the heart is to the human body. We must hold it. I have done all in my power to reënforce and strengthen General Johnston’s army. As you know, further reënforcements are greatly needed on account of the superior numbers of the enemy. Is it not in your power to send more troops?”
Brown asked if the Confederate cavalry commands of either Nathan Bedford Forrest or John Hunt Morgan could be sent out to cut Sherman’s lines of communication and supply. Brown wrote that Sherman “brings his supplies from Nashville, over nearly three hundred miles of railroad, through a rough country, over a great number of bridges. If these are destroyed, it is impossible for him to subsist his large army, and he must fall back through a broad scope of country destitute of provisions, which he could not do without great loss, if not annihilation.”
Davis replied on the 29th:
“Your dispatch of yesterday received. I fully appreciate the importance of Atlanta, as evinced by my past action. I have sent all available reënforcements, detaching troops even from points that remain exposed to the enemy. The disparity of force between the opposing armies in Northern Georgia is less, as reported, than at any other point. The cavalry of Morgan is on district service, and may fulfill your wishes. Forrest’s command is now operating on Sherman’s lines of communication and is necessary for other purposes in his present field of service. I do not see that I can change the disposition of our forces so as to help General Johnston more effectually than by the present arrangement.”
Brown then turned to Senator Benjamin Hill, a personal friend of Davis’s. Brown asked Hill to write the president and ask him to send more troops to Johnston. Hill replied, “Time is too precious and letters are inadequate,” and announced that he would consult with Johnston and then travel to Richmond in person.
Bibliography
- Bailey, Ronald H., The Battles for Atlanta: Sherman Moves East. Alexandria, VA: Time-Life Books, 1983.
- Catton, Bruce, The American Heritage Picture History of the Civil War. New York: American Heritage Publishing Co., 1960.
- Foote, Shelby, The Civil War, A Narrative: Red River to Appomattox. New York: Vintage Civil War Library, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group (Kindle Edition), 2011.
- Johnston, Joseph E., Narrative of Military Operations During the Civil War. Sharpe Books, Kindle Edition, 2014.
- Long, E.B. with Long, Barbara, The Civil War Day by Day. New York: Da Capo Press, Inc., 1971.