Atlanta Campaign

Atlanta Campaign, an important series of battles in Georgia that occurred May–September 1864 between Union and Confederate forces during the American Civil War. Union troops eventually cut off a main Confederate supply center, and the outcome influenced the U.S. presidential election of 1864, in which Abraham Lincoln won reelection.

By the end of 1863, the Battle of Chattanooga and the Vicksburg Campaign had secured for the Union the vital cities of Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Vicksburg, Mississippi. Atlanta—an important Confederate railroad, supply, and manufacturing center and a gateway to the lower South—became the next logical point for Union forces to attack in their campaign.

The Union commander, General William Tecumseh Sherman, also believed a sustained campaign deep into Confederate territory would bring the entire war to an end. Southern defenders were under the strategic direction of General Joseph E. Johnston until he was replaced by Lieutenant General John Bell Hood in July 1864.

The Atlanta Campaign itself consisted of nine individual battles—including the Battle of Atlanta in July 1864—as well as nearly five months of unbroken skirmishes and small actions. The fighting foreshadowed Sherman’s March to the Sea later in the year and introduced many Southern civilians to the horrors and ravages of “total war,” intended to undermine Confederate morale.

After a series of seesaw battles, Sherman forced Confederate evacuation of Atlanta (August 31–September 1). This Union victory presented President Lincoln with the key to reelection in the fall of 1864. It also greatly complicated the Confederate position near the Southern capital of Richmond, Virginia, as troops there now had to contend with Union forces to the north and south.