Atlanta Campaign and Fall of Atlanta

In May 1864, Union armies commanded by William Tecumseh Sherman advanced from Chattanooga towards Atlanta against the Confederate Army of Tennessee. A sequence of manoeuvres and battles at Resaca, New Hope Church, Kennesaw Mountain and along the approaches to the city forced repeated Confederate withdrawals.

John Bell Hood replaced Joseph E. Johnston in July and launched aggressive attacks that failed to break Sherman’s armies. After Union forces cut the remaining railway connections, Hood evacuated Atlanta on 1 September, and Union troops occupied the city.

This context supports fiction about wartime Atlanta, civilians fleeing the city, Confederate hospitals and the collapse of transport and commerce in Georgia. Gone with the Wind places Scarlett O’Hara in Atlanta as the campaign reaches the city and the Confederate evacuation begins.