The Battle of Atlanta

In 1864 Union armies under William Tecumseh Sherman pressed toward Atlanta while the American Civil War entered a politically dangerous phase for Abraham Lincoln’s government. Confederate forces under John Bell Hood launched aggressive attacks in an effort to stop the advance, but the campaign ended with Atlanta abandoned and occupied by Union troops. Corrigan follows the manoeuvres, battles and command changes that decided control of the city.

Atlanta mattered far beyond Georgia. News of its fall transformed Northern morale at a moment when war weariness threatened Lincoln’s re-election and strengthened the argument that Union victory was achievable. Corrigan connects battlefield decisions to the presidential election, emancipation and Confederate strategy, explaining why the loss of a major railway and industrial centre became a political as well as military turning point.