For scope, drama, and importance, the Atlanta Campaign was second only to Ulysses S. Grant’s Overland Campaign in Virginia. Despite its criticality and massive array of primary source material, it has lingered in the shadows of other campaigns and has yet to receive the treatment it deserves. Powell’s The Atlanta Campaign, Volume 1: Dalton to Cassville, May 1–19, 1864, the first in a proposed five-volume treatment, ends that oversight. Once Grant decided to go east and lead the Federal armies against Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia, he chose William T. Sherman to do the same in Georgia against Joseph E. Johnston and his ill-starred Army of Tennessee. Sherman’s base was Chattanooga; Johnston’s was Atlanta. The grueling campaign opened on May 1, 1864. While Grant and Lee grappled with one another like wrestlers, Sherman and Johnston parried and feinted like fencers. Johnston eschewed the offensive while hoping to lure Sherman into headlong assaults against fortified lines. Sherman disliked the uncertainty of battle and preferred maneuvering. When Johnston dug in, Sherman sought his flanks and turned the Confederates out of seemingly impregnable positions in a campaign noted Civil War historian Richard M. McMurry dubbed “the Red Clay Minuet.” Contrary to popular belief Sherman did not set out to capture Atlanta. His orders were “to move against Johnston’s army, to break it up and to get into the interior of the enemy’s country . . . inflicting all the damage you can against their war resources.” No Civil War army could survive long without its logistical base, and Atlanta was vital to the larger Confederate war effort. As Johnston retreated, Southern fears for the city grew. As Sherman advanced, Northern expectations increased. This first installment of The Atlanta Campaign relies on a mountain of primary source material and extensive experience with the terrain to examine the battles of Dalton, Resaca, Rome Crossroads, Adairsville, and Cassville—the first phase of the long and momentous campaign. While none of these engagements matched the bloodshed of the Wilderness or Spotsylvania, each witnessed periods of intense fighting and key decision-making. The largest fight, Resaca, produced more than 8,000 killed, wounded, and missing in just two days. In between these actions the armies skirmished daily in a campaign its participants would recall as the “100 days’ fight.” Like Powell’s The Chickamauga Campaign trilogy, this multi-volume study breaks new ground and promises to be this generation’s definitive treatment of one of the most important and fascinating confrontations of the entire Civil War.

Explore the fascinating history of America's bloodiest ever conflict. Combining expert historical insight with the eyewitness accounts of soldiers and civilians, A Short History of the Civil War offers a brilliant summary of the key events and wider context of the hostilities between North and South. Profiles of influential military and political leaders, and thought-provoking features on themes and experiences, from the evils of slavery to the treatment of wounded soldiers, bring the story dramatically to life. This book also features clear timelines that give an instant overview of the developments during the tumultuous war. Richly illustrated with a wealth of original artifacts, weaponry, and equipment, photography, and maps, this unique combination of imagery provides the most accessible, episode-by-episode account ever.

This is an account of the actions in Paulding County, Georgia, during the last week of May 1864, including a significant phase in the Atlanta Campaign. During this interval, the Confederate army stops Sherman's advance for the first time. The battles of Pickett's Mill and Dallas are also covered.

The battle of Resaca, Georgia, in May 1864, represents a series of firsts: the first major battle of the Atlanta Campaign, the first occasion in Georgia in 1864 of Confederate and Federal armies in their entirety facing one another across a field of battle, and the first major encounter between Joseph E. Johnston and William T. Sherman as army field commanders.The two-day battle of Resaca proved to be an experience that would cause Sherman to alter the patterns of strategy and tactics in the campaign that followed. Disappointed by McPherson's lack of aggressiveness on two occasions, and Hooker's bungled attack on Hood's Corps on May 15, Sherman abandoned General Grant's injunction to go after Johnston's army and break it up. Instead, he reversed the original sequence of the plan by turning to the strategy of maneuver. Sherman's resulting famous flanking maneuvers eventually led to his capturing Atlanta in September.The first book-length treatment of this important battle, The Battle of Resaca is a necessary addition for civil war historians and libraries.

On September 3, 1864, Union Major-General William Tecumseh Sherman telegraphed the War Department in Washington, D.C., “Atlanta is ours, and fairly won.” The capture of the heart of the south the day before was the end of a fiercely fought four-month campaign in the Western Theater of the Civil War and caused jubilation throughout the North. More importantly for the Union cause, it propelled President Abraham Lincoln to reelection two months later. In this volume author James Donnell explores the entire Atlanta campaign, from Sherman's initial clashes with Joseph E. Johnston's army of Tennessee to the final Confederate resistance under General John Bell Hood. Perfectly complemented by specially commissioned artwork and detailed maps, this study takes the reader from the border of Georgia and Tennessee to Atlanta, with Sherman preparing for his famous March to the Sea.