Battle of Atlanta

Background

Grant became general-in-chief in March 1864 and Sherman took over the Western armies. His aims were to defeat Johnston's Army of Tennessee, take Atlanta, destroy Confederate war resources and split the Confederacy. Sherman opened the Atlanta campaign in May 1864 with roughly 112,000 men against Johnston's 60,000 to 70,000 in the Army of Tennessee. Johnston fell back from Dalton through Resaca and Kennesaw Mountain, always one step ahead of Sherman's flanking moves, and Sherman had to keep the Western and Atlantic Railroad open behind him. On 17 July Johnston was relieved and replaced by Lieutenant General John Bell Hood.

Hood struck at once. His attack at Peachtree Creek failed with more than 2,500 Confederate casualties. He then withdrew to defend Atlanta, hoping to threaten Sherman's supply lines. McPherson's Army of the Tennessee moved towards Decatur, east of the city. On the night of 21 July Hood tried again, with a bolder plan: Hardee's corps, guided by Wheeler's cavalry, would march about 15 miles round the Union left and strike McPherson in the rear at dawn, while Wheeler took the wagon trains at Decatur and Cheatham attacked from the Atlanta works. Cheatham and Stewart were to follow up and sweep the Union army towards the Chattahoochee.

This page covers 22 July only, not the whole campaign.

The armies

The Army of the Tennessee had three corps: Logan's XV, Dodge's XVI and Blair's XVII. McPherson commanded it until his death on the day. Sherman's other two armies, Thomas's Army of the Cumberland and Schofield's small Army of the Ohio, were on the same front but are not part of this fight. Livermore's figures, quoted by Wikipedia and the American Battlefield Trust, give about 34,900 present for duty and about 30,500 effectives. On the Confederate side the Army of Tennessee fielded about 40,400, or 36,900 effectives, in the corps of Hardee, Cheatham and Stewart, with Wheeler's cavalry.

Hood's plan needed a well-timed march by tired men: Hardee's troops had fought and marched for two days before setting off, and the roads were hot and dusty. One accident decided much: Dodge's XVI Corps had been ordered to Decatur to tear up the Georgia Railroad, and parts of it were still behind the Union left when Hardee's attack arrived.

The Confederate army had changed hands five days earlier, and its corps had lost leaders: Polk was killed in June, Stewart replaced him in July, and Maj. Gen. Benjamin Cheatham commanded the corps that attacked from the Atlanta works. Wheeler led the cavalry.

The battle

Night march (21–22 July). Hardee's men left the Atlanta lines on the evening of 21 July and marched south then east. The roads were dusty, the night was hot, and the column was exhausted and far behind schedule by morning. Hood told Hardee to attack as soon as he reached McPherson's immediate rear, rather than wait to reach Decatur. Wheeler's cavalry went on towards Decatur.

Sherman's morning (22 July). At first light reports suggested the Confederates had left the front of McPherson and Schofield. Sherman believed Hood was evacuating Atlanta and ordered Schofield to occupy it. When he found strong Confederate lines nearer the city, he decided to carry out his earlier plan of cutting the railways. McPherson, who had seen heavy Confederate movements on his left, objected. Sherman thought his fears unfounded but, at noon, revised the order, so that Fuller's division of the XVI Corps went to Decatur and Sweeny's stayed behind McPherson's left. Heavy firing broke out from the south-east before the order reached Dodge.

Hardee's right (from just after noon). Hardee's attack began shortly after noon. His right divisions, Bate's and Walker's, found Fuller and Sweeny directly in front of them; an hour earlier or later they would have met almost no opposition. Bate's troops struggled across a swamp and Walker was killed by a Federal sniper before his division deployed. The attack lacked cohesion and was repulsed. Wheeler captured Decatur but did not get McPherson's wagon trains, which escaped with most of their defenders; Colonel Sprague's brigade earned a Medal of Honor for protecting them. Hardee recalled Wheeler about 17:00 to support the attack on the hill.

Cleburne and the XVII Corps (about 13:00–14:30). Cleburne's division, with part of Maney's, found a wide gap between the right of the XVI Corps and the left of the XVII Corps at the south end of the Union line, and struck the XVII Corps in flank and rear while Maney attacked the front. McPherson, riding with a small escort to see how Blair's corps was faring, ran into Cleburne's skirmish line near a wagon road. Told to surrender, he turned his horse and was shot dead at about 14:00; the American Battlefield Trust dates it to 14:02 from the broken watch of a Union officer. The attacks at first were not coordinated and the Federals beat them off by shifting their defences, but after nearly two hours a Cleburne brigade and a Maney brigade attacked front and rear at once. The XVII Corps withdrew to a bald, treeless hill that dominated the field, held by Leggett's division. Cleburne captured two guns and several hundred prisoners.

Cheatham's attack (from about 15:00). Hood ordered Cheatham's corps out of the Atlanta works against Logan's XV Corps, which lay astride the Georgia Railroad, to help Hardee take the hill. Two brigades of Brown's division broke through a thinly held railroad cut near the Hurt house and took a four-gun battery. Logan, now commanding the army, led a counterattack himself and drove them back; twenty Union guns on a knoll near Sherman's headquarters shelled the Confederates. Sherman rejected proposals from Schofield and Howard to hit Cheatham's exposed left, which s3 thinks might have shattered about two-thirds of Hood's army.

Leggett's Hill (to dark). Hardee's men assaulted the hill with infantry and artillery until after dark, sometimes hand to hand, but never took it. By the end the Confederates were back near where they had started.

Aftermath

Union losses were just over 3,700, many of them prisoners from the XVII Corps; Confederate losses were about 5,500, though CDB90 codes 8,000. Hood had also lost Major General Walker, killed by a sniper. He blamed Hardee for failing to hit McPherson's rear; Hardee's delays and the chance presence of the XVI Corps were as much to blame. McPherson, the second-highest-ranking Union officer killed in the war, was succeeded in command of the army by Logan.

Sherman then settled into a siege, shelled the city and sent cavalry raids against the Macon railroad, which Wheeler broke up. He swung his army west in a wide arc and on 31 August took the railroad at Jonesborough. Hood evacuated Atlanta on 1 September, burning supply depots and 81 loaded ammunition cars. The mayor surrendered the city on 2 September and Sherman wired Washington: "Atlanta is ours, and fairly won." The news lifted Northern morale and helped Lincoln's re-election in November; Sherman left on 15 November for the March to the Sea.

Historians argue about Sherman's role; the National Park Service account holds that the day might have been a defeat if McPherson had not persuaded him to modify Dodge's order. The battlefield is now urban, and the Atlanta Cyclorama, a vast painting of the fight, has been restored.

Wargaming it

A single day, a clear plan and a surprise make this a compact scenario. At brigade scale (one stand or counter per regiment or battery) it fits a large table, since both sides had about 35,000 to 40,000 men engaged across a front of a few miles. A battalion-level game could instead take just the Bald Hill fight or Cheatham's break at the railroad cut.

The interest is in timing and in what the Union player knows. Hardee's late march and the chance position of Sweeny's division can be randomised: roll when each Confederate division arrives and how many Union divisions face it. McPherson's death is a command-and-control event, giving a mid-game replacement commander. The central terrain is Leggett's Hill, a treeless eminence where the Union line must bend back into an L; the Georgia Railroad cut gives the Confederates their one possible breakthrough. Wheeler's cavalry raid on Decatur gives a second objective, the wagon trains.

The what-ifs: Hardee arrives on schedule and meets the rear of McPherson's army; Sherman's original order to Dodge goes through; Sherman accepts Schofield's proposal and attacks Cheatham's flank. Note that sources disagree about Confederate strength and CDB90's casualty figure for Hood is high, so players should treat balance numbers carefully.

Maps and pictures