Atlanta Campaign Research Articles

Sherman's Horsemen: Union Cavalry Operations in the Atlanta Campaign.

Sherman's Horsemen: Union Cavalry Operations in the Atlanta Campaign.

Sherman's Horsemen: Union Cavalry Operations in the Atlanta Campaign

(1997). Sherman's Horsemen: Union Cavalry Operations in the Atlanta Campaign. History: Reviews of New Books: Vol. 25, No. 4, pp. 153-153.

Sherman's horsemen: Union cavalry operations in the Atlanta campaign

Sherman's horsemen: Union cavalry operations in the Atlanta campaign

The General's General: The Life and Times of Arthur MacArthur.

The Civil War - Colonel MacArthur and the 24th Wisconsin Volunteers: the judge into the war the Battle of Murfreesboro onterlude hero of Missionary Ridge the Atlanta campaign the battle for Franklin a hero's return. Frontier days: into the wilderness on staff. General MacArthur and the Philippines: the Spanish-American War and the Philippines the Philippine Revolution military governor. Final Days: a soldier's odyssey postscript.

The Shipwreck of Their Hopes: The Battles for Chattanooga.

Civil War enthusiasts will welcome this concluding volume of Peter Cozzens's highly praised trilogy on the Civil War in the West. The battles around Chattanooga in the late fall of 1863 were among the most decisive of the Civil War, opening the Deep South to the Union and setting the stage for the Atlanta campaign and the March to the Sea. After Chattanooga, the principal Confederate army in the West fought without spirit or hope of victory. Cozzens's comprehensive account details movements of individual regiments, even as it reveals the larger impact of the campaign on the outcome of the war. In The Shipwreck of Their Hopes, Cozzens draws on his acclaimed storytelling skills and exhaustive research efforts to fully chronicle one of the South's most humiliating defeats. As in his earlier books, he brings to life the officers and enlisted men who fought the war.

The Civil War Years: A Day-by-Day Chronicle of the Life of a Nation (review)

book reviews253 StiU, Blue has provided us with a balanced treatment of a politician who understood the injustices of his time more than most and who was wiUing (more than most) to risk popularity to eradicate them. Lex Renda University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee The Civil War Years: A Day-by-Day Chronicle ofthe Life ofaNation. By Robert E. Denney. (New York: Sterling PubUshing Company, Inc., 1992. Pp. 606. $24-95) This imposing volume is a useful record of the war years, a daily history beginning in January 1861 and ending in May 1865. Robert E. Denney, aretired veteran of two wars, has provided a quick reference tool comparable in scope to the two most popular Civil War almanacs: E. B. Long, The Civil WarDay by Day (1972), and John S. Bowman, The Civil War Almanac (1982). Denney's chronological range is more similar to that of Long, who begins his work with the election of Abraham Lincoln in November i860 and essentially concludes in May 1865. Long then provides a few dates through August 1866, when the rebellion officially ended in Texas. Denney limits his volume to the war years, although his epilogue provides additional scattered dates through April 1866. Bowman's almanac concentrates on the war years, but also gives selected dates from 1619 until 1877 to highUght the causes and aftermath of die bloodshed. Bowman supplements his work with biographical sketches ofover one hundred Civil War personalities, an addition lacking in Denney's work. AU three volumes , while concentrating on miUtary events, try to provide coverage ofimportant poUtical and diplomatic issues. There are several other parallels between die Long and Denney volumes. Denney has an adequate prologue, in which he gives an overview ofthe size of the competing armies, the population in i860, causes of the war, wartime medical practices, strategy, tactics, logistics, and communications. Most readers , however, will lean toward the comprehensive appendices in Long that deal with many of diese and other topics in more detail. Denney includes ten photographs, which are missing entirely in Long, but bis six maps are all wartime topographical versions that have Uttle practical value. Long includes seven theater maps. Although Denney's work is closer to Long's in scope and format, it is not as comprehensive in its coverage of events. Long is noted for including practically every skirmish and engagement that took place over die four years of war, while Denney focuses on only the most significant military events. For example, a reader looking for a Ust ofactions in the Indian Territory will be disappointed to find no entry under that tide in Denney's index (and only a handful for Texas and Arkansas). AdditionaUy, Long is more descriptive and restricts his discussion to straightforward historical data, while Denney augments his with eyewitness accounts. 254CIVIL WAR HISTORY It is this testimony that is the mostobvious innovation in Denney's work. The introduction of excerpts from letters and diaries makes this more than just a book one picks up for a quick answer to a perplexing question; it becomes a book to be read from cover to cover. While the inclusion of first-person accounts provides interesting reading, it is this uniqueness that detracts from its usefulness to the researcher. Denney relies heavily on a few particular sources, and while this is a nice touch that provides his text with a UveUer narrative than the one offered by Long, he might have improved on this technique by drawing his passages from a wider variety of sources. His description of the Atlanta campaign is a case in point. In May 1864, as WiUiam T. Sherman began his movement south, Denney uses almost daily selections from the writings of two soldiers, Pvt. John S. Jackman of the ist Kentucky and CpI. Lucius W. Barber of the 15th Illinois Volunteer Infantry. For the fighting in the East, Denney reUes heavUy on Pvt. D. L. Day, 25th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. With the multitude of fine firsthand accounts available, it is unfortunate that Denney limits his to a handful. Nor do Denney's selections always coincide with the events mentioned for a particular day. For March 27, 1863, Denney highUghts only David Farragut's...

Saber and Scapegoat: J.E.B. Stuart and the Gettysburg Controversy (review)

254CIVIL WAR HISTORY It is this testimony that is the mostobvious innovation in Denney's work. The introduction of excerpts from letters and diaries makes this more than just a book one picks up for a quick answer to a perplexing question; it becomes a book to be read from cover to cover. While the inclusion of first-person accounts provides interesting reading, it is this uniqueness that detracts from its usefulness to the researcher. Denney relies heavily on a few particular sources, and while this is a nice touch that provides his text with a UveUer narrative than the one offered by Long, he might have improved on this technique by drawing his passages from a wider variety of sources. His description of the Atlanta campaign is a case in point. In May 1864, as WiUiam T. Sherman began his movement south, Denney uses almost daily selections from the writings of two soldiers, Pvt. John S. Jackman of the ist Kentucky and CpI. Lucius W. Barber of the 15th Illinois Volunteer Infantry. For the fighting in the East, Denney reUes heavUy on Pvt. D. L. Day, 25th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. With the multitude of fine firsthand accounts available, it is unfortunate that Denney limits his to a handful. Nor do Denney's selections always coincide with the events mentioned for a particular day. For March 27, 1863, Denney highUghts only David Farragut's activities on the Mississippi River, but bis eyewitness report is from a Massachusetts soldier who describes camp Ufe in North CaroUna. Perhaps the most significant omission is that Denney fails to cite the sources of the passages he uses for illustration. In fact, a major weakness in his book is that he provides no bibliography at all. Nonetheless, Denney's work has an identity all its own. It is not as comprehensive as Long's nor Bowman's, and it wiU not replace either one, but it is a useful supplement to existing Civil War almanacs. Both scholars and general readers wiU find it useful, and the treasure trove of contemporary commentary is enjoyable reading. Anne J. Bailey University of Arkansas Saber and Scapegoat: J.KB. Stuart and the Gettysburg Controversy. By Mark Nesbitt. (Mechanicsburg, Pa.: Stackpole Books, 1994. Pp. xix, 227. $19.95.) "The Flower ofCavaUers" endures a faded reputation regarding the Gettysburg campaign. James Ewell Brown Stuart consumed himself, most of his cavalry command, and some precious days in a protracted "ride around" the Federal army. Consequently Stuart and his three brigades of horsemen arrived at the battle late in the day on July 2, the second of three days of combat. Moreover Stuart reached the field likely knowing less than anyone there aboutthe strength and disposition of the Union army. Charles Marshall, a member of Robert E. Lee's staff, claimed mat he wanted Stuart shot in the immediate aftermath ofthe battle. Michael Shaara made Stuart the antihero of his Pulitzer Prize-winning book reviews255 novel, The Killer Angeh (1975), and the film Gettysburg (1993), based on Shaara's work, faithfully reproduced the depiction of Stuart as the Confederate who contributed die most to Southern defeat. Between 1863 and 1993, Stuart has had his defenders. But now Mark Nesbitt attempts absolute exoneration in Saber and Scapegoat: J.E.B. Stuart and the Gettysburg Controversy. Stuart was following Lee's orders or at least attempting to foUow them. He was not "skylarking" on a frivolous quest for greater fame. Stuart did assign sufficient cavalry to ride north with Lee and perform reconnaissance for the army. He did not leave Lee helpless to blunder into a battle Lee did not want. Stuart was not "late" for die battle at Gettysburg. The several charges leveled against Stuart, Nesbitt asserts, "are patently false." Within the limits he estabUshes for the controversy, Nesbitt proves his case. Stuart did none of those misdeeds his accusers have alleged he did. If die questions at issue concern wrongful or extraneous acts Stuart committed before he arrived on the field atGettysburg, then Nesbitt establishes Stuart's innocence once and for all time. But as ever, the questions any historian asks of the past in large measure determine the answers to those questions...

Decision in the West: The Atlanta Campaign of 1864.

Decision in the West: The Atlanta Campaign of 1864.

A Friend to God's Poor: Edward Parmalee Smith (review)

BOOK reviews335 phes are used in words that are not possessives but not used in words that are; and there are several sentences containing extra words or phrases, for example, "After cutting off his enemy's rail links had been severed" (148), and "Lawry's men past were unaware of a cavalry force" ( 1 53). There is a sidebar on Fort Pillow for no apparent reason other than to allow the author to write about it, for it is not put into the context of the Atlanta campaign, nor is it mentioned in the main text. The maps, which appear to be taken from an early Civil War atlas, are useless. The one captioned "Action around Kennesaw Mountain" (95) shows several hundred square miles. It is difficult even to find Kennesaw Mountain on it, and the author made no attempt to indicate the action that took place there. The map labeled "Map of action from Adairsville to Dallas" misses including Dallas on the map by five miles. Incredibly, The Chancellorsville Campaign is even worse. It abounds in errors in grammar, spelling, punctuation; suffers from vague or incorrect pronoun use (e.g., 88, 103); uses apostrophes incorrectly; and uses hyphens inappropriately . A chart copied from another source has no explanation whatsoever, either in a caption or in the text, rendering two of the four columns meaningless (41 ). There are scores of typographical errors (e.g., 63, 71, 80, 81, 91, 127), missing words, and words run together without a space between them. The author takes pains to explain the difference between William Henry Fitzburgh (he meant Fitzhugh) "Rooney" Lee, Robert E. Lee's son, and Fitzhugh Lee, the general's nephew (66), and then confuses the two when he writes, "Fitz Lee moved to the east, where he would perform superb service for his father's army. . . . Rooney Lee chose to withdraw south" (76). The author also trips up on the twenty-fourhour time when he has Sedgwick receive an order fifty minutes before it was written (170). The authors and the publisher of the Great Campaigns series believe the "pedantic writings oftoday's historians" renders academic production unfit for the average Civil War student or buff, and claim this series is intended to fill a "qualitative gap" that exists between works that are either "very serious, highly technical," or "less dry, but merely lightly review the events with the intention of informing and entertaining the layman" (Wilderness, 219; Series Preface). Given the careless editing, poor maps, appalling lack of attention to detail, and the high price, one wonders just what "gap" they are aiming to fill. Judith Lee Hallock Middle Country Schools Centereach, N.Y. A Friend to God's Poor: Edward Parmalee Smith. By William H. Armstrong. (Athens: The University of Georgia Press, 1994. Pp. xiii, 518. $50.00.) In his preface to his study of the life and career of Edward Parmalee Smith, William H. Armstrong asserts that 'To write a biography about a little-known minister with the common name of Smith is to make a statement about the significance of lesser-known people in our history" (xii). Although few of us 336CIVIL WAR HISTORY recognize his name today, Smith was hardly an insignificant figure, especially given the fact that the middle decades of the nineteenth century saw the development and maturation of organized "benevolence" under the auspices of American churches. A Congregationalist minister, Smith was at the center of his denomination's efforts to redeem the nation and the world. As Armstrong sets out in his preface, and supports throughout his text, "Smith's story weaves together some ofthe main threads running through American church history in the mid-nineteenth century: the massive response of the churches to the Civil War and its suffering; their work with the freed slaves, especially in the field of education; and the assistance the churches gave to President Grant's Indian policy" (xii). Armstrong has done impressive research in primary sources, including Smith's vast correspondence, which allows him to recreate the clergyman's career . Smith was drawn away from his New England pastorate in early 1863 when he signed on as a delegate of the United States Christian Commission...

The Campaign for Georgia and Sherman's March to the Sea: Essays on the 1864 Georgia Campaign (review)

BOOK REVIEWS259 in the West featuring the Missouri brigade. Frequent repetition is also annoying ; too often the reader is reintroduced to a character. Also, in footnotes and the text, titles are underlined. This is difficult to understand, since titles in the bibliography are italicized. The major problem with Thomas's book is his overuse of superlatives. No battle unit could possibly be as perfect as the author pictures the Missourians, both the rank and file and the officers. Thomas's prose is sometimes puzzling. For example, when noting the presence of a black soldier in the ranks of the 5th Missouri regiment, he writes, "After years of brutal servitude on the plantations of the Deep South, the young African American was eager to tangle with the Yankees"(i37). In the final analysis, though both these unit histories benefit the historiography of the war in the West, neither quite measures up to the accomplishments of their subject. Michael B. Ballard Mississippi State University The Campaign for Georgia and Sherman's March to the Sea: Essays on the 1864 Georgia Campaign. Vol. ? . Edited by Theodore P. Savas and David A. Woodbury. (Campbell, Calif.: Savas Woodbury Publishers, 1992. Pp. vi, 201. $15.00.) At long last the Atlanta campaign is receiving its due from Civil War military historians. The publication of Albert Castel's prize-winning Decision in the West (1992) marked the first serious and original study of the campaign to appear in this century, and the recent avalanche of biographies of the major participants, especially William T. Sherman, has also inspired renewed interest in what Shelby Foote has called a "red clay minuet." The publication of these essays is therefore timely, although one must qualify the timespan indicated by the title, since at least in the volume the "March to the Sea" is ignored. What remains will nevertheless attract attention. Steven Woodworth examines the options available to Jefferson Davis as he pondered who would command the Army of Tennessee at the beginning of the campaign and concludes that Davis erred not only in appointing Joseph Johnston but also in not elevating other generals to corps command so that they could gain the experience necessary to command an army should Johnston fail. An excerpt from Castel's study, covering Peachtree Creek, is followed by Stephen Davis's lengthy and impassioned defense of the generalship of John Bell Hood. By taking inflated estimates of casualties at face value, neglecting to evaluate contemporary sources while accepting accounts colored by hindsight , and failing to examine Hood's battle plans and their execution, historians , according to Davis, have failed to give Hood his due for attempting to cope with an impossible situation, for in any case the fall of Atlanta was inevitable . James J. Cooke's examination of Sherman's logistical planning and 2OOCIVIL WAR HISTORY Phil Gottschalk's recounting of the Battle of Allatoona add to previous accounts , while Terry L. Jones's history of the 19th Michigan Infantry and the reports of Confederate general William B. Bate, ably edited by Zack C. Waters , offer perspectives from below the top echelons of command. One's interest in these essays depends in large part on how interested one is in the Atlanta campaign. Of widest interest are the contributions by Woodworth and Davis, for together they offer fresh looks at the problem of command in the Army ofTennessee. Although Woodworth and Davis disagree on Hood's relative merits, they share a critical perspective on the abilities of Joseph Johnston. It is too bad that the editors failed to include a similar discussion on the overall performance of Union commanders, especially in light of Castel's analysis of the relative merits of Sherman and George Thomas in Decision in the West. The editors also might have considered having contributors share their findings with each other in several cases instead of publishing essays seemingly composed in total ignorance of each other. How, for example, would Davis have reacted to Woodworth's arguments? Would some of the authors—especially Gottschalk—have revised their reporting of casualty figures in light of Davis's piece? Sometimes the whole is less than the sum of its parts, as is occasionally the case...

Decision in the West: The Atlanta Campaign of 1864. Modern War Studies.

Decision in the West: The Atlanta Campaign of 1864. Modern War Studies.

Decision in the West: The Atlanta Campaign of 1864

"Decision in the West: The Atlanta Campaign of 1864." History: Reviews of New Books, 22(3), p. 105

Prevaricating through Georgia: Sherman's Memoirs as a Source on the Atlanta Campaign

Prevaricating through Georgia: Sherman's Memoirs as a Source on the Atlanta Campaign

Decision in the West: The Atlanta Campaign of 1864.

Following a skirmish on June 28, 1864, a truce is called so the North can remove their dead and wounded. For two hours, Yankees and Rebels mingle, with some of the latter even assisting the former in their grisly work. Newspapers are exchanged. Northern coffee is swapped for Southern tobacco. Yanks crowd around two Rebel generals, soliciting and obtaining autographs. As they part, a Confederate calls to a Yankee, hope to miss you, Yank, if I happen to shoot in your direction. May I never hit you Johnny if we fight again, comes the reply. The reprieve is short. A couple of months, dozens of battles, and more than 30,000 casualties later, the North takes Atlanta. One of the most dramatic and decisive episodes of the Civil War, the Atlanta campaign was a military operation carried out on a grand scale across a spectacular landscape that pitted some of the war's best (and worst) generals against each other. In Decision in the West Albert Castel provides the first detailed history of the campaign published since Jacob D. Cox's version appeared in 1882. Unlike Cox, who was a general in Sherman's army, Castel provides an objective perspective and a comprehensive account based on primary and secondary sources that have become available in the past 110 years. Castel offers a full and balanced treatment of the operations of both the Union and Confederate armies from the perspective of the common soldiers as well as the top generals. He offers new accounts and analyses of many of the major events of the campaign and, in the process, corrects many long-standing myths, misconceptions and mistakes. In particular, he challenges the standard view of Sherman's performance. Written in the present tense to give a sense of immediacy and greater realism, Decision in the West demonstrates how the capture of Atlanta by Sherman's army occurred and why it assured Northern victory in the Civil War.

Decision in the West: The Atlanta Campaign of 1864.

Decision in the West: The Atlanta Campaign of 1864.

Albert Castel. <italic>Decision in the West: The Atlanta Campaign of 1864</italic>. Assisted by Laura Kriegstrom Poracsky. (Modern War Studies.) Lawrence: University Press of Kansas. 1992. Pp. xvi, 665. $29.95

Albert Castel. Decision in the West: The Atlanta Campaign of 1864. Assisted by Laura Kriegstrom Poracsky. (Modern War Studies.) Lawrence: University Press of Kansas. 1992. Pp. xvi, 665. $29.95 Castel Albert. Decision in the West: The Atlanta Campaign of 1864. Assisted by Poracsky Laura Kriegstrom. (Modern War Studies.) Lawrence: University Press of Kansas. 1992. Pp. xvi, 665. $29.95. Edward Hagerman Edward Hagerman York University Toronto Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The American Historical Review, Volume 98, Issue 5, December 1993, Pages 1688–1689, https://doi.org/10.1086/ahr/98.5.1688 Published: 01 December 1993

Echoes of Battle: The Atlanta Campaign: An Illustrated Collection of Union and Confederate Narratives.

Echoes of Battle: The Atlanta Campaign: An Illustrated Collection of Union and Confederate Narratives.

Decision in the West: The Atlanta Campaign of 1864 (review)

BOOK REVIEWS Decision in the West: The Atlanta Campaign of 1864. By Albert Castel. (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1992. Pp. xvi, 665. $29.95.) Had Albert Castel never written this remarkable book, he still would rank among the best modern historians of the Civil War era. During the last four decades the titles to his credit form a body of published work diverse in subject matter and definitive in content. Briefly noted, these include: an intensive study of political upheaval in wartime Kansas; a most original biography of the elusive guerrilla leader William Quantrill; a thoroughly convincing portrait of Gen. Sterling Price's Confederate military career; and most recently, a short but penetrating survey of Andrew Johnson in the White House, arguably the finest volume in the University Press of Kansas's important series on the American presidency. While contributing his professorial share of articles and reviews to scholarly journals, Castel has also educated a far wider audience with a spate of writings published in magazines largely patronized by so-called Civil War "buffs." Many historians would have been satisfied to rest on these laurels alone. And now comes Decision in the West, nothing short of a magnum opus, a door-stop-size volume comprising nearly seven hundred pages of tightly packed narrative. Yet just three discrete aspects of the book make it worth the price (a rather modest price by today's standards). The first, appearing in the prefatory remarks, is a description of Castel's visceral reaction upon viewing Gone with the Wind as an adolescent in downtown Wichita's Orpheum Theater. It was actually his second time to see the film, coming two and a half years after the first, a pivotal interval he had spent indulging a youthful hunger for heroic novels and historical classics. At the crucial age of "almost fourteen," he admits, "I was ripe for what happened" (xi). During the next two weeks he saw the motion picture twice more and read Margaret Mitchell's huge novel as many times. Driven to a deeper understanding, he got his hands on some of the best volumes in military history available then or now: the incomparable Battles and Leaders of the Civil War and, of course, Douglas Southall Freeman's magisterial Lee's Lieutenants and R. E. Lee. For Castel, the Civil War, especially the Atlanta campaign, had become "a passion inseparable from what had inspired it—Gone with the Wind." This kind of raw honesty (a trait hardly ever displayed by academic historians , who generally loathe to admit any romantic roots of imagination) 258CIVIL WAR HISTORY creates a happy energy that leaves the rest of the book just begging to be read—despite what one might think about Gone with the Wind. The second feature of Decision in the West that delivers a powerful, rewardingjolt comes at page 156, about a quarter of the way through the book, early in the section on the Battle of Resaca. In the space of less than four pages Castel delineates as precisely as possible the military rationale, the various means of tactical execution, and the logic of certain typical movements in the field by a so-called "line of battle," the fundamental infantry troop formation used by commanders of both armies throughout the Civil War. In particular, he delineates the roles performed by officers from generals down to the line officers at the company level, along with explaining the critical necessity of color-bearers, predictions of casualties as a result of applied firepower, and the relative risks and rewards of frontal assaults as opposed to flanking attacks. Not one in a hundred readers will fail to profit from this summary , which amounts to a crisp distillation of Castel's profound understanding of the real fighting of the Civil War. The third especially appealing aspect of this book is its five-page "Afterword " (561-65), which is in fact a forcefully argued conclusion that summarizes so well (in eight numbered paragraphs) Castel's soberly reasoned and rather surprising findings, which are, in condensed form: (1) Although Jefferson Davis rightly meant to win the war "by not losing" it, he wrongly demanded that the already battered Army of...

This war so horrible: the Civil War diary of Hiram Smith Williams

Hiram Smith Williams, born in New Jersey, was an unusual individual. A skilled carriagemaker and carpenter, Williams settled in Livingston, Alabama, in 1859 and quickly identified with the people around him. When the Civil War erupted in 1861, he supported the Southern cause, and in 1862, he enlisted in the 40th Alabama Infantry Regiment, serving on detached duty as a skilled naval carpenter in Mobile and as a participant in the Atlanta campaign as a member of a Pioneer unit - composed of men with construction skills. Williams was taken prisoner just a few days before the end of the war, and spent three months in a prison camp at Point Lookout, Maryland. Civil War students should find this diary useful because it is a fully descriptive record of a member of the Pioneer Corps. Little is known about how these units operated and what the internal organisation was like.

Book Reviews

Book Reviews