Abraham Lincoln was propelled to victory 160 years ago by the fall of Atlanta

A mere 160 years ago, a blink of the eye in the sweep of history, ominous events were transpiring in our country that would profoundly affect the future. As the autumn of 1864 approached, the Civil War had been raging to an inconclusive outcome since the 1861 surrender of Northern forces at Fort Sumter in Charleston, SC. Great battles had been fought at 1st and 2nd Manassas, Shiloh, Antietam, Chancellorsville, Vicksburg, and Gettysburg, and hundreds of thousands of men had died.

Republican President Abraham Lincoln was running for re-election and facing former Union General George McClellan on the Democratic ticket. There was bad blood between Lincoln and McClellan because early in the war Lincoln had chosen McClellan to be the commanding General of the large, well supplied Northern Army. However, Lincoln quickly became frustrated with how timid McClellan was to go on the offensive and apply pressure to the Southern Army utilizing his substantial manpower and firepower advantages. The result was that after roughly a year in command, McClellan was fired by Lincoln for generally being ineffective in opposing the Southern Army commanded by General Robert E. Lee and losing too many battles.

During the Presidential campaign of 1864, McClellan ruthlessly criticized Lincoln’s handling of the war, and claimed that he could have done it better. Throughout the war, the tough Southern army had inflicted heavy casualties on Northern troops so there was a strain of war weariness and even some outright discontent in the Northern population. The general feeling heading into the election was that McClellan was probably going to beat Lincoln and be the Next President.

The North had seized the advantage from the South in July of 1863 at the epic three-day battle of Gettysburg, but the final victory was still nowhere in sight. After going through several commanders, President Lincoln had finally found his General who could fight and lead in Ulysses S. Grant, and Grant had chosen his close friend and comrade in arms, William Tecumseh Sherman to command the Union Army in the deep South.

Both Grant and Sherman had distinguished themselves as aggressive, determined commanders in earlier battles in the so-called Western theater of the war (everywhere except Virginia). Unlike most other Union generals, they were successful which had gotten the attention and appreciation of President Lincoln. However, both had a darker side that occasionally generated criticism from other officers. Sherman effectively dismissed this criticism and summed up their relationship with his famous remark, “Grant stood by me when I was crazy, I stood by him when he was drunk, we will always stand by each other”

Under Grant and Sherman, the nature of the war was about to change. The South had initially won battles and put the fear of defeat in the North by exploiting the brilliant tactics of very able generals such as Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson to cleverly and rapidly maneuver and position their smaller, supply starved armies over familiar terrain. Instead of continuing the unsuccessful Northern strategy used in the Virginia theater of methodically moving around and occasionally engaging the Confederate Armies, fighting, and then regrouping, Grant and Sherman decided to transform the Civil War into a war of attrition. They were determined to effectively maximize the Northern advantage in manpower, firepower, and resources.

Their new strategy would neutralize the ability of savvy Southern commanders to adapt and improvise and pull off improbable victories. The new Northern strategy, methodically employing all their advantages, was to keep fighting and flanking relentlessly, regardless of the tactical situation or results on any given day. In essence, they would grab the Southern Army by the collar and not let go. They would give no rest to their enemy, and gradually wear down the smaller Southern army to the point that it would no longer be an effective fighting force.

With this in mind, Sherman ordered his army to move out of Chattanooga in early May of 1864 and took dead aim for Atlanta, a major railroad supply crossroads and the heart of the South. After Grant captured Vicksburg in July of 1863 to gain control of the Mississippi River all the way to New Orleans, Atlanta was the last bastion holding out in the deep South. Sherman’s Union army had been generously resupplied over the winter and was now 100,000 strong. The opposing Southern army commanded by the quite competent General Joseph Johnston could only muster 50,000 men.

Sherman immediately engaged Johnston’s army just a few miles south of Chattanooga and over the next month and a half fought a series of small battles, each followed by the flanking of Johnston’s smaller army to force him to retreat to new defensive positions.

Even though Johnston had been giving ground, he had done a respectable job of keeping Sherman’s army contained so they would not run wild over North Georgia. Importantly, he had also kept his casualties to a minimum in order to conserve the strength of the Southern army. By June 27 the armies had maneuvered into positions roughly 25 miles north of Atlanta near Kennesaw Mountain.

The Southern army occupied the high ground along Kennesaw and General Johnston masterfully directed the establishment of formidable defensive positions. Changing strategy, Sherman ordered the Union army to attack the center of the strong Confederate positions to go for the knockout blow.

This proved to be a mistake, and the Union army was repulsed with heavy losses in a decisive Southern victory. The victory at Kennesaw Mountain should have set the stage for Johnston to mount a very effective defense of Atlanta that would have extracted a high cost in Northern blood.

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But inexplicably, immediately after his smashing victory at Kennesaw Mountain, Johnston was relieved of command of his Southern army by the President of the Confederacy, Jefferson Davis, in a monumentally bad decision which he was prone to make from time to time.

The man chosen by President Davis to replace Johnston to defend Atlanta was General John Bell Hood of Texas. Without question, no one could dispute Hood’s incredible bravery. He had been wounded several times, lost part of one leg, and had to be tied in the saddle because he still wanted to fight. But Hood was aggressive and had no patience for defensive warfare which was somewhat of a necessity when your army was half the size of your opponent.

Here was a classic case of wrong man, wrong place, wrong time. Hood decided to take the offensive and over the month of July he ordered his depleted army to attack the Union army at Peachtree Creek, Ezra Church, and Decatur, sustaining thousands of irreplaceable casualties. By August the Confederate army was in shambles. Sherman had tightened the noose and begun the siege of Atlanta and sent part of his army south to Jonesboro to cut the last remaining railroad supply line from Macon. The Confederates made one last futile effort to fight at Jonesboro before Hood ordered what was left of his battered army to withdraw from Atlanta on September 1, and the next day Atlanta surrendered.

Hood had his men destroy Confederate supply depots in Atlanta to keep them from falling into Union hands. They also set fire to 81 loaded ammunition cars which created quite a fiery spectacle that attracted a large local audience. Unfortunately, this was but a preview of what was to come.

Sherman had made Atlanta his headquarters but when he left to head for Savannah on November 15, he ordered the burning of Atlanta as famously depicted in the movie, GONE WITH THE WIND. Only about 400 of the more than 3000 buildings that comprised the City of Atlanta survived. As he left, Sherman noted, “Behind us lay Atlanta, smoldering and in ruins, the black smoke rising high in the air and hanging like a ball over the ruined city.”

With Savannah now his target, Sherman began “The March to the Sea”. As Sherman’s army destructively cut their way across Georgia virtually unopposed, they destroyed all buildings, factories, or supplies that had anything to do with the Confederate government or the Southern aristocracy, whom Sherman blamed for the war.

Freeing slaves was also a priority. An interesting historical anecdote involves the Ponder family that had a sizable house outside Atlanta and owned 65 slaves before the war. Their house was burned and among the freed slaves was a young boy named Henry Ossian Flipper, who in 1877 became the first African-American to graduate from the U.S. Military academy at West Point.

Even though they were militarily successful, the Northern casualties during the summer of 1864 suffered by Sherman’s army in Georgia and Grant’s army fighting Lee in Virginia, had been the worst of the war. The Northern public was tired of war, morale was low, and President Lincoln’s re-election in November of 1864 was in serious doubt. The September 2nd news that Atlanta had been taken by Sherman’s army was the singular galvanizing event that propelled Lincoln to an election victory. After the fall of Atlanta, the Northern public breathed a collective sigh of relief because they knew that the South could not hold out much longer and the war would soon be over.

As we know, “The March to the Sea” was completed with the capture of Savannah on December 21, 1864 after the small Confederate defense force knowing their situation was hopeless abandoned the City and fled to South Carolina. Sherman was inspired to write a famous letter to President Lincoln presenting the City of Savannah to him as a Christmas present.

The citizens of Savannah were horrified that their city was soon to be burned to the ground. The Mayor of Savannah, Richard Arnold, and other dignitaries including some fair maidens, wisely decided to greet and charm the Union army and offer the key to the city in hope of forbearance. Sherman and his top officers were given the most luxurious accommodations that Savannah could provide.

Who knows? Maybe Sherman had tired of destruction. But we are still thankful today that Savannah was spared the fate that befell Atlanta.

Eric Hogan is a retired real estate developer and graduate of Georgia Tech and Mercer University Law School and resides in Tybee Island, GA, the beach community of Savannah.