Video
Waves of the West: The Atlanta Campaign Begins
Transcript
[Text with voice over] "All that has gone before has been mere skirmishing. The war now begins."
Hey guys, it is Ranger Jake Boling with you for another virtual program at Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park. Now this is a very special, not that all of our other programs aren't awesome, but this one is going to be near and dear to a lot of the staff here and what is to come.
So I'm standing at our mountaintop parking lot with a beautiful view to the southeast. We have Buckhead kind of in the center there and Atlanta off to the right. And the reason I'm standing in this location and kind of in front of this beautiful view on this beautiful day is because in the month of May is when the Atlanta Campaign begins. And Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park is given the very honorable and responsible duty to interpret not just the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain, but the entire Atlanta Campaign. So for the month of May, we're going to be bringing you programs, specific virtual programs, on events that were key to the Atlanta Campaign. We're going to be working with various authors, volunteers, and other historic sites to give you these really cool informative and somewhat interactive programs from not just us but from other professionals in the field and other historic researchers, okay. And and subject matter experts.
So, you get what's going on in May. Now this program today is designed to kind of kick everything off and to put the Atlanta Campaign itself into historic content so that you understand how truly important this was, not just to Civil War history but to ALL history. Right?... To American history, and and kind of what this niche was. So to do that, I always like to kind of frame it with what's going on. So a lot of us are familiar with Netflix and some other streaming services. If this was a streaming series; if the Civil War was a series, then the Atlanta Campaign in 1864 would be season three. Okay, we're three quarters of the way through the Civil War. So it's important to know what happened the year prior. The year prior was a massive turning point in the American Civil War, okay. And in short, it was not very favorable towards the Confederacy, towards the South. We have major victory, a Union victory, in Gettysburg and Vicksburg. Gettysburg was a massive hit to the morale of the South. And Vicksburg, not only was a massive hit to the morale, but also a huge economic loss to the Confederacy. and now that the Mississippi River is under Union control.
Fast forward into the fall and winter of 1863 and we have the Battles of Chattanooga and Chickamauga which was another huge blow to the Confederacy AND geographically and and territory-wise allowed the Union army to push deeper and all the way down into Tennessee and have start their base of operation in Chattanooga.
So we take all of that but we also put into context that the South is hurt. They have, they are battered, but they are not down. and the war continues to rage. There is no sign of peace talks. There is no sign of retreat. okay, on the, on behalf of the South. So Lincoln has to figure something out. And he taps Ulysses S. Grant to become commander of all Union forces, okay. And on March 20th, Grant would get into talks with his longtime friend and co-worker, so to speak, General William T. Sherman. They would meet in Ohio and they would come up with a plan, a massive undertaking, designed to take the fight out of the South once and for all, okay. And I have a really cool quote that kind of describes that meeting. It is from a Colonel Bowman who was a gentleman on General Sherman's staff.
And he writes... "In a parlor of the Burnette House at Cincinnati, bending over their maps, the two generals who had so long been inseparable planned together that colossal structure and grasping one another firmly by the hand separated one to the east the other to the west. Each to strike at the same instant his half of the ponderous death blow."
Now, that "ponderous death blow" and "to strike his half of that ponderous death blow" What Grant and Sherman were planning was a massive two-pronged attack against the South. As the quote kind of dictated, Grant would go to the east and hit the ground running, leading the Army of the Potomac in battle against Robert E Lee's infamous Army of Northern Virginia. The goal is to take Richmond. Now, separating to the west and starting from Chattanooga, Tennessee, Sherman's goal was to get into Georgia and begin the Atlanta Campaign. These two operations were to begin in tandem, okay. Grant's Overland Campaign would begin on May 5th. Sherman's Atlanta Campaign would begin on May 7th. Now the tone of these two; the the overall structure is the same, to hit the South as hard as possible, okay. But the tone of both of these campaigns were very different. Grant's Overland Campaign would later be likened to a war of attrition, okay, a very violent, heavy-handed strong push. Where Grant utilized the Union's heavy resources and and abundance and and people and supplies and technology and all that to really push against and batter Robert E Lee's army in Northern Virginia. Whereas Sherman's was more of a surgical strike specifically aimed at a very important asset of the South and that was resources.
So, in a quote from little, from Lieutenant Ulysses S Grant, we have him stating to Sherman to "Move against Joseph Johnston's army. To break it up and to get into the interior of the enemy's country as far as you can, inflicting all the damage you can against their war resources."
So Sherman would be leaving from Chattanooga, Tennessee, with three armies at his back totaling roughly 110,000 men. Going down the Western Atlantic Railroad which tied directly into Atlanta. And if you picture a wagon wheel. So the hub in the middle and the spokes of the wheel radiating outwards. Okay, that's exactly ... Atlanta was the hub for Confederate Rail Network. And if Sherman. And if you were to look at a map, of 1864, of the railway, you would see the railroad spiraling out of Atlanta. Okay, five major ones connecting the rest of the South. Sherman gets down one railroad, knocks out the city of Atlanta. He destroys the wagon wheel that is the southern transportation system doing MASSIVE damage within, to their resources. And that was the goal, that was the nexus, that was the crux of what he was aiming to do. He would begin that journey again on May 7th.
Okay, so I wanted to again present this program to have, to set the stage. So you guys know what's really going on in May. And again to highlight some of the really cool programs that we're going to be doing. This is the first time in our history that we have been doing a true virtual stops and virtual kind of thing to really interpret the entire campaign to this level and we're really excited about all of those programs and invite you to tune in and to join us.
So as always I'd like to thank you for joining me, Ranger Jake Boling, for this presentation. We hope that you will tune in to the rest of the programs for the month of May and come out and hang out with us here at Kennesaw Mountain and talk to one of us in person and we'd be happy to tell you how to explore some of these awesome Atlanta Campaign places on your own. So with that being said, I will go ahead and sign off. Thank you again and I will see you at the mountain.
Description
Beginning in early May, 1864, William T. Sherman would embark on the infamous Atlanta Campaign. Conceived as one half of a two-part plan to defeat the Confederacy and end the Civil War, the Atlanta Campaign would prove to be one of the most significant operations in Civil War history. Join Ranger Jake Boling as he sets the stage for the 157th anniversary of this event.
Duration
7 minutes, 24 seconds
Credit
NPS Video/ J. Boling
Date Created
05/01/2021
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