Video
Welcome to the 157th Commemoration of the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain
Transcript
[audio description] Against a black backdrop the National Park Service arrowhead logo stands above the words Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park. Against a dark gray backdrop are the words Welcome to the 157th Commemoration of the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain.
Hello and welcome to Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park's 157th Battle of Kennesaw Mountain Anniversary. Where I'm standing right at this moment is actually outside the park's boundary and just to the northwest of the park itself. And I'm standing in a large vacant field with some brush behind me and to the far back part of the field is a lot of trees and kind of wooded area. Now just above that you're going to see the ridge line of Kennesaw Mountain which is Big Kennesaw and Little Kennesaw, that's more off to your right of your screen and then off to my left is actually what we call Brushy Mountain. It is part of the Kennesaw Mountain line that was part of the battle during 1864. Now I'm standing here today in order to welcome you and say hello. Thank you for participating in our virtual battle anniversary. We hope that next year you'll be able to actually come and visit us at the park. But we're going to give you a little bit of intro of the information you're going to see this weekend, both Saturday and Sunday. And that is going to start with one of our wonderful volunteers, Mr. Andy Cole. So with that, Mr. Cole, please provide us with the information.
Hello and welcome to Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park from NOT Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park. Because right now we are in a field outside of the park boundaries to kind of give you an idea of well, really when you think about it why Kennesaw Mountain, why is there a Battle at Kennesaw Mountain in June of 1864? And what you see before you on the left of your screen, you have a series of low ridges called Brushy Mountain. The main prominence behind me is going to be Kennesaw mountain, or a lot of times we refer to as Big Kennesaw Mountain. Then off to the right of it is Little Kennesaw Mountain. And then just beyond it, Pigeon Hill. What you're seeing is the ridge line that General William T. Sherman is presented with in June of 1864. Up on top of that ridge line are the Confederates of the Army of Tennessee commanded by General Joseph E. Johnston. Now many times when we talk about the battle, many times we only focus on the June 27, 1864. You know, true, you know the battle of the two armies fighting. But prior to that you have movement, you have the movement of the armies trying to come to grips to each other. And well, Atlanta is always held up as the goal of the Atlanta Campaign. But that's not exactly correct. You see the main goal for the Union army is going to be General Johnston's Confederate army. That's going to be the main goal and to destroy them is General William T. Sherman's number one goal. Now to achieve this goal, General Sherman has with him 110,000 troops and over 250 cannons. The Confederates defending the state under Joseph E. Johnston, they have over 60,000 troops and right around 170 cannons. Now I'm going to talk about the Confederates for just a second because right behind me, this is where they're going to be. The middle of the Confederate line is going to be up there a stride and across the two Kennesaw mountains. The left of the Confederate line is going to be down beyond where you see the ridgeline end and the right side of the Confederate army is going to be on the left side of your screen on that low series of ridges called Brushy Mountain. So Sherman comes up to this position, he sees that the Confederates are well entrenched up on top of this ridge line. What does he do? Well, he has been following a pattern ever since May of 1864. He sees the Confederates entrenched up on the high ground and he decides to turn their flank. He decides to march his troops around behind the Confederate line and threaten the railroad because the railroad is the key to this whole thing. And the railroad is actually off your screen to the left. It is still roughly the rail path from Chattanooga to Atlanta today that it was during 1864 and both sides need that rail line. And that's why Kennesaw Mountain is so important. With cannons up on Kennesaw Mountain, the Confederates control that portion of the rail line. So Sherman, he sees, you know he's going to turn that flank and so he decides to begin moving to the right because if you look at to the right of your screen you can begin to see the ridge line starts to get lower and starts to get flatter. And so he begins moving his troops to the right in an attempt to turn the Confederate flank. Well General Johnston, he's up on Kennesaw Mountain. He sees, oh there go Sherman again in another one of his turning movements. So Johnston, instead of withdrawing which he had previously done in this campaign, he will actually shift one third of his army who were on the Brushy Mountain Ridge. He's going to shift them down through Marietta behind Kennesaw Mountain and extend his line to his left which would be to your right. And so as the Union army is moving around, Johnston is shifting troops and that's going to precipitate the battles for Kennesaw Mountain.
Now when you think, okay well you know, so what if Johnston moved his troops? Why didn't Sherman just keep going around? And the key here is going to be the roads. Both the armies used existing roads. Many of the roads you see in the park and the trails that are in the park were used during the Civil War. So don't think of this battle as a battle that's out here in national park level wilderness. Instead, this is settled land. There are going to be farms. They're going to be civilians all throughout this area. And they're going to be monumentally affected as these troops move through the area. So as Sherman is moving to the Confederate left, Johnston is shifting. That's going to set up everything for the Battles of Kennesaw Mountain. Thank you very much. Have a great day.
Thank you, Andy, so much for providing us with that brief introduction to the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain and the importance of why the battle actually took place here in 1864. We hope that each one of you, please, will join us throughout the weekend. Of course we have various videos and posts taking place throughout Saturday and Sunday for our 157th Battle Anniversary that's taking place virtually this year. We hope that next year for our 158th Battle Anniversary, we can actually see you in person at the park. If you like us on this program, all the programs throughout the rest of the weekend and everything that we put on social media, please like and subscribe our various social media pages so that we can provide you with additional content. Thank you so much and have a great day.
[audio description] Against a dark gray backdrop are the words Thank you for joining us for the 157th Battle of Kennesaw Mountain. For more programs, please like and subscribe to our social media sites.
Description
[Sat 9:00 am ET] Welcome to the 157th Virtual Commemoration of the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain. Please join Ranger Amanda and volunteer Andy Cole as they welcome you to this year's commemoration, while providing a brief introduction to the importance that the landscape and area played in the decisions leading to the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain in June 1864.
Duration
8 minutes, 19 seconds
Credit
NPS/ A. Corman
Date Created
06/26/2021
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