The author: Richard M. McMurry, a long-time student of the Army ofTennessee and the Atlanta Campaign, is associate professor of history atValdosta State College, Valdosta, Ga.

NATIONAL PARK SERVICE HISTORY SERIES

Publication of this volume was made possible by a grant from the KennesawMountain Historical Association.

This publication is one of a series of booklets describing the significance ofhistorical and archeological areas in the National Park System administeredby the National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior. It is printedby the Government Printing Office and can be purchased from the Superintendentof Documents, Washington, DC 20402. Price $1.70.

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FOREWORD

The turning point of the Civil War is a perennial matter ofdispute among historians. Some specify the Henry-Donelson-Shilohoperation of early 1862 as the pivotal campaign;others insist that Antietam was the key event; still othersare equally sure that Gettysburg and Vicksburg marked the watershedof military activities. Regardless of when the tide turned,there can be little doubt that the Federal drive on Atlanta,launched in May 1864, was the beginning of the end for theSouthern Confederacy. And Sherman’s combination assault-flankingoperation of June 27 at Kennesaw Mountain may verywell be considered the decisive maneuver in the thrust towardAtlanta. For when Joseph E. Johnston found it necessary to pullhis forces back across the Chattahoochee, the fate of the city wassealed.

The Atlanta Campaign had an importance reaching beyond theimmediate military and political consequences. It was conductedin a manner that helped establish a new mode of warfare. Frombeginning to end, it was a railroad campaign, in that a majortransportation center was the prize for which the contestantsvied, and both sides used rail lines to marshal, shift, and sustaintheir forces. Yanks and Rebs made some use of repeating rifles,and Confederate references to shooting down “moving bushes”indicate resort to camouflage by Sherman’s soldiers. The Unioncommander maintained a command post under “signal tree” atKennesaw Mountain and directed the movement of his forcesthrough a net of telegraph lines running out to subordinate headquarters.Men of both armies who early in the war had lookedaskance at the employment of pick and shovel, now, as a matterof course, promptly scooped out protective ditches at each changeof position.

The campaign was also tremendously important as a humanendeavor, and one of the most impressive features of RichardMcMurry’s account is the insight—much of it gleaned from unpublishedletters and diaries—into the motivations, experiences,and reactions of the participants. The officers and men who enduredthe h

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