Atlanta 1864: Last Chance for the Confederacy (Great Campaigns of the Civil War)
Part of a new series on the great campaigns of the Civil War, this is a model interpretive survey. McMurry, an independent scholar best known for his comparative analysis of the Confederate Armies of Tennessee and North Virginia, incorporates conventional military history at strategic, operational and tactical levels, but also pays attention to wider factors. Chief among these was the Union presidential election scheduled for November 1864. McMurry believes Lincoln needed a major military success to win reelection. That success came not with the capture of Atlanta itself, but with Confederate General Joseph Johnston's refusal to attempt to halt William T. Sherman's Union invasion of Georgia, chronicled here in detail. Johnston's successor, John Bell Hood, failed, unable to compel his forces to perform the complex, rapid maneuvers he demanded of them in the battles around Atlanta. Sherman, for his part, wasted repeated opportunities to destroy or cripple a numerically inferior enemy in the campaign's early stages, and was able to do no more than blunt Hood's attacks around Atlanta. McMurry concludes that none of the three generals was either good enough or bad enough to contribute to a great military victory by either side, although he arguably underestimates the difficulty of achieving that kind of victory under the tactical conditions prevailing in 1864. He is on firmer ground asserting that, by ensuring Lincoln's reelection, the Atlanta campaign assured continued Union prosecution of the war and eventual failure of the Confederacy's bid for independence. Clear prose and unrushed presentation make this a thoroughly satisfying outing. History Book Club selection. (Oct.)Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.