Georgia in the American Civil War On January 19 , 1861 , Georgia seceded from the Union as the " Republic of Georgia " and joined the newly formed Confederacy the next month during the prelude to the American Civil War . During the war , Georgia sent nearly 100 , 000 soldiers to battle , mostly to the armies in Virginia . The state switched from cotton to food production , but severe transportation difficulties eventually restricted supplies . Early in the war , the state ' s 1 , 400 miles of railroad tracks provided a frequently used means of moving supplies and men but , by the middle of 1864 , much of these lay in ruins or in Union hands . The $ 3 voted $ 100 , 000 to be sent to South Carolina for the relief of Charlestonians who suffered a disastrous fire in December 1861 . Thinking the state safe from invasion , the Confederates built several small munitions factories in Georgia , as well as housing tens of thousands of Union prisoners . Their largest prisoner of war camp was at Andersonville . Home front . Governor Joseph E . Brown was a leading secessionist and led efforts to remove the state from the Union and into the Confederacy . A firm believer in state ' s rights , he defied the Confederate government ' s wartime policies . He resisted the Confederate military draft and tried to keep as many soldiers at home as possible to fight invading forces . Brown challenged Confederate impressment of animals , goods , and slaves . Several other governors followed his lead . Food shortages . By summer 1861 , the Union naval blockade virtually shut down the export of cotton and the import of manufactured items . Food that normally came by rail from the North were halted . The governor and legislature pleaded with planters to grow less cotton and more food . The planters refused because at first they thought the Union would not or could not fight . The planters then saw cotton prices in Europe soared and they expected Europe to soon intervene and break the blockade . The legislature imposed cotton quotas and made it a crime to grow an excess , but the food shortages continued to worsen , especially in the towns . In more than a dozen instances across the state , poor white women raided stores and captured supply wagons to get such necessities as bacon , corn , flour , and cotton yarn . As conditions at home worsened late in the war more and soldiers deserted the army to attend to their suffering farms and families . Battles in Georgia . Georgia was relatively free from warfare until late 1863 . A total of nearly 550 battles and skirmishes occurred within the state , with the majority occurring in the last two years of the conflict . The first major battle in Georgia was a Confederate victory at the Battle of Chickamauga in 1863 , which was the last major Confederate victory in the west . In 1864 Union general William T . Sherman ' s armies invaded Georgia as part of the Atlanta Campaign . Confederate general Joseph E . Johnston fought a series of battles , the largest being the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain , trying to delay Union armies for as long as possible as he retreated toward Atlanta . Johnston ' s replacement , Gen . John Bell Hood , attempted several unsuccessful counterattacks at the Battle of Peachtree Creek and the Battle of Atlanta , but Sherman captured Atlanta on September 2 , 1864 . Sherman ' s March to the Sea . In November 1864 , Sherman stripped his army of non - essentials , burned Atlanta , and left it to the Confederates . He began his famous Sherman ' s March to the Sea , living off the land then burning plantations , wrecking railroads , and killing the livestock . Thousands of escaped slaves followed him as he entered Savannah on December 22 . After the loss of Atlanta , the governor withdrew the state ' s militia from the Confederate forces to harvest crops for the state and the army . The militia did not try to stop Sherman . Sherman ' s March was devastating to Georgia and the Confederacy in terms of economics and psychology . Sherman himself estimated that the campaign had inflicted $ 100 million ( about $ 1 . 4 billion in 2012 dollars ) in destruction , about one fifth of which " inured to our advantage " while the " remainder is simple waste and destruction . " His army wrecked of railroad and numerous bridges and miles of telegraph line s . It seized 5 , 000 horses , 4 , 000 mules , and 13 , 000 head of cattle . It confiscated 9 . 5 million pounds of corn and 10 . 5 million pounds of fodder , and destroyed uncounted cotton gin s and mills . Sherman ' s campaign of total war extended to Georgia civilians . In July 1864 , during the Atlanta campaign , Sherman ordered approximately 400 Rosewell mill workers , mostly women , arrested as traitors and shipped as prisoners to the North with their children . There is little evidence that more than a few of the women ever returned home . The memory of Sherman ' s March became iconic and central to the " Myth of the Lost Cause . " The crisis was the setting for Margaret Mitchell ' s 1936 novel " Gone with the Wind " and the subsequent 1939 film . Most important were many " salvation stories " that tell not what Sherman ' s army destroyed , but what was saved by the quick thinking and crafty women on the home front , or by a Union soldier ' s appreciation of the beauty of homes and the charm of Southern women . Last battles . In December 1864 Sherman captured Savannah before leaving Georgia in January 1865 to begin his Carolinas Campaign . However , there were still several small fights in Georgia after his departure . On April 16 , 1865 , the Battle of Columbus , was fought on the Georgia - Alabama border . In 1935 the state legislature officially declared this engagement as the " last battle of the War Between the States . " List of battles fought in Georgia . Battle of Adairsville < br > Battle of Allatoona < br > Battle of Atlanta < br > Battle of Brown ' s Mill < br > Battle of Buck Head Creek < br > Battle of Chickamauga < br > Battle of Dallas < br > Battle of Dalton I < br > Battle of Dalton II < br > Battle of Davis ' Cross Roads < br > Battle of Ezra Church < br > Battle of Fort McAllister ( 1863 ) < br > Battle of Fort McAllister ( 1864 ) < br > Battle of Fort Pulaski < br > Battle of Griswoldville < br > Battle of Jonesborough < br > Battle of Kennesaw Mountain < br > Battle of Kolb ' s Farm < br > Battle of Lovejoy ' s Station < br > Battle of Marietta < br > Battle of New Hope Church < br > Battle of Peachtree Creek < br > Battle of Pickett ' s Mill < br > Battle of Resaca < br > Battle of Ringgold Gap < br > Battle of Rocky Face Ridge < br > Battle of Utoy Creek < br > Battle of Waynesboro Re - entry to the Union . The war left most of Georgia devastated , with many war dead and wounded , and the state ' s economy in shambles . The slaves were emancipated in 1865 , and Reconstruction started immediately after the hostilities ceased . The state remained poor well into the Twentieth century . Georgia did not re - enter the Union until June 15 , 1870 , the last of the Confederate States to be re - admitted . Civil War sites in Georgia . Many of Georgia ' s Civil War battlefields , particularly those around Atlanta , have been lost to modern urban development . However , a number of sites have been well preserved , including Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park and Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park . Other Civil War - related sites include Stone Mountain , Fort Pulaski , and the Atlanta Cyclorama , as well as Confederate Memorial Park . A number of antebellum mansions and plantations in Georgia are preserved and open to the public , particularly around Atlanta and Savannah . Portions of the Civil War - era Western & Atlantic Railroad have historical markers commemorating events during the war , including several sites associated with the Andrews Raid . Another area near Atlanta with Civil War history is in the Sweet Water Creek State Park in Douglas County , Georgia . At this location is one of the last standing buildings burned by General Sherman ' s army , New Manchester Mill .