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Confederate Victory In The West: The Battle of Atlanta, 21-22 July 1864
Battle of Atlanta, 21st (Bald Hill) & 22nd of July 1864
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"HEADQUARTERS, July 21, 1864.
Brigadier-General WRIGHT, Commanding, Atlanta, Ga.:
GENERAL: I am directed to inform you that you must be prepared to-night for an evacuation of Atlanta, should it become necessary. You will, therefore, without saying anything about it, be prepared to move when Lieutenant-General Stewart's troops move into town, should the evacuation take place.
Most respectfully, your obedient servant,
A. P. MASON, Major and Assistant Adjutant-General."
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"CIRCULAR.] HEADQUARTERS,
July 22, 1864-6.20 a. m.
Lieutenant-General Stewart directs that you have everything ready for action, everything hitched up and ready to move should the contingency arise.....
By command of Lieutenant-General Stewart:
DOUGLAS WEST,
Acting Assistant Adjutant-General."
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"NEAR ATLANTA, July 22, 1864-10.30 p. m.
Honorable J. A. SEDDON, Richmond:
The army shifted its position last night, fronting Peach Tree Creek, and formed line of battle around the city with Stewart's and Cheatham's corps. General Hardee, with his corps, made a night march and attacked the enemy's extreme left at 1 o'clock to-day; drove him from his works, capturing 16* pieces of artillery and 5* stand of colors. Major-General Cheatham attacked the enemy at 4 p. m. with a portion of his command; drove the enemy, capturing 6* pieces of artillery. During the engagements we captured about 2,000 prisoners, but loss not fully ascertained. Major-General Walker killed; Brigadier-General Smith, Gist, and Mercer wounded. Our troops fought with great gallantry.
J. B. HOOD,
General."
*Later revised to 14 guns and 18 stand of colors.
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"ATLANTA, GA., July 25, 1864.
His Excellency JEFFERSON DAVIS,
Richmond, Va.:
The moral effect of our brilliant affair of the 22nd has been admirable on our troops, and I am happy to say our loss was small in comparison to the enemy's. He was badly defeated and completely failed in one of his bold flank movements, heretofore so successful....
BRAXTON BRAGG."
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"GENERAL FIELD ORDERS,
HDQRS. ARMY OF TENNESSEE, Numbers 7.
In the Field, July 25, 1864.
SOLDIERS: Experience has proved to you that safety in time of battle consists in getting into close quarters with your enemy. Guns and colors are the only unerring indications of victory. The valor of troops is easily estimated, too, by the number of these secured. If your enemy be allowed to continue the operation of flanking you out of position, our cause is in great peril. Your recent brilliant success proves the ability to prevent it. You have but to will it, and God will it, and God will grant us the victory your commander and your country expect.
J. B. HOOD,
General."
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"...the fight made by Cleburne on the 21st, which he described as the 'bitterest of his life;' but it was the well-known and often-expressed opinion of that noble and lamented officer that but for the withdrawal of his division, which prevented the assault on the 20th, and its timely arrival on the right, the enemy would on the morning of the 21st have succeeded in gaining the inner works of Atlanta.
...the engagement of the 22nd of July, one of the most desperate and bloody of the war, and which won the only decided success achieved by the army at Atlanta."
This was one of the more intense engagements of the war. Many a yank went to stay at "Hotel Andersonville" for the remander of the war if captured here. I had two ancestors that "checked in" here, one came home, the other didn't.
__________________ 'If you don't read the newspaper you are uninformed,
if you do read the newspaper you are misinformed.'
Mark Twain
Hood... being Hood. I also believe he considered Franklin a decisive victory...
Bragg from Richmond... as usual out of touch & uneducated as to facts.
Hardee was referring to the only success in checking a flank movement; hardly bragging about winnig a battle. Kind of like British officers claiming the Somme as a victory
Facts:
US AoT was attacked from three sides... they largely held their line at times men were fighting from both sides of their breastworks. THey spent the next four days burying their dead as well as the CS dead and doing what they could for CS casualties left on the field. The US AoT was in action again 4 days later at Ezra Church where again the CS troops were pretty thouroghly whipped. And again it was not due to lack of courage but poor command choices.
22 July 1864
Hood had hoped to get around the flank... missed and hit the Union left engaging all of the US Army of the TN commanded by McPherson and subsequently Logan for the duration of the fight.
Losses: CS 5000-8000 US Genl McPherson & 3,722. 12 guns were BRIEFLY captured but could not be withdrawn because the lines were too close. Ironically Wheeler was the most succesful CS commander capturing 225 Prisoners and a single gun which he brought off the field w/ him but got nowhere near the supply train which had been his target.
It was a brutal fight w/ intense courage shown by both sides and if the AoP had been in such a situation there would likely have been far more POWs.
The US troops certainly didn't think they had suffered a defeat... in fact they proudly called it a victory. They had taken the best the CS Army of the West could throw at them and they had not only held but had forced the enemy to withdraw. In short order any ground lost had been recouped.
Once again to all interested in checking my info I give a few titles that might educate; aka sources:
Cannan, John The Atlanta Campaign, May-November 1864
Castel, Albert Decision in the West: The Atlanta Campaign of 1864
Cox, Jacob D., Campaigns of the Civil War.-IX. Atlanta
Glatthaar, Joseph T., The American Civil War, The war in the West 1863-1865
Newton, Steven H. Lost for the Cause the Confederate Army of 1864
Phisterer, Frederick, Campaigns of the Civil War Supplementary Volume Statistical Record of the Armies of the United States.
Woodworth, Nothing but Victory
__________________ Shane Christen
American Legion Post 352
SUVCW Camp Abernethy# 48
Lifetime NRA member
3rd MN VI
For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow. Eccl 1:18
This is sounding much like the discussion of Chancellorsville on another thread. "Winning" a battle and losing the campaign is a pyrrhic victory at best, if indeed it was a win -- Atlanta was, at the end, taken.
Ole
__________________ I never knew a man who wished to be himself a slave. Consider if you know any good thing that no man desires for himself. A. Lincoln
__________________ I never knew a man who wished to be himself a slave. Consider if you know any good thing that no man desires for himself. A. Lincoln
Factoid to remember: Logan was a politician before the war.
Yes Logan was a politician before the War... he was also a General that his men adored and he proved himself to be quite a competant General... more so than most of the political Generals.
Once again to all interested in checking my info I give a few titles that might educate; aka sources:
Cannan, John The Atlanta Campaign, May-November 1864
Castel, Albert Decision in the West: The Atlanta Campaign of 1864
Cox, Jacob D., Campaigns of the Civil War.-IX. Atlanta
Glatthaar, Joseph T., The American Civil War, The war in the West 1863-1865
Newton, Steven H. Lost for the Cause the Confederate Army of 1864
Phisterer, Frederick, Campaigns of the Civil War Supplementary Volume Statistical Record of the Armies of the United States.
Woodworth, Nothing but Victory
I'm still eagerly waiting for you to show me how Atlanta was a CS victory; though I'm not holding my breath.
__________________ Shane Christen
American Legion Post 352
SUVCW Camp Abernethy# 48
Lifetime NRA member
3rd MN VI
For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow. Eccl 1:18
The initial report listed 500 KIA, 2,141 WIA, 1000 missing for a total of 3,611 CS losses are given @ 8,499 casualties. pg 216 of the Statistical Record
Cox in his book on the Atlanta Campaign pg 175 gives specifics on the number of dead buried or passed to the enemy under the flag of truce. He puts the US dead at 3,521. His chapter XIII details the battle.
There are at least three different tabulations of US casualties from the Battle of Atlanta on 22 July. The number compiled vary for a variety of reasons including confusion on numbers that died in hospital due to the battle or pre/post numbers in hospital.
The American Civil War THe War in the West has a general view of the War in the west. As to page #'s. Get the book and find the info.
Shermans memoirs (Vol 2) pg 81-85 detail the July 22nd battle.
Jones biography of Logan... again chapter 13; details the battle on 22nd July.
Woodworth's superd history of the US AoT, Nothing But Victory, dedicates an entire chapter to the subject of the fighting around Atlanta.
Of coarse there is always the epic work of Catton The Civil War on pg 515-516
Lost for the Cause by Newton Chapter 5 has the most accurate count of CS casualties during the campaign that I have seen.
I might also suggest Voices of the Civil War Atlanta by Time Life Books for some superb 1st person accounts from men who actually fought there. pg 104 for you Battalion.
As to the charge put forward on another thread that I am merely listing books to pretend to be in the know. I only list books I own and have read. I rarely do footnotes for the net... but provide sources people can paruse at their own leisure. I rarely give URL... I don't trust the quality of research on the net; I prefer to see hard copy.
__________________ Shane Christen
American Legion Post 352
SUVCW Camp Abernethy# 48
Lifetime NRA member
3rd MN VI
For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow. Eccl 1:18
I ain't lookin' to argue on the side of no yanks (I must have heard that somewhere?), but Atlanta was lost and Franklin was idiotic at best. That was pretty obvious, regardless of what my southern friends might say.
Perzackly, Larry. Battles are usually a part of a campaign to achieve some strategic goal. Atlanta fell to Sherman's forces and it doesn't really matter who won which battle between Chattanooga and Atlanta. In the Vicksburg Campaign, it doesn't really matter that Grant lost the battles on May 19th and 22nd. Having the best top speed in a quarter-mile doesn't beat the E.T.
No yanks here.
Ole
__________________ I never knew a man who wished to be himself a slave. Consider if you know any good thing that no man desires for himself. A. Lincoln
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Confederate Victory In The West: The Battle of Atlanta, 21-22 July 1864 
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