Customer Reviews

Guide to the Atlanta Campaign: Rocky Face Ridge to Kennesaw Mountain (U.S. Army War College Guides to Civil War Battles)

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Each year a group of us drives from Tampa to Chickamauga. We always try to include one side trip to a Civil War site coming home. This book is going to be invaluable when planning these trips. The location of and directions to 20 sites associated with Sherman's Atlanta Campaign makes this easier and more fun. Most of cannot afford the personal guide with in-depth knowledge and the ability to explain the action to us. These books are that guide! This one starts in Ringgold and takes us South to Kennesaw Mountain. You will need this book to find a number of sites. It is very easy to get lost on the rural roads of the area and while I75 is the main landmark, it isn't always helpful.
This is an excellent addition to the series and continues the high quality that we expect. Once again, we have an invaluable book that is our personal guide.

This is one in the battlefield guides by the Army War College Guides to Civil War Battles series. The focus? The campaign from Rocky Face to Kennesaw Mountain, as Union General William Tecumseh Sherman and Confederate General Joseph Johnston jousted to outmaneuver and defeat the other. Shortly after this volume ends the narrative, General John Hood was named to replace Johnston, with not altogether salubrious results. . . .

As with others in the series, this begins with a brief Introduction to provide context. It concludes with an essay highlighting some key issues illustrated by the contest between the two armies and presenting the "Order of Battle," in which all units at the regimental level and above are identified, including the commanding officers of brigades, divisions, corps, and the army itself. The purpose of this volume as with others? The authors say that (Page xv): "This guide is designed to help you enjoy this experience with the Atlanta campaign. The stops are arranged to present the most important phases of the campaign as it developed. . . ." So, this is aimed as a guide for people to traverse the key places during the campaign and try to make sense of what they are viewing.

The campaign "officially" began on May 7th, 1864, as George Thomas and his Army of the Cumberland moved to take position in front of Buzzard Roost, a part of the Rocky Face Mountain defensive position that Johnston had developed. It ends with Sherman's flanking moves to drive Johnston from his formidable position at Kennesaw Mountain, from which he had inflicted heavy casualties on Sherman's forces after Sherman (at least in my view) unwisely chose to attack a powerful defensive position head on, with sanguinary results.

The heart of these guides: (a) some maps that outline key places to visit, so that a person can visualize the battlefields and the setting of the campaign; (b) sampling from the official reports of commanding officers after the battles had taken place, providing a firsthand evaluation of the fighting and marching and maneuvering. While some of the reports are doubtless skewed b y officers making sure that they sound good, it is still a fascinating resource to give the reader a glimpse of the commanders' perspectives.

So, all in all, another nice work in this excellent Army War College series. The closing essay is valuable in its own right, as it focuses on Sherman's logistical challenges. For instance, how do you feed a large army hundreds of miles from your support base? The essay concludes that Sherman did an outstanding job with the logistics of a campaign far from one's home base.

The authors cover only the Atlanta campaign up to Kennesaw. The battles and sites around Atlanta are not covered. Can we expect another volume in the future?