Battle of Peachtree Creek
The Battle of Peachtree Creek was fought in Georgia on July 20, 1864, as part of the Atlanta Campaign in the American Civil War. It was the first major attack by Lt. Gen. John Bell Hood since taking command of the Confederate Army of Tennessee; the attack was against Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman's Union army, perched on the doorstep of Atlanta; the main armies in the conflict were the Union Army of the Cumberland, commanded by Maj. Gen. George Henry Thomas and two corps of the Confederate Army of Tennessee. Sherman had launched his grand offensive against the Army of Tennessee in early May. For more than two months, Sherman's forces, consisting of the Army of the Cumberland, the Army of the Tennessee and the Army of the Ohio, sparred with the Confederate Army of Tennessee under the command of General Joseph E. Johnston. Although the Southerners gained tactical successes at the Battle of New Hope Church, the Battle of Pickett's Mill, the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain, they were unable to counter Sherman's superior numbers.
The Union forces flanked the Confederates out of every defensive position they attempted to hold. On July 8, Union forces crossed the Chattahoochee River, the last major natural barrier between Sherman and Atlanta. Retreating from Sherman's advancing armies, General Johnston withdrew across Peachtree Creek, just north of Atlanta, laid plans for an attack on part of the Army of the Cumberland as it crossed Peachtree Creek. On July 17, he received a telegram from Confederate President Jefferson Davis relieving him from command; the political leadership of the Confederacy was unhappy with Johnston's lack of aggressiveness and replaced him with Hood. In contrast to Johnston's conservative tactics and conservation of manpower, Hood had a reputation for aggressive tactics and personal bravery on the battlefield. In fact he had been maimed in battle twice within the past year, having led several assaults. Hood formally launched the attempted counter-offensive, it was not until July 19 that Hood learned of Sherman's split armies advancing a swift attack from multiple directions.
Thomas's Army of the Cumberland was to advance directly towards Atlanta, while the Army of the Ohio under the command of Major General John M. Schofield, the Army of the Tennessee under the command of Major General James B. McPherson moved several miles towards Decatur so as to advance from the northeast; this was an early premonition of Sherman's general strategy of cutting Confederate supply lines by destroying railroads to the east. Thomas would have to cross Peachtree Creek at several locations and would be vulnerable both while crossing and after, before they could construct breastworks. Hood hoped to attack Thomas while his army of Cumberland was still in the process of crossing Peachtree Creek. Hood sent forth the corps under Alexander P. Stewart and William J. Hardee to meet Schofield and McPherson. By so doing, the Southerners could hope to fight with rough numerical parity and catch the Northern forces by surprise. Hood thus sought to drive Thomas further away from Schofield and McPherson.
This would have forced Sherman to divert his forces away from Atlanta. Throughout the morning of July 20, the Army of the Cumberland crossed Peachtree Creek and began taking up defensive positions; the XIV Corps, commanded by Major General John M. Palmer, took position on the right; the XX Corps, commanded by Major General Joseph Hooker took position in the center. The left was held by a single division of the IV Corps, as the rest of that corps had been sent to reinforce Schofield and McPherson on the east side of Atlanta; the Union forces began preparing defensive positions, but had only completed them by the time the Confederate attack began. The few hours between the Union crossing and their completion of defensive earthworks were a moment of opportunity for the Confederates. Hood committed two of his three corps to the attack: Hardee’s corps would attack on the right, while the corps of General Stewart would attack on the left as the corps of General Benjamin Cheatham would keep an eye on the Union forces to the east of Atlanta.
Hood had wanted the attack launched at one o'clock, but confusion and miscommunication between Hardee and Hood prevented this from happening. Hood instructed Hardee to ensure that his right flank maintained contact with Cheatham's corps, but Cheatham began moving his forces eastward. Hardee too began side-stepping to the east to maintain contact with Cheatham, while Stewart began sliding eastward as well in order to maintain contact with Hardee, it was not until three o'clock. The Confederate attack was mounted at around four o’clock in the afternoon. On the Confederate right, Hardee’s men ran into fierce opposition and were unable to make much headway, with the Southerners suffering heavy losses; the failure of the attack was due to faulty execution and a lack of pre-battle reconnaissance. On the Confederate left, Stewart’s attack was more successful. Two Union brigades were forced to retreat, most of the 33rd New Jersey Infantry Regiment were captured by the Rebels, as was a 4-gun Union artillery battery.
Union forces counterattacked and after a bloody struggle blunted the Confederate offensive. Artillery helped stop the Confederate attack on Thomas' left flank. A few hours into the battle, Hardee was preparing to send in his reserve, the division of General Patrick Cleburne, which he hoped would get the attack moving again and allow him to break through the Union lines. An urgent message from Hood, forced him to cancel the attack a
History of Atlanta
The history of Atlanta dates back to 1836, when Georgia decided to build a railroad to the U. S. Midwest and a location was chosen to be the line's terminus; the stake marking the founding of "Terminus" was driven into the ground in 1837. In 1839, homes and a store were built there and the settlement grew. Between 1845 and 1854, rail lines arrived from four different directions, the growing town became the rail hub for the entire Southern United States. During the American Civil War, Atlanta, as a distribution hub, became the target of a major Union campaign, in 1864, Union William Sherman's troops set on fire and destroyed the city's assets and buildings, save churches and hospitals. After the war, the population grew as did manufacturing, while the city retained its role as a rail hub. Coca-Cola grew into an Atlanta-based world empire. Electric streetcars arrived in 1889, the city added new "streetcar suburbs"; the city's elite black colleges were founded between 1865 and 1885, despite disenfranchisement and the imposition of Jim Crow laws in the 1910s, a prosperous black middle class and upper class emerged.
By the early 20th century, "Sweet" Auburn Avenue was called "the most prosperous Negro street in the nation". In the 1950s, blacks started moving into city neighborhoods that had kept them out, while Atlanta's first freeways enabled large numbers of whites to move to, commute from, new suburbs. Atlanta was home to Jr. and a major center for the Civil Rights Movement. Resulting desegregation occurred in stages over the 1960s. Slums were razed and the new Atlanta Housing Authority built public-housing projects. From the mid-1960s to mid-'70s, nine suburban malls opened, the downtown shopping district declined, but just north of it, gleaming office towers and hotels rose, in 1976, the new Georgia World Congress Center signaled Atlanta's rise as a major convention city. In 1973, the city elected its first black mayor, Maynard Jackson, in ensuing decades, black political leaders worked with the white business community to promote business growth, while still empowering black businesses. From the mid-'70s to mid-'80s most of the MARTA rapid transit system was built.
While the suburbs grew much of the city itself deteriorated and the city lost 21% of its population between 1970 and'90. In 1996, Atlanta hosted the Summer Olympics, for which infrastructure were built. Hometown airline Delta continued to grow, by 1998-9, Atlanta's airport was the busiest in the world. Since the mid-'90s, gentrification has given new life to many of the city's intown neighborhoods; the 2010 census showed affluent blacks leaving the city for newer exurban properties and growing suburban towns, younger whites moving back to the city, a much more diverse metropolitan area with heaviest growth in the exurbs at its outer edges. The region where Atlanta and its suburbs were built was Creek and Cherokee Native American territory. In 1813, the Creeks, recruited by the British to assist them in the War of 1812, attacked and burned Fort Mims in southwestern Alabama; the conflict became known as the Creek War. In response, the United States built a string of forts along the Ocmulgee and Chattahoochee Rivers, including Fort Daniel on top of Hog Mountain near present-day Dacula and Fort Gilmer.
Fort Gilmer was situated next to an important Indian site called Standing Peachtree, named after a large tree, believed to have been a pine tree. The word "pitch" was misunderstood for "peach", thus the site's name; the site traditionally marked a Native American meeting place at the boundary between Creek and Cherokee lands, at the point where Peachtree Creek flows into the Chattahoochee. The fort was soon renamed Fort Peachtree. A road was built linking Fort Fort Daniel following the route of existing trails; as part of the systematic removal of Native Americans from northern Georgia from 1802 to 1825, the Creek ceded the area, now metro Atlanta in 1821. Four months the Georgia Land Lottery Act created five new counties in the area that would become Atlanta. Dekalb County was created in 1822, from portions of Henry and Gwinnett Counties, Decatur was created as its county seat the following year; as part of the land lottery, Archibald Holland received a grant for District 14, Land Lot 82: an area of 202.5 acres near the present-day Coca-Cola headquarters.
Holland operated a blacksmith shop. However, the land was low-lying and wet, so his cattle became mired in the mud, he left the area in 1833 to farm in Paulding County. In 1830, an inn was established that became known as Whitehall due to the then-unusual fact that it had a coat of white paint, when most other buildings were of washed or natural wood. Whitehall Street was built as the road from Atlanta to Whitehall; the Whitehall area was renamed West End in 1867 and is the oldest intact Victorian neighborhood of Atlanta. In 1835, some leaders of the Cherokee Nation ceded their territory to the United States without the consent of the majority of the Cherokee people in exchange for land out west under the Treaty of New Echota, an act that led to the Trail of Tears. In 1836, the Georgia General Assembly voted to build the Western and Atlantic Railroad to provide a link between the port of Savannah and the Midwest; the initial route of that state-sponsored project was to run from Chattanooga, Tennessee, to a spot east of the Chattahoochee River, in present-day Fulton County.
The plan was to link up with the Georgia Railroad from Augusta, with the Macon and Western Railro
National Register of Historic Places listings in Fulton County, Georgia
This is a list of properties and districts in Fulton County, Georgia that are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It covers most of the NRHP properties in Atlanta; this National Park Service list is complete through NPS recent listings posted April 12, 2019
Decatur, Georgia
Decatur is a city in, the county seat of, DeKalb County, Georgia, part of the Atlanta metropolitan area. With a population of 20,148 in the 2013 census, the municipality is sometimes assumed to be larger since multiple ZIP Codes in unincorporated DeKalb County bear the Decatur name; the city is served by three MARTA rail stations. The city is located 5 miles northeast of downtown Atlanta and shares its western border with Atlanta. Decatur was established at the intersection of two Native American trails: the Sandtown, which led east from the Chattahoochee River at Utoy Creek, the Shallowford, which follows today's Clairmont Road, crossed near Roswell, it was named for United States Navy Commodore Stephen Decatur. Shallowford Road, which led to the Shallow Ford, has been renamed Clairmont Avenue because it does not go to, from or past any place called Clairmont. Covington Road is now Sycamore Street because it leads to Covington and has no Sycamores on it. Nelson's Ferry Road, named after the local family which ran the ferry at the Chattahoochee end of the road, has been named Ponce de Leon after a family prominent, before Castro, in Havana, Cuba.
During the American Civil War, Decatur became a strategic site in Sherman's Atlanta Campaign. In July 1864, Major-General James McPherson occupied the town to cut off the Confederates' supply line from Augusta. On July 22, during the Battle of Atlanta, Confederate cavalry under Major-General Joseph Wheeler attacked McPherson's supply wagons and the Union troops left to defend the wagons. A historical marker at the old courthouse marks the site of this skirmish. We attacked Decatur on the 22d and took the town driving out a Brigade of Infantry and a good deal of Dismounted Cavalry. Our Brigade took the town, tho' it was supported on both flanks by a Brigade of Cavalry dismounted; the fight lasted about two hours and was hot for a while. The Yankees had the hills and houses on us and fought well for a time. Our dash was made to distract attention. We killed and wounded about one hundred and fifty. Our loss about seventy wounded. In the last half of the twentieth century the metropolitan area of Atlanta expanded into unincorporated DeKalb County surrounding two sides of the town of Decatur.
Concurrently many well-to-do and middle class white Americans fled the area to more distant suburbs. The 1960s and 1970s witnessed dramatic drops in property values. However, more the city has regained economic vigor thanks to several long-term downtown development plans that have come to fruition, making Decatur a trendy small mixed-use district with easy transit to downtown Atlanta. Over the past twenty years, it has gained a local and national reputation as a progressive city with a high level of citizen involvement that retains a small town feel despite its proximity to Atlanta. Decatur is located at 33°46′17″N 84°17′52″W. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 4.2 square miles, all land. The Eastern Continental Divide bisects the city along the CSX trackage right of way. US 78 SR 155 US 278 Avondale MARTA Station Decatur MARTA Station East Lake MARTA Station As of the 2010 census, there were 19,335 people, 8,599 occupied housing units, 4,215 families residing in the city.
The population density was 4,603.6 people per square mile. There were 9,335 housing units at an average density of 2,222.6 per square mile. The racial makeup of the city was 73.5% White, 20.2% African American, 0.2% Native American, 2.9% Asian, 0.0% Pacific Islander, 0.6% from other races, 2.4% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 3.2% of the population. There were 2,541 households which had children under the age of 18 living with them, 3,336 were a Husband-Wife family living together, 984 of households had a female householder with no husband present, 4,063 did not fit into either of the two mentioned categories. 3,263 of all households were made up of individuals of those, 1,814 had someone living alone, 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.17 and the average family size was 2.96. In the city, the population was spread out with 25.1% under the age of 19, 5.2% from 20 to 24, 32.9% from 25 to 44, 25.7% from 45 to 64, 11.1% who were 65 years of age or older.
The median age was 38 years. There are 44 males for every 56 females; the median income for a household in the city was $73,602. Males had a median income of $73,089 versus $58,580 for females; the per capita income for the city was $42,926. About 12.20% of families and 14.9% of the population were below the poverty line, including 24.2% of those under age 18 and 12.5% of those age 65 or over. Education levels for Decatur are above average for the Atlanta area, with 56% of residents having obtained a bachelor's degree or higher, 27% having obtained a graduate degree or higher; the Decatur City School District, which serves the city limits, holds pre-school to grade twelve, consists of a pre-K early childhood learning center, five elementary schools, a fourth and fifth grade academy, a middle school, a high school. The Decatur City School District was the highest performing school district in Georgia on the SATs for the 2014-2015 school year; the DeKalb County School District, which serves unincorporated areas in DeKalb County around Decatur, operates the William Bradley Bryant Center in an unincorporated area near Decatur.
Decatur High School Carl G. Renfroe Middle School The 4/5 Academy at Fifth Avenue Glenwood Elementary Clairemont Elementa
Battle of Kennesaw Mountain
The Battle of Kennesaw Mountain was fought on June 27, 1864, during the Atlanta Campaign of the American Civil War. It was the most significant frontal assault launched by Union Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman against the Confederate Army of Tennessee under Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, ending in a tactical defeat for the Union forces. Strategically, the battle failed to deliver the result that the Confederacy needed—namely a halt to Sherman's advance on Atlanta. Sherman's 1864 campaign against Atlanta, was characterized by a series of flanking maneuvers against Johnston, each of which compelled the Confederate army to withdraw from fortified positions with minimal casualties on either side. After two months and 70 miles of such maneuvering, Sherman's path was blocked by imposing fortifications on Kennesaw Mountain, near Marietta and the Union general chose to change his tactics and ordered a large-scale frontal assault on June 27, 1864. Maj. Gen. James B. McPherson feinted against the northern end of Kennesaw Mountain, while his corps under Maj. Gen. John A. Logan assaulted Pigeon Hill on its southwest corner.
At the same time, Maj. Gen. George H. Thomas launched strong attacks against Cheatham Hill at the center of the Confederate line. Both attacks were repulsed with heavy losses, but a demonstration by Maj. Gen. John M. Schofield achieved a strategic success by threatening the Confederate army's left flank, prompting yet another Confederate withdrawal toward Atlanta and the removal of General Johnston from command of the army. In March 1864, Ulysses S. Grant was promoted to lieutenant general and named general in chief of the Union Army, he devised a strategy of multiple, simultaneous offensives against the Confederacy, hoping to prevent any of the rebel armies from reinforcing the others over interior lines. The two most significant of these were by Maj. Gen. George G. Meade's Army of the Potomac, accompanied by Grant himself, which would attack Robert E. Lee's army directly and advance toward the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia. Both Grant and Sherman had objectives to engage with and destroy the two principal armies of the Confederacy, relegating the capture of important enemy cities to a secondary, supporting role.
This was a strategy that President Abraham Lincoln had emphasized throughout the war, but Grant was the first general who cooperated with it. As their campaigns progressed, the political importance of the cities of Richmond and Atlanta began to dominate their strategy. By 1864, Atlanta was a critical target; the city of 20,000 was founded at the intersection of four important railroad lines that supplied the Confederacy and was a military manufacturing arsenal in its own right. Atlanta's nickname of "Gate City of the South" was apt—its capture would open the entire Deep South to Union conquest. Grant's orders to Sherman were to "move against Johnston's Army, to break it up and to get into the interior of the enemy's country as far as you can, inflicting all the damage you can against their War resources."Sherman's force of about 100,000 men was composed of three subordinate armies: the Army of the Tennessee under Maj. Gen. James B. McPherson, their principal opponent was the Confederate Army of Tennessee, commanded by Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, who had replaced the unpopular Braxton Bragg after his defeat in Chattanooga in November 1863.
The 50,000-man army consisted of the infantry corps of Lt. Gens. William J. Hardee, John Bell Hood, Leonidas Polk, a cavalry corps under Maj. Gen. Joseph Wheeler. Sherman's campaign began on May 7, 1864, as his three armies departed from the vicinity of Chattanooga, he launched demonstration attacks against Johnston's position on the long, high mountain named Rocky Face Ridge while McPherson's Army of the Tennessee advanced stealthily around Johnston's left flank toward the town of Resaca and Johnston's supply line on the Western & Atlantic Railroad. For Sherman, McPherson encountered a small Confederate force entrenched in the outskirts of Resaca and cautiously pulled back to Snake Creek Gap, squandering the opportunity to trap the Confederate army; as Sherman swung his entire army in the direction of Resaca, Johnston retired to take up positions there. Full scale fighting erupted in the Battle of Resaca on May 14–15 but there was no conclusive result and Sherman flanked Johnston for a second time by crossing the Oostanaula River.
As Johnston withdrew again, skirmishing erupted at Adairsville on May 17 and more general fighting on Johnston's Cassville line May 18–19. Johnston planned to defeat part of Sherman's force as it approached on multiple routes, but Hood became uncharacteristically cautious and feared encirclement, failing to attack as ordered. Encouraged by Hood and Polk, Johnston ordered this time across the Etowah River. Johnston's army took up defensive positions at Allatoona Pass south of Cartersville, but Sherman once again turned Johnston's left as he temporarily abandoned his railroad supply line and advanced on Dallas. Johnston was forced to meet Sherman's army in the open. Fierce but inconclusive fighting occurred on May 25 at New Hope Church, May 27 at Pickett's Mill, May 28 at Dallas. By June 1, heavy rains turned the roads to quagmires and Sherman was forced to return to the railroad to supply his men. Johnston's new line (called the Brushy Mou
Peachtree Creek
Peachtree Creek is a major stream in Atlanta. It flows for 7.5 miles due west into the Chattahoochee River just south of Vinings. Peachtree Creek is an important part of the area history. Fort Peachtree was built near the creek and the Chattahoochee River to guard against the Cherokee, who were in the Cherokee County territory northwest of the river. During the American Civil War, the Battle of Peachtree Creek was a major battle of the Atlanta Campaign. Pace's Ferry was built across the river near the creek, Paces Ferry Road still runs parallel to the creek. Another street, Peachtree Battle Avenue, runs in a similar fashion; because it is called just Peachtree Battle, that part of Buckhead is called the same, which in turn gave rise to a local play called Peachtree Battle. Its two major tributaries are the South Fork Peachtree Creek; the northern fork begins at the edge of Gwinnett County and flows 13.5 miles southwest perfectly parallel to Interstate 85 through DeKalb County. It ends at its confluence with the southern fork, next to where the highway meets Georgia 400.
The southern fork, 15.4 miles long, begins in Tucker and flows south west, passing through Clarkston crossing under part of the Stone Mountain Freeway and back again, west of the Perimeter. It flows twice through the northern part of the campus of Emory University and its Wesley Woods section; the southern edge of its basin borders the Eastern Continental Divide, including Peavine Creek and its tributary Lullwater Creek, which originates in the Lake Claire neighborhood of Atlanta and drains Fernbank Forest and the Druid Hills Golf Club north of Ponce de Leon Avenue. Other major nearby creeks in Atlanta include Nancy Creek, Proctor Creek. Since 1912, the stream gauge on Peachtree Creek has been located where it crosses Northside Drive just east of Interstate 75, just northwest of the Brookwood Split, it is located at 33°49′10″N 84°24′28″W, at 764 feet above mean sea level. A 1-inch rainfall puts 1.5 billion gallons or 6 billion liters into the watershed, by USGS calculations. That watershed is 86.8 square miles.
There is water quality monitoring equipment there, all transmitted to GOES weather satellites and back down to the USGS in real time. Prior to this current system, daily flow and water quality sampling were done as far back as 1958 and 1959, respectively. Records for this site are maintained by the USGS Georgia Water Science Center. Flood stage is 17.0 feet depth, due to the heavy urbanization in the area, it reaches above this mark during heavy storms. Peachtree Creek suffered massive flooding after Hurricane Frances and Hurricane Ivan in September 2004. Late on September 16, 2004, it reached a stage of 22.63 feet, a flow of 14,200 cubic feet or 402 cubic meters per second, a width of 450 feet, its highest official flood record which washed away its gauge. The creek was about ten times its normal width, three times its normal speed, 300 times its normal flow; the worst flood occurred in 1919, when on January 29 or December 9 it reached a flow of about 21,000 cubic feet or 600 cubic meters per second, a stage of 25.80 feet.
Another flood occurred in 1912 just above the 2004 event, another in 1915 just below it. Base flow for the stream is about 67 cubic feet per second, a depth of about 3 feet; the 2009 Atlanta floods set new records for most streams in the area, Peachtree Creek at Northside Drive came a close second place, reaching a height of 23.89 feet on September 21, 2009 at 9:15 pm, causing water to flow over the bridge. The North Fork reached a record of 18.07 feet at 7:15pm, topping the previous record of 17.70 feet in September 2004. The South Fork reached its third-highest at 15.21 feet 5:45pm, the record being a flood that brought it to 16.35 feet on March 16, 1976. The other stream gauges are SPJG1 on the South Fork "near Atlanta" at Johnson Road since April 2003, NPBG1 "near Atlanta" on the North Fork at Buford Highway since May 2003, with another on the North Fork further up "near Doraville" at Graves Road since June 2001. On October 2017, future plans were released for the Peachtree Creek Greenway that will run along Peachtree Creek.
Construction on the first section of the Greenway began in late 2018 in Brookhaven, GA. The goal of the greenway is to provide residents with close-to-home and close-to-work access to bicycle and pedestrian trails, serve transportation and recreation needs, help encourage quality of life and sustainable economic growth; the trail will connect the cities of Atlanta, Brookhaven and Doraville. Fishing in Nancy Creek USGS site for Peachtree Creek Peachtree Creek, stream gauge at Northside Drive South Fork Peachtree Creek, stream gauge at Johnson Road North Fork Peachtree Creek, stream gauge at Buford Highway North Fork Peachtree Creek, stream gauge at Graves Road ISBN 0-8203-2929-0 Peachtree Creek: A Natural and Unnatural History of Atlanta's Watershed by David R. Kaufman Peachtree Battle Alliance
Atlanta Campaign
The Atlanta Campaign was a series of battles fought in the Western Theater of the American Civil War throughout northwest Georgia and the area around Atlanta during the summer of 1864. Union Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman invaded Georgia from the vicinity of Chattanooga, beginning in May 1864, opposed by the Confederate general Joseph E. Johnston. Johnston's Army of Tennessee withdrew toward Atlanta in the face of successive flanking maneuvers by Sherman's group of armies. In July, the Confederate president, Jefferson Davis, replaced Johnston with the more aggressive General John Bell Hood, who began challenging the Union Army in a series of costly frontal assaults. Hood's army was besieged in Atlanta and the city fell on September 2, setting the stage for Sherman's March to the Sea and hastening the end of the war; the Atlanta Campaign followed the Union victory in the Battles for Chattanooga in November 1863. After Ulysses S. Grant was promoted to general-in-chief of all Union armies, he left his favorite subordinate from his time in command of the Western Theater, William T. Sherman, in charge of the Western armies.
Grant's strategy was to apply pressure against the Confederacy in several coordinated offensives. While he, George G. Meade, Benjamin Butler, Franz Sigel, George Crook, William W. Averell advanced in Virginia against Robert E. Lee, Nathaniel Banks attempted to capture Mobile, Sherman was assigned the mission of defeating Johnston's army, capturing Atlanta, striking through Georgia and the Confederate heartland. At the start of the campaign, Sherman's Military Division of the Mississippi consisted of three armies: Maj. Gen. James B. McPherson's Army of the Tennessee, including the corps of Maj. Gen. John A. Logan, Maj. Gen. Grenville M. Dodge, Maj. Gen. Frank P. Blair, Jr.. When McPherson was killed at the Battle of Atlanta, Maj. Gen. Oliver O. Howard replaced him. Maj. Gen. John M. Schofield's Army of the Ohio, consisting of Schofield's XXIII Corps and a cavalry division commanded by Maj. Gen. George Stoneman. Maj. Gen. George H. Thomas's Army of the Cumberland, including the corps of Maj. Gen. Oliver O. Howard, Maj. Gen. John M. Palmer, Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker, Brig. Gen. Washington L. Elliott.
After Howard took army command, David S. Stanley took over IV Corps. On paper at the beginning of the campaign, Sherman outnumbered Johnston 98,500 to 50,000, but his ranks were depleted by many furloughed soldiers, Johnston received 15,000 reinforcements from Alabama. However, by June, a steady stream of reinforcements brought Sherman's strength to 112,000. Opposing Sherman, the Army of Tennessee was commanded first by Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, relieved of his command in mid-campaign and replaced by Lt. Gen. John Bell Hood; the four corps in the 50,000-man army were commanded by: Lt. Gen. William J. Hardee. Lt. Gen. John Bell Hood. Lt. Gen. Leonidas Polk; when Polk was killed on June 14, Loring took over as commander of the corps but was replaced by Alexander P. Stewart on June 23. Maj. Gen. Joseph Wheeler. Johnston was a conservative general with a reputation for withdrawing his army before serious contact would result, but in Georgia, he faced the much more aggressive Sherman. Johnston's army took up entrenched defensive positions in the campaign.
Sherman prudently avoided suicidal frontal assaults against most of these positions, instead maneuvering in flanking marches around the defenses as he advanced from Chattanooga towards Atlanta. Whenever Sherman flanked the defensive lines, Johnston would retreat to another prepared position. Both armies took advantage of the railroads as supply lines, with Johnston shortening his supply lines as he drew closer to Atlanta, Sherman lengthening his own. Johnston had entrenched his army on the long, high mountain of Rocky Face Ridge and eastward across Crow Valley; as Sherman approached, he decided to demonstrate against the position with two columns while he sent a third one through Snake Creek Gap, to the right, to hit the Western & Atlantic Railroad at Resaca, Georgia. The two columns engaged the enemy at Dug Gap. In the meantime, the third column, under McPherson, passed through Snake Creek Gap and on May 9 advanced to the outskirts of Resaca, where it found Confederates entrenched. Fearing defeat, McPherson pulled his column back to Snake Creek Gap.
On May 10, Sherman decided to join McPherson to take Resaca. The next morning, as he discovered Sherman's army withdrawing from their positions in front of Rocky Face Ridge, Johnston retired south towards Resaca. Union troops tested the Confederate lines around Resaca to pinpoint their whereabouts. Full scale fighting occurred on May 14, the Union troops were repulsed except on Johnston's right flank, where Sherman did not exploit his advantage. On May 15, the battle continued with no advantage to either side until Sherman sent a for
