Decisions of the Atlanta Campaign

At the close of the battles of Chickamauga and Chattanooga, Georgia was ripe for invasion by Union forces. As Gen. Joseph E. Johnston continued to retreat farther south, consistently outflanked by Gen. William T. Sherman’s divisions, Confederate president Jefferson Davis grew increasingly restless and replaced Johnston with Gen. John Bell Hood, hoping the more aggressive Hood would stem Sherman’s advance. On September 2, 1864, Hood’s armies were besieged at Atlanta and eventually defeated, clear