General John Bell Hood tried everything he could: Surprise attack.
Flanking march. Cavalry raid into the enemy's rear lines. Simply
enduring his opponent's semi-siege of the city. But nothing he tried
worked. Because by the time he assumed command of Confederate forces
protecting Atlanta, his predecessor Joe Johnston's chronic,
characteristic strategy of gradual withdrawal had doomed the city to
fall to William T. Sherman's Union troops. Joe Johnston lost Atlanta and
John Bell Hood has gotten a bum rap, Stephen Davis argues in his new
book, Atlanta Will Fall: Sherman, Joe Johnston, and the Yankee Heavy
Battalions. The fall of the city was inevitable because Johnston pursued
a strategy that was typical of his career: he fell back. Again and
again. To the point where he allowed Sherman's army to within five miles
of the city. Against a weaker opponent, Johnston's strategy might have
succeeded. But Sherman commanded superior numbers, and he was a bold,
imaginative strategist who pressed the enemy daily and used his
artillery to pound their lines. Against this combination, Johnston
didn't have a chance. And by the time Hood took over the Confederate
command, neither did he. Atlanta Will Fall provides a lively, fast-paced
overview of the entire Atlanta campaign from Dalton to Jonesboro. Davis
describes the battles and analyzes the strategies. He evaluates the
three generals, examining their plans of action, their tactics, and
their leadership ability. In doing so, he challenges the commonly held
perceptions of the two Confederate leaders and provides a new
perspective on one of the most decisive battles of the Civil War. An
excellent supplemental text for courses on the Civil War and American
nineteenth-century history, Atlanta Will Fall will engage students with
its brisk, concise examination of the fight for Atlanta.
