The Battle Of Peach Tree Creek

Author : Earl J. Hess
Publisher : UNC Press Books
Page : 344 pages
File Size : 43,7 Mb
Release : 2017-08-09
Category : History
ISBN : 9781469634203

Get Book

The Battle of Peach Tree Creek by Earl J. Hess Pdf

On July 20, 1864, the Civil War struggle for Atlanta reached a pivotal moment. As William T. Sherman's Union forces came ever nearer the city, the defending Confederate Army of Tennessee replaced its commanding general, removing Joseph E. Johnston and elevating John Bell Hood. This decision stunned and demoralized Confederate troops just when Hood was compelled to take the offensive against the approaching Federals. Attacking northward from Atlanta's defenses, Hood's men struck George H. Thomas's Army of the Cumberland just after it crossed Peach Tree Creek on July 20. Initially taken by surprise, the Federals fought back with spirit and nullified all the advantages the Confederates first enjoyed. As a result, the Federals achieved a remarkable defensive victory. Offering new and definitive interpretations of the battle's place within the Atlanta campaign, Earl J. Hess describes how several Confederate regiments and brigades made a pretense of advancing but then stopped partway to the objective and took cover for the rest of the afternoon on July 20. Hess shows that morale played an unusually important role in determining the outcome at Peach Tree Creek--a soured mood among the Confederates and overwhelming confidence among the Federals spelled disaster for one side and victory for the other.

Author : Robert D. Jenkins
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 45,6 Mb
Release : 2013
Category : History
ISBN : 0881463965

Get Book

The Battle of Peach Tree Creek by Robert D. Jenkins Pdf

The Battle of Peach Tree Creek marked the beginning of the end for the Confederacy, for it turned the page from the patient defense displayed by General Joseph E. Johnston to the bold offense called upon by his replacement, General John Bell Hood. Until this point in the campaign, the Confederates had fought primarily in the defensive from behind earthworks, forcing Federal commander William T. Sherman to either assault fortified lines, or go around them in flanking moves. At Peach Tree Creek, the roles would be reversed for the first time, as Southerners charged Yankee lines. The Gate City, as Atlanta has been called, was in many ways the capstone to the Confederacy's growing military-industrial complex and was the transportation hub of the fledgling nation. For the South it had to be held. For the North it had to be taken. With General Johnston removed for failing to parry the Yankee thrust into Georgia, the fate of Atlanta and the Confederacy now rested on the shoulders of thirty-three-year-old Hood, whose body had been torn by the war. Peach Tree Creek was the first of three battles in eight days in which Hood led the Confederate Army to desperate, but unsuccessful, attempts to repel the Federals encircling Atlanta. This particular battle started the South on a downward spiral from which she would never recover. After Peach Tree Creek and its companion battles for Atlanta, the clear-hearing Southerner could hear the death throes of the Confederacy. It was the first nail in the coffin of Atlanta and Dixie. -end

Author : Earl J. Hess
Publisher : UNC Press Books
Page : 544 pages
File Size : 41,6 Mb
Release : 2016-09-02
Category : History
ISBN : 9781469628769

Get Book

Braxton Bragg by Earl J. Hess Pdf

As a leading Confederate general, Braxton Bragg (1817–1876) earned a reputation for incompetence, for wantonly shooting his own soldiers, and for losing battles. This public image established him not only as a scapegoat for the South's military failures but also as the chief whipping boy of the Confederacy. The strongly negative opinions of Bragg's contemporaries have continued to color assessments of the general's military career and character by generations of historians. Rather than take these assessments at face value, Earl J. Hess's biography offers a much more balanced account of Bragg, the man and the officer. While Hess analyzes Bragg's many campaigns and battles, he also emphasizes how his contemporaries viewed his successes and failures and how these reactions affected Bragg both personally and professionally. The testimony and opinions of other members of the Confederate army--including Bragg's superiors, his fellow generals, and his subordinates--reveal how the general became a symbol for the larger military failures that undid the Confederacy. By connecting the general's personal life to his military career, Hess positions Bragg as a figure saddled with unwarranted infamy and humanizes him as a flawed yet misunderstood figure in Civil War history.

Author : Earl J. Hess
Publisher : UNC Press Books
Page : 342 pages
File Size : 53,7 Mb
Release : 2013
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9781469602110

Get Book

Kennesaw Mountain by Earl J. Hess Pdf

While fighting his way toward Atlanta, William T. Sherman encountered his biggest roadblock at Kennesaw Mountain, where Joseph E. Johnston's Army of Tennessee held a heavily fortified position. The opposing armies confronted each other from June 19 to July 3, 1864. Hess explains how this battle, with its combination of maneuver and combat, severely tried the patience and endurance of the common soldier and why Johnston's strategy might have been the Confederates' best chance to halt the Federal drive toward Atlanta.

Author : Albert Castel
Publisher : University Press of Kansas
Page : 688 pages
File Size : 55,7 Mb
Release : 1992-11-02
Category : History
ISBN : 9780700607488

Get Book

Decision in the West by Albert Castel Pdf

Following a skirmish on June 28, 1864, a truce is called so the North can remove their dead and wounded. For two hours, Yankees and Rebels mingle, with some of the latter even assisting the former in their grisly work. Newspapers are exchanged. Northern coffee is swapped for Southern tobacco. Yanks crowd around two Rebel generals, soliciting and obtaining autographs. As they part, a Confederate calls to a Yankee, "I hope to miss you, Yank, if I happen to shoot in your direction." "May I, never hit you Johnny if we fight again," comes the reply. The reprieve is short. A couple of months, dozens of battles, and more than 30,000 casualties later, the North takes Atlanta. One of the most dramatic and decisive episodes of the Civil War, the Atlanta Campaign was a military operation carried out on a grand scale across a spectacular landscape that pitted some of the war's best (and worst) general against each other. In Decision in the West, Albert Castel provides the first detailed history of the Campaign published since Jacob D. Cox's version appeared in 1882. Unlike Cox, who was a general in Sherman's army, Castel provides an objective perspective and a comprehensive account based on primary and secondary sources that have become available in the past 110 years. Castel gives a full and balanced treatment to the operations of both the Union and Confederate armies from the perspective of the common soldiers as well as the top generals. He offers new accounts and analyses of many of the major events of the campaign, and, in the process, corrects many long-standing myths, misconceptions, and mistakes. In particular, he challenges the standard view of Sherman's performance. Written in present tense to give a sense of immediacy and greater realism, Decision in the West demonstrates more definitively than any previous book how the capture of Atlanta by Sherman's army occurred and why it assured Northern victory in the Civil War.

Author : Stephen Davis
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 527 pages
File Size : 50,6 Mb
Release : 2017-09
Category : History
ISBN : 0881466409

Get Book

What the Yankees Did to Us by Stephen Davis Pdf

The name of Union general William T. Sherman is still reviled in Atlanta, 150 years after his soldiers devastated this important Georgia city. Thirty-seven days of artillery bombardment, July-August 1864, wrecked countless downtown buildings and killed perhaps a score of civilians. Longtime Atlantan Stephen Davis describes Sherman's shelling in detail unmatched in the Civil War literature. After capturing Atlanta, Federal troops occupied the city for two and a half months during September-November, further tearing down more buildings to make their huts and fortifications. Before leading his army across Georgia to the sea, Sherman ordered the leveling of much of downtown. His soldiers took up torches on their own and set fires throughout town. The "Burning of Atlanta" is thus only part of the city's wartime travail. Davis tells the story with a thoroughness and understanding that makes What the Yankees Did to Us the definitive work on the subject.

Author : Earl J. Hess
Publisher : UNC Press Books
Page : 401 pages
File Size : 54,8 Mb
Release : 2020-09-25
Category : History
ISBN : 9781469660189

Get Book

Storming Vicksburg by Earl J. Hess Pdf

The most overlooked phase of the Union campaign to capture Vicksburg, Mississippi, was the time period from May 18 to May 25, 1863, when Ulysses S. Grant closed in on the city and attempted to storm its defenses. Federal forces mounted a limited attack on May 19 and failed to break through Confederate lines. After two days of preparation, Grant's forces mounted a much larger assault. Although the Army of the Tennessee had defeated Confederates under John C. Pemberton at Champion Hill on May 16 and Big Black River on May 17, the defenders yet again repelled Grant's May 22 attack. The Gibraltar of the Confederacy would not fall until a six-week siege ended with Confederate surrender on July 4. In Storming Vicksburg, military historian Earl J. Hess reveals how a combination of rugged terrain, poor coordination, and low battlefield morale among Union troops influenced the result of the largest attack mounted by Grant's Army of the Tennessee. Using definitive research in unpublished personal accounts and other underutilized archives, Hess makes clear that events of May 19–22 were crucial to the Vicksburg campaign's outcome and shed important light on Grant's generalship, Confederate defensive strategy, and the experience of common soldiers as an influence on battlefield outcomes.

Author : Jim Woodrick
Publisher : Arcadia Publishing
Page : 160 pages
File Size : 42,5 Mb
Release : 2016
Category : History
ISBN : 9781626197299

Get Book

Civil War Siege of Jackson, Mississippi, The by Jim Woodrick Pdf

Even after a grueling forty-seven-day siege at Vicksburg, Ulysses S. Grant could not rest on his laurels. Just fifty miles away in Jackson, Confederate general Joseph E. Johnston and the "Army of Relief" still posed a threat to Grant's hard-won victory. General William Tecumseh Sherman countered by marching Union troops to Jackson. After a weeklong siege under a hot Mississippi sun, Johnston's army abandoned the city, leaving the fate of Jackson in the hands of Sherman's troops. Historian Jim Woodrick recounts the Civil War devastation and rebirth of Mississippi's capital.

Author : Eric J. Wittenberg
Publisher : Savas Beatie
Page : 546 pages
File Size : 51,6 Mb
Release : 2006-04-19
Category : History
ISBN : 9781611210156

Get Book

The Battle of Monroe's Crossroads by Eric J. Wittenberg Pdf

A detailed tactical narrative of one of the most important but least known engagements of William T. Sherman’s Carolinas Campaign during the Civil War. As General Sherman’s infantry crossed into North Carolina, Maj. Gen. Judson Kilpatrick’s veteran Federal cavalry division fanned out in front, screening the advance. When Kilpatrick learned that Confederate cavalry under Lt. Gen. Wade Hampton was hot on his trail, he decided to set a trap for the Southern horsemen near a place called Monroe’s Crossroads. Hampton, however, learned of the plan and decided to do something Kilpatrick was not expecting: attack. On March 10, 1865, Southern troopers under Hampton and Maj. Gen. Joseph Wheeler launched a savage surprise attack on Kilpatrick’s sleeping camp. After three hours of some of the toughest cavalry fighting of the entire Civil War, Hampton broke off and withdrew. His attack, however, stopped Kilpatrick’s advance and bought another precious day for Lt. Gen. William J. Hardee to evacuate his command from Fayetteville. This, in turn, permitted Hardee to join the command of Gen. Joseph E. Johnston and set the stage for the climactic Battle of Bentonville nine days later. Noted Civil War author Eric J. Wittenberg has written the first history of this important but long-forgotten battle, and places it in its proper context within the entire Carolinas Campaign. His study features twenty-eight original maps and dozens of illustrations. Finally, an author of wide experience and renown has brought to vivid life this overlooked portion of the Carolinas Campaign. Praise for The Battle of Monroe’s Crossroads “All the elements that we expect in great battle are here: high drama, command decisions good, bad, and ugly; courage and cowardice, sacrifice, and fortitude. Readers both new to the genre and veteran to the literature will find much of value in The Battle of Monroe’s Crossroads.” —Noah Andre Trudeau, author of The Last Citadel: Petersburg, June 1864–April 1865 “Features a marvelous cast of characters and a riveting story impeccably researched and judiciously interpreted. It is the definitive account of this fascinating battle.” —Mark L. Bradley, author of Last Stand in the Carolinas: The Battle of Bentonville

Author : Russell S. Bonds
Publisher : Westholme Publishing
Page : 552 pages
File Size : 54,7 Mb
Release : 2009
Category : History
ISBN : WISC:89100752039

Get Book

War Like the Thunderbolt by Russell S. Bonds Pdf

Draws on diaries, unpublished letters, and other archival sources to trace the events of the Civil War campaign that sealed the fate of the Confederacy and was instrumental in securing Abraham Lincoln's reelection.

Author : Earl J. Hess
Publisher : UNC Press Books
Page : 289 pages
File Size : 40,6 Mb
Release : 2015-05-18
Category : History
ISBN : 9781469622422

Get Book

The Battle of Ezra Church and the Struggle for Atlanta by Earl J. Hess Pdf

Fought on July 28, 1864, the Battle of Ezra Church was a dramatic engagement during the Civil War's Atlanta campaign. Confederate forces under John Bell Hood desperately fought to stop William T. Sherman's advancing armies as they tried to cut the last Confederate supply line into the city. Confederates under General Stephen D. Lee nearly overwhelmed the Union right flank, but Federals under General Oliver O. Howard decisively repelled every attack. After five hours of struggle, 5,000 Confederates lay dead and wounded, while only 632 Federals were lost. The result was another major step in Sherman's long effort to take Atlanta. Hess's compelling study is the first book-length account of the fighting at Ezra Church. Detailing Lee's tactical missteps and Howard's vigilant leadership, he challenges many common misconceptions about the battle. Richly narrated and drawn from an array of unpublished manuscripts and firsthand accounts, Hess's work sheds new light on the complexities and significance of this important engagement, both on and off the battlefield.

Author : Gary Ecelbarger
Publisher : University of Oklahoma Press
Page : 288 pages
File Size : 53,6 Mb
Release : 2016-10-05
Category : History
ISBN : 9780806156460

Get Book

Slaughter at the Chapel by Gary Ecelbarger Pdf

The Battle of Ezra Church was one of the deadliest engagements in the Atlanta Campaign of the Civil War and continues to be one of the least understood. Both official and unofficial reports failed to illuminate the true bloodshed of the conflict: one of every three engaged Confederates was killed or wounded, including four generals. Nor do those reports acknowledge the flaws—let alone the ultimate failure—of Confederate commander John Bell Hood’s plan to thwart Union general William Tecumseh Sherman’s southward advance. In an account that refutes and improves upon all other interpretations of the Battle of Ezra Church, noted battle historian Gary Ecelbarger consults extensive records, reports, and personal accounts to deliver a nuanced hour-by-hour overview of how the battle actually unfolded. His narrative fills in significant facts and facets of the battle that have long gone unexamined, correcting numerous conclusions that historians have reached about key officers’ intentions and actions before, during, and after this critical contest. Eleven troop movement maps by leading Civil War cartographer Hal Jespersen complement Ecelbarger’s analysis, detailing terrain and battle maneuvers to give the reader an on-the-ground perspective of the conflict. With new revelations based on solid primary-source documentation, Slaughter at the Chapel is the most comprehensive treatment of the Battle of Ezra Church yet written, as powerful in its implications as it is compelling in its moment-to-moment details.

Author : Earl J. Hess
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 45,5 Mb
Release : 2020
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 9798890856371

Get Book

Fighting for Atlanta by Earl J. Hess Pdf

Author : James A. Barnes,James Richards Carnahan,Thomas H. B. McCain
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 636 pages
File Size : 53,8 Mb
Release : 1895
Category : United States
ISBN : UCAL:B5025381

Get Book

The Eighty-sixth Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry by James A. Barnes,James Richards Carnahan,Thomas H. B. McCain Pdf

Author : John S. Sledge
Publisher : University of Alabama Press
Page : 290 pages
File Size : 45,6 Mb
Release : 2017-08-15
Category : History
ISBN : 9780817319601

Get Book

These Rugged Days by John S. Sledge Pdf

Secession -- War in the valley -- Mobile under blockade -- Streight's Raid, 1863 -- Rousseau's Raid, 1864 -- The Battle of Mobile Bay -- Wilson's Raid, 1865 -- The Mobile campaign -- Montgomery Falls