April 2006
Civil War
304 pages, 5.5 x 8.5
978-0-86554-745-2
$24.00t, Paper
Illustrations, index, bibliography
MUP/P220
| Sherman’s 1864 Trail of Battle to Atlanta
Philip L. Secrist
Chronicles the path of battle from north Georgia to Atlanta during the summer of 1864
In Sherman’s 1864 Trail of Battle to Atlanta the author traces the principal routes of march and sites of battle used by the Confederate and Union armies in the 120-day Atlanta Campaign. Special care is given to locating and identifying local families living along this path of war in 1864, and through their letters, diaries, or books, shares their experiences of war. Frances Howard’s book In and Out of the Lines, chronicles the hardships experienced by families in the path of marching armies, and in Lizzie Grimes’s diary she describes the burning of her house and town of Cassville, Georgia.
Through historic and modern topographical and highway maps and photographs, roads and houses along the march are located, and their present state of preservation or use is noted. Exact location of events along the way have been identified through the recovery of military artifacts on the site and through comparing terrain features described in official reports by battle commanders with the existing character of the site today. Other skirmishes or battle sites were located from recorded information on Sherman’s official maps.
The work is particularly valuable in its connection between the archival record and the physical location to which that record refers. The commander’s decision to “stay and fight” or extract himself from a difficult situation by “maneuver” is often substantially influenced by the terrain upon which he finds himself and the advantage enjoyed by the enemy. By drawing these points of data together, Sherman’s 1864 Trail of Battle to Atlanta brings the beginning of the infamous march to life.
PHILIP L. SECRIST served in WWII and the Korean War. He is a past pres-ident of the Atlanta Civil War Roundtable. He helped found and was appointed to the Georgia Civil War Commission. Secrist also served as chairman of the Cobb County Board of Commissioners from 1988 to 1993. He is widely known in the Atlanta area as an active proponent for the preservation of Civil War battle sites, helping to save the unprotected site of the battle of Pickett's Mill in nearby Paulding County in 1972.
Titles of Related Interest
Joe Brown’s Pets: The Georgia Militia, 1862–1865
The Battle of Resaca
Dear Old Roswell: The Civil War Letters of the King Family of Roswell, Georgia
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