The Battle of Peach Tree Creek : Hood's first sortie, 20 July 1864 / Robert D. Jenkins, Sr.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Jenkins, Robert D., 1964- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Peachtree Creek, Battle of, Ga., 1864.

Atlanta Campaign, 1864.

Physical Description:

xviii, 553 pages ; 24 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Macon, Georgia : Mercer University Press, [2013]

Summary:

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 orchestrated by his replacement General John Bell Hood. Until this point, 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 Greek 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. Book jacket.

Contents:

The final summer

The plan

A rich man's war and a poor man's fight

Cannonade Atlanta without mercy

Old Reliable

The bloody magnolias

With one foot over the creek

There'll be trouble out there

Here they come boys, by God a million of them

A straggling, haphazard kind of hide and seek affair

Now you may give it to them, captain

An I give a dare affair

We must carry everything...the fate of Atlanta depends on us

Bailey be a good boy

They fought like very devils

The fight for Collier Mill

Holding onto Collier Ridge

Thickets were literally cradled by bullets

A square stand-up fight for three hours

That is where but little fun came

It was Chickamauga again

No, no, general, I did not lose any men

We will have to fight to get Atlanta

Be on the lookout for breastworks

It was the saddest day I ever saw

A negative victory plainly won

Fresh tidings from the battlefield

Epilogue: Peach Tree Creek National Military Park?.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780881463965

0881463965

OCLC:

855858223