Battle of Atlanta, (July 22, 1864) American Civil War engagement that was part of the Union’s summer Atlanta Campaign. Union Major Generals William Tecumseh Sherman and James B. McPherson successfully defended against a Confederate offensive from Lieut. Gen. John Bell Hood on the eastern outskirts of Atlanta, Ga. The Union victory inflicted heavy casualties on Hood’s army, but the city would not fall to Sherman until September. Of the 34,863 Union troops engaged at the Battle of Atlanta, 3,722 were killed, wounded, captured, or reported missing. Confederate forces suffered an estimated 5,500 casualties of the 40,438 engaged. The battle had special significance for Abraham Lincoln, who was seeking a second term as U.S. president. The war had been dragging on longer than either the Union or the Confederacy expected, and war dissatisfaction was already threatening Lincoln’s chances of reelection.
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Learn about the Battle of Atlanta, a U.S. Civil War engagement that was part of the Union’s summer 1864 Atlanta Campaign
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Atlanta Summary
Atlanta, city, capital (1868) of Georgia, U.S., and seat (1853) of Fulton county (but also partly in DeKalb county). It lies in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in the northwestern part of the state, just southeast of the Chattahoochee River. Atlanta is Georgia’s largest city and the
Georgia Summary
Georgia, constituent state of the United States of America. Ranking fourth among the U.S. states east of the Mississippi River in terms of total area (though first in terms of land area) and by many years the youngest of the 13 former English colonies, Georgia was founded in 1732, at which time its
Atlanta Campaign Summary
Atlanta Campaign, an important series of battles in Georgia that occurred May–September 1864 between Union and Confederate forces during the American Civil War. Union troops eventually cut off a main Confederate supply center, and the outcome influenced the U.S. presidential election of 1864, in
United States Summary
United States, country in North America, a federal republic of 50 states. Besides the 48 conterminous states that occupy the middle latitudes of the continent, the United States includes the state of Alaska, at the northwestern extreme of North America, and the island state of Hawaii, in the