Tag Archives: atlanta

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This Month in the Civil War – by S. McBride

 

As the steamy days of August, 1864 beset the weary and battered soldiers and citizens of the war-torn United States, Petersburg and Atlanta, two of the most vital cities in the rebellious Confederate States of America, were surrounded by Union forces and under almost constant shelling.  A civil war which could have conceivably ended within months had now dragged on for more than three full years with a horrendous loss of life, grievous injuries and the costly destruction of property. Nearly every family, north and south, had been affected in some way. But the gritty rebels refused to give up.  They endured the dangers, the hardships and the suffering with dogged determination.

Read the entire article in the August 21 issue of the Express.

 

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This Month in the Civil War: Sherman Moves to Georgia – By S. McBride

 

  “Mine eyes have beheld the Promised Land!”

   So wrote Major James Connolly of the 123rd Illinois Infantry to his wife, describing the arrival of Union forces on a high bluff overlooking the second-most important city in the Confederate States of America – Atlanta, Georgia - in mid-July of 1864.

   The Union soldiers, on seeing the city, gave voice to a cheer that Major Connolly supposed might have been heard all the way to Atlanta.  Within moments, he said, Generals William T. Sherman and George Thomas had joined them on the overlook, gazing southward across the Chattahoochee River at the city in the distance.  Atlanta was a strategic city, a rail hub with foundries, factories, munitions plants and supply depots all very vital to the survival of the Confederacy. Its importance to the rebellious south could not be overstated, and the Confederates had encircled it with elaborate fortifications.

 

Read the entire article in the July 10th issue of the Express.