The Civil War Battle for Atlanta

Why did Federal army decide to attack and capture Atlanta?

There are several reasons that Atlanta became the objective of direct and destructive attacks performed by Sherman’s forces. One of the reasons for the assault on Atlanta was that it would favor Lincoln’s reelection. In 1864, the Republicans nominated president Abraham Lincoln as their presidential candidate. However, Lincoln’s victory seem doubtful because of the general exhaustion provoked by the war in the North and the loss of the Radical Republican’s support because they thought Lincoln was too soft in vetoing the Wade-Davis Bill. Sherman believed that the capture of Atlanta would help Lincoln regain popularity and win re-elections. For that reason, Sherman attacked Atlanta.

Another important cause of the Atlanta’s attack was that the city was considered the workshop and warehouse of the Confederacy. During the wartime, Atlanta was full of foundries, arsenals, and machine-shops that supplied the Confederate armies. Sherman’s strategy was to destroy Atlanta and thereby harm the South’s military complex while slicing the Confederacy into several pieces which could not function as a whole.

The third cause of the Atlanta Campaign was to damage the complex system of railroads which supplied the Confederacy. Atlanta was a great regional distribution center because of its three converging railroads: the Western & Atlantic to Chatanooga and the Midwest, the Georgia Railroad to Augusta and South Carolina, and the Macon and Western Railroad toward the coast. Sherman’s plan was to destroy these railroads in order to leave Confederate troops without food and provisions, which would force them to abandon the fight.

Finally, Atlanta’s increased importance during the War motivated the Federal armies to attack it. The Civil War transformed Atlanta into a boom town with the prospect of future greatness. People from other perts of the country come to Atlanta, increasing its population about 50% during the years of the war. Sherman’s burning of Atlanta in 1864 was in fact, the most dramatic possible recognition of the city’s new importance.

All of these are reasons which have been attributed to the Union decision to attack Atlanta. Some of the most important motives are: Atlanta’s capture it would exert a major influence on Lincoln’s reelection, this city was commonly referred to as the work shop and warehouse of the Confederacy, Atlanta was also considered one of the most important transportation and communication centers of the South, and it experimented a substantial economic growing during the wartime.