The Battle of Peach Tree Creek: Hood's First Sortie, 20 July 1864

by Robert Jenkins Sr

Overview

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 called upon by his replacement, General John Bell Hood. Until this point in the campaign, 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 Creek 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. -end

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780881463965
Publisher:	Mercer University Press
Publication date:	08/01/2021
Pages:	608
Sales rank:	299,245
Product dimensions:	7.90(w) x 12.10(h) x 2.50(d)

About the Author

Robert D. Jenkins, Sr. A native of Mississippi, Robert D. Jenkins, Sr., grew up in Chamblee, Georgia, where he first studied the Civil War as part of the fourth-grade curriculum where he chose "War in Georgia" for a class project. He was hooked and has been at it ever since. A graduate of Georgia Southern (BA) and Mercer University (JD), Jenkins is an attorney in Dalton, Georgia.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Preface

1 The Final Summer 1

2 The Plan 5

3 A Rich Man's War and a Poor Man's Fight 37

4 Cannonade Atlanta without Mercy 41

5 Old Reliable 52

6 The Bloody Magnolias 63

7 With One Foot over the Creek 75

8 There'll Be Trouble out There 93

9 Here They Come Boys, By God a Million of Them 97

10 A Straggling, Haphazard Kind of Hide and Seek Affair 104

11 Now You May Give It to Them, Captain 112

12 An I Give a Dare Affair 143

13 We Must Carry Everything…the Fate of Atlanta Depends on Us 161

14 Bailey Be a Good Boy 172

15 They Fought Like Very Devils 189

16 The Fight for Collier Mill 200

17 Holding onto Collier Ridge 252

18 Thickets Were Literally Cradled by Bullets 278

19 A Square Stand-up Fight for Three Hours 301

20 That Is Where but Little Fun Came 322

21 It Was Chickamauga Again 331

22 No, No, General, I Did Not Lose Any Men 349

23 We Will Have to Fight to Get Atlanta 359

24 Be on the Lookout for Breastworks 369

25 It Was the Saddest Day I Ever Saw 389

26 A Negative Victory Plainly Won 401

27 Fresh Tidings from the Battlefield 411

28 Epilogue: Peach Tree Creek National Military Park? 417

Roster of Confederate and Federal Losses at Peach Tree Creek 425

Bibliography 513

Index 533