Earls. I can honestly say one of his books i read at graduate school is one of the very finest and, in fact, one of the very first books to explore soldier motivation and ideology. It is an outstanding book. He has done many others that include pickens charge, rightful musket in the civil war. His book on braxton brag as well. Im not sure youll love him after you read earls book. It is a fair and very well researched and deeply analytical look at that controversial general. Earl has won a number of awards, including the tom watson prize for his work on civil war tactics, something he will be speaking about today. And, i should note, that this book, fighting for atlanta published by the university of North Carolina press that it, in fact, will be his topic. Let me welcome earl hess. Thank you, peter, very much for that nice, generous introduction. Fighting for atlanta, tactics, terrain and trenches in the civil war. Thats the topic. The purpose is to understand one of the more important elements that influence the course of operations during the Atlanta Campaign, which is fort fortifications. Field fortifications of the Overland Campaign of grant and lee in volume three, the petersburg campaign. The Atlanta Campaign was one of four campaigns in the civil war that heavily, heavily, heavily used fortifications. Atlanta, vicksburg in the western theater. A word or two maybe in general about the Atlanta Campaign for people who may not have that much familiarity with it. Very briefly, it is a major, long campaign. 100,000 union troops under william t. Sherman divided into three armys, thomas army of the cumberland, mcphersons army, until he was killed and then replaced by otis five days later and the army of the ohio under John Schofield against the army of tennessee led by joseph e. Johnston until july 18th when he was replaced by john bill hood. Dalton, georgia, first week of may and lasted with almost continuous contact with nine or ten major battles until atlanta failed september 2nd, 1864. Sherman drove 100 miles into confederate territory. A campaign of that length and size is unusual. The history of operations was affected by many factors. However, i looked primarily at one factor, field fortifications. Let me point out that when i did my trilogy on fortifications, it became clear to me that its very dangerous to look at the history of field fortifications without understanding topography as well as tactics. The subtitle is tactics, terrain and trenches. Soldier life, to me one of the more fascinating aspects. How do soldiers live and fight in field works . Now then, very briefly, what do i mean by tactics . Well, its a complicated topic. Ive written a book about at least some of it. I wouldnt go into a lot of detail here. Divide tactics into two major components. Number one, primary tactics. Those are the tactical formations and maneuvers that were designed to organize masses of men on the battlefield and on the march. Those maneuvers and formations were used by union and confederate. They were universal. And they didnt change during the course of the civil war. I wrote a book on primary tactics, which pete mentioned a moment ago, published in 2015. I dont ca i dont cover primary tactics in this book. Theres no need to. Instead with the higher or the secondary level of tactics, which used to be called grand tactics by civil war historians. I think that term is out of favor. They call it operations, or whatever they call it today. Basically this is the level of the field Army Commander. Do i attack . Do i act on the defensive . Do i try to outflank the enemy, et cetera, et cetera. Higher level than the primary level. And this is what is covered in this atlanta book because, you know, commanders johnston, hood, sherman, they all had to deal with field fortifications. Sherman adopted what i would like to call a cautiously offensive mode of operations in the Atlanta Campaign. That doesnt sound silly. A cautiously offensive mode of operations. Sherman wanted to conserve his manpower and avoid costly frontal attacks. But at the same time put a lot of continuous pressure on johnston and hood so that he could keep the ball rolling continuously for four months. One of the interesting aspects of the Atlanta Campaign that historians dont often point t out, grant and sherman coordinated themselves. One of the things that grant told sherman, you need to keep johnston so busy in georgia that he will not send reinforcements to help lee. And ill keep lee so busy in georgia that he cannot afford to send reinforcements to johnson and both agreed to do that. Thats one of the upper most things in shermans mind. We cant let the confederates just lay around or theyll do something dangerous like that. Now one of the cautiously offensive ways that sherman conducted himself, if he comes up against a strong confederate, fortified position, he fortfies in front of it. Military and sniper fire so theyre distracted and then he moves his military group to try outflank him right or left and try to pry him out of that fortification without having to attack it. Now and then, he did attack, like at kennesaw mountain. But generally speaking he conducted his campaign with a wonderful balance of attack and caution. Cautiously offensive mode of operations. Joseph johnston very conservative defensive mode of operating. Dig in on good ground. Hope the federals will attack and do nothing. Passive defensive. Johnston rarely thought in terms of counterattacking against sherman. And didnt do much to cross the three major rivers and he was ready to evacuate strong positions at the first sign of a u. S. Flanking operation. He deserved his men and his men loved him. He frustrated jefferson davis. Thats why davis fired him july 18th and replaced him with john bill hood, one of his core commanders, who talked big about the need to counter attack. And hood did on july 22nd, failed, lost 11,000 men and then reverted to relying on massive earth works and pretty passive defense like johnston had a few days later. How many of you have visited this region . Has anybody . Wonderful. Im glad to see that. More than i anticipated. This map will show the general theater of operations. The first zone goes from dalton, georgia, a town 30 miles south of chattanooga, down to the etowah river. If this pointer works ill be utterly delighted. There we go. It kind of worked a little bit. It doesnt seem to be working when it hits that slide, though. The etowah river is right here, right in the middle of the map. Between the etowah and the dalton, charactered by high dominating ridges that are wonderful, defensive positions. You put a line on top of Rocky Face Ridge it is unassailable. All sherman has to do is find the nearest undefended gap to right or left of johnston position and he can outflank his position easily. My argument is this first topographic zone is good for the federals. It facilitates their movement. Sherman is able to move through zone number one pretty quickly, in three weeks time. Battles at dalton on may 2th, may 14, 15. Cassville, may 19th. Once the campaign crosses the etowah river and enters the second zone between the etowah and the chattanooga, piedmont, rolling terrain. And it so happens that in this part of the piedmont theres not much development. A few small farms, lot of ground covered by thick woods and brush. Very bad and few roads. This terrain favors johnston and the confederates. Once you find out what road sherman is taking, you block it with troops. You stymie him. On top of that, when sherman enters this zone on may 23rd, rains begin to descend on northwest georgia, turning roads into rivers of mud. Sherman is stuck. The second zone is the worst phase of the Atlanta Campaign for the federals. Zone three favored the confederate confederates. It took from may 23rd to july 9. Sherman is worried. Hes worried that johnston may use this delay to send troops to grant. 15,000 troops. They dont even dent the confederate line. And he loses 3,000 men in the process. Learns his lesson from it. But generally sherman has to pry the confederates out of each fortified position in zone two. Once the campaign crosses the chattahoochee river its a different story. Its shermans game. South of the chattahoochee is piedmont country but well developed, lots of farms, plantations. 10,000 people ten miles south of the chattahoochee. Federals dont have much difficulty maneuvering troops through this. Atlanta is defended by a massive ring of for theification of for. He has to figure out how ai way to deal with that, but he will do that. The three rivers are part of the terrain. I remember a long time ago the historian, richard mcmurray, giving a talk in which he said at the three big rivers of the Atlanta Campaign were major, natural impediments to shermans operations. I completely disagree with him. Those three rivers, the oostanaula, south of resaca, the second one is the etowah, south of kingston and cassville and third is the chattahoochee, just short of atlanta. They were natural barriers, yes. Sherman, however, had little difficulty crossing them primarily because the confederates did not bother to contest the crossings. They didnt position significant numbers of troops to harass the federals as they tried the difficult task of crossing those rivers. Passive defense by johnston, even by hood. There were a couple of except n exceptions to that, yes. For the most part, the crossings were largely uncontested. The rivers were no impediment. Big topic. This is a photograph taken in april of 1866 of union earth works, artillery positions near kennesaw mountain. The mountain itself, little kennesaw right there. Sorry about this pointer. Little kennesaw is the big hump. Little hump is pigeon hill, spur of the kennesaw range. Union field eroded and degraded, yes. Temporary made out of local material eroding as time goes by. Army commanders, let me give you a little precipes. Number one, the Army Commander decides where we stand. Johnston has to make a decision, this ridge at cassville, kennesaw range. Then they go out and stake out the line. The chief engliineer has to fige out how to place the trench as close to the military crest as close as possible. Military crest refers to the spot on the slope where you can see all the ground in front of you so theres no, quote, dead space that the enemy can advance on, that you cant see him. The military crest can be near or often times is different from the natural crest. You have to be smart enough to tell the difference between the two of them. And they literally stake it out. They take stakes, like a construction project. The next step is for the infantry troops to line up there. You issue them shovels and spades. By the way, quarter masses are responsible for the entrenching tools they carried in the wagon. They have to be issued every day. You dont yet have these little individual shovels that you do in the modern world, world war ii, for example. 90 of the trench digging in the Atlanta Campaign, union and confederate done by infantry troops. Theres not enough black slaves available to johnston or engineer troops to be able to do all of that. The basic trench, you dig a trench at least three feet deep into the ground. You pile the dirt in front of you to form what is called a parapit, a bank of earth that shields you. Often before you do that, if youre lucky enough, you can have the time to gather some loose trees and rocks and pile them up on the ground in front of where you want to dig so that when you pile the dirt on top of that, you can add some quick height to the parapit to get better protection. Basically waist deep or so in the ground and the rest of your body is protected by a builtup berm. If you have time, you improve this basic trench with all sorts of embellishments, i like to call them. Traverse is a wonderful invention to protect yourself from flanking fire. Flanking fire is called, in military terms enfelade. Along your trench line, against your flank, youre in trouble. Only thing to do is to dig a trench and parapit at an angle to the main line. Look at this photograph of resaca taken in april 66. [ inaudible ] if you have the time to do it, this is far and away the best way to deal with the fire. You can hold on, protect yourself from flanking fire and hopefully stay in place. Another embellishment that is widespread in the Atlanta Campaign is a head log. You want to put some sort of log on top of the parapit to protect your head while firing. You raise it above the parapit about a block so theres a couple of inches, a slit. Can you stick the musket through, see through it and fire. The best thing to do is cut down a pine tree. Theyre straight, usually. Theyre soft wood. Theyre easy to cut and theyre easy, light to lift up on top of the parapet. One day i counted the rings in a sawedoff pine tree. And i estimated that a pine tree, eight to ten inches wide, is about 30 to 40 years old. Imagine a pine tree sprouting up from a seed in the days of Andrew Jackson in northwest georgia. 40 years later, the confederates are nearby and cut it down. Thats what were talking about. I could not find a photograph of a real head log using a pine tree. This is the best i could find. Confederate earth work in atlanta occupied by the federals. Can you see it . Its not a pine log. Its a building timber from a house. That will do, too, of course. [ inaudible ] also another thing a very deep trench even as they stand upright and not be exposed. Thats safe but you cant fire from it. Microphone. I will try. You cant fire from it. If youre down deep in the deepest part of the trench. So the firing step is raised up a couple of inches from the bottom of the trench so that you can step up on to it and be able at a height to fire under the headlog. And you step back into the deeper part of the trench in order to save yourself. This is a pretty sophisticated form of trench. Its not a basic trench anymore if you have a head log in it. And also if you have even more time and you want to maximize your defensive position, my gosh, you do some clear cutting of trees in front of it so that the enemy cant sneak up on you 50 yards wide, 200 yards wide, whatever you can do. It may seem ironic but in addition to that, you man made some obstructions to replace the trees. Different kinds of obstructions that are designed to force an attacking enemy to stop at short range of your firing line. And so you could shoot them down better and their Forward Movement is stopped. Several different categories of things. Before i point them out to you, i want to tell you about the ponder house. I think this is probably the most famous photograph to come from the Atlanta Campaign. Widely reproduced because of this ponder house. Thats the white house you see there. Built by a guy named ponder in 1857 made of brick and stucco near the northwest corner of the atlanta city defenses, near confederate fourth designated as fort x. More popularly called fort hood. Standing on the parapet of the fort looking at the ponder house. Ponder left his house in 1863 because his wife, ellen, was unfaithful to him. According to the story she was blatantly having an affair with somebody and he was humiliated and basically abandoned her. Ellen stayed there until the spring of 1864 when she also fled before sherman got there. The house was empty, used by sharpshooters, perforated by u. S. Military. Ponder owned 65 slaves before the war. If youre interested in the history of west point, the first africanamerican to graduate from the u. S. Military academy was a man named henry flipper. Flipper, a son of one of the ponder slaves. This photograph so widely reproduce reproduced, you can see lots of obstructions here. You can see incline and upright palisades. The upright palisade is the upright structure in front of the trench. That is an amazing obstruction that will really obscure the fire of the guys in the trench as well as block the movement of attacking troops and inclined palisade are those sticking at a 45degree angle and sharpened at the end so an attacker will catch it at his breast. You have to be careful to put the inclined palisade close enough so guys cant slip through it or you lose the effectiveness of it. If you look closely at this photograph you can see other things. The confederates built a massive defensive system for atlanta. The atlanta city defenses were constructed by a guy named grant, ironically, confederate engineer officer, encircled the city of atlanta and was developed into probably the most heavily fortified city in america, perhaps, other than washington and richmond, by the end of the civil war. With multiple layers of obstructions, heavy earth works, they were impregnable and sherman had no intention to attack them. Fort x is in the northwest quadrant. It was one of five that grant planned but after hood took command of the army of tennessee he gave orders for those to be connected by infantry trenches. Thats why we call this hoods addition to the atlanta city line on the northwest and the northeast sector of the atlanta defensive perimeter. Another obstruction, chevauxdefrise, in my fractured french, forced french, you can see a chevauxdefrise. You constructed behind the lines. You deploy it in front of the fortification. You chain it together so that it will not be easily taken apart. It was a formidablelooking obstruction. Layered defense. As i mentioned to you, half the time you have several five or six different layers of obstructions in front of a heavy earth walk. Union workers, soldiers, engineers looking through their glasses when they got through this phase of the Atlantic Campaign shuddered. And sherman absolutely refused to launch a frontal attack against this position. This is from confederate fort v looking toward the next fort. You see the connecting line between. The confederates made 18 different fortified campaigns. Some of them heavier than others. Most of them quite heavy and effective. All the way from dalton down to places like love joy station, palmeto station, constructed after the fall of atlanta. And in addition to this, the federals constructed a line of defenses opposite each one of these lines. In addition to that after they captured atlanta, the federals dug their own city defenses for their own purposes. You dont have to remember all of these 18 lines, but i think its pretty impressive to have it on a slide to look at. Those are the dates they were held. Its hundreds of miles of earth works dug by both sides. There are estimates of it. I dont know how accurate they are. There are literally hundreds of miles if you add them together. The line surrounding atlanta itself were 15 miles of conti e continuous trenches both union and confederate. Well, n