Didnt have any confidence that they could hold this position in this, so, yet, the army retreated yet again. Sherman, at this point, is pretty optimistic about the course of the campaign up to this point. And in a wonderfully e voktive phrase, he writes this is at the beginning. With are like a vast hive of bees and expect to swarm over the chatahoochie in a few days. Johnsons army was in the alatoona mountains. Sherman was very familiar with the entire section of georgia. He had spent time in the 1840s. He had been stationed here. Sherman knew it would be foolish to try and attack johnson in the alatoona mountains. So what johnson tries to do is execute another flanking march. This one would involve some risk because it would move the union army some mimes away from the western atlantic. The objective of this march would be the town of dallas. Johnsons calvary informed him in pretty timely fashion of this Movement Toward dallas. And johnson shifts away west ward to try and block sherman once again. What ensued them was some intense battles. The fighting was called the kill line. It would be impractical for him to continue south because it would keep the union forces away from the railroad too long, he decided to shift back eastward. At the end of may, shermans army was experiencing some armyerious sufully ng some shortages. They had simply been away from the army too long. o6i the skies ohm open up and it starts to rain. Hundreds of men on a daily basis in both armies are sent to the rear. Theyre broken down. Physically. Theres constant skirm itish da after day. That takes an enormous toll on everyone. He makes an attempt to deviate from the strategy. It may cost us dear, but the results would surpass any attempt to pass around. He felt it could damage the morale of the men. That it would make them timid, in effect. John belle hood is very open about this. The Union Soldiers were repoltz. Sherman took a lot of heat from the northern press. His men were disheartened. But if you look at the losses up to this point, they paled in comparison to what was happening in virginia. Compare the losses, for instance, in just a single day of fighting in the wilderness. This is what forced johnson to fall back that had been constructed by enormous numbers of suppressed slaves along the chatahoochie river. So shermans troops advanced. Hes right on the out skirts of atlanta. Look at the bottom of the match. Map. You can see it north of the confedera confederates river line. And when the confederates retreat across the chatahoochie, they are right on the outskirts of the gate city of atlanta, as it was called. By this point, Jefferson Davis has had enough of joe johnson. Jefferson davis has lost faith in joe johnsons ability to hold the city of atlanta. Johnson, who repeatedly told the davis administration, and politicians who visited his headquarters that the best way to chase them out of georgia is to strike their supply line. Johnson claimed that his calvary, joe wheelers calvary corps, couldnt do this. So what johnson proposed was to ride east to force the supply line. This would involve stripping alabama and mississippi and all of their defenders. And that was something that davis, i think wisely, refused to do. Alabama and mississippi were pretty important states. They would have opened up important industrial cities. It would not have been a smart move. We dont have time to talk about the ways u but you can later, if youre interested. On july 18, 1864, he makes the extremely controversial decision of relieving joe johnson in commands and replacing him with one of his core commanders. He personally sacrificed a lot. You all know the nature of his wounds. The loss of a leg, the partial loss of the use of an arm here at guess burg. In the message that relieved joe johnson, you are hereby relieved. So hood takes command. And he has a mandate, a very clear mandate that he has to fight for the city of at lan n hoe doesnt have a lot of room to maneuver. The attacks ended up being uncoordinating. Theres a fine new book on the manner. Were only now getting detailed battle studies of the west. While there have been eastern battles for maybe decades. Hood learns that the far left flank of the union troops that are approaching atlanta from the east is vulnerable, its in the air. This is part of the army under mcpherson. These are men who fought heavily on the city east of july 1st. What hood was asking his men to do was simply unrealistic, in terms of their physical abilities. On july 22nd, the largest battle of the campaign is fought. It was the single Bloodiest Day of fighting in the last civil war. Some of hardys troops breakthrough the union line. They capture large numbers of prisoners in cannon. They killed general james b. Mcpher surks on and was one of the highestranking generals to die in the war. This was a huge, personal blow to sherman. As you could imagine. But, at the end of the day, the federals launch counter attacks. They retake the portions of their lines that the confederates had seized. This was a battle that cost hoods army very heavily. Following the battle, sherman decided to reorient his strategy. With hopes of cutting the last calvary raid. He tries to wreck the rail lines south of the city. Hoods response to these movementeds by sending a corps out west of atlanta to block the federal movements out there. This is under the troops that hood sends out there under very, very inexperienced Corps Commander named s. D. Lee. Hes a close friend of hoods. Lee gets out to the area where hes supposed to be. He takes it upon thoims start a battle. So what happens is the confederates losing heavily, attacking fortified federals. The casualties are dramatically lopsided. That raid so church is a great victory for cheryl mavn. But the calvary raid he launched proved disastrous. This lowers shermans already poor vision of his calvary core. Hood had not achieved what he wanted in these three battles. None of them intended to be frontal attacks. Two of shermans core commanders had been classmates. They knew his reputation. And sherman did, too. So in the first few weeks, sherman is trying to get around the city to the west. Hes having some problems. Hes shermans facing a discharge of 10,000 of his men at this point in august. He also tells halak in the first week of august that hes too impatient for a siege. Sherman is a pretty nervous, impatient, anxious individual. He doesnt want a long, drawn out affair like what happened at petersburg, certainly. So he decides on a bold plan, serman. Decides to abandon the siege to hold the point where his supply line, the western atlantic crosses the chathoochie river. And cut the railroad south of the city. Wheeler set off on a raid. Wheelers raid is a spectacular failure. He wrecks his calvary core in the process. So, at first, when hood receives news that the federal trenches north of the city are vacant, what do you think he believes . Wheelers raid is a success. Sherman is retreating to the north. But thecn he realizes whats going on. And then, on the first day of the battle, the last battle of the campaign, these two confederate corps launch attacks are repultsed. You can see that on the map with thomas and schofield. And he abandons the city, hood, on the night of september 1 first. During the evacuation, the confederates discover that theyve left a large train of munitions that obviously cant get out. So they set it on fire. This is 28 boxcars full of explosives. You can imagine the sound that was heard 15, 20 miles away. This is the scene thats depicted 234 gone with the wind when theres all the set is burning in the background. I told my kid that some of the sets were from the wizard of oz, which is true. But my kids were upset that they were burning. The destruction of atlanta cannot be atributed solely to uncle Billy Sherman that hoods army began the process with the firing of this train. And sherman took it a good bit further, of course, in november, just before the march to the sea. On september 2nd, the mayor of atlanta surrendered the city. Sherman announced to abraham lincoln, atlanta is ours. The constant battles and skirmishing since the first week of may exhausted the army and it needed rest. Atlanta turned into a garcon city. News of the fall caused great celebration. Here is where we get to the significance of the campaign. What makes it so important . So the fall of atlanta helped to boost the confidence 06 northern voters that the Lincoln Administration was going to win an ultimate victory. And that the president needed a second term in office. So the fall of the president helped to reassure lincoln and offered public aftfirmation of his war policies. It would end on the basis of both reunion around emancipatio. At the same time the fall of atlanta, and lincolns reelection, helped ensure that u. S. Grant would remain as general in chief and sherman as his chief lieutenant and that these two men would be the article tects of ultimate Union Victory in the civil war. Thank you. Do we have time for a few questions . Okay. Do you all want to come up to the mic if anyone has any questions . Yes, sir. Was there any thought to put robert e. Lee in charge of all of the confederate armies . Yes. In fact, that ultimately did happen. But that was after the atlanta campaign. And davis did reply so the it, was there any thought of putting lee in charge of all of the confederate armies. And that did happen, although it was some months after the atlanta campaign. Davis relied very hef shrill on leads advice not only on malters of the eastern theater, but also on matters of the west. He asked lee who do you think would be a good replacement. He said he was a bold fighter on the battlefield. Hood said lee said something to the fact that hood is a bold fighter, bold on the battlefield, but careless off the battlefield. I think what he was saying there was when it comes to administrative responsibleties, that hood had some weaknesses there. My question is how did sherman come up with the idea of shermans knots. Oh, thats a great question. How did sherman come up with the idea of shermans knots or shermans bow ties, as theyre sometimes called. What hes asking about are the twisted rails when the union troops would wreck rail lines, the confederates, too. Youd get thousands of infantry men to stand next to a rail line and all at once they would lift up the cross ties, separate with hammers the rail, the iron rail from the wooden cross ties, pile up the wooden cross ties in huge heaps, create bonfires, put the iron rails into the bonfires. And then when the center turns red hot, they would Union Soldiers would grab it. I was rereading it and i thought i wonder if they used gloves. Those ties must have been pretty hot. But, anyway, they would take the red hot rails, red hot in the center, and then twist them around trees, which would make it extraordinary difficult for the confederates to straighten out and reuse. And theres some good photographs taken of this process downtown. It was something that engineers came up with. But thats a great question. I dont know where it originated. I dont know if we actually know, but it became a pretty common procedure. Its a good question. I want to get back to the anaconda plan. Are you kidding . Yes. Basically, the campaigns in 64, grant and sherman, this warhead switched in 61, 62 to capturing capitals and capturing territories in Capital Cities to capturing manufacturing and supply centers sherman was marching towards atlanta. Koumd you tell us a little bit how important to the war effort and the confederate war effort were in these depots and supply center . Sure, atlanta was absolutely vital. Not just atlanta, but august had the largest panels 234 the world. It produced enormous numbers of foundry that is produced cannon. If you look at the rail network of the deep south, its evident immediately at the juncture of many railroads. By the time the siege takes place, the center has really declined dramatically because the confederates had evacwaited so much of the machinery and so many of the workers and sent them south to columbus and macon. Theres only about 3,000 left when sherman takes the city. He orders the expulsion of all of those cities chr, which is a fascinating story, too. You mentioned that the beginning of your talk, shermans mastery of logistics during the campaign, how much of that did he directly oversee . How much of it was delegated to someone else . This is a controversial matter. He had banned all civilian traffic on some of the main railroads out of nashville. He had planned for the confederates to stockpile. He had crews of civilians, African Americans who were employed as laborers. They could very quickly employ railroads, particularly bridges. You can see confederates retreated across several rivers. They would always burn these bridges. And it was truly remarkable how quickly shermans engineers and labors could rebuild these huge, wooden spans. Thats where logistics comes into play. So one more question here. It seems to me that his plans, once he took over as commander of the army of tennessee, were fairly good plans on paper. Its just that his army couldnt estimate them for one reason or another. Could you comment on them briefly . Sure. Hood certainly durnt have the master of logistics that sherman does. That becomes painfully evident during the Tennessee Campaign in 1864. But hood is operating under some handicaps. He has a command structure with a plot of generals who are woefully experienced. They just dont execute. The time constraints that hes working under and the physical conditions of his men. Hood was just asking far too much of men who are already totally exhausted. So thats kind of a short answer. But the renaissance youre talking about, thats not the right word to use. The reevaluation of hoods general ship is taking place of some others. So thank you. [ applause ] bart is a professor of the yumpbts of alabama and the author of a book, citizen hoke. Explain the title. Well, its kind of a funny story. Citizen coke, originally, i was thinking about citizen cane when i thought about the title. Citizen cane was all about kind of problems in some ways of american capitalism. And those this book is about coke, i was really interested in thinking about how coke was a lens into some of the environmental problems with 20th century american capitalist growth. And so i said this is kind of a cat catchy title. I was from atlanta, i grew up in coke country, here in atlanta. I had gone to a school that had been funded by coke money on the south side of atlanta. So i was sitting there saying coke has been this good citizen in my life. And one of the things that they promote today is this idea of corporate citizenship. So i wanted to kind of delve into that in the books. And say, well, are they good citizens . When we look at the environmental footprint, do they end up looking like a good citizen . So as he researched the book and we said youre here in atlanta. Visibility is everywhere. Take us back to the origins of the story. It started literally a couple blocks from where were sitting right here, by a guy named John Pemberton. He was a pharmacist who was down on his luck. He had suffered a series of wounds during the civil war. He had all of these stomach ailments and pains. And he started taking morphine to deal with these problems. Well, he gradually became adikted to morphine. He was thinking, wow, wouldnt it be cool if this new drug could help me get off this morphine addiction. He copiy eiey eied this drink t very popular in fransz at the time. People love this drink. It was bordeaux wine mixed with cocaine. Everyone loved it. So doc pemberton created this drink that was actually a wine laced with cocaine in atlanta. So, originally, you can think that coke is actually this cocainelaced wine called pembertons wine of coca. The problem is prohibition is taking hold and cities are being forced to abandon alcohol. It started with this attempt to try to deal with his addiction to morphine. If you had a coke in 1880 and 1885, could you taste the difference . Well, first of all, you would have had cocaine in the original cocacola. And theres folks who surmise that maybe after four, six ounce drinks of cocacola, you would have noticed some tingling or numbness. Cocaine was taken out in 1903. That would have been one difference. It also had more caffeine. Caffeine was almost double than the drinks we had today. I think you would have tasted a slightly different product at that time. During this time period, 1880s, through the start of the 20th century, was it regulated . Was the government involved in the development of this product . One of the things thats interesting in the book was this close relationship between coke at first, the problem with cocacola was not the cocaine. It was the caffeine. That was what the government was con sirned about. In fact, there was a very serious trial that took place beginning in 1911, led by the bureau of chemistry and harv harvey wiley who was the director of the bureau of chemistry saying this is an unnatural product. The caffeine thats in cocacola is processed caffeine, made in factories. And its put in this product to try to addict the american public. And this trial went on for years. Coke was very concerned. Were here in atlanta, the organization of american historians. Give us a sense of coke and atlanta. And its impact on this city and region. Surprisingly, some of the things that theyve done environmentally. I went to india where cocacola has had a series of bottling plants in some very arid regions of the country. In some of the regions, theyve been extracting so much water that theyre affecting the region. So theres some rough stories in the book. But i grew up realizing that theres a lot of charitable good around coke. My high school, my education was paid for in a lot of ways by coke money. I think you can talk to almost any atlanta citizen. The woodriffe art center. In some way, coke charity has affected their lives. So, i think, in so many ways, academic institutions, the arts, you name it. Coke has really built this city. And it really its rise was during the industrial revolution, some called it the guilded age. This city was not alone, detroit and new york and chicago seeing tremendous growth and develop. Absolutely. I think what was different about coke, and i think this goes to the heart of what i was writing about, unlike u. S. Steel, you think of steel towns, unlike, maybe, these other you think of the sugar trusts, coke was different. It chose not to vertically integrate. Its key to success, what i call its secret formula, was not really its recipe, but, actually, its unique, Corporate Structure of out sourcing and franchising. So whats interesting about coke, by the end of the 19th century, its all over the country. Chandler says were in every state of the union. And its able to do that through the bottling Franchise Syste