NORTHCOM Battle Knowledge Centers

This two-volume encyclopedia offers a unique insight into the Civil War from a state and local perspective, showing how the American experience of the conflict varied significantly based on location.

Union forces under Major-General William Tecumseh Sherman lined up against Joseph E. Johnston's Army of Tennessee. The superior Union numbers forced the Confederates into a series of delaying actions from entrenched positions. When John Bell Hood replaced Johnston, the Confederates launched increasingly attacking campaigns but were finally forced to give up the city as the Union troops smashed their supply lines, denying the Confederacy its principal granary and manufacturing districts.

Castel provides an objective perspective and a comprehensive account based on primary and secondary sources that have become available in the past 110 years. Castel gives a full and balanced treatment to the operations of both the Union and Confederate armies from the perspective of the common soldiers as well as the top generals. He offers new accounts and analyses of many of the major events of the campaign, and, in the process, corrects many long-standing myths, misconceptions, and mistakes.