Hood is forced to destroy his eighty car munitions train. All that remains are the wheels.

Mayor James Calhoun formally surrendered Atlanta at the corner of Northside Drive and Marietta Street.

Mayor James Calhoun surrendered the city to Henry Slocum on September 2^nd. Sherman arrived five days later and ordered all civilians to leave. On September 11, Calhoun appealed Sherman's decision on humanitarian grounds and the following day the Union commander responded, "The use of Atlanta for warlike purposes is inconsistent with its character as a home for families, There will be no manufactures, commerce or agriculture here..." Over a ten-day period the remaining civilians were given a choice...move north or south.

The civilians remaining in Atlanta after its capture are forced to leave.

As each day passes Sherman becomes more confident of his position. His lifeline, the Western and Atlantic Railroad, is garrisoned from Atlanta (History of Atlanta) to Chattanooga (History of Chattanooga) while Hood defends the Macon Road. With a strong position at Kennesaw Mountain and the citizenry of Atlanta gone, Sherman takes his time, waiting to see the next move of the Army of Tennessee. The Union commander wanted Atlanta in part for its political significance, in part for the morale significance, yet the goal was never the railway hub on the Chattahoochee River but the army that defended it.

President Jefferson Davis travels to the city of Macon where, on September 23, 1864 he gives one of the most bizarre speeches of any American president. Among other things, President Davis calls Georgia Governor Joseph E. Brown a "scoundrel," announces his plans for the defeated Army of Tennessee, and predicts that Sherman will retreat from Georgia as Napoleon had retreated from Russia.

Five days earlier, Hood began his move. After wrecking havoc on railroads in the center of the state to make it more difficult for Sherman to advance, Hood moves west. Crossing the Chattahoochee in the area of West Point, the Confederate commander takes his decimated army north into the rolling, forested countryside to the west of Atlanta. It was here that Joe Johnston successfully defended Georgia soil at the battles of New Hope Church, Dallas, and Pickett's Mill.

Further north Nathan Bedford Forrest is traipsing across Tennessee trying to distract the entire Union Army with limited success. Sherman remains prepared, but realizes there was little Hood could do in the thick underbrush of West Cobb and East Paulding County. General George Thomas moves to Chattanooga, Tennessee, forming a northern border through which Hood should not be able to move. Sherman then sends John Corse to Rome with a division to defend the city. He feels that city must be Hood's objective because of his fortifications and manpower at Kennesaw Mountain. Sherman is wrong, and caught completely off-guard. A. P. Stewart pops out of the forest in the vicinity of Lost Mountain, attacking and destroying the Union garrison near the depot in Big Shanty (Kennesaw), then moving up the Western and Atlantic to Acworth.

Hood's goal is Allatoona Pass (Battle overview, Battle of Allatoona Pass, Hiking Trails) which Sherman has left lightly defended. It is a staging area for provisions on the way to Atlanta, so the attraction is twofold. First, the pass is an easily defended strategic stronghold, and second, it can supply much-needed rations for the hungry troops. Sherman realizes his mistake and orders Corse to move from Rome to the pass on October 3rd. Thirty-six hours later rebels attack the now-entrenched Corse, failing to dislodge the Union General from his stronghold. By the end of the day, nearly out of ammunition, the Confederate Army retreats.

It was time for Sherman to move. Mobilizing a significant amount of his men and material at Kennesaw Mountain, Sherman begins to chase the Rebels. At Allatoona he is three days behind the retreating Hood. Even separated, either of Sherman's armies outnumbered the Army of Tennessee by a significant margin.

On October 10, Hood's men skirmish with the federal troops in the vicinity of Rome. Upon finding the Rebels near Rome, the Union Army moves in that direction. Resaca is Hood's next destination, where he demands surrender of the garrison protecting the railroad. The commander bluntly refuses the offer. With General Sherman on his heels, Hood opts to move further north, to Dalton, where he successfully takes the Union garrison and, for a short time, controls a section of the Western and Atlantic Railroad. Hood's tactical advance ends a short time later at Buzzard's Roost (Mill Creek Gap), just west of Dalton. 35-year old Captain Samuel Hymer holds off a significant portion of the Confederate Army with 41 men on October 13, 1864. This Indiana native, leading Company D of the 115th Illinois Infantry, held the blockhouse here for more than 10 hours during repeated attacks. A sharp skirmish at Ship's Gap marks the last battle of Hood's army in Georgia.

P. T. G. Beauregard

For a week the Confederate Army drifts around northwest Georgia. For a brief time it appears as though a battle may occur in LaFayette, Georgia, where Hood established a defensive perimeter, but the Rebels retreat as Sherman approaches. General P. G. T. Beauregard, who assumed command of the Western Theater on October 3, 1864, meets with Hood on the 17th. The Army of Tennessee escapes the vise created by the two Union Armies, crossing the Georgia-Alabama border near Cave Springs. With the Rebel army heading west Sherman moves east to Kingston to reiterate a bold plan he proposed earlier. George Thomas, John Schofield and 70,000 Union soldiers would control the railroad between Louisville, Kentucky and Dalton (city history), Georgia from a command post in Nashville, Tennessee while two wings totaling 60,000 Union soldiers took a "March to the Sea."

Long distance discussion with Lieutenant-General Grant continued for two weeks. At 9:00 a.m, November 2, 1864, Sherman made his case one more time:

If I turn back, the whole effect of my campaign will be lost. By my movements I have thrown Beauregard well to the west...We have now ample supplies at Chattanooga and Atlanta, and can stand a month's interruption to our communications. I do not believe the Confederate army can reach our railroad-lines except by cavalry-raids... I am clearly of opinion that the best results will follow my contemplated movement through Georgia.

Two and a half hours later Ulysses S. Grant replied to the red-haired commander from Ohio with agreement:

I do not see that you can withdraw from where you are to follow Hood without giving up all we have gained in territory. I say, then, go on as you propose.

Preparation had been the hallmark of the Atlanta Campaign, and now Sherman prepared for the "March to the Sea." He moved the stores in Atlanta north to Thomas. The sick and wounded are taken to Chattanooga and further north. Men enroute are directed to their units while others, just now returning from furlough, are halted in Tennessee.

According to Sherman, movement on his grand scheme began on Thursday, November 10, 1864, two days after President Lincoln's re-election. General Corse, in Rome, is ordered to destroy anything that could be useful to the enemy, then join Sherman. Railroad tracks from Dalton south to Allatoona Pass are raised and transported to Dalton. South of Allatoona Pass the the tracks are torn up and burned while the rails are turned into "Sherman's neckties." The Union commander moves from Kingston to Cartersville on the morning of November 12 where the final message north is sent before the line goes dead. The March to the Sea had begun.

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