The Campaign for Atlanta

Abstract

The Atlanta Campaign produced more refugees than any other operation of the Civil War, both inadvertently and on purpose. Most residents fled Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman’s advancing army group, taking slaves and movable property along. The Federals also removed hundreds of women factory workers from industrial plants along the north side of the Chattahoochee River, exiling them north. Sherman’s artillery bombarded Atlanta for several weeks, and he removed 3,500 residents after capturing the place to turn the city into a garrison town. Historians believe the fall of Atlanta had a direct impact on helping Pres. Abraham Lincoln win reelection in the fall of 1864. Even if the Atlanta Campaign was not the turning point of the latter part of the Civil War, as some historians assert, it was a major episode of the conflict that resonated on the national as well as regional level.