As William T. Sherman's Union troops began their campaign for
Atlanta in the spring of 1864, they encountered Confederate forces
employing field fortifications located to take advantage of rugged
terrain. While the Confederates consistently acted on the
defensive, digging eighteen lines of earthworks from May to
September, the Federals used fieldworks both defensively and
offensively. With 160,000 troops engaged on both sides and hundreds
of miles of trenches dug, fortifications became a defining factor
in the Atlanta campaign battles. These engagements took place on
topography ranging from Appalachian foothills to the clay fields of
Georgia's piedmont.
Leading military historian Earl J. Hess examines how commanders
adapted their operations to the physical environment, how the
environment in turn affected their movements, and how Civil War
armies altered the terrain through the science of field
fortification. He also illuminates the impact of fighting and
living in ditches for four months on the everyday lives of both
Union and Confederate soldiers. The Atlanta campaign represents one
of the best examples of a prolonged Union invasion deep into
southern territory, and, as Hess reveals, it marked another
important transition in the conduct of war from open field battles
to fighting from improvised field fortifications.