The Battle of Kennesaw Mountain

by Daniel J. Vermilya

Revisit one of the most important and bloodiest days of the Civil War, the Confederate battle at Kennesaw Mountain in Georgia, in this exciting view of the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain in the summer of 1864.
In the summer of 1864, Georgia was the scene of one of the most important campaigns of the Civil War. William Tecumseh Sherman's push southward toward Atlanta threatened the heart of the Confederacy, and Joseph E. Johnston and the Army of Tennessee were the Confederacy's best hope to defend it. In June, Johnston managed to grind Sherman's advance to a halt northwest of Atlanta at Kennesaw Mountain. After weeks of maneuvering, on June 27, Sherman launched a bold attack on Johnston's lines. The Confederate victory was one of the bloodiest days of the entire campaign. And while Sherman's assaults had a frightful cost, Union forces learned important lessons at Kennesaw Mountain that enabled the fall of Atlanta several months later.

Genres: Civil War

208 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2014

Reviews

[Sleepy Boy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good intro to this battle, one of Sherman’s defeats but not one that cost him the campaign.

[Bill · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short review for a short book. Vermilya acknowledges in his introduction that, in keeping with the theme of this series of books published to mark the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, he’s not breaking any new ground here, or telling scholars anything they don’t already know. Instead, he aims to give a general audience an overview and a better understanding of this one battle in one campaign in one year of the Civil War.

I happen to live near Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park, and after reading several other books about the Civil War and the Atlanta Campaign in particular, I thought the fighting at Kennesaw was often portrayed as just one more temporary setback during Sherman’s inexorable push toward Atlanta. So I sought out a more specific focus on what happened here, without going overboard into minutiae. Vermilya’s quick but thorough read gives the battle just the right treatment, with everything I was looking for and none of the eye-glazing details I wasn’t.

The book first provides some good background on the state of the war and of the Atlanta Campaign leading up to Kennesaw. As opposed to the bloody and costly frontal assaults that Gen. Grant was leading in Virginia at the time, Gen. Sherman in Georgia is said to have “preferred maneuvers over sending columns of men to their deaths.” For the most part, he did manage to flank and maneuver his way deeper into Georgia, as his Confederate counterpart Gen. Johnston continually pulled back. That, Vermilya suggests, was a strategy in itself, as Johnston believed giving up territory was a small price to pay for preserving his forces, and he knew the deeper Sherman got into Georgia, the more difficult it would be for him to remain connected to his supply lines.

That also made it more difficult for Sherman to stick to his plan of maneuvering. When approaching the latest Confederate stronghold along the way to Atlanta, Sherman found that “the ridges of Kennesaw stood in between him and a quick end to all of the fighting, marching and campaigning.” So in aiming to make a bold move to break through and put an end to the cat-and-mouse game, he “would resort to Grant’s tactics of frontal assault and brute strength.”

And that proved to be “perhaps the most controversial and highly criticized assault of his military career,” Vermilya writes. The battle that followed is ably and concisely described in an easy-to-follow narrative with plenty of maps. It turned out to be a Confederate victory, with Sherman paying a bloody price with his frontal assault just as Grant was doing in Virginia.

And yet, as the book nears its conclusion, it turns out the Union’s loss at Kennesaw may have been as good as a win. Sherman, never again to make the kind of frontal assault he attempted here, returned to his strategy of flanking the enemy with his now battle-hardened troops. And Johnston returned to his strategy of retreat, giving up Kennesaw in order to protect Atlanta - at least until he was replaced by an exasperated President Jefferson Davis. And when that happened, the incongruous result was that “the victorious general was relieved of his command, while the losing general stood at the gates of Atlanta.”

I don’t think I’m on my way to becoming a Battle of Kennesaw Mountain scholar after reading this. But I have a better understanding than I did before, of how it all unfolded and how it fit into the larger campaign. So the next time I visit, this short book will have done its job, in helping to give me a greater appreciation of what happened there.

[Paul Miller · Rating 3 out of 5]

For military historians or Civil War buffs in Atlanta interested in what happened nearby. Quick, tidy read about the Atlanta Campaign, with heavy focus on Kennesaw Mountain. Kennesaw is Sherman's "Pickett's Charge" in a way. Frontal assault against a strong defensive position with no chance of succeeding and large loss of life. But the Confederate victory is of no consequence because as in the rest of the campaign a flanking maneuver leads to Southern withdrawal.... basically, a much stronger force inevitably will defeat the weaker foe despite the occasional blunder like Kennesaw.

[Garry Bell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very well written history of the Kennesaw Mountain battle in the Civil War. Somewhat condensed, but, is a great addition to The History Press titles.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a well written and well researched book. If you are looking for a detailed look into Kennesaw Mountain within the Atlanta Campaign, it will add some detail not included in Castel's book but it is not as much as i would have liked. However, I wont allow my wish for a better detailed account than Castel to cloud my judgment of the book on its own merits. Its a good work.

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good, solid book about Sherman's Atlanta campaign in general, and the battle of Kennesaw Mountain in particular. Not too heavy, not too light, this is a book well-suited to the reader who is interested in the Civil War, but not looking for the nitty-gritty details.

[Joseph burrell · Rating 5 out of 5]

good book