Editing Battle of Atlanta (section)

===Objectives and preparations ===

War weariness was growing in the North and President Abraham Lincoln's prospects for re-election were diminishing as a result,<ref>Nevins, 1971, pp. 29–31.</ref><ref group="fn">Lincoln was nominated for a second term on June 8, 1864. Eicher, 2001, p. 704.</ref> when on March 9, 1864, Lincoln commissioned [[Ulysses S. Grant]] as the only Union Army [[Lieutenant General (United States)|lieutenant general]], then the highest grade in the United States Army.<ref name="Long473">Long, 1971, p. 473.</ref><ref>Castel, 1992, p. 64.</ref> On March 10, Lincoln gave Grant command of all the armies of the United States.<ref name="Long473"/> On March 12, Grant's appointment as [[general-in-chief]] was publicly announced.<ref name="Long474">Long, 1971, p. 474.</ref><ref name="Castel67">Castel, 1992, p. 67.</ref><ref group="fn">The previous general-in-chief, [[Major General (United States)|Major General]] [[Henry Halleck]], was named chief of staff. Long. 1971, p.474.</ref> Major General [[William T. Sherman]] was assigned to command the [[Military Division of the Mississippi]], including the [[Department of the Ohio]], [[Department of the Cumberland]], [[Department of the Tennessee]] and the [[Department of Arkansas]].<ref name="Long474"/> Sherman took command on March 18.<ref name="Long474"/><ref name="Castel67"/> The assignment made Sherman commander of the Union armies in the [[Western theater of the American Civil War|Western theater]] of the war.<ref name="Long474"/>

Grant devised a strategy for Union victory through simultaneous campaigns against several Confederate armies.<ref>Castel, 1992, p. 68.</ref><ref name="Nevins12">Nevins, 1971, p. 12.</ref> Grant wanted to prevent Confederate armies from reinforcing each other in turn and to fatally weaken the entire Confederate Army.<ref name="Nevins12"/> Sherman would lead one of two key campaigns.<ref name="Nevins9">Nevins, 1971, p. 9.</ref><ref group="fn">The other key campaign was the [[Overland campaign]]. The [[Bermuda Hundred campaign]] and the Shenandoah [[Valley campaigns of 1864]] were to support the Overland campaign. Instead of being prepared to move on Mobile when Sherman was ready to move on Atlanta, Union Major General [[Nathaniel Banks]] had led his forces on the unsuccessful [[Red River campaign]] and was not able to support Sherman at any time during the Atlanta campaign. The delayed and failed Red River campaign damaged an important part of Grant's strategy by enabling Confederate Lieutenant General Leonidas Polk to send reinforcements to Johnston. Nevins, 1971. p. 25.</ref> The objective of Sherman's campaign was to defeat and disperse the Confederate [[Army of Tennessee]] under the command of General [[Joseph E. Johnston]], to capture the vital railway center of [[Atlanta in the American Civil War|Atlanta, Georgia]],<ref group="fn">The [[Western and Atlantic Railroad]] from the north connected at Atlanta to the [[Macon and Western Railroad]] to the south. In turn the Macon and Western connected with the [[Central of Georgia Railroad]] which ran to [[Savannah, Georgia]] at the coast. The Western and Atlantic connected to the [[Georgia Railroad and Banking Company|Georgia Railroad]] to the east. The Georgia Railroad ran from Atlanta to [[Augusta, Georgia]] where it connected to lines reaching [[Charleston in the American Civil War|Charleston, South Carolina]], [[Raleigh, North Carolina]], and [[Richmond in the American Civil War|Richmond, Virginia]]. The final major connection of the Western and Atlantic at Atlanta was to the [[Atlanta & West Point Railroad]] to the southwest. The Atlanta and West Point ran to the Alabama border where it connected to lines to [[Montgomery, Alabama]], and indirectly to [[Selma, Alabama in the American Civil War|Selma, Alabama]], and [[Mobile, Alabama in the American Civil War|Mobile, Alabama]]. Black III, 1952, p. 6; Castel, 1992, p. 69.</ref> to destroy or damage Confederate war resources as much as possible and to split the Confederacy again as had been done at [[Vicksburg campaign|Vicksburg, Mississippi]], and [[Siege of Port Hudson|Port Hudson, Louisiana]], in July 1863.<ref>Nevins, 1971, pp. 9, 25.</ref><ref name="Eicher697">Eicher, 2001, p. 697.</ref>

On May 4, 1864, Sherman was ready to move his armies from [[Chattanooga in the American Civil War|Chattanooga, Tennessee]], toward [[Ringgold, Georgia]], with an estimated strength of 112,000 troops.<ref name="Nevins24">Nevins, 1971, p. 24.</ref> Johnston had between 60,000 and 70,000 effective troops.<ref name="Nevins24"/> Johnston had taken advantage of the terrain of woods, hills and rivers in northern Georgia by entrenching his army at [[Dalton, Georgia]], about one-quarter of the way between Chattanooga and Atlanta.<ref>Nevins, 1971, pp. 25, 52.</ref><ref group="fn">Johnston also had seventeen more defensive positions laid out to his rear over the course of the campaign. Hess, 2018, p. 3.</ref><ref name="Nevins25">Nevins, 1971, p. 25.</ref> Historian [[Allan Nevins]] wrote that Sherman's numerical advantage did not make Johnston's position hopeless in view of his fortified line of defenses in the rough, confusing, mountainous, wooded country of northwestern Georgia which had poor roads and three difficult rivers to cross.<ref name="Eicher697"/><ref>Nevins, 1971, p. 52.</ref> Because Sherman had to keep his [[Western and Atlantic Railroad]] supply line open, he could break away from it only for short periods of time.<ref>Hess, 2018, p. 2.</ref><ref group="fn">Sherman had to detach troops to guard the Western and Atlantic Railroad from the point of his advance back to Chattanooga and through Tennessee to keep his supply line secure. During the campaign, the railway was under constant threats and attacks from cavalry and guerrillas. Nevins, 1971, p. 53.</ref>