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The Battle of Atlanta started on June 22, 1864. Before the war if Peach tree creek, started on July 20, 1864, had started to the north of the city of Atlanta. General William Tecumseh Sherman, born on February 8, 1820 in lancaster Ohio. ordered his men to advance towards Atlanta. Around the north and east of the Georgia city the troops bgan to form a semi-ciricle. They began to pressure young John Bell Hood, the commander to the Army of Tennessee. A charge on July 20, 1864 failed to move Patrick Cleburne's troops. Although earlier artillery had reached Atlanta, from this spot the Union could shoot into the town center. Sherman and many of his men believed that the battle for Atlanta was finnaly over. Sherman collected twenty artillery pieces on a hill near his headquarters to gaurd these Confederates and halt their drive. Maj. Gen. John A. Logans 15 Army troops then led a counterattack that restored the Union line. The Union troops held, and Hood suffered much damage.
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Unfortunately, the scene of the battle has been completely destroyed. Using present-day landmarks, the battle stretched from just south of the Carter Center to the intersection of Moreland Avenue and I-20. From here it formed an arc to Glenwood Avenue finally ending up in the vicinity of Memorial Drive and Clay Street, almost to the site of Jesse Clay's house. Bald Hill is part of a ridge along which Moreland Avenue runs. The "hill" portion of the ridge runs north of I-20 and a few feet east of the present-day road. As soon as the hill was taken Union soldiers renamed it Leggett's Hill, after their commander. This name is still used today. Unaware that Union forces had successfully stabilized their line, Hood launched a secondary attack to the north. The advancing Rebels took power artillery in the area, coming into ownership of 2 rifled cannons. These weapons can't move without horses, so the horses are killed by the Union soldiers before the retreat.
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In Washington, D.C., President Abrahamn Lincoln awaited word of Sherman. His future and the future of the war and people had been showen as uncertain. With Grant stoped by Lee before Richmond and Sherman's neverending attempts to win the war to Atlanta, the strength of the Democratic peace party, led by Lincoln's later general, George B. McClellan, had grown. Lincoln needed to win to make sure the troops were giving enough of effort in the war. They had not been forth to dilivering the latest new that point in time. Finally a telegram from Sherman, given to Lincoln on the afternoon of September 2, 1864, changed it all. It began to read with the simple few words of, "Atlanta is ours, and fairly won."
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