The Atlanta Campaign

Explain why Atlanta's railroads mattered in 1864.

Warm-up, learn, try it together, practice, then a quick check. About 15 minutes.

What children learn in Level 67

By 1864, the war had reached Georgia. Atlanta was a young railroad city. Four rail lines met there, carrying food and supplies to Confederate armies.
Sherman set out from Chattanooga, Tennessee, in May with about 100,000 soldiers. Instead of attacking head-on, he kept moving around the Confederate lines.
Georgia's mountains and rivers helped the defenders, and the two armies fought for months. At Kennesaw Mountain, Union attacks failed, and many men died. Sherman went back to moving around them.
In early September, Atlanta fell. Sherman telegraphed that Atlanta was ours, and fairly won. Northerners who'd grown tired of war took heart, and they reelected Lincoln that November.
Sherman ordered the people of Atlanta to leave, and much of the city burned before he left. Atlanta rebuilt, and today the phoenix on its city seal stands for rising from the ashes.

Georgia Standards of Excellence in Social Studies:

SS4H5.c — Identify major battles, campaigns, and events: Fort Sumter, Gettysburg, the Atlanta Campaign, Sherman's March to the Sea, and Appomattox Court House.
MGS.7 — Map and Globe Skill 7: use a map to explain impact of geography on historical and current events (mastered in Grade 4)