Joseph E. Johnston assumed command of the Army of Tennessee when Braxton Bragg resigned following the defeat of his forces at Chattanooga. To meet and, he hoped, defeat Sherman when he advanced, Johnston by the end of April 1864, had about 55,000 troops "present for duty," backed by 144 cannons. The infantry and most of the artillery were organized into two corps, those of Lieutenant Generals William J. Hardee and John Bell Hood, and the cavalry, which numbered approximately 8,500 and was commanded by Major General Joseph Wheeler. (Castel 8)
The vast majority of the soldiers of both armies were battle-hardened veterans. This meant that they knew how to fight-and also when it was best not to fight. In particular, they took a dim view of charging a fortified enemy: "It don't pay." Owing to the almost total tactical dominance that the rifled musket gave the defense over the offense during the Civil War, rarely did frontal assaults succeed, and when they did the price usually was excessive, as witness Chickamauga, where the Confederates lost one-third of their total number in what proved to be a strategically barren victory. The reluctance of Billy Yank and Johnny Reb at this stage of the war to attack except when the foe was thought to be weak, or in the open, or to have an exposed flank would have a lot to do with what happened and did not happen once the campaign for Atlanta got under way. (Castel 10)
To "knock Jos. Johnston" Sherman assembled at and near Chattanooga about 110,000 troops. By far the largest portion of them, nearly 65,000 infantry and artillerists, belonged to Major General George H. Thomas's Army of the Cumberland, which consisted of three corps: the IV, XIV, and XX, headed respectively by Major Generals Oliver Otis Howard, John M. Palmer, and "Fighting Joe" Hooker, who as commander of the Army of the Potomac in Virginia had come to grief against Lee at Chancellorsville in May of 1863. (Castel 6,7)
The next largest part of Sherman's host was Major General James B. McPherson's Army of the Tennessee, about 23,000 soldiers organized into Major General John A. "Black Jack" Logan's XV Corps and the two-division XVI Corps and the two-division XVI Corps of Major General Grenville M. Dodge. It was Sherman's favorite army; until recently he had commanded it, as had Grant before him. McPherson, its new commander, was intelligent and conscientious but, as events would reveal, deficient in initiative and enterprise. (Castel 7)
Least among the major components of Sherman's invasion force was the so-called Army of the Ohio. Although Major General George Stoneman's cavalry division nominally formed part of it, for all practical purposes it consisted merely of the 11,000-man XXIII Corps, and its commander, Major General John M. Schofield, hitherto had seen little field service. But he was capable as well as ambitious, and during the campaign his small corps would accomplish much. (Castel 7)
Sherman's artillery numbered 254 cannons, his cavalry about 11,000 troopers. The former was superior to its Confederate counterpart in all except the valor of its gun crews, having more rifled pieces and better ammunition. The latter, on the other hand, suffered from the poor leadership of its four division commanders, a situation made worse by the fact that the sole central control over its operations came from Sherman himself, and he lacked a realistic understanding of the limitations and potentialities of the mounted arm. (Castel 7)
In May, 1864, Sherman led his 100,000-man army from Chattanooga, Tenn., into Georgia. Confederate Gen. Johnston's 65,000 troops dug in to oppose the Union invasion. As Sherman advanced, the two armies clashed at Rocky Face Ridge, then at Resaca, Cassville, New Hope Church, Pickett's Mill and Dallas. Although Union attacks failed to dislodge the Confederates, Sherman's swift flanking movements threatened the Southerners' railroad line and forced the Confederates to retreat time and again. (nps)
By June 3, the Union army reached Acworth, a railroad town 8 miles north of Kennesaw Mountain. But three weeks of hard rains mired Union troops and wagons in the Georgia mud. Without the ability to move his army quickly, Sherman temporarily abandoned his flanking maneuvers and drove straight ahead. (nps)
On June 22 when Johnston attempted to thwart a Union flank of Kennesaw Mountain, the forces of Joseph Hooker, U.S.A., clashed with John Bell Hood's Confederates at Kolb's Farm. Despite having 2,000 more troops (13,000 to 11,000), after several unsuccessful charges through the woods, fields and swamps across the road, the battered Confederates withdrew. Altogether the Confederates suffered about 1,500 casualties whereas the Federals lost no more than 250 men. (Castel 27-28, nps)
