Atlanta and the war

the long version

The destruction of Atlanta during the Civil War was not the result of a grand strategy hammered out by William Tecumseh Sherman and Ulysses S. Grant in the spring of 1864. According to Webb Garrison, the havoc wreaked on the city was brought about by Sherman's dogged pursuit of the Army of Tennessee across northern Georgia. The Confederate Army of Tennessee was tenacious, and thus the Union victory came slowly. The fall of Atlanta was crucial to the outcome of the Civil War because with the loss of Atlanta, morale in the South plummeted, one of the Confederacy's last significant manufacturing centers was destroyed, and the flow of food and supplies to the Virginia battlefront was halted. Moreover, the publicity surrounding the taking of Atlanta played a large role in Abraham Lincoln's reelection campaign, thus ensuring that the war would continue until the Union was restored. - Jacket.