Battle of Jonesborough

Battle of Jonesborough
Part of the American Civil War
Date August 31-September 1, 1864 Location Clayton County, Georgia Result Union victory
Belligerents
United States (Union)	CSA (Confederacy)
Commanders and leaders
William T. Sherman Oliver Otis Howard George H. Thomas	John Bell Hood William J. Hardee
Units involved
Army of the Tennessee Army of the Cumberland	Army of Tennessee
Casualties and losses
1,600	3,000

The Battle of Jonesborough (modern name Jonesboro) was fought August 31  – September 1, 1864, during the Atlanta Campaign in the American Civil War. Two Union armies led by Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman maneuvered to draw the Army of Tennessee (led by John Bell Hood) away from their defenses at Atlanta, Georgia, where it could be destroyed.

Although Hood's army was not destroyed, the city of Atlanta was abandoned and then occupied by Union troops for the rest of the war. The fall of Atlanta also had far-reaching political as well as military effects on the course of the war.

Background

In several previous raids during the campaign, Sherman had successfully (but temporarily) cut Confederate Gen. John Bell Hood’s supply lines by using small detachments, but the Confederates had always quickly repaired the damage. Late in August 1864, Sherman believed that if he could completely sever Hood’s supply lines—both the Macon & Western and the Atlanta & West Point Railroads—the Confederates would be forced to evacuate Atlanta.

Therefore, Sherman elected to move six out of his seven infantry corps against the Confederate supply lines. The Union army began pulling out of its positions on August 25 to hit the railroad between the towns of Rough and Ready and Jonesborough.

To counter this move, Lt. Gen. William J. Hardee and two Confederate corps were sent to halt and if possible rout the Union troops. However, Hood failed to realize most of Sherman’s army was approaching there and in force, causing Hardee and his command to be highly outnumbered.

Battle

On August 31, Hardee attacked two Union corps located to the west of Jonesborough, but was easily repulsed. Learning of this and fearing a direct attack on Atlanta, Hood withdrew one corps from Hardee’s force that night and into the city's defenses, a move that would have great consequences the following morning when fighting resumed.

The next day, September 1, a Union corps broke through Hardee’s thinned out line of troops, which retreated to Lovejoy’s Station, and that night Hood ordered the evacuation of Atlanta. The Union forces did succeed in cutting Hood’s supply lines, but had failed to annihilate Hardee’s command. However, Sherman would finally occupy Atlanta the following day, September 2, which had been one of his major goals in the campaign.

Aftermath

The Battle of Jonesborough was the final battle of the Atlanta Campaign, and it caused the besieged city of Atlanta to fall into Union hands. The capture of Atlanta greatly aided the re-election of Abraham Lincoln that November, and hastened the end of the American Civil War. Hood led his defeated army away from Atlanta and to the west, opening the way for Sherman's March to the Sea and led to the virtual destruction of the Army of Tennessee during the Franklin-Nashville Campaign. Many of the fallen soldiers were relocated and reburied in the Patrick R. Cleburne Confederate Cemetery in 1872.

In popular media

Based on the above, the alternate history novel "Gray Victory" by Robert Skimin assumes that a Union failure to take Atlanta would have led to Lincoln losing the elections to McClellan - who would have ended the war by recognising the Confederacy and in effect conceding a Southern victory.

The famous fire scenes in the 1939 American film Gone with the Wind depict the conflagration started in Atlanta when Hood ordered the destruction of military supplies and installations as he evacuated the city.

References

• National Park Service battle description