Johnston was soon replaced by the aggressive General John Bell
Hood, Confederate attacks around the city’s perimeter were repulsed,
and Atlanta fell to Sherman on September 1. Before the year ended,
Hood would bleed the remnants of the Army of Tennessee dry on
the battlefields of Franklin and Nashville. As summer turned to fall,
while Grant slowly crushed Lee’s army in the trenches at Petersburg,
the other components of his grand strategy were also falling into
place. Admiral David Farragut had won the contest for Mobile
Bay. General Philip Sheridan had cleared Rebel forces from the
Shenandoah Valley, torching the “Breadbasket of the Confederacy”
along the way. Sherman would soon undertake a scorched earth
campaign across Georgia, intended to break the Southern will. When
Lincoln won re-election in November it was due in no small part to
these victories on the battlefield. The end of the war was in sight.
The Battle of Cedar Creek
General Philip Sheridan reverses Union fortunes
at the Battle of Cedar Creek after galloping
12 miles (19km) to rally his troops. ”Sheridan’s
Ride” is later immortalized in verse and in this
painting by poet-artist Thomas Buchanan Read.Lincoln is re-elected president
After victories for the Union at Atlanta and
Mobile Bay, Abraham Lincoln convincingly
defeats his Democratic opponent, George
McClellan, in the presidential election.
Lincoln wins 22 states to McClellan’s three.The Fall of Atlanta
Atlanta, the railroad nerve
center of the South, is
captured by Sherman in
September after a
four-month campaign. He
wrecks and burns the city
so it can never be used
again by the Confederacy.Battle of Mobile Bay
Mobile’s spacious bay, the
Gulf Coast’s last haven for
Confederate blockade-
runners and commerce
raiders, is finally captured
by Admiral David Farragut’s
fleet on August 5.1864
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