THE ATLANTA CAMPAIGN Volume 1: Dalton to Cassville, May 1-19, 1864

As anyone who is familiar with Dave Powell's The Chickamauga Campaign Trilogy will know that Trilogy was a superbly detailed history of the Chickamauga Campaign.  The same author drew me to this book along with my fascination of the Atlanta campaign which goes back to my first visit to Dalton in the mid-2000s.  I was not disappointed.

Volume 1 sets the scene for the opening of the campaign, a small biography of the major commanders in the campaign.  Then begins with the fighting approaching Dalton and MacPherson stalling I front of Resaca.  This book contains the first really detailed account I have read on the Battle of Resaca and then focuses on the Confederate withdrawal and the numerous manoeuvres by the Union Army and the Confederate counter moves ending up with Johnston withdrawing from Cassville.

This book is well written and goes into great detail about the movements and engagements using not just the ORs but are also littered with personal accounts of not just senior officers but also privates and non-commissioned officers, this breathes life into the narrative.  I must admit the amount of detail was such that I limited myself to approximately 25 pages at a time so I could digest the information being presented to me by this fine historian.

David Powell has spent a lot of time and effort in researching this book and it shows. 

I particularly like the Savas Beatie style of putting footnotes at the bottom of the page as I personally hate having to go to the back of the book 3 times per page.  This volume comes in at 545 pages of text out of a total of 607pages.

When reading a book, I like to learn something new and I can honestly say that I have with this book.

If you want a quick high-level account of the Atlanta Campaign this book/series is not for you, if you want a deeper dive then this is definitely for you.  I don’t know how many volumes are going to be produced on what I believe is the crucial campaign of 1864, but I thoroughly enjoyed this one and look forward to the production of Volume 2.

This took me longer than usual to read as I didn’t want to miss anything and was all the better for it as I savoured every page of it.  I can recommend this book to fellow round table members.