The Richmond and Atlanta Campaigns of 1864 Were Joined at the Hip

On June 18 I finally visited Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park.  I was down in Atlanta for my grandson's second birthday.  I'm currently writing about Grant's second offensive at Petersburg.  The Atlanta Campaign battles of Kolb's Farm (June 22, 1864) and Kennesaw Mountain (June 27, 1864) took place within the span of the Federal general-in-chief's second offensive at Petersburg.  Grant loaned his horse Cincinnati to President Lincoln during his visit to the Union lines around there on June 21-22, 1864.  The Kennesaw Mountain park sells a little replica of Cincinnati and I bought one for my grandson, whom the toy horse pleased.

Chickamauga, fought on September 18-20, 1863 just south of Chattanooga, had a profound effect on the general-in-chief.  He realized that the Union armies must act as a team, applying continuous pressure on their respective fronts to prevent the Confederates from concentrating against any particular Federal army.  As late as his second offensive at Petersburg, he feared that if Sherman let up on Johnston in the Atlanta Campaign, the Secessionists might transfer troops from Georgia to Virginia. OR 40, 2:175. Afterward Grant feared that withdrawing his army group from James River would ensure Sherman's defeat by allowing the Southerners to shift forces from Virginia to Georgia for a reprise of Chickamauga.  OR 42, 2:193. The general-in-chief's fourth offensive in August ended any chance of that.  Confederate President Davis was not even thinking of such a move; in fact, he ordered an infantry brigade transferred from Atlanta to Mobile shortly before Atlanta's fall.