War Like the Thunderbolt: The Battle and Burning of Atlanta

War Like the Thunderbolt: The Battle and Burning of Atlanta

by Russell S. Bonds
War Like the Thunderbolt: The Battle and Burning of Atlanta

War Like the Thunderbolt: The Battle and Burning of Atlanta

by Russell S. Bonds

eBook

$21.49  $28.00 Save 23% Current price is $21.49, Original price is $28. You Save 23%.

Available on Compatible NOOK Devices and the free NOOK Apps.
WANT A NOOK?  Explore Now

Related collections and offers

LEND ME® See Details

Overview

A masterpiece of prose and research, the definitive history of the struggle for Atlanta during the Civil War, an episode immortalized by the novel Gone with the Wind
Called “the greatest event of the Civil War” by New York diarist George Templeton Strong, the epic struggle for the city of Atlanta in the bloody summer of 1864 was a pivotal moment in American history. Union commander William Tecumseh Sherman’s relentless fight for the city secured the reelection of Abraham Lincoln, sealed the fate of the Southern Confederacy, and set a precedent for military campaigns that endures today. Its depiction in the novel and motion picture Gone with the Wind established the fight for Atlanta as an iconic episode in our nation’s most terrible war. In War Like the Thunderbolt: The Battle and Burning of Atlanta, award-winning author Russell S. Bonds takes the reader behind the lines and across the smoky battlefields of Peachtree Creek, Atlanta, Ezra Church, and Jonesboro, and into the lives of fascinating characters, both the famous and the forgotten, including the fiery and brilliant Sherman; General John Bell Hood, the Confederacy’s last hope to defend Atlanta; Benjamin Harrison, the diminutive young Indiana colonel who would rise to become President of the United States; Patrick Cleburne, the Irishmanturned- Southern officer; and ten-year-old diarist Carrie Berry, who bravely withstood and bore witness to the fall of the city. Here also is the dramatic story of the ordeal of Atlanta itself—the five-week artillery bombardment, the expulsion of its civilian population, and the infamous fire that followed. Based on new research in diaries, newspapers, previously unpublished letters, and other archival sources, War Like the Thunderbolt is a combination of captivating narrative and insightful military analysis—a stirring account of the battle and burning of the “Gate City of the South.”


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781594165023
Publisher: Westholme Publishing
Publication date: 09/02/2010
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 544
File size: 4 MB

About the Author

Russell S. Bonds is an attorney in Atlanta and author of Stealing the General, also available from Westholme Publishing.

Table of Contents

Contents List of Maps Preface: “The Greatest Event of the War” 1. Crazy Bill: The Banks of the Chattahoochee, July 1864 2. The Gamecock: Confederate Headquarters, Atlanta, July 17 3. Old Woodenhead: Hood Takes Command 4. Hood’s First Sortie: The Battle of Peachtree Creek, July 20 5. Night March: Skirmishing and First Shots, July 21-22 6. “An Iliad of Woes”: Bald Hill, or The Battle of Atlanta, July 22 7. The Battle of the Poor House: Ezra Church, July 28 8. “A Used-Up Community”: The Bombardment of Atlanta 9. “I Have Atlanta In My Hand”: The Battle of Jonesboro, August 31–September 1 10. “A Day of Terror and a Night of Dread”: The Surrender of Atlanta, September 2 11. Yankee Town: Occupation and Expulsion, September–October 12. The Whole World on Fire: The Burning of Atlanta 13. Resurgens: Atlanta Rebuilds Afterword: War Is Hell Author’s Note: Atlanta’s Lost Battlefields Appendix A: Order of Battle Appendix B: Report by W. P. Howard to Georgia: Governor Joseph E. Brown on the Destruction of Atlanta Notes Bibliography Index Acknowledgments

What People are Saying About This

James M. McPherson

"This gripping story of the battles for Atlanta in 1864 provides new insights on a campaign that ensured Lincoln's reelection and the ultimate destruction of the Confederacy. Russell S. Bonds has an impressive ability to combine combat narrative with shrewd analyses of commanders' performances."--(James M. McPherson, author of Tried by War: Abraham Lincoln as Commander in Chief)

Robert Hicks

"Through the power of Margaret Mitchell's words and the film they inspired, the struggle for Atlanta became all that most folks needed to know about our nation's four-year bloodbath. In War Like the Thunderbolt, using his skills as both historian and storyteller, Russell S. Bonds has given us what might have seemed impossible-a fresh, new look back at Atlanta."--(Robert Hicks, author of The Widow of the South)

From the B&N Reads Blog

Customer Reviews