The Battle of Peach Tree Creek: Hood's First Effort To Save Atlanta

Hess (Braxton Bragg) analyzes and evaluates the Battle of Peach Tree Creek's central role in the broader context of the Atlanta Campaign of 1864. The Federal forces were led by George H. Thomas's Army of the Cumberland, and the Rebel Army of Tennessee was initially commanded by Joseph E. Johnston and his unpopular successor John Bell Hood. The author insists that the Confederacy's ensuing defeat might have been avoided had Confederate President Jefferson Davis not relieved Johnston at such a critical point, when the Federals crossed the Chattahoochee River and began pressuring the city of Atlanta. Hess finds Hood to be inept, arguing that a combination of poor leadership, superior Union countermeasures, among other issues made the difference at Peach Tree Creek. The North continued to dominate until the final Confederate defeat at Jonesboro led to Hood's abandonment of Atlanta in September 1864. Closing chapters deal with the disengagement of Federal and Confederate forces, treatment of the wounded, and glimpses into the postwar lives of veterans.