the several most available points.

As agreed upon with Grant, Sherman began his march on May 5, 1864, the
day following that on which Grant entered upon his Wilderness campaign
in Virginia. These pages do not afford space to describe his progress.
It is enough to say that with his double numbers he pursued the policy
of making strong demonstrations in front, with effective flank movements
to threaten the railroad in the Confederate rear, by which means he
forced back the enemy successively from point to point, until by the
middle of July he was in the vicinity of Atlanta, having during his
advance made only one serious front attack, in which he met a costly
repulse. His progress was by no means one of mere strategical manoeuver.
Sherman says that during the month of May, across nearly one hundred
miles of as difficult country as was ever fought over by civilized
armies, the fighting was continuous, almost daily, among trees and
bushes, on ground where one could rarely see one hundred yards ahead.

However skilful and meritorious may have been the retreat into which
Johnston had been forced, it was so unwelcome to the Richmond
authorities, and damaging to the Confederate cause, that about the
middle of July, Jefferson Davis relieved him, and appointed one of his
corps commanders, General J.B. Hood, in his place; whose personal
qualities and free criticism of his superior led them to expect a change
from a defensive to an aggressive campaign. Responding to this
expectation, Hood almost immediately took the offensive, and made
vigorous attacks on the Union positions, but met disastrous repulse, and
found himself fully occupied in guarding the defenses of Atlanta. For
some weeks each army tried ineffectual methods to seize the other's
railroad communications. But toward the end of August, Sherman's flank
movements gained such a hold of the Macon railroad at Jonesboro,
twenty-five miles south of Atlanta, as to endanger Hood's security; and
when, in addition, a detachment sent to dislodge Sherman was defeated,
Hood had no alternative but to order an evacuation. On September 3,
Sherman telegraphed to Washington:

"Atlanta is ours, and fairly won.... Since May 5 we have been in one
constant battle or skirmish, and need rest."

The fall of Atlanta was a heavy blow to the Confederates. They had,
during the war, transformed it into a city of mills, foundries, and
workshops, from which they drew supplies, ammunition, and equipm