In 1864 Abraham Lincoln had privately predicted his defeat in the impending election, but ten days later Atlanta fell, assuring his victory. General Jacob D. Cox (1828-1900) played a key role in the Union success at Atlanta, a city of profound strategic and political significance. At Kenesaw Mountain in June, his division seized a ridge opposite the Confederate left, allowing Sherman to flank the Confederates out of their prepared position; in late August Cox's men served the city's final rail line, forcing Hood's evacuation. It was Cox's self-professed qualities of "a bold heart, a cool hand, and practical common-sense" that later earned him the command of the entire Twenty-third Corps and the rank of major general.

After the war, Cox applies those same attributes to his books, Sherman's Battle for Atlanta and Sherman's March to the Sea, two volumes in the landmark series Campaigns of the Civil War. In Atlanta Cox offers readers a compact, comprehensive, and balanced history of that campaign. William T. Sherman emerges as the primary hero of events, but he does not remain unscathed by Cox's evaluation. Cox's insightful chronicle of the campaign-from the performances of Generals Johnston's evasive maneuvers through Hood's three desperate attempts to dispel the Yankees to Sherman's triumphant telegram to Washington that "Atlanta is ours, and fairly won"-has endured the scrutiny of time.
Introduction by Brooks D. Simpson