Book Review: The National Tribune Remembers the Atlanta Campaign: Battles, Skirmishes, Marches, and Camp Life as Recalled by the Union Veterans Themselves

The National Tribune Remembers the Atlanta Campaign: Battles, Skirmishes, Marches, and Camp Life as Recalled by the Union Veterans Themselves. Edited by Stephen Davis. El Dorado Hills, CA: Savas Beatie, 2025. Softcover, 316 pp., $24.95.

Reviewed by Brian S. Wills

Students of the American Civil War will know of the Confederate Veteran and the Southern Historical Society Papers as sources for the Confederate veterans and the papers of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States for Union veterans. Many of these accounts find their ways into studies of soldiers, battles, and campaigns. Perhaps less well-known are the reminiscences that appeared in The National Tribune, begun in 1877 as a newspaper by Union veteran George E. Lemon. Historian Steve Davis has crafted a volume of articles related to the Atlanta Campaign that sheds new light on this resource.

Davis has placed the selection of articles in campaign order beginning with the 1909 examination of William T. Sherman’s supply system and a 1904 discussion of George H. Thomas’s proposal to use Snake Creek Gap to allow the Army of the Cumberland to threaten Resaca and concluding with pieces from 1902 and 1906 on memorials for fallen generals James B. McPherson and William H.T. Walker, respectively. The articles vary in length and detail, with Davis providing contextual information where needed. His editorial style allows the writers to speak for themselves.

Readers will find a mixed amount of information available for some of the military actions in the campaign. For example, a probative 1890 essay on one explanation for the failure of the Union attacks at Kennesaw Mountain on June 27, 1864, follows a very short and straightforward 1898 article on the death of Brig. Gen. Charles G. Harker there. (105-109) Colorful accounts of the crossing of the Chattahoochee River that rendered moot Joseph Johnston’s design of using the river as a barrier against the Union advance, and Gen. George Thomas uncharacteristically galloping his horse at Jonesboro offer insights into aspects of the campaign and the individuals who fought in it. (116 and 262)

Other essays present poignant aspects of the fighting in Georgia. A Union soldier declares a premonition of his death at Dallas, one of the bitter fights that occurred in the “Hell Hole” of Georgia as Sherman sought to outflank Johnston and avoid a fight at Allatoona Pass; Corporal John Henderson proved unhappily prescient in this regard. (81-82) In his comments, Davis observes that “more than 40 articles or letters” in the National Tribune discuss the death of Bishop/Gen. Leonidas Polk at Pine Mountain, before selecting two of the essays, 22 and 23, to represent all of the others. (90-92)

As such examples illustrate, the topics are wide and varied in subject matter and scope. The essays cover routine military experiences and unusual situations. For instance, one of the writers remembers fraternizing with the opposing soldiers in the form of “visiting, eating, and playing cards with the Johnnies.” (285) While, two of the men who fought at Peachtree Creek recalled learning that one of the wounded Confederates was actually a female, which the editor suggests may well be corroborated by other accounts. (157-158)

Still, the most numerous and substantial of the selections relate to the principal engagements of the Atlanta campaign from Resaca to Peachtree Creek, Atlanta itself, and Jonesboro. Here the contributors offer readers the greatest amount of first-hand experiences and insights. The writers exhibit the clear desire to share the moments that shaped their lives in something very much like letters to each other and a broader audience. The essays also underscore the challenges of memory, with many of the articles coming decades after the guns had fallen silent and the unedited nature of the events had faded.

With that caveat in mind, The National Tribune Remembers the Atlanta Campaign is a tremendous resource for examining this phase of the war. Just as significant, Steve Davis’s editorial efforts supply context and additional information and sources that will prove worthwhile to casual readers and historians alike.

Brian S. Wills is the former Director of the Center for the Study of the Civil War Era and Emeritus Professor of History at Kennesaw State University. He is the author of numerous award-winning works and lives in Wise, Virginia.