Existing comment:
In the Aftermath of Chattanooga:
The loss of Chattanooga demoralized the Confederates. As historian James McPherson wrote: "The glimmer of southern optimism that had flared after Chickamauga died in November." Losing the "Gateway to the Deep South" greatly increased the threat to the Confederate heartland in central Georgia and Alabama.
The Union Army captured Chattanooga not merely to demoralize and disrupt the Confederates but to supply its own aggressive plan to invade the heart of the industrial South. Chattanooga became the base for General Sherman's drive on Atlanta.
After Chattanooga fell, Bragg was relieved of his Confederate command, but his successors, Joseph Johnston and John Bell Hood fared no better. Sherman pushed the Confederates to the outskirts of Atlanta and then took the city outright, relying on supply and communication lines that ran through Chattanooga. From Atlanta, he embarked on his destructive March to the Sea.
Sherman's triumphant 1864 Atlanta campaign solidified Union support for the war in a presidential election year, dashing Confederate hopes that war-weary Union voters might clamor for a negotiated peace. Although the Civil War continued until April 1865, the writing was on the wall. |