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| BLUE ACORN PRESS CATALOG OF CIVIL WAR BOOKS |
KENNESAW MOUNTAIN JUNE 1864 By Richard A. Baumgartner & Larry M. Strayer |
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"The days in front of Kennesaw," wrote a Confederate officer, "were the longest in the year. The firing began as soon as it was light enough for the gunners to see and all day long our line was searched by shot and shell. It will be readily understood how wearing this was to nerves and what a relief the coming of darkness brought." On the opposite side a Union soldier thought, "Only men of skin, bone and gristle could endure such service." Authors Richard Baumgartner and Larry Strayer vividly describe the tactical maneuvering and brutal battles between Sherman's Federals and Johnston's Confederates by utilizing hundreds of participant's diaries, letters, journals, memoirs and reports, as well as 175 wartime photographs - combining eyewitness narratives and images in an engrossing format which has become a Blue Acorn Press hallmark. This is the first book in 134 years to examine the killing fields surrounding Kennesaw, focusing on trench warfare and vicious fighting at Lost and Pine mountains, Gilgal Church, Noonday Creek, Mud Creek and Kolb's Farm, and culminating in Sherman's bloody repulse along Kennesaw's slopes on June 27. Softcover, 8-1/2 x 11 format, 175 wartime photos, 11 engravings, maps, notes, bibliography, index. ISBN 1-885033-25-7. Price: $22.50 |
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Major Philip Van Horn Weems (left) of the 11th Tennessee wrote home on June 21, 1864 from Kennesaw Mountain: "We feel confident of whipping the Yankees if they ever attack us and woe be to Sherman then ... I hope to see you once again, but the daily risks I am under leave me little chance of hope." One month later, while acting as colonel, Weems was mortally wounded in the battle of Atlanta and died on July 24. |
Lieutenant Colonel Columbus Sykes (right), 43rd Mississippi, prophesized on June 13, 1864 in a letter to his wife Pauline: "I think Sherman's flanking process has nearly played out, and he must soon come down to his work by making a direct attack on our front; for this purpose he may some day suddenly mass his troops on some given point and attempt, by mere brute force, to break thru our lines. I think, however, he will find us ready for him at all points of the line. The 'On to Atlanta' movement has become very slow as well as dangerous." In a freak accident seven months later, Sykes was fatally injured by a falling tree while sleeping in a bivouac. |
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Captain James L. Burkhalter |
Colonel Daniel McCook Jr. |
| On June 27, 1864, a dozen of Sherman's brigades assaulted the Confederates' Kennesaw entrenchments - three of them at a point soon to be called "the Dead Angle." With only a short time to prepare for the attack, many Federals were filled with a sense of dreadful foreboding. One of these was Captain James Burkhalter, who confided to his journal: "Seven a.m. A different fate is in store for many of us, for we are destined to die and be blind to tomorrow's sun which will rise above a terrible carnage - that which has gone on for the last fifty days, virtually without pause. We are informed that our brigade is ordered to charge the rebel works. So much for the foolish dream of our soldiers who thought that our few days in reserve presaged a new status as a pet brigade. Pet my foot. Rested for the slaughter would be more like it." By 10 o'clock the Federals had suffered between 2,500 and 3,000 casualties, including Burkhalter's brigade commander, Colonel Daniel McCook Jr. A former law partner of Sherman, McCook was shot in the chest at point-blank range after mounting the Confederate works. Taken to a brother's home in Steubenville, Ohio, his wound proved fatal on July 18 when he succumbed just four days shy of his 30th birthday. |
