The Civil War was a great political struggle in U.S. history. One of the most important campaigns in the war was the battle for Atlanta. The city of Atlanta was "the gateway to the Deep South and the Sea." (Carter 38) Its collapse would be the end of the war that destroyed a nation.

Even though Atlanta was a city of importance, it had simple beginnings. In the mid-1830s, a very poor village named Terminus was built on the site where two railroads crossed (Carter 39). The area was wooded and had good clay soil for growing crops (23). As many people settled there, machinery was brought in from the North by rail, and various new industries formed (27). Soon after the Georgia Railroad was finished, the city was renamed Atlanta. The city was truly "rising miraculously from that wilderness" (41). After the Civil War arrived, the...