The Day Dixie Died: The Battle of Atlanta

Although not a Gettysburg-style showstopper, the middling-sized (about 10,000 casualties) 1864 battle of Atlanta emerges as one of the Civil War's more dramatic engagements in this vivid recreation. Historian Ecelbarger (The Great Comeback) chronicles the daylong onslaught by Confederate general John Bell Hood's Army of Tennessee against the Union Army of the Tennessee, the left wing of Sherman's forces. Hood's intricate, audacious attack sent a long right hook around the Union flank and made for a bloody clash of charges and countercharges, with Yankees hopping back and forth across their trench line to fend off almost simultaneous attacks from front and rear. Ecelbarger lingers on the carnage ("Yankee lead tore into Rebel bodies, snapping bones, severing blood vessels. and piercing vital organs"), but his lucid narrative (embellished with excellent maps) doesn't let gore obscure the battle's larger shape. He also perceptively emphasizes the importance of personal leadership in a confused and volatile fight that felled a roster of generals, from Army of the Tennessee commander James McPherson to Southern officers whose loss befuddled and demoralized the Confederate assault. Ecelbarger paints a fine, panorama of a seldom-sung but rousing epic. 17 b&w photos; 3 maps. (Nov.)