lament his failure to bring battle at Cassville. In time, his disillusionment with Hood, and the events of May 19, would fester and grow into a passionate mission to leave his own version of the day’s history. His views have dominated the literature ever since, and they have clouded our understanding of the subject for over a century and a half. Tellingly, numerous historians, including Wilbur Kurtz, Albert Castel, Steve Davis, Richard McMurry, Stephen (Sam) Hood, Keith Hebert, and others have all concluded that Hood was most likely telling the truth about his version of the battle plan, and that Johnston was not, despite not having the correct and full road structure or the ability to “Ironically, Johnston’s versi do the comparative analysis of the story, recit that this project has been able to and everybody else, straigh accomplish. For one reason or Hood’s mendacity, fell some another, each of these historians essentially had to make an short of the mark.” “educated guess,” based upon the limited data available to each of them, but they all sniffed out Johnston’s fibbing. Larry Daniel has also recently uncovered and exposed another factual misstatement in Johnston’s Narrative in his recent article on the defense at Adairsville which is anticipated to be published in an essay on the Atlanta Campaign. One of my “a-ha” moments in researching this project, was reaching the conclusion that Johnston’s story about coming up with his game plan on the evening of May 17 at Adairsville was a complete fabrication. What the Confederate leaders were “poring” over the
map about at that time was trying to figure out how to move a 74,000man army out of harm’s way from the single road north of Adairsville via multiple routes south of the town before Johnston might be cut of either via Rome from the west, or Hightower Bridge to the east. They were NOT planning a master counter stroke of divide and conquer against Sherman on the evening of May 17, but simply were seeking a safe evacuation by splitting their forces and reuniting at Cassvill I suspect that Johnston invented this “May 17” story in his 1874 Narrative in an effort to get ahead of Hood’s anticipated post-war book, and to get ahead of Hood’s claim that he had recommended an attack on May 18, the day before the Cassville events. If there exists any contemporaneous account that would support Johnston’s statement that he devised his master plan to divide and conquer Sherman on the evening of May 17, I have not found it. All I have found is that the first time this claim ever saw print was in 1874 in Johnston’s Narrative, and his story has been repeated numerous times over the years, first by veteran soldiers, and then by postwar writers and historians, even up and through today. In 1974, Professor Richard McMurry exposed Johnston’s alterations to the T.B. Mackall “Journal.” McMurry cautioned historians about the altered “O” sample “Journal” following his discovery. This discovery should have set off a flood of new research, interpretation, and historiography on the Atlanta Campaign given this new and blockbuster prism by which Johnston’s Narrative and the operations (and reports) of the campaign could be examined. Unfortunately, instead of a surge of new research, the new discoveries of the campaign have merely
trickled over the past 50 years as people have stubbornly clung to Johnston’s Narrative rather than search beyond it for answers. Hood never wavered from his statements about his recommendation for an attack of Sherman’s columns between Adairsville and Cassville while Johnston’s version has vacillated over his multiple opportunit to leave a record for the historian. Three times in the two places t Hood left a record, his statements were clear, concise, and consiste There is an old adage that the truth never changes. There is another principle in the law which provides that if the testimony of a party or witness is impeached by contradictory evidence, meaning that the witness or party’s statement has been proven to be false, then al to set Sherman, of that witness’s testimony may bout be ignored or given no weight. t Thus, in a courtroom setting, if Johnston was found to have been untruthful about any one of his claims at Snake Creek Gap, or Calhoun, or Adairsville’s defense, or about the size and strength of his army, or about the number of casualties sustained by his men during his tenure, then it can be assumed that he was also untruthfu concerning his statements on the events about Cassville, as well. Historian Wilbur Kurtz did not believe that Johnston was truthful on a number of points in his Narrative, including his excuses for Snake Creek Gap, his defense of Calhoun, or Adairsville, or his supposed battle plan for Cassville.34
In summing up a post-war meeting between Johnston and Sherman where Johnston had been asked about the Cassville issue, Kurtz wrote: “Ironically, Johnston’s version of the story, recited to set Sherman, and everybody else, straight about Hood’s mendacity, fell somewhat short of the mark. Obviously, [it was] a face-saving
Lieutenant General Leonidas Polk. (Library of Congress)
measure to rationalize his failure to fight at Cassville after his flaming proclamation. It could pass for history only as long as the complete story awaited access to certain records.”35 With the correction of the errors in Cassville’s historiography, her story can now be examined with more accuracy than before. The events there exposed the failure of the Confederate forces to gather accurate intelligence on their enemy. It revealed the incompleteness, inadequacy, and inaccuracy of the Southern maps. The events at Adairsville and Cassville also demonstrated a level of incompetency within the Southern high command. At Adairsville, Johnston did not anticipate the Robert D. (“Bob”) Jenkins Sr. is a trial attorney practicing in Dalton, practice since 1990. A native of Hattiesburg, Miss., Bob grew up in Cha University in 1987 with a B.B.A degree in Business Management with Mino Doctor degree from Mercer University in 1990 and regularly practices in Bob Jenkins completed a book titled The Battle of Peach Tree Creek: Hoo 2013). In 2014, Bob completed a second book, titled To the Gates of Atl July 1864, (Mercer University Press, Macon, GA: 2015). In 2016, Bob wro which was published in the Blue and Gray magazine, January 2016 (Vol. X
has acquired and opened Mill Creek Gap Park, Potato Hill Park, and Rock his book on the Cassville controversies, The Cassville Affairs: Johnsto Campaign, 19 May 1864 (Mercer University Press, Macon, GA: 2024), which Shari Ann Jenkins, and the two have four grown children. Bob and Shari Report of General Joseph E. Johnston, OR, Serial 74, 612-21; Johnston, Joseph E., Narrative of Military Operations, Directed During the Late War Between the States by Joseph E. Johnston, General, C.S.A., New York: D.
Appleton and Company, 1874. Report of General John B. Hood, OR, Serial 74, 635; J.B. Hood, Advance and Retreat, Personal Experiences in the United States & Confederate States
Armies, P.G.T. Beauregard: Hood Memorial Fund, New Orleans, LA: 1880, reprinted with an introduction by Richard M. McMurry, Da Capo Press, Inc.,
Hood, OR, Serial 74, 635. Interrogation of a captured Federal soldier the previous evening led to the Confederate false assumption that Howard’s IV
Corps would approach Cassville via the Ironton Road. OR Serial 74, 982-3. However, Schofield’s XXIII Corps would be coming from that route. OR
Serial 75, 241-3 J.B. Hood, Advance and Retreat, 99. “Gen. Hood’s Report of the Operations of the Army of the Tennessee.” - The
the-south-gen-hoods-report-of-the-operations-of-the-army.html (7-23-2022). Hood, Advance and Retreat, 317-37, at 334.
OR Serial 74, 978-91. OR Serial 74, 978. Emphasis supplied by author.
Richard M. McMurry, “The Mackall Journal and its Antecedents,” Paul
Rohmann, Ed., Civil War History: A Journal of the Middle Period (Kent, OH:
Kent State University Press, December 1974), vol. 20, No. 4, 311-28.
The “A” sample, “Journal” of [Thomas B. Mackall] with the Army of Tennessee in Georgia, May 5 - July 31, 1864, Joseph E. Johnston Papers (Mss. 39.1 J
Special Collections Research Center, Swem Library, William & Mary College, Item - Box: 3, Folder: 2, Identifier: id112225. The “B” sample, “Journal” of [Thomas B. Mackall] with the Army of Tennessee in Georgia, for the period May 1 - July 9, 1864, Joseph E. Johnston Papers (Mss. 39.1 J63), Special Collections Research Center, Swem Library,
William & Mary College, Item - Box: 3, Folder: 2, Identifier: id112227. The “A” sample. The “O” sample, OR, Serial 74, 983. In his article, “The Mackall Journal and its Antecedents.”
Ward, Report, OR, Serial 73, 342; Colonel F.S. Smith (102nd Illinois) Re-
port, OR, Serial 73, 353; Colonel Daniel Dustin (105th Illinois) Report, OR, Serial 73, 361; Colonel Benjamin Harrison (70th Indiana) Report, OR, Serial 73, 372; Captain Samuel A. West (79th Ohio) OR, Serial 73, 376; Wheeler, OR, Serial 74, 946; Mackall “Journal,” the “A” sample. McCook, OR, Serial 73, 752. Compare to Rippetoe’s Report in which he claimed artillery began shelling the enemy at about 10 a.m., OR, Serial 73, 8
Hood, Taylor Beattie letter, John Austin letter, Advance and Retreat, 98-103. also Arthur M. Manigault, A Carolinian Goes to War, The Civil War Narrative o
speed at which Sherman’s legions spilled into the plains below the Oostanaula River. And, most importantly, this work has advanced Professor McMurry’s previous finding that Johnston was deceitful in both his own writings, and in his intentional misuse of a distorted diary of one of his lieutenants. Because of our previous reliance on Johnston, the Cassville mysteries remained clouded and unsolved. By dissecting and exposing his false claims, and correcting the errors in the Confederate maps, the true story of Cassville can now be revealed. Perhaps now, the Cassville puzzle has finally been solved.
here he has maintained a general and civil trial Ga. Bob was graduated from Georgia Southern istory and Geography. Bob received his Juris urts throughout Northwest Georgia. In 2013, st Sortie, (Mercer University Press, Macon, GA: rom Kennesaw Mountain to Peach Tree Creek, 1-19 xtensive article on the “Battles for Dalton,” ssue 1) issue. Bob is President of Save the Dalton on Commission. Through their efforts, the County Ridge Park. Bob has most recently completed and the Failed Confederate Strategy in the Atlanta leased in February 2024. Bob is married to travel, camp with their 5th wheel RV, and hike.
Arthur Middleton Manigault, Brigadier General, C.S.A., edited by R. Lockw Tower, Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1983, 185-6. Mackall “Journal,” “O” sample, OR, Serial 74, 983. See also Hood’s Rep OR, Serial 74, 635; Manigault, A Carolinian Goes to War, 185-6; see also,
tie and Austin in Hood, Advance and Retreat. 98-103. William W. Mackall, “Memoranda of Operations at Cassville on May 19, 1864,” OR, Serial 74, 621-2. OR, Serial 74, 983. This conclusion may be reached by a comparison of the three samples of
T.B. Mackall’s “Journal,” “A,” “B,” and “O” samples. C.E. Merrill, “Map Illustrating The Second Epoch of the Atlanta Campaign,” National Archives and Records Administration. Wheeler’s Report, OR, Serial 74, 946; Atlas to the OR, Plate 58, Map 1 also see Wilbur G. Kurtz’ 1949 hand-drawn map published in The Daily
Tribune News, Cartersville, GA, November 8, 1949.
Wilbur F. Foster, “Battlefield Maps in Georgia,” Confederate Veteran, 20, Nashville, TN: S.A. Cunningham, 1912, 369-70; Foster Map, Martin Map, and Wheeler Map, Jenkins, The Cassville Affairs, Exhibits 26, 27, &
Dave Powell, The Atlanta Campaign, Vol. 1, Chapter 30: “The Cassville
Dorado Hills, CA: Savas Beatie Press, [expected release June 2024].
Sherman, dispatch to McPherson, May 17, 6:15 p.m., OR, Serial 75, 227.
Castel, Decision in the West, 202. Sherman, dispatch to Stoneman, May 17, Evening, OR, Serial 75, 224. Robert D. Jenkins, Sr., The Battle of Peach Tree Creek: Hood’s First S
Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 2013. Wilbur G. Kurtz, Sr., “General Joseph E. Johnston’s Review of Sherman’ Memoirs, published in Drake’s Annals of the Army of Tennessee, Nashville, April 1878,” Special Collections, Keenan Research Center, Atlanta History
Center, Wilbur G. Kurtz, Sr., Collection, MSS.130, Box 81, Folder 3; Cast fn 102, 590. Kurtz, Wilbur G., Sr., “General Joseph E. Johnston’s Review of Sherman Memoirs,” 17. Historian Steve Davis also found Kurtz’ remarks compelling
for he included them in his book, John Bell Hood, Texas Brigadier to the
of Atlanta, 150. Hood, OR, Serial 74, 634; Hood, Advance and Retreat, 99.
After the war, Johnston wrote William M. Mackall on multiple occasions in an effort to get Mackall to support him, and on one occasion he tried the elder Mackall to agree that Johnston planned the Cassville attack whi Adairsville, but Mackall would not do it (Johnston to Mackall, July 20, 1 from Savannah, GA; William W. Mackall papers, special collections UNC
Chapel Hill, 48, File 1299, Folder 5). Kurtz, Wilbur G., Sr., “General Joseph E. Johnston’s Review of Sherman Memoirs,” 1-18. Kurtz, 17-18. Emphasis added by author.
