The struggle for Atlanta ground on for more than four months. It was one of the most decisive campaigns of the Civil War. When Confederate President Jefferson Davis replaced the cautious General Joseph Johnston with John Bell Hood, the stage was set for a bloody showdown. Hood was a fighter. General William T. Sherman, however, was a determined adversary, and his armies far outnumbered the Confederates.

After four furious battles and several bitter clashes, Atlanta fell, and Sherman stood poised for his March to the Sea. "Atlanta is ours," Sherman announced, but Hood, who fought to the bitter end, had at least made him earn it. The story of Hood's meteoric rise and catastrophic fall is fairly and engagingly told within the dramatic context of the fateful struggle for Atlanta.