These US Civil War dates are primarily for the western theater of the war, between the western slope of the Appalachians and the Mississippi River. For the eastern theater, see this US Civil War Timeline 1864.
Ulysses S. Grant, promoted to lieutenant general and transferred East to command all Union armies, calls for a war of attrition against the Confederacy's two principal armies: Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia and Joseph E. Johnston's Army of Tennessee. Early in May, with Atlanta as his objective, Sherman, Grant's successor in the West, attacks Johnston at Rocky Face Ridge west of Dalton. For the next eight weeks the two armies grapple their way south into central Georgia. On July 17, With Sherman's armies approaching Atlanta, Confederate President Jefferson Davis fires Johnston and replaces him with Gen. John B. Hood. Hood Abandons Johnston's defensive strategy and boldly sends his troops to attack Sherman in a series of costly battles that only serve to underscore the futility of such tactics.
On September 1, after a long siege by Sherman's soldiers, Atlanta is evacuated and Hood withdraws, regroups, and advances into Tennessee. Within three months his Army of Tennessee is virtually destroyed in battles at Spring Hill, Franklin, and Nashville. Meanwhile, in mid-November, Sherman burns Atlanta and begins his famous "March to the Sea." Elsewhere, the blockade continues to tighten as Union amphibious forces seize the forts guarding the entrance to Mobile Bay and Admiral Farragut's ocean-going squadron crushes a Confederate fleet.
Feb 3-Mar 4 Meridian Expedition, Miss.
* Feb 22 Battle of Okolona
Feb 20 Battle of Olustee (Ocean Pond), Fla.
Mar 12-May 20 Red River and Camden Campaigns, La.-Ark.
Mar 23-May 3 Camden Expedition, Ark.
Apr 8 Battle of Mansfield, La.
Apr 9 Battle of Pleasant Hill, La.
Apr 30 Battle of Jenkins' Ferry, Ark.
Apr 12 Fort Pillow "massacre," Tenn.
May 7-Sep 2 Sherman's Atlanta Campaign, Ga.
May 13-15 Battle of Resaca
May 25-28 Battles of New Hope Church, Pickett's Mill, and Dallas.
Jun 27 Battle of Kennesaw Mountain
Jul 20 Battle of Peachtree Creek
Jul 22 Battle of Atlanta
Jul 28 Battle of Ezra Church
Aug 31-Sep 1 Battle of Jonesboro
Sep 2 Union troops occupy Atlanta
Jun 10 Battle of Brice's Cross Roads, Miss.
Jul 14 Battle of Tupelo, Miss.
Aug 5 Battle of Mobile Bay, Ala.
Aug 29-Dec 25 Price's Raid, Ark.-Mo.-Kan.-Indian Terr.-Tex
Nov 15-Dec 21 Sherman's Savannah Campaign (March to the Sea), Ga.
Nov 22 Engagement at Griswoldville, Ga.
Nov 30 Engagement at Honey Hill, S.C.
Dec 13 Capture of Fort McAllister, Ga.
Dec 21 Savannah, Ga., occupied
Nov 29-Dec 27 Hood's Tennessee Campaign
Nov 29 Affair at Spring Hill
Nov 30 Battle of Franklin
Dec 15-16 Battle of Nashville
Source materials published by the National Park Service were used to create this page on US Civil War dates for 1864.
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