Didnt have any confidence that they could hold this position in this, so, yet, the army retreated yet again. Sherman, at this point, is pretty optimistic about the course of the campaign up to this point. And in a wonderfully e voktive phrase, he writes this is at the beginning. With are like a vast hive of bees and expect to swarm over the chatahoochie in a few days. Johnsons army was in the alatoona mountains. Sherman was very familiar with the entire section of georgia. He had spent time in the 1840s. He had been stationed here. Sherman knew it would be foolish to try and attack johnson in the alatoona mountains. So what johnson tries to do is execute another flanking march. This one would involve some risk because it would move the union army some mimes away from the western atlantic. The objective of this march would be the town of dallas. Johnsons calvary informed him in pretty timely fashion of this Movement Toward dallas. And johnson shifts away west ward to try and block sherman once again. What ensued them was some intense battles. The fighting was called the kill line. It would be impractical for him to continue south because it would keep the union forces away from the railroad too long, he decided to shift back eastward. At the end of may, shermans army was experiencing some armyerious sufully ng some shortages. They had simply been away from the army too long. o6i the skies ohm open up and it starts to rain. Hundreds of men on a daily basis in both armies are sent to the rear. Theyre broken down. Physically. Theres constant skirm itish da after day. That takes an enormous toll on everyone. He makes an attempt to deviate from the strategy. It may cost us dear, but the results would surpass any attempt to pass around. He felt it could damage the morale of the men. That it would make them timid, in effect. John belle hood is very open about this. The Union Soldiers were repoltz. Sherman took a lot of heat from the northern press. His men were disheartened. But if you look at the losses up to this point, they paled in comparison to what was happening in virginia. Compare the losses, for instance, in just a single day of fighting in the wilderness. This is what forced johnson to fall back that had been constructed by enormous numbers of suppressed slaves along the chatahoochie river. So shermans troops advanced. Hes right on the out skirts of atlanta. Look at the bottom of the match. Map. You can see it north of the confedera confederates river line. And when the confederates retreat across the chatahoochie, they are right on the outskirts of the gate city of atlanta, as it was called. By this point, Jefferson Davis has had enough of joe johnson. Jefferson davis has lost faith in joe johnsons ability to hold the city of atlanta. Johnson, who repeatedly told the davis administration, and politicians who visited his headquarters that the best way to chase them out of georgia is to strike their supply line. Johnson claimed that his calvary, joe wheelers calvary corps, couldnt do this. So what johnson proposed was to ride east to force the supply line. This would involve stripping alabama and mississippi and all of their defenders. And that was something that davis, i think wisely, refused to do. Alabama and mississippi were pretty important states. They would have opened up important industrial cities. It would not have been a smart move. We dont have time to talk about the ways u but you can later, if youre interested. On july 18, 1864, he makes the extremely controversial decision of relieving joe johnson in commands and replacing him with one of his core commanders. He personally sacrificed a lot. You all know the nature of his wounds. The loss of a leg, the partial loss of the use of an arm here at guess burg. In the message that relieved joe johnson, you are hereby relieved. So hood takes command. And he has a mandate, a very clear mandate that he has to fight for the city of at lan n hoe doesnt have a lot of room to maneuver. The attacks ended up being uncoordinating. Theres a fine new book on the manner. Were only now getting detailed battle studies of the west. While there have been eastern battles for maybe decades. Hood learns that the far left flank of the union troops that are approaching atlanta from the east is vulnerable, its in the air. This is part of the army under mcpherson. These are men who fought heavily on the city east of july 1st. What hood was asking his men to do was simply unrealistic, in terms of their physical abilities. On july 22nd, the largest battle of the campaign is fought. It was the single Bloodiest Day of fighting in the last civil war. Some of hardys troops breakthrough the union line. They capture large numbers of prisoners in cannon. They killed general james b. Mcpher surks on and was one of the highestranking generals to die in the war. This was a huge, personal blow to sherman. As you could imagine. But, at the end of the day, the federals launch counter attacks. They retake the portions of their lines that the confederates had seized. This was a battle that cost hoods army very heavily. Following the battle, sherman decided to reorient his strategy. With hopes of cutting the last calvary raid. He tries to wreck the rail lines south of the city. Hoods response to these movementeds by sending a corps out west of atlanta to block the federal movements out there. This is under the troops that hood sends out there under very, very inexperienced Corps Commander named s. D. Lee. Hes a close friend of hoods. Lee gets out to the area where hes supposed to be. He takes it upon thoims start a battle. So what happens is the confederates losing heavily, attacking fortified federals. The casualties are dramatically lopsided. That raid so church is a great victory for cheryl mavn. But the calvary raid he launched proved disastrous. This lowers shermans already poor vision of his calvary core. Hood had not achieved what he wanted in these three battles. None of them intended to be frontal attacks. Two of shermans core commanders had been classmates. They knew his reputation. And sherman did, too. So in the first few weeks, sherman is trying to get around the city to the west. Hes having some problems. Hes shermans facing a discharge of 10,000 of his men at this point in august. He also tells halak in the first week of august that hes too impatient for a siege. Sherman is a pretty nervous, impatient, anxious individual. He doesnt want a long, drawn out affair like what happened at petersburg, certainly. So he decides on a bold plan, serman. Decides to abandon the siege to hold the point where his supply line, the western atlantic crosses the chathoochie river. And cut the railroad south of the city. Wheeler set off on a raid. Wheelers raid is a spectacular failure. He wrecks his calvary core in the process. So, at first, when hood receives news that the federal trenches north of the city are vacant, what do you think he believes . Wheelers raid is a success. Sherman is retreating to the north. But thecn he realizes whats going on. And then, on the first day of the battle, the last battle of the campaign, these two confederate corps launch attacks are repultsed. You can see that on the map with thomas and schofield. And he abandons the city, hood, on the night of september 1 first. During the evacuation, the confederates discover that theyve left a large train of munitions that obviously cant get out. So they set it on fire. This is 28 boxcars full of explosives. You can imagine the sound that was heard 15, 20 miles away. This is the scene thats depicted 234 gone with the wind when theres all the set is burning in the background. I told my kid that some of the sets were from the wizard of oz, which is true. But my kids were upset that they were burning. The destruction of atlanta cannot be atributed solely to uncle Billy Sherman that hoods army began the process with the firing of this train. And sherman took it a good bit further, of course, in november, just before the march to the sea. On september 2nd, the mayor of atlanta surrendered the city. Sherman announced to abraham lincoln, atlanta is ours. The constant battles and skirmishing since the first week of may exhausted the army and it needed rest. Atlanta turned into a garcon city. News of the fall caused great celebration. Here is where we get to the significance of the campaign. What makes it so important . So the fall of atlanta helped to boost the confidence 06 northern voters that the Lincoln Administration was going to win an ultimate victory. And that the president needed a second term in office. So the fall of the president helped to reassure lincoln and offered public aftfirmation of his war policies. It would end on the basis of both reunion around emancipatio. At the same time the fall of atlanta, and lincolns reelection, helped ensure that u. S. Grant would remain as general in chief and sherman as his chief lieutenant and that these two men would be the article tects of ultimate Union Victory in the civil war. Thank you. Do we have time for a few questions . Okay. Do you all want to come up to the mic if anyone has any questions . Yes, sir. Was there any thought to put robert e. Lee in charge of all of the confederate armies . Yes. In fact, that ultimately did happen. But that was after the atlanta campaign. And davis did reply so the it, was there any thought of putting lee in charge of all of the confederate armies. And that did happen, although it was some months after the atlanta campaign. Davis relied very hef shrill on leads advice not only on malters of the eastern theater, but also on matters of the west. He asked lee who do you think would be a good replacement. He said he was a bold fighter on the battlefield. Hood said lee said something to the fact that hood is a bold fighter, bold on the battlefield, but careless off the battlefield. I think what he was saying there was when it comes to administrative responsibleties, that hood had some weaknesses there. My question is how did sherman come up with the idea of shermans knots. Oh, thats a great question. How did sherman come up with the idea of shermans knots or shermans bow ties, as theyre sometimes called. What hes asking about are the twisted rails when the union troops would wreck rail lines, the confederates, too. Youd get thousands of infantry men to stand next to a rail line and all at once they would lift up the cross ties, separate with hammers the rail, the iron rail from the wooden cross ties, pile up the wooden cross ties in huge heaps, create bonfires, put the iron rails into the bonfires. And then when the center turns red hot, they would Union Soldiers would grab it. I was rereading it and i thought i wonder if they used gloves. Those ties must have been pretty hot. But, anyway, they would take the red hot rails, red hot in the center, and then twist them around trees, which would make it extraordinary difficult for the confederates to straighten out and reuse. And theres some good photographs taken of this process downtown. It was something that engineers came up with. But thats a great question. I dont know where it originated. I dont know if we actually know, but it became a pretty common procedure. Its a good question. I want to get back to the anaconda plan. Are you kidding . Yes. Basically, the campaigns in 64, grant and sherman, this warhead switched in 61, 62 to capturing capitals and capturing territories in Capital Cities to capturing manufacturing and supply centers sherman was marching towards atlanta. Koumd you tell us a little bit how important to the war effort and the confederate war effort were in these depots and supply center . Sure, atlanta was absolutely vital. Not just atlanta, but august had the largest panels 234 the world. It produced enormous numbers of foundry that is produced cannon. If you look at the rail network of the deep south, its evident immediately at the juncture of many railroads. By the time the siege takes place, the center has really declined dramatically because the confederates had evacwaited so much of the machinery and so many of the workers and sent them south to columbus and macon. Theres only about 3,000 left when sherman takes the city. He orders the expulsion of all of those cities chr, which is a fascinating story, too. You mentioned that the beginning of your talk, shermans mastery of logistics during the campaign, how much of that did he directly oversee . How much of it was delegated to someone else . This is a controversial matter. He had banned all civilian traffic on some of the main railroads out of nashville. He had planned for the confederates to stockpile. He had crews of civilians, African Americans who were employed as laborers. They could very quickly employ railroads, particularly bridges. You can see confederates retreated across several rivers. They would always burn these bridges. And it was truly remarkable how quickly shermans engineers and labors could rebuild these huge, wooden spans. Thats where logistics comes into play. So one more question here. It seems to me that his plans, once he took over as commander of the army of tennessee, were fairly good plans on paper. Its just that his army couldnt estimate them for one reason or another. Could you comment on them briefly . Sure. Hood certainly durnt have the master of logistics that sherman does. That becomes painfully evident during the Tennessee Campaign in 1864. But hood is operating under some handicaps. He has a command structure with a plot of generals who are woefully experienced. They just dont execute. The time constraints that hes working under and the physical conditions of his men. Hood was just asking far too much of men who are already totally exhausted. So thats kind of a short answer. But the renaissance youre talking about, thats not the right word to use. The reevaluation of hoods general ship is taking place of some others. So thank you. [ applause ] bart is a professor of the yumpbts of alabama and the author of a book, citizen hoke. Explain the title. Well, its kind of a funny story. Citizen coke, originally, i was thinking about citizen cane when i thought about the title. Citizen cane was all about kind of problems in some ways of american capitalism. And those this book is about coke, i was really interested in thinking about how coke was a lens into some of the environmental problems with 20th century american capitalist growth. And so i said this is kind of a cat catchy title. I was from atlanta, i grew up in coke country, here in atlanta. I had gone to a school that had been funded by coke money on the south side of atlanta. So i was sitting there saying coke has been this good citizen in my life. And one of the things that they promote today is this idea of corporate citizenship. So i wanted to kind of delve into that in the books. And say, well, are they good citizens . When we look at the environmental footprint, do they end up looking like a good citizen . So as he researched the book and we said youre here in atlanta. Visibility is everywhere. Take us back to the origins of the story. It started literally a couple blocks from where were sitting right here, by a guy named John Pemberton. He was a pharmacist who was down on his luck. He had suffered a series of wounds during the civil war. He had all of these stomach ailments and pains. And he started taking morphine to deal with these problems. Well, he gradually became adikted to morphine. He was thinking, wow, wouldnt it be cool if this new drug could help me get off this morphine addiction. He copiy eiey eied this drink t very popular in fransz at the time. People love this drink. It was bordeaux wine mixed with cocaine. Everyone loved it. So doc pemberton created this drink that was actually a wine laced with cocaine in atlanta. So, originally, you can think that coke is actually this cocainelaced wine called pembertons wine of coca. The problem is prohibition is taking hold and cities are being forced to abandon alcohol. It started with this attempt to try to deal with his addiction to morphine. If you had a coke in 1880 and 1885, could you taste the difference . Well, first of all, you would have had cocaine in the original cocacola. And theres folks who surmise that maybe after four, six ounce drinks of cocacola, you would have noticed some tingling or numbness. Cocaine was taken out in 1903. That would have been one difference. It also had more caffeine. Caffeine was almost double than the drinks we had today. I think you would have tasted a slightly different product at that time. During this time period, 1880s, through the start of the 20th century, was it regulated . Was the government involved in the development of this product . One of the things thats interesting in the book was this close relationship between coke at first, the problem with cocacola was not the cocaine. It was the caffeine. That was what the government was con sirned about. In fact, there was a very serious trial that took place beginning in 1911, led by the bureau of chemistry and harv harvey wiley who was the director of the bureau of chemistry saying this is an unnatural product. The caffeine thats in cocacola is processed caffeine, made in factories. And its put in this product to try to addict the american public. And this trial went on for years. Coke was very concerned. Were here in atlanta, the organization of american historians. Give us a sense of coke and atlanta. And its impact on this city and region. Surprisingly, some of the things that theyve done environmentally. I went to india where cocacola has had a series of bottling plants in some very arid regions of the country. In some of the regions, theyve been extracting so much water that theyre affecting the region. So theres some rough stories in the book. But i grew up realizing that theres a lot of charitable good around coke. My high school, my education was paid for in a lot of ways by coke money. I think you can talk to almost any atlanta citizen. The woodriffe art center. In some way, coke charity has affected their lives. So, i think, in so many ways, academic institutions, the arts, you name it. Coke has really built this city. And it really its rise was during the industrial revolution, some called it the guilded age. This city was not alone, detroit and new york and chicago seeing tremendous growth and develop. Absolutely. I think what was different about coke, and i think this goes to the heart of what i was writing about, unlike u. S. Steel, you think of steel towns, unlike, maybe, these other you think of the sugar trusts, coke was different. It chose not to vertically integrate. Its key to success, what i call its secret formula, was not really its recipe, but, actually, its unique, Corporate Structure of out sourcing and franchising. So whats interesting about coke, by the end of the 19th century, its all over the country. Chandler says were in every state of the union. And its able to do that through the bottling Franchise System that makes coke really unique in terms of the pace with which it spreads across the country and the then, of course, the globe and across the country. The bottling and new coke that was the form of so much attention when . In the 1980s, 1985, whats really interesting about new coke. So i traced the ingredients in the book. Thats what im interested in. Each ingredient. I talk about water, sugar, caffeine and these things. I have think i decided to focus on just one, coca leaf. Today, its still the largest importer of coke in the United States. They sell to pharmaceutical companies and leave the extract as a flavor profile in their beverage. And its this incredibly secret trade. I went to peru to try to track this story down. It still goes on. Its a remarkable story. They have this extract that is their flavoring profile in their drink. They have it and nobody else can get it. It goes tobacback to your storyt the private parter in ships. Whats really interesting is that pepsi, other companies have said we want some of this coca, too. But the federal government says this trade is somewhat restricted. Its a really interesting story. Its an interesting story formed through the federal bureau of narcotics to regulate the special story with the cocoa farms. That is your secret intelligent . That would be one of the su yet ingredients. Whats interesting about new coke, one of the reasons theyre trying to reformulate the product is to get rid of this pesky cocoa leaf issue. This is the 1980s, the war on drugs, reagan is trying to crack down on drug use in the United States. This is something we dont want to have a connection to. The evidence we have now is they took out the cocoa extract in the new coke. It was an absolute fiasco. People called in. Hundreds of phone calls to the corporate office, we want our coke back, you killed it. They had to go back to the original formula. If they ever thought about removing the cocoa leaf, there was this reality we have something with this formula and we shouldnt mess with it. Some compared to it the ford edsel as a batched marketing rollout. They really seemed to believe and done all these polls and tests and taste tests and some believe some think it was a gimmick they did this to recreate a brand loyalty for the coke formula. They seemed to really believe that consumers wanted a new thing. At this time, pepsi was doing super well as well, they were cutting into their market share and they thought they were going to lose out to pepsi if they didnt do something bold. When did we start seeing the Mass Marketing of cocacola and the Advertising Campaigns now y ubiquitous with 20th and 21st century branding . I would say the Mass Marketing starts very early on. Right after penderton creates this product, gets in partnership with a guy named asa candler and asa gets in partnership with people familiar with print and the they begin pushing out tons of campaigns and giving out free samples and all about this idea of creating y ubiquity and access to this product. Whats interesting about the Mass Marketing campaign originally in the 19th century, its all about the puretive properties of cocacola. Its pitched as a brain ontoic. That was its title. It eliminated brain worry and nervousness and any type of anxiety you would have. What they came to find by the early 1900s, this got them into trouble claiming it had all these properties and people say, well, it doesnt have all these properties and drew attention of medical experts and new bureau of chemistry folks saying, is this a medicine . How shall we reregulate it. What you see by the 1920s is them getting away from that, focusing on the pause that refreshes, whatever that means, these catchy phrases intentionally designed not to talk about whats really in coke but to conjure up these feelings of happiness and good feelings we associate coke with today. Did the founders the scientists who really came up with this product realize in the 1890s what they created . I think that John Pemberton unfortunately dies in 1981 or 82 and never gets to see what coke becomes. When he dies, hes running out of money and he doesnt know this thing is going to be as big hit it is and we wont have bottling of coke until 1899. I would say the decision to bottle coke and spread it via the local capital of all these businessmen around the country is the key to cokes success. I dont think pemberton foresaw that when he did this. Cocacola, where does that name come from . Coca from the coca leaf in peru, a shrub that grows in the andes in peru and consumed by the incas and folks native to peru for centuries. One of the debates that goes on peru today is about whether coke stole this name this name that was of the peruvian people and now part of his brand. Cola is more interesting. Cola originally was kola, the nut from west africa. This was the original source of caffeine for cocacola. Pemberton believed this new cola, the exotic source from west africa and distinguish his product from other caffeinated beverages, the problem with it when you think about Mass Marketing, cola nuts dont grow all around the world and there was a shortage of cola nuts at that time. He decided to ultimately source most of his caffeine via monsanto of all companies from waste tea leaves left on tea exchange or damaged or broken tea leaves that couldnt be sold. It was this incredible story of recycling the waste tea leaves left on the exchanges of around the world explains why coke was able to get it for dirt cheap prices. Can you give us a sense have it is today, how many does it employee and worldwide reach of profits and revenue . It operates in about 200 countries worldwide. Sells about 1. 8 billion servings per day, which is amazing. When you talk about employment, its very interesting. My book is in part about what do they own and whose salaries do they really pay . They would say that from, as they call them, cocacola associates, whether they be local retailers in a small mom and pop store or bottler or somebody that has some connection to coke, talking over 700,000 folks. Thats a lot of people that theyre actually employing that way. On the books, i think actually on the payroll of cocacola, 150,000. Still a lot. They ended up merging a lot of their bottling enterprises and owning for a short time some of their bottlers and that increased their employment for a long way. They were the 22nd most Profitable Company in the United States as of 2012. I think theyve gone down slightly. The number one brand in the world in 2012. I think theyve since been outpaced by apple and were talking a product that has a massive global reach from here to zimbabwe. That was the question i wanted to address how this morphine medicine created in a basement, attic, two blocks from my hometown, how did that happen . Thats what the story is all about. As you researched this topic . Did you have access to the coke files . Were they open to showing you how the process works . No. It was an environmental history of the company and it looked at the ingredients. If theres one thing cocacola doesnt like talking about, its the secret formula and their secret ingredients. From the very beginning coke did not give me access to the archives i fondly drive by home and say, what if i could have gotten in there. Whats amazing, Robert Woodruff who ran the company from the 1920s to the 1980s, he had stepped down but he was basically considered the boss for all these years, he donated all of his personal correspondence, correspondence between president s and executives, incredibly rich collection to emory university, 300 boxes of material and with the amazing archivists over there i was able to unravel this story going through each ingredient tracing stories how coke was able to get all this stuff around the world. Its obvious youre excited about this topic. What did you learn that surprised you the most, if anything . I think two things. One was the story of the coca leaf, the fact that cocacola still has this incredibly secret relationship with peruvian Cocoa Farmers still overseen by the federal government somewhat unknown by the government. I think that will be interesting to see what people say when that comes out, that story. The other thing that was striking to me is i thought coke did stuff and owned all these things. Whats brilliant all they really sell is syrup, concentrate. Cocacola company in atlanta. Thats how they make their money. Sugar plantations in cuba heshshy and other companies did to integrate. Coke maintained a sleek Corporate Structure most firms we think about on the scale coke is on, you know, we think as being vertically integrated. I think it was that crazy story of finding the secret formula of the structure of the firm that was really surprising when i got into this project. Bart elmore, a professor at the university of alabama, native of atlanta and author of the book, citizen coke. Thank you for being with us. Thank you very much. While congress is on break this month, were showing programs normally seen weekends here on cspan3 during American History tv. Coming up the history of the civil war and slavery, as seen through hollywoods depictions. We begin shortly with a panel of history professors and their review of films since the 1930s, including the movies man dingo and amistad and 12 years a slave. And then matthew pinskar evaluates lincoln and then gone with the