On August 31, 1864, during the Civil War, the Battle of Jonesboro was fought in Clayton County, Georgia, sealing the fate of Atlanta and leaving it firmly in Union hands. The final confrontation of the Atlanta Campaign, Jonesboro was the result of General William Tecumseh Sherman’s attempt to cut Confederate supply lines south of the city.
Knowing that if his lines of supply were cut, he would be forced to abandon Atlanta, Confederate General John Bell Hood quickly moved to counter Sherman’s move, engaging him near Jonesboro, Georgia. On the 31st, Confederates smashed into federal troops, who, knowing of the Confederates’ imminent arrival, had had time to prepare defensive positions. Under Patrick Cleburne and Stephen D. Lee, the Confederates were able to push back some of the Union men, but the North’s superior numbers eventually forced them to give up the fight.
That night Hood ordered his men to withdraw back to their defenses in Atlanta, and the next morning Union forces launched an all-out assault. After hours of brutal fighting, including hand-to-hand combat, the Confederate lines were broken by the Union attackers. Sherman’s men poured through the gap and Hood was forced to order an evacuation of Atlanta. By the next day, September 2, Atlanta, the city once the supply and railway hub of the Confederacy, was completely under Union control.
