John W. Hagan, a stalwart sergeant of Johnston’s army, in poorly spelled words and awkwardly constructed paragraphs addressed to his wife, demonstrated the character and strength of the lowly men who were the backbone of both armies. From near Marietta on June 17, 1864, Hagan wrote: “the yankees charged us ... & we finelly drove them back we all had as much to do as we could do. James & Ezekiel acted very brave the boys Say Ezekiel went to shooting like he was spliting rails; in fact all the Regt acted there parts.” The combat performance of Hagan and his men contrasted markedly with that of one of the officers who was the acting company commander, a Lieutenant Tomlinson. On June 21, Hagan wrote his wife: “I have been in command of our company 3 days. Lieut. Tomlinson stays along but pretends to be so sick he can not go in a fight but so long as I Keepe the right side up Co. ‘K’ will be all right.” Hagan’s morale remained high, despite the fact that he had not received any pay for more than a year. On July 4, he wrote that “some of our troops grow despondent but it is only thoes who are all ways despondent,” and added: “all good soldiers will fight harder the harder he is prest but a coward is allways ready to want an excuse to run or say they or we are whiped. I never Knew there was so many cowards untill Since we left Dalton. I do not Speak of our Regt but some troops have behaved very badly.” Sergeant Hagan and other Rebs who fought in the Atlanta Campaign had a wholesome respect for the men in blue who opposed them; and rightfully so, for the Union rank and file, mostly lads and young adults from the farms of the Midwest, were admirable folk, deeply devoted to the cause of Union. One of them, Pvt. John F. Brobst of the 25th Wisconsin Regiment, wrote his sweetheart before the campaign was launched: “Home is sweet and friends are dear, but what would they all be to let the country go to ruin and be a slave. I am contented with my lot ... for I know that I am doing my duty, and I know that it is my duty to do as I am now a-doing. If I live to get back, I shall be proud of the freedom I shall have, and know that I helped to gain that freedom. If I should not get back, it will do them good who do get back.” Despite the publication during the past century of many studies on the subject, the Atlanta Campaign—overshadowed both during the war and later by the engagements in Virginia—has not received anything like its due share of attention. Now for the first time, thanks to Richard McMurry’s thoroughness as a researcher and skill as a narrator, students of the Civil War have a clear, succinct, balanced, authoritative, and interesting account of the tremendously important Georgia operations of May to September 1864. This excellent work should be as comprehensible and appealing to those who read history and tour battle areas for fun as it is to those who have achieved expertness in Civil War history.