GENERAL JOE JOHNSTON Dudley Ottley will present "The Battle for Atlanta, 1864" at The Washington Civil War Round Table meeting on Monday evening, March 24 at 6:00 p.m., at The Jockey Club Restaurant on The Square in Washington, GA.

Claibourne Darden, Round Table President, says that the public is invited and welcomed. The cost of the meeting is $10 per person and includes a very nice dinner. Please make reservations, as soon as possible, by e-mail at claibourne @dardenatlanta. net or by calling (404)210- 5811 and leaving a message.

General Joe Johnston (CSA) took over command of the Army of Tennessee which was facing General Sherman's Union Army in northwest Georgia. Outnumbered two to one, General Johnston faced a daunting task of impeding General Sherman's Army on its march to Atlanta. Battle after battle, General Johnston kept the Confederate Army together and retreated so skillfully to their next chosen, and often prepared, defensive position that he became know as "the master of retreat." His retreating techniques are still studied at military academies today. Although retreating toward Atlanta against overwhelming odds and against a very capable General, General Johnston had a strategy and it was working! But Confederate President Jefferson Davis apparently did not understand the strategy or did not think it was adequately working, and replaced General Johnston with a man whom a southern historian called "that idiot, General John Bell Hood". The rest is history. Come learn why General Johnston's strategy was actually working.

SPDM in Washington