What was the confederacy's strategy for the battle of Atlanta?

Answer 1

During the first part of the Atlanta Campaign (May - July 1864), Joseph Johnston's Confederate Army of the Tennessee carried forward a temporizer tactic, aiming to delay as much as possible the advance of the Union towards Atlanta, by means of strategic retreats alternated by defensive battles engaged from strong positions. Johnston's task was that to make very costly for the Union, in terms of losses, waste of time end a dangerous lengthening of the communication line, every enemy progress. He succeeded in getting close to Atlanta maintaining his army practically intact in order to use its strong fortified camp as a pivot to carry forward his war of maneuver. Namely what Lee was doing near Richmond. That would have given to Johnston the opportunity to earn three or four additional months and deprive Sherman of the coveted victory, indispensable to strengthen the tottering position of Lincoln government. But Jefferson Davis saw the situation as a dangerous one, because of the great loss of territory and the enemy deployed about 10 kilometers next to the city. Indeed the situation was like that of Richmond. But Richmond was defended by Lee whom Davis had the utmost confidence, while Atlanta was defended by Johnston, that he did not love instead and (wrongly) not estimated. Therefore Davis, in spite of the decidedly negative opinion expressed by Lee , decided to replace "Old Joe" by Hood. That led to the start of the second part of Atlanta Campaign, that saw the Confederates adopting an "all out combat", offensive strategy, which could avoid neither the fall of Atlanta nor the huge losses, very hardly if not impossible, to replace, in terms of material and men, imputable to the same. On the night of September 2, 1864, Hood evacuated Atlanta to save the remaining of his defeated army. Furthermore, the Union victory was an important step towards another one: that of Lincoln at the presidential election in fall.