Wednesday, November 12, 2014

November 13, 1864---Marietta in flames



NOVEMBER 13, 1864:      

General Sherman begins the Burning of Atlanta by putting the nearby town of Marietta to the torch. While he is setting Marietta aflame, the last civilian holdouts in Atlanta --- who Sherman did not want in the town anyway --- are hurriedly packing a few belongings. Most of these geegaws are left abandoned on the railway station platform when it is discovered that the escape trains are too crowded to allow for baggage. 

Father Thomas O’Reilly of Our Lady of The Immaculate Conception wrings a last minute concession from Sherman not to burn the town’s hospitals and houses of worship. Sherman’s men move over Atlanta like a horde of locusts, seizing anything that may be of use on the March, and setting the rest afire. 


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