Wednesday, November 12, 2014

November 14, 1864---William Tecumseh Sherman destroys Atlanta



NOVEMBER 14, 1864:      

The Burning of Atlanta: 

  
The city of Atlanta is destroyed in flame. General William Tecumseh Sherman U.S.A. writes in his diary:

We will soon be moving out of Atlanta and heading East towards the Atlantic Ocean. I have ordered my troops to completely destroy all useful military facilities in the city in which the Confederate would be able to use after we depart. It will not be long until the Confederates recapture the city and it would be foolish to leave them anything useful. Soldiers were sent to destroy ammunition they were not able to carry, train equipment, and industrial machine shops. Even though I have ordered thousands of men into the city, approximately only 30 percent of the city lay in ruins. After the war we will need to rebuild these cities and residential homes do not need to be destroyed for military purposes.

 
Regardless of Sherman’s assertion that “only 30 percent” of Atlanta is afire, the commercial heart of the town, along with many central city residences, are consumed by fire this day. And although Sherman has promised not to burn the churches and hospitals, the unchecked fire does do great damage to all buildings without discrimination. A great reek and pall rises over the burning city as building after building catches aflame. Homes farther from downtown are more likely to be spared, though sparks and flaming debris borne on the wind burn many outlying houses as well. 


Atlanta burns all day and night, its lurid red glow reflected on the cloud bottoms and visible for miles. Just beyond the city, terrified refugees who cannot not find space on a train, hire a carriage, or find a wagon, run from the fire in the hell-lighted night. 


 

With John Bell Hood’s army far away in Tennessee and no regular Confederate forces closer at hand, the fleeing people become the targets of highwaymen, many still wearing the tatters of their Confederate uniforms. Bitterly do they rue their stubbornness in returning to the doomed city, though they blame Sherman, “That red-headed devil”, “Judas Iscariot”, as the author of their woes.  


 












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