As Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman’s armies prepared to leave Atlanta and embark on their march to Savannah in early November 1864, a Federal captain wrote of the efforts to extinguish anything of military value to the South. He especially observed Federal engineers “detailed to destroy the depots and public buildings in Atlanta.”
Moving toward the city, Sherman’s forces tore up the rails of the Western and Atlantic Railroad. Since Sherman planned to break from his supply line and live off the land, he no longer needed the rails.
Along the W&A from Dalton to Atlanta, today’s I-75 corridor, any structure deemed of military value received the torch — like a large part of Marietta’s square, which burned on Nov. 13. Coining a phrase that he would repeat during the advance on Savannah, Sherman — while watching the buildings of Marietta burn — told one of his aides, “I never ordered burning of any dwelling – didn’t order this, but can’t be helped. I say Jeff. Davis burnt them.”
I believe that Sherman wins 2nd place for the most war crimes during the war, with Mr. Lincoln taking 1st place. It is estimated that Sherman's troops killed about 1,000 civilians during the Savannah Campaign at the hands of soldiers unlawfully entering their houses to pillage. Sherman personally watched as his men rape and murder unyielding slaves throughout the march and gave no order to stop this. Sherman also ordered, without trial, the execution by firing squad of an innocent man accused of espionage. Sherman ordered that all crops were either consumed or burned, as well as all livestock slaughtered thus starving the survivors. His war crimes were numerous.
ReplyDeleteFully agree.
Delete