Remembering the burning of Atlanta between November 14 and 16, 1864. Union Army soldier George Ward Nichols wrote in his book, The Story of the Great March:
"A grand and awful spectacle is presented to the beholder in this beautiful city now in flames. By order, the chief engineer has destroyed by powder and fire all the store-houses, depot buildings, and machine-shops. The heaven is one expanse of lurid fire; the air is filled with flying, burning cinders; buildings covering two hundred acres are in ruins or in flames; every instant there is the sharp detonation or the smothered booming sound of exploding shells and powder concealed in the buildings, and then the sparks and flames shoot away up . . . scattering cinders far and wide."
After destroying Atlanta's warehouses and railroad facilities so they could not be used again by the Confederacy, Sherman, with 62,000 men, began his march to the sea on November 16. His 350-mile trek to Savannah, on the coast, would leave a wide path of destruction as Sherman's army lived off the land and destroyed everything it did not need in an effort to break the South's will and ability to continue the war. Upon advice from Grant, President Lincoln had approved the idea. "I can make Georgia howl!" Sherman boasted.
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THE CIVIL WAR: THE TRUE STORY BOOK 3
Non-FictionTHE THIRD BOOK ABOUT THE TRUTH OF THE WAR OF NORTHERN AGGRESSION in the true story series
