On November 15, 1864, Union General William T. Sherman began his expedition across Georgia by burning down the industrial section of Atlanta and moving away from its supply lines. For the next six weeks, Sherman’s army destroyed most of the state before capturing the Confederate port of Savannah, Georgia.
Sherman captured Atlanta in early September 1864 after a long summer campaign. He recognized his vulnerability in the city, however, as its supply lines stretched all the way to Nashville, Tennessee. Confederate looters such as Nathan Bedford Forrest threatened to cut his lines, and Sherman had to hire thousands of soldiers to protect the railways and rivers that carried supplies for his massive army. Sherman divided his army, keeping 60,000 men and sending the rest back to Nashville with General George Thomas to deal with the remnants of Confederate General John Bell Hood’s Tennessee army, the force Sherman had defeated to take Atlanta.
After learning that President Abraham Lincoln had been re-elected on November 8, Sherman ordered 2,500 light cars loaded with supplies. Medics checked every soldier for illness or injuries, and those found unfit were sent to Nashville. Sherman wrote to his chief general, Ulysses S. Grant, that if he could walk through Georgia it would be “positive proof that the North can prevail.” He told Grant that he would not return any mail, but that he “trusted the Richmond newspapers to keep you well informed.” Sherman loaded the excess supplies onto the trains and sent them back to Nashville. On November 15, the military began to move, torching the industrial section of Atlanta before leaving. One witness reported “huge, raging fires lighting up entire skies… huge waves of fire roll across the sky; currently, the skeleton of large warehouses stands out in relief on sheets of roaring, fiery and furious flames. Sherman’s famous destruction of Georgia had begun.
