In February 2010, History (you know, the “Hitler” channel, and later, the “Aliens” channel) published a piece entitled “Sherman’s March to the Sea.” In the very first paragraph, the author wrote “The purpose of Sherman’s March to the Sea was to frighten Georgia’s civilian population into abandoning the Confederate cause. Sherman’s soldiers did not destroy any of the towns in their path, but they stole food and livestock and burned the houses and barns of people who tried to fight back.” (you can read the whole article here.) Yet in a December 31, 2022, article “US Cities and Towns Destroyed During the Civil War, on 247wallst.com, the author lists twenty-six towns or cities that were consumed, in part of whole, by both armies during the war. Several of those are listed as having been destroyed by Sherman’s men. (You can read that article here) So, which is correct?
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| Sherman's March (Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc./Kenny Chmielewski) |
For the purpose of
our discussion, we are going to define Sherman’s march from the date of
November 5, 1864, to December 9, 1864. This looks at all of Sherman’s maneuvers
from just above Atlanta to the outskirts of Savannah. Undoubtedly, there are
some sites that have been missed.
Atlanta, of course,
was abandoned by Confederate forces on September 2, 1864. Federals held the
city, and much of the area along the railroad to the north, through November,
when they chose to abandon the region, cut their line of supplies, and head
south. To leave nothing behind that could be used, the Federals practiced a
scorched-earth policy. While Sherman would state that he never ordered the
burning of any dwelling, he really did nothing to prevent it. Major Henry A.
Hitchcock wrote in his diary that he was Marietta and saw the courthouse and
much of the public square burned. When he mentioned it to Sherman, Sherman
replied with, “There are the men who do this [looking at Federal soldiers whom
they were passing]. “Set as many guards as you please, they will slip in and
set fires. That Court House was put out-no use-dare say [the] whole town will
burn, at least the business part. I never did order the burning of any
dwelling-didn’t order this, but it can’t be helped. I say Jeff. Davis burnt
them.”[1]
Large scale burning
seems to commence on November 5, when the 5th Ohio Cavalry ordered out
what few civilians remained in Cassville, where they burned the town in a
retaliatory measure after ten Federal soldiers, nine of whom were stragglers,
were killed.[2]
On November 11, 1864,
Sherman wrote Henry Hallack, his superior in Washington, D.C., that the
previous day he had ordered the burning of all “foundries, mills, and shops of
every kind in Rome.” The fire undoubtedly spread to other parts of the town.
E.P. Burton, a surgeon in an Illinois regiment, wrote in his diary on November
10 that “The country is light with the burning of Rome – Walked down through
town this eve. It seemed melancholy to see property being destroyed. It is
against orders – but the soldiers want to see it burn.” A couple of days later,
Burton wrote that “A good many houses were burned in Rome the night before we
left.”[3]
Portions of Sherman’s
command passed through Kingston next. Reportedly, the only building to survive
was the Methodist church. Cartsville met much the same face. One Federal
soldier involved in applying the torch wrote that “most of the families have
either gone north or south, but a few, from some cause, have failed to get away
and now they are weeping over their burning homes. The sight is grand but
almost heartrending.”[4]
Acworth was put to
the torch as well. Major James Connolly, 123rd Illinois, wrote that “Our
soldiers burned the village of Acworth without orders and we went to camp at
Big Shanty about dark. Acworth has been a thriving village, but tonight it is a
heap of ruins. I was the only one of the general’s staff in the town when the
fires began, and I tried to prevent the burning, but while I watched one house
to keep it from being fired, another somewhere else would take fire, so I
concluded to give up. I succeeded in saving a few houses occupied by ‘war
widows’ and their families, but all the rest of the town went up in smoke.”[5]
Sherman watched
parts of Marietta burn. He, and the rest of his command proceeded to Atlanta.
One Federal soldier chronicled in his diary that “Nearly every house on the
road today had been burned.” Sherman had
ordered the evacuation of the city in early September. Now, the city was
gutted. Fires sprang up on the night of November 11. Some buildings were
demolished with a crude battering ram, while other structures were blown up. A
survey of the ruins revealed that 4,500 buildings, both houses and businesses,
were destroyed. One Confederate wrote that “The work was done with terrible
completeness; buildings covering 200 acres were in flames at one time; the
heavens were an expanse of lurid fire; and amid the wild and terrific scene
Federal bands played ‘John Brown’s soul goes marching on.’”[6]
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| Sherman Burning Atlanta (Harper's Weekly Magazine, January 7, 1864) |
The combined Federal armies struck out south, toward Savannah, using two different routes. Griswoldville was the site of a battle on November 22 when 2,300 members of the Georgia militia stumbled into what they thought was a minor cavalry patrol. Just two days prior, Sherman’s men burned the firearms manufacturing facility, along with much of the town. Parts of Milledgeville were burned at the same time, including Howell Cobb’s nearby home, and the arsenal, depot, and bridge over the Oconee River; also burned was the state penitentiary, albeit by prisoners rather than Federal troops. The state library was pillaged and the state house vandalized.[7]
Gordon, Wilkerson
County, was visited by both Stoneman’s command in July 1864 and portions of
Sherman’s command on November 22-25, 1864. What Stoneman did not destroy, Sherman’s
men did. (Miles, Civil War Sites in Georgia, 170.) Confederates attacked
Federal foragers ahead of the army at Sandersville on November 25, driving them
back several miles. Federal infantry arrived the following day. According to
one officer, Sherman told a local lady that because of the delaying action
fought by Confederate cavalry in the streets of the town, the town would be
burnt. Soon, the courthouse, jail, and local businesses were on fire, all the
while a band played. Other warehouses were burned the following day as the
Federals left. Just how many private residences were burned by stragglers is
unclear.[8]
Federal columns
moved through the Jefferson County communities of Davisboro and Louisville. One
source says Davisboro was burned and Louisville pretty much destroyed by
looters. In the latter, the courthouse, jail, and several houses were burned. A
member of the 89th Ohio Infantry wrote that the Federals found
"...quite a number of stores of different kinds, all fairly stocked with
goods. The delay in laying the pontoons, and getting trains and troops over,
gave our boys ample time to go through the town, which, unfortunately for the
inhabitants, they did most completely; everything was appropriated that could
be used, and many things that could not be used. The town was thoroughly and
completely ransacked, and by some unaccountable means late in the afternoon,
the town caught fire...."[9]
Sherman himself
camped at Millen on December 3. Millen was the site of Camp Lawton, a prison
built in an attempt to relieve the overcrowding at Camp Sumter (Andersonville).
Yet Sherman found no prisoners. The depot, ticket house, warehouses, and hotel
were burned. An officer in the 63rd Ohio recalled Sherman’s verbal
instruction to one of his corps commanders: “make the destruction [of Millen]
‘tenfold more devilish’ than he had ever dreamed of, as this is one of the
places they have been starving our prisoners.”[10]
In Statesboro, once
again, Federal soldiers burned the county courthouse, three or four residences,
and a local “saloon.[11]
By December 9,
Sherman’s armies were near Fort McAllister, and soon, the Federals had built a
wharf and were being supplied by the Federal navy. They had cut a path
throughout the state of Georgia, destroying many towns. While a church or
residence might be left in some of these locations, when the courthouse, depot,
businesses, and hotels are all loss to a blaze, albeit from someone under
orders or by stragglers that seemed uncontrollable, the town is pretty much
destroyed. While Sherman and other Federal generals condemned the loss in word,
they seemed unwilling to take the necessary steps to curtail the damage. To say
that no town was destroyed during the March to the Sea seems to ignore the
historical evidence, much of it provided by Federal soldiers along for the
march.
[1]
Howe, Marching with Sherman, 53.
[2] Hebert,
“Civil War and Reconstruction Era Cass/Bartow County, Georgia,” 280.
[3] Shaffer,
Day by Day Through the Civil War in Georgia, 308; Burton, Diary of
E.P. Burton, Surgeon 7th Reg. Ill., 39-40; see also Rome
News-Tribune, November 10, 2014.
[4] Hebert,
“Civil War and Reconstruction Era Cass/Bartow County, Georgia,” 280.
[5] Todd
Hudson, “The Burning of Marietta,” https://patch.com/georgia/marietta/the-burning-of-marietta
[6] Burton,
Diary of E.P. Burton, 41; Shaffer, Day by Day Through the Civil War
in Georgia, 291; Garrison, Atlanta and the War, 281-42.
[7] Inscoe,
The Civil War in Georgia, 97-98; Miles, Civil War Sites in Georgia,
167.
[8] Trudeau, Southern Storm, 246, 260;
Howe, Marching with Sherman, 96.
[9] Miles,
Civil War Sites in Georgia, 173); G.A.R. Papers, Read Before Fred C.
Jones Post, No. 401, 322-323.
[10] Trudeau,
Southern Storm, 326.
