Library of Congress
Atlanta residents, evicted from the city by General Sherman, await the departure of the baggage-laden train that will take them south beyond Union lines.
Library of Congress
Federal soldiers pry up the city’s railroad tracks before leaving on their march to the sea.
Library of Congress
The railroad depot after it was blown up by Federal demolition squads.
National Archives
This desolate scene marks the site where retreating Confederate soldiers blew up their ordnance train early on the morning of September 1, 1864. Sherman’s soldiers left similar scenes of destruction in their wake as they marched across Georgia in the closing months of the war.
FOR FURTHER READING
The only published book-length study of the Atlanta Campaign is Jacob D. Cox’s Atlanta (New York, 1882; new edition, 1963). More detailed accounts may be found in two doctoral dissertations: Richard M. McMurry, “The Atlanta Campaign, December 23, 1863, to July 18, 1864,” and Errol MacGregor Clauss, “The Atlanta Campaign, 18 July-2 September 1864.” Both were written at Emory University, the former in 1967 and the latter in 1965, and both are available on microfilm from University Microfilms, Ann Arbor, Mich. In addition, the Georgia Historical Quarterly and Civil War Times Illustrated have published numerous articles dealing with specialized aspects of the campaign.
Good books by participants include Paul M. Angle, ed., Three Years in the Army of the Cumberland: The Letters and Diary of Major James A. Connolly (Bloomington, 1959); John B. Hood, Advance and Retreat: Personal Experiences in the United States and Confederate Armies (New Orleans, 1880; new edition, Bloomington, 1959); Joseph E. Johnston, Narrative of Military Operations During the Late War Between the States (New York, 1874; new edition, Bloomington, 1959); Albert D. Kirwan, ed., Johnny Green of the Orphan Brigade: The Journal of a Confederate Soldier (Lexington, Ky., 1956); Milo M. Quaife, ed., From the Cannon’s Mouth: The Civil War Letters of General Alpheus S. Williams (Detroit, 1959); John M. Schofield, Forty-Six Years in the Army (New York, 1897); William T. Sherman, Memoirs of General William T. Sherman, by Himself (2 vols., New York, 1875; new, 1-vol. edition, Bloomington, 1957); U.S. War Department, comp., War of the Rebellion: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies (128 vols., Washington, D.C., 1880-1901), Series 1, vol. 38; Sam R. Watkins, “Co. Aytch,” Maury Grays, First Tennessee Regiment; or, A Side Show of the Big Show (Chattanooga, 1900; new edition, Jackson, Tenn., 1952); and Charles W. Wills, Army Life of an Illinois Soldier ... (Washington, D.C., 1906).