On September 3, 1864, President Abraham Lincoln telegraphed the
commanding officer of the Federal Military Division of the Mississippi:
“The national thanks are rendered ... to Major-General W. T. Sherman and
the officers and soldiers of his command before Atlanta, for the
distinguished ability and perserverence displayed in the campaign in
Georgia which, under Divine favor, has resulted in the capture of
Atlanta. The marches, battles, sieges and other military operations that
have signalized the campaign, must render it famous in the annals of
war, and have entitled those who have participated therein to the
applause and thanks of the nation.”
The Union soldiers had, in Sherman’s words, “completed the grand task
which has been assigned us by our Government.” Atlanta, chief rail hub
of the Confederacy and one of the South’s principal distributing,
industrial, commercial, and cultural centers, was in Federal hands at
last. It was a choice prize.
The city was founded in 1837 as Terminus, so-named because a rail line
ended there. It was incorporated as Marthasville in 1845; two years
later it was renamed Atlanta. Only a few dozen people lived there in the
1840’s, but by 1861, when the Civil War began, some 10,000 people called
it home. By 1864, when Sherman’s armies started south from Chattanooga,
Atlanta’s population was double that number. The city boasted factories,
foundries, stores, arsenals, government offices, and hospitals, which,
as the war progressed and drew closer, were hard pressed to handle the
mounting number of casualties needing treatment. So strategic was
Atlanta that Confederate President Jefferson Davis proclaimed that “Its
fall would open the way for the Federal armies to the Gulf on one hand,
and to Charleston on the other, and close up those granaries from which
Gen. Robert E. Lee’s armies are supplied. It would give them control of
our network of railroads and thus paralyze our efforts.” Now, with
Federal soldiers in Atlanta, Davis’ fears would be realized.
Sherman’s troops occupied Atlanta for more than 2 months. The
photographs and captions that follow highlight aspects of that
occupation.
[Illustration: _National Archives_
_Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman, conqueror of Atlanta._]
[Illustration: _Library of Congress_
_Confederate palisades and cheveaux-de-frise around the Potter house
northwest of Atlanta. Near here, Mayor James M. Calhoun surrendered
the city to Sherman’s forces._]
[Illustration: _Library of Congress_
_Union soldiers lounge inside one of the abandoned Confederate field
forts defending Atlanta._]
[Illustration: _Library of Congress_
_Atlanta, October 1864: “solid and business-like, wide streets and
many fine houses.”_]
[Illustration: _Atlanta Historical Society_
_Federal officers commandeered many of Atlanta’s houses for staff
headquarters. Col. Henry A. Barnum and his staff moved into General
Hood’s former headquarters, described as the “finest wooden building
in the city.”_]
[Illustration: _Library of Congress_
_After Sherman turned Atlanta into an armed camp, wagon trains, like
this one on Whitehall Street, rumbled through the city day and
night._]
[Illustration: _Atlanta Historical Society_
_The 2d Massachusetts Infantry, the “best officered regiment in the
Army,” set up camp in City Hall Square. When this photograph was
taken, near the end of the occupation, the soldiers’ tents had been
replaced by more substantial wooden huts built from demolished
houses._]
[Illustration: _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._]
[Illustration: _Library of Congress_
_Federal soldiers pry up the city’s railroad tracks before leaving
on their march to the sea._]
[Illustration: _Library of Congress_
_The railroad depot after it was blown up by Federal demolition
squads._]
[Illustration: _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._]