Sherman Orders the Burning of Atlanta
Sunday November 15, 2009
On November 15, 1864, General Sherman gave orders to burn all public buildings, machine shops, depots, and arsenals in Atlanta during the Civil War. While setting out for Savannah that same day Sherman stated, "Behind us lay Atlanta smoldering and in ruins, the black smoke rising high in the air and hanging like a ball over the ruined city."
Comments
Sherman’s march was an unjustifiable act and the very things that he told his troops to do he hung them for doing the same thing a mere two years earlier. He knew better (West Point taught him that these were war crimes) than to commit atrocities against civilians (both he and Sheridan) and should have been held accountable rather than applauded as a hero.
My it must be wonderful to have 20/20 hindsight 140 years later. Would these liberal mush minds judge an other culture today with the same standard they apply to another time/culture?
How easy it is to judge those fighting for their lives while while you are sitting in comfort. “Anything is possible for the man who does not have to do it.”
Some people seem to think that Sherman did the burning to kill people. That is far from the truth. When Sherman captured Atlanta he ordered all civilians to leave. He ordered that all military and government buildings be destroyed by fire. If one cuts off their enemy’s supplies, the enemy can no longer fight. This was Sherman’s motivation. His actions were a direct cause to shortening the war.
Isn’t it sad that so many of us have the ability to detect what is in another’s mind? Sherman had long determined to end this war. West Point taught him to cut off the enemy supply line and you win the war. Had he not accomplished this, who knows how long the war would have continued and for that matter how it would have ended. It might be that had he not taken such drastic steps, we would have slavery today. Granted, his strategy was drastic, but effective. These arm chair historians need to do a little more research before they accuse him of war crimes and inhumane atrocities.
General Sherman is not the monster people conceive him to be. He ordered the people of Atlanta to leave and THEN burned it down. He had to do this or else the war would have dragged on forever. He is part of the reason why the Union won the war.
Also, civilians were not raped and murdered like someone else here wrote.
personally, I think Sherman was a genius. From a military standpoint, burning Atlanta was brilliant. It destroyed supplies, artilary, and amunition in the largest supply city of the Confederate. It’s not like there were people in the city…he wasn’t cruel he was just proving a point.
When Sherman got to the city, many of the buildings were already on fire. This fires (like cotton) were set by the people to deprive the Army of supplies. Sherman only continued what was started. He did his job to end the war.
Sherman only continued what the people had started. The military values such as cotton were set fire by the city folk to deprive the Army of military supplies. He only added to the already job that was already under way. He was a soldier doing his job. War is HELL!
Gov. Brown had ordered the people to burn bridges and anything else the Yankee Army could take with them. Yes Sherman did burn building of military value and the fire spread, he and Brown share.
Gov. Brown had ordered the people of Atlanta to burn bridges and anything the Yankee Army could use or take with them. Sherman ordered the burning of anything that could aid the Southern Army. A little blame for each!
The Southern ‘Aristocracy’ was an oppressive class system that was built on the backs of the poor and the slaves and the war was fought for the benefit of those who lived at the top. Sherman brought their war home to them. The man was brilliant.
Sherman was a cowerd and anyone who belives other wise are stupid, The Civil War was not over freeing the slaves, It was Lincon wanted a united
Sates, Yet one can read history books and believe
whole heartly that it was about freeing slaves.
The North did not treat the black any worse than the South. And the idots who spout off about how
repressed the balcks were should read American history. Keep blaming the South but you would be wrong, The history books are writen by the victor, and that was the North. i firmly believe that if Stonwall Jackson had lived he would have fought tooth and nail to win the civil was along with Robert E Lee. Sherman was evil and to allow the burning of so may southen places was an act of cowerdness.
Shermans idea was a really good one, if it wasn’t for his “Total War” idea and bringing the the war to the people and also cutting off the supplies to the confederate soldiers, I don’t think that the civil war would have ended where it did.
Hmmm, if Lee would’ve used the same tactics when he took his Virginia Army into Maryland how would history have treated him? Would he be viewed as a war criminal or Confederate Hero? Something to think about when you are quick to declare Sherman a genius.