Civil_War_Quarterly_-_Summer_2016_

Sherman

’

s

Union Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman, seated on

horseback at right, calmly oversees the 1864

siege of Atlanta in this period painting by

well-known illustrator Thure de Thulstrup.

On September 3, 1864, a triumphant Maj.

Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman

telegraphed Washington, “Atlanta is ours

and fairly won.” Ironically, Sherman,

renowned for his tenacious fighting style,

had won the city through ingenuity. Rather

than directly assault Atlanta’s fortifica-

tions, he had marched south-southwest

and fought a campaign of maneuver

Union General William T. Sherman and his army

cut loose from Atlanta in November 1864 and

began cutting a wide swath of destruction across

central Georgia. The “March to the Sea” would

instantly become legendary.BY WILLIAM STROOCK

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