him to “spare nothing.” This was part of
Sherman’s overall policy of harsh measures
to those who fought back. When the army
encountered resistance in the form of guer-
rillas or bushwhackers, or if the locals
destroyed infrastructure prior to the army’s
arrival, Sherman mandated that “comman-
ders should order and enforce a devastation
more or less relentless.”
There was also the issue of what to do
with Georgia’s slaves. Nearly 446,000
African Americans lived in Georgia, the
overwhelming majority of them (all but
0.03 percent) slaves. Sherman, frankly,
wanted nothing to do with them. The
slaves, however, were very interested in
Sherman, which became evident as early
as the army’s arrival in Covington. Upon
entering the town, Sherman found “the
negroes were simply frantic with joy.
Whenever they heard my name, they clus-
tered about my horse, shouted and prayed
in their particular style.” Sherman became
a messianic figure to the new freedmen.
Even Sherman was moved by the out-
pouring of joy, although he did not wel-
come it. Outside of Covington he met with
a group of freedman and told them in no
uncertain terms that “we wanted the slaves
to remain where they were, and not load
us down with useless mouths.”
Indiana Private Upson encountered
slaves on a personal level and found that
“despite all discouragements we have a
large following though General Sherman
has tried in every way to explain to them
that we do not want them.” Upson wrote
of freedman ecstatic with joy at the mere
rumor of Sherman’s riding nearby and
described a group of freedman mistaking
a grizzled bummer for the general and
“marched along the side of the road
singing their songs till someone told them
the truth.”
As the army departed Atlanta, the mili-
tary facilities in and around the city were
systematically demolished. Sherman put
his chief engineer, Colonel Orlando M.
Poe, in charge of the destruction. Poe
destroyed utterly the facilities of the Geor-
gia Railroad, including a machine shop
that the Confederates had been using as aartillery depot. The resulting explosion
caused a considerable conflagration. “The
fire also reached the block of stores and
the depot, and the heart of the city was in
flames all night,” claimed Sherman.
Sherman was not maintaining commu-nication with his northern Georgia base,
but he did go to great efforts to ensure it
was secure against Hood’s army. He left
General Thomas in Nashville with two
corps, a cavalry brigade, and a third corps
en route from Missouri. He expected the
Confederates to strike. Thomas had one
division at Decatur, one at Murfreesboro,
and one at Chattanooga, all linked by a
rail patrolled rail line. Thomas, for his
part, was supremely confident. “I have no
fears that [General P.G.T.] Beauregard can
do us any harm now,” he told Sherman,
“and, if he attempts to follow you, I will
follow him as far as possible.”
On November 16, Sherman’s army of
62,000 men set out. Behind them, Atlanta
was “smoldering and in ruins,” wrote
Sherman unapologetically, “the black
smoke rising high in the air, and hanging
like a pall over the ruined city. Away off in
the distance, on the McDonough road,
was the rear of Howard’s column, the gun-
barrels glistening in the sun, the white-
topped wagons stretching away to the
south; and right before us the Fourteenth
Corps, marching steadily and rapidly,
with a cheery look and swinging pace, that
made light of the thousand miles that lay
between us and Richmond.”
The men, too, were in high spirits as they
set out on a great unknown adventure.
They sang verse after verse of “John
Brown’s Body,” and Sherman reported
that “never before or since have I heard
the chorus of ‘Glory, glory, hallelujah!’
done with more spirit, or in better har-
mony of time and place.” Most thought
they were destined for Richmond, not the
sea. Sherman had no fixed point in mind.
“Savannah was most desirable,” he
thought, “but I kept in mind Port Royal,
South Carolina, and Pensacola, Florida, as
alternatives.” His only fixed object was the
Atlantic Ocean.
During the first phase of the march, Sher-
man travelled with XIV Corps in Howard’s
wing, making Lithonia on the first night. In
keeping with his streamlined approach,
Sherman’s personal headquarters consisted
of one sparsely furnished wagon—all frills
of command had been ruthlessly eliminatedClockwise from top: A Union color sergeant defiantly
waves a tattered American flag on the roof of Geor-
gia’s state capitol in Milledgeville, November 22,- Opposing generals in the Atlanta campaign:
Oliver O. Howard, William Hardee, John Bell Hood,
and Henry Slocum.
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