2007-12-10 02:00:50 · 8 answers · asked by Anonymous in Arts & Humanities ➔ History
The Confederates burned down Atlanta to try to destroy everything that the Union could use to harm them in any way! You may think that the Union burned down Atlanta but they didn't! WOW RIGHT?!
2007-12-10 02:06:48 · answer #1 · answered by SOME 1 · 0⤊ 3⤋
In the mind of General William Tecumseh Sherman, who made famous the phrase "War is hell," there was no doubt as to the integrity of the North's cause. Sherman was renowned as a fierce - some would say tyrannical - military leader, and in September 1864 he gave orders for the city of Atlanta to be evacuated and burned. Despite appeals from the citizens of Atlanta, including reminders that there were elderly and pregnant women whom it would be difficult and even perilous to move, Sherman's decision was final. He explained himself to the mayor and council members of the city.:
"You cannot qualify war in harsher terms than I will. War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it; and those who brought war into our country deserve all the curses and maledictions a people can pour out. I know I had no hand in making this war, and I know I will make more sacrifices to-day than any of you to secure peace."
That was in a letter to the mayor and council members just before he ordered Atlanta burnt to the ground.
2007-12-10 10:09:41 · answer #2 · answered by Thomas B 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The same qualities
that made Atlanta a strategically important town for the Confederacy also made it a tempting target for Union armies, and in the summer of 1864 General William T. Sherman and his troops moved closer on their Atlanta campaign. From July 20 to August 25 Atlanta was subjected to a withering aerial bombardment. In the process a number of civilians were killed, and property and buildings in the city were badly damaged.
On September 2, 1864, Sherman's troops captured the city, and the remaining residents (about 3,500 people, according to one estimate) were ordered to evacuate. Before Sherman's army departed on its famous March to the Sea, however, fire and Union soldiers demolished the city's railroad depots, the roundhouse, the machine shops, and all other railroad support buildings. Public buildings, selected commercial enterprises, industries (including the Winship Foundry and the Atlanta Gas Light Company, which were operated by Union sympathizers), military installations, and blacksmith shops were also targeted. Sherman's instructions called for engineers to level the buildings before they were torched, but eager and careless soldiers set fire to many structures before the engineers arrived. As a result many Atlanta homes and businesses not marked for destruction were also consumed in the fires that swept the city on November 15, 1864.
2007-12-10 10:07:20 · answer #3 · answered by sparks9653 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
General William T. Sherman and the advancing Union army as they started their march to the sea.
2007-12-10 12:39:47 · answer #4 · answered by Dave aka Spider Monkey 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
John Bell Hood
2007-12-10 10:53:01 · answer #5 · answered by Johnny 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Sherman
2007-12-10 10:26:39 · answer #6 · answered by Marvin R 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Union General Sherman.
Of course, there are people that will say he didn't do it. The winners write the history books and have tried to say that Sherman didn't have anything to do with it.
2007-12-10 10:03:38 · answer #7 · answered by Yun 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
http://search.yahoo.com/search?ei=utf-8&fr=slv8-msgr&p=atlanta%20burnt%20during%20the%20civil%20war&type=
2007-12-10 10:11:32 · answer #8 · answered by mary 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋