General Sherman

Atlanta, Georgia Tuesday, November 15, 1864 Finally, inexplicably, there is wood for the fireplace. Warmth spread throughout Caitlin's body, relaxing muscles kinked from weeks of shuddering in the drafty house. She stepped closer to the fire, smiling as the heat caressed her face. Finally, the chill is gone. "Wake up! Wake up!" Caitlin jerked awake to find Ana yanking on her arm. Wraiths of smoke crawled across the ceiling. The fire was not in the parlor hearth, but on the floor, spreading in a crackling pool from a blackened pine torch. The clock's chimes jarred Caitlin's nerves once, twice, three times, as flames flashed on its face. _____________________________________________________________ The above excerpt from Yankee in Atlanta reflects the historical event of Sherman's armies burning Atlanta 150 years ago today. Actually, Sherman's men had begun the fires on November 12, 1864, targeting places of military importance such as factories and railroad stations. But, even though General Slocum issued a five-hundred-dollar reward for anyone who caught soldiers committing arson at private residences, wayward soldiers did torch plenty of homes. Ten-year-old Carrie Berry wrote the following in her diary about this night: [[{"type":"media", "view_mode":"media_large", "fid":"1110", "attributes":{"class":"media-image alignright size-medium wp-image-2550", "typeof":"foaf:Image", "style":"", "width":"300", "height":"240", "alt":"carrieberry"}}]]"Oh what a night we had. They came burning the store house and about night it looked like the whole town was on fire. We all set up all night. If we had not set up our house would have ben [sic] burnt up for the fire was very near and the soldiers were going around setting houses on fire where they were not watched. They behaved very badly."* The Berry family was among about five hundred residents still living in Atlanta. When Confederate General Hood evacuated Atlanta a couple of months earlier, Atlanta's population was at four thousand, down from its war-time peak of more than twenty thousand. When General Sherman moved in in early September 1864, his forced evacuation of the shell-shocked residents whittled it down to a mere fifty families or so, who were allowed to stay by special permission. For those residents, November 12-15, 1864, was a terrifying time, indeed. [[{"type":"media", "view_mode":"media_large", "fid":"1111", "attributes":{"class":"media-image size-full wp-image-2553", "typeof":"foaf:Image", "style":"", "width":"540", "height":"640", "alt":"Train depot ruined upon Sherman"}}]] Train depot ruined upon Sherman's departure   None of them knew then that Sherman's departure would be the start of his infamous March to the Sea, in which the idea of "total war" would be played out with a vengeance. [[{"type":"media", "view_mode":"media_large", "fid":"1112", "attributes":{"class":"media-image wp-image-2555 size-full", "typeof":"foaf:Image", "style":"", "width":"597", "height":"467", "alt":"Painting: \u0026quot;War Is Hell\u0026quot; by Mort Kunstler, depicting Sherman in Atlanta"}}]] Painting: "War Is Hell" by Mort Kunstler, depicting Sherman in Atlanta   [[{"type":"media", "view_mode":"media_large", "fid":"1113", "attributes":{"class":"media-image alignright size-full wp-image-2559", "typeof":"foaf:Image", "style":"", "width":"150", "height":"190", "alt":"carrie diary"}}]]*I obtained a transcript of Carrie Berry's full diary courtesy of the Kenan Research Center at the Atlanta History Center. Portions of her diary have been published in several different books, as well, including A Confederate Girl: The Diary of Carrie Berry, 1864. For more about the historical background to Yankee in Atlanta, visit www.heroinesbehindthelines.com.