Table of Contents
Did Sherman burn Savannah GA?
The March to the Sea for Floyd Legion started with a skirmish at Buckhead, just south of Madison, on Nov. 19, 1864, and ended in Savannah on Dec. 10, 1864. For all of the ink written about Sherman and the way he burned, scorched and killed between Atlanta and Savannah, the monstrous event lasted only 22 days.
Why was Savannah not burned down?
Secondly, it is alleged that Savannah was spared because the city was too beautiful to burn. The city would surrender without resistance in exchange for the promise by Geary to protect the city’s citizens and their property. Geary telegraphed Sherman and the latter accepted the terms.
Where did Sherman burn the town of Savannah?
They escaped being casualties of Sherman’s scorched-earth campaign, which blazed a swath through towns and plantations in central and southeastern Georgia before his troops finally occupied Savannah, on the east coast, four days before Christmas.
What did Sherman do to the people of Georgia?
Nobody knew it better than Sherman. Starting in July, his torch-throwing solders reduced 3,600 Atlanta homes to ashes and charred stumps of chimneys. Throughout Georgia, they set fire to plantaions, slaughtered cattle and turned the rails into twisted, molten steel. They occupied Atlanta for two months.
Who was the general who ordered Sherman not to burn the homes?
Sherman listened to their pleas to save the homes and then ordered one of his division commanders, Gen. Henry Slocum, to refrain from burning them. When Slocum’s troops marched up Dixie Avenue, one homeowner, W. R. Bennett, had not heard about Sherman’s orders.
Where did Sherman take his troops on his March?
Sherman was reluctant to set off on a wild goose chase across the South, however, and so he split his troops into two groups. Major General George Thomas took some 60,000 men to meet the Confederates in Nashville, while Sherman took the remaining 62,000 on an offensive march through Georgia to Savannah, “smashing things” (he wrote) “ to the sea.”