520 BURNING OF ATLANTA. The depot, in which were stored several bales of cotton. turning-tables, freight sheds, and stores around, were soon a fiery mass. The heart was burning out of beautiful Atlanta. "The few people that had remained in the city, fled, scared by the conflagration and the dread of violence. "The Atlanta Hotel, Washington Hall, and all the square around the railroad depot, were soon in one sheet of flame. Drug stores, dry goods' stores, hotels, negro marts, theatres, and grog-shops, were all now feeding the fiery element. Worn-out wagons and camp equipage were piled up in the depot, and added to the fury of the flames. "A stone ware-house was blown up by a mine. Quartermasters ran away, leaving large stores behind. The men plunged into the houses, broke windows and doors with their muskets, dragging out armfuls of clothes, tobacco, and whiskey which was more welcome than all the rest. The men dressed themselves in new clothes, and then flung the rest into the fire. "The streets were now in one fierce sheet of flame; houses were falling on all sides, and fiery flakes of cinders were whirled about. Occasionally shells exploded, and excited men rushed through the choking atmosphere, and hurried away from the city of ruins. "At a distance the city seemed overshadowed by a cloud of black smoke, through which, now and then, darted a gushing flame of fire, or projectiles hurled from the burning ruin. "The sun looked, through the hazy cloud, like a blood-red ball of fire; and the air, for miles around, felt oppressive and intolerable. The Tyre of the South was laid in ashes, and the 'Gate City' was a thing of the past. *แ On the 12th of November, Sherman stood detached from Captain Conyngham. SHERMAN READY TO START. His army 521 "was com all its communications ready to move. posed of four Corps: the Fifteenth and Seventeenth, constituting the right wing, under Major-General O. O. Howard; the Fourteenth and Twentieth Corps, constituting the left wing, under Major-General H. W. Slocum, making an aggregate strength of sixty thousand infantry, with one cavalry division of five thousand and five hundred men, under Brigadier-General Judson Kilpatrick, and the artillery reduced to the minimum, one gun per one thousand men. "The whole force was moved rapidly, and grouped about Atlanta on the 14th of November." CHAPTER XXXVII. NOVEMBER-DECEMBER, 1864. SHERMAN PREPARES TO MARCH-ORDERS RESPECTING FORAGING PARTIES- SURRENDER IN N preparing for his march across the State of Georgia, Sherman gave stringent rules for the conduct of his troops. Of necessity, they must live off the country. He. therefore, issued the following order : "The army will forage liberally on the country during the march. To this end, each brigade Commander will organize a good and efficient foraging party, under command of one or more discreet officers. To regular foraging parties must be intrusted the gathering of provisions and forage at any distance from the roads traveled. As for horses, mules, wagons, &c., the cavalry and artil lery may appropriate freely and without limit. Foraging parties may also take mules or horses to replace the jaded animals of their trains, or to serve as pack-mules for the regi ments or brigades." This order shows that Sherman possessed the right spirit, and desired that his army should not behave like banditti. FORAGING PARTIES. 523 Every brigade and regiment had its organized foraging party, which was to forage under established rules, and be under the command of one or more discreet officers. It was also ordered, "Soldiers shall not enter the dwellings of the inhabitants or commit any trespass; but, during the halt or camp, they may be permitted to gather turnips, potatoes and other vegetables, and drive in stock in front of their camps." Officers were also directed "to leave with each family a reasonable portion for their maintenance." These were humane regulations, and shed as much lustre on Sherman's character, as his great victories. But who, familiar with the history of invading armies, does not know what foraging in the enemy's country means. Foraging parties are usually joined by every servant and idler about the camps, who, in the various expeditions, scatter over the country, enter houses and strip the inmates of jewelry, and every thing valuable that they possess, and often commit violence of the grossest kind. Sherman's army formed no exception to this rule. Says an officer, who commanded in the expedition, in speaking of these lawless hangers-on :-"In most instances, they burned down houses to cover their depredations, and in some cases, took the lives of their victims, as they would not reveal concealed treasures. These gangs spread like locusts over the country. In all cases where the foraging parties were under the command of a respectable officer, they acted with propriety, simply taking what provisions and necessaries they needed. They might as well have stripped the place, though, for soon came the bummers, and commenced a scene of ruin and pillage. Boxes were burst open; clothes dragged about; the finest silks, belonging to the planters' ladies, carried off to adorn some negro wenches around camp; pictures, books, furniture, all tossed about 524 SHERMAN'S START FOR THE SEA. and torn in pieces. Though these wretches were acting against military orders, there was no one to complain. The planter and his family were thankful if they escaped with their lives." When about to start, Sherman wrote to Admiral Porter, on the Atlantic coast, that he might be "looking out for him about Christmas, from Hilton Head to Savannah," and to his wife, "this is my last letter from here; you will only hear of me hereafter through rebel sources." The four Corps, as before stated, were divided into two wings the right, consisting of the Fifteenth and Seventeenth, was commanded by Howard; and the left, composed of the Fourteenth and Twentieth, by Slocum. There was no general train of supplies for the army, but each Corps had its own, distributed among the brigades and regiments, the whole amounting to about two thousand wagons. The march, when practicable, was to be by four parallel roads, to commence every morning at seven o'clock, and to average fifteen miles a day. Howard, with the right wing, was to follow the Georgia Central railroad, running in a south-westerly direction, through Macon and Milledgeville, to Savannah; while Slocum, with the left wing, would march along the railroad running due east to Augusta-both roads to be destroyed as the armies advanced. Two divisions of cavalry, under Kilpatrick, covered the flanks of the columns. It was a hundred and seventy miles to Augusta, by the railroad along which Slocum marched, and two hundred and ninety-one to Savannah, by that which Howard took. Slocum, moving out on different roads, and destroying the rail track as he advanced, pushed on through Decatur, Stone Mountain, Social Circle, Rutledge, and Madison-filling the inhabitants with consternation, especially at the latter place. While the depot and railroad track were being destroyed |