One of Joe Johnston’s and John Bell Hood’s greatest fears as defenders of Atlanta was that Sherman would skirt the city and strike to the south, where the horrors of Andersonville would inspire the Yankees to an unmatched bloodlust.
And much of the conflagration that destroyed Atlanta started whenConfederate troops set fire to materiel and rolling stock.
Sherman certainly wasn’t blameless, but he was far from a butcher or madman. He waged the same kind of total war that Phil Sheridan unleashed in the Shenandoah Valley, and toward the same end: to deprive the Confederates of the infrastructure they needed to prosecute the war. In that, he was successful. However, the animus many in the South — especially Georgia — feel toward Sherman is perfectly understandable.
I think that Sherman's March is to the Confederate Lost Cause what Ferguson is to Al Sharpton and his ilk. An incident that is used to rally around and inflame passions but at the end of the day is based mainly on myth and inaccuracies.