Battle of Atlanta - Siege and Closure

Siege and Closure

Sherman settled into a siege of Atlanta, shelling the city and sending raids west and south of the city to cut off the supply lines from Macon, Georgia. Both of Sherman's cavalry raids were defeated by superior southern horsemen. Following the failure to break the Confederates' hold on the city, Sherman began to employ a new strategy. He swung his entire army in a broad flanking maneuver to the west. Finally, on August 31 at Jonesborough, Georgia, Sherman's army captured the railroad track from Macon, pushing the Confederates to Lovejoy's Station. With his supply lines fully severed, Hood pulled his troops out of Atlanta the next day, September 1, destroying supply depots as he left to prevent them from falling into Union hands. He also set fire to eighty-one loaded ammunition cars, which led to a conflagration watched by hundreds.

On September 2, Mayor James Calhoun, along with a committee of Union-leaning citizens including William Markham, Jonathan Norcross, and Edward Rawson, met a captain on the staff of Maj. Gen. Henry W. Slocum and surrendered the city, asking for "protection to non-combatants and private property". Sherman, who was in Jonesborough at the time of surrender, sent a telegram to Washington on September 3 reading, "Atlanta is ours, and fairly won". He then established his headquarters there on September 7, where he stayed for over two months before Sherman ordered the evacuation of all citizens. On November 14, Sherman's army burned all but about 400 buildings, including homes and businesses; estimates of the number of buildings destroyed range from 3,200 to 5,000. The next day, the army departed east toward Savannah on what became known as Sherman's March to the Sea.