Where they were going the men did not know. They did not ask. There
was no need to trouble, for Sherman was leading them, and they knew
he would lead them to victory.
After Richmond, Atlanta had supplied more guns and ammunition and
other war material for the Confederacy than any other town, and
before he left it, Sherman determined to destroy everything which
might be of use to the enemy. So he emptied the town of all its
inhabitants, and blew up all the gun and ammunition factories,
storehouses, and arsenals. He tore up the railroads all around
Atlanta also, and last of all cut the telegraph which linked him
to the North. Then cut off as it were from all the world with his
force of nearly sixty-six thousand men, he turned eastward toward
the sea.
The army marched in four divisions, taking roads which as nearly
as possible ran alongside each other, so that each division might
keep in touch with the others. Every morning at daybreak they broke
camp and during the day marched from ten to fifteen miles. And as
they passed through it they laid waste the land. Railroads were
torn up and thoroughly destroyed. The sleepers were made into piles
and set alight, the rails were laid on the top of the bonfires, and
when hot enough to be pliable were twisted beyond all possibility
of being used again. Telegraph wires and poles were torn down,
factories were burned, only private homes being left untouched.
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