Learn Our History Today: On September 1, 1864, during the Civil War,
the city of Atlanta, a crucial Confederate supply base and rail hub, fell to Union troops under the command of General William Tecumseh Sherman. It took months of fierce fighting in and around the city for Atlanta to finally surrender to the dreaded Yankees of Sherman’s army.
However, Sherman’s men were not out of the woods yet. Throughout autumn, the Confederates under General John Bell Hood attempted again and again to retake the city, inflicting numerous casualties on the Union army. Unfortunately for Hood, these futile attempts did not amount to much, and by November he began a new campaign directed at severing Sherman’s supply lines.
In November, Sherman himself embarked on his famous “March to the Sea.” The Union General and his men marched from Atlanta to Savannah across the Georgia countryside. Union troops covered much of the state, and they employed a brutal scorched earth policy designed to destroy anything that could be of use to the Confederacy.
Also, on this day in U.S. history:
1752: The Liberty Bell arrives in Philadelphia.
1894: The Great Hinckley Fire, a massive series of forest fires, devastates the area in and around Hinckley, MN, destroying six towns and leaving nearly 420 people dead.
1897: The Boston subway opens – it is the first underground rapid transit system in the U.S.
Help us to keep history alive in America by sharing Learn Our History with your kids and grandkids! Try Learn Our History’s new streaming service and access our entire library of animated videos FREE for 7 days! Check out our great streaming options at trylearnourhistory.com.
= new reply since forum marked as read
