Destruction of Hood’s Ordnance train, Georgia Central
Railroad.
On November 12, 1864, Union General William T. Sherman ordered
the business district of Atlanta, Georgia, destroyed before he
embarked on his famous March to the Sea.
Chief Engineer Orlando M. Poe directed the demolition of stone
and brick buildings using specially made battering rams.
On Nov. 15, Poe’s troops burned the wooden buildings in the
downtown business district around the site of this marker.
Though houses and churches were not targeted, some were
burned nonetheless. Many houses had already been dismantled
by both armies to make way for fortifications. Contrary to
popular myth only forty percent of Atlanta was left in ruins.
Sherman’s March To The Sea.
William Tecumseh Sherman
(February 8, 1820 – February 14, 1891)
