debora000
Surrender of Atlanta
On the morning of September 2, 1864, the citizens of Atlanta were feeling uncertain and probably sleep-deprived after watching the explosions the night before. Mayor James Calhoun and a delegation of prominent citizens wandered around the damaged streets with a white flag looking for somebody in charge. Gen. Sherman was still at Jonesborough, 26 miles away, but Gen. Slocum, whose corps had stayed behind to guard the railroad bridge across the Chattahoochee River, had guessed from the explosions that the Confederates had pulled out and had sent troops into the city to investigate. It was to them that Mayor Calhoun wrote a note of surrender. By noon Marietta Street was blue with Union soldiers.
On September 3 Sherman telegraphed to Washington: "...So Atlanta is ours, and fairly won."
There's a vivid account of what it was like in Atlanta 150 years ago at www.artery.org/08_history/UpperArtery/CivilWar/FMGarretts...
Here is the surrender site on Marietta Street at Northside Drive as it appeared 150 years later. (Minus a small foreground tree and a historical marker that I didn't include.) I meant to color it, but ran out of time. During the hour I sat drawing, only one person paused to read the historical marker.
Drawn the morning of September 2, 2014
Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Surrender of Atlanta
On the morning of September 2, 1864, the citizens of Atlanta were feeling uncertain and probably sleep-deprived after watching the explosions the night before. Mayor James Calhoun and a delegation of prominent citizens wandered around the damaged streets with a white flag looking for somebody in charge. Gen. Sherman was still at Jonesborough, 26 miles away, but Gen. Slocum, whose corps had stayed behind to guard the railroad bridge across the Chattahoochee River, had guessed from the explosions that the Confederates had pulled out and had sent troops into the city to investigate. It was to them that Mayor Calhoun wrote a note of surrender. By noon Marietta Street was blue with Union soldiers.
On September 3 Sherman telegraphed to Washington: "...So Atlanta is ours, and fairly won."
There's a vivid account of what it was like in Atlanta 150 years ago at www.artery.org/08_history/UpperArtery/CivilWar/FMGarretts...
Here is the surrender site on Marietta Street at Northside Drive as it appeared 150 years later. (Minus a small foreground tree and a historical marker that I didn't include.) I meant to color it, but ran out of time. During the hour I sat drawing, only one person paused to read the historical marker.
Drawn the morning of September 2, 2014
Atlanta, Georgia, USA