[Basil Duke]

Pat’s got a bit of his history wrong here. Sherman launched his march to the Atlantic Ocean on November 15 and 16, 1864 - not September 1. Atlanta was burned two days before the march began.

[Yosemitest]

You might find these of interest:

Sherman's Mississippi Campaign

The rehearsal for the March to the Sea.

With the fall of Vicksburg to Union forces in mid-1863, the Federals began work to extend and consolidate their hold on the lower Mississippi Valley.
As a part of this plan, Major General William Tecumseh Sherman set out from Vicksburg on February 3, 1864, with an army of some 25,000 infantry and a battalion of cavalry.
They expected to be joined by another Union force moving south from Memphis and supported themselves off the land as they traveled due east across Mississippi.

Sherman entered Meridian on February 14 and thoroughly destroyed its railroad facilities, munitions plants, and cotton stores, before returning to Vicksburg.
Though not a particularly effective campaign in terms of enemy soldiers captured or killed, it offers a rich opportunity to observe how this large-scale raid presaged Sherman’s Atlanta and Carolina campaigns, revealing the transformation of Sherman’s strategic thinking.




Sherman's Meridian Campaign: A Practice Run for the March to the Sea

Sherman burned a path across Mississippi that was 60 miles wide, and destroyed everything in his path, except towns that would change their name to "Union".
There's many southerns who still have a strong dislike for what was done to their grandfathers' property, and who have NOT forgotten Sherman's cruelty.