Aerial photos of Sherman's March

[Marissa]

I heard through the grapevine that there are aerial photos taken of the march through Georgia taken aound the 1950's. Supposedly in the photos you can still see the route they took even in 1950s. Does anyone have any information on this?

[kevinw33]

Hope someone replies, I would love to see this too.

[yeoman]

Yes, I'll have to wet my line on this one. Would this not be something to see. I found this site with Georgia Aerial Photographs. If I may, I lived in Atlanta from 2nd to 8th grade and lived on West Ontario, Beecher Circle and Pine Oak Drive. Pine Oak Dr. was just south of Westview Cemetery (1884, the land that would become the cemetery was the site of a portion of the Battle of Ezra Church). I crossed Utoy Creek to get to school (check out the Battle of Utoy Creek). My friends and I found many artifacts from the Battle of Atlanta during our round abouts. Seems half the time I went into the woods alone I felt as if I were stepping on someones grave. Ever had that feeling? While walking in the woods NE of Utoy Creek and S of the cemetery I got as scared as I have ever been. Nevertheless, parts of the Confederate lines later became part of the city parks. I used the 1938 aerial photo of SW Atlanta and brought up a current map to get my bearings. This is where I start to look for traces of the old lines and forts where I used to live and then , maybe.......

With a map of Sherman's March through Georgia a current map and the aerial photos there may be a trace of the desolation left in this army's wake.

The site is http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/express?link=gaph simply 1, search counties, 2 choose county, 3,choose index photograph. Hope this may help.

[J. Donaldson]

This has been discussed in either Glathaar's book or Sherman's March in Myth and Memory, but the myth that 1950s aerial images still showed the route of the March to the Sea, or the "desolation" of the MTTS are just that, a myth. The last time I checked, Sherman's men did not drive bulldozers or other machinery of destruction through Georgia, nor did they wantonly consume the entire sixty mile wide route with fire from Atlanta to the sea. At most, individual chimneys or foundations might be left immediately after the troops departed, and you could argue that these remained present for a period of possibly a few years while the South was at financial odds following the war and Reeconstruction. As soon as people began to rebuild any potential ruins disappeared. Think about it...with problems of urban sprawl as well as the fact that if someone built a house at a location originally it stands that someone would want to build there again, there is no realistic expectation that physical mainfestations of the March could not survive. Much of this was dreamed up by a new generation of Lost Causers who wanted to find new reminders of "Yankee Evil" in their midst. I would include proper citation, but all of my materials are packed for a move this weekend.

[yeoman]

Sir, I read your post and it was considered. I do not believe anyone on this forum thinks Sherman's army "bulldozed" through Georgia. People who were there, on both sides, know what the effects of this movement through Georgia were. I used the word "desolation" correctly I believe and did not mean to use it in an insulting way. Lots has been written of this time in history.
I passed on a site some may find interesting, I have.
Sir, may I ask, what is the point of posting these words?

I'll quote, "Much of this was dreamed up by a new generation of Lost Causers who wanted to find new reminders of "Yankee Evil" in the midst".

Most respectfully,
Mel Hadden

[J. Donaldson]

The purpose of that line was to show that historiography is manipulated by every generation for its own means. Combined with the rise of the Civil Rights movement, as well as Federal infrastructure investment and development uprooting people again in the name of highway development, we must frankly face the fact that people in several Southern states felt that their local customs and social mores were challenged by forces beyond their control. It is but a very short step from those immediate challenges to claim new memories or representations of previous conflicts with Federal or outside power. The 1950s saw a new birth in the re-appropriation of Confederate symbology in order to challenge changing Federal laws that were deemed "intrusive" against local authority and power, and while I do not have documentation in front of me, when comparing the rise of new Confederate sympathy against one set of laws and acts, as I said, it's a small step to use these changes to reinvoke the symbolism of Sherman upon the landscape.


While I have no doubt that in many ways the psychological scars continued, and may well continue, to mark the collective psyche of those who experienced or are descended from those who experienced the trauma of an enemy army moving at will through their home area, the physical scars did not last until the twentieth century.

[106th PVI]

Kind of off topic but...
Lest we forget that Joe Wheeler's boys did their share of plundring and mayhem during the march. Numerous letters to local papers exist in archives stating this. During the Atlanta Campaign the local citizens feared Joe Johnston's army as much as Sherman's.

[yeoman]

Yes sir, thanks for the reply.
As far as your position, If I may, "the physical scars did not last until the twentieth century", seems like a limb hard to stand on. My 2 cents, I don't buy it. Thirty six years is not that long.

Respectfully,
Mel Hadden

[J. Donaldson]

Mr. Hadden-
I wish to thank you for pointing out an error in my last post. I meant to write "into" rather than "until": a single word changes the entire meaning of a sentence. I apologize if I wasn't clear earlier. What I was saying was that with my personal and professional research relating to the events surrounding the March to the Sea, I have found nothing to indicate the presence of the amount of damage required to leave a visual mark on the landscape ninety years after the event. I believe that we will respectfully have to agree to disagree.

Mr. Cass-
Your point is well made. In fact, I would venture to say that in some cases Wheeler's cavalrymen did more damage than Sherman's men.

[106th PVI]

Mr Welch,
It is amazing how much was blamed on my g-g-grandpa and his men that was actually done by the rebel soldiers themselves. "The lost cause" mentality strikes again. And this time history was written mostly by those who claim that mentality as thier own.
The truth is there...if they would only look it up.