The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-11-16
SEMI-CENTENARY
 OF SHERMAN'S FAMOUS
 MARCH ACROSS GEORGIA

It is needless to repeat what Gen Teeumseh Sherman thought of the practice of that profession in which he won undying fame Tn three short words, containing a total of only nine letters, he told the word exactly what was was-arld Is. And Gen. Sherman spoke from personal knowledge, fer, without malice and in a cause which he considered just, he swept with sword and flame through the richest region of the fair southland, leaving in his wake a trail of ruin and wreck age such as may be viewed in un- happy Belgium today. 5 < It was just half century ago to- day,t on the sixteenth of Novembers 1884, that Sherman set out on that i'm name is inseparably connected-the famous s.Inarch to the sea- Leaving Atlanta, which he had captured after a long and fierce bombardment, in
 flames behind him, he led his arm1- across Georgia to Savannah. From a military viewpoint, this was not the greatest of Sherman's achievements but it appealed powerfully to the inn agination of the North, and March Ing Through Georgia became the popular song of the day.
 On the eve of starting on his march, Sherman ordered the torch applied to
 all the Buildings in Atlanta, and the city, which before the siege of the pre- vious July had held 80,0o0 people. was reducedsto ashes. Scarcely a build ing was left standing and Atlanta was but memory when the army of Sher4
 man marched away toward the sea.
 The Union army moved in two col
 umns. Two eorps%of the Army of the1 Tennessee. under Howard, comprised one column, and the other consisted of two corps of the Army of the Cumber- land, under E1oeuEn. The northern troops were forced to live on thel country, and the country along the line of march, following the line of march of march, following the Georgia Gen. traI railroad, was stripped clean. The terror-stricken people lied before the irresfstibIe advance of the army of Sherman, and the soldiers turned the mansions along the way into camps.
 The distance from Atlanta to Sa- vannah Is 290 miles. Sherman's army
 covered the distance, with very little loss. Tn twenty three days of ae- tuaI marching. On December 13th Fort McA11ister was captured by Federal contingent under Hazen, and on the 20fh the Confede crates evacur enterad the city.
 Tn his plans for a ssnnarch to the sea- Gen. Sherman was first opposed by Grant and the Washington admin istration, and only after advancing many arguments in favor of the scheme was he vouchsafed a reIuct-# ant consent. Fearing the order might
 be counternanded before he could put the army into motion-a fear that was we'll founded-he cut. the teIe-. graph lines Seventy thousand men took part in the famous march.
 After the capture Of Savannah, Sherman remained in that city about, a month, and then began to move northward to the support of Grant Gen. Johnston unsuccessfuIIy opposed
 him, and when news of the surrender of Lee reached him, the Confederate l leader sent to Sherman to obtain his terms of surrender. Sherman granted him the same terms that Grant gave to Lee, but the Secretary of War con- sidered these too lenient, and for a time the relations between Sherman and the Washington War Depart ment were strained. Sherman con- tinued in the army until 1884, and died in New York in 1891. He per-
 sfstently refused all political prefer ment. Although practically destroyed, Atlanta recuperated more rapidly than any other city in the South