Documenting Atlanta’s Destruction
Gen. William T. Sherman, leaning on breach of gun, and staff at Federal Fort No. 7. Atlanta, Georgia. September-November, 1864
Nov 15, 1864
The destruction of Atlanta begins.
Union General William T. Sherman orders communication lines, railways in and out of the city, and every strategically important structure vital to the confederate supply chain destroyed, decommissioned, or damaged beyond repair.
In a twist of fate, fire, from one of the city's many involved structures, spread to an office housing the work of official Federal photographer George N. Barnard. An indefinite volume of the photographer's work was now a part of the 3,800 structures destroyed as the Union army moved out of the city and toward Savannah. Through the photographs left behind the work captures a complete picture of the dismantling of the strategic confederate stronghold.
Already a successful New York City studio photographer pre secession, he found employment under Mathew Brady's studio once war erupted and struck out on his own as a veteran war photographer by 1864.
Barnard's assignments in the fated city ranged from documenting abandoned confederate fortifications, the ruins of war, Atlanta's significant transportation, trade, and business hubs, and finally, the destruction.
The work utilized a stereographic technic, capturing two nearly identical images to produce a three-dimensional effect. In the photographs, we can see beyond the structural damage to the civilian cost of war, paid for by refugees. We see them in Barnard's photographs of the Atlanta Railroad Depot days before Union engineers raised it.
On November 12, 1864, the last trains out of Atlanta steamed forward, stacked high with household items and civilians fleeing the city. Blurs of women in bonnets, long dresses, and aprons along with children miraculously frozen in time crammed onto tops of train cars, chairs from home are scattered about at the Atlanta Railroad Depot’s car shed.
Stereograph showing a train loaded with refugees at railroad depot fleeing the city before Sherman's troops destroyed the railroad.
Civilians crowded on tops of boxcars at railroad depot as soldiers gather around an S.D. Goodale & Sons stereoscopic viewer next to office of the Daily Intelligencer newspaper.
One of two known Civil War era photographs of the S.D. Goodale & Sons viewer in field use.
Stereograph showing ruins of the depot, blown up on Sherman's departure, and buildings in the background.
Digital file from left half of original negative.
Sherman's men destroying railroad, smoke from fires set to burn ties and irons can be seen as ghostly drifting clouds.
“You cannot qualify war in harsher terms than I will. War is cruelty and you cannot refine it, and those who brought war into our country deserve all the curses and maledictions a people can pour out. I know I had no hand in making this war, and I know I will make more sacrifices today than any of you to secure peace. But you cannot have peace and a division of our country.”
Gen. Sherman in a letter to James M Calhoun, Mayor of Atlanta.
It's fascinating to see the photographer focus on the last days of the Union occupation. As telling as the body of work is, the story does come full circle; Barnard revisits Atlanta to document its reconstruction, displayed most famously in the photo below. Though the bank still lay in crumbles, work has begun on surrounding buildings and foundations.
The Georgia Railroad Bank, survived the war, honoring the confederate script it had issued. It was the least they could do, hyperinflation effectively made the South’s currency worthless.
With the support of General Sherman, a photography book containing sixty-one albumen silver prints made from cumbersomely massive glass plate negatives publishes. "Since the close of the war, the collection has been completed," text from the book informs the reader.
Leatherbound and full of images taken from spring 1864 and spring 1866 focuses heavily on Sherman and Union triumphs; "Photographic Views of Sherman's Campaign, Embracing Scenes of the Occupation of Nashville, the Great Battles around Chattanooga and Lookout Mountain, the Campaign of Atlanta, March to the Sea, and the Great Raid through the Carolinas."
Despite the long and informative title, the book did not sell well, initially selling for $100 or, coincidentally, around the current average rent in Atlanta.
Make sure to check the book out, it’s an amazing work of documentary photography from the Civil War and considered one of the greatest collections. Duke University features a digital copy that is available to the public via their online archive collection.
Documentary photographs by George N. Barnard and Alexander Gardner highlighting William T. Sherman's campaign and the Civil War:
Barnard's photographic views of the Sherman campaign
Union troops near Atlanta, photographer George N. Barnard’s darkroom can be seen at right. 1864