Brad --

Thanks for your post. The program we saw was accurate in some respects and not in others.

With the exception of segments on the burning of Atlanta and Columbia, the History Channel gave viewers the impression that, other than removing people's food supplies "for the next year" and getting a little rowdy while visiting Southern homes, no real harm was done to civilians. We are left to suppose that people in Georgia and the Carolinas took care of property damages by filing insurance claims and replenished all the food that had been taken by making an extra run to the grocery store.

First-hand accounts mention flames lighting the skies along the line of march for miles around, so the appearance of Sherman's men was no surprise. Sherman himself declared that destruction along the path of his armies should be visible sixty years afterwards.

Considering the wartime environment, notes and memoirs by soldiers are remarkable in that they convey

1) no real sense of tension or exposure to real danger,
2) no lack of 'entertainment' along the way, and
3) no particular fear of going hungry.