JOURFIXE

On September 1, 1864, Confederate General John Bell Hood evacuated Atlanta, after a four-month siege mounted by Union General William Sherman and ordered all public buildings and possible Confederate assets destroyed.
On September 2 a committee of Mayor James Calhoun and Union-leaning citizens William Markham, Jonathan Norcross and Edward Rawson met a captain on the staff of Maj. Gen. Henry W. Slocum and surrendered the city. Sherman established his headquarters there on September 7. That same day, Sherman ordered the civilian population to evacuate.
His forces occupied the city for several months, and he then ordered Atlanta burned to the ground on November 11 in preparation for his punitive march south. ... Sherman did not burn the city's churches or hospitals. However, the remaining war resources were then destroyed in the aftermath and in Sherman's March to the Sea.