Barnard’s Photographic Views of the Sherman Campaign

George Barnard's photograph of William T. Sherman and his generals, circa 1866.

In May of 1864, General William T. Sherman and his Union force of 110,000 soldiers invaded Georgia from Chattanooga, beginning a series of battles with Confederate forces in north Georgia that historians later referred to as the Atlanta Campaign. Union troops captured the city of Atlanta on September 2 that same year. Following a brief occupation of the city, Sherman divided his army and began a march to the sea, passing through Milledgeville (Georgia’s capital at the time) and eventually capturing Savannah in December of 1864 before marching north through the Carolinas.

Barnard's photograph of ruins in Columbia, South Carolina, circa 1866.

United States Army photographer George N. Barnard followed Sherman’s forces through Georgia and captured the aftermath of the battles in Atlanta and Savannah. Following the conclusion of the war, Barnard traced back through Tennessee, Georgia, and South Carolina to photograph the battle sites of the Sherman Campaign. The result of his work can be found in the Hargrett Rare Book & Manuscript Library’s Barnard’s Photographic Views of the Sherman Campaign collection, which contains digitized versions of sixty-one albumen prints taken by Barnard around 1866. These powerful photographs portray both the natural beauty of the South and the destructive consequences of the war.

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Burns Cottage

 

Postcard of Robert Burns Cottage, Atlanta, Georgia.
Postcard of Burns Cottage, Burns Club Grounds, Atlanta, Georgia. A reproduction of the original in Alloway, Ayrshire, Scotland. Historic Postcard Collection, RG 48-2-5, Georgia Archives.

During this week in 1759, Robert Burns was born in Alloway, Ayrshire, Scotland. A writer and lyricist devoted to the representation of the lives and opinions of ordinary Scots and the assertion of Scottish cultural independence and identity, he is celebrated worldwide by people of Scottish descent on the anniversary of his birthday, January 25. In Georgia, the Burns Club of Atlanta upholds this tribute to their favorite son, and has continued this tradition since 1898. At the beginning of the twentieth century, these Atlanta-area Scots took a step further to honor the memory of Burns and his work–in 1910 members of the club researched the exact measurements of Burns’ birthplace in Scotland and built a facsimile of the structure out of Georgia granite. Burns Cottage continues to stand in Atlanta’s historic Grant Park neighborhood, where it is still under the private ownership of the Burns Club of Atlanta. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983 (see #83003572).

The picture postcard of Burns Cottage and the Burns Club grounds seen here can be found in the Georgia Archives’ Historic Postcard Collection, RG 48-2-5; a small portrait of Burns is displayed inside a small oval inset at the top right corner of the card.

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