To this point in the war, many, if not most, Confederate towns and capitals were still “free” from the Northern foe. New Orleans had fallen early in the war, and Jackson, Mississippi, had been practically destroyed during the Vicksburg campaign, but the majority held out. Atlanta had a population of only about 11,000, but it was one of the most important of all railway towns in the Confederacy; by capturing Atlanta, Sherman practically severed the Confederate States in two.

Another aspect that was different is that Atlanta became memorialized by many of its inhabitants, who sadly contrasted life “before” and “after” the Yankee conquest. These ideas would be enshrined in the novel Gone with the Wind, followed by the film of the same name.