General Sherman and the Georgia Belles

The courage and sacrifices of the Southern women who stood in the way of Sherman’s March to the Sea from Atlanta to Savannah during the Civil War. When General Sherman led 60,000 soldiers on a sixty-mile-wide path of destruction through Georgia, the purpose was to frighten civilians into abandoning the Confederate cause. Most Georgia women were left to face the enemy alone—their men were off fighting or hiding for fear of being killed or taken as prisoners of war. But these steel magnolias were