The Town Sherman Didn't Burn

When General William Tecumseh Sherman's army swept through Georgia on its devastating March to the Sea in 1864, leaving a 60-mile wide trail of burned cities and destroyed infrastructure, the town of Madison emerged almost entirely intact. The popular legend is that Sherman found it too beautiful to burn — but the real reason is more interesting. Madison was home to Joshua Hill, a pro-Union Georgia congressman and family acquaintance of Sherman's, and out of deference to him, Sherman's troops left the residential district untouched. They did burn the depot, a cloth factory, a cotton gin, and 200 bales of cotton — anything that served the Confederate war effort — but the homes were spared. The result is one of the most intact collections of antebellum architecture in the American South, with nearly 100 restored 19th-century homes spread across a National Historic District that draws visitors from around the world.