 On September 2 , Mayor James Calhoun , along with a committee of Union @-@ leaning citizens including William Markham , Jonathan Norcross , and Edward Rawson , met a captain on the staff of Maj. Gen. Henry W. Slocum , and surrendered the city , asking for " protection to non @-@ combatants and private property " . Sherman , who was in Jonesborough at the time of surrender , sent a telegram to Washington on September 3 , reading , " Atlanta is ours , and fairly won " . He then established his headquarters there on September 7 , where he stayed for over two months . On November 15 , the army departed east toward Savannah , on what became known as " Sherman 's March to the Sea " . 
