By Ann Taylor Boutwell
Sept. 1, 1864: Union General William T. Sherman and his troops captured Atlanta, Georgia. That Thursday, Carrie Mabry Berry, the 10-year-old daughter of Harriet Key and Maxwell Berry wrote in her personal diary: “We did not get home until twelve o’clock. We had a very pleasant time and everything seemed quiet. Directly after dinner Cousin Emma came down and told us that Atlanta would be evacuated this evening and we might look for federals in the morning. It was not long till the whole town found it out and such excitement there was. We have been looking for them all the evening but they have not come yet.” On Friday she wrote: “About twelve o’clock there were a few federals came in. They were all frightened. We were afraid they were going to treat us badly. It was not long till the Infantry came in. They were orderly and behaved very well. I think I shall like the Yankees very well.” Carrie’s original handwritten diary can be found in the Carrie Berry Collection at the Atlanta History Center’s Kenan Research Library.
Sept. 8, 1871: The first street railway car ran on the West End Line. It started on Whitehall Street and extended out Whitehall to Mitchell Street, to Forsyth Street to Peters Street and across the railroad tracks terminating opposite the old Yankee barrack, which is now the entrance to Spellman College.
Sept.13, 1934: Cab Calloway and The Cotton Club Orchestra performed for an all-black audience at the old Atlanta Municipal Auditorium/Armory at the corner of Courtland and Gilmer streets.
Sept. 17, 1884: The body of President Abraham Lincoln’s brother-in-law, Brigadier-Gen. Harden Helm, a Confederate soldier of the first Kentucky brigade, was exhumed from Oakland Cemetery and reburied in Elizabethtown, Ky. Helm’s wife, Emilie Todd Helm, daughter of the late Robert Todd, was a half-sister of Mary Todd Lincoln, the president’s wife. The 21-year-old was killed at the Battle of Chickamauga in 1863.
Sept. 18, 1990: Atlanta was officially selected as host of the 1996 Summer Olympic Games.
Sept. 24, 1889: The Decatur Female Seminary opened to students. It’s now world-renowned Agnes Scott College.
Sept. 27, 1995: Tom Key, the well-known Atlanta actor, was named producing artistic director at the Theatrical Outfit.
Sept. 29, 1986: Designing Women, a comedy about a group of interior designers set in Atlanta, first aired on CBS.
