On this day in 1864, the mayor of Atlanta, James Calhoun, met a captain on the staff of Federal Major General Henry W. Slocum, and surrendered his city, asking for "protection to non-combatants and private property." Federal Major General William T. Sherman, who was in Jonesborough at the time of surrender, sent a telegram to Washington, DC 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, 1864, Sherman's army departed east toward Savannah, Georgia on what became known as "Sherman's March to the Sea."