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Arguably, there was less to burn, and not a lot got into the residential areas in 1864.  Downtown suffered of course.

My understanding is that my great-great grandfather and his companions were directed to destroy railroads (they made a lot of "Sherman's neckties and I'll explain that if anyone is interested) and buildings of industrial use so they didn't actually target homes. Intentionally targeting homes would become a part of warfare but not until eight decades later when Arthur Harris and Curtis LeMay had MUCH more sophisticated weapons at their disposal than what Sherman and my great-great grandfather were limited to. 

Some of the damage was by retreating Confederates.  The Yankees burned war materiel though fires do spread.  A few were over eager. 


Tokyo as you note suffered horribly.

Most people don't realize it but the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were not the deadliest bombing raids in history. That title belongs to the firebombing of Tokyo.

There is a pretty neat painting about one of the "battles of Atlanta" now at the Atlanta History Center.  It started up north, came south, was then repainted in areas to make it seems the South won the battle, then restored and moved with commentary about all of this and why.  The revisionist history is an interesting story of course, and something which happens fairly often in life.

Cyclorama: The Big Picture | Exhibitions | Atlanta History Center





This was a battle fought east of Atlanta in an area now "paved over", even a major hill was removed to build I-20.  The area then of course was farms and fields and one large house that was never finished.