General Sherman's Savannah Campaign

Some would argue that Sherman’s reluctance to face the Confederate army head on would make the march fairly peaceful. After all, he avoided bloodshed; however instead of facing of with an army, he faced off with the people, practicing psychological warfare, instead of waging a physical battle against the Confederacy. Yet this type of warfare didn’t fail to devastate the south. He successfully made the southern people fear his army so much, that Confederate wives begged their husbands to come home so the war would end and “told one South Carolina woman that he was ransacking her plantation so that her soldier husband would come home and Grant would not have to kill him in the trenches at Petersburg” (Groce). Sherman’s genius approach to show his army’s power through destruction of property instead of the through slaughtering men on the battlefield is quite ironic, considering the Civil War was one of the bloodiest battles in history; however, it created a big blow to the south, convincing the people to give up. From the words of Sherman himself, “If the people raise a howl against barbarity and cruelty, I will answer that war is war, and not popularity-seeking. If they want peace, they and their relatives must stop the war” (Mitchell). He admits to his brutality, declaring that to stop the burning of plantations and destruction, the civilians must give up. Sherman recognized that the fuel to any war was the people. (expand) The brutality he brought to the southern

The March through Georgia and South Carolina, lead by General William Techumseh Sherman, was the turning point in the American Civil War. There had been heavy fighting in Tennessee and Kentucky. General Sherman requested permission to take a very large army to the Atlantic Ocean through North and South Carolina, Georgia, then turning North back through the Carolinas and then Virginia. He would divide the Confederate states by blazing a path through the middle of them, foraging and destroying anything of military importance to the Confederates. General Sherman's March achieved his goal, from a military standpoint, but the way his army accomplished it, many southerners say was despicable. The most famous portion of

The march to the sea,the most destructive campaign against a civilian population during Civil War.It all begain in Atlanta on Novemeber 15,1864,and concluded in Savannah on December 21,1864.As a person who is searching and learning history day by day I am learning about Union general William T. Sherman and his march.Sherman divided his troops into two roughly equal wings,there was 60,000 troops to divide up.The two wings advanced by two routes, generally staying twenty miles to forty miles apart.The right wing is headed toward Macon while the left wing is headed toward Augusta before the two commands turned and bypassed both cities.They was headed for the state capitol at Milledgeville.Here are some consequences of the march.Sherman’s march

Sherman lead Union forces into battle to take control of the city of Atlanta, Georgia. This was part of a plan known as the Atlanta campaign that was constructed by Sherman under Commander in Chief Ulysses S. Grant. According to Facts on File, Inc. “Plans for the capture of Atlanta, the Confederacy’s largest railroad hub… were first formulated in February and March 1864” (2009). This was about four to five months before Sherman had led the union into Atlanta. Sherman’s plan which was revealed in April, was described to destroy railroads in order to cease the transportation of supplies that confederate troops needed, as well as make Joseph E. Johnston’s army of Confederate soldiers retreat back to Atlanta forcing them to surrender. A month after on May 5, 1864 Union soldiers attacked Confederates at Dalton, Georgia and attacked Resaca four days later. On May 12 Johnston led his soldiers to meet the Union army at Resaca where his army would battle Union soldiers from May 13 to May 15. Although Confederates had driven Union soldiers back on the second day of battle, after Johnston received reports telling him of the Unions success in gaining position he decided not to attack on the following morning and instead retreated his soldiers to Calhoun and Adairsville. Following this evacuation, Confederates were supposed to ambush Union soldiers on Cassville road, they were all positioned by May 19 in the morning, but the army retreated and waited for Union soldiers to attack

The most destructive campaign against a civilian population during the Civil War (1861-65). Began in Atlanta on November 15,1864. Union General William T. Sherman abandoned his supply line and marched across Georgia to the Atlantic Ocean to prove the Confederate population that its government not protect the people from invaders. He believed that by marching an army across the state he would demonstrate to the world that the Union had a power the Confederacy could not resist. After Sherman’s forces captured Atlanta on September 2,1864, Sherman spent several weeks making preparations for a change of base to the cost. Sherman’s March to the

William Tecumseh Sherman was one of eleven children born to a distinguished Ohio family. Sherman was orphaned at a young age and was enrolled in the United States Military Academy by his legal guardian, Senator Thomas Ewing. He graduated sixth in his class, but never saw extensive action on the battlefield. He tried other professions for a few years, but the outbreak of the Civil War called him back into service. During the early years of the war he served in the battles of Bull Run, Ft. Donelson, Shiloh and Vicksburg, and slowly moved up the chain of command. Following his successful capture of Jackson, Mississippi, Sherman was promoted to Commander of the Western Theatre, by his boss and friend, General Ulysses S. Grant. It was after this promotion that Sherman set out for the Southern industrial hub of Atlanta and soon after began the famous March to the Sea ("William T. Sherman."). This march, from Atlanta to Savannah, was about two hundred and eighty five miles long and lasted for about three weeks. Sherman’s men stole food and livestock, burned houses and barns, and attempted to scare the state of Georgia into surrender and collapse the Confederate war effort. During this time, Sherman and his men encountered little resistance. The only battle was a small skirmish outside the town of Griswoldsville that the Union won handily. After this failure, the Confederates began to retreat and initiated a scorched earth policy.

During the Civil War a special bond of common respect and relationship of the most

men, Sherman started on his famous march of 400 miles (645 kilometers) "from Atlanta to the sea." For 32 days no news of him reached the North. He had cut himself off from his base of supplies, and his men lived on what they could get from the country through which they passed. They covered a path 60 miles (95 kilometers) wide in their march, and in that path everything that they could not use but that might prove of use to the enemy was ruthlessly

In 1864 an event that no one anticipated happened in the state of Georgia. The traumatic event caused more than ten million dollars of destruction from Tennessee to Savannah. General William T. was and is the man known for leading the march that will always be remembered as Georgia’s most devastating and painful day. This march did not only affect the men that were involved in it, but it also and most importantly affected Georgian lives and their emotions from experiencing the terrible event that marked our nation’s history and people. Sherman’s men were affected with the march, but in a way that has no correlation with what Georgia citizens felt or experienced.

The Battle of Antietam was a monumental win for the Union, and for the elimination of slavery. The winning of the battle gave the Union a huge advantage over the Confederate, and this victory pleased President Abraham Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln had been waiting for an appropriate time to release the first edition of the Emancipation Proclamation, which meant that any and all slaves working in the Confederacy were to be released. This victory was tragic for the Confederacy because they lost all their slaves and they were at a severe disadvantage compared to the Union. Another monumental event that impacted American history is the moment where the Union soldiers discovered the Confederate’s battle tactics. The tactics paper, called “Special Orders 191” written by General Lee, was originally meant for General D. H. Hill, one of his other army leaders, but thanks to someone’s lack of focus, the plans were left behind and the Union was given the lead in the war. One prominent place related to the Civil War and American History is Dunker Church. Dunker Church was a building that resembled peace, love, modesty and positivity throughout its lifetime. However, the night before the battle, the Confederate soldiers were stationed around the church. This meant that the Union would have to attack the church, leaving it “battle-scarred”. Dunker Church was collateral damage to the war and it’s also where both sides agreed to truce with each other for this

By 1864, Georgia was the most important state left to sustain the Confederacy’s war effort. Its factories and agriculture supplied Confederate armies throughout the South, and the city of Atlanta was at the center of Georgia’s war production and railroad network. As a junction between four railroads, Atlanta had grown to become a primary Confederate base to transport troops, supplies, and treat injured soldiers during the Civil War. For the Union, capturing Atlanta meant cutting the South’s vital railroad network and supply lines (Still). According to William Sherman, the Union general who led the Atlanta Campaign, “This city [Atlanta] has done more and contributed more to carry on and sustain the war than any other, save perhaps Richmond. We have been fighting Atlanta all the time … and now since they have been doing so much to destroy us and our Government we have to destroy them” (Still). By destroying one of the most important cogs in the

On July 22,1864,General William T.Sherman and his army closed in on John B. Hood and his confederate army while he was defending atlanta. John B.Hood also attacted James B.McPherson's army of Tennessee on the east side of atlanta. He deployed Benjamin F. Cheatham northeast and sent william J harmy on the morning of July 22. After all the fighting William T. Sherman neutralized the rail and supply hub and defeated the confederate forces and burned most of all the biuldings in the

The start of the Civil War was April 12, 1861 when Confederates attacked a Union fort. Fort Sumter took a heavy beating that day and would later surrender after the second day of the Confederates attacking (Roark et al. 424-5). Once the war started, the U.S. Navy created a blockade around the 3,500 miles of the South’s coastline. The fleet was originally just 36 ships, but it grew to 150 with new ships being added almost weekly. Few Confederate ships were able to cross the blockade, unless they were specially designed stealthy steam boats. These ships were known as “blockade runners” and were able to bring back important supplies like guns and medicine. But the blockade runners were in no way designed to destroy the Union’s blockade or even the ships that formed it for that matter. The Union’s navy was expanding too fast for the Confederates to keep up. The Confederacy decided to build two ironclad warships, the Merrimack and Virginia. These warships were powerful and sank two wooden Union ships. But the Union was not ready to give up their blockade without a fight. The Virginia was set to destroy the blockade the next morning, but it greated by the Monitor (Roark et al. 435). After a two hour battle, the ships called it a draw. Yet the Confederacy was never able to destroy the blockade using their own strength (Roark et al. 436).

Scorched farms, slaughtered livestock, uprooted railway lines and cities set on fire was not typical battle strategy previously seen on American soil. However, the Civil War was dragging on and General William Tecumseh Sherman was determined to finally end the fighting. The circumstances that initiated the war created a figurative and literal divide unlike America had ever seen. The American Civil War took heavy tolls on the Union and Confederate States of America. Desperate to end the bloodshed, President Abraham Lincoln trusted Ulysses S. Grant control of the Army and Grant authorized Sherman the freedom to do whatever necessary to bring conclusion to the conflict (Davis 22). In the military mind of Sherman, the end justified the means and this belief is well documented throughout his 1864 and 1865 campaign through Georgia, concluding in Goldsboro, North Carolina (Phillips 11). Sherman despised war and the fact that America had entered into a civil war in the first place. However, Sherman knew the conflict was unavoidable (Meiers 26). He made the decision to follow his allegiance to the Union and eventually became the general to lead the Armies of the Cumberland, the Ohio, and the Tennessee into the heart of Georgia (Moody 22). During this event the wrath of general Sherman would be implanted in the South’s memories. By the use of unorthodox

William Sherman believed that capturing Georgia would be effective and psychological as fighting. Sherman then has his troops circle Atlanta in July, forcing Hood to abandon Georgia on September 1, 1864. He captures Georgia the next day which was a major part of “Sherman’s March Towards Sea” because Atlanta had railroads and was the industrial center of Georgia. Another reason Sherman burned Georgia to the ground is because Atlanta had warehouses that stored most of the Confederate Army's food. Burning most of