How Did Sherman's March To The Sea Cut A Swath Of Destruction

Sherman’s marched to the sea fell to Atlanta,Georgia in early September in the 1860's.He chased confederate soldiers through Georgia in an attempt to lure them in to fight.But, while attempting to lure them in the confederates strategy was far more better than Sherman’s.So Sherman thought of his own plan to achieve victory on the confederates.He went to the south and caused some destruction.

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 war had left the southern states in tatters, they came back to their towns which were almost unrecognizable. Crops had been burned homes destroyed cattle left for dead all as an awful byproduct from the war. Although the Northern states had won the war they seemed to start to loose sight of their goal. President Lincoln had devised a plan to rebuild the south, but before he was able to put much in motion he was assassinated. Andrew Jackson became president after Lincoln’s assassination which became very controversial since he was a previous slave owner. Jackson didn’t follow Lincoln’s plans on reviving the South and instead they were left with no aid. Not only was the south torn to shreds the newly freed slaves had nowhere to go. These deprived uneducated citizens owned no land and had no money to there name. Few efforts were made to truly place these people in a working

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

After the Civil War, the South was in need of change. They were so reliant on cotton and other agricultural dependencies, and black slaves who worked for little to nothing. Without slaves, all they had was damaged farmland – and nobody to help repair it. The industrialized North was a model for the South. Influential southerners saw what could be, and started to take action.

The south was defending their homes. They fought off invaders, northerners, and foreign military, on their land. They wanted to protect their homes. With many mountains and rivers running East, West in the South, the Rebels often were able to set up in areas to better defend. From November 15 until December 21, 1864, Union General William T. Sherman led 60,000 soldiers on march from Atlanta to Savannah,

On September 1, 1864 Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman, Commander of the Military Division of Army of Mississippi with his Union troops, had successfully captured Atlanta from the Confederate Army led by Lt. Gen. John Bell Hood. At that time Atlanta considered as the heart of the South for the Southerns and for the Confederate Army. On the other hand “Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant General in chief of the U.S. Army believed that the Civil War would come to an end only if the Confederacy 's strategic, economic, and psychological capacity for warfare were decisively broken” . So after the south had lost their most important railroad junctions and their important productive manufacturing centers, Sherman would now fight the last battle to make it more difficult for the southern Confederacy.

The leader of the north was William T. Sherman and the leader of the south was John Bell Hood. The casualties of the south was 8,500 and the casualties of the north was 3,600. This war happened in July 22, 1864, in Atlanta Fulton County, Georgia. In the battle Atlanta was fought on July 22, 1864, just southeast of Atlanta,Georgia. Union forces commanded by William T. hub, defeated confederate forces defending the city under John B. Hood.After ordering the evacuation of the evacuation of the city Sherman burned most of the buildings in the city, military or not . After taking the city. Sherman headed south toward savannah, beginning his Sherman’s march to the Sea.

Before the fall of Atlanta, various battles resulting in Union defeat had left crushed hopes for the Union, General Sherman even having to stand down from his attacks on Kennesaw Mountain and Pigeon Hill when he foresaw their defeat. Despite this, he remained resilient and due to Atlanta’s role as a significant rail and supply hub for the Confederacy, the Union targeted the city and General Sherman consequently cut through Georgia from Atlanta to Savannah in a blaze of flames after evacuating its citizens, crushing the Confederate army’s supplies and morale. His success not only ensured Abraham Lincoln’s reelection but also wreaked havoc across vital Confederate railroads, damaging the Confederacy’s war efforts beyond repair. The reelection of Abraham Lincoln boosted the spirits of the Union and secured Union victory in the nearby

During November 15 to December 21, 1864, Union General William Tecumseh Sherman launched a military campaign known as the Savannah Campaign; during the campaign, the City of Atlanta was captured by Union troops and the campaign ended with the capture of the port of Savannah. During the campaign, the Union forces destroyed civilian infrastructure as well as military infrastructure, and key industrial targets to sustain Confederate’s economy. Some people might view the tactics employed by General Sherman through the Savannah Campaign as excessive and immoral; however, during an armed conflict, such tactics might be necessary to terminate a prolonged conflict. Moreover, the tactics used by Gen. Sherman have been used since ancient times, known

The North takes a lead with Sherman behind it all. On February 17, 1865 Sherman captures South Carolina leading him up to burn Georgia to the ground. From Atlanta to Savannah, Sherman covers 450 miles in 50 days leaving a 40 by 50 mile wide path of destruction. Some people refer to it as “Sherman’s March To The Sea”. William Sherman becomes the terror of the South as he burns everything in his path.

William Tecumseh Sherman was a great Union general fighting in the Civil War. His major feat during the war was his campaign through the South. He started in Chattanooga, Tennessee and ended in Savannah, Georgia. His March used psychological warfare to make southerners lose support for the Southern cause by bringing the war to their front-doors. This showing of how cruel the war really was is said to have ended the war more quickly.

Sherman, with Grant’s authority, attacked the civilian and material support of the confederate war effort; “Sherman perceived that these raids also a had a psychological impact, undermining the South’s morale by demonstrating the incapacity for defense (MM - 152)”. With Grant’s approval, Sherman’s March to the Sea, occurred in from Atlanta to the Sea then North toward Grant’s position in Virginia. Sherman’s March to the Sea caused terror into the hearts of the confederacy and destruction of property, but relatively few causalities. “By 1865 the Union relied almost exclusively on raids against enemy logistics (MM -152)”, Yet, Sherman’s prewar ties to the south were shown as he gave Johnston mild peace terms, which upset the Union Government

In the Civil war the North defeated the south, and as a result the Confederates were devastated. One of the consequences of the civil war was the amount of life that was taken during this time. The destruction of life and property were enormous. The south had many consequences as a result of the civil war. The confederates suffered economically by the civil war. Because most of the fighting was done in the south, a lot of the land was ruined. As a result the south had to rebuild. There was a lot of physical damage done to the region. Most of the best agricultural land were destroyed. Many major cities, like Richmond were destroyed, and farm values diminished. The Confederates believed the Union had limited their constitutional rights to make their own political, social and economic decision. To them the real issue was liberty not slavery. Both the North and the South had slaves, but by the end of the war many slaves were freed and a minority of slaves in the south fled to the union. African Americans weren’t allowed to enlists in neither armies, but as the war went on the union admitted black soldiers, but at a lower pay than the whites. ( Foner

The purpose of this march was to destroy Confederate supply lines and split the South in two halves. General Sherman used the tactic which earned the name “scorched earth” due to the harsh methods used. Anywhere the 60,000 man army traveled, they destroyed and burned any obstacle that they encountered, whether it be travelers, families, or even entire towns. Lincoln knew this would strike terror into the Confederate side and decrease their population by thousands. The total fatality count is undetermined because of the mass slaughtering and burning.