campaign began with Sherman's troops leaving the captured city of Atlanta, Georgia , on November 16 and ended with the capture of the port of Savannah on December 21. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_slavery_in_the_United_States http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherman%27s_March_to_the_Sea Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Tecumseh_Sherman Sherman's military campaigns of 1864 and 1865 freed many slaves, who greeted him "as