Sherman’s March | The Civil War The Civil War Sherman’s March Sherman’s March Sherman’s March to the Sea was a campaign during the American Civil War. It was a march from Atlanta, GA to Savannah, GA. The campaign was a month long that took place from November 1864 to December 1864. It is called Sherman’s March to the Sea because the officer in command was Major General William Tecumseh Sherman. The campaign is most famous for the destruction that was left in the wake of Sherman’s army. This campaign is one of the first total war campaigns that was conducted by the Union. The destruction of Georgia was not completely done by the advancing Union Army, but Sherman is the commander that gets credit for destroying Georgia. William Tecumseh Sherman was a well-known general in the Union army during the American Civil war had decided to march to sea. After his success of capturing Atlanta, Georgia on September 1, 1864, Sherman understood that despite the North’s victories in Atlanta, Georgia, the Southern citizens would never give up their effort to the war and would continue to be loyal to the Confederate government. Sherman decided to march to the sea for two reasons.

He wanted to move the base there and secondly, more important, to destroy the moral of the Southerners. He said the North was “not only fighting hostile armies, but a hostile people, and must make old and young, rich and poor, feel the hard hand of war.” Sherman understood that by destroying the Southern citizens’ moral, he would directly cut off the Confederate’s military’s supply because most of them, if not all, came from the citizens. That was the only way to speed up the victory for the North without enduring the casualties from battles to battles. The war was then not only Northern military versus Southern military but also Southern citizens as well, a total war. With that in mind, Sherman proposed his plan to General Ulysses S. Grant and President Abraham Lincoln. Leaving sixty thousand men behind in Northern Georgia and Tennessee to fight with the Confederate army, Sherman took sixty-two thousand men directly under his command to march from Atlanta, Georgia to the coast city of Savannah, Georgia. Lincoln was opposed to his plan at first but later approved of the plan.

The march started in Atlanta, GA on November 15, 1864 and ended in Savannah, GA on December 21, 1864. It is known as the most destructive act amongst the civilian population of the Civil War. Sherman won most of the battles that were a part of the campaign and was able to accomplish his plan with a total of about two thousand and one hundred Union casualties. The Confederate forces had about one thousand casualties. Before the March to the Sea campaign took place, Sherman had used Atlanta as his headquarters to plan the march. The order that Sherman give to start the march is known as Special Field Orders No. 120. This order had nine points that divided the army, tells how the army will move, and tells the commanders that it was alright to burn buildings in areas that resistance was present. This order made it so it was up to Sherman’s commanders to decide what they wanted to destroy during the campaign. This is significant because it shows that Sherman did not want to completely destroy the area between Atlanta and Savannah. The retreating Confederate forces burned most of the crops so that the Union army could not use seize them for resupply.

The Union army was divided into two wings commanded by Major Genera Oliver O. Howard and Major General Henry W. Slocum. Each wing of the army had two corps assigned to it. Howard commanded the right wing and Slocum commanded the left wing. One thing that the Union army did do was rip up the train tracks. The tracks were then heated and wrapped around trees. This was done so that the Confederates could not use the rail lines to resupply or move soldiers to reinforce Savannah. The rails wrapped around trees became known as Sherman neckties. During the March to the Sea, there were five major battles that took place. Almost all of the battles were victories by the Union forces. The battles were Griswoldville, Buck Head Creek, Honey Hill, Waynesborough, and the Second Battle of Fort McAllister. Out of these five battles, four of them were Union victories. The only battle that was a Confederate victory was the Battle of Honey Hill. The Battle of Honey Hill happened because the Union forces wanted to cut the railroad near Pocotaligo. The battle took place on November 30, 1864. The union commander that was in command during this battle was Major General John P. Hatch.

Hatch tried to breach the entrenchments of the Confederate forces but he failed to do so. Hatch also failed to cut the railroad line. The Griswoldville battle was the first and major infantry engagement during the Sherman’s march to the sea. As Sherman began to move his columns of troops closer to Central Georgia, his right wing of the XV and XVII Corps marched southeast for Irwinton and Gordon. Brigadier General Charles C. Walcutt’s Second Brigade of Woods’ Division of the XV Corps was ordered to guard this movement. He moved southward toward Macon along with two guns from Lieutenant Albert F.R. Arndt’s Michigan Battery. On November 21, 1864, Union General Judson Kilpatrick had attacked Macon, but later on retreated with his troops after the Battle of Walnut Creek. The Union army started to build up more of a skirmish line at Griswoldville until the morning of November 22nd. On the Confederate side, General Joseph Wheeler had correctly predicted the movement of Federal troops to the East. He started to search for the head of the Union column. At the same time, Confederate General William J.

Hardee was acquainted with the fact that a large Federal army had moved to the East toward Augusta. He ordered Brigadier General Pleasant J. Philips with a large force of Georgia militia, state line troops and two battalions of emergency soldiers from the factories at Athens and Augusta to move from Macon to Augusta. As General Philips approached Griswoldville, he was warned of a Union force of around one thousand men that was waiting ahead. He formed a skirmish line to be ready for a fight. His force encountered Walcutt’s brigade, which had arrived before him and taken a position on the ridge. Both sides were not aware of the other’s appearance. Brigadier General Pleasant J. Philips ordered his troops to march forward without knowing that Walcutt’s skirmish lines were waiting ahead. As the Union troops started to fire, they fell back to their main line on the ridge to take their advantage on the height. At the same time, Union commander Brig. Gen. Charles R. Woods was ordered to fall back to a farm known as the Duncan Farm. Here, with the support of artillery, an open field to his front, and protection by the swamp, he started to fire at the Confederate army.

This became the biggest disadvantage for the Confederate army because they had to charge up on the ridge without any cover. It was known that the Confederate soldiers were men ranging in age from teenagers to men in their sixties, who were fighting to protect their families from Sherman’s march. They fought bravely for their home land. There were only thirteen killed and eighty six wounded on the Union side but fifty killed and five hundred wounded on the Confederate side. The battle ended with the victory for the Union, but general Walcutt was wounded and later on was replaced by Col. Robert F. Catterson of the 97th Regiment Indiana Infantry. Fort McAllister played an important role in the Civil War. The fort had seen conflict as early as 1862. The first battle of Fort McAllister did not take place during the March to the Sea campaign. . To understand why the taking of Fort McAllister was important during the campaign some background information is needed. Fort McAllister was a Confederate fortification, located near the tip of the Ogeechee River in Bryan Country. It played an important role in the defense of Savannah from naval attacks during the Civil War. It was built under the direction of Captain John McCrady.

However it was named after Captain Joseph McAllister because he owned the plantation that the fort was built upon. The first real battle of Fort McAllister took place on March 3rd, 1863. Admiral Samuel Dupont ordered three additional ironclads, the Passsaic, the Nahant, and the Patapsco, to join the Montauk. His goal was to test the guns and mechanical devices. The attack started at 8:40 am and lasted about eight hours leaving damages to the walls of the fort. Fire from the ironclads was extremely catastrophic but Fort McAllister did not fall proving that the ironclads needed more power. Due to its ten large-caliber gun and cannon balls, Fort McAllister repelled seven Union naval attacks. On July 1, 1862, it came under attack for the first time. The gunboat Potomska sailed into the Ogeechee and opened fire against the fort under the direction of Lieutenant Pendleton G. Watmough. However, outgunned by the fort, the Potomska moved back down the river.

On July 29th, 1862, the second attack by the Union against Fort McAllister occurred. This time the Paul Jones, a heavily armored side-wheeler with 100-pounder rifled cannon, was led by Commander Charles Steedman. Unfortunately, after an hour and a half of firing, the Paul Jones retreated further down the river. Another attack occurred on November 2nd, 1862 during a scouting mission led by Captain Augustus Bonard. He approached the Wissahickon and the Seneca, two gunboats near the mouth of the Ogeechee with his Emmett Rifles. The Wissahickon was attacked and the gunboat withdrew. However, the Wissahickon sustained serious damages after it was attacked again on November 19th, 1862 by Captain George Anderson. The second and final battle of Fort McAllister took place on December 13th, 1864. General William Tecumseh Sherman began his plan on attacking Fort McAllister on December 10th when he discovered that it could provide him supplies from Savannah.

He ordered Hazen’s 4,000-man division to attack the fort. With only 230 veteran troops to defend the fort, Confederate Major George Anderson was defeated within 15 minutes. General Sherman took over the fort and celebrated with a victory. The taking of the fort would allow for Union ships to control the river. This battle took place towards the end of the March to the Sea campaign. When Savannah was captured, Sherman was not in the state. He was on his way back from planning his invasion into the Carolinas. The Southern civilians surrendered the city without much of a fight. They did not want the city to be destroyed in a siege like Atlanta was. Since Savannah was captured just before Christmas, Sherman sent a telegraph to President Lincoln. In the telegraph, Sherman declared the capture of Savannah as a Christmas present for Lincoln. Sherman also sent about 2,500 bales of cotton that were captured after Savannah surrendered. Sherman’s March to the Sea is important when studying the Civil War because of the impact it had on the South. It served its purpose to demoralize the Confederates. The campaign also gave the Union more of a foot hold in the South.

If this campaign did not happen then the war could have dragged on for longer than what it did. After the war, Sherman ended up succeeding Grant as General of the Army. This rank was the highest position that was in the army. Only one person at a time could hold this rank. Leave a Reply Sherman's March to the Sea | New Georgia Encyclopedia Sherman's March to the Sea Original entry by Anne J. Bailey , Georgia College and State University, 09/05/2002 Last edited by Chris Dobbs on 01/04/2017 Explore This Article William T. Sherman to the Sea, the most destructive campaign against a civilian population during the Civil War (1861-65), began in Atlanta on November 15, 1864, and concluded in Savannah on December 21, 1864. Union general William T. Sherman abandoned his supply line and marched across Georgia to the Atlantic Ocean to prove to the Confederate population that its government could not protect the people from invaders. He practiced psychological warfare; 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.

"This may not be war," he said, "but rather statesmanship." Preparation After Sherman's forces captured Atlanta on September 2, 1864, Sherman spent several weeks making preparations for a change of base to the coast. He rejected the Union plan to move through Sherman's Commanders Alabama to Mobile, pointing out that after Rear Admiral David G. Farragut closed Mobile Bay in August 1864, the Alabama port no longer held any military significance. Rather, he decided to proceed southeast toward Savannah or Charleston. He carefully studied census records to determine which route could provide food for his men and forage for his animals. Although U.S. president Abraham Lincoln was skeptical and did not want Sherman to move into enemy territory before the presidential election in November, Sherman persuaded his friend Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant that the campaign was possible in winter. Through Grant's intervention Sherman finally gained permission, although he had to delay until after election day. Confederate Response After General John Bell Hood abandoned Atlanta, he moved the Confederate Army of Tennessee outside the city to recuperate from the previous campaign.

In early October he began a raid toward Chattanooga, Tennessee, in an effort to draw Sherman back over ground the two sides had fought for since May. But instead of tempting Sherman to battle, Hood turned his army west and marched into Alabama, abandoning Georgia to Union forces. Apparently, Hood hoped that if he invaded Tennessee, Sherman would be forced to follow. Sherman, however, had anticipated this strategy and had sent Major General George H. Thomas to Nashville to deal with Hood. With Georgia cleared of the Confederate army, Sherman, facing only scattered cavalry, was free to move south. The March Sherman divided his approximately 60,000 troops into two roughly equal wings. The right wing was under Oliver O. Howard. Peter J. Osterhaus commanded the Fifteenth Corps, and Francis P. Blair Jr. commanded the Seventeenth Corps. The left wing was commanded by Henry W. Slocum, with the Fourteenth Corps under Jefferson C. Davis and the Twentieth Corps under Alpheus S. Williams. Judson Kilpatrick led the cavalry. Sherman had about 2,500 supply wagons and 600 ambulances.

Before the army left Atlanta, the general issued an order outlining the rules of the march, but soldiers often ignored the restrictions on foraging. The two wings advanced by separate routes, generally staying twenty miles to forty miles apart. The right wing headed for Macon , the left wing in the direction of Augusta , "Bummers" before the two commands turned and bypassed both cities. They now headed for the state capital at Milledgeville . Opposing Sherman's advance was Confederate cavalry, about 8,000 strong, under Major General Joseph Wheeler and various units of Georgia militia under Gustavus W. Smith. Although William J. Hardee had overall command in Georgia, with his headquarters at Savannah, neither he nor Governor Joseph E. Brown could do anything to stop Sherman's advance. Sherman's foragers quickly became known as "bummers" as they raided farms and plantations. On November 23 the state capital peacefully surrendered, and Sherman occupied the vacant governor's mansion and capitol building . Military Encounters There were a number of skirmishes between Wheeler's cavalry and Union troopers, but only two battles of any significance.

The first came east of Macon at the factory town of Griswoldville on November 22, when Georgia militia faced Union infantry with disastrous results. The Confederates suffered 650 men killed or wounded in a one-sided battle that left about Fort McAllister Panorama 62 casualties on the Union side. The second battle occurred on the Ogeechee River twelve miles below Savannah. Union infantry under William B. Hazen assaulted and captured Fort McAllister on December 13, thus opening the back door to the port city. The most controversial event involved contrabands (escaped slaves) who followed the liberating armies. At Ebenezer Creek on December 9, Jefferson C. Davis removed the pontoon bridge before the slaves crossed. Frightened men, women, and children plunged into the deep water, and many drowned in an attempt to reach safety. After the march Davis was soundly criticized by the Northern press, but Sherman backed his commander by pointing out that Davis had done what was militarily necessary.

Sherman at Savannah Sherman's Headquarters in Savannah Confederate lieutenant general Hardee, realizing his small army could not hold out long and not wanting the city leveled by artillery as had happened at Atlanta, ordered his men to abandon the trenches and retreat to South Carolina. Sherman, who was not with the Union army when Mayor Richard Arnold surrendered Savannah (he had gone to Hilton Head, South Carolina, to make preparations for a siege and was on his way back to Georgia), telegraphed President Lincoln on December 22 that the city had fallen. He offered Savannah and its 25,000 bales of cotton to the president as a Christmas present. Consequences of the March Sherman's march frightened and appalled Southerners. It hurt morale, for civilians had believed the Confederacy could protect the home front. Sherman's March to the Sea Sherman had terrorized the countryside; his men had destroyed all sources of food and forage and had left behind a hungry and demoralized people. Although he did not level any towns, he did destroy buildings in places where there was resistance. His men had shown little sympathy for Millen , the site of Camp Lawton, where Union prisoners of war were held.

Physical attacks on white civilians were few, although it is not known how slave women fared at the hands of the invaders. Often male slaves posted guards outside the cabins of their female friends and relatives. Confederate president Jefferson Davis had urged Georgians to undertake a scorched-earth policy of poisoning wells and burning fields, but civilians in the army's path had not done so. Sherman, however, burned or captured all the food stores that Georgians had saved for the winter months. As a result of the hardships on women and children, desertions increased in Robert E. Lee's army in Virginia. Sherman believed his campaign against civilians would shorten the war by breaking the Confederate will to fight, and he eventually received permission to carry this psychological warfare into South Carolina in early 1865. By marching through Georgia and South Carolina he became an archvillain in the South and a hero in the North.

You Might Also Like William Tecumseh Sherman - American Civil War - HISTORY.com William Tecumseh Sherman A+E Networks Introduction Perhaps the originator and the first practitioner of what the twentieth century came to know as “total war,” William Tecumseh Sherman in 1864 commanded the Union armies of the West in the decisive drive from Chattanooga to Atlanta and the famous “march to the sea” across Georgia. In these campaigns and his later push northward from Savannah through the Carolinas, Sherman’s troops carried the war to the Southern home front and blazed a wide path of destruction that delivered the death blow to the Confederacy’s will and ability to fight. For the accompanying destruction, his name is still cursed in some parts of the South; but he is also recognized as a great strategist, a forceful leader, and–together with Ulysses Grant –the ablest Union general of the war. The partnership of William Tecumseh Sherman (known to friends as “Cump”) with Grant helped bring both out of early obscurity, until Grant commanded all Union armies and Sherman led all federal forces in the West. Did You Know?

Ohio-born William Tecumseh Sherman was named after the Shawnee chief Tecumseh who had tried to unite Ohio River Valley Native American tribes in the early 19th century. The careers of both men had been undistinguished between the Mexican War and the American Civil War . When the South seceded, Sherman–West Point, 1840–was superintendent of a military college that is now Louisiana State University. Aided by his brother John, a member of Congress from Ohio , he reluctantly left the South for a Union commission. Sherman commanded a brigade in the war’s first major battle, at Bull Run in Virginia , and then a division in its first truly bloody encounter, at Shiloh; later, he led a corps in one of its climactic campaigns, against Vicksburg, Mississippi , and he commanded a federal army in the last battle of the war in the East, at Bentonville, North Carolina . His military career had not always been so outstanding; as commanding general of the Department of the Cumberland, 1861-1862, he feuded with the press, displayed emotional problems, and suffered accusations of insanity.

Only after this ordeal did he begin his long and fruitful association with Ulysses Grant. Sherman’s influence, for example, helped stop Grant from resigning when the latter felt himself hamstrung by orders from Washington . In the battles before Atlanta, Sherman’s opponent was Joseph E. Johnston ; but Johnston’s skilled retreats before Sherman’s turning tactics exasperated President Jefferson Davis , who replaced Johnston with the belligerent John B. Hood . Sherman soundly defeated Hood in several engagements and occupied Atlanta early in September 1864. On November 15, in perhaps the boldest act of the war, he led an army of sixty-two thousand men in two wings, with thirty-five thousand horses and twenty-five hundred wagons, on an overland march to Savannah–cutting himself off from his line of supply and sustaining his army on the land. “The utter destruction of [Georgia’s] roads, houses and people,” he had written, “will cripple their military resources… I can make Georgia howl!” Encountering little organized opposition, Sherman took Savannah on December 21, 1864, and later turned north for the Carolinas, covering 450 miles in fifty days.

The results of this remarkable march justified Sherman’s strategic expectations and, together with Grant’s victories in Virginia, destroyed the Confederacy’s ability to carry on the war. It is still disputed, however, whether the burning of Atlanta, the later burning of Columbia, South Carolina , and the depredations of “Sherman’s bummers” were either necessary or unpreventable. For his military prowess, Sherman is justly renowned; he succeeded Grant as commander in chief in 1869 and remained in that post until 1883. Two memorable remarks of his also have entered history. Having written to Mayor Calhoun of Atlanta in 1874 that “war is cruelty, and you cannot refine it,” he sharpened this definition in a commencement address at the Michigan Military Academy in 1879 to the oft-quoted phrase “War is hell.” Five years later, when he was frequently talked of as a prospective Republican nominee for president, Sherman sent the Republican National Convention of 1884 the most famous of all rejections: “I will not accept if nominated and will not serve if elected.” Even today, “a Sherman” is well-understood slang for a firm refusal.

Perhaps the greatest tribute to William T. Sherman was paid by his old Civil War opponent Joe Johnston, who had fought him in Georgia and had signed with him an armistice after the Battle of Bentonville in April 1865. The two became friends. General Johnston attended Sherman’s funeral in New York in 1891, stood in the rain to watch the cortege pass, and caught a cold. It caused Johnston’s death two weeks later. TOM WICKER The Reader’s Companion to Military History. Edited by Robert Cowley and Geoffrey Parker. Copyright © 1996 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved. Tags Sherman's March to the Sea | Civil War Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia Sherman's March to the Sea 5,820pages on Share Ad blocker interference detected! Wikia is a free-to-use site that makes money from advertising. We have a modified experience for viewers using ad blockers Wikia is not accessible if you’ve made further modifications. Remove the custom ad blocker rule(s) and the page will load as expected. This article is about the historical event.

For Ross McElwee's 1986 documentary, see Sherman's March (1986 film) . For the 2007 TV documentary, see Sherman's March (2007 film) . Griswoldville – Buck Head Creek – Honey Hill – Waynesboro – Second Fort McAllister – Altamaha Bridge Sherman's March to the Sea is the name commonly given to the Savannah Campaign conducted across Georgia during November-December 1864 by Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman of the Union Army in the American Civil War . The campaign began with Sherman's troops leaving the captured city of Atlanta, Georgia on November 15 and ended with the capture of the port of Savannah on December 21. It inflicted significant damage, particularly to industry and infrastructure (as per the doctrine of total war ), and also to civilian property. A military historian wrote that Sherman "defied military principles by operating deep within enemy territory and without lines of supply or communication. He destroyed much of the South's potential and psychology to wage war." [1] Contents Edit Sherman's March to the Sea followed his successful Atlanta Campaign of May to September 1864. He and U.S.

Army commander, Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant , believed that the Civil War would end only if the Confederacy 's strategic, economic, and psychological capacity for warfare were decisively broken. Sherman therefore applied the principles of scorched earth : he ordered his troops to burn crops, kill livestock, consume supplies, and destroy civilian infrastructure along their path. This policy is often considered a component strategy of total war . The recent re-election of President Abraham Lincoln ensured that short-term political pressure would not be applied to restrain these tactics. A second objective of the campaign was more traditional. Grant's armies in Virginia continued to be in a stalemate against Robert E. Lee 's army, besieged in Petersburg, Virginia . By moving in Lee's rear, performing a massive turning movement against him, Sherman could possibly increase pressure on Lee, allowing Grant the opportunity to break through, or at least keep Southern reinforcements away from Virginia. The campaign was designed to be similar to Grant's innovative and successful Vicksburg Campaign , in that Sherman's armies would reduce their need for traditional supply lines by "living off the land" after their 20 days of rations were consumed.

Foragers, known as " bummers ", would provide food seized from local farms for the Army while they destroyed the railroads and the manufacturing and agricultural infrastructure of the state. The twisted and broken railroad rails that the troops heated over fires and wrapped around tree trunks and left behind became known as " Sherman's neckties ". Since the army would be out of touch with the North throughout the campaign, Sherman gave explicit orders, Sherman's Special Field Orders, No. 120 , regarding the conduct of the campaign. The following is an excerpt from the orders: ... IV. The army will forage liberally on the country during the march. To this end, each brigade commander will organize a good and sufficient foraging party, under the command of one or more discreet officers, who will gather, near the route traveled, corn or forage of any kind, meat of any kind, vegetables, corn-meal, or whatever is needed by the command, aiming at all times to keep in the wagons at least ten day's provisions for the command and three days' forage.

Soldiers must not enter the dwellings of the inhabitants, or commit any trespass, but during a halt or a camp they may be permitted to gather turnips, potatoes, and other vegetables, and to drive in stock of their camp. To regular foraging parties must be instructed the gathering of provisions and forage at any distance from the road traveled. V. To army corps commanders alone is entrusted the power to destroy mills, houses, cotton-gins, &c., and for them this general principle is laid down: In districts and neighborhoods where the army is unmolested no destruction of such property should be permitted; but should guerrillas or bushwhackers molest our march, or should the inhabitants burn bridges, obstruct roads, or otherwise manifest local hostility, then army commanders should order and enforce a devastation more or less relentless according to the measure of such hostility. <p> VI. As for horses, mules, wagons, &c., belonging to the inhabitants, the cavalry and artillery may appropriate freely and without limit, discriminating, however, between the rich, who are usually hostile, and the poor or industrious, usually neutral or friendly.

Foraging parties may also take mules or horses to replace the jaded animals of their trains, or to serve as pack-mules for the regiments or brigades. In all foraging, of whatever kind, the parties engaged will refrain from abusive or threatening language, and may, where the officer in command thinks proper, give written certificates of the facts, but no receipts, and they will endeavor to leave with each family a reasonable portion for their maintenance. <p> VII. Negroes who are able-bodied and can be of service to the several columns may be taken along, but each army commander will bear in mind that the question of supplies is a very important one and that his first duty is to see to them who bear arms. ... <p style="text-align: right;"> – William T. Sherman , Military Division of the Mississippi Special Field Order 120, November 9, 1864. Opposing forces Edit Sherman, commanding the Military Division of the Mississippi , did not employ his entire army group in the campaign. Confederate Lt. Gen. John Bell Hood was threatening Sherman's supply line from Chattanooga , and Sherman detached two armies under Maj. Gen. George H.

Thomas to deal with Hood in the Franklin-Nashville Campaign . For the Savannah Campaign, Sherman's remaining force of 62,000 men (55,000 infantry, 5,000 cavalry, and 2,000 artillerymen manning 64 guns) was divided into two columns for the march: XVII Corps , commanded by Maj. Gen. Frank Blair, Jr. , with the divisions of Maj. Gen. Joseph A. Mower and Brig. Gens. Mortimer D. Leggett and Giles A. Smith . The left wing was the Army of Georgia , commanded by Maj. Gen. Henry W. Slocum , also with two corps: XX Corps , commanded by Brig. Gen. Alpheus S. Williams , with the divisions of Brig. Gens. Nathaniel J. Jackson , John W. Geary , and William T. Ward . A cavalry division under Brig. Gen. Judson Kilpatrick operated in support of the two wings. The Confederate opposition from Lt. Gen. William J. Hardee 's Department of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida was meager.

Hood had taken the bulk of forces in Georgia on his campaign to Tennessee. There were about 13,000 men remaining at Lovejoy's Station , south of Atlanta. Maj. Gen. Gustavus W. Smith 's Georgia militia had about 3,050 soldiers, some of them boys and elderly men. The Cavalry Corps of Maj. Gen. Joseph Wheeler , reinforced by a brigade under Brig. Gen. William H. Jackson , had approximately 10,000 troopers. During the campaign, the Confederate War Department brought in additional men from Florida and the Carolinas, but they never were able to increase their effective force beyond 13,000. March Edit The 300-mile (480 km) march began on November 15, 1864. Sherman recounted in his memoirs the scene when he left at 7 a.m. the following day: ... We rode out of Atlanta by the Decatur road, filled by the marching troops and wagons of the Fourteenth Corps; and reaching the hill, just outside of the old rebel works, we naturally paused to look back upon the scenes of our past battles.

We stood upon the very ground whereon was fought the bloody battle of July 22d, and could see the copse of wood where McPherson fell. Behind us lay Atlanta, smouldering and in ruins, the black smoke rising high in air, and hanging like a pall over the ruined city. Away off in the distance, on the McDonough road, was the rear of Howard's column, the gun-barrels glistening in the sun, the white-topped wagons stretching away to the south; and right before us the Fourteenth Corps, marching steadily and rapidly, with a cheery look and swinging pace, that made light of the thousand miles that lay between us and Richmond. Some band, by accident, struck up the anthem of "John Brown's soul goes marching on;" the men caught up the strain, and never before or since have I heard the chorus of "Glory, glory, hallelujah!" done with more spirit, or in better harmony of time and place. – File:Savannah Campaign.png Sherman's personal escort on the march was the 1st Alabama Cavalry Regiment , a unit made up entirely of Southerners who remained loyal to the Union.

The two wings of the army attempted to confuse and deceive the enemy about their destinations; the Confederates could not tell from the initial movements whether Sherman would march on Macon , Augusta , or Savannah. Howard's wing, led by Kilpatrick's cavalry, marched south along the railroad to Lovejoy's Station , which caused the defenders there to conduct a fighting retreat to Macon. The cavalry captured two Confederate guns at Lovejoy's Station, and then two more and 50 prisoners at Bear Creek Station . Howard's infantry marched through Jonesboro to Gordon, southwest of the state capital, Milledgeville . Slocum's wing, accompanied by Sherman, moved to the east, in the direction of Augusta. They destroyed the bridge across the Oconee River and then turned south. [2] The state legislature called for Georgians to "Die freemen rather than live [as] slaves" and fled the capital. Hardee arrived from his headquarters at Savannah and realized that that city, not Macon, was Sherman's target. He ordered the Confederate cavalry under Wheeler to harass the Federal rear and flanks while the militiamen under Smith hurried eastward to protect the seaport city.

On November 23, Sherman's staff held a mock legislative session in the state capitol, jokingly voting Georgia back into the Union and playing cards. The first real resistance was felt by Howard's right wing at the Battle of Griswoldville on November 22. Wheeler's cavalry struck Kilpatrick's, killing three and capturing 18. The infantry brigade of Brig. Gen. Charles C. Walcutt arrived to stabilize the defense, and the division of Georgia militia launched several hours of badly coordinated attacks, eventually retreating with about 1,100 casualties (of which about 600 were prisoners), versus the Union's 100. File:Sherman railroad destroy noborder.jpg Several small actions followed. Wheeler and some infantry struck in a rearguard action at Ball's Ferry on November 24 and November 25. While Howard's wing was delayed near Ball's Bluff, the 1st Alabama Cavalry (a Federal regiment) engaged Confederate pickets. Overnight, Union engineers constructed a bridge 2 miles (3.2 km) away from the bluff across the Oconee River , and 200 soldiers crossed to flank the Confederate position.

On November 25–26 at Sandersville, Wheeler struck at Slocum's advance guard. Kilpatrick was ordered to make a feint toward Augusta before destroying the railroad bridge at Brier Creek and moving to liberate the Camp Lawton prisoner of war camp at Millen . Kilpatrick slipped by the defensive line that Wheeler had placed near Brier Creek, but on the night of November 26 Wheeler attacked and drove the 8th Indiana and 2nd Kentucky Cavalry away from their camps at Sylvan Grove. Kilpatrick abandoned his plans to destroy the railroad bridge and he also learned that the prisoners had been moved from Camp Lawton, so he rejoined the army at Louisville . At the Battle of Buck Head Creek on November 28, Kilpatrick was surprised and nearly captured, but the 5th Ohio Cavalry halted Wheeler's advance, and Wheeler was later stopped decisively by Union barricades at Reynolds's Plantation. On December 4, Kilpatrick's cavalry routed Wheeler's at the Battle of Waynesboro . More Union troops entered the campaign from an unlikely direction. Maj. Gen. John G. Foster dispatched 5,500 men and 10 guns under Brig. Gen.

John P. Hatch from Hilton Head , hoping to assist Sherman's arrival near Savannah by securing the Charleston and Savannah Railroad . At the Battle of Honey Hill on November 30, Hatch fought a vigorous battle against G.W. Smith's 1,500 Georgia militiamen, 3 miles (4.8 km) south of Grahamville Station, South Carolina. Smith's militia fought off the Union attacks, and Hatch withdrew after suffering about 650 casualties, versus Smith's 50. Sherman's armies reached the outskirts of Savannah on December 10 but found that Hardee had entrenched 10,000 men in good positions, and his soldiers had flooded the surrounding rice fields, leaving only narrow causeways available to approach the city. Sherman was blocked from linking up with the U.S. Navy as he had planned, so he dispatched cavalry to Fort McAllister, guarding the Ogeechee River , in hopes of unblocking his route and obtaining supplies awaiting him on the Navy ships. On December 13, William B. Hazen's division of Howard's army stormed the fort in the Battle of Fort McAllister and captured it within 15 minutes.

Some of the 134 Union casualties were caused by torpedoes, a name for crude land mines that were used only rarely in the war. Now that Sherman had connected to the Navy fleet under Rear Admiral John A. Dahlgren , he was able to obtain the supplies and siege artillery he required to invest Savannah. On December 17, he sent a message to Hardee in the city: I have already received guns that can cast heavy and destructive shot as far as the heart of your city; also, I have for some days held and controlled every avenue by which the people and garrison of Savannah can be supplied, and I am therefore justified in demanding the surrender of the city of Savannah, and its dependent forts, and shall wait a reasonable time for your answer, before opening with heavy ordnance.

Should you entertain the proposition, I am prepared to grant liberal terms to the inhabitants and garrison; but should I be forced to resort to assault, or the slower and surer process of starvation, I shall then feel justified in resorting to the harshest measures, and shall make little effort to restrain my army—burning to avenge the national wrong which they attach to Savannah and other large cities which have been so prominent in dragging our country into civil war. – William T. Sherman , Message to William J. Hardee, December 17, 1864, recorded in his memoirs Hardee decided not to surrender but to escape. On December 20, he led his men across the Savannah River on a pontoon bridge hastily constructed of rice flats. The next morning, Savannah Mayor R. D. Arnold rode out to formally surrender, in exchange for General Geary's promise to protect the city's citizens and their property. Sherman's men, led by Geary's division of the XX Corps, occupied the city the same day.

[3] Aftermath Edit Sherman telegraphed to President Lincoln, "I beg to present you as a Christmas gift the City of Savannah, with one hundred and fifty guns and plenty of ammunition, also about twenty-five thousand bales of cotton." On December 26, the president replied in a letter: Many, many thanks for your Christmas gift – the capture of Savannah. When you were leaving Atlanta for the Atlantic coast, I was anxious, if not fearful; but feeling that you were the better judge, and remembering that 'nothing risked, nothing gained' I did not interfere. Now, the undertaking being a success, the honour is all yours; for I believe none of us went farther than to acquiesce. And taking the work of Gen. Thomas into the count, as it should be taken, it is indeed a great success. Not only does it afford the obvious and immediate military advantage; but, in showing to the world that your army could be divided, putting the stronger part to an important new service, and yet leaving enough to vanquish the old opposing force of the whole – Hood's army – it brings those who sat in darkness, to see a great light. But what next?

I suppose it will be safer if I leave Gen. Grant and yourself to decide. Please make my grateful acknowledgements to your whole army – officers and men. From Savannah, Sherman marched north in the spring through the Carolinas , intending to complete his turning movement and combine his armies with Grant's against Robert E. Lee. After a successful two-month campaign, Sherman accepted the surrender of General Joseph E. Johnston and his forces in North Carolina on April 26, 1865. We are not only fighting armies, but a hostile people, and must make old and young, rich and poor, feel the hard hand of war, as well as their organized armies. I know that this recent movement of mine through Georgia has had a wonderful effect in this respect. Thousands who had been deceived by their lying papers into the belief that we were being whipped all the time, realized the truth, and have no appetite for a repetition of the same experience. Letter, Sherman to Henry W. Halleck , December 24, 1864. [4] Sherman's scorched earth policies have always been highly controversial, and Sherman's memory has long been reviled by many Southerners .

Many slaves—some of whom left their plantations to follow his armies—welcomed him as a liberator. A Confederate officer estimated that 10,000 slaves fled their plantations to follow Sherman's army, and hundreds died of "hunger, disease, or exposure" along the way. [5] The March to the Sea was devastating to Georgia and the Confederacy. Sherman himself estimated that the campaign had inflicted $100 million in destruction, about one fifth of which "inured to our advantage" while the "remainder is simple waste and destruction." [5] The Army wrecked 300 miles (480 km) of railroad and numerous bridges and miles of telegraph lines. It seized 5,000 horses, 4,000 mules, and 13,000 head of cattle. It confiscated 9.5 million pounds of corn and 10.5 million pounds of fodder, and destroyed uncounted cotton gins and mills.

[6] Military historians Herman Hattaway and Archer Jones cited the significant damage wrought to railroads and Southern logistics in the campaign and stated that "Sherman's raid succeeded in 'knocking the Confederate war effort to pieces'." [7] David J. Eicher wrote that "Sherman had accomplished an amazing task. He had defied military principles by operating deep within enemy territory and without lines of supply or communication. He destroyed much of the South's potential and psychology to wage war." [1] Song File:Sherman's March to the Sea - Project Gutenberg eText 21566.jpg The soldiers sang many songs during the March, but it is one written afterward that has come to symbolize the campaign: Marching Through Georgia , written by Henry Clay Work in 1865. Sherman despised the song, in part because he was never one to rejoice over a fallen foe, and in part because it was played at almost every public appearance that he attended, [8] but it was widely popular with soldiers of wars in the 20th century.

The song underrates the strength of Sherman's army by 20% in the line "Sing it as we used to sing it, 50,000 strong." See also Sherman’s March - American Civil War - HISTORY.com Google The Fall of Atlanta General Sherman’s troops captured Atlanta on September 2, 1864. This was an important triumph, because Atlanta was a railroad hub and the industrial center of the Confederacy: It had munitions factories, foundries and warehouses that kept the Confederate army supplied with food, weapons and other goods. It stood between the Union Army and two of its most prized targets: the Gulf of Mexico to the west and Charleston to the East. It was also a symbol of Confederate pride and strength, and its fall made even the most loyal Southerners doubt that they could win the war. (“Since Atlanta,” South Carolinian Mary Boykin Chestnut wrote in her diary, “I have felt as if…we are going to be wiped off the earth.”) Did You Know? In theyears afterthe Civil War, fighting forces around the world have made use of Sherman’s “total war” strategy.

March to the Sea After they lost Atlanta, the Confederate army headed west into Tennessee and Alabama , attacking Union supply lines as they went. Sherman was reluctant to set off on a wild goose chase across the South, however, and so he split his troops into two groups. Major General George Thomas took some 60,000 men to meet the Confederates in Nashville, while Sherman took the remaining 62,000 on an offensive march through Georgia to Savannah, “smashing things” (he wrote) “ to the sea.” “Make Georgia Howl” Sherman believed that the Confederacy derived its strength not from its fighting forces but from the material and moral support of sympathetic Southern whites. Factories, farms and railroads provided Confederate troops with the things they needed, he reasoned; and if he could destroy those things, the Confederate war effort would collapse. Meanwhile, his troops could undermine Southern morale by making life so unpleasant for Georgia’s civilians that they would demand an end to the war. To that end, Sherman’s troops marched south toward Savannah in two wings, about 30 miles apart.

On November 22, 3,500 Confederate cavalry started a skirmish with the Union soldiers at Griswoldville, but that ended so badly–650 Confederate soldiers were killed or wounded, compared to 62 Yankee casualties–that Southern troops initiated no more battles. Instead, they fled South ahead of Sherman’s troops, wreaking their own havoc as they went: They wrecked bridges, chopped down trees and burned barns filled with provisions before the Union army could reach them. The Union soldiers were just as unsparing. They raided farms and plantations, stealing and slaughtering cows, chickens, turkeys, sheep and hogs and taking as much other food–especially bread and potatoes–as they could carry. (These groups of foraging soldiers were nicknamed “bummers,” and they burned whatever they could not carry.) The marauding Yankees needed the supplies, but they also wanted to teach Georgians a lesson: “it isn’t so sweet to secede,” one soldier wrote in a letter home, “as [they] thought it would be.” Sherman’s troops arrived in Savannah on December 21, 1864, about three weeks after they left Atlanta.

The city was undefended when they got there. (The 10,000 Confederates who were supposed to be guarding it had already fled.) Sherman presented the city of Savannah and its 25,000 bales of cotton to President Lincoln as a Christmas gift.Early in 1865, Sherman and his men left Savannah and pillaged and burned their way through South Carolina to Charleston. In April, the Confederacy surrendered and the war was over. Total War Sherman’s “total war” in Georgia was brutal and destructive, but it did just what it was supposed to do: it hurt Southern morale, made it impossible for the Confederates to fight at full capacity and likely hastened the end of the war. “This Union and its Government must be sustained, at any and every cost,” explained one of Sherman’s subordinates.

“To sustain it, we must war upon and destroy the organized rebel forces,–must cut off their supplies, destroy their communications…and produce among the people of Georgia a thorough conviction of the personal misery which attends war, and the utter helplessness and inability of their ‘rulers’ to protect them…If that terror and grief and even want shall help to paralyze their husbands and fathers who are fighting us…it is mercy in the end.” Tags Northern Plans to End the War [ushistory.org] 33h. Northern Plans to End the War Candace Scott/Ulysses Grant homepage In this photo, taken in the summer of 1864, Ulysses S. Grant stands with his most famous horse, Cincinnati. This magnificent horse, standing 18 hands high, was given to Grant in January, 1864, by a St. Louis man who boasted that the mount was "the finest horse in the world." Only one day after their victory at Gettysburg, Union forces captured Vicksburg, the last Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi River. Lincoln and Union commanders began to make plans for finishing the war. The Union strategy to win the war did not emerge all at once.

By 1863, however, the Northern military plan consisted of five major goals: Fully blockade all Southern coasts. This strategy, known as the Anaconda Plan, would eliminate the possibility of Confederate help from abroad. Control the Mississippi River. The river was the South's major inland waterway. Also, Northern control of the rivers would separate Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas from the other Confederate states. Capture Richmond. Without its capital, the Confederacy's command lines would be disrupted. Shatter Southern civilian morale by capturing and destroying Atlanta, Savannah, and the heart of Southern secession, South Carolina. Use the numerical advantage of Northern troops to engage the enemy everywhere to break the spirits of the Confederate Army. By early 1864, the first two goals had been accomplished. The blockade had successfully prevented any meaningful foreign aid. General Ulysses Grant's success at Vicksburg delivered the Mississippi River to the Union. Lincoln turned to Grant to finish the job and, in the spring of 1864, appointed Grant to command the entire Union Army. Grant had a plan to end the war by November. He mounted several major simultaneous offensives.

General George Meade was to lead the Union's massive Army of the Potomac against Robert E. Lee. Grant would stay with Meade, who commanded the largest Northern army. General James Butler was to advance up the James River in Virginia and attack Richmond, the capital of the Confederacy. General William Tecumseh Sherman was to plunge into the heart of the South, inflicting as much damage as he could against their war resources. One week after Abraham Lincoln's reelection in 1864, William Tecumseh Sherman (above) began his merciless march through Georgia, leaving nothing behind but civilian sorrow and scorched earth. Both Atlanta and Savannah would fall back to Union control during this campaign. Meade faced Lee's army in Virginia. Lee's strategy was to use terrain and fortified positions to his advantage, thus decreasing the importance of the Union's superiority in numbers. He hoped to make the cost of trying to force the South back into the Union so high that the Northern public would not stand for it. He almost accomplished this. From May 5 to May 24, the full force of Grant's and Lee's armies fought continually with enormous casualties.

But, unlike the Union commanders of the past, Grant had the determination to press on despite the cost. Twenty-eight thousand soldiers were casualties of the Battle of the Wilderness. A few days later, another 28,000 soldiers were casualties in the battle of Spotsylvania Court House. More than two-thirds of the casualties of these battles were Union soldiers. At Cold Harbor the following week, Grant lost another 13,000 soldiers — 7,000 of them in half an hour. In the 30 days that Grant had been fighting Lee, he lost 50,000 troops — a number equal to half the size of the Confederate army at the time. As a result, Grant became known as "The Butcher." Congress was appalled and petitioned for his removal. But Lincoln argued that Grant was winning the battles and refused to grant Congress's request. William T. Sherman's ruthless march through the South to the sea drove a stake into the heart of the Confederacy. He left nothing in his wake, destroying everything in sight in an attempt to crush the rebellion once and for all. Butler failed to capture Richmond, and the Confederate capital was temporarily spared.

On May 6, one day after Grant and Lee started their confrontation in the Wilderness, Sherman entered Georgia, scorching whatever resources that lay in his path. By late July, he had forced the enemy back to within sight of Atlanta. For a month, he lay siege to the city. Finally, in early September he entered Atlanta — one day after the Confederate army evacuated it. Sherman waited until seven days after Lincoln's hotly fought reelection before putting Atlanta to the torch and starting his march to the sea. No one stood before him. His soldiers pillaged the countryside and destroyed everything of conceivable military value as they traveled 285 miles to Savannah in a march that became legendary for the misery it created among the civilian population. On December 22, Savannah fell. Next, Sherman ordered his army to move north into South Carolina. Their intent was to destroy the state where secession began. Exactly a month later, its capital, Columbia, fell to him. On the same day, Union Forces retook Fort Sumter. The war was almost over. William T. Sherman William T. Sherman Tweet Major General William T.

Sherman (Library of Congress) William Tecumseh Sherman, although not a career military commander before the war, would become one of "the most widely renowned of the Union’s military leaders next to U. S. Grant.” Sherman, one of eleven children, was born into a distinguished family. His father had served on the Supreme Court of Ohio until his sudden death in 1829, leaving Sherman and his family to stay with several friends and relatives. During this period, Sherman found himself living with Senator Thomas Ewing, who obtained an appointment for Sherman to the United States Military Academy, and he graduated sixth in the class of 1840. His early military career proved to be anything but spectacular. He saw some combat during the Second Seminole War in Florida, but unlike many of his colleagues, did not fight in the Mexican-American War, serving instead in California. As a result, he resigned his commission in 1853. He took work in the fields of banking and law briefly before becoming the superintendent of the Louisiana Military Academy in 1859.

At the outbreak of the Civil War, however, Sherman resigned from the academy and headed north, where he was made a colonel of the 13th United States Infantry. Articles George Thomas Sherman first saw combat at the Battle of First Manassas, where he commanded a brigade of Tyler’s Division. Although the Union army was defeated during the battle, President Abraham Lincoln was impressed by Sherman’s performance and he was promoted to brigadier general on August 7, 1861, ranking seventh among other officers at that grade. He was sent to Kentucky to begin the Union task of keeping the state from seceding. While in the state, Sherman expressed his views that the war would not end quickly, and he was replaced by Don Carlos Buell . Sherman was moved to St. Louis, where he served under Henry W. Halleck and completed logistical missions during the Union capture of Fort Donelson. During the battle of Shiloh, Sherman commanded a division, but was overrun during the battle by Confederates under Albert Sydney Johnston . Despite the incident, Sherman was promoted to major general of volunteers on May 1, 1862.

After the battle of Shiloh, Sherman led troops during the battles of Chickasaw Bluffs and Arkansas Post, and commanded XV Corps during the campaign to capture Vicksburg. At the battle of Chattanooga Sherman faced off against Confederates under Patrick Cleburne in the fierce contest at Missionary Ridge. After Ulysses S. Grant was promoted to commander of all the United States armies, Sherman was made commander of all troops in the Western Theatre, and began to wage warfare that would bring him great notoriety in the annals of history. By 1864 Sherman had become convinced that preservation of the Union was contingent not only on defeating the Southern armies in the field but, more importantly, on destroying the Confederacy's material and psychological will to wage war. To achieve that end, he launched a campaign in Georgia that was defined as “modern warfare”, and brought “total destruction…upon the civilian population in the path of the advancing columns [of his armies].” Commanding three armies, under George Henry Thomas , James B. McPherson , and John M. Schofield , he used his superior numbers to consistently outflank Confederate troops under Joseph E.

Johnston , and captured Atlanta on September 2, 1864. The success of the campaign ultimately helped Lincoln win reelection. After the fall of Atlanta, Sherman left the forces under Thomas and Schofield to continue to harass the Confederate Army of Tennessee under John Bell Hood . Meanwhile, Sherman cut off all communications to his army and commenced his now-famous “March to the Sea," leaving in his wake a forty to sixty mile-wide path of destruction through the heartland of Georgia. On December 21, 1864 Sherman wired Lincoln to offer him an early Christmas present: the city of Savannah. I am tired and sick of war. Its glory is all moonshine. It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, for vengeance, for desolation. War is hell. - William Tecumseh Sherman Following his successful campaign through Georgia, Sherman turned his attentions northward and began marching through the Carolinas, chasing the Confederates under the command of Joseph E. Johnston. He continued his campaign of destruction, in particular targeting South Carolina for their role in seceding from the Union first.

He captured Columbia, South Carolina, on February 17, 1865, setting many fires which would consume large portions of the city. He went on to defeat the forces of Johnston in North Carolina during the Battle of Bentonville, and eventually accepted the surrender of Johnston and all troops in Georgia, Florida, and the Carolinas on April 26, 1865, becoming the largest surrender of Confederate troops during the war. After the war, Sherman remained in the military and eventually rose to the rank of full general, serving as general-in-chief of the army from 1869 to 1883. Praised for his revolutionary ideas on "total warfare," William T. Sherman died in 1891. Want the Latest? Follow us on Twitter and Facebook:

Question: Who commanded the Union forces during the 1864 March to the Sea?
Answer: (William) SHERMAN