At the same time, Slocum's left wing approached the state capital at Milledgeville, prompting the hasty departure of Governor Joseph Brown and the state legislature. Atlanta: After the Civil War. In Special Field Order No. Now that Sherman had contact with the Navy fleet under Rear Admiral John A. Dahlgren, he was able to obtain the supplies and siege artillery he required to invest Savannah. Burke Davis' Sherman's March is brief and readable, though pitched to the general reader rather than scholars. On it was Byers' poem. Railroads doubled as a conduit for industrial growth and transportation for the military. Hardee succeeded in getting his men out, and Sherman captured the city on December 21st, 1864. Their fates remain largely unknown. "[24] On December 26, the president replied in a letter:[25]. 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. He issued these orders in preparation for his famous March to the Sea, also known as the Savannah Campaign. As soon as the mayor of Savannah surrendered his city, Sherman the fiend became Sherman the friend. The March to the Sea, which occurred over a six week period in November and December of 1864, is considered the most damaging action against civilian people in the Civil War of 1861 to 1865.The objective of Sherman's March to the Sea was to instil fear in the civilian population of Georgia to abandon the cause of the Confederacy. General Ulysses S. Grant. Shermans 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. 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. When you were about 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. Walters, John Bennett (1948) "General William T. Sherman and Total War". 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. Savannah was now surrounded on land. Sherman received numerous letters from the very Confederate officers he was fighting against, requesting that Sherman ensure the protection of their families. Where did Shermans March to the Sea start and end? This effect was likely compounded by the armys continued railroad destruction. Daviss men lagged behind the rest of the left wing, and Wheelers cavalry was hot on their heels. Sometimes the slaves would volunteer information, and other times the foragers would force it out of them. The purpose of Sherman's March to the . It is estimated that during the six-week March to the Sea fewer than 3,000 casualties resulted. Hood had taken the bulk of forces in Georgia on his campaign to Tennessee in hopes of diverting Sherman to pursue him. The cavalry captured two Confederate guns at Lovejoy's Station, and then two more and 50 prisoners at Bear Creek Station. To my smoke house, my Dairy, Pantry, kitchen & cellar. It was difficult to hide anything from the foragers or the massive main column. Sherman demanded surrender, and he would accept nothing less, so his men tore through the Palmetto State. From November 15 until December 21, 1864, Union General William T. Sherman led some 60,000 soldiers on a 285-mile march from Atlanta to Savannah, Georgia. "[16], The Confederate opposition from Lt. Gen. William J. Hardee's Department of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida was meager. Two weeks after this incident, and 20 miles removed, the march ended in Savannah. Sherman successfully fought a psychological war of destruction. Smith's 1,500 Georgia militiamen, 3 miles (4.8km) south of Grahamville Station, South Carolina. Articles with the HISTORY.com Editors byline have been written or edited by the HISTORY.com editors, including Amanda Onion, Missy Sullivan and Matt Mullen. Joe Brown, Hardee and militia commander Smith among them all fell for the ruse. When Gen. Joseph E. Johnston surrendered at Durham Station, N.C., in April 1865, Sherman offered a peace plan lenient enough that it caused many in the North to question his loyalty. By encroaching into the rear of Lee's positions, Sherman could increase pressure on Lee's Army of Northern Virginia and keep Confederate reinforcements from reaching him. Field Order No. 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, apples, and other vegetables, and to drive in stock in sight of their camp. The March to the Sea played psychological warfare in which . He had for a long time hated the idea of having to kill and maim Confederates, many of whom had been pre-war friends. Seeing their terror and desperation, some Federals began throwing logs and anything else they could find toward the drowning people. Davis, who was no stranger to scandal he was arrested for murdering fellow Union general William Nelson in August 1862, but escaped court martial took a great deal of blame for this horror, but Sherman defended him. 120 he encouraged foraging and the confiscation of livestock but forbade home invasions. In 2008 he took over as the executive director and managing editor of the Ulysses S. Grant Association. The state legislature extended the existing state draft to include men from 16 to 65 years of age. To regular foraging parties must be intrusted the gathering of provisions and forage at any distance from the road traveled. After seizing Atlanta, Union Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman embarked on a scorched-earth campaign intended to cripple the South's war-making capacity and wound the Confederate psyche. He is rightly called the American father of total warfare, a harbinger of the psychological tactics of the next century. Historian Barrett assesses that Sherman could have stopped Hardee, but failed to because he was hesitant to overcommit his forces. The arrival of the main columns was even more frightening to the Georgians in their path than the passage of the foragers. Railroad tracks were upended and destroyed. The capital city panicked. Sherman pursued the smaller Confederate army west and south until mid-October, when Hood crossed into Alabama. He and the Union Army's commander, Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, believed that the Civil War would come to an end only if the Confederacy's strategic capacity for warfare could be decisively broken. It is estimated that during the six-week March to the Sea fewer than 3,000 casualties resulted. Despite an overwhelming numerical advantage, the Confederate militiamen were thoroughly squashed, suffering more than 1,000 casualties to fewer than 100 for the Union. Abraham Lincoln: I beg to present you as a Christmas gift the city of Savannah, with one hundred and fifty heavy guns and plenty of ammunition, also about twenty-five thousand bales of cotton.. Please make my grateful acknowledgments to your whole army, officers and men. Politicians hurried to escape the city, and its civilian inhabitants were infuriated when Shermans men celebrated Thanksgiving there and mockingly re-enacted a legislative session to vote Georgia back into the Union. Apart from its economic and military payoff, the marchs impact may have lingered longest in the Southern psyche. In short, the March to the Sea demonstrates not that Sherman was a brute, but that he wanted to wage a war that did not result in countless deaths. Instead, he sought to end the war as quickly as possible, with the least loss of life on both sides. Barns, gardens and farms were overrun. To that end, Shermans troops marched south toward Savannah in two wings, about 30 miles apart. The army will forage liberally on the country during the march. In these later conflicts, largely through the use of air power, Americans attempted to destroy enemy will and logistics (a doctrine colloquially known as shock and awe in Operation Iraqi Freedom). Operating under varying degrees of supervision, their exploits formed the foundation of Shermans lasting reputation. In April, the Confederacy surrendered and the war was over. Union troops arrived outside the fort on December 13. On January 16, 1865, during the Civil War (1861-65), Union general William T. Sherman issued his Special Field Order No. Meanwhile, his troops could undermine Southern morale by making life so unpleasant for Georgias civilians that they would demand an end to the war. Knowing that Confederate cavalry was nearby, the fugitives, fearful of being captured and killed or re-enslaved, panicked. Whether it was a plantation manor, a more modest white dwelling or a slave hut, any residence encountered by these bummers stood a chance of being utterly ransacked. Well known to Sherman from his study of the 1860 census, Georgias fertile soil still held potential to feed the ravenous Confederacy. The March to the Sea was no off-the-cuff reaction by Sherman to finding himself in Atlanta in September 1864 and knowing he could not remain there. The long line of fugitive slaves, some 650 of them, was ordered to await a signal before crossing. Shermans March to the Sea was an American Civil War campaign lasting from November 15 to December 21, 1864, in which Union Major General William Tecumseh Sherman led troops through the Confederate state of Georgia, pillaging the countryside and destroying both military outposts and civilian properties. Though he had his reservations about the plan, Grant gave his official approval on November 7. 39 Joseph T. Glatthaar's The March to the Sea and Beyond focuses specifically on the experiences of Sherman's soldiers. Wheeler and some infantry struck in a rearguard action at Ball's Ferry on November 24 and November 25. In short, the March to the Sea demonstrates not that Sherman was a brute, but that he wanted to wage a war that did not result in countless deaths. Maj. Gen. John G. Foster dispatched 5,500 men and 10 guns under Brig. At the culmination of the March to the Sea, William Tecumseh Shermans forces surrounded Savannah, Georgia, after capturing Fort McCallister, a crucial element in the citys southern defense. The Army was on its best behavior, in part because anyone caught doing "unsoldier like deeds" was to be summarily executed. Locals experienced a sense of growing dread as they anticipated the main columns advancing through their property and seizing everything of value. 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