sherman's march to the sea civilian casualties

To regular foraging parties must be instructed the gathering of provisions and forage at any distance from the road traveled. By using ThoughtCo, you accept our, Burning Atlanta and the Start of the March, American Civil War: Lieutenant General Nathan Bedford Forrest, American Civil War: Andersonville Prison Camp, American Civil War: Major General George H. Thomas, Sherman's March to the Sea in the American Civil War, American Civil War : War in the West, 1863-1865, American Civil War: General William T. Sherman, American Civil War: Major General John Buford, American Civil War: Major General John C. Frémont, American Civil War: Major General Carl Schurz, American Civil War: Major General Patrick Cleburne, American Civil War: Battle of Bentonville, American Civil War: Battle of Jonesboro (Jonesborough), American Civil War: General Joseph E. Johnston, American Civil War: Major General Joseph Wheeler, American Civil War: Lieutenant General John Bell Hood, "'We Have Surely Done a Big Work': The Diary of a Hoosier Soldier on Sherman's 'March to the Sea. When Sherman completed his march, he offered the captured city of Savannah to Abraham Lincoln as a Christmas present. He argues: Military campaign during the American Civil War. "[25], According to a 2018 National Bureau of Economic Research paper which sought to measure the medium- and long-term economic impact of Sherman's March, "the capital destruction induced by the March led to a large contraction in agricultural investment, farming asset prices, and manufacturing activity. In a letter written home in 1862, he told his family that the only way to defeat the south was as he had defeated Indigenous groups—by destroying their villages. Slocum's wing, accompanied by Sherman, moved to the east, in the direction of Augusta. ", Western Theater of the American Civil War, Learn how and when to remove this template message, "The Civil War This Week: Oct 27-Nov 2, 1864", "Capital Destruction and Economic Growth: The Effects of Sherman's March, 1850-1920", "Historical markers illustrate overlooked stories", Today in Georgia History: March to the Sea, Today in Georgia History: Sherman in Savannah, National Park Service battle descriptions for the Savannah Campaign, National Park Service report on preservation and historic boundaries at the Savannah Campaign battlefields, New Georgia Encyclopedia article on the March, Noah Andre Trudeau Webcast Author Lecture, Georgia Public Broadcasting: 37 weeks - Sherman on the March, Georgia Constitutional Convention of 1861, List of Union Civil War monuments and memorials, List of memorials to the Grand Army of the Republic, List of Confederate monuments and memorials, Removal of Confederate monuments and memorials. He had defied military principles by operating deep within enemy territory and without lines of supply or communication. SHERMAN’S MARCH 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. [13], Sherman telegraphed to President 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 and about twenty-five thousand bales of cotton. [17], Letter, Sherman to Henry W. Halleck, December 24, 1864. It was a campaign launched to make clear to the women, children and elderly of the South that the North could and would ", ThoughtCo uses cookies to provide you with a great user experience. How did the shermans march change the war? Grant ordered him to “clear the country” ahead of him and to form black regiments when he had encountered enough former slaves (he … "[10] The 300-mile (480 km) march began on November 15. Slaves' opinions varied concerning the actions of Sherman and his army. He also continued to supervise destruction of Confederate infrastructure. Both U.S. President Abraham Lincoln and General Ulysses S. Grant had serious reservations about Sherman's plans. 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. Poe oversaw the burning of Atlanta, for which action he was honored by Sherman. Sherman's March to the Sea (also known as the Savannah Campaign or simply Sherman's March) was a military campaign of the American Civil War conducted through Georgia from November 15 until December 21, 1864, by Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman of the Union Army. Sherman sent two of his army corps to reinforce Federal forces in Tennessee. Rhodes, James Ford. The Confederate's evasive tactics doomed Sherman's plan to achieve victory on the battlefield so he developed an alternative strategy: de… Grant's armies in Virginia continued in a stalemate against Robert E. Lee's army, besieged in Petersburg, Virginia. Grant showed that destroying the enemy’s armed forces was another … Iowa State University thesis, 2011. Maj. Gen. Gustavus W. Smith's Georgia militia had about 3,050 soldiers, most of whom were boys and elderly men. (However, Poe was incensed at the level of uncontrolled arson by marauding soldiers not of his unit which resulted in heavy damage to civilian homes. Sherman's march to the sea brought the Civil War home to Southern … 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. Learn shermans march with free interactive flashcards. Hundreds of African Americans drowned trying to cross in Ebenezer Creek north of Savannah while trying to follow Sherman's Army in its March to the Sea. Confederate Maj. Gen. Wheeler's cavalry struck Brig. Wikipedia lists the casualties for both sides as "?". The army will forage liberally on the country during the march. The March attracted a huge number of refugees, to whom Sherman assigned land with his Special Field Orders No. "Sherman's March to the Sea". Welch, Robert Christopher. Fowler, John D. and David B. Parker, eds. 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. It was, however, at a terrible price. 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. While thousands viewed Sherman as a great liberator and followed his armies to Savannah, others complained of suffering from the Union army’s invasive tactics. Geary telegraphed Sherman, who advised him to accept the offer. Sherman's "March to the Sea" followed his successful Atlanta Campaign of May to September 1864. He is the author of "The Everything American Presidents Book" and "Colonial Life: Government. 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. On December 4, Kilpatrick's cavalry routed Wheeler's at the Battle of Waynesboro. He destroyed much of the South's potential and psychology to wage war,” (Eicher 2001). In the fall of 1864, the Union General William Tecumseh ("Cump") Sherman took 60,000 men and pillaged his way through Georgia's civilian farmsteads. Pastures and farmland became campsites, fence rows disappeared, and the countryside was scavenged for firewood. Sherman's armies reached the outskirts of Savannah on December 10 but found that Hardee had entrenched 10,000 men in favorable fighting positions, and his soldiers had flooded the surrounding rice fields, leaving only narrow causeways available to approach the city.
They sustained themselves by taking what they needed or wanted, pillaging chickens, cows, vegetables, and horses and wagons. The March to the Sea had two wings: the right wing (15th and 17th corps) headed by Major General Oliver Howard was to move south toward Macon; the left wing (14th and 20th corps), headed by Major General Henry Slocum, would move on a parallel route toward Augusta. 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. Wheeler and some infantry struck in a rearguard action at Ball's Ferry on November 24 and November 25. [16], From Savannah, after a month-long delay for rest, 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. The March to the Sea. On September 1, 1864, Sherman and his army captured Atlanta, Georgia, an important transportation center in … Not only does it afford the obvious and immediate military advantages, 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. Abandoning Atlanta's railhead and telegraph lines was a high-risk operation. Sherman's March to the Sea. Appomattox: The Battle of Appomattox … 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. 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 was decisively broken. There, he out-maneuvered Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston and laid siege to Atlanta under the command of General John Bell Hood, Johnston's replacement. Nevin, David, and the Editors of Time-Life Books. Some of the 134 Union casualties were caused by torpedoes, a name for crude land mines that were used only rarely in the war. Sherman’s March to the Sea devastated Georgia and the Confederacy. ", John Bennett Walters, "General William T. Sherman and total war. As a result, the rebels pushed their limits: there was a steep rise in guerrilla warfare on the part of Confederate civilians. The Moral and Legal Dimensions of Sherman's Last Campaigns. 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.[8]. In early October, Hood moved north of Atlanta to destroy Sherman's rail lines, invade Tennessee and Kentucky, and draw the Union Forces away from Georgia. Sherman's march to the sea was followed by a similarly devastating march through the Carolinas early in 1865, but the message to the South was clear. Gen. William H. Jackson, had approximately 10,000 troopers. Meanwhile Thomas crushed Hood at the battle of Nashville on 15 December 1864. While Howard's wing was delayed near Ball's Bluff, the 1st Alabama Cavalry (a Federal regiment) engaged Confederate pickets. Howard's infantry marched through Jonesboro to Gordon, southwest of the state capital, Milledgeville. 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. There were approximately 3,100 casualties, 2,100 of which were Union soldiers, and the countryside took years to recover. Several small actions followed. Sherman's march to the sea was followed by a similarly devastating march through the Carolinas early in 1865, but the … Sherman's March to the Sea is the name commonly given to the Savannah Campaign conducted around Georgia during November and December 1864 by Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman of the Union Army in the American Civil War. The link between Georgia's civilian farms and Sherman's March to the Sea was intimate. Military and civilian casualties were extremely low. "[32] W. Todd Groce, the president of the Georgia Historical Society, stated that the "hard war" practiced by Sherman did not prefigure the "total war" practiced in World War II. The explicit plan was to cut the south in two. Background In the wake of his successful campaign to capture Atlanta, Major General William T. Sherman began making plans for a march against Savannah. ", Millen - December 2, an attempt to free Union prisoners. When all is taken into account, the brutal battles, the staggering casualties, families divided against each other, the monumental … 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. 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. Gen. John P. Hatch from Hilton Head, hoping to assist Sherman's arrival near Savannah by securing the Charleston and Savannah Railroad. to the Sea, the Civil War's most destructive campaign against a civilian population, began in Atlanta on November 15, 1864, and concluded in Savannah on December 21, 1864. Other historical analysis however rejects the comparison. Sherman's March to the Sea shortened the war by at least six months, at almost nil casualties. General William Tecumseh Sherman remains famous – or infamous – for his “March to the Sea.” He has been regarded by many Southerners as a horrendous villain of the Civil War. This page was last edited on 13 December 2020, at 06:23. Professor Anne J. Bailey of Georgia College and State University has called the March to the Sea the "most destructive campaign against a civilian population during the Civil War." According to Sherman’s own estimates, his armies seized 5,000 horses, 4,000 mules, and 13,000 head of cattle in addition to confiscating 9.5 million pounds of corn and 10.5 million pounds of livestock fodder. Sherman's March to the Sea refers to a long stretch of devastating Union army movements that took place during the United States Civil War. The Civil War ended five months after Sherman marched into Savannah. There were approximately 3,100 casualties, 2,100 of which were Union soldiers, and the countryside took years to recover. Sherman captured Savannah, crippling its vital military resources. It confiscated 9.5 million pounds of corn and 10.5 million pounds of fodder, and destroyed uncounted cotton gins and mills. Mark E. Neely rejects the notion that the Civil War was a "total war. Hood had taken the bulk of forces in Georgia on his campaign to Tennessee in hopes of diverting Sherman to pursue him. VI. Minimal. According to Sherman's special field orders of November 9, 1865, his troops were to forage liberally in the country, each brigade commander organizing a party to gather resources as needed to keep at least ten days provisions for his commands. Sherman's March to the Sea: 150 years later, its legacy has many stories to tell Sherman's bummers (foragers) in S.C. (Library of Congress) (Part 3) ... even though it meant civilian casualties) could be important components to a successful strategy. [27] It was widely popular among US soldiers of 20th-century wars. The march was made easier by able assistants such as Orlando Metcalfe Poe, chief of the bridge building and demolition team. He humiliated Southerners and became a scapegoat of Southern wrath, the one to blame for what became of the Confederacy - from Reconstruction’s failures, a regional malaise in … Sherman was convinced that nothing short of bringing war to the homes of Confederate civilians could change Southern attitudes about "fighting to the death," and he had been considering this tactic for years. 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. Elements of the decline in agriculture persisted through 1920."[26]. 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. 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, apples, and other vegetables, and to drive in stock of their camp. By moving in Lee's rear, Sherman could possibly increase pressure on Lee, allowing Grant the opportunity to break through, or at least keep Southern reinforcements away from Virginia. Having virtually vanished from the War Department’s view during his march to Savannah, Sherman chose to cut his supply lines and ordered his men to live off the land—and people—in their path. 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