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Whose strategy of total war targeted not only the confederate army but also the civilian population of the south?
William T. Sherman in Georgia and South Carolina. Phil Sheridan had also been doing something like this in the Shenandoah Valley - on the orders of U.S. Grant.
What was the shermans march about?
A punitive raid on a state that had quit the USA in an arrogant manner and deserved humiliating. A chance to live off the land, while wrecking the Confederate economy and helping the starve the Confederate troops in the field. It meant a complete change of strategy, as Grant had been wanting him to pursue the Army of Tennessee into the mountains. Sherman did not think he could win battles with such a long and vulnerable supply-line. So he decided on his new strategy of destroying the civilian infractructure of the Confederacy. It shortened the war by months, at almost nil casualties.
What importance of the shermans march?
It relieved Sherman of the endless worry over his lengthening supply-line - a single-track railroad all the way back to Nashville, with 24 viaducts that were always being blown up by Confederate cavalry. After he took Atlanta, Sherman decided to reverse Grant's strategy of trying to pursue the Army of Tennessee into the mountains, and instead to attack the infrastructure that supported the Confederate armies - living off the land as he went. This vandal-spree is now viewed with disfavour. But it shortened the war by months at a very low cost in casualties. And it did have the effect of starving the Confederate troops. The army under Lee that eventually surrendered to Grant was indeed close to starvation.
What did grant let confederate soldiers keep?
Sidearms.
How do you know that Fort Henry and Donelson were Confederate forts?
Because they had been recently built as such. And Halleck's first order to Grant was to capture them. In the case of Donelson, Grant captured 15,000 Confederate prisoners.
