Having failed to destroy the Army of Tennessee in Atlanta, he was now being ordered by Grant to pursue them into the mountains.
Sherman thought he could end the war quicker by destroying the civilian infrastructure that supported the Confederate armies in the field, and decided on a major punitive raid through Georgia, burning farms and tearing up railroads.
When he reached the sea, he would be able to relieve Savannah, one of the blockade-runners' favourite ports.
total war or March to the Sea
destroy the South's strategic and economic capacity to fight.
Sherman's "March to the Sea"
General William Tecumseh Sherman led a march to the sea burning everything in his way including the city of Atlanta.
William T. Sherman
The March to the Sea
General Sherman took his army to the sea at Savannah, Georgia, but the march continued all the way to Columbia, South Carolina.
Because General Sherman marched to Savannah, GA.. which is near the sea.
Sherman
Sherman
Sherman
The Atlantic
total war or March to the Sea
General Sherman
destroy the South's strategic and economic capacity to fight.
W.T. Sherman.
Sherman's "March to the Sea"