Sherman’s March

(noun)

The name commonly given to the Savannah Campaign conducted through Georgia from November 15, 1864, to December 21, 1864, by Major General 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 on November 16 and ended with the capture of the port of Savannah on December 21. It inflicted significant damage, particularly to industry and infrastructure (per the doctrine of total war), and also to civilian property.

Related Terms

Examples of Sherman’s March in the following topics:

  • Sherman's March

    • General Sherman's "March to the Sea" Campaign inflicted significant damage to Southern industry, infrastructure, and civilian property.
    • Federal forces occupied Atlanta until November 15–16, when Sherman’s “March to the Sea” began.
    • Sherman's scorched earth policies remain highly controversial, and many Southerners have long reviled Sherman's memory.
    • This map shows the Savannah Campaign (Sherman's March to the Sea) during the American Civil War.
    • Assess the objectives, pros, and cons of Sherman's "March to the Sea"

  • Union Victories in the Western Theater

    • Sherman sailed down the Mississippi River while Grant moved parallel to the Mississippi by railroad.
    • The next major event, Sherman's Savannah Campaign , popularly known as the March to the Sea.
    • This induced him to send a message to Sherman requesting terms for surrender.
    • On April 18, three days after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, Johnston signed an armistice with Sherman.
    • Map of the Savannah Campaign (Sherman's March to the Sea) of the American Civil War.

  • Conclusion: Reasons for Union Victory

    • The fall and occupation of Atlanta in the autumn of 1864, and Sherman’s March to the Sea that followed, were also turning points in the war, breaking the Confederacy’s strategic, economic, and psychological capacity for further warfare.
    • Sherman’s scorched earth policies throughout the Atlanta Campaign traumatized the South.

  • The Freed Slaves

    • They were freed as a result of the advance of the Union armies into the territory previously controlled by the Confederacy, particularly after Major General William Tecumseh Sherman's March to the Sea.
    • General Sherman's Special Field Orders, No. 15, issued on January 16, 1865, provided for the land, while some of its beneficiaries also received mules from the army for plowing.
    • The Special Field Orders issued by Sherman were never intended to represent an official policy of the U.S. government with regard to all former slaves.
    • Andrew Johnson, who succeeded President Lincoln after the assassination, revoked Sherman's orders and returned the land to its previous white owners.
    • On March 3, 1865, Congress passed the bill to aid former slaves through legal food and housing, oversight, education, health care, and employment contracts with private landowners.

  • Forming Armies

    • On March 3, 1863, Congress enacted the Enrollment Act, also known as the "Civil War Military Draft Act," to bolster the manpower of the Union Army.
    • Even after the end of the war, they were not permitted (by Sherman's order) to march in the great victory parade through Washington, D.C.

  • The Battle of Chattanooga

    • Sherman's attack on Bragg's right flank made little progress.
    • Bragg's defeat eliminated the last Confederate stronghold in Tennessee and opened the door to an invasion of the Deep South, leading to Sherman's Atlanta Campaign of 1864.
    • The city became the supply and logistics base for Sherman's 1864 Atlanta Campaign and the Army of the Cumberland.
    • Grant won his final battle in the West prior to receiving command of all Union armies in March 1864.

  • "Poor Whites"

    • By March 1862, the piney woods region of Georgia had a 60% enlistment rate, comparable to that found in planter areas.
    • More damaging to Confederate nationalism was the localism that grew as areas had to fend for themselves as Sherman's forces approached.

  • Republican Reform Under Harrison

    • Harrison was sworn into office on March 4, 1889.
    • Congress, referred to by some critics as the "Billion Dollar Congress," was a meeting of the legislative branch of the U.S. federal government that met in Washington, D.C., from March 4, 1889, to March 4, 1891, during the first two years of the administration of President Benjamin Harrison.
    • The Sherman Antitrust Act, which prohibited business combinations that restricted trade, and the Sherman Silver Purchase Act, which required the U.S. government to mint silver were both authored by Senator John Sherman.

  • The Allied Drive Toward Berlin

    • With a large number of men captured, the stubborn German resistance during the Allied campaign to reach the Rhine in February and March 1945 had been costly.
    • The Third Army did just that on the night of March 22, crossing the river with a hasty assault south of Mainz at Oppenheim.
    • In the North, Operation Plunder was the name given to the assault crossing of the Rhine at Rees and Wesel by the British 21st Army Group on the night of March 23.
    • In the Allied 6th Army Group area, the US Seventh Army assaulted across the Rhine in the area between Mannheim and Worms on March 26.
    • United States Army soldiers supported by a M4 Sherman tank move through a smoke filled street in Wernberg, Germany during April 1945.

  • The Battles: 1863–1865

    • Grant marched to the relief of troops in Chattanooga and defeated Bragg at the Third Battle of Chattanooga, driving Confederate forces out of Tennessee and opening a route to Atlanta and the heart of the Confederacy.
    • Grant made his headquarters with the Army of the Potomac and put Major General William Tecumseh Sherman in command of most of the western armies.
    • Grant understood the concept of total war and believed, along with Lincoln and Sherman, that only the utter defeat of Confederate forces and their economic base would end the war.