Sherman’s March

The March through Georgia and South Carolina, lead by General William Techumseh Sherman, was the turning point in the American Civil War. There had been heavy fighting in Tennessee and Kentucky. General Sherman requested permission to take a very large army to the Atlantic Ocean through North and South Carolina, Georgia, then turning North back through the Carolinas and then Virginia. He would divide the Confederate states by blazing a path through the middle of them, foraging and destroying anything of military importance to the Confederates. General Sherman's March achieved his goal, from a military standpoint, but the way his army accomplished it, many southerners say was despicable. The most famous portion of …show more content…

Any military targets were destroyed along the way. Sherman's army was also well fed, for the majority of the time, and morale was high, which is rare while deep in enemy territory. The only strategy that could be under question was that of “total war.”

“Total war” is a strategy that has been around a long time, as long as human beings have been at war. The strategy of total war is that, in wartime anything and everything can be a target. Soldier or civilian, it doesn’t matter, when an enemy comes through another's territory everything in its path can be destroyed. The idea is to make the cost of the fight so unbearable that the opposition loses their will to continue. In theory it is the fastest way to victory. This strategy had not been used since pre-English Empire times, due to the rules of war prohibiting cruel treatment to those not in uniform. In Europe, the rules of warfare were well established, the invaders presented a list of their needs, such as: food, fuel, housing, ect. to the local government officials and they would collect and deliver the said goods. Sherman's methods of warfare dictated that his legacy would not be one of honor, but one of brutality and lawlessness by the south.

Georgia has since recovered from General Sherman's March to the sea however discussing it today with someone from the south comes a deep resentment. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution published an article based on