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On September 2, 1864 Union General William T Sherman captures and burns Atlanta during the Savannah Campaign. From the article:
"Ohioan William Tecumseh Sherman, a general in the Union army during the American Civil War, is best known for his March to the Sea. On September 1, 1864, Sherman and his army captured Atlanta, Georgia, an important transportation center in the Confederacy. Despite this important Union victory, the Confederate government and many of its citizens remained committed to the war effort. Sherman intended his March to the Sea to break the will of the Confederate population.
Sherman was a believer in total war. He said that the Union military was "not only fighting hostile armies, but a hostile people, and must make old and young, rich and poor, feel the hard hand of war." Sherman realized that the Confederate civilian population provided most of the supplies that Confederate forces needed to wage war against the Union. To speed the defeat of the Confederacy, Union forces needed to prevent Southern civilians from supplying their armies. The Northern military needed to wage war against both the Confederate military and Confederate civilians.
To break the will of the Confederate population, Sherman proposed a March to the Sea. He proposed leaving nearly sixty thousand men behind in northern Georgia and Tennessee to deal with Confederate soldiers under the command of General Nathan Bedford Forrest and General John Bell Hood. Sherman would take the remainder of his army of sixty-two thousand men from Atlanta to Savannah, Georgia, on the Atlantic Ocean. General Ulysses S. Grant and President Abraham Lincoln opposed this plan at first, but Sherman convinced them of its importance.
Sherman left Atlanta with his sixty-two-thousand-man army on November 15, 1864. As the Northerners began their 285-mile march south and east to Savannah, Hood led his Confederate army on a raid into Tennessee. As a result of Hood's action, fewer than five thousand Confederate soldiers under General Joseph Wheeler stood between Sherman's army and Savannah.
Sherman left behind his supply train. He decided that he would permit his men to supply themselves from civilians along the march. His soldiers commonly requisitioned all of the provisions that they could find from the civilian population. Food that the men could not eat or carry away generally was burned. The Union soldiers even commandeered supplies from the slaves. They also destroyed a number of homes along the way. Sherman's men successfully occupied Savannah in mid-December 1864.
The use of total war achieved Sherman's desired effect. While some Confederates remained committed to the struggle, other Confederates began to doubt the Confederacy's chance for victory over the Union. Sherman's use of total war helped the Union win the American Civil War."
"Ohioan William Tecumseh Sherman, a general in the Union army during the American Civil War, is best known for his March to the Sea. On September 1, 1864, Sherman and his army captured Atlanta, Georgia, an important transportation center in the Confederacy. Despite this important Union victory, the Confederate government and many of its citizens remained committed to the war effort. Sherman intended his March to the Sea to break the will of the Confederate population.
Sherman was a believer in total war. He said that the Union military was "not only fighting hostile armies, but a hostile people, and must make old and young, rich and poor, feel the hard hand of war." Sherman realized that the Confederate civilian population provided most of the supplies that Confederate forces needed to wage war against the Union. To speed the defeat of the Confederacy, Union forces needed to prevent Southern civilians from supplying their armies. The Northern military needed to wage war against both the Confederate military and Confederate civilians.
To break the will of the Confederate population, Sherman proposed a March to the Sea. He proposed leaving nearly sixty thousand men behind in northern Georgia and Tennessee to deal with Confederate soldiers under the command of General Nathan Bedford Forrest and General John Bell Hood. Sherman would take the remainder of his army of sixty-two thousand men from Atlanta to Savannah, Georgia, on the Atlantic Ocean. General Ulysses S. Grant and President Abraham Lincoln opposed this plan at first, but Sherman convinced them of its importance.
Sherman left Atlanta with his sixty-two-thousand-man army on November 15, 1864. As the Northerners began their 285-mile march south and east to Savannah, Hood led his Confederate army on a raid into Tennessee. As a result of Hood's action, fewer than five thousand Confederate soldiers under General Joseph Wheeler stood between Sherman's army and Savannah.
Sherman left behind his supply train. He decided that he would permit his men to supply themselves from civilians along the march. His soldiers commonly requisitioned all of the provisions that they could find from the civilian population. Food that the men could not eat or carry away generally was burned. The Union soldiers even commandeered supplies from the slaves. They also destroyed a number of homes along the way. Sherman's men successfully occupied Savannah in mid-December 1864.
The use of total war achieved Sherman's desired effect. While some Confederates remained committed to the struggle, other Confederates began to doubt the Confederacy's chance for victory over the Union. Sherman's use of total war helped the Union win the American Civil War."
Bad title - Ohio History Central
Posted from ohiohistorycentral.org
American History
Military History
Civil War
Strategy
Tactics
Posted >1 y ago
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SSG Donald H "Don" Bates
Yes we did, brother against brother. Lost my great Uncle at Stones River when Confedrates brought artillery to within 600 feet, he died at "The Slaughter Pen" and is buried as an unknown.
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Total war against the civilian population in the south during the American civil war. Although civilian deaths during war are called "collateral damage" history tells us there are times when the military targets civilians to destroy the will to resist the attacking military forces. The American civil war was brutal on both the Union and Confederate sides and was a war that could have been avoided had southern politicians abolished slavery as they should have done. Better yet the enslavement of people in America should have never been allowed to begin. One has to wonder what were those people thinking ? Hundreds of thousands of Americans lost their lives in that civil war tragedy.
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