When was shermans march to the sea

By marching through Georgia and South Carolina he became an archvillain in the South and a hero in the North. Bailey, Anne. Bailey, A. In New Georgia Encyclopedia.

The March to the Sea, the most destructive campaign against a civilian population during the Civil War , began in Atlanta on November 15, ,…. General William T. Sherman captured Savannah in December and presented the city along with 25, bales of cotton to President Abraham Lincoln as a Christmas present.

Sherman set up temporary headquarters in the Green-Meldrin House. The New Georgia Encyclopedia does not hold the copyright for this media resource and can neither grant nor deny permission to republish or reproduce the image online or in print. All requests for permission to publish or reproduce the resource must be submitted to the rights holder.

Sherman devastated the Georgia countryside during his march to the sea. His men destroyed all sources of food and forage, often in retaliation for the activities of local Confederate guerrillas.

Sherman's commanders on the March to the Sea were: standing left to right Oliver O. Howard, William B. Hazen, Jefferson C. Davis, Joseph A.

Mower, seated left to right John A. Logan, Sherman, Henry W. Slocum, Francis P. Most government records are in the public domain. Please consult the National Archives and Records Administration for more information. Ohio native and Union general William T. Sherman lost the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain in June In September of that same year his army captured Atlanta before embarking on its March to the Sea, from Atlanta to Savannah, in November.

Sherman later chronicled his wartime experiences in a memoir, published in Two years later, the Sign up now to learn about This Day in History straight from your inbox. Dickens was born in and attended school in Portsmouth. His father, a clerk in the navy pay office, was Mamie Snow, a mentally disabled white woman from Waukegan, Illinois, claims that James Montgomery, a Black veteran and factory worker, raped her. Montgomery, who was promptly thrown in jail, spent more than 25 years in prison before his conviction was overturned and he was The interview further fueled fears After 16 months of debate, the Continental Congress, sitting in its temporary capital of York, Pennsylvania, agrees to adopt the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union on November 15, Not until March 1, would the last of the 13 states, Maryland, ratify the William J.

Gustavus W. Smith led the small Georgia state militia. The approach was backbreaking, but simple: rails were torn from the ties, which were stacked to make a bonfire beneath them. Orlando Poe, even devised specialized equipment, called cant hooks, for the task.

Clearly this soldier was practicing the psychological destructive warfare against Georgia that his commander wanted. He fooled the Confederates into believing that one part of his army was heading toward Augusta, while the other wing was heading for Macon.

In fact, his true destination was the Georgia capital of Milledgeville. Confederate political and military leaders — Gov. Joe Brown, Hardee and militia commander Smith among them — all fell for the ruse. The only real combat of the March took place on November 22, near Griswoldville.

The militia, temporarily under the inexperienced command of Brig. Pleasant J. Not realizing that these Federals had repeating rifles and were dug in, temporary commander Phillips ordered his motley force to attack, and they were ripped to pieces by the Federals. After the shooting had stopped, the Union troops discovered, to their horror, that their attackers had been old men and young boys and wondered at the futility of the Confederate cause.

No matter — Sherman kept marching. The capital city panicked. The state legislature extended the existing state draft to include men from 16 to 65 years of age. Those prisoners in the state jail willing to take up arms for the Confederacy — out of — were freed, although some of the newly liberated men burned down the penitentiary rather than report for duty. More seriously, the soldiers damaged state buildings and destroyed books and manuscripts before leaving Milledgeville on November The army moved at a steady pace, covering as much as 15 miles a day.

Reveille came at daybreak and sometimes earlier. The 62,man army usually spent the night in tents, the campsites stretching in all directions. After a sparse breakfast, they formed the columns and began moving. Railroad tracks were upended and destroyed. Black and white pioneers cleared the path ahead, with Sherman himself sometimes joining in the physical labor. There was no lunch stop; instead, the men ate whenever and whatever they could.

The soldiers entertained themselves by letter writing, card games and other such diversions, but the favorite activity was to hear the adventures of the foragers.

As the main columns had been marching all day, organized soldiers and others fanned out in all directions, looking for food and booty. They wandered out five or more miles from the main columns and became experts at finding hidden food, horses, wagons and even slaves.

Whether it was a plantation manor, a more modest white dwelling or a slave hut, any residence encountered by these bummers stood a chance of being utterly ransacked. Barns, gardens and farms were overrun. Although many of the houses were damaged — and a minority put to the torch and totally destroyed — others were left essentially untouched, an unpredictability that became a source of great fear. Still, sexual violence, especially in wartime, remains an underreported crime up to the present.

Perhaps in denial of this reality, they came to accuse Sherman of carrying out countless grim acts. He seemed to be everywhere at once, and as he grew ever-larger in the Southern imagination, rumors about where he was and what he did to white women and slaves came to be accepted as fact. Judson Kilpatrick. December 22, Savannah surrenders to General Sherman. Back to top. Hosted by Springshare.