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Sherman’s March to the Sea

Sherman’s March to the Sea. Winter 1864. Grant’s Plan for 1864. Grant determined to “press” the Confederates on all sides in May 1864: Meade overland in the East. Sigel up the Shenandoah Valley. Butler up the James River. Sherman overland to Atlanta, GA. Banks toward Mobile, AL.

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Sherman’s March to the Sea

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  1. Sherman’s March to the Sea Winter 1864

  2. Grant’s Plan for 1864 • Grant determined to “press” the Confederates on all sides in May 1864: • Meade overland in the East. • Sigel up the Shenandoah Valley. • Butler up the James River. • Sherman overland to Atlanta, GA. • Banks toward Mobile, AL.

  3. The Fall of Atlanta Confederate General John Bell Hood realized what Sherman was trying to do, but he was too late to do anything about it After a desperate attempt at Jonesboro to dislodge Sherman, Hood abandoned Atlanta and the Federals take possession of the city on Sept 2 Hood headed north into northern Alabama and Tennessee trying unsuccessfully to get Sherman to follow him or at least disrupt Sherman’s communications

  4. Ruins of Atlanta

  5. Sherman’s March to Sea(15 Nov – 24 Dec 1964) • Sherman detached Thomas w/35K to defend TN against Hood • Sherman finally gains Grant’s approval to abandon Atlanta • Begins his historic march to Savannah with 60K • Sherman’s army would destroy everything in its 60 mile wide path • Sherman would replicate this march through Carolinas- Jan-April 1865

  6. Sherman’s March- Strategic Impact • Strategic Impact of Sherman’s March: • Destroyed South’s infrastructure & most of it crops: • All food, rail transport, & any potential war making resources • Dispelled any Confederate hope of winning: • Ruined South’s morale & encouraged desertions • Demonstrated to world (especially potential Confederate allies) that the North was unstoppable • North able to march through South without opposition • And therefore likely to win (only a matter of time)

  7. Sherman’s March - Political Impact The fall of Atlanta sealed the fate of the Confederacy because it ensured Lincoln would be reelected and would prosecute the war to victory

  8. March to the Sea Chief among Sherman’s targets were railroads where his men twisted ties into “Sherman’s bow-ties” • Rather than getting distracted by Hood’s offensive, on Nov 12 Sherman took his 62,000 men and headed east to the coast • Cut his communications and lived off the land • “Where a million people live my army won’t starve.” (Sherman) • Destroyed everything in his path • Planned “to leave a trail that [would] be recognized fifty years hence.”

  9. March to the Sea • Key to Sherman’s success was keeping the Confederates on “the horns of a dilemma” • Would his objective be Macon or Augusta and then Augusta or Savannah? • Sherman wrote Halleck, “I must have alternatives, else, being confined to one route, the enemy might so oppose that delay and want to trouble me, but having alternatives, I can take so eccentric a course that no general can guess my objective. Therefore, have lookouts at Morris Island, South Carolina, Ossahaw Sound, Georgia, Pensacola and Mobile bays. I will turn up somewhere.” • Sherman kept his enemy confused and advanced with virtually no opposition

  10. March to the Sea • Sherman’s target was not Confederate armies but Confederate will • “This movement is not purely military or strategic, but will illustrate the vulnerability of the South. They don’t know what war means, but when the rich planters of the Oconee and Savannah see their fences and corn and hogs and sheep vanish before their eyes they will have something more than a mean opinion of the ‘Yanks.’”

  11. March to the Sea • Sherman planned to have a psychological effect • He intended “to demonstrate the vulnerability of the South and make its inhabitants feel that war and individual ruin are synonymous terms.” • “… if the North can march an army right through the South, it is proof positive that the North can prevail in this contest.”

  12. March to the Sea While Sherman was cutting through Georgia, Hood was defeated at Franklin and Nashville Sherman arrived at Savannah in December, offers it as a “Christmas present” to Lincoln, got resupplied by the sea, and headed north to combine with Grant

  13. March North • Sherman continued his destruction being particularly hard on South Carolina because of its role in starting the secessionist movement • Burned the capital of Columbia

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