Why was Sherman’s March to the Sea so important to Union victory?

Directions: In November and December of 1864, William Tecumseh Sherman was given the task to bring

total war to the South. The brutality of Sherman’s March has been well documented. Was it

Sherman who drove the final nail in the Confederacy’s coffin, or was it Grant to the North? This

document based exercise asks you for your educated opinion as to the importance of

Sherman’s March to the Sea.

Picture accessed on June 20, 2011 from http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/map_item.pl

There are several steps to forming an educated opinion.

1. Read the Background Essay. It gives an overview of Sherman’s March.

2. Quickly skim through the 10 documents to get a sense of what they are about.

3. Read the documents slowly. For each, use the Document Analysis Sheet to record:

a. What or who is the source? Is it primary or secondary?

b. What is the main idea(s) in the document?

4. Use the scaffolding questions to help you formulate an opinion.

5. Connect all of the ideas to answer the question, “Why was Sherman’s March to the Sea so

important to Union victory?”

6. Write an essay that cites at least 5 of the documents to support your answer.

The Documents:

a. Sherman’s March, New York Times (http://www.gpb.org/georgiastories/docs/march_to_the_sea-158)

b. Lyrics to “Sherman’s March to the Sea” (http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/songsheets_bsvg200561/)

c. Sherman’s March to the Sea. (http://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/cph.3c16520/)

d. Sherman’s March Destroying the Track (http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2004660905/)

e. Map of Sherman’s March through Georgia (http://www.civilwarhome.com/shermanmap.htm)

f. Evacuation of Savannah (http://www.gpb.org/georgiastories/docs/march_to_the_sea-158)

g. Sherman’s March, Harper’s Weekly (http://www.sonofthesouth.net/leefoundation/civil-war/1864/december/shermans-

march.htm)

h. Domestic Intelligence (http://www.sonofthesouth.net/leefoundation/civil-war/1864/december/march-sea.htm)

i. General Sherman’s Grand March through Georgia (http://www.sonofthesouth.net/leefoundation/civil-

war/1864/december/shermans-march-through-georgia.htm)

j. Santa Claus Sherman… (http://www.teachamericanhistory.org/File/Political_Cartoons_of_the_Civil_War.pdf)

The following has been taken from http://www.civilwaracademy.com/sherman's-march.html

Sherman’s March to the Sea

November – December, 1864

Sherman’s March to the Sea would set the south ablaze. The sea was the goal, the end result, for the Union leader.

General Sherman was a rogue if only for a few months, the general of the Union army stationed in the heart of the

Confederacy was on a rampage. The orders did not come from the President, nor did they come from the brass of the

Union leaders, this was an independent decision and action by the beleaguered yet admired General Sherman.

General Sherman believed that he and he alone could bring the Civil War to an end if only he could decimate the Rebel

cause by striking out and burning the Confederacy. This was what his March to the Sea was all about and regardless of

the cattle calls and the bantering that General Sherman received, and they were many from both sides, the end result was

correct. The South was brought to its knees and although this was the inevitability of the entire war as of 1864, the final

nail in the coffin, so to speak, was General Sherman’s brutal slash and burn policy as he trampled the Confederacy all the

way to the sea.

The decision by General Sherman started with the sacking of Atlanta and the slash and burn mind-set was on full tilt from

there on. The path to the sea was peppered with guerrilla type Rebel warfare and this did not bode well with the usual

battle plans of the Union army. Nonetheless, the Yankee marauders still cut a path from Atlanta all the way to the ghostly

city of Savannah, Georgia, laying waste everywhere.

The response from the Rebels was quite interesting indeed, instead of lining up and attempting to battle the Union army

man for man in the open fields of Georgia, the wily Confederates cut and ran to Tennessee. This left barely a remnant of a

rebel army in the path of all of Georgia and General Sherman was quick to take full advantage of this departure. The

response from Washington after the fact was very good and this was only because General Sherman’s longtime friend

General Grant softened up President Lincoln and paved the way.

After defeating the Rebels in almost every battle, and these battles were more akin to skirmishes meant not to defeat the

Union army yet slow it down, the obvious end was near for the Confederates. Did they know this? Was the fight all out of

them by December 1864? If it was not maybe it should have been and with the signing of the surrender at Appomattox by

General Lee, the end was here. Sherman's March to the Sea culminated in Savannah, Georgia with the prideful General

Sherman parading his victorious troops through the city’s streets.

Known for his ego, this was too much of a chance to show both the Union leaders and the Southern populace who

actually was in charge. From then on out in the Civil War only minor skirmishes occurred; mostly clean up duty with one

lone Southern army still fighting, General John Crawford Vaughn in Tennessee.

A – New York Times. 18 November 1864

Picture accessed on June 20, 2011 from http://www.gpb.org/georgiastories/docs/march_to_the_sea-158

B – Lyrics to Sherman’s March to the Sea by Effie Germon

Picture accessed on June 20, 2011 from http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/songsheets_bsvg200561/

C – Sherman’s March to the Sea

Published by Hartford, Conn.: J. P. Finch, c1883.

Picture accessed on June 20, 2011 from http://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/cph.3c16520/

D – Sherman’s March destroying the track – 1864

Alfred Rudolph

Picture accessed on June 20, 2011 from http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2004660905/

E – Map of Sherman’s March through Georgia

Picture accessed on June 20, 2011 from http://www.civilwarhome.com/shermanmap.htm

F – "Evacuation of Savannah"

Augusta Daily Constitutionalist. 23 December 1864.

Picture accessed on June 20, 2011 from http://www.gpb.org/georgiastories/docs/march_to_the_sea-158

G – Sherman’s March

HARPER'S WEEKLY. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 10, 1864. SHERMAN'S MARCH. THE campaign of General SHERMAN is striking and daring, but not more so than his advance from Chattanooga, of which it is a continuation. At Atlanta, with a slender line of railroad nearly two hundred miles long, exposed to the forays of the rebel cavalry, his position was uncertain. The advantages were not balanced by the risks. He has therefore made it useless for either party, and destroying as he goes, he carries a line of fire straight across the surface of the rebel section, cutting a terrible swath to the sea.

General SHERMAN does not play at war. " War is cruelty," he says, " and you can not refine it," and he believes that they who have brought war upon the country will justly feel its sharpest edge. Yet he only is wise who sees in SHERMAN'S flashing sword the true olive branch. When the deluded Southern people feel that the Government is strong enough to pierce their section where it will ; that the national armies can march and countermarch at their pleasure ; that the shrewdest plans of their own Generals are outwitted and baffled ; and those Generals perceive that they have lost their supreme military advantage of interior lines, a moral victory is won.

It may be true, as the rebels say, that the march of SHERMAN'S army is merely like the flight of an arrow which can not wound the air through which it passes. The rebel army may close in behind him. The territory he crosses may still own the rebel sway ; and he may hold only the ground upon which he actually stands. But the first victory of such a campaign is not visible. Not a rebel soldier may fall before him, but the hearts of a host faint within them. Not a field may be permanently held by him, but the rebel owner knows that the tenure of his own possession is loosened. The arrow may not wound the air, but when you have learned that the air which you deemed impervious has been pierced by an arrow, you will hear a hurtling all the time,

SHERMAN'S campaign is one of great difficulties and dangers. The conviction of the rebels that, if they could embarrass or defeat him, their prestige would be regained, and their terrible disasters of the last year condoned, will incite them to the utmost effort of desperation to destroy him. It is the duty of all sensible Union men not to exult, not to be transported wits excessive expectation, but to watch and hope and pray. All the circumstances—the absence of noon's army, the blithe courage of SHERMAN'S men, his own indomitable energy and great genius—favor our noble General. We may justly believe that he will keep his Christmas by the sea. But we ought to guard against the possible consequence of undue elation. If, forgetting the chances of war, we insist that there is nothing but absolute success to be expected at every step of SHERMAN'S movement, we may find ourselves paying the penalty of our own folly in a depressing and overpowering reaction of feeling.

Accessed on June 21, 2011 from http://www.sonofthesouth.net/leefoundation/civil-war/1864/december/shermans-march.htm

H – Domestic Intelligence

Harper’s Weekly. Saturday, December 10, 1864 DOMESTIC INTELLIGENCE. GENERAL SHERMAN'S CAMPAIGN. UNTIL Sherman has reached the sea we may expect no definite information concerning his progress. The rebel journals will not afford "aid and comfort to the enemy"

by heralding his successes, but so long as they keep silence we may be assured that he has met with no reverse, This much appears to be certain: that he started on November 14 in two columns on the line of the two principal rail roads that run eastward across the State from Atlanta, and that his advanced cavalry has taken Milledgeville, which lies between the two railroads above mentioned. These two railroads are the Georgia Railroad, which runs almost directly east from Atlanta to Augusta, on the Savannah River, and the Macon and Western Railroad, which at starting runs nearly south from Atlanta to Barnesville, and then takes an eastward course through Macon to Savannah. From Atlanta to Macon is 104 miles; from Macon to Savannah 180 miles. Sherman's orders for the march were issued November 9. The right wing, consisting of the Fifteenth and Seventeenth Corps, was to be commanded by General Howard, and the left, consisting of the Fourteenth and Twentieth, by General Slocum.

Each regiment to have one wagon and one ambulance, and each brigade a due proportion of ammunition and provision wagons and ambulances. The army to forage liberally off the country during the march, each brigade having its foraging company and arranging for at least ten days' provision ahead and three days' forage. No de-struction of property to be permitted when the army is unmolested, but in districts which offer resistance a devastation to be made more or less relentless, according to the measure of hostility. Able bodied negroes may he taken, unless there should be a scarcity of supplies. It is probable that to General Sherman's cavalry will be committed the necessary destruction of property, while the infantry will move steadily onward to the new base of operations.

On the 18th General Beauregard issued a manifesto to the citizens of Georgia, calling upon them to rally around Governor Brown, to obstruct the roads in Sherman's front, flank, and rear, and promising to be with them soon. The latter promise he appears, from the late Macon papers, to have redeemed, leaving Hood to fight Thomas in Central Tennessee.

Accessed on June 21, 2011 from http://www.sonofthesouth.net/leefoundation/civil-war/1864/december/march-sea.htm

I – General Sherman's Grand March through Central Georgia

Harper’s Weekly. Saturday, December 10, 1864

Accessed on June 21, 2011 from http://www.sonofthesouth.net/leefoundation/civil-war/1864/december/shermans-march-through-georgia.htm

J – Leslie’s Illustrated, January 14, 1865

Accessed on June 21, 2011 from http://www.teachamericanhistory.org/File/Political_Cartoons_of_the_Civil_War.pdf

Document Analysis Sheet

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Document Analysis Sheet

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Scaffolding Questions

Why was Sherman’s March to the Sea so important to Union victory?

Doc A: 1 – Was this article written from a Union or Confederate view point?

2 – Although the war department forbade them from publishing the official report, how could they use

southern sources to get around the ban?

3 – Why would the newspaper mention the condition of the roads?

Doc B: 1 – What does the lyric, “…the blood of the Patriot dampened the soil where the Traitor’s flag

falls…” refer to?

2 – What audience was the song written for?

Doc C: 1 – When was the drawing published?

2 – What figures stand out to you from this picture?

3 – What is happening in the picture? List 4 things that are going on.

4 – How would you feel if you lived in the area?

Doc D: 1 – Alfred Rudolph was a civilian who travelled with the Army of the Potomac. What do you think

his job was?

2 – Do you think this is an accurate portrayal of how Sherman’s Army destroyed railroad tracks?

3 – Why do you think Sherman would go to so much trouble?

Doc E: 1 – Did Sherman’s Army always march together?

2 – What pattern do you notice in the path the Army took?

3 – What do you think the purpose of this style of march was?

Doc F: 1 – Was this article written from a Union or Confederate viewpoint?

2 – Why would an army destroy their own weapons?

3 – Although Savannah was lost, if you were a southerner, how would you feel after reading this

article?

Doc G: 1 – What are Sherman’s feelings toward war?

2 – Why did the Southerners feel invincible?

3 – What is to be expected at every step of Sherman’s movement?

Doc H: 1 – Why would the Rebel Journals not report Sherman’s movements?

2 – What provisions did the regiments of Sherman’s Army carry with them?

3 – What was Beauregard’s plan to slow down Sherman?

Doc I: 1 – What do you see in this picture?

2 – Does the army look comfortable?

3 – Which army is this? Are they winning?

Doc J: 1 – What is happening in this cartoon?

2 – After viewing this cartoon, would you consider Sherman’s March to the Sea a success?

Scaffolding Questions

Essay