(A) He wanted to take revenge on the Confederates.
(B) He had orders to destroy as many people’s homes as possible.
(C) Many historians believe Sherman suffered from a mental illness.
(D) ** He wanted to destroy anything that could be useful to the Confederacy.
EXPLANATIONS BELOW
Concept note-1: -General Sherman’s troops captured Atlanta on September 2, 1864. This was an important triumph, because Atlanta was a railroad hub and the industrial center of the Confederacy: It had munitions factories, foundries and warehouses that kept the Confederate army supplied with food, weapons and other goods.
Concept note-2: -The Atlanta Campaign aimed to cut off Atlanta’s vital supply lines that provided Confederate troops with reinforcements, ammunition, and goods such as clothes, first-aid medicines, and equipment.
Concept note-3: -SHERMAN’S MARCH TO THE SEA. From 15 November to 21 December 1864 the Union general William T. Sherman and his 62, 000 soldiers waged a purposeful war of destruction in Georgia from Atlanta to Savannah. Sherman destroyed property to convince Southerners that their cause was hopeless and that they should surrender.
Concept note-4: -His army lived off the land and destroyed railroads, burned warehouses, and ruined plantations along the way. This was a calculated effort–Sherman thought that the war would end more quickly if civilians of the South felt some destruction personally, a view supported by General Ulysses S.