USA HISTORY

AMERICAN CIVIL WAR(1861 1865)

KEY CIVIL WAR BATTLES IN 1862

[SOURCES]
What happened at Sherman’s March to the Sea?

(A) ** The Union burned down everything

(B) Nothing

(C) ** TOTAL WAR

EXPLANATIONS BELOW

Concept note-1: -This campaign, known as Sherman’s March to the Sea, was marked by its objective, to cripple the Confederacy’s ability to wage war. They destroyed anything and everything important to the war effort, leaving ruins where Georgia’s great cities once stood.

Concept note-2: -Sherman’s plan was to march his forces to Savannah, Georgia, and destroy anything in their path. To prove the power of the Union, he wanted to commit “total war” on the South. His goal was to terrify Southern civilians into giving up on the war.

Concept note-3: -Total War. Sherman’s “total war” in Georgia was brutal and destructive, but it did just what it was supposed to do: it hurt Southern morale, made it impossible for the Confederates to fight at full capacity and likely hastened the end of the war.

Concept note-4: -His forces followed a “scorched earth” policy, destroying military targets as well as industry, infrastructure, and civilian property, disrupting the Confederacy’s economy and transportation networks. The operation debilitated the Confederacy and helped lead to its eventual surrender.

Concept note-5: -To them, Sherman’s devastating march through the South opened the way to the kind of warfare that culminated in World War II. Called total war, it goes beyond combat between opposing military forces to include attacks, both deliberate and indiscriminate, upon civilians and non-military targets.