USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman believed that it was necessary to break the South’s will to fight. Sherman summed up the idea of total war in blunt terms: “We are not only fighting hostile armies, ” he declared in 1864, “but a hostile people, and must make old and young, rich and poor, feel the hard hand of war."

Detailed explanation-2: -On November 15, 1864, U.S. forces led by Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman burned nearly all of the captured city of Atlanta, Georgia. This event occurred near the end of the U.S. Civil War during which 11 states in the American South seceded from the rest of the nation.

Detailed explanation-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.

Detailed explanation-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.