It is known for its boldness as well as the sheer destruction inflicted on the south, both to its industry as well as military targets, effectively destroying the Confederate’s capacity to wage war. Nearly 4,000 Rebels, including reinforcements sent by Hardee, were aligned before the advancing Federals near the modern town of Oliver, at the naturally strong defensive position formed where Ogeechee Creek and the Ogeechee River meet. Wheeler, on a self-appointed mission to protect Augusta, passed behind the defenders without lending any significant aid, leaving the little force very much on its own. ... Pfc. Sufficient, if concentrated in our front, to have disputed the passage of every river and delayed us days and days, which of itself would have been fatal.”. Two days later a Rebel division nearly captured Allatoona Pass, a natural choke point in the Federal supply route. Background In the wake of his successful campaign to capture Atlanta, Major General William T. Sherman began making plans for a march against Savannah. A program of Georgia Humanities in partnership with the University of Georgia Press, the University System of Georgia/GALILEO, and the Office of the Governor. Before the army left Atlanta, the general issued an order outlining the rules of the march, but soldiers often ignored the restrictions on foraging. After General John Bell Hood abandoned Atlanta, he moved the Confederate Army of Tennessee outside the city to recuperate from the previous campaign. The militia field commander, Maj. Gen. Gustavus W. Smith, then at Forsyth, determined that the best place for his citizen-soldiers was “in the fortifications at Macon, leaving the outside work to the cavalry.” Wheeler was also getting plenty of advice in lieu of concrete missions. Sherman placed one corps to flank the position from the north and another across the river to the south. During their 285-mile 'March to the Sea' the army lived off the land and destroyed all war-making capabilities of … Terry Kay was a prolific and award-winning author whose... A number of significant historical events have occurred in... Bailey, Anne J. An effort to better focus the state’s military response to Sherman’s advance became mired in political controversy. It was not a comfortable occasion, since the two had quarreled bitterly over issues of strategy and resources. to the Sea, the most destructive campaign against a civilian population during the Civil War (1861-65), began in Atlanta on November 15, 1864, and concluded in Savannah on December 21, 1864. Sherman's "March to the Sea" followed his successful Atlanta Campaign of May to September 1864. In a pinch, Beauregard summoned Hardee from Savannah to take charge in Macon, with Hardee arriving just as the first elements of Union Maj. Gen. Oliver O. Howard’s Right Wing began appearing north of the city. Sherman's March to the Sea refers to a long stretch of devastating Union army movements that took place during the United States Civil War. The capture of the city of Atlanta made General Sherman a household name. The rest of Sherman's route was not so fortunate. Soon he was well out of Georgia, with Sherman between him and the heart of the state. Outnumbered more than 2-to-1, his best option was to march around north of Atlanta to disrupt the Federals’ attenuated supply line and draw them away from the city in order to protect their vital rail link with their Tennessee depots. A Controversial Question: Were Fears of China Justified? Moving with the lengthy wagon trains were 5,000 cattle, representing a 40-day beef supply. Judson Kilpatrick led the cavalry. In the midst of all the complicated planning for his Tennessee invasion, Hood added his bit to the mix. The Union soldiers had indeed carried out a war on civilians, burning Sherman's march frightened and appalled Southerners. Even so, Beauregard pronounced Hood’s plan “perfectly feasible…according to the principles of war.” Davis offered Beauregard command of a new organizational jurisdiction, to be called the Division of the West, encompassing five states and including the forces under Hood and Taylor (Hardee’s coastal domain would be added later). Sherman had about 2,500 supply wagons and 600 ambulances. Sherman took beautiful Savannah the next day, bringing the infamous March to the Sea to an end. Sherman's March to the Sea (also known as the Savannah Campaign or simply Sherman's March) was a military campaign of the American Civil War conducted through Georgia from November 15 until December 21, 1864, by Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman of the Union Army. Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube. Deciding that the 4,000 muskets were more crucial to Savannah’s defense, McLaws ordered a withdrawal. What the badly hemorrhaging Confederacy might have done with the extra time, however, is another question altogether. Once Beauregard was finally in a position to influence events, his determination to preserve military assets at all costs doomed Savannah. Sherman then launched his March to the Sea, a 50-mile- (80-km-) wide swath of total destruction across Georgia from Atlanta to Savannah, some 200 miles (320 km) to the southeast; Savannah, captured in late December, was largely spared. The result was a series of mounted clashes between Wheeler and his Federal counterpart Kilpatrick that climaxed at Waynesboro on December 4. Had it been aggressively pursued, the last suggestion could have caused Sherman real problems. Finally he destroyed civilian infrastructure along his path of advance. Further complicating matters were a series of significant rivers requiring pontoon bridging—natural congestion points that an alert and aggressive enemy could exploit. Look it up now! He eliminated Atlanta's war making potential and brought sheer destruction to Georgia, then offered generous surrender terms. This paper has marks, tears and foxing on edges spine is split. Standard histories of Major General William T. Shermans celebrated March to the Sea invariably portray the Confederacys response as inconsequential. He rejected the Union plan to move through. It seemed too that “General Weather” was wearing Confederate gray. Our line of historical magazines includes America's Civil War, American History, Aviation History, Civil War Times, Military History, MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History, Vietnam, Wild West and World War II. Gen. Judson Kilpatrick, commanding Sherman’s cavalry, who retorted later: “Was there no enemy to oppose us? Once Wheeler drew close to Augusta, he came under the jurisdiction of Bragg, who used the cavalry to blunt Federal thrusts toward the city. Atlanta fell to Sherman's Army in early September 1864. The citizen-soldiers were thrown back with serious losses. Sherman's March to the Sea, more formally known as the Savannah Campaign, was a military campaign of the American Civil War conducted through Georgia from November 15 to December 21, 1864 by Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman of the Union Army. Civil War Music. Davis reluctantly seconded Beauregard’s priorities, hoping that “the fullest possible defense consistent with the safety of the garrison” would be made. The right wing was under Oliver O. Howard. Even though he was counting on foraging to keep his army supplied, Sherman had hedged his bets by filling 2,500 wagons with a 20-day supply of bread; 40 days’ of sugar, coffee and salt, as well as three days’ of animal feed. William Tecumseh Sherman’s March to the Sea devastated the South, as Sherman pruned the Old-South myth of magnolia splendor to a stump. The Lincoln cult – especially its hyper-warmongering neocon branch – has been holding conferences, celebrations, and commemorations while continuing to rewrite history to suit its statist biases. The March. The first came east of Macon at the. Declaring that Governor Joseph Brown was “disabled” by being cut off in Macon (where he had fled before the fall of Milledgeville), Augusta-based Ambrose R. Wright, second-in-command of state forces as president of the Georgia Senate, activated a clause in the law empowering him to intervene. The March to the Sea Heritage Trail® (aka Sherman's March) is one of the Georgia Civil War Heritage Trails®. Should Sherman not play along—by choosing to thrust southward through Georgia instead—Hood would then harry his rear. Hardee’s field headquarters was about 40 miles from Beauregard’s, but Beauregard might as well have been on the moon. On December 4 Hardee sent his veteran commander Maj. Gen. Lafayette McLaws to the post for an assessment. Sherman's March to the Sea by Paul G. Ashdown & Edward Caudill In November 1864, after capturing Atlanta, Sherman cut a swath through Georgia to Savanah, then commenced the Carolinas Campaign. Southern soldiers who found themselves in Sherman’s path fought hard, but most of the opposition was limtited to hit-and-run attacks that the Federals could easily counter. He took control of the militia east of the Oconee River and ordered it to Macon. Hood, however, soon tired of playing the spoiler’s role. On the night of December 20, with Sherman well away from the front in Hilton Head and most of the Union troops besieging Savannah in a purely defensive posture, the Confederates evacuated the city. Noah Andre Trudeau’s latest book, Southern Storm: Sherman’s March to the Sea, reexamines that event and the Southern response to it. No one was thinking beyond the immediate horizon. Beauregard sent another message to General Cobb, who was with the Georgia militiamen falling back toward Macon from forward positions just south of Atlanta. Without any contrary information from Wheeler, Hardee wrongly assumed that the Federal line of march was well to the northeast, leaving the railroad clear from Gordon to the coast. On September 25 he reached Palmetto, Ga., some 25 miles southwest of enemy-occupied Atlanta. Instead of bobbing, weaving and jabbing to foil his opponent, Hood began thinking of striking into Tennessee to capture its Federal-occupied capital, Nashville. His vision of hard war brought the Confederacy to its knees, but forestalled thousands of battlefield and civilian deaths. Not that Hood was interested in his advice as he made changes to the Davis-approved plan. Peter J. Osterhaus commanded the Fifteenth Corps, and Francis P. Blair Jr. commanded the Seventeenth Corps. On the night of November 25, Howard used his superior numbers to flank the defenders and force them to retreat. Bragg and Hardee turned their attention to protecting Augusta and Savannah. The prospect greatly worried Brig. One unanticipated consequence of the Union feint toward Macon was to concentrate the various Confederate military assets more effectively than it had been ordered when the Federal supply columns were so attenuated. Were they justified? Hood failed to realize that the Union strength remaining in Tennessee was sufficiently large enough to stop him outside Nashville, and Sherman never gave a second thought to turning back. So far, so good. Former Southern Brigadier General Clement A. Evans asserted, for example, that there was “no force available to obstruct” Sherman’s soldiers. While Governor Brown expected thousands to turn out, he hadn’t counted on the inability of the state’s bureaucracy to manage such an enterprise. Such broad generalizations may assuage wounded Southern pride, but they also rewrite history. On December 8 he instructed Hardee that if he were forced to choose between the safety of his army or “that of Savannah, sacrifice the latter.”. Beauregard was not ineffectively carping at John B. Hood’s army wasn’t the only piece of Davis’ strategy. March to the Sea. This long logistical tail was Sherman’s weak point. The Jefferson Davis scheme to subvert Sherman in his mission failed in every aspect. On October 3 Davis met with Beauregard in Augusta. HistoryNet.com is brought to you by Historynet LLC, the world's largest publisher of history magazines. Yes, yes! Hood quickly launched a series of fierce offensive strikes at the Union forces enfolding the city. By the time the machinery finally began to turn, Sherman’s March to the Sea was a matter for the history books. Toward that end, Hood marched west and north to close on the Tennessee border. Hood planned to strike at exposed portions of the Federal force, but only when the odds favored him. At worst, he thought, if the enemy’s attention was on him, it would mean the rest of Georgia would be left alone. (Rodney Bryant and Daniel Woolfolk/Military Times)... Homepage Featured Top Stories, Homepage Hero, Vietnam, Vietnam Magazine, Vietnam War. With his units being asked to help protect Macon as well as slow Sherman, the frustrated cavalryman sent an urgent request to Richmond on November 17 asking to be directed to someone “who knows the course they desire pursued.” He never received a clear answer to his query. Sherman had rested in Atlanta until after the election, but once Lincoln had won, Sherman torched the city and headed … Web. Palmetto was then headquarters for General John B. During September and October, Sherman and Hood played cat-and-mouse in north Georgia (and Alabama) as Hood threatened Sherman's communications to the north. There was more bad news. 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