Sherman's March to the Sea

        Sherman and his troops began their march through the South on November 16th, 1864. His policy of destruction was meant to make Georgians so weary of war that they would want to quit. Ulysses S. Grant and Sherman himself felt that they needed to do this march to win the war. They thought that the only way the South would go down would be if their strategic, economic, and psychological capacity for warfare were decisively broken. Sherman left schools, hospitals, and churches alone but destroyed almost every other building in his path. The reason why Savannah has a lot of historical monuments that are still standing today is because the Mayor of Savannah handed it over without a fight. Along the way, they freed as many slaves as they could and encouraged the strong ones that were not too old and not too young to go with them. This march was extremely risky because there were no railroads for food and supplies and no communication. Since Sherman and his men did not have much supplies, some stole from innocent villagers. They would steal food, jewelry, and pretty much anything useful and valuable. Although it is unknown how many people died or were injured, there were probably a lot. Most died from sickness, some from lack of resources, and some that tried to interfere with the march. It ended on December 21st 1864. Sherman's March caused the South to completely surrender in April of 1865 and ended the Civil War.