General William Tecumseh Sherman.
March to the sea, during the Civil war
On December 24, 1864, president Abraham Lincoln received a Telegram :
I Beg to Present to You a Christmas Gift the City of Savannah.
The sender was 44 year old General William Tecumseh Sherman,
Earlier in the war, Sherman's erratic behavior had led to news paper reports that he was insane. But General Grant trusted him, giving him rein to launch an assault on Atlanta.
His over all plan was to demoralize the confederate army, to destroy the enemy's ability to fight by destroying its will.
Though ( the south cannot be made to love us ) General Sherman said, but ( it can be made to fear us ).
After sacking Atlanta, Sherman and his 62,000 men set out on their epic March to the Sea.
They found little resistance.
Instead, they engaged in demolition.
Sherman never called for the destruction of private property, but he rarely punished any one for it.
The devil him self couldn't restrain my men, he explained.
Across the country side they swept in a barely contained anarchy - plundering railroads, poultry, potatoes, sheep, furniture, every thing they could lay hand on.
To a distraught farm women, one soldier politely vowed,
( Madam, we are going to suppress this rebellion if it takes every last chicken in the confederacy ).
Out side Savanna ( Georgia ), General Sherman took a key fort after a fierce hand to hand battle.
The losses were worth it, as General Sherman wrote to Atlanta's Mayor :
You cannot qualify war in harsher terms than I will. War is cruelty and you cannot refine it.... But my dear sirs, when peace does come, you may call on me for any thing.
Such was the hatred of General Sherman in the South, it is unlikely many accepted his offer.
General Sherman war during his epic March from Atlanta to Savannah, one historian, wrote ( this campaign opened up a wound 60 miles wide in the heart of the South ).
Faissal Elmasri
Orlando / Florida
July 2014
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