Union General William Tecumseh Sherman made one of the most brilliant decisions of the American Civil War. In November and December 1964, Sherman and more than 62,000 Union troops marched from Atlanta to Savannah in Georgia, devastating the countryside, towns and cities.
Sherman aimed to "make Georgia howl" - he wanted to make the Southern civilians hate war so thoroughly that they would never want to fight another once this one ended. And if Sherman's men destroyed Southern food supplies, factories, and morale, they would be doing deep damage to the Confederate army, while not actually killing soldiers. .
The "march to the sea" began on November 15th, 1864. Sherman had his Yankee troops feed themselves off of the land they were moving through so his army killed livestock, ate crops and took food from starving Southern civilians. The Yankees tore down and burned bridges, railroads, warehouses and barns and even deeds books and privates residences. Food for men and animals was taken as needed, but most was just destroyed. At the end the march Sherman had simply destroyed about $80,000,000 of property and possessions.
Sherman captured Savannah on December 22. He had hiked 250 miles in 26 days with only token resistance from the weak Confederate armies, and had achieved his main objective of striking terror into the southern people. The march had a devastating psychological impact on the South and directly influenced the final Confederate defeat four months later. The sight of the Union army marching unopposed through the fields, homes, and towns that the Confederate soldiers were fighting to protect caused the already exhausted Confederates to cringe at the suggestion of returning to the battlefield. Confederate soldiers began to desert their army in steady numbers which grew as the march went on, causing severe problems for the Confederate army. Sherman's march of destruction was like nothing before it, and the impact on southern morale was immediate and heavy.