Sherman's March

In November 1864, following President Abraham Lincoln's reelection, General William T. Sherman led 65,000 Federal troops on a military campaign through the South. His forces destroyed Atlanta, captured Savannah, and advanced through Georgia and the Carolinas toward Virginia in a scorched-earth strategy. Sherman's campaign, known as the "March to the Sea" and the subsequent drive north, marked a crucial turning point in the Civil War and helped break Confederate resistance in the war's final months. The campaign remains significant in Southern historical memory. Burke Davis draws on hundreds of eyewitness accounts to chronicle this episode from multiple perspectives—those of Union soldiers and Confederate civilians and combatants who experienced the destruction. The account examines Sherman's role as a polarizing figure in American military history and explores the lasting impact of the Civil War.