Sherman’s March to the Sea

After capturing Atlanta, William Tecumseh Sherman led roughly sixty thousand Union soldiers eastward through Georgia. The army lived partly from the countryside and destroyed railways, crops and property considered useful to the Confederate war effort.

Enslaved people left plantations and followed the advancing columns, forcing military authorities to confront questions of protection, food and freedom. Savannah surrendered in December, and Sherman presented the city to Abraham Lincoln as a Christmas gift.