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Sherman is considered most correctly so, as the first General to encompass the idea of total war. He was the most ruthless of generals on either side of the war. Popular history has it that his tactics made the Confederates desert in fear. Most of the deserters would later say that they left to defend their farms and their "women folk" from this madman and his 60,000 strong army.

A great deal has been made about Sherman's tactics. Sherman unlike Grant or Lee was no tactician. He was at a point in the war where the Confederates were about done for the most part. Put in charge of a 60,000 man force it isn't hard to see how he made his way to the coast. With enough fodder even the most inept leader can make a name for himself.

There can be little doubt from the accounts from both sides that the discipline among the ranks of Sherman's army was little if it existed at all.

After taking over from Grant at Chattanooga Sherman pressed south into Atlanta. There he preceded to burn and pillage every house home and farm in the area. Sherman at one time disavowed any knowledge of such events but later said he designed the idea to weaken the morale of the Confederates on the front lines by attacking their loved ones at home.

From Atlanta he cut loose from his supplies and lived off the land as he made his way to the coast of Savannah. Attacking farms along the way these forces were not satisfied to take cattle, grain and horses, most ever farm was destroyed, cutting a 60 mile path through Georgia.

Once at Savannah, Sherman then turned north to Columbia. There the city was burnt much like Atlanta had been. Sherman in an address to his men at Columbia declared South Carolina, "The Hell Hole of secession."

After leaving Columbia, Sherman's destruction of farms and towns continued into North Carolina to Raleigh. In the end Sherman's mayhem was not ended by battle but by the end of the war.

Some are led to wonder if Sherman's tactics were at all necessary given the late hours of the war. There is little doubt that this one man has fed a distrust of the North by the South that has existed well into the 20th century.

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The map data was compiled and drawn by Chip Brown. Research for the brief essay came from many sources.