March to the Sea (Sherman's) Punitive 1864 ‘scorched earth’ campaign through the south-east towards the end of the American civil war. There are still places in the South where to whistle ‘Marching through Georgia’ is an invitation to violence. After the drawn-out Atlanta campaign of May-September, Sherman was delayed a further two months by Hood's attacks on his supply lines, but did not yield to the temptation of pursuing him into Tennessee, leaving his subordinate Thomas to destroy him. Sherman divided 62, 000 men between the Armies of Georgia under Slocum and of Tennessee under Howard. Ordering Atlanta to be levelled after his departure, on 7 November Sherman advanced with his four corps in parallel across a 50 mile (80 km) front, destroying railways and living off the land with a vengeance. There was little fighting involved in a forthright war on the civilian population, during which Union soldiers were encouraged to burn what they did not pillage. The rape of white women was discouraged, a restraint not extended to the liberators' treatment of blacks.
The only serious resistance was posed by Hardee with 10, 000 men behind fortifications defending the long-blockaded port of Savannah. It was well within Sherman's capability to cut him off, but he left him with an escape route across the river. This Hardee took on 21 December, permitting the Unionists to occupy the city unopposed. In a Christmas Eve message Sherman ‘presented’ it to Lincoln along with 150 heavy guns and 250, 000 bales of cotton. Technically this was the end of the March to the Sea, but the same approach was adopted in the subsequent campaign through South Carolina, hated as the cradle of secession, which included the sack of Columbia. The campaign was the logical outcome of Lincoln's definition of secession as a criminal act by individuals, not states.
— Hugh Bicheno
