What was grant's strategy for total war?

Answer 1

Grant's overall strategy was to decimate Lee's army in Virginia while Sherman raided Georgia.

Civilian as well as Military targets.

Answer 2

I don't know whether he used that actual term.

But when he became General-in-Chief in March 1864, he did call for harsh new measures, some of the unpopular, but which did eventually bring victory.

First, he ended prisoner-exchange. This would benefit him on balance, because the Confederates were running out of recruits. But it led to the appalling conditions of overcrowding at Andersonville prison-camp, where 45,000 Union troops were sent.

Then he settled on a war of attrition, knowing that Lee would not give up until his lines had been stretched too thin to hold. This caused massive Northern casualties, while according to map, Grant did not seem to be making much progress.

Meanwhile he sent Phil Sheridan to the Shenandoah Valley, telling him to destroy the farms so thoroughly that a crow flying over it would need to carry its own rations.

The idea of doing the same thing in Georgia was Sherman's, but Grant soon saw the sense in it, and told Sherman to "Make Georgia howl!"

By the time Sherman had finished with Georgia, and crossed the river into South Carolina in February 1865, the Confederates were so desperate that Lee was starting to do the unthinkable - planning to put slaves into uniform to defend the South.

The end could not be far.

Answer 3

He saw it as the only solution. Everything else had failed.

Grant was a good simplifier. He ended the system of prisoner-exchange for the simple reason that the Confederates were bound to run out of men first. Then he allowed Sherman to wreck the Georgia farms and railroads, simply because it would help to starve the Confederate armies in the field.

At a terrible cost in human suffering, these two strategies brought the war to a close.

Answer 4

General in Chief US Grant's strategy of total war was to destroy civilian sources of supply that could be used to help the Confederate war efforts. This strategy was needed as on a one to one basis, the Union armies could not defeat the Confederate armies on the battlefield. Also, only by siege, which was time consuming, could major cities such as Richmond be captured.

Answer 5

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