"Ruins of the R. R. Depot Charleston S. C.," George N. Barnard, 1865
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- Chicago History Museum, ICHi-22108
Sherman’s March to the Sea
After capturing Atlanta, General William Tecumseh Sherman requested permission from Grant and Lincoln to march his army across Georgia to the sea. Sherman wanted to make Southerners “so sick of war that generations would pass away before they would again appeal to it,” and his commanders reluctantly agreed. Cutting a wide path of destruction, Sherman’s troops reached Savannah on December 10; in February, they took the war to South Carolina, where they wreaked even greater havoc.