U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Map Showing Route of Marches of the Army of Genl. W.T. Sherman (1865)

Beginning in November of 1864, General William Tecumseh Sherman took Union soldiers on a long march through Georgia to destroy Confederate infrastructure, thereby crippling their ability to wage war, and to break the will of Southerners on the homefront. This map depicts what is now famously known as Sherman's March to the Sea. The march started in Atlanta shortly after it had been captured by Union forces. Sherman had two main objectives for the march. The first was to approach Robert E. Lee’s Confederate army from the rear to help Ulysses S. Grant’s Union forces in Virginia. The second was to destroy infrastructure and property, avoiding casualties, but enacting psychological warfare on Confederate citizens. Sherman’s troops split into right and left wings from Atlanta, both supported by cavalry forces. Both wings took distinctive routes to Savannah, which can be seen on the map. Sherman wanted to confuse the Confederates as to their ultimate destinations, making them guess whether they were heading toward Savannah, Macon, or Augusta. As the march went on, the troop’s continued to destroy infrastructure, most notably Georgia's railways, which helped cripple Confederate supply lines and negatively impacted civilian populations. Sherman’s troops would also loot civilian’s homes, seemingly at random. Eventually, Sherman’s troops made it to Savannah, which they were eventually able to surround. On December 21st, 1864, Savannah was formally surrendered to Union forces. Sherman’s March to the Sea was a huge victory for the Union and contributed to the eventual end of the war by disrupting the flow of supplies to Confederate forces and breaking the will of the civilians to support the Confederate cause.