- Union General William Tecumseh Sherman led approximately 62,000 troops in a campaign across Georgia from November 15 to December 21, 1864, during the American Civil War.
- Sherman's forces aimed to capture the Confederate state capital of Atlanta and then continue southeastward, cutting a 60-mile-wide path of destruction through vital infrastructure, industries, military production centers, and civilian property to disrupt both Confederate logistics and morale.
- By implementing a deliberate scorched-earth policy, the army sought to cripple the South's agricultural base, supply lines, and railroad networks to weaken Confederate fighting capabilities and hasten the war's end.
- Sherman aimed to strike where the Confederacy believed their homeland to be secure and invulnerable, thereby inflicting psychological damage on civilian morale.
- Sherman's forces famously devastated civilian property, burned cities and towns, plundered supplies, confiscated livestock, enslaved laborers, destroyed plantations, and caused the displacement of numerous civilians seeking refuge behind Confederate lines.