1 00:00:00,080 --> 00:00:03,480 Speaker 1: Hey, history fans, here's a rerun for today, brought to 2 00:00:03,480 --> 00:00:06,600 Speaker 1: you by Tracy V. Wilson. We hope it makes previous 3 00:00:06,640 --> 00:00:09,320 Speaker 1: episodes for this date easier to find in the feed. 4 00:00:10,800 --> 00:00:13,280 Speaker 1: Welcome to this Day in History Class from how Stuff 5 00:00:13,280 --> 00:00:15,480 Speaker 1: Works dot Com and from the desk of Stuff you 6 00:00:15,520 --> 00:00:17,959 Speaker 1: Missed in History Class. It's the show where we explore 7 00:00:17,960 --> 00:00:20,119 Speaker 1: the past one day at a time with a quick 8 00:00:20,160 --> 00:00:27,200 Speaker 1: look at what happened today in history. Hello, and welcome 9 00:00:27,240 --> 00:00:30,280 Speaker 1: to the podcast. I'm Tracy B. Wilson, and it's November. 10 00:00:31,920 --> 00:00:35,199 Speaker 1: Major General William To come to Sherman's March to the 11 00:00:35,240 --> 00:00:38,560 Speaker 1: Sea began on this day in eighteen sixty four. This 12 00:00:38,720 --> 00:00:41,959 Speaker 1: happened during the US Civil War, and it's more formally 13 00:00:42,120 --> 00:00:46,640 Speaker 1: known as the Georgia and Carolina's Campaign. The Union Army 14 00:00:46,680 --> 00:00:50,320 Speaker 1: had captured Atlanta in September and had removed its civilian 15 00:00:50,360 --> 00:00:53,479 Speaker 1: population with the intent of keeping Atlanta as a strictly 16 00:00:53,720 --> 00:00:58,640 Speaker 1: military base. It had also, though, destroyed factories and railroads 17 00:00:58,640 --> 00:01:03,720 Speaker 1: and buildings based anything that might be useful to the Confederacy. 18 00:01:03,880 --> 00:01:07,640 Speaker 1: Many homes in Atlanta were also burned, although it wasn't 19 00:01:07,680 --> 00:01:11,360 Speaker 1: the wholesale destruction of the entire city, as it's often 20 00:01:11,400 --> 00:01:17,720 Speaker 1: popularly imagined. The march from Atlanta started on November, and 21 00:01:17,760 --> 00:01:23,160 Speaker 1: Sherman's force was divided into two approximately equal wings. They 22 00:01:23,160 --> 00:01:26,880 Speaker 1: continued southeast towards Savannah, Georgia, where they would arrive on December. 23 00:01:27,920 --> 00:01:32,280 Speaker 1: This was not though a straight, unbroken line. The two 24 00:01:32,319 --> 00:01:37,440 Speaker 1: wings progressed in four columns, with the right wing shifting 25 00:01:37,480 --> 00:01:40,399 Speaker 1: south toward make In, Georgia, and the left wing shifting 26 00:01:40,440 --> 00:01:43,760 Speaker 1: north toward Augusta, Georgia. This was to make it seem 27 00:01:43,800 --> 00:01:47,000 Speaker 1: as though maybe those cities were the real objective, but 28 00:01:47,160 --> 00:01:52,160 Speaker 1: both columns shifted once again and bypassed both cities. This 29 00:01:52,320 --> 00:01:56,040 Speaker 1: march was incredibly destructive. The intent was to rob the 30 00:01:56,080 --> 00:01:59,440 Speaker 1: Confederacy of anything it could possibly make use of, and 31 00:01:59,680 --> 00:02:04,040 Speaker 1: to terrify the civilian population and try to encourage a 32 00:02:04,120 --> 00:02:09,000 Speaker 1: faster Southern surrender. So the Union army took anything that 33 00:02:09,120 --> 00:02:13,480 Speaker 1: was edible or valuable from plantations and from farms that 34 00:02:13,520 --> 00:02:18,720 Speaker 1: they passed. Sherman had promised to make Georgia howell, so 35 00:02:18,840 --> 00:02:23,400 Speaker 1: they burned outbuildings and farms and sometimes homes. They kept 36 00:02:23,480 --> 00:02:28,239 Speaker 1: destroying railroads and cutting telegraph lines and burning stores and supplies. 37 00:02:28,960 --> 00:02:31,919 Speaker 1: They were as they went also emancipating people who were 38 00:02:32,000 --> 00:02:37,800 Speaker 1: enslaved on these properties. So, in theory, this destruction, and 39 00:02:37,800 --> 00:02:41,480 Speaker 1: it was definitely destructive, was supposed to have some limits. 40 00:02:42,240 --> 00:02:45,880 Speaker 1: Sherman gave orders not to enter people's homes, and when 41 00:02:45,919 --> 00:02:48,600 Speaker 1: seizing livestock, they were supposed to focus on things that 42 00:02:48,680 --> 00:02:51,680 Speaker 1: were owned by rich people rather than what was owned 43 00:02:51,680 --> 00:02:55,120 Speaker 1: by the poor. The people who weren't resisting were supposed 44 00:02:55,120 --> 00:02:58,760 Speaker 1: to be left alone as much as possible. The intent, 45 00:02:58,919 --> 00:03:01,799 Speaker 1: after all, was to pride the Confederacy of anything that 46 00:03:01,840 --> 00:03:06,079 Speaker 1: could be useful and to terrify people into surrendering. It 47 00:03:06,200 --> 00:03:10,560 Speaker 1: wasn't to punish the poorest civilians and the freed people 48 00:03:10,639 --> 00:03:14,360 Speaker 1: who really had nothing else. But in practice, these orders 49 00:03:14,400 --> 00:03:16,919 Speaker 1: that were supposed to sort of temper this whole process 50 00:03:16,960 --> 00:03:20,440 Speaker 1: were often not followed at all. Soldiers carried away as 51 00:03:20,520 --> 00:03:23,480 Speaker 1: much as they could and destroyed what they couldn't, and 52 00:03:23,520 --> 00:03:25,440 Speaker 1: a lot of people who were left in the path 53 00:03:25,520 --> 00:03:28,120 Speaker 1: of all of this destruction were women and children because 54 00:03:28,160 --> 00:03:31,639 Speaker 1: a lot of the men were away fighting. This also 55 00:03:31,760 --> 00:03:34,760 Speaker 1: meant that the people they were liberating from enslavement were 56 00:03:34,800 --> 00:03:39,120 Speaker 1: liberated now, but they were left with nothing to support themselves, 57 00:03:39,800 --> 00:03:43,800 Speaker 1: no way even necessarily to have shelter or food, and 58 00:03:43,920 --> 00:03:47,440 Speaker 1: Sherman and his army were taking no responsibility for them 59 00:03:47,680 --> 00:03:49,480 Speaker 1: or for making sure that they were going to be 60 00:03:49,520 --> 00:03:53,640 Speaker 1: able to survive. Once they had moved on, the two 61 00:03:53,720 --> 00:03:57,000 Speaker 1: wings of Sherman's march reconnected in December. They took Fort 62 00:03:57,080 --> 00:04:00,840 Speaker 1: McAlister before bombarding the city of Savannah, and then after 63 00:04:01,000 --> 00:04:06,640 Speaker 1: capturing Savannah, Sherman sent this telegram, his Excellency, President Lincoln, 64 00:04:06,680 --> 00:04:09,520 Speaker 1: I beg to present you as a Christmas gift the 65 00:04:09,600 --> 00:04:12,680 Speaker 1: city of Savannah with a hundred and fifty heavy guns 66 00:04:12,680 --> 00:04:15,920 Speaker 1: and plenty of ammunition, and also about twenty five thousand 67 00:04:16,000 --> 00:04:21,880 Speaker 1: bales of cotton. W. T. Sherman, Major General. The destruction 68 00:04:21,920 --> 00:04:25,040 Speaker 1: in all of this was massive. The Union army lost 69 00:04:25,120 --> 00:04:28,479 Speaker 1: fewer than two thousand of the sixty thousand men that 70 00:04:28,520 --> 00:04:31,359 Speaker 1: it left Atlanta with over this more than a month 71 00:04:31,400 --> 00:04:34,440 Speaker 1: of the campaign, and it was also disastrous for southern 72 00:04:34,480 --> 00:04:36,919 Speaker 1: morale as it was intended to be, especially for the 73 00:04:36,960 --> 00:04:40,760 Speaker 1: civilians who had thought that the Confederate Army would protect 74 00:04:40,800 --> 00:04:45,240 Speaker 1: them and instead had no protection. Sherman estimated that the 75 00:04:45,279 --> 00:04:49,920 Speaker 1: march through Georgia caused about one hundred million dollars worth 76 00:04:49,960 --> 00:04:53,119 Speaker 1: of destruction, and then the following year they turned north 77 00:04:53,200 --> 00:04:56,520 Speaker 1: toward the Carolinas, and that march probably also did an 78 00:04:56,560 --> 00:05:00,960 Speaker 1: equal amount of damage through the Carolinas. After the war, 79 00:05:01,200 --> 00:05:04,800 Speaker 1: Sherman's March became part of the Lost Cause propaganda that 80 00:05:04,920 --> 00:05:08,679 Speaker 1: reframed the Confederacy's role in the war as a noble 81 00:05:08,800 --> 00:05:13,040 Speaker 1: and heroic but doomed struggle to preserve a genteel way 82 00:05:13,080 --> 00:05:15,920 Speaker 1: of life. It even appeared in the nineteen fifteen Birth 83 00:05:15,960 --> 00:05:20,200 Speaker 1: of a Nation and then was later part of Nazi propaganda. 84 00:05:20,760 --> 00:05:24,200 Speaker 1: Thanks to Christo Frosciotis for his research work on Today's podcast, 85 00:05:24,240 --> 00:05:26,360 Speaker 1: and thanks to Casey Pigraham and Tandler Maye for their 86 00:05:26,400 --> 00:05:29,360 Speaker 1: audio work on the show. You can subscribe to the 87 00:05:29,400 --> 00:05:32,240 Speaker 1: Stay in History Class on Apple podcast, Google podcast, and 88 00:05:32,240 --> 00:05:34,080 Speaker 1: where a World you get your podcasts, and you can 89 00:05:34,120 --> 00:05:36,719 Speaker 1: tune in tomorrow for a battle that led to the 90 00:05:36,800 --> 00:05:37,600 Speaker 1: end of an empire.