“History will brand him a robber and incendiary, and will deservedly ‘damn him to everlasting fame.” In 1864, General William Tecumseh Sherman led his troops on a “total warfare” campaign, from Atlanta to Savannah, Georgia. This campaign, known as Sherman’s March to the Sea, was marked by its objective, to cripple the Confederacy’s ability to wage war. They destroyed anything and everything important to the war effort, leaving ruins where Georgia’s great cities once stood. Read more about it!

The information in this guide focuses on primary source materials found in the digitized historic newspapers from the digital collection Chronicling America.

The timeline below highlights important dates related to this topic and a section of this guide provides some suggested search strategies for further research in the collection.