Sherman's March to the Sea as an example of modern warfare
General William T. Sherman's March to the Sea was the first example of modern warfare. Both the destruction that Sherman instigated and his reasoning for doing it were seen before the Civil War. The tactics that Sherman used in his March to the Sea have been used in more recent wars as well as his ideas, truly making his March the beginning of modern warfare. In past wars throughout the world, armies would throw themselves at each other, leaving the families at home to support them. Napoleon brought about the idea of total destruction of the enemy's army, which in turn would result in great losses of their own army. Even General Grant believed in this total destruction of the army. Grant was notorious for sending men into die, just to destroy the other army because, "although he rejected the Napoleonic glorification of the battle, he accepted a Napoleonic strategy of annihilation." (The American Way of War, Weigley, 141) Grant's attacks against the north were different in that he was not afraid to lose hundreds of men simply to beat the enemy because he saw that the Union greatly outnumbered the Confederacy army. Because the Confederacy army was so greatly outnumbered, General Grant simply had to "throw" his men at the
Since Sherman did not believe in war, he believed "that if the terror and destruction of war could be carried straight to the enemy people, they would lose their zest fro war, and lacking the people's support, the enemy's army would collapse under its own weight" (Weigley, 149). " "But this is not a bloodhound!" she protested, only to be told: "Well madam, we cannot tell what it might grow into if we leave it behind. (Weigley, 149) Therefore, the old ways of fighting at the armies of the enemy was not enough to end wars quickly and effectively, and that's where General Sherman came in. The bomb was dropped to end the war with Japan more quickly by attacking innocent people, and it worked (Zook, 430), just as Sherman's March to the sea did in the past. General Sherman tried to get inside the heads of the enemy people, "make old and young, rich and poor feel the hard hand of war, as well as their organized armies (Makers of Modern Strategy, Paret, 434). Also in past wars, the idea of total annihilation, as used by General Sherman, was not a totally new idea. (they were intended) to get beyond the eney's economy, in the minds of the enemy people" (Weigley, 149). (Foote, 36) In one extreme incident, "When a poodle's mistress appealed for her lap dog to be spared, the soldier who had caught up the pet and was bearing it off to the executions replied: "Madam, our orders are to kill every bloodhound. An unsightly landmark that could be seen in the wake of Sherman's men was called "Sherman's Neckties. The men under General Sherman were instructed to cover 15 miles a day (which was later reduced to ten miles a day) and to destroy anything that might be of any use to the enemy, or the enemy's people. General Sherman, himself, did not agree with war, nor did he see the Civil War as many others around him did. The food stuffs of Georgia no longer flowed to the army and the state was demoralized. " General Sherman did not directly attack the civilians in his path to the sea, but the collateral effects, such as wrecking habitations, destroying crops, and stealing the farm animals just showed how far the Union would be willing to go in order to stop the Confederacy from remaining apart from the rest of the United States (Warfare, Parker, 231). There were many different types of destruction that was used in Sherman's march.
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