what was the purpose of he March to the Sea in 1864?

Answer 1

Sherman's March to the Sea is the name commonly given to the Savannah Campaign, conducted in late 1864 by Major General William Tecumseh Sherman of the Union Army during the American Civil War. The campaign began with General Sherman's troops leaving the captured city of Atlanta, Georgia, on November 15, 1864, and ended with the capture of the port of Savannah on December 22.

Sherman's March to the Sea followed his successful Atlanta Campaign of May to September 1864. He and U.S. Army commander Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant believed that the Civil War would end only if the Confederacy's strategic, economic, and psychological capacity for warfare were decisively broken. Sherman therefore applied the principles of scorched earth, ordering his troops to burn crops, kill livestock, consume supplies, and destroy civilian infrastructure along their path. This policy is often also referred to as total war. The recent reelection of President Abraham Lincoln ensured that short-term political pressure would not be applied to restrain these tactics.

A second objective of the campaign was more traditional. Grant's armies in Virginia continued to be in a stalemate against Robert E. Lee's army, besieged in Petersburg, Virginia. By moving in Lee's rear, performing a massive turning movement against him, Sherman could possibly increase pressure on Lee, allowing Grant the opportunity to break through, or at least keep Southern reinforcements away from Virginia.

The campaign was designed to be similar to Grant's innovative and successful Vicksburg Campaign, in that Sherman's armies would reduce their need for traditional supply lines by "living off the land" after their 20 days of rations were consumed. Foragers, known as "bummers", would provide food seized from local farms for the Army while they destroyed the railroads and the manufacturing and agricultural infrastructure of the state. The twisted and broken railroad rails that the troops wrapped around tree trunks and left behind became known as "Sherman's neckties". Since the army would be out of touch with the North throughout the campaign, Sherman gave explicit orders regarding the conduct of the campaign:

Read more at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherman's_March_to_the_Sea

Answer 2

To cripple as much of the South's economic structure as possible, for three reasons. The first, so that it couln't pick up the fighting again. Second, to make sure it couldn't survive economically without Northern investment. The third, to break the political will of Southerners to the point of complete emotional and mental crippling of the population, as a means of "punishing" them for the war.