Sherman’s Flame and Blame Campaign through Georgia and the Carolinas: …and the burning of Columbia

General William T. Sherman created a new form of physical, economic and psychological total warfare against civilians and private property in Georgia and the Carolinas that he readily admitted would be violent and cruel. If the people raise a howl against my barbarity and cruelty, I will answer that war is war, and not popularity-seeking, he said. If they want peace, they and their relatives must stop the war. In addition to physical and economic assaults, he designed a massive psychological strategy designed to cripple the Confederacy, to destroy the faith of civilians in their leaders and their government, and to kill the will of the people to fight for their cause. The military orders that Sherman issued in Atlanta and throughout his campaign were so carefully worded that he could and did truthfully deny giving orders for robbing, stealing, destroying and burning personal and private property on the circuitous route from Atlanta to Goldsboro, N.C., And he could and did, when necessary, blame the nearest Confederates, no matter how far away they were, for atrocities committed by his men. Even though Sherman openly admitted most of his strategies and his efforts to mystify the enemy, those elements have been all but overlooked through the years. However, they were an integral part of the campaign that would help end the Civil War in 1865.