General William T. Sherman completes March to the Sea

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On December 10, 1864, Union General William T. Sherman concluded his March to the Sea upon reaching Savannah, Georgia. His army had been moving from Atlanta across Georgia, devastating farms, railways, and stockpiles while living off the land, fulfilling Sherman's aim to "make Georgia howl." The destruction plan was endorsed by President Abraham Lincoln and General Ulysses S. Grant.

Savannah, fortified and defended by 10,000 Confederates led by General William Hardee, posed a challenge. The city was surrounded by flooded rice fields, accessible only through a few narrow causeways. Sherman's army, low on supplies and cut off from the North, sought contact with friendly ships along the coast. General Oliver O. Howard dispatched Captain William Duncan, who eventually reached a Union gunboat, later heading to Hilton Head, South Carolina. Supply ships were sent to Savannah while Duncan proceeded to Washington, D.C., informing Secretary of War Edwin Stanton of the successful March to the Sea.

Hardee resisted for ten days before realizing the futility of his position and fled Savannah on December 20, choosing to fight another day elsewhere.

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