November 12, 1864---"A devastation more or less relentless . . ."

NOVEMBER 12, 1864:     

Generals Grant and Sherman meet at Kingston, Georgia. Despite some concerns about John Bell Hood’s Confederate force away north, Grant gives Sherman the go-head to cut loose from his supply lines and march to the sea with 60,000 troops arrayed in two parallel columns of 30,000 men each. Since Union forces were abandoning their supply and communication line to Chattanooga, Sherman gave orders to “forage liberally during the march.” He also ordered mills and cotton gins burned along the way and if guerrilla activity was encountered then “army commanders should order and enforce a devastation more or less relentless according to the measure of such hostility.” Although Confederate resistance was nil during the March, much devastation was wrought.