Why did General Sherman attack the civilians?
Union and Confederate forces did not attack civilians. However gorillas like William Quantrill and Bloody Bill Anderson did hang and shoot civilians. Sherman’s goal in his march though Georgia and later through South Carolina was to feed his army, while destroying the south’s ability to wage war. Foraging parties would strike out from the main column, find a plantation and steal all the food they could carry. What they could not carry, they burned, denying the Confederacy of food and supplies. They would burn the barns, but left the occupied houses alone.
