Why did general sherman wage total war during his March to the sea?
When you fight one enemy, capture his capital. When you fight more than one enemy, attack his lines of communication. General Sherman destroyed all the rail road tracks and food in a 60 mile wide strip. With the rail roads destroyed, trains carrying supplies could not carry military supplies. If he had just destroyed bridges, it would have been possible to off load freight cars from one train, put the supplies on wagons, carry them by wagon to a different place past the bridge, and load them on another train. It was not that simple with a 60 mile wide strip destroyed. It was easy enough to load supplies on a horse and wagon. Then after about 30 miles, the horse needed to eat. There was no food. The horse would drop. The Union had messed up the South’s lines of communication.
