How did General Sherman capture Atlanta in September of 1860 for and what was the impact on the presidential election that November ? What happened during Sherman's infamous March to the Sea and his march through the Carolinas ? How did these actions affect the outcome of the Civil war ? For answers to these questions and more insights ? Stay tuned . Welcome to the U . S . Army history and Heritage podcast . The official podcast of the United States Army Center of Military History . The center of Military History , writes and publishes the army's official history , manages the US Army museum enterprise and provides historical support throughout the U . S . Army . Hello everyone and welcome to the United States Army history and Heritage podcast . I'm lee Reynolds , the strategic communications officer for the Center of Military History . In this episode , part six of a seven part series on the Civil war . I'm speaking with CMH historian Dr Mark Bradley about general Sherman's campaign in Georgia and the Carolinas from 18 64 to 18 65 . This includes Sherman's capture of Atlanta , the march to the sea and his movements through south Carolina . Welcome Mark and thank you for joining me today . My pleasure lee So dr Mark Bradley is a historian at the U . S . Army center of Military history with an expertise in the Civil War era . He received his bachelor's degree in history from north Carolina State University and his master's and PhD degrees in History from the University of north Carolina at Chapel Hill . His publications include last stand in the Carolinas ? The battle of Bentonville ? This uh this astounding Close the road to Bennett place and blue coats and tar heels , soldiers and civilians and reconstruction north Carolina and the army's official history of logistical support in the Vietnam war . That's a , that's a big jump from civil war to the Vietnam war . But actually it's a popular publication here and you're currently writing the U . S . Army History and Heritage Book . And I think that's a rewrite as a whole . Like rewrite of an older publication that we have . Um , so what am I missing , Mark and anything you want to add ? Well , lee it just so happens that book of uh , actually co authored by myself and fellow CMH historian john Moss , uh , just been published north Carolina military history . It covers the military history and the tar heel state from earliest exploration up to the present . Oh well , great . We'll have to look for that as well . So , congratulations on that . And thanks for the free plug . Oh yeah , absolutely . Hey , thank you for the time and being here . So , okay , this is now part six of our seven part series . So , um , you know , previously we , we've , we've gotten into the , I think we've gotten through Chattanooga . So now let's pick up the strategic setting here . Um , where are we as Sherman is preparing to um , to attack Atlanta . So set set all this up for us . Well let's look at the command level . First off in March of 18 64 . General ulysses ? S grant is summoned to Washington D . C . He's been promoted to general in chief of the Union Army . Congress has approved his promotion to lieutenant general . So now he's running the show and it just so happens that his favorite subordinate , Major General William T Sherman , is preparing to launch the Atlanta campaign . Atlanta campaign is the major operation in the Western theater in 18 60 . For now , the Western theater is a huge swath of territory that runs from the Appalachian mountains to the east to the Mississippi River to the west . That is uh Sherman's uh command area . So he's really breaking out of the Western theater , would you see ? Because he's going south and then , Well , in a sense he is and in fact , uh he's going to be getting so east , he'll be coming pretty close to the coast by the end of the war and the Western theater gets a whole new definition . But the idea is Sherman is going to be working in tandem with Grant . Grant heads east . He's going to go after General robert E lee and the army of northern Virginia . His first objective is to break up that army and finish it off as a fighting force . While Grant is occupied in the Eastern theater in Virginia . Uh General Sherman will be marching south into Georgia . His objective is to break up the army of Tennessee commanded by General joseph E . Johnston and he will also be uh marching towards Atlanta , which is the deep south's largest manufacturing and transportation hub . But Grant emphasizes his first objective is to render that army uh inoperable . Right , That makes sense . So um so then they Sherman is moving south out of Chattanooga battle , kennesaw mountain and now he's preparing to attack Atlanta . So so described that . What was his plan for Atlanta ? Yeah , let's talk about tactics . Sherman has about 100 and 13,000 officers and men . General johnston has about 75,000 troops . So what Sherman will do if this is his favorite tactic is to outflank the confederate army to force it to fall back and incidentally their supply line is the same uh supply line as johnston falls back toward Atlanta . He'll be using the western and atlantic to supply his army while Sherman who's advancing from his base at Chattanooga . We'll also use that railroad to supply himself . And as he gets farther south , his supply line will lengthen that will make it more vulnerable to cavalry raids . He'll have to use more of his combat arm in order to guard that railroad . So it's going to be advantageous on one level for johnston to fall back to shorten his supply lines while Sherman's get ever longer . Um So what was the plan for Atlanta as he's moving south from kennesaw , you had just mentioned kennesaw mountain up to the time that he reaches kennesaw mountain , He has succeeded in outflanking johnston's army at each . Each uh will say each line that he's assumed . But when he gets to kennesaw johnston ends up with a very strong position deeply dug in along that mountain , Sherman becomes impatient . He's decided that his army is becoming a little too timid and a little too cautious . He's going to launch frontal assaults , three of them to be exact against kennesaw mountains line . He thinks that Johnston has stretched his forces out and that he's left that left him vulnerable . But Sherman is in for a big surprise when he attacks at kennesaw , he's hurled back , he loses 3000 troops , confederates just 1000 . It doesn't seem like a lot compared to Grant and lee who are losing far more troops on the eastern front . But in the words of one of Sherman subordinates General George h thomas , one or two more such attacks would use up this army . Well , so so what does he do ? So , at kennesaw , does he just , well , guess what , move around him again . He outflanked them yet again . He finally is able to get around johnston's flank and he pushes johnston back to the chattahoochee river which is the last natural barrier between the Union Army and Atlanta and at that point johnston orders his troops to fall back . When he finds out that Sherman has already crossed the chattahoochee using a pontoon bridge and then the confederate President jefferson , Davis steps in . He's deeply dissatisfied with johnston's conduct of the atlantic campaign so far ? He thinks johnston's been too timid and he's let Sherman get away with too much with too little sacrifice . So Davis decides to place one of his subordinates one of johnston's subordinates in command . Lieutenant General john Bell Hood Hood is regarded as one of the most um aggressive generals in the confederate army . Some would say that he's reckless , but you know exactly what you're getting with john Bell Hood , he's a fire and that's just what he does on the outskirts of Atlanta on july 20th , North of Atlanta . Battle of Peachtree Creek on the 22nd Battle of Atlanta , east of the city and then finally to the west , the Battle of Ezra Church on july 28th , 18 64 . And each of these battles , Hood is unable to dislodge the federal forces to defeat them in battle and he ends up losing almost two soldiers for every one of Sherman's casualties . So was he more on the offensive at those battles instead of defending ? And what Hood does though , after he's been repulsed three times is he's decided he's going to use the same tactics that johnston used before or he literally bleed his army to death . So he occupies is his entrenchment and holds out for as long as he possibly can . Now , the tactics that Sherman is using at this point . First off , he knows that by temperament , he is too impatient for a siege and he lacks the force to do that land is just too large . So he decides to cut the confederate railroads one by one until there's just one railroad left to the south of the city , the Macon railroad . And it's at Jonesborough in early september of 18 64 that Sherman strikes , cuts the make and railroad and forces the confederates to fall back and surrender Atlanta . So on september the second , Sherman sends a telegram to Washington . Atlanta is ours and fairly one . Oh wow . Um , and so what did the , the confederate army do Hood Hood and his army where a lot of them captured or did they withdraw out of the city ? They withdrew out of the city . And at that point Hood decided to head north . The lead . Sherman on something of a wild goose chase . And Sherman actually obliged for a while and then he became kind of bored with the operation . And he said that if Hood falls back into Tennessee , I will give him rations . So what Sherman does is he then looks south to Atlanta and says , okay enough of this , we're gonna go uh , on the next step of my campaigns in Georgia . He lets a subordinate general George thomas who had just mentioned a few minutes ago handle Hood in Tennessee while Sherman embarks on the march to the sea , the march from Atlanta to Savannah and he says , I can make this march and make Georgia howl , that's what he says in a letter to Grant and then before we get to that the , The capture of Atlanta was so critical for many reasons , strategically operationally . Also politically , what was the impact of the capture of Atlanta on the upcoming presidential election ? I know we're in the middle of a great civil war , but we have a presidential election coming up in November . Exactly . And in the summer of 1864 , Lincoln is convinced that he's going to lose . So he attempts to defeat the confederates before his successor is able to uh , enter office and undo all the progress that they've made . But he is given a magnificent gift by Sherman . He capped Sherman captures the city of Atlanta and that does more to ensure Lincoln's re election as president than any other event that takes place . And then just a quick note on that . So who got to vote that year ? Was it just the Northern states or was any southern states that participated in the election ? Um , pretty much the Northern states and a few of the areas in the south that were sufficiently organized that they could vote and incidentally soldiers in the field had an opportunity to vote . Oh , good . And we still do that today , which is , which is great . Um , and then his opponent , Lincoln's opponent . Um , it's , I think it's worthy to note George B McClellan , general McCullen Democratic candidate for president and who Lincoln had Now did he fire him previously . I know he pulled him out of command . He did . He pulled him out of command in the fall of 18 62 because he wouldn't fight . Never had that problem with Grant by the way , no , no , no or Sherman for that matter . But yes , McClellan lost his job in the fall of 18 62 . Alright , so now , um , Sherman is in Atlanta and he's preparing to march this , see , what's , what's the time frame on that ? When does he launched his , his infamous March to the sea ? It begins on november 15 , 18 64 and his objective is going to be Savannah . You know , he undertakes this march for two main reasons . The first one is , he wants to establish a base near the coast that gives him more options . Atlanta is pretty much in , uh , we'll say a dead zone by that time . So getting to Savannah means that he can move his army by ship if he needs to , or he can march over land through the Carolinas . And even more important , he's undertaking this march to cancel out Georgia as a supplier of the confederate army . Right ? Because as you mentioned earlier , Sherman said , I'm going to make Georgia howl . And he did . And well , let's let's talk about how he did it because it wasn't just one force that moved through Atlanta then he separate his force . Yes . And it's a smaller force than the one that captured Atlanta . He had about 100 and 13,000 troops . Uh , Most of the Atlanta campaign for the march to the sea , he'll have two armies , We call him an army group commander today , uh , numbering 30 roughly . 30,000 apiece . Uh , the left wing or army of Georgia commanded by General Henry , W . Slocum's and the right wing or Army of the Tennessee commanded by General Oliver O Howard . And incidentally you're hearing a lot about the army of the Tennessee and the Army of Tennessee . The army of the Tennessee is the Northern Army and it's named after a river . The Army of Tennessee is the confederate army . It's named after a state . Oh wow , that's confusing . That's almost a little bit of trivia right there . Yes , I guess I spoiled . No , that's good . Um , but then if Hood moved north and uh , so what was Sherman's forces facing as far as , you know , confederate army in , in Georgia at that time , he didn't face very much other than cavalry , several 1000 cavalry under the command of Major General joseph wheeler . And at Griswald ville , uh , there was a contingent of state militia troops , essentially . Boys and old men . I can say that because I'm an old man myself boys and old men who were ineligible to serve in the front line units and they were facing a , a really top notch brigade commanded by wall cut General Charles Walcott and they got cut to pieces because not only were these guys veterans , they were veterans with repeating rifles . So they didn't fire just a single round like a rifle musket , they would fire seven in the case of of one type of repeating rifle spencer or 16 in the case of Henry . So that made that made a big difference . Not only did the Union have the numbers of soldiers , but they also had technology , better weapons technology . Yeah , they had the technology . And when was that introduced in the war of those repeating rifles ? They started appearing in um late 63 . In fact , as early as 60 63 Wilder's Lightning brigade , A mounted infantry unit was completely armed with uh spencer rifles . And incidentally the soldiers had to pay out of pay for those out of their own pockets . They were not cheap . 50 bucks or higher . That's a lot of money , but a lot of money in 18 60 for like six months pay right there . Pretty much very close . All right . So , um how as as german , Sherman moves towards the , see how , what are they doing his soldiers doing to make Georgia howl . Well Sherman found out from the 18 60 census , which he studied That he can make this march through Georgia . If he if his troops move about 10 to 15 miles a day that they can keep him alive . He has issued a special field order to forage liberal on the country . So his units are not being supplied by conventional methods , they're going out and and foraging for their provisions . And this is um , needless to say , these men get away from the main columns and uh , discipline can get a little dicey . That's how they keep alive . And that's also how they break the back of the Georgia civilians . Um , you can imagine how they feel about losing all their provisions . So if they can't take it there , they were destroying it . Yes . And Sherman estimated that in the course of his march and keep in mind they're destroying railroads , factories , and other facilities , armories . Uh , and along the way , uh , Sherman estimates that they destroy or confiscate over $100 million and goods . So that's , that's a lot of money even even today . But in 18 64 it's a lot of money . And the purpose again was to break the back of the south . You know , their , their supply is to render the state of Georgia unable to supply the confederate army , which is where a lot of the supply for the confederate army came Exactly alright . So , um , any other significant battles on his march to the sea or you know , let's talk about how that ended up . Well , um , there just aren't that many battles that occur on the march to the sea simply because the confederates don't have a large enough force to mount a serious resistance . Now when Sherman gets to savannah , he does have to attack Fort Mcallister . Fort Mcallister is on the coast and he has to knock that ford out in order for the Union fleet to move into uh Savannah harbor . So , um , at Fort Mcallister , let's talk about that battle if they're guarding report , where are the guns facing the cannons ? Are they facing outward or inward ? Or was there a mixture of both ? Um , that's actually a good question , I'd say probably both . How long did it take them to take down Fort Mcallister ? Um , Well , first off Sherman was a Sherman used his former uh division under the command of William B . Hayes and used those troops to attack the fort And they were able to storm it and capture it within about an hour . They didn't really stand a chance . I think the garrison was around 300 strong and they were just simply overwhelmed . So then he takes control of , he does , he presents the city of Savannah with the guns and and cotton to President Lincoln as a Christmas gift . It's December 21 , 1864 by the way , when he captures the city . And how long ? So once he's there , now do we have union shipping coming in resupply from the sea . And then what was the plan then he has savannah ? Um , I understand that as you mentioned earlier that there was a lot of coordination between Grant and Sherman . So what was their plan ? Uh , at this point first , I just wanted to briefly mentioned , uh , Lieutenant General William J Hardee . He's the confederate commander at Savannah and one of Sherman's objectives in capturing Savannah is to also cut off General Hardee's forces so they can't escape . So we see a tendency here um , at the end of the Atlanta campaign , Sherman is unable to capture even a part of Hood's army , they are able to escape although he does accomplish uh , the objective of making it a lot easier for Lincoln to be reelected by capturing Georgia . Are I'm sorry , by capturing Atlanta . Now in the case of Savannah , Sherman again is unable to capture the army defending that city . Hardy is able to escape across the bay to south Carolina . Will that army come into play as Sherman moves north ? Yes . Um , we'll see once we get into the Carolinas campaign , some of the troops that were defending Savannah will be opposing Sherman and his march through the Carolinas And then before we get into talking a little bit more about Savannah with Hood . He , you said he escaped up to Tennessee was his ultimate goal to reinforce lee up in Richmond . His what he wanted to do , Hood was hoping that he could reverse the momentum by winning . Um , and it would be something of a miracle by winning a miraculous victory in Tennessee and He hoped to knock at least a part of Sherman's forces in the Western theatre out of the war . Unfortunately what he did at Nashville was he ver his army was virtually annihilated on December 15 and 16 while Sherman is approaching Savannah Hood is getting his butt kicked . I mean , that's the simplest way to put it . And it renders his army virtually ineffective combat ineffective . From that point on , we will see a remnant of it in north Carolina in early 18 65 but it's just a shadow of that former army and then , uh , so now Sherman has savannah and in coordination with Grant . I think there were a couple different options that they were considering their , their courses of action . So what were their co is , well , initially Grant wanted Sherman to board his troops onto transport to sail up to Virginia and joined the fight on the Virginia front at Richmond and Petersburg . But when Grant found out that it would take months , given all the demands on the shipping , it would take months to move . Sherman's army up into the Virginia theater . He agreed with Sherman's proposal to march over land through the Carolinas . So that's what they decided to do and with marching over land through the Carolinas with the ultimate goal of joining Grant ? Um , exactly around Richmond , Petersburg , Richmond , wherever he was going to be at the time . So , um , when does Sherman start his move towards the Carolinas ? And how does he do that ? Alright , Sherman moves into South Carolina on February 1 , 1865 . And the first thing I want to stress is that the march through the South Carolina is not a pleasant one for the civilians in that area . Sherman's men regard south Carolina is the cradle of secession . It was the first state to leave the Union , the first to secede . So they decide to pay , uh , a little pay , give a little pay back to the south Carolinians . And uh , they freely will say they freely borrow and uh , and burn along the way . I I was stationed in south Carolina for several years and there are signs historical markers , um , that reflect the sentiment you're talking about . And so it's still still to this day , it's theirs . There's a lot of disdain for Sherman and the confederate army is unable to mount much of a resistance to Sherman as he advances through south Carolina . Incidentally , he has roughly the same force that he had when he marched through Georgia . About 60,000 troops under the command of Slocum and Howard . And is he going again in two wings ? And one of the advantages that he gains by doing that . In addition to speeding the march by spreading out the wings . He also keeps the confederates guessing as to what his destination is . Uh , he can move one wing faint in one direction and the confederates might think , oh , he's heading that way when in fact he's heading in the opposite direction and by the time he reaches Columbia , the capital of south Carolina in february 17 . Uh , he's pretty much moved through south Carolina with impunity the same thing , making them how old is just much of south ? Much of Colombia's lying in ashes on the morning of february 18th . That's the day after Sherman's army marches through the reason for that high winds , burning cotton left in the streets by confederate cavalry , drunken federal soldiers who are given a bit too much whiskey by uh , the populist Columbia . Thinking they can , you know , maybe make them a little more amenable . How interesting . But they , they try to welcome them in or at least seemed like they were being welcoming a friendly cup ? How funny and kind of backfires on them . And as a result , much of Colombia is lying in ashes and through all this march , are they meeting the same tepid resistance that they met through Georgia ? Really ? So there were no significant battles , not in south Carolina . In fact , during the march of the sea and the march through south Carolina . Uh , There are occasional actions between um , we'll say foraging parties and confederate cavalry . But large scale uh , engagements don't occur until we get into north Carolina . And does anything else happen in south Carolina , they capture Colombia ? I mean basically burn it . And one crucial command changes made on february 22nd . The confederate general in chief robert E lee appoints general johnston who's been in virtual retirement since his removal from command in front of Atlanta . Leave appoints johnston to command the uh confederate troops in the Carolinas Georgia and florida . And he directs them to concentrate all available forces and drive back . Sherman . Good luck . You know , what forces is he actually ? He has he has some uh scattered forces talked about Hardy's forces that escaped from Savannah , the remnant of the army of Tennessee under hood . They're moving into the Carolinas about this time . Uh , there's confederate cavalry um , which has pretty much been tailing uh , Sherman's forces throughout the two campaigns , uh , March to the sea and the march to south Carolina . And then when they get to North Carolina , the Department of North Carolina troops will also join , we're moving out of South Carolina and into North Carolina . So when does that happen ? And is he in two wings again ? How , how bill into wings ? This is early March of 1865 , Johnston is frantically trying to collect uh something of an army and while he's doing so , he's trying to buy time . For example , on March 10th , 18 65 at Monroe's crossroads on present day Fort Bragg military reservation . Confederate cavalry surprises a portion of the Union cavalry under Brigadier General judson kilpatrick and overrun the camp and they are able to hold the camp briefly before they are hurled back . But it's a warning to Sherman and to his subordinates that there's still some fight left in the confederate army . And what's notable is that you said March 10th . That's right 18 65 . The war is going to be over in a month . We are , yes , we're we're really weeks away from lee surrendered at appomattox . And we shouldn't forget that there's also um contingent of troops that will be joining Sherman in north Carolina department in north Carolina troops under the command of Major General john M scofield who are coming in from the coast and they'll fight a battle at Weiss Fork near kinston north Carolina around the eighth to the 10th of March and continue to move west to link up with Sherman's forces . So Johnston has to deal with not just Sherman and his 60,000 troops , but scofield's 30,000 as well . That's a significant size force that yes , he would be facing . And just to give you an idea of the disparity in numbers when johnston gets to Bentonville , which will be the site of the major battle in this campaign , he'll have just 20,000 troops . And is he facing both scofield and chairman at that point , fortunately for johnston , he has some time to actually launch a surprise attack . First off , we have a battle at Avery's burrow on the road to Bentonville essentially a delaying action fought by general Hardee's forces from south Carolina and Georgia and they slow up Sherman's advance and buy time for johnston to launch a surprise attack on slocum's wing . That's the left wing I was telling you about at Bentonville and Lo and Behold johnston will actually have something approaching even odds for a while at least at Bentonville . So , so let's describe that then , you know what happened in Bentonville when first ? What was the date of that ? This is March 19 through 21 18 65 . So we're getting real late in the war and this is the last confederate open field offensive of the war . And johnston is actually able to route a portion of Slocum's forces , a division and elements of two other units . Um And things are looking pretty good for the confederates . But then Slocum begins to bring in his numbers evens the odds and he's able to hold on until the other wing under General Howard arrives at Bentonville on the 20th of March and then on the 21st , uh something of a loose cannon by the name of General Joseph Mauer . Uh He's 1/17 Corps Division commander decides to attack the confederates where they're most vulnerable near johnston's headquarters at Bentonville and nearly cuts off their only route of retreat , fortunately Johnston appoints Hardy to command the counterattacking force and he's able to hurl back the federal attack . But eventually johnson withdraws . Yes , he sees the writing on the wall , He realizes he's hopelessly outnumbered and he falls back to his headquarters at smithfield . And where's that ? That's roughly midway between Raleigh , the state capital to the west and Goldsboro , A railroad junction to the east . I haven't mentioned Goldsboro yet , but that is Sherman's destination . His plan is to rest and resupply at Goldsboro and then move on to Virginia . And and so after benton ville , is that what he does as he moves towards Goldsboro , then ? Yes . First off he pays a quick visit to Grant's headquarters at city point Virginia and he meets President Lincoln there and he gets uh the sensation from President Lincoln that he wants a conciliatory peace . He wants to bring the confederates back . You know , the ex confederates back into the fold . Um and that he wants to be conciliatory in doing it . So , Sherman spends a few days at city Point hammering out strategy with Grant getting positive vibes from President Lincoln . He returns to Goldsboro . The plan is to move on Richmond and Petersburg . But then news arrives in april mid april of 18 65 that Grant has captured Richmond and is driving lee west for a possible junction with Sherman's forces in north Carolina . But that never happens ? Grant blocks lee's advance and forces in west rather than south . Alright , so he he goes west appomattox . And so what's what is Sherman doing at that point on april the 10th while he doesn't know this , but lee has already surrendered at appomattox . But on april the 10th the day after lee's surrender , Sherman begins what proves to be his final campaign , he begins the march to Raleigh . And while he's on that March , news arrives from Virginia of the fate of lee's army that lee has surrendered to Grant at appomattox courthouse . But looking back at this , How much pressure did Sherman put on the confederate army to force that surrender ? Well , we've seen yet again that Sherman has allowed another enemy to escape . Johnston has escaped to fight another day . But there is no battle . And johnston realizes that the end is is at hand with lee's surrender . There's nothing left to do but surrender . But he wants to get the best possible terms . So the two generals agree to meet at a point roughly midway between their respective front lines at a place called the James Bennet farm about five miles west of present day Durham north Carolina . And it's there over three days that they'll hammer out their peace agreement . Oh , so they had a separate peace agreement outside of what was agreed upon at appomattox . Lee and Grant . Absolutely . And what were the differences in that agreement ? What general Sherman essentially did was he allowed the confederates and this is his proposed uh terms . They were never ratified . But he would allow the confederates to keep their arms , take them back home to defend themselves . Uh They could retain their state governments . They could also have their personal political and property rights . Now that's significant because he does not mention slavery , but he does mention property . The confederates think , oh , so he's letting us keep our slaves when he never intended to ? It was done as a courtesy to general johnston that he would not mention slavery overtly . So there it is flying out on the table and you can imagine what the authorities and oh , I also forgot he also issues amnesty without distinction . That means that President Davis , his cabinet . Senior leaders in the army are all pardoned . Sherman did . That . That's under Sherman's term . When those terms reach Washington D . C . You could imagine what it must have been like . It was the cabinet , especially Secretary of War Stanton . Edwin M Stanton were apoplectic and they sent General Grant to Raleigh north Carolina to take over the negotiations . Well , Grant had too much confidence uh and regard for General Sherman to step in . At that point , he simply was there as well say as a benign presence to lend support to Sherman . Sherman and johnston met for a third time april 26th 18 65 and hammered out an agreement with General scofield's help . That essentially uh is a duplicate of the appomattox terms with a few additional conciliatory gestures uh giving river and rail transportation to the confederates , letting one in seven southerners keep their arms . Um And Sherman even gives uh this isn't even in the agreement , but he gives hundreds of thousands of rations to the confederates . Uh And johnston has moved to reply that uh that gesture reconciled him to what he considered the greatest misfortune of his life that of having to face Sherman in the field and it actually leads to a very cordial relationship . They became close friends after the war in that final agreement with slavery brought up at all . You know , they , they still did not know they're leaving all political decisions to the politicians , stick sticking strictly to military terms . All right . And that , that would come later and we'll , we'll address more of that in our final episode as we address um , appomattox a little bit more in detail and then also reconstruction and ultimately ending with juneteenth . Mark . I know we talked a little bit about , you know , the end of the show . I always like to have some trivia . I think you brought up a lot already in this . Um , but I think one of the things um Sherman's hat , I think the trivia had mentioned earlier . I think off the air was that the Center Military History and our Army Museum Enterprise actually has um , Sherman's hat that he wore through . So I think that's really cool . And it's just a plug for our army museum enterprise . And if anybody's listening that has an opportunity to visit any of our museums , go and visit those museums . They have some amazing artifacts and hopefully one day people will get to see Sherman's had as well . But Mark , thank you so much . This has been fantastic . Some great insights . I I appreciate you . Uh , you coming out and helping us with us today . I've enjoyed it . Thank you . So now if anyone wants to learn more about the civil war and learn more about army history in general I encourage you to explore our website at history dot army dot mil . We have a great pamphlet series about the civil war and Mark you wrote ? How many books did you write in that series ? Um Let's say I wrote the Civil War Ends the Army and Reconstruction and I edited uh five others . Right ? So uh Mark had a lot to do with our Civil War pamphlet series . It's a great series of really good reads . Their their their short pamphlets . So they're they're quick reads and you can access them from our website again at history dot army dot mil and you can get them as free pdf downloads or you can order them uh for free if you're part of the Department of Defense or purchase it from the government publishing office and if you want to experience army history every day then please visit our social media sites on facebook twitter and instagram we do this day in army history and do soldier unit profiles . There's a lot of great information that we put out every day on social media and please join us every week on this podcast for more in depth discussions as we cover topics from all eras of U . S . Army history examining battles , soldier experiences , equipment , weapons and tactics . Thanks for joining us today on the United States Army history and heritage podcast for the center of military history . I'm lee Reynolds and until next time we're history . The views expressed in this podcast reflect those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views , policies or opinions of the US Army or Department of Defense . For more information about the Army's proud history and heritage , go to history dot army dot mil . Mhm .