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Estimate: $ 7,000 - $ 10,000
(CIVIL WAR.) William T. Sherman. Order launching the March to the Sea: "Enforce a devastation more or less relentless." 4 manuscript pages, 9¾ x 7¾ inches, on one folding sheet of "Headquarters, Military Division of the Mississippi" letterhead, signed by S.M. Dayton as aide-de-camp to Sherman, addressed to Colonel Amos Beckwith, numbered as "Special Field Orders, No. 120"; folds, minimal dampstaining on top edge, small closed perforation in upper right corner. Kingston, GA, 9 November 1864
Sherman's Savannah Campaign or "March to the Sea" followed the success of the Atlanta campaign, and was launched on 15 November 1864.
This order spells out the large-scale plan for the march: a division into two wings under Major Generals Howard and Slocum, traveling a route by four nearly parallel roads where possible. The march famously operated without supply lines, deep within Confederate territory: "There will be no general train of supplies. . . . In case of danger, each Army Corps Commander should change this order of march by having his advance and rear brigades unencumbered by wheels. The separate columns will start habitually at 7 a.m. and make about fifteen miles per day."
The provisions for this massive army were to come from the Georgia countryside: "The Army will forage liberally in the country during the march. To this end, each brigade commander will organize a good and sufficient foraging party . . . who will gather near the route travelled, corn or forage of any kind, meat of any kind, vegetables, corn meal, or whatever is needed. . . . Soldiers must not enter the dwellings of the inhabitants or commit any trespass."
While pillaging of private homes was forbidden, commanders were given the authority to "destroy mills, houses, cotton gins &c, and for them this general principle is laid down: in districts and neighborhoods where the Army is unmolested, no destruction of such property should be permitted; but should guerillas or bushwhackers molest our march, or should the inhabitants burn bridges, obstruct roads, or otherwise manifest local hostility, then army commanders should order and enforce a devastation more or less relentless according to the measure of such hostility." Horses, mules, and wagons were to be taken "freely and without limit; discriminating, however, between the rich, who are usually hostile, and the poor or industrious, usually neutral or friendly."
Sherman anticipated difficulty in liberating enslaved people on the march: "Negroes who are able bodied and can be of service to the several columns may be taken along, but each army commander will bear in mind that the question of supplies is a very important one, and that his first duty is to see to them who bear arms." Some of these freedmen were to be formed into "pioneer battalions" to "repair roads and double them if possible, so that the columns will not be delayed after reaching bad places."
Copies of this order were likely provided to all of Sherman's top aides and sub-commanders, a group small enough that printing the order was not necessary. The recipient of this copy was Colonel Amos Beckwith, Sherman's chief commissary officer.
