Somewhere Toward Freedom: Sherman’s March and the Story of America’s Largest Emancipation

In a raw display of military power, General Sherman’s March to the Sea during the American Civil War took over 60,000 troops from Atlanta to Savannah and ravaged the Georgian countryside. In his first book, historian Parten (Georgia Southern Univ.) argues that Sherman’s campaign became one of liberation. From the beginning, enslaved people flocked to Union lines. Eventually, over 20,000 formerly enslaved people joined Sherman’s march, often providing crucial information about Confederate troop movements, terrain, and labor. By the end of 1864, thousands of starved and ill-clothed formerly enslaved people arrived in Port Royal, South Carolina, where Northern abolitionists, in conjunction with army officials, attempted to settle them on abandoned Sea Island plantations and provide titles to the land. By September 1865, former Confederates demanded their land be returned. What began as an incredible opportunity for freemen turned to bitter disappointment as the federal government failed to secure the newly won rights of formerly enslaved people. Promises of economic and material security, along with land grants, never materialized, as Congress focused on other issues.