He proposed to drive from Tennessee to Atlanta, and from Atlanta to the sea. “If the North can march an army right through the South, it is proof positive that the North can prevail,” he told Grant. Skeptics observed that Sherman lacked the men and provisions to hold the territory he captured. That wasn’t the point, Sherman answered. He didn’t aim to hold territory but to break the enemy’s will. “Until we can repopulate Georgia, it is useless to occupy it,” he told Grant. “But the utter destruction of its roads, houses and people will cripple their military resources.… I can make the march,
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