rch through the Carolinas--The
Burning of Charleston and Columbia--Arrival at Goldsboro--Junction with
Schofield--Visit to Grant

While Grant was making his marches, fighting his battles, and carrying
on his siege operations in Virginia, Sherman in the West was performing
the task assigned to him by his chief, to pursue, destroy, or capture
the principal western Confederate army, now commanded by General
Johnston. The forces which under Bragg had been defeated in the previous
autumn at Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge, had halted as soon as
pursuit ceased, and remained in winter quarters at and about Dalton,
only twenty-eight or thirty miles on the railroad southeast of
Chattanooga where their new commander, Johnston, had, in the spring of
1864, about sixty-eight thousand men with which to oppose the Union
advance.

A few preliminary campaigns and expeditions in the West need not here be
detailed, as they were not decisive. One, however, led by Sherman
himself from Vicksburg to Meridian, must be mentioned, since, during the
month of February, it destroyed about one hundred miles of the several
railroads centering at the latter place, and rendered the whole railroad
system of Mississippi practically useless to the Confederates, thus
contributing essentially to the success of his future operations.

Sherman prepared himself by uniting at Chattanooga the best material of
the three Union armies, that of the Cumberland, that of the Tennessee,
and that of the Ohio, forming a force of nearly one hundred thousand men
with two hundred and fifty-four guns. They were seasoned veterans, whom
three years of campaigning had taught how to endure every privation, and
avail themselves of every resource. They were provided with every
essential supply, but carried with them not a pound of useless baggage
or impedimenta that could retard the rapidity of their movements.

Sherman had received no specific instructions from Grant, except to
fight the enemy and damage the war resources of the South; but the
situation before him clearly indicated the city of Atlanta, Georgia, as
his first objective, and as his necessary route, the railroad leading
thither from Chattanooga. It was obviously a difficult line of approach,
for it traversed a belt of the Alleghanies forty miles in width, and in
addition to the natural obstacles they presented, the Confederate
commander, anticipating his movement, had prepared elaborate defensive
works at