Sherman had lived happily in the South and had made numerous close and lasting friendships there. He believed that it was better to attack and destroy materiel than citizens. He planned to travel across the state, punishing the population for aiding the bushwhackers, tearing up railroads, confiscating and destroying corn and other supplies, and crippling the enemy’s ability and will to fight. His goals was apparently to break the Confederate will without serious loss of life to either side.

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If successful in Mississippi, Sherman would intensify his activities, saving lives while simultaneously obtaining effective results. The Meridian campaign, therefore, would act as the final dress rehearsal in Sherman’s evolution of a new philosophy of prosecuting war.

On the eve of his foray into Mississippi, Sherman sent a lengthy announcement to Major R.M. Sawyer in Alabama and instructed him to read the message to the civilians there “so as to prepare them for my coming.” He wrote that in European conflicts, from which the United States had obtained its principles of war, the people had remained neutral and had been free to sell their goods to either combatant. Therefore, he concluded, “the rule was and is, that wars are confined to the armies and should not visit the homes of families or private interests.”

However, in Ireland when the English occupied the land to end a revolt, they had driven citizens from their native lands and brought in a new group of inhabitants. Sherman contended that the American conflict was a similar situation. He argued, therefore, that since the Southern population’s “provisions, forage, horses, mules, [and] wagons” went to the enemy’s army, “it [was] clearly our duty and right to take them, because otherwise they might be used against us.”

He warned that if any noncombatant should create chaos or communicate with hostile parties, the Union army would arrest, banish, and punish the guilty party: “The Government of the United States has ‘any and all rights which they choose to enforce in war—to take lives, their homes, their lands, their everything.’” The South had “appealed to war,” Sherman cautioned, “and must abide by its rules and laws.

“Satan and the rebellious saints of Heaven were allowed continuance of existence in Hell, merely to [feel] their just punishment. To such as would rebel against a Government so mild and just as ours was in Peace, a punishment equal would not be unjust,” he declared. The citizens of Mississippi were about to feel the impact of the Sherman of 1864 who believed in destructive war, not the one of 1861 who had gone to great lengths to protect all private property within his lines.

The Meridian campaign was the next step in Sherman’s evolving attitude toward the prosecution of war. The expedition demonstrated to Sherman and other Federal commanders how to conduct “hard war” successfully. Its importance rested more in its impact on Sherman’s evolving policy toward Southern civilians and the Union strategy to win the war than on immediate military ramifications in Mississippi.

Sherman had undergone a complete change of attitude toward the Southern populace and about the army’s independence from secure supply and communication lines. His dealings with guerrillas in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Mississippi had hardened his resolve toward nonbelligerents. His experience with Grant during the Vicksburg campaign had given him the confidence to strike at those who supported the partisan factions deep within their territory without fear of his troops starving for want of goods. Sherman could support his own armies with his enemy’s assets.

He had come to believe that the best way to end the war was to strike mightily at the enemy’s resources, rendering them useless for the further prosecution of the war. These experiences, and what he learned along the muddy roads from Vicksburg to Meridian, would allow him to wreak more havoc on an enemy population’s supplies and psyche than any other general in the Civil War had done previously—and earn lasting immortality for it.

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