Sherman began to view Southern citizens differently, especially when they lived in areas where the guerrillas frequently operated. "All the people are now guerrillas," he wrote angrily to Grant, "and they have a perfect understanding" of the impact their raids had on Union operations.

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Sherman decided that if these bushwhackers hid among the local citizens, the Union army should retaliate against those who concealed them. "If the farmers in a neighborhood encourage or even permit in their midst a set of guerrillas they cannot escape the necessary consequences," Sherman warned. "It is not our wish or policy to destroy the farmers or their farms, but of course there is and must be remedy for all evils."

Sherman remained steadfast in his belief that wanton destruction of private citizens' property was wrong, but he now believed the "exigencies of the war" forced him to take a new approach. He continued to insist that, although it was not his policy to destroy the farmers and their farms, those who resided in the areas around partisan troop activity were "accessories by their presence and inactivity to prevent murders and destruction of property." Therefore, they should properly expect just retribution.

Sherman was not the only Union general moving away from the conciliatory stance. Commanders contending with guerrillas in Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, and western Virginia were also growing tired of the nuisances.

Guerrilla raids on Union supplies and firings upon boats along the Mississippi River continued to anger Sherman when his troops garrisoned Memphis in 1862. In September he wrote his brother, U.S. Senator John Sherman, in frustration: "It is about time the North understood the truth; that the entire South, man, woman, and child are against us, armed and determined."

Knowing that he had the confidence of his brother, he wrote freely. Sherman loathed the irregular troops' actions, and because the civilian population aided their cause, he grew upset with them as well.

Sherman did not believe that all Southern civilians were at war with the Union army. The real enemies, he thought, were those citizens who supported the Confederate forces. Sherman began to take his pursuit of guerrillas and the punishment of those assisting them to the next level. He began striking at points near to where the attacks had taken place.

Two days after writing his letter to Senator Sherman, the general ordered Colonel Charles C. Walcutt of the 46th Ohio Volunteers to the town of Randolph, Tennessee. The day before, bushwhackers there had fired on the Union supply ship Eugene as it carried cargo south to Memphis. He instructed Walcutt that he thought "the attack on the Eugene was by a small force of guerrillas from Loosahatchie, who by this time have gone back, and therefore you will find no one at Randolph; in which case you will destroy the place, leaving one house to mark the place."

Sherman could not capture those directly responsible for the sniping, but, as an example to others, he decided to punish those who assisted in the attack on the boat—or did not prevent it.

"Let the people know and feel that we deeply deplore the necessity of such destruction, but must protect ourselves and the boats," he told his subordinate. "All such acts as cowardly firing upon boats filled with women and children…must be severely punished." Sherman considered such bushwhacking beyond the scope of proper military conduct, and thus he felt justified in using any means within his power, including the destruction of civilian property, to stop such actions.

Sherman informed Grant of the destruction at Randolph and warned that he intended to threaten the enemy with harsher actions if they persisted in their boat attacks: "[I] have given public notice that a repetition will justify any measures of retaliation, such as loading the boats with guerrilla prisoners where they would receive fire, and expelling families from the comforts of Memphis, whose husbands and brothers go to make up those guerrillas."

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