Sherman's March -The Documentary

[Kent Nielsen]

Hi Dred. Yes it's the same man. After General Hooker relieved him of command, Stoneman ran the US Army Cavalry Bureau before being given command of a cavalry division in Sherman's Mississippi Military Division.

[ole]

Sherman's plan did not encompass having 30,000 POWs dragging him down. He was moving and couldn't very well stop or slow down. Sending Stoneman on that abortive raid was a gesture, nothing more. Had Stoneman succeeded, that 30,000 would have been adrift in south Georgia with unimaginable ramifications. Perhaps that's why the population of Andersonville was moved. There was little or nothing Stoneman could have achieved. The POWs were gone.

We tend to like what coulda or shoulda been done. Realistically, that was not the point of the March. When one steps off to do something, "nice" diversions are impediments.

ole

[cw1865]

Just looked it up on the map, Andersonville is 139 miles by car from Atlanta. Driving it today takes 2-3 hours, in 1860, the interstate isn't there. There is always a tendency to project the ability to move around easily backwards into history, and the ability just isn't there. 139 miles is a long way to go.

Atlanta to Savannah, 248 miles
Atlanta to Andersonville, 139 miles
Andersonville to Savannah, 205 miles

You would be adding 96 miles to the expedition. He leaves Atlanta on November 15th and gets to Savannah on December 10th, how many days would this excursion cost him?

As the 'car drives' Sherman is doing 9.92 miles per day, so just by dividing the additional mileage we're looking at a minimum increase of 8-10 days, and of course the POWs really aren't in condition to move around, so its anybody's best guess how long they would slow him down.