The Last Wagon

That wagon you see in the picture is special and the last of its kind. If the picture was a little better and a different angle you would see names carved into it. Names of cities and battlefields. Many names that even to this day when people see they will recognize and either smile or grimace. Actually seeing this wagon during the war meant different things to whoever viewed it. For the Union soldier it carried supplies or wounded and represented forward movement and that the war was one step closer to being over. For someone in the Confederacy, seeing that wagon meant one thing. That devil Sherman and his minions had arrived.

Yes, this wagon is the last of those that General Sherman used during his infamous March to the Sea.

The March

After his successful campaign to capture Atlanta from May to September 1864, Sherman started planning his next move. He would send his army from Atlanta to Savannah carving a path of destruction and devastation along the way. The army would leave its supply base and live off the land, in effect it would be on its own behind enemy lines and taking what it needed to survive.

The idea would be to either capture or destroy any and all war materials along the way and to, honestly, terrorizes the civilians and undermine their will to fight. Was it harsh? Yes. Was it immoral and improper? Depends on what side you were on.

What no one can argue is that the march was one of the most famous military campaigns ever. And that wagon in the picture, it was there. Oh the stories I am sure it could tell…