The Meridian Campaign is a case study in such methodology, but certainly not one without enormous risk. Sherman’s military genius lay more in maneuver and logistics - preserving his own and disrupting his enemy’s - than it did in tactics. Audacity: a simple plan of action, boldly executed. Thus, on February 3, he began his campaign “to break up the enemy’s railroads at and about Meridian, and to do the enemy as much damage as possible in the month of February, and to be prepared by the 1st of March to assist General Banks in a similar dash at the Red River country…”Ī graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, Sherman’s execution would be brilliant and it is a classic example of an operation that makes best use of the traditional characteristics of the offensive: audacity, tempo, surprise, and concentration. Sherman figured it would be an easy matter to finish his business in Meridian in plenty of time to return to Vicksburg and be ready for future operations a precondition that Sherman’s commander, General Ulysses S. Meridian was about 150 miles from Sherman’s location at Vicksburg that the Union had taken the previous summer in order to gain control of the Mississippi River. It all presented a tempting target for Sherman who did not want to sit idle waiting for weather sufficient to support the upcoming spring campaign. It served as a storage and distribution center for not just the industrial products of Selma, but for grain and cattle from the fertile Black Prairie region to the immediate north. Meridian, where three railroads intersected, was a Confederate strategic point, lying roughly between the Mississippi capital of Jackson and the cannon foundry and manufacturing center of Selma, Alabama. It was on this raid that Sherman pioneered the art of destroying Confederate war-making capability. It was on this raid to protect the Mississippi River from Confederate guerillas that Sherman first demonstrated the ability to operate independently deep in enemy territory, far from headquarters.
One critical phase of this growth was Sherman’s successful Meridian Campaign in February 1864. Sherman, however, was not always so daring and independent, but rather he was a general who profoundly grew and developed during the Civil War.
General William Tecumseh Sherman is probably best remembered for his spectacular 1864 “March to the Sea” in which he stormed 225 miles through Georgia with no line of communication in a Union campaign to take the American Civil War to the Confederate population.
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