Sherman's army commences toward Columbia, South Carolina,…

Sherman's army commences toward Columbia, South Carolina, in late January 1865.

His sixty thousand and seventy-nine men are divided into three wings: the Army of the Tennessee, under Major General Oliver O. Howard, the Army of the Ohio under Major General John M. Schofield, and two corps, the XIV and XX, under Major General Henry W. Slocum, which is later formally designated the Army of Georgia.

Reinforcements arrive regularly during his march north, and by April 1 he will command eighty-eight thopusand nine hundred and forty-eight men.

Sherman's opponents on the Confederate side have considerably fewer men.

The primary force in the Carolinas is the battered Army of Tennessee, again under the command of General Joseph E. Johnston (who had been relieved of duty by Confederate President Jefferson Davis during the Atlanta Campaign against Sherman).

His strength is recorded in mid-March at 9,513 and 15,188 by mid-April.

The army is organized into three corps, commanded by Lieutenant General William J. Hardee, Lieutenant General Alexander P. Stewart, and Lieutenant General Stephen D. Lee.

Also in the Carolinas are cavalry forces from the division of Major General Wade Hampton and a small number in Wilmington under General Braxton Bragg.

Sherman's plan is to bypass the minor Confederate troop concentrations at Augusta, Georgia, and Charleston, South Carolina, and reach Goldsboro, North Carolina, by March 15.

As with his Georgia operations, Sherman marches his armies in multiple directions simultaneously, confusing the scattered Confederate defenders as to his first true objective, which is the state capital of Columbia.