I would venture to say that the folks along Sherman’s route are a little better armed today than they were then.
Like in the old cowboy movies, take out the leader(s) of the mob, and the rest will fizzle.
Allowing any form of mob rule is the first mistake being made...
The folks along Sherman’s route at the time were better armed relative to his army than they are today relative to a modern army.
Today’s civilian firearms are utterly ineffective against tanks and really any fighting vehicle. While any southerner probably had a rifle every bit as good as the best in Sherman’s army. Throughout the war the Union had few if any armament advantage qualitatively. Their advantage was in quantity, which of course has a quality all its own.