"Until we can repopulate Georgia, it is useless to defend it, but the complete destruction of its roads, its buildings, its population and its military resources is essential. The attempt to defend its roads costs us a thousand men every month and brings us no advantages. I can carry out the march and make Georgia howl."
Draw your own conclusions. I know what this letter says and so do you. Just as in all the great purges, the numbers of civilian deaths are concealed for the most part. A guess?
We can tell you how many shoes were used, how many railroad ties destroyed, but there are no civilian death figures. Odd, isn't it? Like Obama's transcripts, we have a number for every round spent, but nothing on the people. Search for yourself. The most used number I have seen is between 20 and 30 thousand. Anywhere from 85 to 350 thousand total deaths in the war - fought exclusively in the south, I'm guessing most were southerners. Tough to get numbers from someone who doesn't want to give them up and we all know the south was left with looted mercilessly. I suppose dearth from starvation after nothing was left behind was quite high. You probably knew all this anyway, though, huh?
How many civilians died on Patton's March through Germany?
According to Shelby Foote, while Sherman did massive damage to Confederate infrastructure such as railroads, forges and cotton mills, and his 60,000 men did live off the land, there were few civilians injured in his campaign and even military losses where very low compared to other campaigns during that war.
The end result is that Sherman ended the war far sooner than it would have otherwise. That saved tens of thousands of lives on both sides.