Sherman's Special Order No. 15
As Sherman’s troops swept through Georgia and the Carolinas, many freed slaves attached themselves to his army. Concerned about their welfare and their effect on the army’s progress, the general and Secretary of War Stanton conferred with black church officials in Savannah, who asserted that freed people needed access to land to sustain themselves. Thus, Sherman issued an order in January 1865 granting former slaves forty-acre plots of coastline property from Charleston, South Carolina to Jacksonville, Florida, and the right to oversee their own affairs subject to U.S. military and congressional authority. President Andrew Johnson would restore most of the confiscated land to its original owners after the war.
As Sherman’s troops swept through Georgia and the Carolinas, many freed slaves attached themselves to his army. Concerned about their welfare and their effect on the army’s progress, the general and Secretary of War Stanton conferred with black church officials in Savannah, who asserted that freed people needed access to land to sustain themselves. Thus, Sherman issued an order in January 1865 granting former slaves forty-acre plots of coastline property from Charleston, South Carolina to Jacksonville, Florida, and the right to oversee their own affairs subject to U.S. military and congressional authority. President Andrew Johnson would restore most of the confiscated land to its original owners after the war.