From January to March in 1865, more than 60,000 Union soldiers led by General William Tecumseh Sherman marched across South Carolina and brought total war to the state, destroying railroads, factories, and farms and attacking civilian morale. The march through South Carolina helped bring the Civil War to an end. For many Union soldiers, it was an opportunity to punish South Carolina, widely viewed as the state that started the war. For many white Carolinians, it left burned houses and farms and bred lingering bitterness. For the thousands of black slaves who followed Sherman's army, it brought freedom and an uncertain future.