Sherman's "March to the Sea" primarily utilized the strategy of waging total war against the Confederate infrastructure. This approach aimed to break the will of the Southern population and disrupt their ability to sustain the war effort. By targeting railroads, supplies, and civilian property, Sherman sought to undermine the Confederacy's capacity to fight. His army marched through Georgia, inflicting damage not just on military targets but also on anything that could help support Confederate troops, including farms and factories. This method of total war was intended to make the cost of the conflict so high for the Southern civilians that they would lose the resolve to continue supporting the Civil War.
This strategy contrasted with defensive warfare, which focuses on protecting one's territory without engaging aggressively with the enemy. Guerrilla tactics involve irregular warfare meant to harass and undermine conventional forces, which does not accurately capture the organized large-scale movements and destruction employed during Sherman's campaign. Naval blockades were another military strategy used during the Civil War to restrict the flow of goods and supplies but were not part of the ground-based operations of Sherman's march.