<Li> Rivers' Bridge </Li> <Li> Monroe's Crossroads </Li> <P> After Sherman captured Savannah, he was ordered by Grant to embark his army on ships to reinforce the Union armies in Virginia, where Grant was bogged down in the Siege of Petersburg against Robert E. Lee . Sherman proposed an alternative strategy . He persuaded Grant that he should march north through the Carolinas instead, destroying everything of military value along the way, similar to his march to the sea through Georgia . He was particularly interested in targeting South Carolina, the first state to secede from the Union, for the effect it would have on Southern morale . </P> <P> Sherman's plan was to bypass the minor Confederate troop concentrations at Augusta, Georgia, and Charleston, South Carolina, and reach Goldsboro, North Carolina, by March 15, 1865, where he would unite with Union forces commanded by John M. Schofield and Alfred H. Terry . As with his Georgia operations, he marched his armies in multiple directions simultaneously, confusing the scattered Confederate defenders as to his first true objective, which was the state capital Columbia . He faced the smaller and battered Army of Tennessee, again under the command of Gen. Joseph E. Johnston . On February 17, Columbia surrendered to Sherman . Fires began in the city, and most of the central city was destroyed . The burning of Columbia has engendered controversy ever since, with some claiming the fires were accidental, others a deliberate act of vengeance . On that same day, the Confederates evacuated Charleston . On February 18, Sherman's forces destroyed virtually anything of military value in Columbia . The last significant Confederate seaport, Wilmington, surrendered on February 22 . </P>

What was the confederate goal in the western theater during the civil war