Sherman's final provision allowed able-bodied Black people who could assist the columns to be taken along. The same sentence warned commanders that supplies were limited and made defeating armed Confederate forces their first duty. The provision seems partly intended to encourage recruitment, an implication some commanders understood more readily than others. The wording exposes the tension between emancipation, military labour, refugee movement, and an army determined to preserve its mobility. The campaign's liberation story and its logistical exclusions appear together in the same order.
Notable Point · 1:07:53-1:08:29
Freedpeople, manpower, and the limits of the march
The orders allowed able-bodied Black people to accompany the columns when they could help, while supply and combat priorities still governed that movement.