what was sherman's goal in his march through Georgia? How successsful was he?

He burned a path from where he started all the way to Georgia and then back up towards VA putting Lee's army between him and Grants.

This was what Sherman called Hard War. we call it Total War today.

He was very successful. He is hailed a hero by the North and Villain by the South even today as Andrew Jackson is.

Hope that helps

President Lincoln had come to believed that the Confederacy could only be beaten by whipping the entire culture including the civilians. General Sherman agreed with President Lincoln and was given the job to destroy the fiber of the civilian culture. This he accomplished with the march through Georgia. Here he attacked not only the foundations for military support but the old men, women, and children of the South. Some were even taken away to the North and never returned to the South. It was war against the people.

Sherman's goal was the third part of the Anaconda Plan (blockade the South, capture the Mississippi River, and the role Sherman played-invade into the heart of the South). Sherman was very successful. He utilized a "total war" concept that rained ruin on the Southern economy and civilians. Many homes were burned, livestock killed, slaves liberated. Remember most of the battles in the Civil war were fought in VA, MD, or PA, so Sherman's march drove a stake in the heart of Dixie by destroying Atlanta, Colombia SC and marching all the way to Savannah on the coast.

He wanted to shorten the war by destroying the food supply and the will of the civilian population, both so they could not support the troops, and so they would pressure the government to end the war. I believe he was successful on the first count, but not on the second. It's often said the North won the war, but the South won the popular culture.

Go to the sea, destroy everything of value to the Confederacy along the way.

Yes, it worked. He destroyed a good deal of infrastructure and supplies.

about as successful as the guy who invented toilet paper