Scorched earth
A scorched-earth policy is a military strategy that aims to destroy anything that might be useful to the enemy while it is advancing through or withdrawing from a location. Any assets that could be used by the enemy may be targeted, for example food sources, water supplies, transportation, communications, industrial resources, and even the locale's people themselves.
Sherman's March to the Sea
By employing the scorched earth policy that ripped through Georgia, Sherman demonstrated for the first time in the modern era the power of total war in breaking an enemy's will to resist. This concept would come into full bloom during World War II when both Axis and Allied powers deliberately and indiscriminately bombed enemy and enemy-controlled cities to create terror or disrupt war production in order to win the war by any means at their disposal—including extensive incendiary raids and the dropping of two atomic bombs.