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.
Battle of Tulifinny
In early December 1864 Major General William T. Sherman and his formidable army numbering an estimated 62,000 men approached the South Carolina border and their final objective of Savannah, Georgia. Sherman had ordered his men to apply "scorched earth" tactics which resulted in the burning of crops and homes, confiscation and killing of livestock and the consumption of any supplies available for his army. This total war strategy, though brutal was believed to cause mass desertion among Confederate troops and break the South's will to fight.