The correct answer to this open question is the following.
Although there are no options attached, we can say the following.
The group of people who were most directly affected by General Sherman's strategy of "total war" were farmers and common citizens.
General William T. Sherman led his troops in what was known as the March to the Sea. He was in the state of Georgia, and his troops advanced from Atlanta to the coast of Savannah (November 15 to December 21, 1864). That is when he applied the concept of total war, not killing citizens but burning houses, farm fields, harvest, and farms, jus to scared them to drop their support to the Confederate Army and pledge their loyalty to the Union.
