What let up to General Sherman and order of 40 acres and a mule for former slaves?

General William Tecumseh Sherman issued Special Field Orders No. 15 in January 1865, which aimed to provide land to formerly enslaved individuals in the South. This decision arose from the need to address the social and economic upheaval caused by the Civil War, as well as the demand for reparations by freed Black people. The order set aside land along the coast of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, granting each family 40 acres and the option to purchase a mule. However, after the war, this promise was largely unfulfilled as land was returned to its former owners, leaving many freedpeople without the resources they had been promised.