Field Orders No. 15 during Reconstruction attempted to do what?

• A. The government funded large-scale plantation leases for planters
• B. General Sherman allocated land to freedpeople in the Sea Islands
• C. Congress passed a nationwide land redistribution plan
• D. All land was returned to former Confederates

Answer: (B)

Field Orders No. 15 captures an early Reconstruction idea: land should be reassigned to those who were enslaved, not kept by former masters. General Sherman set aside confiscated land in the Sea Islands of South Carolina and Georgia for freedpeople, with the aim of giving families a chance to farm and support themselves. This is why the best answer says Sherman allocated land to freedpeople in the Sea Islands. It reflects a localized, wartime attempt to implement economic independence for Black Americans, often associated with the phrase forty acres per family. The policy was geographically limited and temporary in effect; it faced strong opposition and was eventually overturned, illustrating how contested land reform became once Reconstruction moved into presidential policies. The other options describe broader or different actions that did not occur: there was no nationwide land redistribution by Congress, no government-funded plantation leases for planters, and no return of all land to former Confederates.