Siege and total war in the civil war?

I think that the Union using total war, and siege is definitely not fair to all of the civilians peacefully living near battlefields, and the action of the war. From the people in the movie I saw that what Sherman did was really not fair to all of the innocent people in the Southern towns when you look at it from the south's point of view. Sherman could have just blocked all of the ports and took of train tracks, but they definitely didn't have to set houses on fire and leave civilians homeless. Doing all of this was good for the Union though because after all of the things Sherman and his troops were doing, the Confederates surrendered. I don't think this is justified, with burning houses.