Final answer:
Special Field Order No. 15 allocated land to freedpeople, granting them 'forty acres and a mule' to start their new lives, but the policy was reversed by President Andrew Johnson.
Step-by-step explanation:
The land from Special Field Order No. 15 was set aside for the settlement of freedpeople, specifically African Americans who had been enslaved prior to and during the Civil War. General William T. Sherman issued the order to allocate approximately 400,000 acres of confiscated land in Georgia and South Carolina, stretching from Charleston south to St. Johns River in Florida.
Each family could be given title to forty acres of land, and some of the army's old mules were distributed to assist in working this land. However, the promise of land distribution was short-lived, as President Andrew Johnson eventually revoked the order and restored land rights to former Confederates.