Final answer:
General William Tecumseh Sherman's Special Field Order No. 15 allocated about 400,000 acres for freedpeople in forty-acre plots after the Civil War. The exact number in Sherman's 'pioneer class' of land recipients isn't specified, but it was likely substantial given the amount of land and size of Sherman's army.
Step-by-step explanation:
When discussing Sherman's pioneer class, it is essential to clarify the context since the term 'pioneer class' is not directly referenced in historical documents. The term may refer to the group of freedpeople who were the first to benefit from General William Tecumseh Sherman's Special Field Order No. 15. This order, famously associated with the phrase 'forty acres and a mule', allocated about 400,000 acres of land, which was confiscated from Confederate landowners, to formerly enslaved African Americans after the Civil War. The land was to be divided into forty-acre plots for settlement by these freedpeople.
The number of freedpeople that comprised this 'pioneer class' under Sherman's order isn't specified in the available documentation. However, given the vast number of potential benefactors and the size of the army that Sherman commanded, which was over 60,000 soldiers, it can be inferred that a substantial number of freedpeople could have potentially been involved in this initial allocation of land, had the order been fully implemented long-term.
It is crucial to understand that Sherman's march through Georgia brought many formerly enslaved people into contact with the Union army, many of whom followed the troops, carrying their belongings with them, seeking protection and safety.