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Fact One: Most of the violence committed by the Union army during the march to the sea (which is MUCH less than fans of Southern "heritage" would have you believe) were committed by stragglers: Union soliders who had separated from their units to forage and/or plunder on their own accord, without order or supervision by their commanding officers. Of these men, a large percentage were bounty jumpers and criminals: surprise, surprise, both regions had bad folks in them! Contrast that with the massacre at Fort Pillow, in which Confederate soliders under the direct observation of their commading officers, massacred surrendering black troops and their white comrades. Or the second sack of Lawrence, Kansas (the first occuring during the pre-Civil War "bleeding" Kansas violence) in which outlaws under the command of William Quantrill (who held the rank of Colonel in the Confederate Army) massacred over one hundred civilians.
>>Well, this is somewhat true. Except that there IS historical evidence to suggest that Sherman was AWARE of soliders, stragglers or no, taking liberties with his "foraging orders" which instructed the soliders to enter no home -- and did nothing to discourage it.
Fact Two: When Lee invaded the North, his army, in essence, kidnapped every black man and women it came across to take back to slavery, many of whom had been born free and were legally free people. Sherman never did anything that atrocious in all his time of "ravaging" the south.
>>Again, sort of. Sherman's troops were regarded a heros by Southern blacks, who began following Sherman's march like he was the Pied Piper. Sherman clearly didn't want the responsibility and said so. At a river crossing, one of his officers, taking some "initiative," ordered the troops to burn the bridges after they crossed preventing the blacks from crossing. The result: they were left to the tender mercies of the local militias and police who generally had them hung as runaways. Not wishing to face that fate many of them jumped into the river and drowned. The record is murky as to how specific Sherman was about what to do with the blacks following him, but the officer apparently felt that he was acting under Sherman's orders, and Sherman did NOT discipline him for his actions.
Also, Sherman himself estimated that he did over $100,000,000 (in the 1860's!!!) damage to the South in that march, some of which was "waste and served no purpose." He, however, also pointed out that, in general, only factories, mills, railroads and crops were destroyed -- that he encouraged his troops to protect the poor and forage only from the rich -- that he even discouraged that destruction where the citizens did not "resist" the oncoming army.
Sherman did some bad shit, though. He later admitted that, at one point, he discovered that retreating Confederate troops were mining the roadways without warning, which was considered a war crime then. Several of Sherman's men were killed by the mines, so BY HIS OWN ACCOUNT, Sherman took Confederate troop captured in Atlanta, handcuffed them, and ordered them to march in front of his army as human mine detectors. This, of course, discouraged the mine planters somewhat.
Fact Three: a number of "war crimes" pinned on Sherman were actually the work of fleeing confederates, including the burning of Columbus, South Carolina which, to this day, is believed to have been started by Sherman's army by ignorant (but "heritage-filled") Southerners, but was actually started by Southerners seeking to deny Union control of Columbus's goods.
>>That's true. A number of Southern newspapers actually reported such occurances -- fleeing Confederates burning their neighbors crops to avoid surrendering them to Sherman.
Fuck the Confederacy. I know it's hard to accept that your forfather fought for a corrupt cause, but remember: you had nothing to do with it.
>>The arrogance of the Confederacy was this notion that they could simply attack the North, and that the U.S. Army would politely lineup and fight them in a nice Southern duel, and that they were monsters for failing to do so. Southerners hate Sherman for more than just what he did, they hate him for shattering their illusions of dignified warfare. After his siege of Atlanta, Sherman ordered the city evacuated of all civilians in five days, John Bell Hood, the retreating Confederate General, send Sherman a letter, asking him to remand his order "in the name of God." Sherman replied:
"In the name of common-sense, I ask you not to appeal to a just God in such a sacrilegious manner. You who, in the midst of peace and prosperity, have plunged a nation into war -- dark and cruel war -- who dared and badgered us to battle, insulted our flag, seized our arsenals and forts that were left in the honorable custody of peaceful residance-sergeants, seized and made 'prisoners of war' the very garrisons sent to protect your people against negroes and Indians, long before any overt act was committed by the (to you) hated Lincoln Government; tried to force Kentucky and Missouri into rebellion, spite of themselves; falsified the vote of Lousiana; turned loose your privateers to plunder unarmed ships; expelled Union families by the thousands, burned their houses, and declared, by an act of your Congress, the confiscation of all debts due Northern men for goods had and received! Talk thus to the marines, but not to me, who have seen these things, and who will this day make as much sacrifice for the peace and honor of the South as the best-born Southerner among you! If we must be enemies, let us be men, and fight it out as we propose to do, and not deal in such hypocritical appeals to God and humanity. God will judge us in due time, and he will pronounce whether it be more humane to fight with a town full of women and the families of a brave people at our back or to remove them in time to places of safety among their own friends and people."
In a similar vein, he told the Atlanta legislature, "War is cruelty and you cannot refine it" a lesson that the Confederacy learned the hard way. Tough darts.
That's the thing about this "Lost Cause" nonsense: its an ILLUSION. The Civil War wasn't a gentlemanly struggle by rightous Southern patriots against oppressive, evil Northerners.
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