I see this as largely the same as the US use of atomic bombs against Japan. There are arguments to be made on both sides and both actions will be debated forever.
Yes. We have all seen the pictures. Have you never considered the tremendous destruction caused by the treasonous South in order to maintain that "peculiar" institution of human chattle slavery? Do you know how many died for the evil that was, and in many cases still is, the US South. Where school boards refuse to allow the children to learn the truth. Arrogance. Intransigence. Ignorance. Amnesia. The four words which best describe the people of the South, to this very day. General Sherman, like Harry Truman some four score years later, did the right thing. If anything, it was not harsh enough. Hubris. You still think you were the victims. You were the perpe-traitors.
In order to destroy railroads, the rails would be heated over fires and then bent around trees. They became known as "Sherman's neckties." Some of these can still be seen if you know where to look in Georgia.
You can see one at Fort McAllister State Park about 10 miles south of Savannah in Bryan County. They were also called Sherman's bowties, Jeff Davis's neckties and Sherman's hairpins.
@@VernonWillis-n8ogreat point. I guess they laid it across a fire and then tied the ends to ropes and then used horses to drag it to either side of a tee etc?
I’m from Pa. In the Air Force. Stationed in Florida, driving through Georgia, 1971. Got a speeding ticket. I ask the officer, smiling, jokingly, when you gonna stop fighting the civil war? He answered without joking or smiling, and said, when it’s over.
Sherman was Gay and had love affairs with his own people!!! Stonewall Jackson had great Moral fiber!!! We just lacked industry in the south! The SOUTH won the first 13 battles and would have won Gettysburg without General Lee being Sick and Jeb Stewart stealing to much equipment from the Yankees!!!
Another interesting fact... Sherman's personal escort was comprised of 21 men from the 1st Alabama Cavalry, a union regiment comprised of southerners. The commander of the detachment was LT David R Snelling, a Georgian from Millidgeville. Sherman even makes mention of Snelling in his memoirs.
It did say in "Modern Warfare". Western Countries had considered themselves "enlightened" and left Non-combatants alone in the previous couple of hundred years.
This was the first truly industrial war after the Napoleonic Era, aka the nation-state, superpatriotic era. So, scorched earth may have been old, but "total war" was new.
Yes, war was like this in Europe from beginning of history. Sometimes town might get lenient handling if it pledged allegiamce to occupiers. Sherman was human not killing civilians.
@@Svensk7119 I would argue Sherman's March to the Sea was more of a standard raid with the goal of destroying morale and militarily important infrastructure. Civilians were not the targets as in the fire bombing raids of WWII.
I am from Georgie and I can assure you any truth about or existence of the march to Savannah or the decimation of the Indian nations east of the Mississippi was 0% covered in school. Maybe a sugar coated version like this video.
@@allenbyers8684 I went to school in the 50s and 60s the decimation of the Indian nations east of the Mississippi happened long before Sherman's march. Both of which I did indeed learn in school; Maybe you were napping that day. Or just a poor excuse for a school.
I am the current owner of the Adams Hill Plantation in Bloomingdale, GA. 10 miles South of the Savannah River and 15 miles West of Savannah. The plantation dates back to the early 1800's and the original plantation mansion is said to have been burned during Sherman's march to the sea. It was rebuilt after the war by the Adams family and remained within their family until the mid 1970's.
My aunt lived out in Ludowici, Ga in a house owned by a freemason. It was one of only a few houses that were spared. Old Antebellum home. I've actually been working in Bloomingdale recently. Not a bad place.
My Army, the Regular Army. He knew exactly what he was doing from Kennesaw on. He was a man with a plan and he executed it perfectly. Atlanta, Milledgeville, Savannah. The war was over before he made it through South Carolina.
As bad as the march through GA was, Sherman's drive north through South Carolina was worse. Since this was the state that launched secession, union troops saw little reason to treat SC the same as Georgia. North Carolina, on the other hand, got off relatively easy.
Interestingly enough, when military planners looked at the US Civil War, most saw only Grant's and Lee's trench warfare as the main lesson. That's one reason WW I devolved into trench warfare. But a German General studied Sherman's march through S. Carolina, where he broke his Army in 6 columns, and attacked where the Confederates didn't expect. The General? Heinz Guderian, the originator of the Blitzkrieg.
Sherman passed through Georgia so easily because two-thirds of Georgia's military was in Tennessee on a campaign. Jefferson Davis had ordered reinforcements from Texas and Florida-30k each. Flordia sent 10k, and Texas refused to send any. While the people of Texas wanted to be in the Confederacy, the leaders did not seem to share that sentiment. Texas never swore an oath to the Confederacy and, in my opinion, contributed to the Confederacy's loss.
@@randythompson8826 The Confederate army, such as it was after Hood destroyed it in Atlanta, went tolabama before getting embarrassed at Knoxville and surrendering. I had a relative that was captured at Cheraw, he said, "All discipline was lost". They had ceased to be an effective fighting force.
The North's generals committed untold atrocities against the South's citizens. After the war, these same officers were turned loose on the Indians. The atrocities continued.
The South's generals committed untold atrocities against the South's citizens. After the war, these same officers were turned loose on the Indians. The atrocities continued.
Oh, there were no atrocities the south??? Slavery. Andersonville (and others). Captured African American soldiers being summarily executed on the orders of R. Lee.
In the South it was theorized that not only buildings and structures were destroyed, but all food supplies were destroyed as well, increasing the suffering of the civilian population. However, in order to not cause suffering of the animals, the Northerners did not destroy one item they considered cattle feet - Black Eyed Peas. Thus began the tradition in the South of eating Black Eyed Peas on New Years day (among other days).
My father's ancestor's lived at a place called Finn's Bridge in Jefferson County, GA. There is a bronze State historical marker there at the crossroads, which tells that Sherman ordered that all livestock in the area, horses, cattle, mules, etc., were corralled into the center of the crossroads, and systematically shot, leaving a massive pile of dead livestock for a community of women, small children and old men to deal with, as well as try to run their farms without. I would suggest that in contrast to your posting, this action by Sherman did indeed "cause suffering of the animals."
I think that the lesson of Sherman’s march to the sea was: there is no place that is safe from our armies movements anymore. If we decide to come, we will come. As an aside - I have a relative who was with Sherman’s army (18th US Infantry) and was killed a the Battle of New Hope Church (if I remember correctly.). His body was moved after the end of the war to the Federal Cemetery in Marietta, GA., where we stopped and took pictures of his tombstone.
Sherman's route was determined by the roads. His goal was to destroy Savanah and then turn north. You do not march a large army complete with wagons and train through woods, fields, rivers, and marshland.
This is true, I work for U.S. Census This campaign was the most important one of the entire war. That data gave the foundation for the march and was the turning point.
When I was a kid in the 50s my dad took us to Arkansas and Mississippi to see some of the, battle fields. Lived in Kansas and my dad was advised to cover our license plate so people wouldn’t see where we were from. The war was differently not over by the than
It figures. Average people and families pay the price while the decision makers drink cognac and smoke cigars. The Confederates up top ended the war in decent shape. Families that were devastated may not have done anything except live there. (until then) Sherman’s troops were happy to engage in actions that didn’t involve fighting. The looting was just incentive to ignore the plight of children, women, old people
Lincoln hired over 300,000 German and Irish immigrants to murder rape and plunder the South. Two Souther soldier's were caught looting at the beginning of the war and were executed. The Yankee killed all of the farm animals, and what they couldn't eat, they threw down the wells to poison them. They destroyed all of the crops and barns, except the barns with black eye peas and the fields with collard green's. They thought that black eye peas were animal feed, no more animal's, and collard green's were weeds. So, if not for the black eye peas and collard green's the South would had starved to death for the first 5 year's. This is why we celebrate new years with black eye peas, i.e. hoppin John's and collard green's.
By the way, the Confederates up top as you say, did not end the war in good shape. The federal govt seized Gen Robert E Lee's home and plantation, Arlington. The govt buried all of the Yankees there as an insult to Gen. Lee. Confederate President Jefferson Davis was chained to an iron ball and kept under house arrest for over 2 year's. After researching all of his record's, he was found blameless and released. They wanted to make a war criminal out of him, but he was found without fault. So, no, the Confederate Army's leader's did not go back to an easy living...
You CANNOT Turn an Army loose on a civilian population without remorse. The Army loses its humanity. And Southern families remember the atrocities to this day. Truth.
As a Southerner, retired soldier, and student of history, I understand Sherman’s tactics, but I do not approve of them. Only a coward fights helpless civilians.
@ where do you get that?,,he said it wouldnt happen under his watch...it was a war..death occurs in wars and its never the leaders dying!,,im not justifying it!
@AdvancedTennisFoundation-ph9zo if the US allowed States the right to succeed from the US union then in today's very polarised political climate the US would likely begin to break up so the US government will do everything to make sure that doesn't happen.
@AdvancedTennisFoundation-ph9zo They do have the right. The Constitution is a compact. Lincoln called it an insurrection but they did not try to overthrow the government. The war was fought based on an executive order. Lincoln sent troops to stop the Martland legislature from debating leaving the US. He had Amish farmer's homes and barns burned in Maryland and Pennsylvania. Lincoln declared a blockade of the southern states. Blockages can only be waged against a foreign country per international law. It was a war of northern aggression.
He followed that statement up with, "Corporal, come over here and tell me what you think this thing growing on my pecker is!! Sweet Jesus, now I believe its smiling at me!!!"
"Where have all the soldiers gone? Long time passing Where have all the soldiers gone? Long time ago Where have all the soldiers gone? Gone to graveyards, every one Oh, when will they ever learn?" - Pete Seeger
If Hood has not left the state on his ill conceived and even more poorly executed Tennessee campaign - he could have made a real contest but making hit and run attacks until he can destroy isolated Union units. And Sherman far from his communication and logistics lines so he could have gotten in real trouble against a smart foe.
Not even close. It was more along the lines of "your politicians and newspapers are lying to you, if they weren't, we wouldn't be smashing up an looting everything we come across, your vaunted armies can't stop us. Give up."
IF Stonewall Jackson had gotten his way, and not Lee, the CSA would have used a total war strategy early in the war while the South still had the upper hand. A lot of Confederate generals wanted to attack the Norths industrial and agricultural base, and others want to fight a guerilla war against the Northern States. Lee wanted to fight the Union's armies. That was a stupid idea, everyone knew the south didn't have the population or industrial base to fight a long protracted war of attrition with the union.
They couldn't afford to take every slave. Sherman's army itself was living off of the land. Next you forgot to mention the Southern deserters this caused. Southerners left the Confederacy in droves to go back and try to save what was left of their land and to reconnect with loved ones. Sherman did an outstanding job of his mission so much in fact his march has been taught in military academies around the world.
They wrecked and shattered lives and people wonder why we won't forgive or forget - and the destruction goes on today that need not be just like the excuse that started it all - A lie - could have been accomplished without the loss of all those lives
@@dennisgrubbs1929What are you going on about? No destruction continues, a lie or not the conflict is over so get over your anger ,people like you are what hurts the south now! And yes I am a southern man from the great state of S.C.
Sherman was a devil in the flesh. So it was ok for an So called American to kill innocent women and children for a so called just cause. Innocent blood has a very heavy price. He and others know that now. Hell is just!
#1, the war was NOT OVER SLAVERY !!! "Slavery was the pretext of the war not the cause of the war. " William Tecumseh Sherman. Churchill as well as every other General world leader have studied the Souths General's, not the norths. What are you smoking????
Actually, the march started in Chattanooga. Went through Chickamauga where there was a tremendous battle, Dalton through my backyard where they crossed Mill Creek, Resaca another major battle, then Kennesaw Mtn., estimate 100,000 troops.
The message to the south was that their government was no longer capable protecting its civilian population. The impact on the moral of the remaining southern forces was severe, food became even more scarce and soldiers knew their families were defenseless. The low casualties were largely due to Sherman’s use of maneuver & tactics to avoid head on conflict. Compare Sherman’s record with Hood’s casualties at Franklin, where poor tactics resulted in massive southern casualties.
You're not supposed to have to protect your civilians. That is why Honor , Duty, and Respect are taught at West Point. It was a Stain on the Union Victory that lasts to this day.
On behalf of people from Georgia, that understands history, Sherman can rot in hell! I'm from eatonton, this was on his path. My family has been here long enough, they experienced it. The union wasn't preserved, it was made a corporation. It used to be these united states, a confederation of states. Now it's the untied states, a corporation. And you wonder why we have a " military industrial complex" and a bunch of ignorant kids!
Lol, understand history! Sherman didn't cause that, Sherman helped to bring an end to a war by showing you idiots that war is terrible. Politicians mostly Dims caused what you describe. I digress, you go on defending slavery though.
@joemiller7086 just add a story dad used to tell me. About 4 miles from here, there was a water wheel driven mill. The creek was swollen, Sherman's men were throwing torchs across the creek to burn the mill. The SLAVES put the fire out. That's where they got their flower and cornmeal from there too. It was a hell that didn't need to be, for everyone.
That’s because the only serious invasion the south could muster only got about 100 miles north of the mason dixon line to Gettysburg. Where Lee got his butt thoroughly kicked.
If Lee did that, most of the outraged northerner would have finally got off their assassination and the war would have ended a year sooner! Lee and his general s had their chance at Gettysburg but screwed up 1st day late, & 2nd and 3rd strategies and tactics, along with heroic union military resistance.
How many civilians died in Shermans wake of exposure and starvation? How many southern women were raped and murdered? You said that orders were not to burn private homes and yet a few minutes later you talk of the looting and burning of private homes! Sherman should have been tried and found guilty of war crimes along with Grant for giving him the OK.
Sherman said in his biography that if the South had won, that he would have been tried as a war criminal and justifiably convicted. Over one million unarmed Southern civilians were murdered raped and plundered by Sherman.
@@charlescourtney4412More like 75-95 miles from his march. It would have been easy to send a detachment of troops to liberate the camp. It’s not like his army had any resistance raiding homes and farms occupied by women, children and the elderly. The majority of the Confederate force was 400-500 miles north fighting in Virginia.
I have read the account of how Sherman got his comeuppance at the battle of Kennesaw Mtn. on his jaunt to the non existent battle of Atlanta as Hood had withdrawn before Sherman got there!! My extensive library documents many other happenings NOT mentioned in Yankee publications! P. S. It is recorded that Sherman flew out of his tent that early April morning at Shiloh in his "longjohns" narrowly escaping capture!!
The winners write the history books. They also choose what not to write about...like Sherman's burning of Columbia South Carolina long after effective southern resistance had ended.
@tomogooch1422 is Iying. Sherman didn't burn Columbia, Confederate forces evacuating the city burned cotton to prevent Sherman's army from capturing it and the fires spread in high winds. Newly released prisoners also turned arsonist, as did some drunken soldiers who'd been liquored up by the local civilians. Sherman organized the fire brigades that put out the fires and saved as much of the city as survived. He's also Iying about southern resistance ending, as there were still major Confederate armies in the field. Johnson fought significant conventional battles against Sherman at Averasborough and Bentonville after Sherman left Columbia and pushed into North Carolina.
As the vanguard of Sherman's column approached Newborn Ga, shots rang out. Some say it was 'some boys' pot-shotting the soldiers, but more likely it was the soldiers themselves, as that was something they commonly did to signal arrival at the next town. In any event, if it had been locals resisting, the town would have been burned to the ground and that didn't happen. Legend has it that Sherman paused for lunch in John Pitts' house. Mr. Pitts, finding himself hosting the devil himself, talked a blue streak and didn't stop until Sherman left. Sherman thought he was 'an odd cock'. Pitts was the town father, a Princeton grad and and union sympathizer (although we don't really know what that term referred to exactly, whether anti-slavery or anti-separatist). Sherman's soldiers burned Pitt's barn behind the house anyway, supposedly in error. Sherman moved on to the next wide spot in the road (Farrar Ga) and spent the night there.
My Father was the youngest of 8. He recalled hearing the older adults talk about hating Sherman because he burned the churches because he believed the confederates were meeting in the churches to plan their tactics.
@@alanmcentee9457 That didn't happen but such tales definitely contributed to the legacy of bitterness surrounding Sherman's March. Not that I care how bitter secessionists and their descendants were or are.
@@VernonWillis-n8o Brave words from someone who has no idea the suffering of Southerners for generations after that march. As you watch CNN tonight gleefully cheering on the Israelis' destruction of the Middle East feel good in your ignorance.
For those interested in the source material, there are books about the actuality of Sherman's March and the many atrocities that occurred. They are suppressed but available; "in the Course of Human Events," by Charles Adams, "War Crimes Against Southern Civilians," Walter Brian Cisco, "When the Yankees Come - Former South Carolina Slaves Remember Shermaan's Invasion," by Paul C. Graham, "Everything You Were Taught About the Civil War is Wrong," Lochlann Seabrook, "The Yankee Problem - An American Dilemma," Clyde N. Wilson, "Roll Jordan, Roll - The World the Slaves Created," Prof. E Genovese, and an amazing book about the most influential family of the 19th century, and not for the best, "The Beechers - An American Family in the Nineteenth Curuty," Milon Rugoff. The best book for demonstrating the politics and the rise of the Left in 1950 and how the modern situation came about "Lincoln's Marxists," by Benson and Kennedy
The only city Sherman spared in his March to Savannah was Milledgeville, Ga. There can see the few antebellum homes spared from the total war strategy by burning and destroying anything of value to the civilian population.
Not, true Macon, Augusta and Madison were spared in addition to Savannah. My family saved our valuables and cottage by hiding it from the devils and our plantation house wasn't burned.
Why does the video keep showing the two Russian shopkeepers (man and woman in white shirts) studying books next to the "Kacca" sign which is Russian for "Cashier"?
It seems forever forgotten that’s Jefferson Davis at the very end of the war advocated guerrilla warfare. Can you imagine how would be heroes in communities never touched by war might have foolishly reacted opening their doors to horrifying repercussions. If you read any of Sherman’s writings you will find a morally responsible and highly educated human being. Today there seem many experts that try to neutralize the violent part of our nature. We need to work to move that towards more productive lines if we close our eyes to it, it will bite us hard.
It`s like the atomic bombs at the end of WWII. Yes! It was ruthless and cruel, but the alternative was worse. An all-out invasion of Japan was estimated to cause 800.000 potential US-casualties and up to 10.000.000 (TEN MILLION) japanese ones. Compared to this numbers, the 200.000 dead people in Nagasaki and Hiroshima, look like the lesser evil. We can only speculate how many casualties on both sides it would have taken to brake the souths will to fight, using convetionally miltary tactiks, but it would have been WAY MORE than 3.000 (avoiding just ONE MORE Gettysburg, saved more than 50.000 lives)
by todays standards, sherman was a war criminal, just as grant and lincoln are. but the victors write the history books despite the facts. the use of gang rape as a weapon is terrorism and never justified, add in the inter-racial element, and you see why 150+ yrs later there are still problems. shermans crimes ought not be ignored or dismissed because he was fighting against 'slavery'. what he and the north did wasnt just criminal, it was evil.
Jefferson Davis was offered arms through Mexico by the Jesuits, or he might never had the nerve to shoot in the first place. Rome had her hands in many dirty deeds in history...
@@h.s.lafever3277 is Iying through his teeth. He's another whiny lost causer who shits his diaper in impotent rage because the Union played by the rules of engagement the Confederates set (they called for the civil population to wage guerilla war against Union conventional troops, making all those civilians combatants), and he also ignores the fact that the Confederates had been destroying civilian property and people since 1861 -- confederate privateers and commerce raiders attacking US-flagged merchant ships, burning towns like Hampton so unionist refugees couldn't shelter there, the Nueces Massacre against a civilian refugee column fleeing to Mexico, the sack of Lawrence which killed something like 160 civilian men and boys, etc. And his putting slavery in quotes shows he's a racist piece of excrement who wants to hide and excuse what the rebels were fighting for. And as for rape, the CSA was founded in part to keep rape legal as long as the victims were black. They acted to prevent black people from getting civil rights like the right to go to court and testify against whites who wronged them, and raping slaves was a regular part of the slave system the Confederacy was explicitly and officially founded to preserve and extend.
@@h.s.lafever3277 They should have given all the land in the southern states to the slaves as reparations for the crimes committed against them by the slave owners. Letting the southern whites rewrite the war as some noble cause was the real crime.
I have lived all over the USA and I have yet to meet a Southerner that didn't have an ancestor that didn't get his barn or house burned down by Sherman. Apparently, Sherman was burning barns clear over in Louisiana and Texas as well as the East Coast. Like certain other groups, Southerners love to play the Victim Card. How many buildings did Hood and other Confederates burn down to keep them from falling into Sherman's hands?
Among all the statistics you miss a big one - The many thousands of Southern women that were raped along the way. Next time try telling the whole story.
The irony of people who defend the CSA's war to keep the rape of black women legal (many of whom recently voted for a man who bragged about sexual assault on a hot mic) pretending to be outraged about white women getting raped is super gross. There were some reported rapes by Union soldiers in Georgia, and Sherman ordered the perpetrators punished.
What I know about Sherman's March to the sea? My gramma Josie spoke ad noseum of my great grandfather, for whom she cared in his later years until his death 28 years prior to my birth. Born in 1843, enlisting in 1862, he was captured Nov 30, 1864, outside Louisville, GA, while dickin' around, having a makeshift horse race, pitting two confiscated thoroughbreds, one against the other. He, along with members of Companies H and K of the 78th Illinoiszzz Vol Inf Reg, were interrupted and subsequently captured by Wheeler's Cavalry, then sent to several different POW camps. My great-grampap landed at Camp Sumter, Andersonville, GA, where he sat out the remainder of the conflict. He was liberated in May, 1865, then, weighing less 100 lbs, was transferred via rail to convalescent hospital in Vicksburg, Mississippi, prior to mustering out in June of 1965. He was shipped by steamer to St Louis from whence he walked home to Pontoosuc.
Other then Milledgeville there were no strategic cities or towns along Sherman's March. By passing Macon and Augusta. Savanah other then Ft. McCallister was blocked by the recapture of Ft. Pulaski in 1862, Hilton Head, SC to the north and Darien to the south. The area Sherman marched through was not the agricultural rich nor industrial centers of Georgia. Sherman chose the path of least resistance. There were scattered plantations along the way but the further south he went there were fewer and fewer until the outskirts of Savanah.
@@Robert-g3l1v When “he” took over Dallas, GA he positioned himself against a people who fought as snipers through the dense and mountainous terrain. He hated Paulding County and they hated him. He was an evil pos who attacked civilians (was said to have raped a woman there) and captured my g-g grandfather who was in his late 50’s and sent him to an Illinois prison where he suffered and died. Yes. I spit when I say “his” name.
Upon reflection one has to ask who started this conflict? Total war may have been a forgotten method by the people of that period but I believe it was a method practiced earlier. For example at the end of the Punic Wars when the Romans crushed the Carthage. Or perhaps when “The Five Civilized Tribes” were forced out of the South to “Indian Territory”. Having an estimated death toll of between 13,000 to 16,700 people. I have a hard time shedding a tear.
1870s "War is Hell!!" This quote originates from William T. Sherman's Address to the graduating class of the Michigan Military Academy (19 June 1879); but slightly varying accounts of this speech have been published: "I’ve been where you are now and I know just how you feel. It’s entirely natural that there should beat in the breast of every one of you a hope and desire that some day you can use the skill you have acquired here." "Suppress it! You don’t know the horrible aspects of war. I’ve been through two wars and I know. I’ve seen cities and homes in ashes. I’ve seen thousands of men lying on the ground, their dead faces looking up at the skies. I tell you, war is Hell!"
I visited the Battle of Griswaldville. I don’t think I’ve ever been more sad at a military monument. Untrained boys between 12-16, men over the age of 60, armed with out-of-date and archaic guns, have been sent from Macon to reinforce the garrison at Augusta. In the evening, they hear troops moving and are commanded to trudge through a bog, up an incline and then charge into the twilight over and over again into Sherman’s right flank. They have been marching for days, are completely exhausted, are untrained, outmatched, and die by the hundreds. For what? The beaten force drew back across the bog and camped within earshot of their brothers’ and grandfathers’ dying screams and whimpers. For what? War is not glorious. It may be necessary, but it always has men choking on their own blood in the mud crying for their mothers. For what?
To make rich people even richer..... THIS war, should have been fought only by actuall slaveholders, and actuall abolitionists....... and by the politicians that promoted it..... Today, in Ukraine, the only ones manning the trenches should be the people who will benefit of the control over the farmland, mines, and resources of eastern Ukraine (and trust me, very few ukranians are going to benefit from it, regardless of who "wins" the war.....)
For what you ask… well, war was necessary to prevent the treasonous Southerners from dividing our country in order to enslave kidnapped Africans. The North waged a just and honorable war…
@jeffreybrannen9465,,,WHY?... Because Like their Forefathers (Washington,Paine,Jefferson,Franklin,etc.) They declared themselves FREE and Independent from the Tyrannical Union government ( That Was completely LEGAL!) And were then INVADED by that same Tyrannical Force... Encroaching their Land ,Destroying their property,Destroying their homes, and farms,,Killing Livestock,Destroying and stealing their personal possessions) You asked 'Why'??? There it is for you!
Only two cities were burned and destroyed during Sherman's March. Atlanta, and Millen. Millen was burned as retaliation for the condition of Union POWs at Camp Lawton. 5 miles north of Millen. I live 5 miles north of Camp Lawton, now called Magnolia Springs State Park.
@@chadh.johnson3550 The southern states did not do that. They took the democratic way and voted to separate. The same as you would file divorce proccedings from a spouse. They may not like it but they must abide by it. The Fed Govt. doesn't own the State. They can't force it to stay, no more than you could force a spouse not to leave.. The firing on Ft. Sumter was justified by our constitution. The Fed Govt is only allowed to have a base in a state if the state gives them permission. South Carolina told them to get out. The Feds. were in the process of stocking the fort with munitions when they were fired upon.
If you do some actual research, you will find that the Confederates set Atlanta on fire before Sherman got there, they wanted to leave nothing to Sherman.
He blew up the powder magazine in the State Capitol at Milledgeville but not one private residence was burned. It 10:11 was the State College that trashed Milledgeville, not Sherman.
Understand 2 things: 1) WE did not surrender. Lee and Davis surrendered. We would have kept fighting. We almost marched into D.C. 2) The union soldiers didn't give a damn about Southern slaves. Not one bit.
lol. Come to Boston Massachusetts and walk down the steps of the Capitol where you can see the monument to our free black Massachusetts regiment. nitwit
Ole Jubal had them whipped near sundown after first Manassas if he hadn't stopped to rest. He could see the Capitol from his position!! The south was never that close to winning the war again!!
One interesting thing is the development of negative opinions about freed slaves by troops who are having their first close experience I ence with them. The freed slaves behavior gave many otherwise neutral troops very negative opinions. The ex slaves had little idea of how rp care for themselves and therefore wanted the Union troops to provide for them; while the Union troops had no logistical support. Additionally the violence inflicted on the White Georgians helped fuel the anti-Black feelings later. Things like Sherman sending trained workers to Ohio where they were essentially slaves (the historian who found this tidbit was unable to find out what became of them after the warr), while Sherman was opposed to violence to civilians who didn't resist, rapes did occur along with deaths of people objecting to rape, destruction of their homes or the theft of all their food. I only point this out to ask how you would 4espnd after those acts
I thought that I wrote this already; but I don't see it. The basic comment was from a book on the campaign. I will have to find its name. You will find related thoughts from Union troops who met Black plantation owners (especially in Louisiana). If you followed this video; remember the Union troops had no logistics tail. Those free slaves following them expected them to feed them while they did no work. How do you think that went over with hungry, tired troops.
Slaves did all the manual labor to keep plantations going. It’s not true they didn’t know how to take care of themselves. Anti-black behavior was created by the Southern elite slave owners who needed to justify slavery.
Well done. One of the things Sherman did was burn courthouses. County Courthouses contained slave deeds, as well as land deeds, birth, death and marriage records- just as courthouses all over the US still do today (albeit electronically now). (My ancestors were living in Sherman’s path and got to experience the fun. As a result, lots of southern families REALLY had serious legal issues after that war. That was part of his plan, I believe. And it’s why many southern families today have trouble “proving” (thru legal records) their ancestry before 1865.
If you don't know your history, do not make a mistaken video about it. Most of the fires in Atlanta were caused by the Confederates who sought to keep its resources from falling into Union hands.
Do you have any evidence of your claim? I sure private homes in Central Atlanta had tons of resources for his Army. You do understand there is not 1 building in Atlanta from before 1865, and there is only a handful of buildings in the 60 mile wide path to Savannah (Milledgeville being the ONLY notable exception)? Are you saying EVERY land owner in GA conspired together to try and make Sherman look bad? It is more logical Sherman and his command did it not 1000s of private individuals. Emory University and the Cyclorama disagree with you claim.
TOTAL Bullshit! Sherman DID burn Private Homes AND Churches!! Don't paint him like some Benevolent Saint Because He WASN'T! Why don't you tell them what he Did to the INDIANS Later??
There are a number of reasons why such crimes were less common in that era. They did happen occasionally, but they were against the laws of war followed by the Union. Sherman made sure his soldiers knew that rape and murder were illegal, just as in civilian life. Anyone caught doing it would go to prison. 19th century people were much more religious than today, and feared not just their officers but God's wrath. Social norms were much more strict and conservative than now. So that was another deterrent. Unfortunately these rules didn't always apply to the negro slaves. A soldier would be punished if caught violating a white woman, but it might be overlooked if the victim was black. And of course for the Southerners, black women were property, they had no rights at all. They endured much worse from the rebels than from the federals.
Violence against citizens was not the plan or policy of Union army. It is very difficult to control the behavior of 60,000 soldiers on the move. Stragglers especially. And I can imagine more than a little resentment building up among some soldiers dragged off their farms, put in a uniform, drilled perpetually, and then being shot at and often killed or wounded. So a fair amount of hatred toward southerners could be directed toward civilians. But it happens in any war where morals and rules are often blurred or even ignored.
This is exactly what Lee attempted in his two invasions of the North. That has always been part of every invasion, back to Hannibal and before. It was a self-sufficient march, without supply lines, against a slave society founded on the illusion of martial superiority. The same approach brought down the slave-holding Spartans.
@@joemiller7086 Actually, most of my family fought for the Union, but my comment stands. What Lincoln and the Union did to the South, is exactly what Putin is trying to do to Ukraine. War crimes and all.
Some appear to not grasp what @kevinplante 1667 was saying. Let's try this: Have you or your State exercised a Ninth or Tenth Amendment right recently without it being superceded by nonconstitutionally based federal law?
Atlanta was burned twice, once indiscriminately when the pretended confederate army withdrew, and once precisely, sparing private homes, when the US Army withdrew. Much of the destruction was from rebel deserters. The US soldiers focused on large plantations where at least one person could be convinced to reveal where food or other supplies were hidden, and would not destroy buildings unless fired on from them. The southern deserters focused on smaller farms and burned them all to hide the evidence of their crimes. The deserters moved in smaller groups, attempting to avoid both the US Army and the rebel forces that would capture and either execute deserters, or conscript them into new units. The devastation caused by deserters from the armies of the insurrection was probably important in Lee's (and Longstreet's) rejection of guerilla war. Much, perhaps most of the human cost of the march was not due to Sherman and his force, but rather due to the refusal of the leaders of the insurrection to surrender. The murder of fugitive slaves by Wheeler's cavalry can't be made Sherman's responsibility, but must remain the responsibility of Wheeler et al.
Have any evidence to back your claims. What crimes against Georgia did these "deserters" commit? Trials? Charges? All I see is revisionist history for Sherman and Lincoln who had NO respect for the Constitution.
From what I understand, more damage was done by the deserters overall than by the army itself. This actually played into Sherman's plan of psychological warfare. The CSA could not protect it's citizens from either an organized army wandering through the countryside or bands of criminals roaming the countryside.
The people were tired of war at that point Georgia had a long history of going against the union that eventually caught up with them. I don’t think it’s a point of right or wrong, but what happened at this point. Much like Japan, who started a war ended up regretting how it ended
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"Moral complexity" my ass.
I see this as largely the same as the US use of atomic bombs against Japan. There are arguments to be made on both sides and both actions will be debated forever.
@@diffened nothing to debate, both are monstrous war crimes....
“It is a good thing that War is so terrible, lest that we grow too fond of it !”….
I b'lieve it was R.E. Lee that said that.
Those are the words of R.E. Lee.
Helps o reduce the population.
@@JovieBulawan Disease. Disease is the biggest killer. That, and privation(starvation, etc.).
@KimMalcolm-c1j Yes, but still an appropriate quote. What General S. actually said, "You think war is glory. Boys, it's all Hell."
To this day we Georgians don't trust a damned Yankee with a book of matches. 🤣
What are matches ???
@@beebop9808 Sherman never burned anything but cotton.
@@PedroAlvares-e5y Yeah, they didn't have Bic lighters then.
@@davidjennings4589 ... ever see pics of Atlanta after he left ?
Yes. We have all seen the pictures. Have you never considered the tremendous destruction caused by the treasonous South in order to maintain that "peculiar" institution of human chattle slavery? Do you know how many died for the evil that was, and in many cases still is, the US South. Where school boards refuse to allow the children to learn the truth. Arrogance. Intransigence. Ignorance. Amnesia. The four words which best describe the people of the South, to this very day. General Sherman, like Harry Truman some four score years later, did the right thing. If anything, it was not harsh enough. Hubris. You still think you were the victims. You were the perpe-traitors.
In order to destroy railroads, the rails would be heated over fires and then bent around trees. They became known as "Sherman's neckties." Some of these can still be seen if you know where to look in Georgia.
Sherman was a bastard
You can see one at Fort McAllister State Park about 10 miles south of Savannah in Bryan County. They were also called Sherman's bowties, Jeff Davis's neckties and Sherman's hairpins.
thats crazy. seems like dynamite would be easier and 1000x quicker
@@coppulor6500 What I always wondered was how they got a fire hot enough to make steel malleable.
@@VernonWillis-n8ogreat point. I guess they laid it across a fire and then tied the ends to ropes and then used horses to drag it to either side of a tee etc?
Nothing new here. Any serious student of the Civil War knows everything in this video.
There is a letter written by Lincoln to Sherman telling him to make an example of SC. He's still hated here today.
Confederate soldiers burned the South Carolina Capitol Building to keep Sherman from taking it.
It eas the Confederates that burned Cheraw and Columbia was likely a burning of cotton stores that got out of hand.
y'all started it.
SC is still hated here today.
@mrsatire9475 for what reason?
There are more Yankees in Georgia now than when Sherman came through!!!
No the good ole boys still run the place, badly.
@@galatian5 We can leave that rampage to you... yiiiiikes
@@dleechristy No, the Good Lord will take care of that.
World is always changing and citizens move where they want.
C’mon man will the division ever end ☹️
I’m from Pa. In the Air Force. Stationed in Florida, driving through Georgia, 1971. Got a speeding ticket. I ask the officer, smiling, jokingly, when you gonna stop fighting the civil war? He answered without joking or smiling, and said, when it’s over.
wut?
I agree 💯 percent.
lol
Sherman was Gay and had love affairs with his own people!!! Stonewall Jackson had great Moral fiber!!! We just lacked industry in the south! The SOUTH won the first 13 battles and would have won Gettysburg without General Lee being Sick and Jeb Stewart stealing to much equipment from the Yankees!!!
@@luckybait yeah lincoln was gay too for what its worth
Another interesting fact... Sherman's personal escort was comprised of 21 men from the 1st Alabama Cavalry, a union regiment comprised of southerners. The commander of the detachment was LT David R Snelling, a Georgian from Millidgeville. Sherman even makes mention of Snelling in his memoirs.
"Scorched earth" military actions were ancient, not new by any factual reflection.
It did say in "Modern Warfare". Western Countries had considered themselves "enlightened" and left Non-combatants alone in the previous couple of hundred years.
@@BillLong-x4t Not true. The practice of rape goes back to the beginning of war. It did not stop during Sherman's March.
This was the first truly industrial war after the Napoleonic Era, aka the nation-state, superpatriotic era.
So, scorched earth may have been old, but "total war" was new.
Yes, war was like this in Europe from beginning of history. Sometimes town might get lenient handling if it pledged allegiamce to occupiers. Sherman was human not killing civilians.
@@Svensk7119 I would argue Sherman's March to the Sea was more of a standard raid with the goal of destroying morale and militarily important infrastructure. Civilians were not the targets as in the fire bombing raids of WWII.
I am from Georgia and I can assure you that 100% of this was covered when I was in school
I am from Georgie and I can assure you any truth about or existence of the march to Savannah or the decimation of the Indian nations east of the Mississippi was 0% covered in school. Maybe a sugar coated version like this video.
@@allenbyers8684 I went to school in the 50s and 60s the decimation of the Indian nations east of the Mississippi happened long before Sherman's march. Both of which I did indeed learn in school; Maybe you were napping that day. Or just a poor excuse for a school.
I am the current owner of the Adams Hill Plantation in Bloomingdale, GA. 10 miles South of the Savannah River and 15 miles West of Savannah. The plantation dates back to the early 1800's and the original plantation mansion is said to have been burned during Sherman's march to the sea. It was rebuilt after the war by the Adams family and remained within their family until the mid 1970's.
My aunt lived out in Ludowici, Ga in a house owned by a freemason. It was one of only a few houses that were spared. Old Antebellum home. I've actually been working in Bloomingdale recently. Not a bad place.
My Army, the Regular Army. He knew exactly what he was doing from Kennesaw on. He was a man with a plan and he executed it perfectly. Atlanta, Milledgeville, Savannah. The war was over before he made it through South Carolina.
As bad as the march through GA was, Sherman's drive north through South Carolina was worse. Since this was the state that launched secession, union troops saw little reason to treat SC the same as Georgia. North Carolina, on the other hand, got off relatively easy.
They were all guilty of treason
I started laughing, thinking about lindsey being ravaged by soldiers.
He he he
"Here is where treason began...and here, by God, is where it will end!" - an enraged Union soldier, on the sack of South Carolina.
Interestingly enough, when military planners looked at the US Civil War, most saw only Grant's and Lee's trench warfare as the main lesson. That's one reason WW I devolved into trench warfare. But a German General studied Sherman's march through S. Carolina, where he broke his Army in 6 columns, and attacked where the Confederates didn't expect. The General?
Heinz Guderian, the originator of the Blitzkrieg.
Sherman passed through Georgia so easily because two-thirds of Georgia's military was in Tennessee on a campaign. Jefferson Davis had ordered reinforcements from Texas and Florida-30k each. Flordia sent 10k, and Texas refused to send any. While the people of Texas wanted to be in the Confederacy, the leaders did not seem to share that sentiment. Texas never swore an oath to the Confederacy and, in my opinion, contributed to the Confederacy's loss.
@@randythompson8826 They had no Army left. They had an opium addict for a commander. It was a good thing we lost.
@@randythompson8826 the campaign was called retreat after defeat.
@@davidjennings4589 Those troops were neither defeated nor retreated, as they weren't there.
@@randythompson8826 The Confederate army, such as it was after Hood destroyed it in Atlanta, went tolabama before getting embarrassed at Knoxville and surrendering. I had a relative that was captured at Cheraw, he said, "All discipline was lost". They had ceased to be an effective fighting force.
That is a great point. I know the Georgia football team mightily enjoyed the two resounding victories over Texas in the past season.
The North's generals committed untold atrocities against the South's citizens. After the war, these same officers were turned loose on the Indians. The atrocities continued.
The South's generals committed untold atrocities against the South's citizens. After the war, these same officers were turned loose on the Indians. The atrocities continued.
Then maybe the South should never have committed Treason by seceding
Oh, there were no atrocities the south???
Slavery.
Andersonville (and others).
Captured African American soldiers being summarily executed on the orders of R. Lee.
@@michaelfraser4396 That is as idiotic a statement about the civil war as I have ever heard.
In the South it was theorized that not only buildings and structures were destroyed, but all food supplies were destroyed as well, increasing the suffering of the civilian population. However, in order to not cause suffering of the animals, the Northerners did not destroy one item they considered cattle feet - Black Eyed Peas. Thus began the tradition in the South of eating Black Eyed Peas on New Years day (among other days).
My father's ancestor's lived at a place called Finn's Bridge in Jefferson County, GA. There is a bronze State historical marker there at the crossroads, which tells that Sherman ordered that all livestock in the area, horses, cattle, mules, etc., were corralled into the center of the crossroads, and systematically shot, leaving a massive pile of dead livestock for a community of women, small children and old men to deal with, as well as try to run their farms without. I would suggest that in contrast to your posting, this action by Sherman did indeed "cause suffering of the animals."
Black Eyed Peas do not have to be capitalized...
Cite this claim.
@@melangellatc1718 It does if you're talking about the band.
@@melangellatc1718 They do if you are talking about the musicians!
I think that the lesson of Sherman’s march to the sea was: there is no place that is safe from our armies movements anymore. If we decide to come, we will come. As an aside - I have a relative who was with Sherman’s army (18th US Infantry) and was killed a the Battle of New Hope Church (if I remember correctly.). His body was moved after the end of the war to the Federal Cemetery in Marietta, GA., where we stopped and took pictures of his tombstone.
Great-grandpa Piet's diary pretty well described these actions. He was one of Sherman's cavalry officers & the the diary has been transcribed for us.
Sherman had access to the 1860 census reports. His march route was predicated on census information.
Sherman's route was determined by the roads. His goal was to destroy Savanah and then turn north. You do not march a large army complete with wagons and train through woods, fields, rivers, and marshland.
This is true, I work for U.S. Census This campaign was the most important one of the entire war. That data gave the foundation for the march and was the turning point.
This is true, he picked the counties that produced the most food. This was determined by the slave populations.
I heard read about this campaign, Sherman and his troops were absolute RUTHLESS BARBARIANS!
Easy to say living in the comfortable 21st century.
Thing about war is that innocent people always die and there's no nice way to fight a war
Part of war
Something they should have told the public when Vietnam veterans came home
That's why it's called war einstein
They didn't have to rape them
War ends when the pain gets too great for civilians on one side.
When I was a kid in the 50s my dad took us to Arkansas and Mississippi to see some of the, battle fields. Lived in Kansas and my dad was advised to cover our license plate so people wouldn’t see where we were from. The war was differently not over by the than
Definitely
then
The chimneys left after homes were burned became known as Sherman's monuments.
It figures. Average people and families pay the price while the decision makers drink cognac and smoke cigars. The Confederates up top ended the war in decent shape. Families that were devastated may not have done anything except live there. (until then) Sherman’s troops were happy to engage in actions that didn’t involve fighting. The looting was just incentive to ignore the plight of children, women, old people
Lincoln hired over 300,000 German and Irish immigrants to murder rape and plunder the South. Two Souther soldier's were caught looting at the beginning of the war and were executed. The Yankee killed all of the farm animals, and what they couldn't eat, they threw down the wells to poison them. They destroyed all of the crops and barns, except the barns with black eye peas and the fields with collard green's. They thought that black eye peas were animal feed, no more animal's, and collard green's were weeds. So, if not for the black eye peas and collard green's the South would had starved to death for the first 5 year's. This is why we celebrate new years with black eye peas, i.e. hoppin John's and collard green's.
By the way, the Confederates up top as you say, did not end the war in good shape. The federal govt seized Gen Robert E Lee's home and plantation, Arlington. The govt buried all of the Yankees there as an insult to Gen. Lee. Confederate President Jefferson Davis was chained to an iron ball and kept under house arrest for over 2 year's. After researching all of his record's, he was found blameless and released. They wanted to make a war criminal out of him, but he was found without fault. So, no, the Confederate Army's leader's did not go back to an easy living...
You CANNOT Turn an Army loose on a civilian population without remorse. The Army loses its humanity. And Southern families remember the atrocities to this day. Truth.
i was born in 1980 in a small town in middel ga, that Sherman came through on his way to savannah. growing up, Sherman was always seen as a villian
Jerrell, the redheaded arsonist was a war criminal.
He still is
Yes, we need more Generals like that in our military today.
Seen as a villiain by some, not by the people he helped liberate.
@@michaeljames4444 absolutely. I def don't like it that the folks there felt that way.
As a Southerner, retired soldier, and student of history, I understand Sherman’s tactics, but I do not approve of them. Only a coward fights helpless civilians.
Terrorism at its finest
he only burned slave holding farms but kept anything he needed from the others,
@ AND THIS JUSTIFIES ATTACKING HELPLESS CIVILIANS! 😡
@ where do you get that?,,he said it wouldnt happen under his watch...it was a war..death occurs in wars and its never the leaders dying!,,im not justifying it!
Not even remotely what he did. From a lineage of the 51st AL INF and retired soldier. Grant was brilliant and Lee’s narrow focus lost the war.
60,000 men with permission to loot, as long as they loot while traveling in a South Eastern direction....lol
When Sherman got to South Carolina, the first state to succeed, he said "This is where treason started, and by God, this is where it will end"
Succeeded? Seceded? Successfully?
I disagree with the South and what they were doing but their is NO True Union if States don't have the Right to separate.
@AdvancedTennisFoundation-ph9zo if the US allowed States the right to succeed from the US union then in today's very polarised political climate the US would likely begin to break up so the US government will do everything to make sure that doesn't happen.
@AdvancedTennisFoundation-ph9zo They do have the right. The Constitution is a compact. Lincoln called it an insurrection but they did not try to overthrow the government. The war was fought based on an executive order. Lincoln sent troops to stop the Martland legislature from debating leaving the US. He had Amish farmer's homes and barns burned in Maryland and Pennsylvania. Lincoln declared a blockade of the southern states. Blockages can only be waged against a foreign country per international law. It was a war of northern aggression.
He followed that statement up with, "Corporal, come over here and tell me what you think this thing growing on my pecker is!! Sweet Jesus, now I believe its smiling at me!!!"
"Where have all the soldiers gone?
Long time passing
Where have all the soldiers gone?
Long time ago
Where have all the soldiers gone?
Gone to graveyards, every one
Oh, when will they ever learn?" - Pete Seeger
If Hood has not left the state on his ill conceived and even more poorly executed Tennessee campaign - he could have made a real contest but making hit and run attacks until he can destroy isolated Union units. And Sherman far from his communication and logistics lines so he could have gotten in real trouble against a smart foe.
Yea, but you are assuming Hood was smart. Unfortunately he wasn’t.
John Bell Hood was the reason Atlanta fell.
Hiroshima and Nagasaki ended WWII. Sherman's March ended the Civil War.
@@garrickpeterson872 thank God. And saved Lincoln's Presidency. Even Logan was running.
People of the South were Americans!
... and Americans have rights.
The north was protecting the rights of ALL Americans, not just the white ones.
I suppose that Sherman's march South was the equivalent of carpet bombing - civilians, children...all fair game. Starvation - Stalin's tool.
Not even close. It was more along the lines of "your politicians and newspapers are lying to you, if they weren't, we wouldn't be smashing up an looting everything we come across, your vaunted armies can't stop us. Give up."
As said in the video, civilian casualties were very low.
IF Stonewall Jackson had gotten his way, and not Lee, the CSA would have used a total war strategy early in the war while the South still had the upper hand. A lot of Confederate generals wanted to attack the Norths industrial and agricultural base, and others want to fight a guerilla war against the Northern States. Lee wanted to fight the Union's armies. That was a stupid idea, everyone knew the south didn't have the population or industrial base to fight a long protracted war of attrition with the union.
They couldn't afford to take every slave. Sherman's army itself was living off of the land. Next you forgot to mention the Southern deserters this caused. Southerners left the Confederacy in droves to go back and try to save what was left of their land and to reconnect with loved ones. Sherman did an outstanding job of his mission so much in fact his march has been taught in military academies around the world.
They wrecked and shattered lives and people wonder why we won't forgive or forget - and the destruction goes on today that need not be just like the excuse that started it all - A lie - could have been accomplished without the loss of all those lives
Sherman was a war criminal, plain and simple. What Lincoln and the Union did to the South, is exactly what Putin is trying to do to Ukraine
@@dennisgrubbs1929What are you going on about? No destruction continues, a lie or not the conflict is over so get over your anger ,people like you are what hurts the south now! And yes I am a southern man from the great state of S.C.
Sherman was a devil in the flesh. So it was ok for an So called American to kill innocent women and children for a so called just cause. Innocent blood has a very heavy price. He and others know that now. Hell is just!
#1, the war was NOT OVER SLAVERY !!! "Slavery was the pretext of the war not the cause of the war. " William Tecumseh Sherman. Churchill as well as every other General world leader have studied the Souths General's, not the norths. What are you smoking????
War crimes were committed, Southerners will never forget this.
War crimes were committed by Southerners, the world will never forget this.
Actually, the march started in Chattanooga. Went through Chickamauga where there was a tremendous battle, Dalton through my backyard where they crossed Mill Creek, Resaca another major battle, then Kennesaw Mtn., estimate 100,000 troops.
At 4:58 the image is Gen Meade, who was with Grant in Virginia, not Gen. Sherman.
The message to the south was that their government was no longer capable protecting its civilian population. The impact on the moral of the remaining southern forces was severe, food became even more scarce and soldiers knew their families were defenseless. The low casualties were largely due to Sherman’s use of maneuver & tactics to avoid head on conflict. Compare Sherman’s record with Hood’s casualties at Franklin, where poor tactics resulted in massive southern casualties.
It showed what God will allow to happen when a people become exceptionally immoral. ✝🇺🇸✝
@@Maxfr8 if that's the case then the USA is about to fall
@@scottemory1470 It is.
You're not supposed to have to protect your civilians. That is why Honor , Duty, and Respect are taught at West Point. It was a Stain on the Union Victory that lasts to this day.
On behalf of people from Georgia, that understands history, Sherman can rot in hell! I'm from eatonton, this was on his path. My family has been here long enough, they experienced it. The union wasn't preserved, it was made a corporation. It used to be these united states, a confederation of states. Now it's the untied states, a corporation. And you wonder why we have a " military industrial complex" and a bunch of ignorant kids!
Lol, understand history! Sherman didn't cause that, Sherman helped to bring an end to a war by showing you idiots that war is terrible. Politicians mostly Dims caused what you describe. I digress, you go on defending slavery though.
@joemiller7086 just add a story dad used to tell me. About 4 miles from here, there was a water wheel driven mill. The creek was swollen, Sherman's men were throwing torchs across the creek to burn the mill. The SLAVES put the fire out. That's where they got their flower and cornmeal from there too. It was a hell that didn't need to be, for everyone.
The photo at the 5:00 mark is General George Meade.
I will say this, General Lee never ordered his troops to burn and kill civilians while in the north.
😥😥😥😥
wahhh
War is not fair. Spoils to the victor
That’s because the only serious invasion the south could muster only got about 100 miles north of the mason dixon line to Gettysburg. Where Lee got his butt thoroughly kicked.
If Lee did that, most of the outraged northerner would have finally got off their assassination and the war would have ended a year sooner! Lee and his general s had their chance at Gettysburg but screwed up 1st day late, & 2nd and 3rd strategies and tactics, along with heroic union military resistance.
What Sherman and his troops did tho South Carolina was the most terrible of all.....
This is really good. The information really well presented and the nuance and 'horrors' of war are handled really well.
How many civilians died in Shermans wake of exposure and starvation? How many southern women were raped and murdered? You said that orders were not to burn private homes and yet a few minutes later you talk of the looting and burning of private homes! Sherman should have been tried and found guilty of war crimes along with Grant for giving him the OK.
Yeah ok. Open up a history book
Sherman said in his biography that if the South had won, that he would have been tried as a war criminal and justifiably convicted. Over one million unarmed Southern civilians were murdered raped and plundered by Sherman.
Over one million Southern civilians were raped murdered and pillaged by the blue bellied Yankee. This would amount to 1/4 of the total population.
Do we really want to discuss southern women raped or do you really mean “ white southern women “???
winners in war do not face prosecution.
To what purpose do you present George Gordon Meade's photo at 4:47?
Confusing. And, silly.
Picture at 5:01 is Meade, not Sherman.
This was a WAR CRIME. Sherman is a villain.
All war is a crime.
What are your thoughts on the all the black soldiers executed after they surrendered?
Slavery is a WAR CRIME!
SOME PEOPLE see him as a hero! He destroyed people who owned other people!
Federal prisoners were starving at Andersonville and other prisons, Sherman's troops were able to live off the land in Georgia.
And southern prisoners were mistreated in prison camps near Chicago . But Victor's write history
Sherman didn’t bother to liberate the troops in Andersonville, did he?
@@chuckhardage5268 Andersonville was 125 miles south of Sherman's line of march.
@@charlescourtney4412More like 75-95 miles from his march. It would have been easy to send a detachment of troops to liberate the camp. It’s not like his army had any resistance raiding homes and farms occupied by women, children and the elderly. The majority of the Confederate force was 400-500 miles north fighting in Virginia.
Jonn Ransom wrote Andersonville Diary. Sherman liberated them??
I have read the account of how Sherman got his comeuppance at the battle of Kennesaw Mtn. on his jaunt to the non existent battle of Atlanta as Hood had withdrawn before Sherman got there!! My extensive library documents many other happenings NOT mentioned in Yankee publications! P. S. It is recorded that Sherman flew out of his tent that early April morning at Shiloh in his "longjohns" narrowly escaping capture!!
The winners write the history books. They also choose what not to write about...like Sherman's burning of Columbia South Carolina long after effective southern resistance had ended.
@@tomgooch1422 cry me a river. We all know about Columbia and why he did that. You do too!
Did you listen to the video? That was largely the point.
@@philcasesa8626what was it?
@tomogooch1422 is Iying. Sherman didn't burn Columbia, Confederate forces evacuating the city burned cotton to prevent Sherman's army from capturing it and the fires spread in high winds. Newly released prisoners also turned arsonist, as did some drunken soldiers who'd been liquored up by the local civilians. Sherman organized the fire brigades that put out the fires and saved as much of the city as survived.
He's also Iying about southern resistance ending, as there were still major Confederate armies in the field. Johnson fought significant conventional battles against Sherman at Averasborough and Bentonville after Sherman left Columbia and pushed into North Carolina.
@@philcasesa8626 Typical Northern aggression! Columbus is in Ohio!
As the vanguard of Sherman's column approached Newborn Ga, shots rang out. Some say it was 'some boys' pot-shotting the soldiers, but more likely it was the soldiers themselves, as that was something they commonly did to signal arrival at the next town. In any event, if it had been locals resisting, the town would have been burned to the ground and that didn't happen. Legend has it that Sherman paused for lunch in John Pitts' house. Mr. Pitts, finding himself hosting the devil himself, talked a blue streak and didn't stop until Sherman left. Sherman thought he was 'an odd cock'. Pitts was the town father, a Princeton grad and and union sympathizer (although we don't really know what that term referred to exactly, whether anti-slavery or anti-separatist). Sherman's soldiers burned Pitt's barn behind the house anyway, supposedly in error. Sherman moved on to the next wide spot in the road (Farrar Ga) and spent the night there.
My Father was the youngest of 8. He recalled hearing the older adults talk about hating Sherman because he burned the churches because he believed the confederates were meeting in the churches to plan their tactics.
Sherman never burned churches. Nor homes. Nor barns unless they were being used to house Confederate troops.
A church in which racists and slave owners meet isn't a church
@@alanmcentee9457 That didn't happen but such tales definitely contributed to the legacy of bitterness surrounding Sherman's March. Not that I care how bitter secessionists and their descendants were or are.
@@VernonWillis-n8o Brave words from someone who has no idea the suffering of Southerners for generations after that march. As you watch CNN tonight gleefully cheering on the Israelis' destruction of the Middle East feel good in your ignorance.
@@alanmcentee9457 Drink the Kool aid , Yankee..ha
Is it true that Madison GA was spared as the young ladies of the town entertained the Union officer?
Madison was spared because Sherman had a good friend who lived there. Nothing to do with "ladies".
For those interested in the source material, there are books about the actuality of Sherman's March and the many atrocities that occurred. They are suppressed but available; "in the Course of Human Events," by Charles Adams, "War Crimes Against Southern Civilians," Walter Brian Cisco, "When the Yankees Come - Former South Carolina Slaves Remember Shermaan's Invasion," by Paul C. Graham, "Everything You Were Taught About the Civil War is Wrong," Lochlann Seabrook, "The Yankee Problem - An American Dilemma," Clyde N. Wilson, "Roll Jordan, Roll - The World the Slaves Created," Prof. E Genovese, and an amazing book about the most influential family of the 19th century, and not for the best, "The Beechers - An American Family in the Nineteenth Curuty," Milon Rugoff. The best book for demonstrating the politics and the rise of the Left in 1950 and how the modern situation came about "Lincoln's Marxists," by Benson and Kennedy
The only city Sherman spared in his March to Savannah was Milledgeville, Ga. There can see the few antebellum homes spared from the total war strategy by burning and destroying anything of value to the civilian population.
Not, true Macon, Augusta and Madison were spared in addition to Savannah. My family saved our valuables and cottage by hiding it from the devils and our plantation house wasn't burned.
Why does the video keep showing the two Russian shopkeepers (man and woman in white shirts) studying books next to the "Kacca" sign which is Russian for "Cashier"?
Russian collusion and propaganda obviously?
Probably because he took every non stock image from another TH-camr's video
Love it
How come there is no statues of Sherman in Georgia ? We need to remember our history
Good history needs to be remembered
You need to learn from history. Knowing it does nothing if you don't learn to repeat the worst of it.
Statues don't help anyone remember history they only show who has the control of public funds.
Sherman should have been prosecuted for war crimes. He was targeting civilians.
Same reason there are no states of anyone who fought in the union! The northerners have plenty of places to put those up so we can remember history!
A: that he was America's first terrorist.
The south is still howling. Sherman knew how to break the enemy.
It seems forever forgotten that’s Jefferson Davis at the very end of the war advocated guerrilla warfare. Can you imagine how would be heroes in communities never touched by war might have foolishly reacted opening their doors to horrifying repercussions. If you read any of Sherman’s writings you will find a morally responsible and highly educated human being. Today there seem many experts that try to neutralize the violent part of our nature. We need to work to move that towards more productive lines if we close our eyes to it, it will bite us hard.
It`s like the atomic bombs at the end of WWII. Yes! It was ruthless and cruel, but the alternative was worse. An all-out invasion of Japan was estimated to cause 800.000 potential US-casualties and up to 10.000.000 (TEN MILLION) japanese ones.
Compared to this numbers, the 200.000 dead people in Nagasaki and Hiroshima, look like the lesser evil.
We can only speculate how many casualties on both sides it would have taken to brake the souths will to fight, using convetionally miltary tactiks, but it would have been WAY MORE than 3.000 (avoiding just ONE MORE Gettysburg, saved more than 50.000 lives)
by todays standards, sherman was a war criminal, just as grant and lincoln are. but the victors write the history books despite the facts.
the use of gang rape as a weapon is terrorism and never justified, add in the inter-racial element, and you see why 150+ yrs later there are still problems.
shermans crimes ought not be ignored or dismissed because he was fighting against 'slavery'. what he and the north did wasnt just criminal, it was evil.
Jefferson Davis was offered arms through Mexico by the Jesuits, or he might never had the nerve to shoot in the first place. Rome had her hands in many dirty deeds in history...
@@h.s.lafever3277 is Iying through his teeth. He's another whiny lost causer who shits his diaper in impotent rage because the Union played by the rules of engagement the Confederates set (they called for the civil population to wage guerilla war against Union conventional troops, making all those civilians combatants), and he also ignores the fact that the Confederates had been destroying civilian property and people since 1861 -- confederate privateers and commerce raiders attacking US-flagged merchant ships, burning towns like Hampton so unionist refugees couldn't shelter there, the Nueces Massacre against a civilian refugee column fleeing to Mexico, the sack of Lawrence which killed something like 160 civilian men and boys, etc.
And his putting slavery in quotes shows he's a racist piece of excrement who wants to hide and excuse what the rebels were fighting for.
And as for rape, the CSA was founded in part to keep rape legal as long as the victims were black. They acted to prevent black people from getting civil rights like the right to go to court and testify against whites who wronged them, and raping slaves was a regular part of the slave system the Confederacy was explicitly and officially founded to preserve and extend.
@@h.s.lafever3277 They should have given all the land in the southern states to the slaves as reparations for the crimes committed against them by the slave owners. Letting the southern whites rewrite the war as some noble cause was the real crime.
Video begins at 5:32
I have lived all over the USA and I have yet to meet a Southerner that didn't have an ancestor that didn't get his barn or house burned down by Sherman. Apparently, Sherman was burning barns clear over in Louisiana and Texas as well as the East Coast. Like certain other groups, Southerners love to play the Victim Card.
How many buildings did Hood and other Confederates burn down to keep them from falling into Sherman's hands?
😮 🎉 "War of Northern Aggressions" - Granny (The Beverly Hill Billies) 😊
Thank you for citing your source for all of your knowledge.
Among all the statistics you miss a big one - The many thousands of Southern women that were raped along the way. Next time try telling the whole story.
The irony of people who defend the CSA's war to keep the rape of black women legal (many of whom recently voted for a man who bragged about sexual assault on a hot mic) pretending to be outraged about white women getting raped is super gross.
There were some reported rapes by Union soldiers in Georgia, and Sherman ordered the perpetrators punished.
Uhm don’t forget all the slaves raped by the southern whites!!!
No rapes
@@foldohack5687 .. and you know this because ?
@@12344567ist the burden of proof is on the one making the accusations. You should have asked that question to Mondo.
What I know about Sherman's March to the sea?
My gramma Josie spoke ad noseum of my great grandfather, for whom she cared in his later years until his death 28 years prior to my birth. Born in 1843, enlisting in 1862, he was captured Nov 30, 1864, outside Louisville, GA, while dickin' around, having a makeshift horse race, pitting two confiscated thoroughbreds, one against the other. He, along with members of Companies H and K of the 78th Illinoiszzz Vol Inf Reg, were interrupted and subsequently captured by Wheeler's Cavalry, then sent to several different POW camps. My great-grampap landed at Camp Sumter, Andersonville, GA, where he sat out the remainder of the conflict. He was liberated in May, 1865, then, weighing less 100 lbs, was transferred via rail to convalescent hospital in Vicksburg, Mississippi, prior to mustering out in June of 1965. He was shipped by steamer to St Louis from whence he walked home to Pontoosuc.
Other then Milledgeville there were no strategic cities or towns along Sherman's March. By passing Macon and Augusta. Savanah other then Ft. McCallister was blocked by the recapture of Ft. Pulaski in 1862, Hilton Head, SC to the north and Darien to the south.
The area Sherman marched through was not the agricultural rich nor industrial centers of Georgia. Sherman chose the path of least resistance.
There were scattered plantations along the way but the further south he went there were fewer and fewer until the outskirts of Savanah.
@@Robert-g3l1v When “he” took over Dallas, GA he positioned himself against a people who fought as snipers through the dense and mountainous terrain. He hated Paulding County and they hated him. He was an evil pos who attacked civilians (was said to have raped a woman there) and captured my g-g grandfather who was in his late 50’s and sent him to an Illinois prison where he suffered and died. Yes. I spit when I say “his” name.
Upon reflection one has to ask who started this conflict? Total war may have been a forgotten method by the people of that period but I believe it was a method practiced earlier. For example at the end of the Punic Wars when the Romans crushed the Carthage. Or perhaps when “The Five Civilized Tribes” were forced out of the South to “Indian Territory”. Having an estimated death toll of between 13,000 to 16,700 people. I have a hard time shedding a tear.
His campaign was basically a post-medieval "cheevauche". It was nothing new, but rather something very, very old.
1870s
"War is Hell!!"
This quote originates from William T. Sherman's Address to the graduating class of the Michigan Military Academy (19 June 1879); but slightly varying accounts of this speech have been published:
"I’ve been where you are now and I know just how you feel. It’s entirely natural that there should beat in the breast of every one of you a hope and desire that some day you can use the skill you have acquired here."
"Suppress it! You don’t know the horrible aspects of war. I’ve been through two wars and I know. I’ve seen cities and homes in ashes. I’ve seen thousands of men lying on the ground, their dead faces looking up at the skies. I tell you, war is Hell!"
War is ALL Hell!
I visited the Battle of Griswaldville. I don’t think I’ve ever been more sad at a military monument.
Untrained boys between 12-16, men over the age of 60, armed with out-of-date and archaic guns, have been sent from Macon to reinforce the garrison at Augusta.
In the evening, they hear troops moving and are commanded to trudge through a bog, up an incline and then charge into the twilight over and over again into Sherman’s right flank.
They have been marching for days, are completely exhausted, are untrained, outmatched, and die by the hundreds.
For what?
The beaten force drew back across the bog and camped within earshot of their brothers’ and grandfathers’ dying screams and whimpers.
For what?
War is not glorious. It may be necessary, but it always has men choking on their own blood in the mud crying for their mothers.
For what?
To make rich people even richer..... THIS war, should have been fought only by actuall slaveholders, and actuall abolitionists....... and by the politicians that promoted it..... Today, in Ukraine, the only ones manning the trenches should be the people who will benefit of the control over the farmland, mines, and resources of eastern Ukraine (and trust me, very few ukranians are going to benefit from it, regardless of who "wins" the war.....)
For what you ask… well, war was necessary to prevent the treasonous Southerners from dividing our country in order to enslave kidnapped Africans. The North waged a just and honorable war…
@jeffreybrannen9465,,,WHY?... Because Like their Forefathers (Washington,Paine,Jefferson,Franklin,etc.) They declared themselves FREE and Independent from the Tyrannical Union government ( That Was completely LEGAL!) And were then INVADED by that same Tyrannical Force... Encroaching their Land ,Destroying their property,Destroying their homes, and farms,,Killing Livestock,Destroying and stealing their personal possessions) You asked 'Why'??? There it is for you!
To "preserve the Union"?
...or to make slaves of all of us?
Only two cities were burned and destroyed during Sherman's March. Atlanta, and Millen. Millen was burned as retaliation for the condition of Union POWs at Camp Lawton. 5 miles north of Millen. I live 5 miles north of Camp Lawton, now called Magnolia Springs State Park.
Imagine the Feds invading your state , killing your family, destroying your crop, and destroying transportation. These were war crimes.
This was/ is what U🐍A stands for!
Now imagine your State openly declared war against the Federal government. What do you think is going to happen?
@@chadh.johnson3550 The southern states did not do that. They took the democratic way and voted to separate. The same as you would file divorce proccedings from a spouse. They may not like it but they must abide by it. The Fed Govt. doesn't own the State. They can't force it to stay, no more than you could force a spouse not to leave.. The firing on Ft. Sumter was justified by our constitution. The Fed Govt is only allowed to have a base in a state if the state gives them permission. South Carolina told them to get out. The Feds. were in the process of stocking the fort with munitions when they were fired upon.
Imagine shooting first and crying foul when you get shot back. Keep crying loser.
Sherman's march was about 60 miles wide, Georgia may have howled but how much of Georgia was touched?
They call what he did terrorism today. And it was.
They call what the South did terrorism today. And it was.
And they call what the south did insurrection - which it was
If you do some actual research, you will find that the Confederates set Atlanta on fire before Sherman got there, they wanted to leave nothing to Sherman.
He blew up the powder magazine in the State Capitol at Milledgeville but not one private residence was burned. It 10:11 was the State College that trashed Milledgeville, not Sherman.
Look at how disgracefully the state capital at Milledgeville was treated. Sherman's contempt for Milledgeville is well known to those who study.
Understand 2 things:
1) WE did not surrender. Lee and Davis surrendered. We would have kept fighting. We almost marched into D.C.
2) The union soldiers didn't give a damn about Southern slaves. Not one bit.
lol. Come to Boston Massachusetts and walk down the steps of the Capitol where you can see the monument to our free black Massachusetts regiment.
nitwit
Then what were they fighing for? Suppressed wages? Idiots!
@@joemiller7086 Try reading ALL of history instead of proving you are one.
Ole Jubal had them whipped near sundown after first Manassas if he hadn't stopped to rest. He could see the Capitol from his position!! The south was never that close to winning the war again!!
Citadel cadets Haynesworth and Pinkney... (from India Co, class of '86)
One interesting thing is the development of negative opinions about freed slaves by troops who are having their first close experience I ence with them. The freed slaves behavior gave many otherwise neutral troops very negative opinions. The ex slaves had little idea of how rp care for themselves and therefore wanted the Union troops to provide for them; while the Union troops had no logistical support. Additionally the violence inflicted on the White Georgians helped fuel the anti-Black feelings later. Things like Sherman sending trained workers to Ohio where they were essentially slaves (the historian who found this tidbit was unable to find out what became of them after the warr), while Sherman was opposed to violence to civilians who didn't resist, rapes did occur along with deaths of people objecting to rape, destruction of their homes or the theft of all their food. I only point this out to ask how you would 4espnd after those acts
Sources.
Sources.
I thought that I wrote this already; but I don't see it. The basic comment was from a book on the campaign. I will have to find its name. You will find related thoughts from Union troops who met Black plantation owners (especially in Louisiana). If you followed this video; remember the Union troops had no logistics tail. Those free slaves following them expected them to feed them while they did no work. How do you think that went over with hungry, tired troops.
@@arthurmosel808 so your "sources" are "whatever pops out of your ass."
Slaves did all the manual labor to keep plantations going. It’s not true they didn’t know how to take care of themselves. Anti-black behavior was created by the Southern elite slave owners who needed to justify slavery.
So basically defensive racism.
Well done. One of the things Sherman did was burn courthouses. County Courthouses contained slave deeds, as well as land deeds, birth, death and marriage records- just as courthouses all over the US still do today (albeit electronically now). (My ancestors were living in Sherman’s path and got to experience the fun. As a result, lots of southern families REALLY had serious legal issues after that war. That was part of his plan, I believe. And it’s why many southern families today have trouble “proving” (thru legal records) their ancestry before 1865.
If you don't know your history, do not make a mistaken video about it. Most of the fires in Atlanta were caused by the Confederates who sought to keep its resources from falling into Union hands.
Yeah, but he surely burned Charleston😅
💯
Do you have any evidence of your claim?
I sure private homes in Central Atlanta had tons of resources for his Army. You do understand there is not 1 building in Atlanta from before 1865, and there is only a handful of buildings in the 60 mile wide path to Savannah (Milledgeville being the ONLY notable exception)? Are you saying EVERY land owner in GA conspired together to try and make Sherman look bad? It is more logical Sherman and his command did it not 1000s of private individuals.
Emory University and the Cyclorama disagree with you claim.
Were you there ?
He did not say who burned Atlanta
Sherman’s soldiers also rebuilt farms and gathered animals back to those farms of brothers who were away at war.
TOTAL Bullshit! Sherman DID burn Private Homes AND Churches!! Don't paint him like some Benevolent Saint Because He WASN'T! Why don't you tell them what he Did to the INDIANS Later??
OH-iO lives Uncle Billy.
I think what Sherman did was revenge for what the Confederacy did to the Yankees in Chattanooga and North Georgia
And you expect me to believe that murders and rapes did not occur? Mayhem was conducted with civility! Liar!
There are a number of reasons why such crimes were less common in that era. They did happen occasionally, but they were against the laws of war followed by the Union. Sherman made sure his soldiers knew that rape and murder were illegal, just as in civilian life. Anyone caught doing it would go to prison.
19th century people were much more religious than today, and feared not just their officers but God's wrath. Social norms were much more strict and conservative than now. So that was another deterrent.
Unfortunately these rules didn't always apply to the negro slaves. A soldier would be punished if caught violating a white woman, but it might be overlooked if the victim was black. And of course for the Southerners, black women were property, they had no rights at all. They endured much worse from the rebels than from the federals.
Correct?
Violence against citizens was not the plan or policy of Union army. It is very difficult to control the behavior of 60,000 soldiers on the move. Stragglers especially. And I can imagine more than a little resentment building up among some soldiers dragged off their farms, put in a uniform, drilled perpetually, and then being shot at and often killed or wounded. So a fair amount of hatred toward southerners could be directed toward civilians. But it happens in any war where morals and rules are often blurred or even ignored.
What about the decades of rape and murder against slaves by southerners? Modern confederate revisionists do not like to acknowledge that part
What is your point?
This is exactly what Lee attempted in his two invasions of the North. That has always been part of every invasion, back to Hannibal and before. It was a self-sufficient march, without supply lines, against a slave society founded on the illusion of martial superiority. The same approach brought down the slave-holding Spartans.
My great great uncle rode with general Sherman and wrote the famous song Sherman's March to the sea Samuel Byers
He also became an important diplomat after the war
MUCH OF THIS IS MOOT IN THE EXTREME
This is EXACTLY what history told me about Sherman's March To The Sea.
Sherman's total war strategy caused a lot of desertions amongst Georgian troops.
Sherman was a war criminal, both in the War of Northern Aggression and the later Indian wars.
Southern sympathizer I see! You lost Bud! Get over yourself. Keep believe people think the southern cause was in anyway a just cause.
@@joemiller7086 Actually, most of my family fought for the Union, but my comment stands. What Lincoln and the Union did to the South, is exactly what Putin is trying to do to Ukraine. War crimes and all.
I am not sure we did not already know this....after all, what, new, is being told, here....
The civil war was not about ending slavery, it was about the state becoming massa and extending slavery to all the people, not just one ethnicity
But it did end slavery. WW1 and WW2 were not about making the US the defacto leader of the free world, but they did.
Reasons we succeed by Southern states was all about keeping slavery. In the end, Civil War was all about ending slavery.
Some appear to not grasp what @kevinplante 1667 was saying. Let's try this: Have you or your State exercised a Ninth or Tenth Amendment right recently without it being superceded by nonconstitutionally based federal law?
If southern states had allowed ALL its citizens their CONSTITUTIONAL right to vote there wouldn’t have been no slavery🤷🏿♂️
You are correct. We are not as free a nation as they want us to believe. Most everything we do is governed by the government.
Those now wishing for CA succession should remember this precedent.
Atlanta was burned twice, once indiscriminately when the pretended confederate army withdrew, and once precisely, sparing private homes, when the US Army withdrew. Much of the destruction was from rebel deserters. The US soldiers focused on large plantations where at least one person could be convinced to reveal where food or other supplies were hidden, and would not destroy buildings unless fired on from them. The southern deserters focused on smaller farms and burned them all to hide the evidence of their crimes. The deserters moved in smaller groups, attempting to avoid both the US Army and the rebel forces that would capture and either execute deserters, or conscript them into new units.
The devastation caused by deserters from the armies of the insurrection was probably important in Lee's (and Longstreet's) rejection of guerilla war. Much, perhaps most of the human cost of the march was not due to Sherman and his force, but rather due to the refusal of the leaders of the insurrection to surrender. The murder of fugitive slaves by Wheeler's cavalry can't be made Sherman's responsibility, but must remain the responsibility of Wheeler et al.
A story seldom remembered and much less told .. 🙏
Have any evidence to back your claims. What crimes against Georgia did these "deserters" commit? Trials? Charges?
All I see is revisionist history for Sherman and Lincoln who had NO respect for the Constitution.
From what I understand, more damage was done by the deserters overall than by the army itself. This actually played into Sherman's plan of psychological warfare. The CSA could not protect it's citizens from either an organized army wandering through the countryside or bands of criminals roaming the countryside.
The people were tired of war at that point Georgia had a long history of going against the union that eventually caught up with them. I don’t think it’s a point of right or wrong, but what happened at this point.
Much like Japan, who started a war ended up regretting how it ended
I have no respect for this terrible person Sherman who destroyed civilians and their property! Ge was a discrase to the army! 😢
Yes he was -- and it's spelled "disgrace."