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150 years on, Sherman's March to Sea still vivid
Pioneer Press ^ | 11-15-14 | Christopher Sullivan

Posted on 12/05/2014 5:44:32 AM PST by TurboZamboni

MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. (AP) — At the heart of this well-preserved antebellum city, sunbeams stream through the arched windows of a grand public meeting room that mirrors the whole Civil War — including its death throes, unfolding 150 years ago this week when Union Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman launched his scorching March to the Sea.

The first major objective along Sherman's route, Milledgeville was Georgia's capital at the time, and this room was the legislative chamber. Crossing its gleaming floor, Amy Wright couldn't help recalling family stories of the hated "foragers" who swept through then. "They were just called 'Sherman's men,'" she said in a hushed voice.

(Excerpt) Read more at twincities.com ...


TOPICS: History
KEYWORDS: 150; americanhistory; civilwar; civilware; dixie; militaryhistory; sherman
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To: goldstategop

Scorched earth was OK against your fellow Americans, but against Al qaeda it will get you court martialled.


21 posted on 12/05/2014 6:55:03 AM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: ErnBatavia

“My brother lives in Georgia and reports that Sherman continues to be despised”

You would be right. Revisionist history cannot even paint over this butcher and war criminal.

People wonder why there is still such animosity toward the North 150 years later but there is no mystery to it. First it has not been that long. My mother’s great uncle who she knew well as a child was in the Civil War. There are still a few children of Civil War Vets living. One or two Civil War widows still on govt pensions. So there are firsthand stories still available as to what actually transpired during the conflict.

The Southern states are still operating under Reconstruction election laws 150 years later that do not apply to the Northern states. What’s wrong with that picture?

The wounds of the Civil War have not healed and are not likely to as the war was only peripherally about slavery. It was mostly about states rights. Now we see the country beginning to tear apart again due to the same issue. Unless things change drastically and soon we will likely see the North and South separate again in our lifetime.


22 posted on 12/05/2014 6:56:34 AM PST by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose o f a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped.)
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To: Constitution Day
War criminal

Dang straight. Modern U.S. troops have been tried and convicted of similar or much less serious charges. Sherman was a demonic psychopath.

23 posted on 12/05/2014 6:58:14 AM PST by PistolPaknMama
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To: central_va

LOL!!!!


24 posted on 12/05/2014 7:00:01 AM PST by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose o f a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped.)
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To: central_va
The Burning of Chambersburg

During the Gettysburg campaign, Confederate troops restrained themselves from destroying non-government property. By the Rebels' next raid into the North, however, the policy had changed.

On July 30, 1864, Brigadier General John McCausland and 2,800 Confederate cavalrymen entered Chambersburg and demanded $100,000 in gold or $500,000 in greenbacks. The residents of Chambersburg failed to raise the ransom, and McCausland ordered his men to burn the town.

Flames destroyed more than 500 structures leaving more than 2,000 homeless. One resident died of smoke inhalation. Damage was estimated at more than $1.6 million. To make matters worse, many inebriated Confederate soldiers looted homes and abused civilians. Mobs of angry townspeople looking for retribution killed several Rebels.

Good Samaritans in the Rebel ranks helped citizens escape and save their valuables; a Confederate captain even ordered his company to douse the flames. One officer, Colonel William Peters, staunchly refused to take part in the burning. McCausland had him placed under arrest.

Chambersburg was the only Northern town the Confederates destroyed. The attack inspired a national aid campaign and spurred the Union Army to the aggressive approach that finally won the war.

25 posted on 12/05/2014 7:04:20 AM PST by 11th_VA
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To: 11th_VA

Have to admit, I’m not familiar with this Chambersburg episode. I will investigate...
Thanks


26 posted on 12/05/2014 7:11:55 AM PST by Doctor 2Brains
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To: PistolPaknMama

‘War is the remedy our enemies have chosen. And I say let us give them all they want.’”

No the South seceded from the Union. Then the North went to war with the South.


27 posted on 12/05/2014 7:16:02 AM PST by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose o f a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped.)
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To: null and void

You know I was on the wrong thread and didn’t read this until right now.

Grrrr. Sherman. Grrrrr


28 posted on 12/05/2014 7:18:46 AM PST by Shimmer1 (No punishment is too great for the man who builds his greatness upon his country's ruin.G.Washington)
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To: Georgia Girl 2
the war was only peripherally about slavery. It was mostly about states rights.

Absolutely...every time I hear some talking head blather on about the Civil War being only about slavery, I tune 'em out...

29 posted on 12/05/2014 7:24:27 AM PST by ErnBatavia (It ain't a "hashtag"....it's a damn pound sign. ###)
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To: Georgia Girl 2
Revisionist history cannot even paint over this butcher and war criminal.

No matter how hard you try.

The Southern states are still operating under Reconstruction election laws 150 years later that do not apply to the Northern states. What’s wrong with that picture?

See what I mean about revisionism? Southern states operated under election laws that date way back to the 1960's, not the 1860's. And the Supreme Court overturned those.

The wounds of the Civil War have not healed and are not likely to as the war was only peripherally about slavery. It was mostly about states rights.

To say the civil war was not about slavery is to say that the first Gulf War was not about oil.

30 posted on 12/05/2014 7:26:17 AM PST by DoodleDawg
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To: Resolute Conservative
While I am not a Sherman supporter in any way it would do us well to remember that wars should be fought to win and apply some of those tactics/processes to the way we DON’T fight them today.

“Crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of the women”

Had George III been as determined as Lincoln, we would still be part of Britain. Make no mistake. The Full might of the British Empire would have ended us had they chose to wield it.

He forbore, Lincoln did not.

31 posted on 12/05/2014 7:32:15 AM PST by DiogenesLamp (Partus Sequitur Patrem)
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To: goldstategop
William T. Sherman’s personal regiment was the 1st Alabama Cavalry Regiment - Southerners who remained loyal to the Union and the cause of the country.

In the US war of Independence, such people were called "Loyalists." They ended up going to Canada because their home had become hostile to them after the war.

32 posted on 12/05/2014 7:34:25 AM PST by DiogenesLamp (Partus Sequitur Patrem)
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To: Georgia Girl 2
My mother’s great uncle who she knew well as a child was in the Civil War. There are still a few children of Civil War Vets living. One or two Civil War widows still on govt pensions. So there are firsthand stories still available as to what actually transpired during the conflict.

Back in 1994 I knew a man who claimed that his grandfather was a cavalry officer during the Civil war. I found it incredible that I actually knew someone who spoke with someone from the Civil war. History isn't really that far away when you think about it.

We are currently still paying for many past mistakes that we think of as "history."

33 posted on 12/05/2014 7:37:55 AM PST by DiogenesLamp (Partus Sequitur Patrem)
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To: ErnBatavia
Absolutely...every time I hear some talking head blather on about the Civil War being only about slavery, I tune 'em out...

The problem for many such people is that they personalize it. If they come from a Northern state, or if they have ancestors who fought on the Union side during the war, they see the discussion as personal rather than abstract.

When it becomes personal they have to justify what happened, and the only fig leaf of justification they can find is "Well they were bad people, so they deserve what my ancestors/state did to them."

It is called "rationalization".

34 posted on 12/05/2014 7:42:21 AM PST by DiogenesLamp (Partus Sequitur Patrem)
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To: DiogenesLamp

That’s an interesting case of projection. One only need read the responses from some of the southern sympathizers on this very thread to see who has “personalized” the issue. Most union sympathizers are more interested in examining the history than re-fighting the war.


35 posted on 12/05/2014 7:53:38 AM PST by rockrr (Everything is different now...)
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To: Georgia Girl 2
The Southern states are still operating under Reconstruction election laws 150 years later that do not apply to the Northern states.

That would be the Voting Rights Act of 1965, not the Reconstruction laws of 1865.

36 posted on 12/05/2014 8:00:15 AM PST by Ditto
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To: TurboZamboni

One of Joe Johnston’s and John Bell Hood’s greatest fears as defenders of Atlanta was that Sherman would skirt the city and strike to the south, where the horrors of Andersonville would inspire the Yankees to an unmatched bloodlust.

And much of the conflagration that destroyed Atlanta started whenConfederate troops set fire to materiel and rolling stock.

Sherman certainly wasn’t blameless, but he was far from a butcher or madman. He waged the same kind of total war that Phil Sheridan unleashed in the Shenandoah Valley, and toward the same end: to deprive the Confederates of the infrastructure they needed to prosecute the war. In that, he was successful. However, the animus many in the South — especially Georgia — feel toward Sherman is perfectly understandable.


37 posted on 12/05/2014 8:10:29 AM PST by IronJack
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To: ErnBatavia

Yes on FR the trolls come out in full force for any Civil War thread. They just like to stir it up. I’m sure it would drive them all nuts to see the Confederate flags still flying in GA on every holiday. LOL!!!!


38 posted on 12/05/2014 8:11:22 AM PST by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose o f a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped.)
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To: IronJack
Sherman certainly wasn’t blameless, but he was far from a butcher or madman.

I think that Sherman's March is to the Confederate Lost Cause what Ferguson is to Al Sharpton and his ilk. An incident that is used to rally around and inflame passions but at the end of the day is based mainly on myth and inaccuracies.

39 posted on 12/05/2014 8:13:28 AM PST by DoodleDawg
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To: Georgia Girl 2

Still flogging that corpse I see ;’)

They are only “trolls” because they do not share your POV. To call them such only drags your down. And you should know from the countless threads on confederate flags that most unionists couldn’t care less what you flap around.


40 posted on 12/05/2014 8:18:22 AM PST by rockrr (Everything is different now...)
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