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 ...
Yet you almost never hear a word about that campaign.
1) The song. The book. The movie.
2) South Carolinians may have had more guilty feelings about history and the war.
3) They also had more of an established state identity at that point, so maybe Sherman didn't bulk as large in their collective memory, because they had different stuff to remember.
Chambersburg was in response to Union General Hunter destroying much of the Shenandoah Valley. From Confederate General Early whose troops burned Chambersburg:
General Hunter in his recent raid to Lynchburg, caused wide-spread ruin wherever he passed. I followed him about sixty miles, and language would fail me to describe the terrible desolation which marked his path. Dwelling-houses and other buildings were almost universally burned; fences, implements of husbandry, and everything available for the sustenance of human life, so far as he could do so, were everywhere destroyed. We found many, very many, families of helpless women and children who had been suddenly turned out of doors, and their houses and contents condemned to the flames; and in some cases where they had rescued some extra clothing, the soldiers had torn the garments into narrow strips, and strewn them upon the ground for us to witness when we arrived in pursuit.
General Hunter has been much censured by the voice of humanity everywhere, and he richly deserves it all; yet he has caused scarcely one-tenth part of the devastation which has been committed immediately in sight of the headquarters of General Meade and General Grant, in Eastern Virginia.
Also from Confederate private Slingluff, acknowledged by a Chambersburg resident to be a reliable source, came the following description of Hunter's destructive record:
We had seen a thousand ruined homes in Clark, Jefferson, and Frederick counties,- barns and houses burned and private property destroyed
Here was General Early's rationale for burning Chambersburg as reported in the Philadelphia Age:
I was very reluctant, and it was a most disagreeable duty, to inflict such damage on these citizens; but I deemed it an imperative necessity to show the people of the Federal States that war has two sides. I hope and believe it has had, and will have a good effect. I saw with much pleasure, since then, an able article in the National Intelligencer, which called upon the north to consider gravely whether such a mode of warfare as they had inaugurated is likely to yield a success commensurate to its cost.
The Richmond Dispatch newspaper on August 4, 1864, mentions that the burning of Chambersburg was a good retaliation for city burnings by Federal troops. Somewhere in my old newspaper records I have an article on the time that says Chambersburg was basically the first -- there would have to be twenty more before Confederates caught up with the Federals in burning cities.
At a late hour last night we received Northern accounts of a rebel invasion of Pennsylvania, though the force engaged is somewhat a matter of conjecture. In burning Chambersburg, however, the Confederates have done a thorough piece of work. This carries the war home to the doors of the Yankees, and is a good retaliation for the burning of Jacksonville, Florida; Jackson, Mississippi, and other cities in the South.
To some extent, General Early's burning of Chambersburg was successful in getting Lincoln to think, at least temporarily, about stopping the burning of Southern cities, which had been ongoing for some time. Lincoln, no doubt, was concerned about the effect that burning a Northern town such as Chambersburg might have on the upcoming 1864 election. Here was his response to Grant following the Chambersburg burning:
WASHINGTON, D. C., August 14, 1864 - 1.50 p. m.
Lieutenant-General GRANT,
City Point, Va.:
The Secretary of War and I concur that you had better confer with General Lee and stipulate for a mutual discontinuance of house burning and other destruction of private property. The time and manner of conference and particulars of stipulation we leave, on our part, to your convenience and judgment.
A. LINCOLN.
Japan had no plans to invade and occupy the U.S. But then they went and did that whole Pearl Harbor thing.
What on earth has that got to do with the The War Between the States? Answer: Nothing. :-)
Other than the fact that both Japan and the Confederacy started the wars they later lost.
OK I had to chuckle at that one ;') If you don't see it, it is because you don't care to see it.
The reason I do not include them in my criticism is because we don't currently have to live with the consequences of their side winning, we have to live with the consequences of the Union side winning.
Fascinating. In your mind every evil in the nation came as a result of Lincoln enforcing the constitution. I know I shouldn't - but I have to ask: How do you think things would have been any different or measurably better had Lincoln allowed the slavers to split the nation?
Lincoln created "Fedzilla."
Complete and utter horse-pucky. So how's that whole objectivity thing working for you? ;')
Say what you want about Sherman, but once he was turned loose, he ended the war pretty quick.
Thanks. FYI, too.
Our company flew her and I as well as several other employee's into Atlanta for a week long school. She was taken aback at the rude treatment she got several times when her last name was known. It was explained to her the significance of her name in the Georgia region. Some folks just don't forget no matter what.
From what I have read Vicksburg didn't start to celebrate July 4th till the 1940’s
Small-minded people tend to hold grudges.
On that I will agree. There is a natural right of rebellion But that doesn't mean that the parties rebelled against are under some obligation to simply roll over and allow their nation to be dismembered. Rebellion is a roll of the dice, not some automatic victory.
No, the first blood shed was on Pratt street in Baltimore when Confederate goons fired on Union troops passing through on their way to Washington.
So are you are saying Jeff Davis was a total idiot for ordering the attack?
I return my thanks for the copy of your late very powerful Speech in the Senate of the United S. It crushes "nullification" and must hasten the abandonment of "Secession." But this dodges the blow by confounding the claim to secede at will, with the right of seceding from intolerable oppression. The former answers itself, being a violation, without cause, of a faith solemnly pledged. The latter is another name only for revolution, about which there is no theoretic controversy.
Hello Ditto. It's been a long time.
Your memory is off about the first blood. Your view is a common misperception probably encouraged by Baltimore. The first blood was actually shed in Fort Sumter during the April 12-14 bombardment. No one was killed in the bombardment, but two or three Union guys were wounded in the fort during the bombardment
If it is first deaths you are talking about, that happened in Texas on April 15th, 1861. Pro-Union Tejanos threatened to hang Confederate supporters in South Texas. John Salmon R.I.P. Ford (later my great-great grandfather's commander in the war) sent Texas Rangers down to Zapata County, Texas to arrest those threatening to kill Texas officials. Nine of the Tejanos were killed in a battle with the Rangers on April 15.
The Tejanos were Hispanic Texans who were supporters of the Mexican Juan Cortinas. Cortinas had invaded and taken over the town of Brownsville, Texas a year or two before the war. There were insufficient federal troops in the Rio Grande Valley at that time. The people of Brownsville later (but before the war) had to hire the Mexican Army to protect them from Cortinas. Texas Rangers under R.I.P. Ford and a company of Federal troops then went down to the Valley and chased Cortinas across the Rio Grande. The Rangers went into Mexico after Cortinas, but Cortinas managed to get away in a battle.
One of Texas' complaints in their secession document was that the Feds weren't sufficiently protecting Texas from invasion. Sound familiar?
“Lincoln had taken NO action against the South until that stupid incident. “
I guess when someone in your territory fortifies a fort they intend no actions. Got it. You’re stupid.
“No. Apart from the fact that there weren’t any states in 1776, Rhode Island had banned it in 1652. First colony to do so. Also, at the time, the biggest importer of slaves. There’s a bit of history trivia for you.”
Where did you get that? RI was a major slave holding and slave trade colony even up until 1840. In fact, per capita they held the number one spot for many years.
As I stated in another post, just because Lincoln did not want to recognize the secession, did not mean he wanted to start a war. Possibly in their minds there were other ways to heal the rift or make some kind of reconciliation.
And April 7, 1861 was when the SOUTH cut off the supply route to Ft Sumter. Less than a month after the “negotiations” started. Kind of difficult to honestly negotiate with someone when you are taking military action to starve out their troops.
And newspapers back then were even worse about slanting news to fit their own preconceptions. The dates tell the story. The South was trying to strong arm the North into giving up the fort because they thought they had the military to back it up. The “myth” of the unbeatable southern soldier.
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