Nobody, least of all Sherman, denies that "war is hell."
But the Brigade of Lost Causers who post on these threads want us to believe that Yankees were uniquely devilish.
I'm merely here to say: that ain't necessarily so.
I would also remind you that, compared to any other civil war in history, ours was uniquely fought by good Christian soldiers on both sides, whose leaders usually prevented the kinds of atrocities we learn about in others.
Indeed, my list above, while somewhat lengthy, is most remarkable for the fact that it includes so few items, and numbers murdered were relatively few.
By contrast, the last century's civil wars in Russia and China each took the lives of tens of millions.
The Thirty Years War (1618-1648) in Germany killed eight million, including two-thirds of German civilians.
Yes, some people claim 50,000 civilians died in our Civil War, including 1,000 on Sherman's march, but those numbers are strictly statistical extrapolations, based on the pre-war population growth-rate.
In fact, as my list above proves: the actual numbers known to be killed are in the dozens, or hundreds at most.
"But the Brigade of Lost Causers who post on these threads want us to believe that Yankees were uniquely devilish. I'm merely here to say: that ain't necessarily so."
Since when is freeper rustbucket a lost causer? Last time I checked he was of the most objective person on here.