No, but remember this thread relates to Lost-Causer claims that the entire Union army, especially its pathological war-criminal leader -- General Sherman -- should have been hanged, no hanging was too good for them.
No, they should have been tarred & feathered, then burned at the stake, because that's what they deserved.
You don't believe me?
Just ask some of the other posters here...
My point on this -- there's no contemporary evidence they were considered "war criminals", and proof-positive of that is: no Confederate leader who committed similar "crimes" as Sherman was ever charged or punished for it after the war.
Further, the theory of "total war" first developed in the 1860s was used again by President Roosevelt during the 1940s to defeat our most dangerous global enemies, and turn them into our closest allies.
Think about that, FRiend...
Then I think we are either on the same page or talking past each other. I have never claimed that Sherman deserved to be hanged or that the entire Union army was comprised of war criminals. I have merely maintained that war crimes were committed by Sherman and others (as understood at the time, namely the making of war upon noncombatants) during the war. Painting Sherman as a monster who deserved to be executed is disingenuous, but then so is painting him as a totally honorable and innocent man. As usual, the truth is somewhere in the middle.