[x]

Such was his rhetoric, but if you look at the record, you find killing of civilians wasn't Sherman's policy.

The atrocity stories were largely exaggeration.

[jeffersondem]

“Such was his rhetoric, but if you look at the record, you find killing of civilians wasn't Sherman's policy.”

In October of 1864 he ordered a subordinate, General Louis Watkins, to go to Fairmount, Georgia, “burn ten or twelve houses” and “kill a few at random,” and “let them know that it will be repeated every time a train is fired upon.”

General Sherman believed and practiced total war. Had the South won he would have been tried for war crimes, if the South could have reached him. His activities would be considered war crimes today.