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.
So, when Quantrill’s bushwhackers invaded, looted, and burned Lawrence, KS, shooting, mangling, and burning the body of every single man and teenaged boy they could find, civilians all, was that “total war”? I’m just curious.