Great tagline, too
Posted on 01/17/2016 1:26:17 PM PST by soakncider
That is why, within just a few months of the Proclamation, a number of commanders in the field...felt sanctioned to unleash the equivalent of what in the 20th century came to be called "total war"-a war upon civilians and their property in the South, with attendant looting, murder, arson, and rape, and neither women, children, the old and infirm, or oftentimes even blacks, were spared. As General-in-Chief Halleck noted in a letter to Ulysses Grant on March 31, 1863: The character of the war has very much changed..There is now no possible hope of reconciliation with the rebels..There can be no peace but that which is forced by the sword. We must conquer the rebels. A few days later Grant concurred: Rebellion has assumed that shape now that it can only terminate by the complete subjugation of the South..It is our duty to weaken the enemy, by destroying their means of subsistence, withdrawing their means of cultivating their fields, and in every other way possible. Thus it was that in his campaign in the West against Vicksburg, Mississippi, in the Spring and Summer of 1863, Grant had no compunction in attacking civilians and destroying feed mills: "Civilians were suffering from unceasing bombardment and the shortage of food"..In the aftermath, Grant ordered General William Sherman east to Jackson, the capital of Mississippi, which he conquered on July 17 after five days of incessant bombardment without Confederate resistance and proceeded to unleash the troops on a three-day rampage that, according to a Northern reporter, "left the entire business section in ruins, burned most of the better residences..and looted homes, churches, and the state library,"..."such complete ruin and devastation never followed the footsteps of any army before." Sherman boasted to Grant, "The land is devastated for 30 miles around."
(Excerpt) Read more at abbevilleinstitute.org ...
ping
Kirkpatrick Sale is a long time leftist best known for his book on the SDS. He thinks Columbus was a mistake so it’s no surprise that he takes issue with a lot of other things in our national history.
Attack the author - ignore the content
They went medieval on them.
“War is the remedy our enemies have chosen, and I say give them all the war they want.” Gen. W. T. Sherman.
The fact is that while Union armies did occasionally "live off the land", Confederate armies did so constantly.
Yes, within the Confederacy they did usually pretend to "pay for" their "requisitions", but once outside the Confederacy they considered any & all Union properties theirs for the taking, sometimes using Confederate money to "pay", but more often not.
By war's end, Confederate armies had invaded or raided into every Union state & territory they could reach, including: Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma and New Mexico.
Confederate guerillas also operated in California, Colorado and even Vermont.
In every case they left a trail of destruction and seized "contraband", including "recovery" of any runaway slaves they could grab.
But in proper historical perspective, the US Civil War was absolutely one of the most "civil" of civil wars ever, with relatively few civilian massacres, deaths, mass starvations, etc.
Both sides considered themselves, and generally behaved as Christian soldiers.
The Civil War was fought in order to nullify the Declaration of Independence, which says that the right to secede from a political entity is a natural right.
“And pass that bottle, before i sober up” - W. T. Sherman; insane manic, depressed, butcher of innocent civilians.
Generals Sherman, Grant, and Thomas showed the Rebels otherwise.
P.S. the Confederacy was NOT some Jeffersonian democracy...it was what was the 19th Century version of a Police state, with the Home Guard exercising tyrannical rule over the local folks. The Gestapo and NKVD took notes.
Relatively few civilians were killed in the war. the only real Massacres were when Black American troops surrendered to the Rebels.
While it may be true, and i don’t know that it is, that Confederate soldiers, acting independently or in small groups, committed crimes against civilians, it wasn’t a matter of sanctioned national policy, as it was in the Union army of terror.
“Any people, anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better.”-Abe Lincoln
Even Lincoln agreed with secession until he didn’t.
And in other news today Sherman is still dead and rotting in Hell. :-)
William T. Sherman, victorious General. Robert E. Lee, Noble, Gentleman, scholar, losing General.
MuttTheHoople wrote: Relatively few civilians were killed in the war. the only real Massacres were when Black American troops surrendered to the Rebels.
I assume you are talking about Fort Pillow, but the events of that day are described differently depending on your perspective. Note this sourced article: ‘Forrest’s men insisted that the Union soldiers, although fleeing, kept their weapons and frequently turned to shoot, forcing the Confederates to keep firing in self-defense.[10] Their claim is consistent with the discovery of numerous Union rifles on the bluffs near the river.[18] The Union flag was still flying over the fort, which indicated that the force had not formally surrendered. A contemporary newspaper account from Jackson, Tennessee, states that “General Forrest begged them to surrender,” but “not the first sign of surrender was ever given.” Similar accounts were reported in both Southern and Northern newspapers at the time.[19]’
In any event, these were both military units, and it was not sanctioned by the CSA. Civilian atrocities were officially sanctioned by the Union army of terror.
Great tagline, too
Ho Chi Minh; victorious general; ‘nuff said.
In war, victory is the only thing that count. Ho Chi Minh was not a the victorious general He was the political leader of North Vietnam. The victory over the French and the Americans in Vietnam was engineered by Vo Nguye Giap. He was the victorious general.
Ok, so Vo Nguye Giap; victorious general; winning is all that matters to you; ‘nuff said.
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