“Lee decided that loyalty to Virginia was more important than letting everyone in all states live as free people.”
At that time people in EVERY state, north and south, thought of themselves as citizens of their state first and the nation second.
It wasn’t until later that the notion of nation first, state second came about.
Gen William Tecumseh Sherman, no doubt one of your heroes, moved in the highest levels of southern society while stationed in South Carolina.
While his brother was a virulent abolitionist W T Sherman had little problem with slavery and was sympathetic to southerners defense of slavery. He knew the south.
In 1859 Sherman became the first superintendent of Louisiana State Seminary and Military Academy, now LSU. He would have been content to stay there if not for the Civil War.
An Ohioan, Sherman left to rejoin the union army for the Civil War in January, 1861.
Best known for his scortched earth policy, Sherman was responsible for burning, looting and rape throughout the south.
But I guess that was okay since a union general was doing it to southerners. Right?
“War is the solution our enemies have chosen, and I say, lets give them all the want.” General William T. Sherman.
When one starts a war, one should understand the possible consequences of not winning it.
“But I guess that was okay since a union general was doing it to southerners. Right?”
Sherman broke the back of the Confederacy and helped end the war sooner, a blessing to both sides.
Indeed he did: "You people of the South don't know what you are doing. This country will be drenched in blood, and God only knows how it will end. It is all folly, madness, a crime against civilization! You people speak so lightly of war; you don't know what you're talking about. War is a terrible thing! You mistake, too, the people of the North. They are a peaceable people but an earnest people, and they will fight, too. They are not going to let this country be destroyed without a mighty effort to save it… Besides, where are your men and appliances of war to contend against them? The North can make a steam engine, locomotive, or railway car; hardly a yard of cloth or pair of shoes can you make. You are rushing into war with one of the most powerful, ingeniously mechanical, and determined people on Earth — right at your doors. You are bound to fail. Only in your spirit and determination are you prepared for war. In all else you are totally unprepared, with a bad cause to start with. At first you will make headway, but as your limited resources begin to fail, shut out from the markets of Europe as you will be, your cause will begin to wane. If your people will but stop and think, they must see in the end that you will surely fail."