The duties exacted of us by civilization and Christianity are not less obligatory in the country of the enemy than in our own. The commanding general considers that no greater disgrace could befall the army, and through it our whole people, than the perpetration of the barbarous outrages upon the innocent and defenseless and the wanton destruction of private property that have marked the course of the enemy in our own country. ... It must be remembered that we make war only on armed men, and that we cannot take vengeance for the wrongs our people have suffered without lowering ourselves in the eyes of all whose abhorrence has been excited by the atrocities of our enemy, and offending against Him to whom vengeance belongeth, without whose favor and support our efforts must all prove in vain.
The commanding general, therefore earnestly exhorts the troops to abstain with most scrupulous care from unnecessary or wanton injury to private property, and he enjoins upon all officers to arrest and bring to summary punishment all who shall in any way offend against the orders on this subject.
R. E. Lee, General
[G] Now I see that he was planning to arrest them and have a tea party. My bad.
Your deliberate exaggerations aside, the order was issued precisely because of the depredations imposed on the Northern population, depredations you deplore in Sherman's campaign in Georgia. And the order was roundly ignored by the southern army, which looted food and livestock, threatened to burn cities that didn't pay ransom, and grabbed any free black person standing around and sent them south to slavery. And there was no punishment imposed on the southern troops that I am aware of.