Thompson Played Grant _ No Hero in South

AP via SFGate ^ | 11/13/7 | Jim Davenport

[JamesP81]

They think The South is still full of Dixie singing KKK types and THIS is gonna get people upset

Clearly, I'm not a KKK type, but I will admit that I have hummed Dixie on occasion.

[PzLdr]

Uncle Billy was played, superbly, by Colm Feore. My favorite guy was the dude who played Nelson Miles, and put paid to all that “Sacred Black Hills” crap in a scene where he dressed down Sitting Bull [August Schnellenburg]. OUTSTANDING!!

[rhombus]

Indiscriminate is the regular misfortune of war. I can’t imagine any war without that discussion. Losing loved ones to war can harden hearts to seek quicker and often messier indiscriminate solutions to end that war. Should Sherman have used more restraint? Sure, he could have controlled the ignorant bad-apple draftee who was looting, raping and pillaging. He could have tried to discriminate one business for destruction over another. He could have spent a lot of time disciplining, drilling, investigating, convicting and punishing his own men. Or he could hurry up and get the job done by finishing the war with the army he had.

[AFreeBird]

I’ve hummed, even sang Dixie before (catchy little tune), and I’m a damn Yankee! :)

[El Gato]

OTOH, had he played Sherman he should be taken out and shot at dawn. (Just joking)

Are you sure you're joking. One of my father in law's first cousins moved to Georgia, following the death of his first wife. (FiL had no brothers, and only those two first cousins, who lived on a nearby farm). After my father-in-laws funeral, my wife mentioned that she lived in Sherman, and the cousin's wife really bristled up, until we assured her it was not *That* Sherman that a North Texas town was named after. Perish the Thought! Sherman Texas still has the once obligatory confederate soldier statue on the (old) Courthouse square. He's on the Northeast corner, looking to the Northeast, because that's the direction the DamnYankees once came from, and they might come again. :) Many Texas county seats still have such a statue.

I'm sure Georgians are a bit more sensitive about *that* Sherman.

(FWIW, Sherman Texas was named after General Sidney Sherman, a hero of the Texas Revolution.)

General Sidney Sherman

General William Tecumseh Sherman.

BTW, in searching for that picture of W.T. Sherman, I found a tidbit of information which I had not known before. Sherman and Lt. Ord were sent to help run California once it was acquired as a result of the Mexican war. They arrived at Yerba Buena, two days before it's name was changed to San Francisco.

Yerba Buena translates as "Good Grass", and I can't imagine a better name for the place it has become.

[groanup]

AP, SF Gate?

[JamesP81]

He did the equivalent of bombing German factories in WWII.

Not quite. We were targeting industrial facilities and their workforces because they were contributing to the war effort against us. What Sherman did was far more akin to the incendiary bombing of civilian targets in Japan, or the firebombing of Dresden. It was pure carnage. The destruction of Atlanta's industry probably did shorten the war, but Southerners have always had that 'fight to the last man' attitude, so killing so many civilians probably didn't bring an end to the war much faster, if at all. The destruction of the industry in the city, however, did shorten the war significantly.

[stevem]

Longstreet was married to either Julia Grant’s sister, or cousin.

It'sbeen a while since I read it, but I think Longstreet may have been best man in Grant's wedding.

[JamesP81]

Maybe, not sure. What he did worked to starve an army but an insurgency might be something different entirely.

Actually, I think it wouldn't. The march to the sea might've killed a lot of civilians, but it was the destruction of industry that the South couldn't afford to lose that decimated the South's ability to fight. Problem is that terrorists don't rely on industry to supply their 'war machine'.

[El Gato]

He also played a role as a lawyer

Now that is unforgivable!

(And I have a daughter and son-in-law with law degrees and licenses)

[SmithL]

It’s an Associated Press story. SFGate, like most newspaper sites has an AP feed.

[Rb ver. 2.0]

Thompson is a drooling, lethargic geriatric under the control of his Svengali trophy wife.

(Just giving you next week’s headline in advance)

[rhombus]

Agreed it was indiscriminant. It extended into the plantation system which limited the ability to fund and feed an army as well as the civilians in their midst. Hiroshima and Nagasaki ended up being quite indiscriminant too.

[JamesP81]

I’ve hummed, even sang Dixie before (catchy little tune), and I’m a damn Yankee! :)

I seriously doubt you'd qualify as 'damn yankee'. You're presence on FR probably rules that out. A damn yankee is one who does two things 1) moves south and 2) brings liberal BS ideas a la Kennedy with him. It's true we don't have any use for those types.

[afnamvet]

(And I have a daughter and son-in-law with law degrees and licenses)

I will pray for you. ;)

[Mr. Lucky]

A theory I once had to expound upon in college was that Sherman’s tactics in Georgia were indirectly the result of Nathan B. Forrest’s success in interdicting Yankee supply and support systems.

[stand watie]

at least he didn't play "sherman, the WAR CRIMINAL"!!! (fwiw, we hanged "general yamashita" for precisely the same thing that "billy sherman" did. either neither should have hanged or BOTH should have!)

playing "us grant", i can live with.

free dixie,sw

[AuntB]

Why should he feel the need to apologize for portraying a man, a former general and president, who served his country to the best of his ability?

Anyone who holds this against Fred is just silly.

[Redcloak]

Therefore we should...

• Vote for the RINO from NYC
• Vote for the RINO from Boston
• Vote for the cheese-eating surrender-monkey from Texas 

[rhombus]

Problem is that terrorists don't rely on industry to supply their 'war machine'.

No they depend on secrecy and safe houses and the silence of the population they hide amongst. Violent terrorism during reconstruction was persistent and varying strategies were applied to smoke 'em out.