BJK:
"They both did it. central_va: "A distortion... More reconstructed history nothing more, nothing less."
We're talking about
- Armies that "live off the land", leaving trails of pillage and destruction in their wakes, and
- Deliberate acts of destruction of enemy homes and facilities.
Here are comments on the subject from two more sites:
- "Most armies were forced at some point to live off the land.
The Confederates, who fought mostly on home ground, tried harder to curb pillaging, preferring to request donations from townspeople rather than steal supplies or take them by force."
- "The list of brilliant Southern generals is extensive, while even at the highest command the North struggled to find a competent leader for most of the Civil War.
What’s more, between fighting the Mexican-American War and knowing how to live off the land, many Southern soldiers were just better equipped with the skills necessary to survive a war of attrition."
So, Confederate armies "lived off the land", even within the Confederacy, where they made efforts to "ask nicely" before taking what they needed.
When those armies left the Confederacy and invaded Union states or territories, they were not quite so "nice" about it, they took what they needed and destroyed whatever they deemed appropriate.
See examples cited in post #85 above.