Posted on 12/05/2014 1:01:20 PM PST by aomagrat
COLUMBIA, SC (WIS-TV) -
At this time in December 150 years ago, Union General William Tecumseh Sherman and his army were advancing on Savannah, leaving a wake of destruction behind. But the true wrath of Sherman's army was being reserved for South Carolina.
"He wanted to cripple the Confederacy," said retired University of South Carolina journalism professor Patricia McNeely. Since the campus survived the burning of Columbia, the Horseshoe was an appropriate place for our interview.
"He wanted them to give up fighting. He wanted them to lose faith in their leadership in the Confederacy. But most people have overlooked this. Because, when, when Columbia was burned, he blamed it on General Wade Hampton and the Confederates leaving cotton burning in the streets."
McNeely's book, Sherman's Flame and Blame Campaign explains a strategy that she says previous historians overlooked.
"This is a flame and blame campaign that I have found," McNeely said. "Sherman was providing all this disinformation early and during the Civil War and did not admit until 1875 in his memoirs that he had blamed the Confederates, namely General Hampton. For these reasons, everybody believed what he had said, the disinformation that he had spread, the propaganda that he'd deliberately used so nobody actually went through and saw the pattern of the burning and blaming."
(Excerpt) Read more at wistv.com ...
And then the "he who denied it supplied it" supposition prevails.
The smell....the smell....I love the smell of napalm in the morning...it smells of victory....
If one uses it enough it works every time.
Yeah, Hitler really screwed up by attacking Pearl Harbor.
And, then, the Nips launched Operation Balballosa against the USSR and that sealed their doom.
When I was a boy driving through the South, you could still see those charred chimneys standing alone - Sherman’s Sentinels.
I once met a bitter, old hag feminist who was a history PhD. from Arkansas. She was also compelled to rant about the Civil War.
Balbossa Kilbossa!
Great with Pale Ale Beer...
He who smelt it dealt it.
The South was right and so was Sherman when it came to the blacks. He said they would not be able to care for themselves. 150 years later and it’s gotten worse.
The point is correct: You want your adversaries to understand their cause is permanently hopeless and defeated.
That is the only basis on which to build a lasting peace.
See The South, Germany, Japan, etc.
For counter-example, see all the places we didn’t really have the guts to crush the opposition completely: Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, etc.
It is actually humane to do this. The faster they learn they are utterly defeated, the sooner the death-dealing ends.
“Todays civilian firearms are utterly ineffective against tanks and really any fighting vehicle”
You mean like in Afghanistan? LOL!! Tanks and fighting vehicles especially tanks are not designed for uban warfare which is what CWII in the US will be. I’m still laughing. What do you think the govt is going to do Sherm blow up all the cities with tanks? :-)
“One of my favorite subjects: our Civil War.”
First it was not a Civil War. Civil War is when two factions are fighting for control of the government. The South just wanted to leave the Union which was their right. They never tried to invade, conquer and subjugate the North.
Sherman’s methodology was simple. His march to the sea went through an agricultural heartland of the South. By ruining it, it could no longer provide food to the Confederacy.
Importantly, this represents a choice: do we destroy their farms, or do we kill them?
A similar choice was later made by Kit Carson, ordered to subdue the Navajo, who at the time were a significant mounted threat. And he concluded that, “I could kill every Navajo horse, or I could kill every adult Navajo man.” And he chose their horses. This effectively neutralized them as a fighting force, and saved thousands of lives.
In any event, southerners are free to ritually hate Sherman for what he did.
Why don’t you Rebs change the tune already. Lincoln a traitor. What is your evidence?
‘and did not admit until 1875 in his memoirs that he had blamed the Confederates, namely General Hampton.”
Sorry, this simply does not make sense. If he blamed him at the time, how did not disclose that he blamed him until 1875? There’s no evidence that he ordered it, and eyewitnesses said he was surprised when he was told. Since he readily admitted to deliberately burning Atlanta, I don’t see why he would bother with an elaborate deception in Columbia. Where is her new evidence?
I go by it’s traditional name which is the Civil War - brother against brother. I, too, do not believe they ever intended to conquer the North. But the genius of Lee is that he knew how to intimidate the north. Good for him.
“”He wanted to cripple the Confederacy,” said retired University of South Carolina journalism professor Patricia McNeely.”
Thanks, Captain Obvious.
Yeah, it was the “War between the States,” but they never really caught on. Like the “Battle of Bunker Hill” was fought at “Breed’s Hill”. It’s not accurate, but that’s what it’s known as.
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