Certainly atrocities abounded on both sides of the Civil War. That being said, it does NOT excuse Sherman. Two wrongs don’t make a right. (BTW: I am certainly not a “lost causer” either.) The question of war crimes committed during the fighting of a war is logically independent of the validity of the overall cause. A soldier fighting for a perfectly justified cause can commit war crimes. A soldier fighting in an illegal war of aggression is likewise entitled to certain protections per the laws of just war, such as being allowed to surrender without being killed and being treated in humane fashion if taken prisoner. Civilians on ANY side of a conflict are generally entitled to be free from being intentionally targeted.
Bottom line: one need not believe in the fundamental rightness of the Confederate cause (and I do not) to hold Sherman responsible for intentionally targeting civilians during the campaign in Georgia and S. Carolina. The fact that Confederate leaders also targeted civilians does not mitigate this responsibility; I would condemn those leaders as much as I do Sherman.
If we are talking about genuine atrocities on both sides, then the list is rather short, including items in my post #169 above.
Yes, some claim 50,000 civilians died total, but actual records of such numbers are non-existent.
Actual records support a few dozen here, maybe a hundred there, nothing remotely close to the total suggested.
All this in stark contrast to the millions killed in other civil wars.
As to what, exactly, was or was not considered a "war crime", we can surely judge what our ancestors thought "criminal" by the men they tried and executed for war crimes after the war.
There was one: a Confederate guerilla named Champ Ferguson, of Nashville, Tennessee who was hanged on 53 counts of murder, many said to be arbitrary & gruesome.
Those were murders he personally committed, not that he ordered, or wink-winked the other way as his men committed.
Here's my point: angry as the Union was at Confederates after the war, they did not hunt down & hang mass numbers for real or alleged "war crimes".
Just one man, Champ Ferguson.
Of course, if you wish to apply today's standards, that's a different subject, but then, what are you going to do about hundreds of thousands of WWII Allied bomber crews who destroyed Axis power cities?