Posted on 01/17/2016 1:26:17 PM PST by soakncider
That is why, within just a few months of the Proclamation, a number of commanders in the field...felt sanctioned to unleash the equivalent of what in the 20th century came to be called "total war"-a war upon civilians and their property in the South, with attendant looting, murder, arson, and rape, and neither women, children, the old and infirm, or oftentimes even blacks, were spared. As General-in-Chief Halleck noted in a letter to Ulysses Grant on March 31, 1863: The character of the war has very much changed..There is now no possible hope of reconciliation with the rebels..There can be no peace but that which is forced by the sword. We must conquer the rebels. A few days later Grant concurred: Rebellion has assumed that shape now that it can only terminate by the complete subjugation of the South..It is our duty to weaken the enemy, by destroying their means of subsistence, withdrawing their means of cultivating their fields, and in every other way possible. Thus it was that in his campaign in the West against Vicksburg, Mississippi, in the Spring and Summer of 1863, Grant had no compunction in attacking civilians and destroying feed mills: "Civilians were suffering from unceasing bombardment and the shortage of food"..In the aftermath, Grant ordered General William Sherman east to Jackson, the capital of Mississippi, which he conquered on July 17 after five days of incessant bombardment without Confederate resistance and proceeded to unleash the troops on a three-day rampage that, according to a Northern reporter, "left the entire business section in ruins, burned most of the better residences..and looted homes, churches, and the state library,"..."such complete ruin and devastation never followed the footsteps of any army before." Sherman boasted to Grant, "The land is devastated for 30 miles around."
(Excerpt) Read more at abbevilleinstitute.org ...
“would doubtless also have the political wherewithal to effect necessary changes within the Union.
But there it is.”
Sometimes it seems that congress just marches on, continually defying the consent of the governed. And SCOTUS...well just look at 0bamacare rulings recently.
A lot of people thinking they have the throne of God will do the same.
Well said.
I certainly won't hold the slavers as an example or heroes if that day comes.
January 21, 2016 and Sherman is still dead and burning in Hell. :-)
I agree Lincoln is The Godfather of Big Government.
Yes. Lincoln was the Statists’ Statist. The Jacobin President...institutionalizing tyranny in the name of Liberty.
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