Smells like a urinal.
Posted on 05/02/2017 5:06:54 PM PDT by BenLurkin
...Civil War historians argue opposite sides of the debate.
...
After World War II, the Nuremberg Charter defined war crimes as violations of the laws or customs of war. It lists several categories of offenses....
Murder or ill-treatment of civilians: Union artillery had barely gotten into range of Atlanta when, on July 19, 1864, Sherman ordered a bombardment of the city’s buildings: “No consideration must be paid to the fact they are occupied by families, but the place must be cannonaded.” The Yankee guns fired their first shells on July 20, and within a few days, Confederate newspapers began reporting casualties. One shell wounded a woman and killed the child she was carrying in her arms. In my book, I have concluded that the victims were the wife and child of John M. Weaver, an engineer who lived on Walton Street.
Sherman maintained a perverse determination to shell Atlanta, denying that innocent civilians still lived there. “You may fire from 10 to 15 shots from every gun you have in position into Atlanta that will reach any of its houses,” he ordered his artillery on Aug. 1. “Fire slowly and with deliberation between 4 p.m. and dark.”
...
On Sept. 4, just days after his troops entered Atlanta, Sherman dictated his Special Field Orders 67: “The City of Atlanta being exclusively required for warlike purposes, will at once be vacated by all except the Armies of the United States.” Civilians wishing to go south would be taken to Confederate lines under truce flags; the Rebels would then have to transport them on to Macon. The displaced could take some possessions, but most of their property, not to mention their homes, would be left behind.
(Excerpt) Read more at atlantaforward.blog.ajc.com ...
Smells like a urinal.
pfl
Not after his side won.
In October he co-operated with Hood in the advance against Sherman's communications, and after Hood had entered Tennessee Wheeler put his little cavalry command before Sherman's 65,000 en route through Georgia. He successfully defended Macon and Augusta, and before Savannah held open the only avenue of escape for Hardee's army. As has been written by President Davis, "The report of his operations from November 14th to December 20th displays a dash, activity, vigilance and consummate skill, which justly entitle him to a prominent place on the roll of great cavalry leaders. By his indomitable energy, operating on all sides of Sherman's columns, he was enabled to keep the government and commanders of our troops advised of the enemy's movements, and by preventing foraging parties from leaving the main body, he saved from spoliation all but a narrow tract of country, and from the torch millions worth of property which would otherwise have been certainly destroyed."
Wheelers men were not even wanted by Forest since they were extremely irrational and undisciplined.
LOL! The best horse cavalry officer in the southern army DID NOT WANT THEM.
LOL!!!!
But to Wheelers credit, He came around and fought under old glory in Cuba. Matter of fact, he was in command of TRs rough riders.
LOL!
Wheeler did not perform well as a raider, a skill that brought fame to many other cavalry commanders, including both Nathan Bedford Forrest and J. E. B. Stuart. His raids often ended disastrously, and he did not enjoy the notoriety that came in that area.
Later in the war, Wheeler's cavalry often put up the only defense the South could offer against the invading forces of William Tecumseh Sherman. Unsuccessful in stopping these Union forces, he nevertheless won many small battles along the way. Wheeler also volunteered to cover the retreat of Confederate president Jefferson Davis in the chaotic days at the end of the war. Although he could not prevent the capture of Davis, Wheeler accompanied him to prison and remained in solitary confinement until his release in the summer of 1865.
The outcome wasn’t entirely clear in 1864. If Britain had recognized the CSA a lot of things would have changed. The point, however, was what Sherman knew, not the probability of the outcome. Subsequently Sherman employed his genocidal tendencies against the Plains Indians. He was a fascinating man, probably quite mad, and murderous.
Good posting!
Also, the Union officers who led the destruction of Southern towns/cities also ordered the destruction of the records in court houses. ...Those acts destroyed the property deeds so it was impossible after the war for survivors to prove ownership, thus ushering in the Yankee carpetbaggers who took over the land holdings.
“I would think more would be inclined to ascribe the war criminal appellation to General Grant than General Sherman.”
Why stop there... heck, Sheridan burned down just about every farm in Virginia and routinely made war on women, children, orphans, and widow’s... then... After the war went out West with Sherman and waged war in a similar fashion on the Native Americans and their food supply (bison)!
War IS Hell and it IS man made. And history IS written by the victors.
What an ugly period of history... globally for that matter.
Sherman was commanding general of the U.S. Army during the Franco-Prussian war. Phillip Sheridan was there as an observer but he didn't advise the Kaiser. Bismark was doing that.
McClellan would have been inaugurated in March 1865. Lee would have still been penned in Petersburg. Sherman would have captured Atlanta, or bypassed it and gone on through Georgia, or surrounded it and penned in the rebel army. In any scenario you care to mention, the Confederates would have been on their last leg and barely standing. You really think McClellan would have snatched defeat from the jaws of victory and surrendered to them under those circumstances?
Sherman was the first modern general. He knew that total warfare was necessary to break the spirit of the South. His March to the sea and Sheridan in the Valley are examples.
Were Arthur Harris, Curtis LeMay, and Carl Spaatz war criminals in World War II?
Slightly off track, I saw a movie recently, a Danish film called "Land of Mine". It was based on true facts that after the Second World War the Danish government kept German POWs and forced them to clear land mines before letting them go back to Germany. Thousands were killed. That's not too far from what Sherman did.
The slim chance of British recognition died in 1862.
Flip the argument around: Look at today’s wars. Short-shock, precision guided weapons, fairly light on civilian casualties. Then we spend YEARS fighting guerrillas among the very civilian population that we attempted to spare, gradually forcing their hears & minds into the enemy camp.
Germany was utterly defeated and it’s cities were reduced to rubble by years of strategic aerial bombardment. Japan was much the same. Both were occupied with minimal problems. Billy Sherman knew his business, but the world doesn’t permit wars to be fought that way any longer.
Where did I say anything about surrender?
When you said "an end to the war would have been negotiated." The only outcome that could have come from those negotiations was an independent Confederacy. And that's surrender by any definition.
You could be a liberal member of the Supreme Court or John Roberts by the way you like to redefine terms.
So what outcome do you think would have come from it?
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