So was Gatewood.
BTW, are you as equally disgusted by Long/Robert's murderous activities as you are Gatewood's or are Long/Robert's murder and plundering righteous because they were union scum like your Uncle Billy?
Gatewood got his start under Southern hero and noble Confederate warrior Champ Ferguson
It's 'claimed' that he rode with Ferguson for about a year. I could find no proof. Gatewood may have made it up.
every criminal act with 100 of miles of Sherman to the general himself
And why shouldn't Shermy get the blame? Wasn't he the 'total war' general? Wasn't it he who said that he would 'make the South howl'?
but you ignore the mayhem loosed upon Dixie by the actions of that glorified criminal gang of slave traders, the Confederate “legislature”.
I'll take Southern legislaturers over yankee tyrannists any day of the week and twice on Sunday.
BTW, what yankee state are you from? You're a transplant, right?
Atrocities are evil no matter which side does it. I'm not sure I'd call Sherman scum without calling people like General Wheeler scum also. Like I pointed out above, Sherman's reaction to the rape report and Wheeler's cavalier attitude to an obviously likely nearby murder in progress both fall short of what we would like to see out of our military. But while I wouldn't disagree with the idea that sometimes leaders like Sherman and Wheeler could have done a better job in the heat of warfare, I'm not sure that makes them scum.