No he didn't, he targeted secessionist thugs. Rustbucket in post #269 quoted Sherman as ordering General Watkins:
"Can you not send over to Fairmount and Adairsville, burn 10 or 12 houses of known secessionists, kill a few at random and let them know it will be repeated every time a train is fired upon from Resaca to Kingston."
I'm not as sure about Southern women, but children have too much sense to be secessionists. Therefore, Sherman was not targeting children though I wouldn't doubt some secessionists hid behind children so their rabble rousing and money making could go on unhindered by distress or danger.
[Colonel]: No he didn't, he targeted secessionist thugs. Rustbucket in post #269 quoted Sherman as ordering General Watkins: ... Sherman was not targeting children though I wouldn't doubt some secessionists hid behind children so their rabble rousing and money making could go on unhindered by distress or danger.
Colonel, I suggest you purchase "The Uncivil War: Union Army and Navy Excesses in the Official Records" by Thomas Bland Keys. Here are two examples from it:
Sherman to General in Chief Halleck, September 17, 1863: "… we will remove and destroy every obstacle -- if need be, take every life, every acre of land, every particle of property, everything that seems to us proper; that we will not cease until the end is attained.
General Howard to his command, October 16, 1864: "To-day soldiers of our army entered houses and opened trunks, drawers and boxes, utterly destroying everything they could lay their hands on. They took from women and children the last morsel of food. In some cases these things were done under the eyes of commissioned officers and in a manner as if it were a frolic. ."