Being a southerner I am not Sherman’s biggest fan but I sure do wish we fought wars now like he did then.
General Joseph E. Johnston who fought directly opposite Sherman in the final days of the war was able to let it go...
"...General Joseph E. Johnston, the Confederate officer who had commanded the resistance to Sherman's troops in Georgia and the Carolinas, served as a pallbearer in New York City. It was a bitterly cold day and a friend of Johnston, fearing that the general might become ill, asked him to put on his hat. Johnston famously replied: "If I were in [Sherman's] place, and he were standing in mine, he would not put on his hat." Johnston did catch a serious cold and died one month later of pneumonia."
Being a Texan (transplant), I agree. That said, I can understand that he probably did shorten the war by his brutality - and more importantly his brutal reputation - thereby actually saving Southern lives in the long run. (Regardless of the political issues, the South’s only chance of victory was a quick win. The North’s industrial advantage made the outcome inevitable after the first year.)
“Being a southerner I am not Sherman’s biggest fan but I sure do wish we fought wars now like he did then.”
We do, only moreso. It’s called aerial bombardment.