Yes, very sad. Thanks for the reply. A lot a great men lost their lives in the conflict. It's a wonder our country survived at all.
I have ancestors who fought on both sides. My West Virginia ancestors, formerly Virginia, choose the wrong side invested all they had in the Confederate cause. They lost it all.
I wish I had more time to study the Civil War, hopefully when I retire... One thing I do not understand though is about the food. Sherman's men cut their Union supply lines and they still found more than enough to eat in their march through Georgia. In fact they burned and destoyed far more than they consumed. So there was plenty of food in Georgia prior to the march. And yet 45000 men died in the Andersonville, GA prison, mostly because of starvation. I suspect some real Yankee hatred was going on as well.
If any current US Army commander in Iraq or Afghan tried to do what the "Torch" did in GA & SC circa 1864/65 he would be tried for war crimes.
Well..for one...there was prolly not enough manpower in the entire state left to harvest and transport that food to Andersonville. Second...that food was confiscated from folks farms. Sherman was at war with these civilians and therefore had no problem taking their food...the confederate army was not.
1. Sherman's troops stole the food, the Confederate government had to try to buy it with almost worthless Confederate money.
2. Union troops took everything while Confederates had to leave the civilians enough to live on.
3. The Yankees ate or destroyed the food as they went, the Confederates had to transport it to military and prison camps over damaged railroads.
And yet 45000 men died in the Andersonville, GA prison, mostly because of starvation
39,000 Confederate prisoners died in union POW camps of starvation, disease and exposure. The North had no excuse of lack of food, medicine, clothing or transport.