All were Southern failures when it came to the big test, winning the war.
Whats wrong with burning the enemy's homeland to end a war? Southern Honor at stake? What a selfish "ooh it feels so good to be a southern gentelman" pile of BS. Burn buildings, destroy crops, destroy industry....Do what it takes to end any war and save lives.
And since you're so fond of making comparisons to WWII, how about Hiroshima, was that a War Crime? Innocents killed, homes destroyed..but you probably think its ok, being a high altitude bomb, its kind of sterile, no romance to it at all.
Hiroshima and Nagasaki were BOTH legitimate targets of war, as was Dresdan. ALL three were legitimate targets because:
1.there were well-established military installations there,
2.each was an established supply base for an organized military force (SORRY, being a "food source" does NOT count-agricultural activities are NOT military targets, under the LoW!) AND
3. all three cities were contained CRITICAL manufacturing plants of a military nature.
(in case you haven't figured out by now, i used to teach LoW @ USAMPS & USARSEUR.)
for dixie,sw