"Sherman is not only a great soldier, but a great man. He is one of the very great men in our country's history. He is an orator with few superiors. As a writer he is among the first. As a general I know of no man I would put above him. Above all - he has a fine character - so frank, so sincere, so outspoken, so genuine. There is not a false line in Sherman's character - nothing to regret." - Ulysses S. Grant
"Himself of doubtful military competence, Bragg faced in Grant an able, self-reliant, aggressive adversary who had in Sherman and Thomas two lieutenants of unusual capacity." Douglas Southall Freeman
I guess that the "real Sherman" is exactly the way the quotes of Freeman and Grant depict him, right Pea?
Unusual capacity.......yes.
You have already received this, however, you did not learn.
Sherman was a mass murderer, his troops raped and slaughtered their way across Georgia & South Carolina - meeting token resistance from feeble old men, women and children.
Their homes and crops were destroyed, they were robbed of their personal property including jewelry, silverware and monies. Women and children were captured and sent into Northern slavery.
Sherman though the country was swarming with Jews, and even issued an order expelling them. Regarding Southerners, he wrote his wife of "extermination, not of soldiers alone". To which his dutiful wife responded that she wished for a war of extermination and that all Confederates would be driven like "swine into the sea".
After the war Sherman waged war on the Native Americans, "even to their extermination, men, women and children." He gave orders that "soldiers cannot pause to distinguish between male and female, or even discriminate as to age."
Some hero.
42 posted on 01/20/2004 10:43:39 AM EST by 4ConservativeJustices