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To: PeaRidge
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.

That is simply not true.

Sherman was the best thing that ever happened to the south. He did more damage to the Southern war effort wit LESS death than would have been possible otherwise. He was the atomic bomb of the war that ended it far sooner and with less loss of life than would have occurred otherwise.

The reality is that the deaths he caused on his march were a pittance next to the bloodletting elsewhere. That was his point. The official records bear this out. isolated incidents to the contrary do not change this. There were very few civilian or military casualties on his march. This is fact. Anecdotal evidence of victims who, understandably, wove great lamentations to his coming do not change the statistical data.

Regarding the Indians, one of the greatest American presidents, and a southern democrat, Jackson, was far worse to Indians.

242 posted on 01/19/2005 3:19:22 PM PST by NJ Neocon (Democracy is tyranny of the masses. It is three wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner)
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To: NJ Neocon

"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."

'That is simply not true.'

Let's see:

"When he entered Atlanta, Sherman issued an order requiring all the people to leave within five days. Hood protested against this order, and the mayor and council of Atlanta appealed to Sherman to withdraw it, pointing out that most of the inhabitants were women and children, who would suffer greatly if compelled to leave their homes.

"To this Sherman replied, 'I have read it [the petition] carefully, and give full credit to your statements of the distress that will be occasioned, and yet shall not revoke my orders, because they were not designed to meet the humanities of the case.'

When all preparations for the southward march had been made and the people had been forced to depart, Sherman burned Atlanta to the ground.

"Under Sherman's orders Capt. O. M. Poe 'thoroughly destroyed Atlanta, save its mere dwelling-houses and churches.' The destruction was by fire purposely applied to buildings, and permitted to spread, as was expected, from house to house until the defenseless city was almost entirely reduced to ashes. No efforts were made to prevent the spread of the conflagration, and scarcely any structure was designedly spared.

Only about 450 buildings escaped this ruthless burning, among them many churches, which in those days generally stood apart from other buildings. The thoroughness of the destruction can be realized, when we consider that by the census of 1860 Atlanta had a population of 10,000, which in 1864 had increased to 14,000. More than 4,000 houses, including dwellings, shops, stores, mills and depots were burned, about eleven-twelfths of the city.

Capt. Daniel Oakey, of the Second Massachusetts volunteers, says: "Sixty thousand of us witnessed the destruction of Atlanta, while our post band and that of the Thirty-third Massachusetts played martial airs and operatic selections."

Sherman himself noted the rising columns of smoke as he rode away from the city. Considering that he had been in possession of the city since the 3d of September, he had had ample time to utterly destroy everything in it that could be of advantage to an enemy, without the wanton and inexcusable method to which he resorted. It was no more necessary from a military point of view to destroy mercantile establishments than private dwellings or churches.

Nearly 10,000 people perished in the Battle of Atlanta. Union loss to death at Spottsylvania, and the Wilderness were half this number. Union losses to death at both Gettysburg and Antietam totaled less than half this number.

The destruction of Atlanta can never be excused.


361 posted on 01/20/2005 8:16:58 AM PST by PeaRidge ("Walt got the boot? I didn't know. When/why did it happen?" Ditto 7-22-04 And now they got #3fan.)
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