W.T. Sherman is rightfully despised by the south for his tactics of murder rape, and pillage. There are many highly documented cases of where he winkingly cast a blind eye to the atrocities committed by his army during the March through Georgia. I am just waiting for the first northern sympathizer to state how much honorable a man he was than Lee, Jackson, Longstreet, others.
One wonders how much different this war would have been if Lee would have taken that approach through Pa. early in 1863. An unpopular war (read the NYT last half of 1862) may have been even less supported.
Really? Highly documented. Show us some.
That's the myth of the Sherman the bloody vandal that's been fed to southerners so long that the myth has become accepted truth. The reality at the time wasn't quite as conventional southern wisdom now holds.
A quote from the diary of Illinois soldier Charles Partridge on the entrance of Sherman's army into Red Clay, Georgia in 1864.
"...the Union citizens were quite demonstrative, some of them bringing out flags, which had doubtless been hidden for at least three years. Women swung their bonnets and men hurrahed for the Yankees and the Union, manifesting great delight. One man who claimed to be ninety-eight years old and to have been a captain in the War of 1812 was almost frantic in his ejaculations when the Old Flag came into sight."
No wonder the good people of Red Clay were ecstatic. Imagine if a gang of the Taliban had taken over an American community and banned the waving of the Stars and Stripes for three years.
To many southerners, both black and white, Sherman and his army were liberators.
You are waisting your time here with the Blue belly's ( I use the old term with relish)Someone above asked what crimes the monster committed. Let’s see, Murder,rape,kidnapping,arson,theft,for example. The winner writes the history books as someone once said. But the funny thing about books and history. Someone may come along one day and write a new chapter or Two.
Since Lee, Longstreet, and others turned a blind eye to the abduction of free blacks in Pennsylvania and their return to slavery I'd be careful of what I was asking for.