Has nothing to do with Lincoln. As an honest Yankee reading history, you have to recognize that the the citizens of the Confederacy formally renounced their citizenship in their Ordinances of Secession.
I’m including Georgia’s below because it is the shortest and Sherman’s march through Georgia is at issue, but I believe all the Confederate States issued these:
“We the people of the State of Georgia in Convention assembled do declare and ordain and it is hereby declared and ordained that the ordinance adopted by the State of Georgia in convention on the 2nd day of Jany. in the year of our Lord seventeen hundred and eighty-eight, whereby the constitution of the United States of America was assented to, ratified and adopted, and also all acts and parts of acts of the general assembly of this State, ratifying and adopting amendments to said constitution, are hereby repealed, rescinded and abrogated.
We do further declare and ordain that the union now existing between the State of Georgia and other States under the name of the United States of America is hereby dissolved, and that the State of Georgia is in full possession and exercise of all those rights of sovereignty which belong and appertain to a free and independent State.
Passed January 19, 1861.”
Again, whether Lincoln recognized secession or secured a Declaration of War is immaterial to my simple point, the citizens of the Confederate States formally renounced their own citizenship in the United States of America under the Ordinences of Secession.
Sherman killed no (or very, very few) United States citizens on his march through Georgia, contrary to your assertion.
To add a bit to the discussion, I reccommend you learn about the Whiskey Rebellion. President Washington himself called out the militia without a Declaration of War from Congress and personally led the troops in supressing an insurrection (succession) in western PA. Pres. Washington didn’t recognize the “right” of secession either. Lincoln followed a precident set by Pres. Washington not more than a few years after the constitution was adopted.
I’m sorry you got such poor US History instruction in High School. Good on you for taking it upon yourself to learn more.
So your suggestion is that Lincoln didn't recognize these people as citizens of the united States?
ML.NJ