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To: BroJoeK
"The Union murdered, raped and pillaged civilians throughout the South."

As I said above, I appreciate most of what you say, but some of it is misleading. You are correct to note that murder and rape of civilians was rare in the civil war, but generally, the "pillaging" refers more the Sherman's scorched earth policy during his "March to the Sea" rather than uncoordinated criminal looting by individual soldiers.

There certainly is no denying the massive destruction of civilian property in Sherman's wake.

179 posted on 03/10/2013 1:26:22 PM PDT by ek_hornbeck
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To: ek_hornbeck
ek_hornbeck: "There certainly is no denying the massive destruction of civilian property in Sherman's wake."

No denying, but similar events happened on smaller scales when Confederate armies invaded Union states, for examples, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri and Kansas.

My point is that Confederate armies always had to "live off the land" by pillaging surrounding countrysides, and when those were in Union states or territories, little effort was made to protect civilian properties.
Indeed, one reason Confederate forces invaded Union states in the first place was to pillage and return with supplies useful to Confederate armies at home.

So, yes, I agree that the scales of destruction were different, but the basic ideas the same.

233 posted on 03/10/2013 5:01:16 PM PDT by BroJoeK (a little historical perspective....)
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