Lincoln gave no such orders. That is a Lost Cause myth. Sherman’s march was a tactical decision made by Sherman with the approval of Grant. It was the right decision. The democrat generated Confederacy was nothing more than the use of poor uneducated southerners who owned no slaves to fight for the keeping of the ruling class slaves. Ignorance then fostered a national disaster in the same way it is being done today. Wars are not won by being nice to the enemy or their civilian supporters.
“Lincoln gave no such orders. That is a Lost Cause myth.”
Actually, you don’t know what the hell you are talking about.
Do you honestly believe that Lincoln did not know what was going on? Or ever tried to stop it? Lincoln termed it “pursuing a hard war.” Do you actually think that shelling peaceful towns that are cut off by hundreds of miles from any army is warranted?
And it wasn’t just Grant and Sherman.
Not to mention the many years of Reconstruction when Federal troops subjugated the South.