The FReeper Foxhole Profiles William Tecumseh Sherman - Mar. 29th, 2003

http://www.civilwarhome.com/sherbio.htm ^

[SAMWolf]

I was surprised when the named the USS REAGAN, becasue I wan't aware thet th tradition had changed.

[MeekOneGOP]

For your Dad, Pippin . . .

[Aegedius]

Homes in Georgia that were occupied were typically -not- burned by Sherman's men. South Carolina got the treatment its leaders brought down on themselves though arrogance, hubris and treason.

You think the women and children of South Carolina who were raped and murdered by this beast deserved it? Including the nuns in the Ursaline Convent in Columbia, who were gang-raped because the brother of the mother superior was a secessionist? The sick people in hospitals, who were put outside in the cold to watch the hospital burn, and then had their blankets stolen by Sherman's goons - they deserved it? I hope the whole board reads and re-reads your comment to see that no post by you is deserving of even a modicum of respect.

The U.S. has never in its history, except for Lincoln/Sherman, send a fully equipped army against unarmed women and children. And, as long as people(sic) like you are kept out of power, we never will again.

[SpookBrat]

Hey guys. We've got our signs all made up and we're walking out the door for the Rally today in Jacksonville. Pictures when I get back.

[cherry_bomb88]

Morning all! And prayers to the families of our fallen troops!

[SAMWolf]

Looking forward to seeing the pictures, Spooky!

[MeekOneGOP]

Alright ! Way to go! I hope you enjoy your Rally as much as we did the Dallas Rally last Saturday.

Ping me when your pics are up ! Thanks . . .

[Pippin]

Thanks, Meekie!

[Pippin]

Way to go, Spooky!

I'm looking forward to seeing those pictures! :^)

[rustbucket]

He is hated in the South, he was one of the first proponents of "total war" and unfortunately he ended up practicing it on fellow Americans.

Along with Reconstruction, Sherman's war on civilians made reconciliation between the two sides after the war very difficult. My Georgia in-laws, whose parents saw and remembered Sherman's troops coming through, hated Sherman with a passion. Even the Slave Narratives speak of how badly Southerners were treated.

War on civilians was practiced by other Union commanders as well. For example, General Hunter burned a thousand homes in Virginia in 1864. However, it is Sherman's exploits in this regard that are most widely known.

Perhaps this practice did shorten the war, but it had consequences. As one Southern newspaper put it in 1865, "A hundred years will not wipe out the animosities and prejudices which this war will leave .... before us are a hundred years of agony..."

Sherman's war on civilians has had little effect on me except as a genealogist. Sherman's troops burned courthouses as they went -- destroying marriage records was, after all, vital to the war effort.

[Non-Sequitur]

I think that the Reagan was the first in this century, followed by a submarine named after Jimmy Carter and an aircraft carrier named after George Bush. Despite my respect for President Reagan I'm sorry that the tradition had been broken. The cat is out of the bag and I have no doubt that a ship will be named after Bill Clinton before long.

[SAMWolf]

The cat is out of the bag and I have no doubt that a ship will be named after Bill Clinton before long.

That is a thought that just sickens me.

[Non-Sequitur]

You think the women and children of South Carolina who were raped and murdered by this beast deserved it? Including the nuns in the Ursaline Convent in Columbia, who were gang-raped because the brother of the mother superior was a secessionist? The sick people in hospitals, who were put outside in the cold to watch the hospital burn, and then had their blankets stolen by Sherman's goons - they deserved it? I hope the whole board reads and re-reads your comment to see that no post by you is deserving of even a modicum of respect.

And no doubt you have verifiable information to document these claims? How about posting it.

The U.S. has never in its history, except for Lincoln/Sherman, send a fully equipped army against unarmed women and children. And, as long as people(sic) like you are kept out of power, we never will again.

And what about the air campaigns in World War II, Viet Nam and the Gulf?

[Non-Sequitur]

That is a thought that just sickens me.

Me too, but you know it's going to happen.

[Aegedius]

Vol III of Shelby Foote's works details the stealing of blankets from shivering patients while their hospitals burned. His book also documents the Ursaline Convent episode, but only says that Sherman's goons dished out "special" punishment to the nuns. If he burned everything else in the city, and meted out "special" punishment to the nuns, I look forward to your guess as to what that might have been. In Mr. Foote's defense, if I worked for 10 to 15 years, or whatever it was, on a book, I would probably soft pedal the most severe war crimes as well, because one sentence of the truth would have caused the volumes to be blacklisted by people, such as yourself, who irrationally cling to a sanitized version of the events in South Carolina.

The article, on which this thread is based, illustrates brilliantly the techniques of propaganda...the authors confess to 1% of the horrors committed by Lincoln/Sherman, (i.e., Georgia) and hope people will not look at the real horrors (South Carolina). It has worked for over 130 years, so far.

Are you saying that we AVOIDED military targets, in order to bomb civilians, in the bombings that you mentioned? Sherman AVOIDED military targets so that he could attack women and children. I repeat, no other U.S. military force has ever done that.

[Non-Sequitur]

Vol III of Shelby Foote's works details the stealing of blankets from shivering patients while their hospitals burned. His book also documents the Ursaline Convent episode, but only says that Sherman's goons dished out "special" punishment to the nuns. If he burned everything else in the city, and meted out "special" punishment to the nuns, I look forward to your guess as to what that might have been.

I will have to guess, I guess, because my volume of "The Civil War: Red River to Appomattox" doesn't contain any of that. And it's supposed to be complete and unabridged, too. No raped nuns, no stolen blankets, nothing like that. Oh it mentions the burning of Columbia, including the Ursuline convent, but doesn't provide the level of detail you do. Perhaps you could point out which page your version of the book contains the information you claim?

Are you saying that we AVOIDED military targets, in order to bomb civilians, in the bombings that you mentioned? Sherman AVOIDED military targets so that he could attack women and children. I repeat, no other U.S. military force has ever done that.

On the contrary, during the war the Air Force didn't avoide civilian targets in its attempt to get to the military ones. And often the line was blurred, like at Dresden, Tokyo, and Hiroshima. But that was war. And war, as some wise man once said, is hell. Those civilian deaths, while regretable, were the outcome from actions which may well have shortened the war. Likewise the removal of Georgia and South Carolina from their ability to support the cause of the rebellion.

[aomagrat]

Carl Vinson was still alive when the USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70) was launched.

[Non-Sequitur]

I had forgotten that. He died before she was commissioned though.

[aomagrat]

Wasn't it unusual to name ships after living people?

In addition to the USS General Sherman, there was also a USS General Bragg, named after Confederate General Braxton Bragg, and a USS General Thomas, named after Union General George H. Thomas. All three boats served on the Mississippi River and its tributaries during the Civil War. All of the generals outlived their namesakes in the Navy.

[SAMWolf]

Thanks for all the info, aomagrat.