Next time you bitch about "Big Government" just remember the side you supported in that war brought it about. That includes income tax, shrinking individual liberties, etc. Yes, turn a blind eye to the truth, but isn't it amazing how Sherman's "Final Solution to the Indian Problem" and Hitler's "Final Solution to the Jewish Question" had the same answer?! Putting both races in contained areas, and extermination of them whenever the opportunity presented itself. Then that old pesky question of "How can you blame that on Lincoln?" comes along. I'll wager the only difference between Sherman and the Waffen SS were about 80 years, and physical distance between areas of conflict.
Which flag did you pledge alleigance to in the military?
Next time I bitch about big gov't I'll not blame a President or General who have been dead for a couple of generations. I will point the finger to the culprits of today.....crooked politicians and apathetic voters.
Other than the "Big Government" comment, the rest of your paragraph above reads like a shrill treatise from a far-left white-male hating organization like A.N.S.W.E.R.
If you served this country it is a shame that you seek so hard to find what is wrong with it by becoming focused on what was wrong in the past by today's standards, but was acceptable to many at the time (see also: slavery). Should the Indians get reparations too along with the blacks? How about the Indians that were moved off of southern lands well before the Civil War? Should descendants of white southerners now get reparations from the north; who dared as to be so arrogant as to fight a war and win? (And we are better off today for that victory: see WW2)
Sometimes ya just gotta be thankful to God for what you have and where you live and move toward the future. We are not perfect as a nation, and our history has some dark moments (I am part Cherokee), but we can only focus so much on what a bastard Sherman was. It makes no difference in the war on terror.