[rhombus]

*Sherman* is the general everyone in the South hates because he burned down/destroyed/torched everything he and his forces came across.

He did the equivalent of bombing German factories in WWII. He destroyed the enemies capacity to support the war effort. Once that was done, it quickened the end of the war and probably saved lives in the long run.

[Spktyr]

Oh, I didn’t say that Sherman wasn’t doing his job or that it wasn’t a military necessity to do what he did.

I’m just commenting that hating Sherman for burning down one’s ancestral home *is* still a pastime in the South.

[Kozak]

He did the equivalent of bombing German factories in WWII

Actually he did the equivalent of fire bombing German citiesin WW2

[JamesP81]

He did the equivalent of bombing German factories in WWII.

Not quite. We were targeting industrial facilities and their workforces because they were contributing to the war effort against us. What Sherman did was far more akin to the incendiary bombing of civilian targets in Japan, or the firebombing of Dresden. It was pure carnage. The destruction of Atlanta's industry probably did shorten the war, but Southerners have always had that 'fight to the last man' attitude, so killing so many civilians probably didn't bring an end to the war much faster, if at all. The destruction of the industry in the city, however, did shorten the war significantly.