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Gen. Sherman's 'Disproportionate Response'
American Thinker ^ | January 4, 2009 | Jerome J. Schmitt

Posted on 01/04/2009 2:29:32 PM PST by NCjim

Reviled in the South to this day as a terrorist, Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman decided that the only way to end the protracted armed conflict of the American Civil War and terminate the rebellious, racist, slave-regime in the south was to bring the war home to the civilian population of the Confederacy. Defying conventional military wisdom, he turned his back on the Confederate field armies, captured and burned Atlanta, and commenced his "March to the Sea". According to Wikepedia"

He and U.S. Army commander, Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, believed that the Civil War would end only if the Confederacy's strategic, economic, and psychological capacity for warfare were decisively broken. Sherman therefore applied the principles of scorched earth, ordering his troops to burn crops, kill livestock, consume supplies, and destroy civilian infrastructure along their path."

While the Union Army respected the sanctity of private homes, all public buildings and infrastructure including railroads were subject to complete destruction. Needless to say, resistance was not tolerated. Millions of slaves were freed in the wake of his march.

Recognizing that it was not in their economic interest to continue the fight, civilian political support for the Confederacy began a precipitous collapse and the war soon ended. Despite rebellious pledges that the "South Would Rise Again", peace and prosperity has lasted 144 years.

Misguided attempts to distinguish Hamas Jihadists from the rest of the Palestinian population show ignorance of the political problem in war that was understood and solved by Sherman and Grant. Unfortunately, the "International Community" continues to reinforce the recalcitrant violence of the Palestinians by rewarding it with "humanitarian aid". Until the Palestinian civilian population rejects the war as not being in their interest, the conflict will continue as it has for 60 years.


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: atlanta; civilwar; csa; dixie; sherman; shermansbummers; shermansmarch; warcriminalsherman; wbts; yankeeaggression
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To: Flycatcher
Are you still wringing your hands over Hiroshima and Nagasaki too?

Both were completely unnecessary. Japan had already made peace overtures. The only caveat they insisted on was that the emporer be left alone, which is exactly what McArthur did. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were principally intended to intimidate Stalin who at that time was believed to be a threat to all of Europe.

41 posted on 01/04/2009 3:17:17 PM PST by SeeSharp
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To: RegulatorCountry
ah, the myth of the gentle southern man, fighting a noble fight against the mean old north.
Tell the people of Lawrence Kansas about that one. If the rules were switched, the South would have done the same.
42 posted on 01/04/2009 3:17:22 PM PST by Yorlik803 ( Freedom- 07-04-1776-11-06-2008. RIP)
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To: dbacks
Read post 34 from the horses mouth so to speak!!
43 posted on 01/04/2009 3:17:37 PM PST by org.whodat (Conservatives don't vote for Bailouts for Super-Rich Bankers! Republicans do!)
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To: NCjim
"Reviled in the South to this day as a terrorist..."

...hysterical and wrongful accusation. I've met some of those southeastern librarians and English instructor women. If they get onto the topic of their feminism, it's even worse. They're somethin' else.


44 posted on 01/04/2009 3:18:37 PM PST by familyop (combat engineer (combat), National Guard, '89-'96, Duncan Hunter or no-vote, http://falconparty.com/)
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To: NCjim
Union Army respected the sanctity of private homes...

Are they making this stuff up? Sherman's looters were engaged in wanton destruction

In December 1864, Sherman wrote, "I estimate the damage done to the State of Georgia . . . at $100,000,000; at least $20,000,000 of which has inured to our advantage, and the remainder is simple waste and destruction."

45 posted on 01/04/2009 3:19:16 PM PST by stainlessbanner
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To: SeeSharp
85% of the tariff revenue was collected in the South and the southerners rightly considered the tariff harmful and unfair.

I'd be interested in some documentation of this claim. Most northerners were also farmers and presumably used about as many imports as southerners. Since there were many more northerners, it seems unlikely to me that 85% of tariffed imported items were consumed in the South.

BTW, if tariffs were morally unacceptable, how do you think the South planned to finance its government? Income taxes? Land taxes? Property taxes on slaves?

46 posted on 01/04/2009 3:19:32 PM PST by Sherman Logan (Everyone has a right to his own opinion, but not to his own facts.)
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To: Yorlik803
Tell the people of Lawrence Kansas about that one.

No women and children were killed in the Lawrence raid. Yet the raid was in retaliation for the killing of southern women.

47 posted on 01/04/2009 3:21:08 PM PST by SeeSharp
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To: NCjim
"Sherman..., ordering his troops to burn crops, kill livestock, consume supplies, and destroy civilian infrastructure along their path"...While the Union Army respected the sanctity of private homes, all public buildings and infrastructure including railroads were subject to complete destruction."

That's true, though. The aforementioned women told stories of rape, murder, torture--all against civilians, etc.


48 posted on 01/04/2009 3:22:30 PM PST by familyop (combat engineer (combat), National Guard, '89-'96, Duncan Hunter or no-vote, http://falconparty.com/)
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To: dbacks
Hanson excuses General Sherman's wholesale looting and destruction by stating:

"The Union army's embrace of the slaves, their angry shooting of the bloodhounds used to track escapees, their physical destruction of the plantation infrastructure, their psychological humiliation of the plantation class--all this helped to shatter both the material and psychological foundations of an oppressive aristocratic state."

form link at post forty:

As I said the rape and killing of women men and boys, both black and white, and little old ladies, in a match to the sea, would have done Alida the Hun proud.

49 posted on 01/04/2009 3:24:10 PM PST by org.whodat (Conservatives don't vote for Bailouts for Super-Rich Bankers! Republicans do!)
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To: SeeSharp
Both were completely unnecessary. Japan had already made peace overtures.

A "peace overture" is hardly the same thing as unconditional surrender, now is it?

50 posted on 01/04/2009 3:24:58 PM PST by Flycatcher (Strong copy for a strong America)
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To: SeeSharp

So killing unarmed people is ok if you only kill unarmed men?


51 posted on 01/04/2009 3:26:46 PM PST by Yorlik803 ( Freedom- 07-04-1776-11-06-2008. RIP)
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To: nnn0jeh

ping


52 posted on 01/04/2009 3:28:51 PM PST by kalee
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To: SeeSharp

“Both were completely unnecessary. Japan had already made peace overtures. The only caveat they insisted on was that the emporer be left alone, which is exactly what McArthur did. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were principally intended to intimidate Stalin who at that time was believed to be a threat to all of Europe.”

I must disagree. Japan was not giving up w/o being nuked.

When the emperor of japan tried to surrender after the nuking, the hardliners rebelled. There was a battle in the imperial palace...fortunately the imperial guard won and the surrender was carried thru.

However, there were divisions in Russia that fought on for 2-3 years after the surrender, as well as individuals that fought on until the mid 1980s.

Japan was not surrendering.


53 posted on 01/04/2009 3:30:42 PM PST by Keith Brown (Among the other evils being unarmed brings you, it causes you to be despised Machiavelli.)
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To: Sherman Logan
Most northerners were also farmers and presumably used about as many imports as southerners

I just told you. The British had a huge advantage over the Yankees in selling to the South because of the availability of cheap transportation. Cotton ships had to travel from the South to Britain to deliver feed the mills. Cheap freight rates were always available going the other way when the ships were mostly empty.

BTW, if tariffs were morally unacceptable, how do you think the South planned to finance its government? Income taxes? Land taxes? Property taxes on slaves?

The Confederates never said import tariffs were not moral. They said protective tariffs were immoral. After the first seven states seceded the sentiment in the north was to let them go. That all changed when the Confederacy enacted a six percent import tariff to fund their government. The Yankees realized all their trade would shift to southern ports and that they would have to defend the entire northern bank of the Ohio river to enforce their own tariff. There was also a lot of speculation in the midwestern press about the possibility that the Confederates would try to tax midwestern trade on the Mississippi - that really got the war fever going.

54 posted on 01/04/2009 3:31:25 PM PST by SeeSharp
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To: SeeSharp

The five southern women in question died in an accidental collapse of the building where they were detained, albeit the authorities were probably guilty of negligence, thought by the bushwhackers to be malevolence. BTW, the women were supporting insurgents, which was why they were detained. I’ve seen some remarkably violent suggestions around here for dealing with civilians supporting insurgents in Iraq.

The brutal murder of 200 unarmed men and boys seems a tad disproportionate, don’t you think, as retaliation?

It is interesting that there is nothing resembling a massacre of this scale even claimed against northern soldiers.

For an interesting alternative view of the mythology surrounding Sherman’s March, see http://people.cohums.ohio-state.edu/grimsley1/myth/myth.htm.

One of the more interesting facts about the March is that Georgia is generally thought of as the scene of the most devastation, while in fact all observers at the time stated that South Carolina was treated much more roughly.


55 posted on 01/04/2009 3:32:23 PM PST by Sherman Logan (Everyone has a right to his own opinion, but not to his own facts.)
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To: Flycatcher
A "peace overture" is hardly the same thing as unconditional surrender, now is it?

No it isn't. But given how little they were asking for, and given the fact that we gave it to them anyway, and given that the bombings killed two hundred thousand civilians give or take, accepting the peace overture was the better option.

56 posted on 01/04/2009 3:35:02 PM PST by SeeSharp
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To: NCjim

Opinions abound on this and every other topic, perhaps opinions contrary to the party line may survive here for a while, and reach the eyes of that dwindling silent majority....

Ref
http://tinyurl.com/7w7lb


57 posted on 01/04/2009 3:39:50 PM PST by gunnyg
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To: SkyDancer
>"it’s about time we put all this to rest ."

The looters don't care if they're from the north or south anymore. They are still looting.

Is it just coincidence that all the UNIONS still want the produce of the producers?

Cessation is looking better all the time for the Conservative States.

58 posted on 01/04/2009 3:40:40 PM PST by rawcatslyentist (Proud non productive worker under directive 10-289)
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To: SeeSharp

You coughed up a specific number: southerners paid 85% of tariffs. Please give some backup for this statistic.


59 posted on 01/04/2009 3:43:17 PM PST by Sherman Logan (Everyone has a right to his own opinion, but not to his own facts.)
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To: Sherman Logan
BTW, the women were supporting insurgents, which was why they were detained.
...
The brutal murder of 200 unarmed men and boys seems a tad disproportionate, don’t you think, as retaliation?

This is more or less exactly the same logic the Europeans are using today to criticize the Israelis for their retaliation in Gaza. Never mind the raids by the Jayhawkers into Missouri killing and looting civilians, which had been going on for years. No, it has to be proportional to the very last atrocity only - the one that precipitated the action.

60 posted on 01/04/2009 3:43:25 PM PST by SeeSharp
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