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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

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To: NCjim
Here is the full text of Special Field Ordes, No. 120:

William T. Sherman,
Special Field Orders, No. 120

Headquarters Military Division of the Mississippi,
In the Field, Kingston, Georgia, November 9, 1864

1. For the purpose of military operations, this army is divided into two wings viz.: The right wing, Major-General O. O. Howard commanding, composed of the Fifteenth and Seventeenth Corps; the left wing, Major-General H. W. Slocum commanding, composed of the Fourteenth and Twentieth Corps.

2. The habitual order of march will be, wherever practicable, by four roads, as nearly parallel as possible, and converging at points hereafter to be indicated in orders. The cavalry, Brigadier - General Kilpatrick commanding, will receive special orders from the commander-in-chief.

3. There will be no general train of supplies, but each corps will have its ammunition-train and provision-train, distributed habitually as follows: Behind each regiment should follow one wagon and one ambulance; behind each brigade should follow a due proportion of ammunition - wagons, provision-wagons, and ambulances. In case of danger, each corps commander should change this order of march, by having his advance and rear brigades unencumbered by wheels. The separate columns will start habitually at 7 a.m., and make about fifteen miles per day, unless otherwise fixed in orders.

4. The army will forage liberally on the country during the march. To this end, each brigade commander will organize a good and sufficient foraging party, under the command of one or more discreet officers, who will gather, near the route traveled, corn or forage of any kind, meat of any kind, vegetables, corn-meal, or whatever is needed by the command, aiming at all times to keep in the wagons at least ten days' provisions for his command, and three days' forage. Soldiers must not enter the dwellings of the inhabitants, or commit any trespass; but, during a halt or camp, they may be permitted to gather turnips, potatoes, and other vegetables, and to drive in stock in sight of their camp. To regular foraging-parties must be intrusted the gathering of provisions and forage, at any distance from the road traveled.

5. To corps commanders alone is intrusted the power to destroy mills, houses, cotton-gins, etc.; and for them this general principle is laid down: In districts and neighborhoods where the army is unmolested, no destruction of such property should be permitted; but should guerrillas or bushwhackers molest our march, or should the inhabitants burn bridges, obstruct roads, or other -wise manifest local hostility, then army commanders should order and enforce a devastation more or less relentless, according to the measure of such hostility.

6. As for horses, mules, wagons, etc., belonging to the inhabitants, the cavalry and artillery may appropriate freely and without limit; discriminating, however, between the rich, who are usually hostile and the poor and industrious, usually neutral or friendly. Foraging-parties may also take mules or horses, to replace the jaded animals of their trains, or to serve as pack-mules for the regiments or brigades. In all foraging, of whatever kind, the parties engaged will refrain from abusive or threatening language, and may, where the officer in command thinks proper, give written certificates of the facts, but no receipts; and they will endeavor to leave with each family a reasonable portion for their maintenance,

7. Negroes who are able-bodied and can be of service to the several columns may be taken along; but each army commander will bear in mind that the question of supplies is a very important one, and that his first duty is to see to those who bear arms.

8. The organization, at once, of a good pioneer battalion for each army corps, composed if possible of negroes, should be attended to. This battalion should follow the advance-guard, repair roads and double them if possible, so that the columns will not be delayed after reaching bad places. Also, army commanders should practice the habit of giving the artillery and wagons the road, marching their troops on one side, and instruct their troops to assist wagons at steep hills or bad crossings of streams.

9. Captain O. M. Poe, chief-engineer, will assign to each wing of the army a pontoon-train, fully equipped and organized; and the commanders thereof will see to their being properly protected at all times.

By order of Major-General W. T. Sherman,
L. M. Dayton, Aide-de-Camp.

21 posted on 01/04/2009 2:48:14 PM PST by Clive
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To: SeeSharp
You mean as the Union discovered it couldn't win against the Confederate army.

Couldn't win honorably.

22 posted on 01/04/2009 2:50:04 PM PST by RegulatorCountry
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To: Sherman Logan
Which laws were those? There were no laws against or taxes on exports until after the South initiated war. Then the Union started a blockade. Anyway, the Confederacy put an embargo on sales of cotton, on the highly mistaken theory that the resulting cotton famine would force European powers to intervene.

I'm not an expert by any means, but my understanding was that the North put a tariff in place that violated their right to trade, so the South had to leave the union. It was fought over money, not to end slavery. Lincoln even said in his First Inaugural that he did not care about the plight of the Negro.

23 posted on 01/04/2009 2:52:49 PM PST by Mark was here (The earth is bipolar.)
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To: NCjim
Sherman's army, raped and killed every man woman and child they caught, if it had happened today the war crimes court would have lasted for 50 years.
24 posted on 01/04/2009 2:55:04 PM PST by org.whodat (Conservatives don't vote for Bailouts for Super-Rich Bankers! Republicans do!)
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To: NCjim
When I was very young, my Grandmother ( My stepfather's side) told me without anger but with total forgiveness how Sherman's troops burned her parent's home to the ground and how before they fled, they buried the family silver at the foot of a tree behind their home.
My grandmother's name was Austin. All that is good in me came from her.
25 posted on 01/04/2009 2:56:31 PM PST by TET1968 (SI MINOR PLUS EST ERGO NIHIL SUNT OMNIA)
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dude has a serious case of the helmet head look.
26 posted on 01/04/2009 2:57:26 PM PST by xmission (www.iwilldefendtheconstitution.com)
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To: SeeSharp

Uh...those 3 examples you listed weren’t wars, but the result of ideological crimes against their own civilians. And, yes, I realize Americans fought on both sides of the Civil war, but it was still a war with combatants.


27 posted on 01/04/2009 2:58:11 PM PST by rbg81 (DRAIN THE SWAMP!!)
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To: Paladin2

“So just what does Sharia Law have to say about “disproportionate responses”?”

Sharia proportionality is, “you write something nasty about Islam, and I KILL YOU!”

Now that is proportional.


28 posted on 01/04/2009 2:59:29 PM PST by dbacks (God help the USA.)
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To: dbacks

“...I KILL YOU!”...”I’ve seen a dummy on YouTube say that any number of times.


29 posted on 01/04/2009 3:03:20 PM PST by Paladin2 (No, pundits strongly believe that the proper solution is more dilution.)
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To: rbg81
Uh...those 3 examples you listed weren’t wars, but the result of ideological crimes against their own civilians.

The civil war was America's first ideological crusade. Anyway what difference does it make? Mass murder is not justified just because there is a war. Sherman would of course disagree, but that was my point.

30 posted on 01/04/2009 3:03:36 PM PST by SeeSharp
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To: dbacks
"...I KILL YOU!"...

I've seen a dummy on YouTube say that any number of times. Others talk about a religion of violins.

31 posted on 01/04/2009 3:04:23 PM PST by Paladin2 (No, pundits strongly believe that the proper solution is more dilution.)
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To: NCjim
this is my argument against precision smart bombing as used in Afghanistan and Iraq.

you need to do to your enemy what we did to Berlin, Hamburg, Dresden, Tokyo, Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Carpet bomb them or nuke them back to the stone age and make the populace want peace so bad, that they can change the direction of even the most hardened dictatorship.

(ps I believe the south had the right to secede but think they screwed up royally by attacking Fort Sumter and that supply ship...it would be tantamount to Castro attacking Gitmo in 1959 or 1960)

32 posted on 01/04/2009 3:04:40 PM PST by Vaquero ( "an armed society is a polite society" Robert A. Heinlein)
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To: Mark was here

The only major source of federal income, besides land sales, was tariffs on imports. These taxes applied everywhere, and an Iowa farmer paid exactly the same tax on a British import (indirectly) as a South Carolina planter.

Some few of these tariffs were set up to provide protection to American businesses. Southerners were perfectly free to engage in businesses protected by these tariffs, but almost universally chose not to, so the benefits of protection went disproportionately to northern businesses.

Those who claim tariffs as the major reason for secession are generally conflating the SC threat to secede under Jackson in 1833 with the secession 27 years later. In fact, the tariff was not a big issue in 1860. Most southern state declarations of their reason for secession don’t even mention the tariff. All expatiate in detail on their need to protect their domestic instutions, a euphemism for slavery.

This is perfectly reasonable when you understand that the capital investment in slaves was considerably greater than that of all real estate in the southern states combined, both land and buildings.


33 posted on 01/04/2009 3:05:16 PM PST by Sherman Logan (Everyone has a right to his own opinion, but not to his own facts.)
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To: NCjim

“If they want eternal war, well and good; we accept the issue, and will dispossess them and put our friends in their place. I know thousands and millions of good people who at simple notice would come to North Alabama and accept the elegant houses and plantations there. If the people of Huntsville think different, let them persist in war three years longer, and then they will not be consulted. Three years ago by a little reflection and patience they could have had a hundred years of peace and prosperity, but they preferred war; very well. Last year they could have saved their slaves, but now it is too late.

All the powers of earth cannot restore to them their slaves, any more than their dead grandfathers. Next year their lands will be taken, for in war we can take them, and rightfully, too, and in another year they may beg in vain for their lives. A people who will persevere in war beyond a certain limit ought to know the consequences. Many, many peoples with less pertinacity have been wiped out of national existence.’”

William Tecumseh Sherman


34 posted on 01/04/2009 3:06:56 PM PST by sono (Proud Member of the NY NYETS!)
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To: org.whodat

“Sherman’s army, raped and killed every man woman and child they caught,”

Can you substantiate that comment?


35 posted on 01/04/2009 3:10:04 PM PST by dbacks (God help the USA.)
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To: Sherman Logan; Mark was here

Lincoln’s tariff was on imports. The South imported most of their manufactured goods from Europe. There were all those ships coming back from delivering cotton so the transportation costs for manufactured goods from Britain were much cheaper than importing from the North. Also, the British industries were more modern and more efficient so their prices were cheaper. The northerners wanted to pinch all of that trade. 85% of the tariff revenue was collected in the South and the southerners rightly considered the tariff harmful and unfair.


36 posted on 01/04/2009 3:11:13 PM PST by SeeSharp
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To: SeeSharp
Mass murder is not justified just because there is a war.

Are you still wringing your hands over Hiroshima and Nagasaki too?

37 posted on 01/04/2009 3:12:53 PM PST by Flycatcher (Strong copy for a strong America)
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To: Sola Veritas

Or like Curtis Lemay siad” Bomb them and Burn them”.
War cannot be fought with same rules as civilians. The more gentle you fight a war, the longer that war lasts, and the more dead.
Give them hell Sherman....a man before his times.


38 posted on 01/04/2009 3:14:06 PM PST by Yorlik803 ( Freedom- 07-04-1776-11-06-2008. RIP)
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To: Paladin2

Jeff Dunham is one of the funniest, non-PC comedians around. He and ‘Tater Salad’.


39 posted on 01/04/2009 3:14:26 PM PST by dbacks (God help the USA.)
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To: dbacks; org.whodat; rustbucket
Read this: Freeing the Unfree? Sherman on Equality

VDH and others incorrectly assume Sherman was fighting a "war for equality"

40 posted on 01/04/2009 3:15:31 PM PST by stainlessbanner
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