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You know as well as I that Sherman's "march-to-the-sea" was an irrational and viscious punishment inflicted upon the non-combatants simply to teach them a lesson; it earned him and the north an enduring enmity which may never fully go away.

In my haste I misspelled vicious, I apologize.

There was nothing irrational about Sherman's plan to march from Atlanta to Savannah. He cut Georgia in half and separated what was left of the Confederacy south of his line of march with what was left of the Confederacy north of it. His plan to provide for his army through foraging among the local population was similar to Lee's plan during his 1863 campaign in Maryland and Pennsylvania.

You know as well as I that Sherman's "march-to-the-sea" was an irrational and viscious punishment inflicted upon the non-combatants simply to teach them a lesson; it earned him and the north an enduring enmity which may never fully go away.

Most people in Georgia could care less about Sherman. They are transplanted Yankees any way.

Apparently, it cannot be stated forcefully enoiugh that Sherman's march --saved-- lives. The alternative was to fight the southern armies and kill or incapacite the men in them. By removing the sinews of war, Sherman enforced his will on them just surely as if he had killed every one.

Perhaps you'd prefer the type of useless slaughter that Hood inflicted on his -own- army at Franklin. Sherman was able to achieve his objectives without great loss of life. That is why he is a great captain.

It can't be stressed enogh either, that Sherman's men were very well behaved on the march. There is no single incident of a civilian murdered by Sherman's men. There were only about six rapes reported; that is remarkable when you consider that 60,000 men made the march.

You don't really want to pull off this particular scab.

CSA officals hanged 40 loyal Texans, 22 loyal North Carolinians; some number of east Tennesseans were hanged; Fifty-three Union POW's were murdered at Saltville, VA in October, 1864 and several HUNDRED were murdered at Fort Pillow in April, 1864. About 50 of Sherman's men were murdered in cold blood, and so it goes.

In contrast, of the thousands of people detained by federal officials (including Jefferson Davis and Alexander Stephens) not a SINGLE one was executed.

When I made this argument a couple of months ago, someone named some CSA POW's executed in cold blood. One of those, based on my research turned out to nothing but a bushwhacker on the Quantrill model.

Some few CSA POW's were executed in direct response to the murders of federal soldiers -- espicially black soldiers.

You don't want to open this up again -- it paints the so-called CSA in the worst possible light.

Walt