The Forget Hell! crowd

Townhall.com ^ | February 27, 2006 | W. Thomas Smith, Jr.

[SuzyQ2]

I love history. I’m proud of my Southern heritage. But for me to be angry to the point of protesting a moment in Southern history that happened nearly a century-and-a-half ago would be just, well, nonsensical. And would in some ways tarnish that heritage.

[reagandemo]

I cannot blame the people for doing that given the circumstances. What should be noted is that after the war Sherman was one of the greatest friends of the South and was instrumental in giving pardons to Confederate soldiers mainly Robert E. Lee which he personally fought to have pardoned.

[stuartcr]

It's the same mindset of some of those people in Europe, that never forget.

[Publius6961]

But that was then. This is now. And what’s the point, generations later, of hanging an effigial representation of Sherman on the grounds of the State House when he was simply doing his duty as a soldier, or Lincoln who was trying to preserve the Union we all today embrace?

What's the harm?
There were no people killed.
Cars burned.
Neighborhoods torched.
People threatened.

Specially in today's world, what's the harm?

[AnAmericanMother]

The reenactors were silly to hang Sherman in effigy. Their annoyance is misplaced. To some extent, even their annoyance at Lincoln is misplaced (but not as much as Sherman).

It is a fact that Sherman was one of the most popular speakers at Confederate reunions after the War. (My gg grandfather was commander of the Eufauala Camp, UCV. They invited him to speak and feted him royally.)

This doesn't make sense unless you know that Southerners admired Sherman because he believed in "Total War and Total Peace". He was one of the Yankees who worked for a conciliatory peace rather than the punitive actions of the Radical Republicans, and that was greatly appreciated by Southerners who were trying to rebuild their lives after the War. My gg grandfather was a banker and lawyer before the War, but there was no money and no court system postwar. He worked as a teamster, using two of his old artillery horses, until the economy got back on its feet.

Lincoln would most likely have introduced conciliatory measures, had he not been assassinated. J.W. Booth did nobody a favor. Extreme punitive measures such as those introduced by Reconstruction are counterproductive (see WWI and France kicking Germany while she was down = WWII.)

[Blzbba]

"And what’s the point, generations later, of hanging an effigial representation of Sherman on the grounds of the State House when he was simply doing his duty as a soldier,"




I don't know what 'the point' was...but that "He was just following orders" didn't work for Nazi scum at Nuremburg.

[Constitution Day]

FYI

[Liberty Valance]

Thus was - and is - war, particularly a war fought by exhausted, largely uneducated troops with access to wine cellars and liquor cabinets, and who had been taught that their enemies were nothing more than common rebels.

I hope he was smiling when he used the term common rebels if he's referring to Confederate Soldiers.

[Publius6961]

On a related matter however, if there are two "cultures" and two legacies in our country to admire, I continue to embrace the one I've never experienced first hand: the Southern. I hope I can experience it before I die.

[AnAmericanMother]

"Welcome south, brother!"

[Little Ray]

I'm pro-South, but I'm pro-USA first. We can argue about the course of the nation as soon as we finish beating Hell out of our foes and staunch the wounds.

[Donald Meaker]

The amusing thing is that the burning of Atlanta is one thing that Sherman is blamed for.

Atlanta was burned by Hood, beginning with his ammunition train which he could not withdraw because the rail lines were cut. Hood had the intent of denying Atlanta as a base to Sherman.

Later Southern vandals cut the fire hoses in Richmond, so the Union would be unable to put out the fires they had started. Part of the "better to die in the last ditch" mentality.

Reconstruction: The best government the South had ever had, and better government than it had for 100 years after the great rebellion.

[Riley]

It is a fact that Sherman was one of the most popular speakers at Confederate reunions after the War. (My gg grandfather was commander of the Eufauala Camp, UCV. They invited him to speak and feted him royally.)

This reinforces an observation that I made on another thread this morning, also about the War- that the more I study it, the more 'shades of gray' and surprises that I find.

A few years ago, I was shopping for a fixer-upper in the Marion, SC area to live in and fix up. (Lovely little town, I probably shouldv'e done it)

The mention of Sherman's name (I didn't bring it up, either) caused expressions of seething anger.

[Donald Meaker]

France didn't kick germany while she was down. Rather, the reconstruction costs were modeled after the German terms given to France in the war of 1870. Still, if you track the flow of money, there was a net influx of money (significant amounts of money went into Germany as loans and as startups of german branches of english and french companies) into Germany after WWII, and that funded the modernization of German industry after WWI.

The really sad thing is the Weimar republic had licked inflation before Herr Schicklegruber took office. Schicklegruber took all the credit though. Big lie technique worked then, and works now.

[stainlessbanner]

Dixie Ping

[buck61]

Sherman did the nation a great deed, he purged the South of slave owners.
I live in Tn. and my father was born 1898, Dad had a great deal of knowledge of the Civil War.
There were slave owners in our community and, they were all
Democrats. They just couldn't give up the idea of free labor
for their timber business and etc. Their heritage is almost all gone now and they no longer rule our county as Democrats.
The thing that gets me, is how the blacks in American now hate the party that set their ancestors free from slavery.
Atlanta needs another purging, not on the scale that Sherman did however.

[stainlessbanner]

I live in Tn. and my father was born 1898

Oldest FReeper ever!

[Flavius Josephus]

It is the same mindset of the "Angry Black" who claimed this past weekend that it is a small step from the "Killing Fields of the Slave Ships to the Killing Fields Of The Superdome," at the State of the Black Union "Symposium" in Houston, TX.

[rustbucket]

Reconstruction: The best government the South had ever had, and better government than it had for 100 years after the great rebellion.

You mean the government that tried to stay in power by barricading the Texas capitol building with an armed force in 1874 after they were soundly voted out of office by a 2 to 1 margin? See: Radical Republicans seize the capitol building and Radicals in Texas.

[jpl]

Lincoln would most likely have introduced conciliatory measures, had he not been assassinated. J.W. Booth did nobody a favor. Extreme punitive measures such as those introduced by Reconstruction are counterproductive (see WWI and France kicking Germany while she was down = WWII.)

Lincoln unquestionably wanted reconciliation, not a harsh peacetime retribution. Andrew Johnson knew this and was determined to carry his policy out, and very nearly got convicted and removed from the Presidency for his trouble.