Death is Mercy to Secessionists

Abbeville Institute ^ | Mar 21, 2016 | Bernard Thuersam

[Roman_War_Criminal]

Thanks Bro!

[BenLurkin]

Sounds like the ravings of a mentally man.

[BenLurkin]

This letter smells hoaxish.

[mac_truck]

I think Sherman liked Southerns just fine...it was Confederates that he disliked.

Concurring bump...one in ten Southern soldiers fought on the Union side. Sherman himself used the 1st Alabama Calvary as his personal escort during the March to the Sea.

[ConservativeDude]

so it’s interesting.....Sherman has real clarity when it comes to the Indians as well.

The US’ arrangement with the numerous Indian tribes/nations also has significant complications/nuances/difficulties....and it is not unlike the legal/conceptual difficulties of reconsttruction of a federal system after civil war. It essentially is defining something as a “nation” and also a a “conquered state” while (pretending) to respect the conquereds culture and tradition....also has the problem in many cases of confining a people group that were nomadic to a geographic area.

Lots of legal difficulties here.

And of course the US was not great in keeping all of the treaties that it agreed to.

Very difficult stuff.

Not sure that Sherman’s “clarity” is right....But....he at least had real clarity. Not a lot of gray in his views.

[Leaning Right]

> Up until now, I had a tiny bit of respect for WT Sherman. <

Sherman is not getting a fair appraisal here. Please see my post #18.

[central_va]

Sherman’s grave is on my piss on it bucket list.

[DoodleDawg]

This letter smells hoaxish.

It is. It's bits and pieces cherry-picked from a longer letter that Sherman wrote. The entire letter, with all quotes in context, can be found Here

On the other hand, it's the Abbeville Institute so a bit of southron fakery is to be expected.

[dunblak]

i find it impossible to believe that anyone on this site would post such ignorant comments in support of a corrupt and cruel statement of principles. Let me assure you that your use of the Democratic party vs. the Republican party has been overturned by history and neither of them are in any way similar to the parties that existed in 1850.

[central_va]

Why does his final resting place always have that urine smell?

[DoodleDawg]

Why does his final resting place always have that urine smell?

Because it's in the North and indoor plumbing still confuses Southern visitors?

[katana]

People bandy that epithet loosely. In fact, considering the scale and geographic extent of his operations through Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina atrocities committed by Union forces against civilians (as opposed to their properties and the infrastructure which supported the Confederate war effort) were remarkably few. His troops who were found to have committed rapes and murder of civilians were tried and hanged. Even historians sympathetic to the Southern cause grudgingly admit that.

And Confederate troops tended to execute black Union prisoners en masse when they could. Isn't that a "war crime"? Were Lemay and "Bomber" Harris war criminals? They burned out entire cities filled with civilian women and children.

I've known enough people with your outlook to understand you're not open to persuasion. But if Sherman was a "war criminal" then there will not be any generals in any war for whom the title couldn't be applied.

[wardaddy]

lol

[Skooz]

I agree completely.

[TADSLOS]

A brilliant strategist, tactician and a crazy man.

Not a good combination.

[wardaddy]

This is kind of bullshit

Sherman for all his weirdness offered very generous terms at surrender , not the terms a monster who hated southerners or confederates would have offered

Terms refused by the radical republicans ...the Schiffs and Nadlers of their day

Up to a point I understand Sherman’s desire to win

Just as I can understand the resentments from those who suffered over it

Sherman was no question a man with issues but he won

So his nest is laurels

[Leaning Right]

You’ve got a lot of nerve making a reasonable argument on a Civil War thread.

(All kidding aside, good post there.)

[Roman_War_Criminal]

I did read your post and understand those circumstances certainly influenced his demeanor. It was war, but a much different war than any other war with a real foreign power however.

Despite differing cultures, both sides were bound by the same laws & rights. Or at least they should have been.

His dabbling with written genocide on his own countrymen (I realize that is not how he sees it) is a stain on his legacy & reputation. That’s who he was though.

[Nellie Wilkerson]

Other generals didn’t talk such unAmerican trash. Sherman was speaking from his convictions, not his war experience.

[Leaning Right]

> Sherman for all his weirdness offered very generous terms at surrender , not the terms a monster who hated southerners or confederates... <

That is an excellent point! And it kind of destroys a lot of the anti-Sherman rhetoric here. For those who doubt your statement, please see paragraph #11 in the link below.

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/548395/facts-about-william-tecumseh-sherman