It was the most monstrous barbarity of the barbarous march.”—Whitelaw Reid, 1868
"I'm going to march to Richmond...and when I go through South Carolina it will be one of the most horrible things in the history of the world. The devil himself couldn't restrain my men in that state." William T. Sherman
News From The Rear: CINCINNATI, OHIO: "It has been learned here that Mrs. William Tecumseh Sherman, wife of the Union General, wrote Pres Lincoln on Friday begging him to intervene in her husband's behalf and show some sign of confidence. Gen. Sherman, now at St. Louis, recently was the object of attacks charging him insane; he himself has doubted his ability to command. His wife suggests Mr. Lincoln transfer Sherman to the East."
"There is a class of people (in the South), men, women and children, who must be killed or banished before you can hope for peace and order." General William T. Sherman, to General Thomas Ewing (Order # 11)
"I begin to regard the death and mangling of a couple of thousand men as a small affair, a kind of morning dash." General William T. Sherman, in a letter he wrote his wife in July 1864 while in northern Georgia.
"May all Southerners be driven like swine into the sea. May we carry fire and sword into their states till not one habitation is left standing." Mrs. Sherman William T. Sherman
"There was a grim determination on the part of the men in the ranks to visit a servere judgement on South Carolina. We practically burned a swath 60 miles wide across. The Commanders were powerless. This destruction of property was a matter of revenge." Private John C. Arbuckle, Company K, Fourth Iowa Veteran Volunteeer Infantry
The Burning of Columbia: "Such an awful sight! The street filled with a throng of men, drunken, dancing, shouting,cursing wretches, every one bearing a tin torch or a blazing lightwood knot. The sky so dark a half hour before, was already glowing with light, and flames were rising in every direction." Harriott H. Ravenol (South Carolina Women in the Confederacy)
Sherman, who had just finished supper at his headquarters, stepped out into the yard, “saw the darkness lit up with the lurid hue of conflagration” and remarked, “They have brought it on themselves.” (Who Burnt Columbia?)
Private John C. Arbuckle: "In the parks and other vacant places were gathered multitudes of the destitute and homeless. Truly it was a scene of appalling distress and suffering. As our columns went by, the people gave vigorous expression to their desire for revenge, hissed and hooted, called us vile names, swore at us, spit upon us, not a few of the women undertook to lay violent hands upon us. While we could not seriously blame them for their abusive words and acts, being mainly innocent sufferers; nevertheless, here was the spot where they had sown the wind, and now at last had come the whirlwind." (Civil War Experiences of a Soldier Who Marched With Sherman)
Major George Ward Nichols: "Columbia will have bitter cause to remember the visit of Sherman's army. Even if peace and prosperity soon return to the land, not in this generation nor the next - no, not for a century - can this city or the state recover from the deadly blow which has taken its life. It is not alone in the property that has been destroyed...that the most blasting, withering blow has fallen. It is the crushing downfall of their inordiante vanity, their arrogant pride, that the rebels will feel the effects of the visit of our army. (Story of the Great March)
Emory International Law Review, Volume 9, Number 2, Thomas G. Robisch): "The presence of Sherman's army prompted a great number of slaves to leave their homes, often on a moment's notice, to follow the Union soldiers. To these people, Sherman was somewhat of a mythical figure who had come to bring them freedom. Except for a relatively small number of refugees who were employed as pioneers (road construction workers), servants, mistresses or prostitutes, Sherman's army had little use for these people. Sherman considered these refugees to be unwanted responsibilities, and he discouraged slaves from following his men as best he could, Nevertheless, the presence of his army attracted thousands of blacks.
These refugees created problems for the Union army in terms of the army's ability or disposition to provide them with adequate food, shelter, and medical care. Unfortunately, many of the runaway slaves who followed Sherman's soldiers were unable to care sufficiently for themselves, and the federal army provided them with little help.
On one occasion, when one of Sherman's corps commanders believed that the crowd of refugees had become unduly burdensome, he forced the runaway slaves to remain behind at a river-crossing by burning the bridges used by the soldiers to cross the river. By abandoning them in this manner, the Union army tacitly permitted former owners to recapture these former slaves.
Panic-stricken, many of the refugees dove into the river and died trying to swim across. Sherman refused to criticize the corps commander, a Union general with the improbable name of Jeff Davis, who was responsible for the decision to burn the bridges. In addition to this incident, the Union army's other acts of desertion of black refugees caused a substantial number of deaths from hunger, exposure, and sickness."
Union Lt. Col. Jeremiah Jenkins, replying to a Colmbia woman who accused him of making war on women and children: "The women of the South kept the war alive - and it's only by making them suffer that we can subdue the men."
Mary Chesnut wrote in her diary on November 17th, 1864: "Although Sherman took Atlanta, hedoes not mean to stay there...Fire and sword are for us here (in Charleston),(Chesnut, 333)" Emma LeConte wrote in Columbia, South Carolina, on New Year's Eve, 1864: "Alas, I cannot look forward to the New Year...Georgia has been desolated...and now our hateful foes hold Savannah. Noble old Charleston is at last to be given up," (LeConte, 1) Mary Chesnut further wrote: "Our best and bravest are under the sod; we will have to wait till another generation grows up. Here we stand, despair in our hearts...with our houses burning or about to be, over our heads.: (November 17, 1864)
Thank you for providing the links with your post Neil, and I have found some of the passages in Mark Grimsby's article quite interesting, to say the least. Mr. Grimsby admits that "wanton depredations " did occur during Sherman's March to the Sea, and that the severity of these "depredations" increased as Sherman crossed the Savannah River. Mark Grimsby justifies and explains this by indicating that not only did South Carolina start the war, but also it was the first state to secede and therefore "deserved everything it got, including waging war on innocent civilians." "South Carolina is reaping at last the consquence of her treason" George W. Pepper (The Burning of Columbia). From Mark Grimsby's article: "The army burned everything it came near in the State of South Carolina, not under orders, but in spite of orders. The men "had it in" for the State, and they took it out in their own way. Our track through the State is a desert waste."
Given the above Neil, I would suggest that Sherman's campaign against the South far exceeded Mark Grimsby's description of "wanton depredations."And given the mindset of a revenge seeking army, is it so difficult to imagine the true extent of the destruction and terror that civilians suffered at the hands of Sherman's army?
Since the Leiber Code was introduced in 1863 as a code of conduct to be used during the war (war crimes - rape, murder, plunder), how do you reconcile this to the treatment of innocent civilians (women, children, elderly, sick) during Sherman's campaign? If the theory behind Sherman's total warfare policy was to include society as well as the military, then why bother with an Order such as the Leiber Code? Or was this just another form of the Lincoln administration paying lip service to it's own war-time propoganda?
In truth Neil, Sherman's philosophy of destroying the will of the Southern people is lost on me, since by the fall of 1864, the South had already fallen to it's knees. And eluding me also is the final vicious act that Sherman's army inflicted on the South...that of poisoning and scorching the earth - the ultimate, perpetual revenge.
I find Mark Grimsby's conclusions hugely patronizing and highly demeaning to the experience of the Southern people, both then and now. Mark Grimsby's: I strongly suspect that for most Southerners, Sherman's March has in fact lots its mythical signifcance. Instead it has become a little "quaint," another piece of history that happened long, long ago."
I may be wrong, but I would suspect that nothing could be further from the truth, and that Southern people would percieve Sherman's March to the Sea as anything but "quaint."
"A sea rolls between them and us - a sea of blood. Smoking houses, outraged women, murdered fathers, brothers and husbands forbid such a union. Reunion! Great Heavens! How we hate them with the whole strength and depth of our souls!" (Emma LeConte, 2).
Dawna
"The gentleman does not needlessly and unnecessarily remind an offender of a wrong he may have committed against him. He cannot only forgive, he can forget; and he strives for that nobleness of self and mildness of character which impart sufficient strength to let the past be but the past. A true man of honor feels humbled when he cannot help humbling others." General Robert E. Lee, CSA
Last edited by dawna : 03-26-2005 at 03:06 PM.
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