Civil War History - General DiscussionFor Discussions on Civil War Era Personalities, Politics, Issues, Campaigns, Battles, and more. Serious Civil War Discussions Only Please! All other posts will be deleted.
Battalion,
I think you may need to calm down, personally. I don't know about you guys, but here in WNY, if it rains, it's not that cold! Maybe people felt different about it down there where they weren't used to it... but I always used to go out, even boating on the lake when it was about 37. "Cold" is all relative. It's actually not that bad, besides, they did have quite a big fire to keep them warm...just kidding!
Women, children, aged and infirm turned out in the cold to starve or freeze to death -- virtually no factual basis but good propaganda. Although some incidents most certainly happened, they were anomalies -- not common practice. Orders were to burn mills and leave nothing to benefit Confederate forces and that is what happened for the largest part.
Sherman's destructive march had little to do with the subsequent impoverishment of the Confederate states. What was actually destroyed was a very small part of the assets of the transitted states. The impoverishment resulted from the loss of slaves, the loss of production, and the disruption of war.
Ole
__________________ I never knew a man who wished to be himself a slave. Consider if you know any good thing that no man desires for himself. A. Lincoln
..Personally, I would burn down a hundred plantations to save the life of one person. Granted this was not the point, but I hope everyone would agree with me because that IS morality!
Morality is a great thing... particularly when "properly" administered.
Personally, I would burn down a hundred plantations to save the life of one person.
Easy for you to say, IAm, they wouldn't be your plantations, would they?
Ole
__________________ I never knew a man who wished to be himself a slave. Consider if you know any good thing that no man desires for himself. A. Lincoln
True...lol...they wouldn't be my plantations, but I would gladly burn a hundred of yours to save one life as well and I would be the first to make you look like the bad guy if you whined about it!
Actually, it wasn't winter yet when Sherman went through Georgia...even so there were still several days of severe weather-
November 21, left camp at 12 m., weather rainy and unpleasant; marched through Hillsborough, camping about dark near said place. November 22, marched at 7 a. M., weather very unpleasant and cold, with snow...
November 21....A very heavy, cold rain fell all day, and marching was quite difficult...The rain ceased toward night and the air became very cold.
November 22...the Weather was extremely cold....Weather to-night intensely cold...
November 22...The night was severely cold, and there was much suffering among the men...
November 21...Rained all day.
November 24...The Weather was very cold, and the fences were set on fire to make the halts more comfortable.
Wednesday Dec 7" 1864
Up early and on the move at 7 AM proceeded down the south bank of the Ogeechee. Our Brigade having the rear - Marched 10 mile and went into Camp a mile from the river just opposite Eden. It rained most awful hard today - rain came down in perfect torrents.
...-and several other days of rain and extreme cold in December.
Rain, no snow... having done many marches in the rain and multiple excercises & deployments while Active Duty in SC, FL, MS & LA. Winter in the South at even its worse is a picnic compared to a winter in TN or anywhere in the Midwest. I have little sympathy for people who were unwilling to fashion a shelter (hint: there are/were a lot of trees in the area) for themselves or lacked the sense to get out of the rain.
Please do a little research before you post....I have, apparently considerably more than you, I am getting roundly tired of doing yours for you.
Having had the lovely pneumonia (sp?) I understand the dangers of getting too wet. But I also am aware that the soldiers weren't faring any better than the civilians.
I left multiple sources to paruse on more than one occasion apparently you haven't so as to the snide comment about research... I'll try not to laugh.
Oh & by the way... thanks for being kind enough to source the diary entries.
__________________ Shane Christen
American Legion Post 352
SUVCW Camp Abernethy# 48
Lifetime NRA member
3rd MN VI
For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow. Eccl 1:18
Excuse me, what are we arguing about? Whether its cold in the wintertime?
If people are forced to leave their homes, its a real, honest to goodness hardship. It's not the same as mass murder, but its tough.
Sherman's destructiveness, and making it "tough" for civilians was the point of the exercise. His reasoning is well known, the harsher the war, the quicker it was over, which would be (in his thinking) true mercy. A shorter war, fewer Pickett's Charges, Fredericksburgs, Seven Days, in which tens of thousands were killed, maimed, or blinded. Sherman destroyed much, including the sense of safety and resistence, but killed little.
Targeting Union civilians and commerce was the policy of the Confederate government, afterall.
We weren't discussing your "marches" in the rain, &c...
...but 70-80 year olds who had their homes burned down by sorry-a$$ Yankees.
Posting the name of a book...but giving no page or url...is not citing a source.
It's apparent that you're just throwing names of books on your posts (to appear "in the know")...
...but have no idea whether that information is in the book or not.
Actually I have read the books I listed, you apparently haven't. I only list books I own and at least provide a sopurce for anyone to paruse. I sourced; I didn't create a works cited list or Bibliography.
Well Battalion, I can at least vouch for what it's like to march in the rain and sleep in the mud. I've never melted in the rain... you might, but I haven't yet. I can also make an educated guess that those refugees in Georgia were quite a bit tougher and more resiliant than you give them credit for.
__________________ Shane Christen
American Legion Post 352
SUVCW Camp Abernethy# 48
Lifetime NRA member
3rd MN VI
For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow. Eccl 1:18
Just a thought. The "displaced" were no more than 30 miles from untouched territory -- that is, only those in the center of the 60-mile swath, and we're not talking about a great many people turned out shelterless. The word passed quickly in advance of Sherman's army: "leave your house, it burns; stay, and if you don't give the soldier's any trouble, you'll likely keep your your house."
It would be strange indeed if those untouched didn't immediately move to shelter and feed those who did have their homes and buildings burned.
Ole
__________________ I never knew a man who wished to be himself a slave. Consider if you know any good thing that no man desires for himself. A. Lincoln
CivilWarTalk.com -
A free and friendly Civil War community. 
Maybe people felt different about it down there where they weren't used to it... but I always used to go out, even boating on the lake when it was about 37. "Cold" is all relative. It's actually not that bad, besides, they did have quite a big fire to keep them warm...just kidding!
Linear Mode
