Sherman "There is a class of people ... "

It is interesting to note that what Sherman was suggesting is exactly what we did in WWII. Tens of thousands of German, Japanese, and even allied civilians were indiscriminately killed by bombing raids. The result : VICTORY the desired end result of any war. That the same result was had for the Union in the Civil War without exposing the civilian populations to such suffering attests to good strategy, leadership, and execution of the war plan.
It's interesting that although Sherman writes "killed or banished," he actually devotes most of his energy in that letter to talking about deporting them, not killing them. (And in his notorious March, every effort was made not to kill any civilians.)
 
A slight addendum: he was despised not by the people he faced but, rather, by their descendents who bought into the myth of the man. He was given almost a hero's welcome when he returned to the South after the war.

R
Sherman had always loved the South, having spent years there before the war. But he saw fighting a hard war and getting it over with as the way to spare the most lives overall. And remember how much trouble he got into in April 1865 for granting too-generous surrender terms to Joe Johnston!
 
Stop making things up. He's quite obviously NOT talking about the entire South. He's talking about "the petulant and persistent Secessionists." And the comparison is apt.




Nothing at all wrong with that.




Seems to me he's got the right idea.



He's talking about waging a war. He's absolutely right about what the law of war allowed. You seem confused over whether in a war an army must observe the same niceties that prevail in peacetime.




Wrong.

The "viz." is not in what Sherman actually wrote.

Here's a screen capture of the message in the OR [Series I, Vol. 32, Part II, p. 280]:

View attachment 95292

As can be clearly seen, the "viz." is not a part of the message and was added by someone else to try to make it seem Sherman was saying something he wasn't. It's a typical tactic we see with neoconfederate websites, which have to rely on deceit to overcome the fact that history doesn't support their falsehoods.

If we look at the passage in context, we see the false doctrine is that "the Southern planters say that they made the South, that they own it, and that they can do as they please, even to break up our government and shut up the natural avenues of trade, intercourse and commerce."

Notice the semicolon after the phrase, "for which we as a people are responsible." It means he's making another thought.

So he believes the war to result from a false political doctrine; he believes that all [white] people have the right to self-government, and he would give all a chance to reflect and when in error to recant.





Poor analysis. Sherman was speaking of a wartime situation, and he's right. By the laws of warfare, the army had all the rights he said they had.
Wow, Al, thanks for catching the semicolon and the "viz." Those really do make all the difference in the world. It's scary how completely one or two tiny little omissions or additions can change the meaning of a sentence. (Which is one reason I work as a professional proofreader as often as I can get the work!)
 
You got to Love the Way, Sherman cuts through the bull and gets right to the point.
 
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