Sherman Sherman and the Savannah Relief Program.

major bill

Brev. Brig. Gen'l
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I am reading When Sherman Marched North From the Sea 'Resistance on the Confederate Home Front by Jacqueline Glass Campbell. In the first chapter, one of the things Campbell discusses is the complex nature of General Sherman as the general who brought hard war to the citizens of Georgia and his hope of being seen as a benevolent protector of the Southern citizen once they submitted to the Union. She uses the Savannah relief program to help illustrate Sherman's dual nature.

"The Savannah relief program serves as a prism through which we can view not only the nature of William T. Sherman, but also the confecting sentiments that Yankees and Confederate held for each other. For the Union men in savannah, the distribution of food to suffering people elicited both sympathy and condescension. Many needy inhabitants welcomed the benevolence of their enemies; many more raged in frustration and humiliation." (page 24)

This made me wonder if the Savannah relief program was established out of the benevolent nature of Sherman, or was it an attempt by Sherman to show Southerners the futility of further resistance. The Savannah relief program was a great propaganda tool for Northern citizens to help them see themselves as merciful conquerors. But was Sherman and his army truly "merciful conquerors"? I do wonder how the image of Sherman as a merciful conqueror played out in the minds of the average "conquered" Southerner or in the minds of the average Confederate sympathizer.

I will have to finish reading When Sherman Marched North From the Sea 'Resistance on the Confederate Home Front to see how Jacqueline Glass Campbell treats this issue. Campbell is a persuasive writer but she will need to work to convince me.
 
Sherman confiscated 25k bales of cotton at Savannah. Generous of him to pass out food after destroying all of the stores of Rice and wasting everything his soldiers couldn’t consume on his approach.

Don’t think most Southerners then or now are debating whether Sherman saved them or not? After his debacle of how he treated the negroes, I suspect he needed some good Press. “Merciful conquerors”, the idea that the Yankee saved Southerners. Another tenant of the Yankee Myth.
 
Sherman confiscated 25k bales of cotton at Savannah. Generous of him to pass out food after destroying all of the stores of Rice and wasting everything his soldiers couldn’t consume on his approach.


“He who wishes to fight must first count the cost”

“The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.”

“Supreme excellence consists of breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting.”

Sun Tzu
The Art of War
 
Sherman confiscated 25k bales of cotton at Savannah. Generous of him to pass out food after destroying all of the stores of Rice and wasting everything his soldiers couldn’t consume on his approach.

Don’t think most Southerners then or now are debating whether Sherman saved them or not? After his debacle of how he treated the negroes, I suspect he needed some good Press. “Merciful conquerors”, the idea that the Yankee saved Southerners. Another tenant of the Yankee Myth.
Kilpatrick’s men shot and killed my gg aunts 73 year old husband on his back porch because he refused to allow them to ride their horses into his house. This happened in Anson County, NC in early March 1865. To say the family hated Sherman would be a gross understatement . My grandmother 1877-1963, mother and aunts became irate whenever someone mentioned Sherman’s name.
Hopefully the hatred and wounds are a thing of the past.
 
Kilpatrick’s men shot and killed my gg aunts 73 year old husband on his back porch because he refused to allow them to ride their horses into his house. This happened in Anson County, NC in early March 1865. To say the family hated Sherman would be a gross understatement . My grandmother 1877-1963, mother and aunts became irate whenever someone mentioned Sherman’s name.
Hopefully the hatred and wounds are a thing of the past.
Oh, we are told those things Never Happened? LOL
 
I will look for the newspaper later. This is certainly not hearsay!
I found a source for the killing I referred to earlier. This is from “Sherman’s March through North Carolina by Wilson Angley, Jerry L. Cross and Michael Hill. Page 5 and 6 , “ At least two county residents were murdered in cold blood. One, the prominent planter James C Bennett, was brutally killed at his home between Lilesville and Morten. Bishop Atkinson reported that “he was shot at the door of his own house because he did not give up his watch and money, which had been previously taken from him by another party. “ The second victim , a Mr. James Cottingham, was similarly killed when unable to produce valuables that had already been stolen from him”.
These quotes are taken from the Wadesboro Argus newspaper from March 1865.
This book gives an excellent insight into depredations experienced by the women and children of North Carolina at the hands of Sherman’s Bummers. Sherman’s reputation is well earned and the more reading I do has revealed he is not quite The Satan I heard of in my youth.
 
In Sherman's letter to the mayor of Atlanta he mention his already benevolent nature to the enemy. So, yeah. I'd say it was his benevolent side🤔
"I myself have seen in Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Mississippi hundreds and thousands of women and children fleeing from your armies and desperadoes, hungry and with bleeding feet. In Memphis, Vicksburg, and Mississippi we fed thousands upon thousands of the families of rebel soldiers left on our hands and whom we could not see starve. Now that war comes home to you, you feel very different. You deprecate its horrors, but did not feel them when you sent car-loads of soldiers and ammunition and molded shells and shot to carry war into Kentucky and Tennessee, and desolate the homes of hundreds and thousands of good people who only asked to live in peace at their old homes and under the Government of their inheritance."
 
This made me wonder if the Savannah relief program was established out of the benevolent nature of Sherman, or was it an attempt by Sherman to show Southerners the futility of further resistance.
Maybe both.
These discussions always seem to dissolve into one side trying to show that the other side's soldiers were more evil, destructive, amoral, etc. On both sides were stragglers, bummers, and men who managed to disappear when fighting was being done, but reappear when foraging was called for. The drafts brought in criminal elements from all the states. Theft, murder, and rape was business as usual.

Southern newspapers in the last year of the war started to complained that some Confederate soldiers were as bad as some of the Yankees. Of course they were - human nature does not miraculously improve just because you were born on one side or the other of The Mason Dixon line. The vast majority of the fighting was done in the South, so they got the full brunt of all the evils associated with war. It is what war is. It is not good.
 
Lee raids Pennsylvania to steal everythingthat isn't bolted down in order to bring about an end to the war, the South cheers.
When Sherman returns the favor and does it better the South crys foul.
Sticky fingered Yankees had already lifted every thing they could in Virginia. Tell us how many Pennsylvania women and children were burned out and left homeless with nothing?
 
More evidence of Sherman's benevolent nature, IMO.
Memoirs Of General Sherman, By General William Tecumseh Sherman
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More evidence of Sherman's benevolent nature. This, IMO, very decent proposal, initiated quite a war of words between Hood and Sherman. Sherman won that too, IMO...

Maj. Gen. W.T. Sherman to General J.B. Hood
September 7, 1864
General: I have deemed it to the interest of the United States that the citizens now residing in Atlanta should remove, those who prefer it to go south and the rest north. For the latter I can provide food and transportation to points of their election in Tennessee, Kentucky, or farther north. For the former I can provide transportation by cars as far as Rough and Ready, and also wagons; but that their removal may be made with as little discomfort as possible it will be necessary for you to help the families from Rough and Ready to the cars at Lovejoy's. If you consent I will undertake to remove all families in Atlanta who prefer to go South to Rough and Ready, with all their movable effects, viz, clothing, trunks, reasonable furniture, bedding, &c., with their servants, white and black, with the proviso that no force shall be used toward the blacks one way or the other. If they want to go with their masters or mistresses they may do so, otherwise they will be sent away, unless they be men, when they may be employed by our quartermaster. Atlanta is no place for families or non-combatants, and I have no desire to send them North if you will assist in conveying them South. If this proposition meets your views I will consent to a truce in the neighborhood of Rough and Ready, stipulating that any wagons, horses, or animals, or persons sent there for the purposes herein stated shall in no manner be harmed or molested, you in your turn agreeing that any cars, wagons, carriages, persons, or animals sent to the same point shall not be interfered with….
I have the honor to be, your obedient servant,
W.T. Sherman
Major-General, Commanding
 
More evidence of Sherman's benevolent nature. This, IMO, very decent proposal, initiated quite a war of words between Hood and Sherman. Sherman won that too, IMO...

Maj. Gen. W.T. Sherman to General J.B. Hood
September 7, 1864
General: I have deemed it to the interest of the United States that the citizens now residing in Atlanta should remove, those who prefer it to go south and the rest north. For the latter I can provide food and transportation to points of their election in Tennessee, Kentucky, or farther north. For the former I can provide transportation by cars as far as Rough and Ready, and also wagons; but that their removal may be made with as little discomfort as possible it will be necessary for you to help the families from Rough and Ready to the cars at Lovejoy's. If you consent I will undertake to remove all families in Atlanta who prefer to go South to Rough and Ready, with all their movable effects, viz, clothing, trunks, reasonable furniture, bedding, &c., with their servants, white and black, with the proviso that no force shall be used toward the blacks one way or the other. If they want to go with their masters or mistresses they may do so, otherwise they will be sent away, unless they be men, when they may be employed by our quartermaster. Atlanta is no place for families or non-combatants, and I have no desire to send them North if you will assist in conveying them South. If this proposition meets your views I will consent to a truce in the neighborhood of Rough and Ready, stipulating that any wagons, horses, or animals, or persons sent there for the purposes herein stated shall in no manner be harmed or molested, you in your turn agreeing that any cars, wagons, carriages, persons, or animals sent to the same point shall not be interfered with….
I have the honor to be, your obedient servant,
W.T. Sherman
Major-General, Commanding

Did you know if Hood sent a response back? I did a quick check of the O.R.s and could not find a reply.
 
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