Sherman Sherman's March: Was It a War Crime? Video

Ha, maybe after 150 years, after Sherman outsmarted and defeated the Confederates in Georgia, "war crimes" is the only Confederate defense.


I thought Margaret Mitchell mde the best obseration of Hood's failed move into Tennessee, in her "non-historial" book 'Gone With the Wind'. Mitchell squarely placed the blame on Hood. Not only was he soundly defeated in Tennessee, Hood left Georgia undefended.


Gone With The Wind
Margaret Mitchell



"But where's General Hood's army? interposed Melanie hastily. "Surely he could have held Savannah."
"Why, Miss Melanie," Frank was startled and reproachful, "General Hood hasn't been down in that section at all. He's been fighting up in Tennessee, trying to draw the Yankees out of Georgia."
"And didn't his little scheme work well!" cried Scarlett sarcastically.
"He left the **** Yankees to go through us with nothing but schoolboys and convicts and Home Guards to protect us."
 
I expect you can still get some interesting, opinionated answers to this question by interviewing people whose families have always lived in the path of Sherman's march. Regardless of one's point of view about the overall operation, I would not be surprised if some individual crimes against civilians were committed along the way. In fact, I'd be surprised if they weren't.
 
I expect you can still get some interesting, opinionated answers to this question by interviewing people whose families have always lived in the path of Sherman's march. Regardless of one's point of view about the overall operation, I would not be surprised if some individual crimes against civilians were committed along the way. In fact, I'd be surprised if they weren't.

Any time you move an army through a countryside, there are going to be some bad things happening - doesn't matter what army it is or how vigilantly the general oversees it. It's just the nature of a large body of armed men. What's always surprised me about Sherman's march is how relatively little of that type of thing actually happened. (Which is not to say he took a band of angels through the South.)
 
"I expect you can still get some interesting, opinionated answers to this question by interviewing people whose families have always lived in the path of Sherman's march."

Sometimes it gets a little silly, though. A while back I came across an inquiry from a young man on Facebook, wanting to know if his ancestor's property had been the target of Sherman's bummers. (It was in southwest Georgia, so the answer to that turned out to be no.) The person asking had got it in his head that his ancestor was a wealthy planter who'd been burned out by Sherman, and he was very up front about believing that his family's present-day economic difficulties, almost 150 year later, were the result of that. He had a vague sense of anger and resentment about his circumstances, it seems, and really wanted to be able to hang the responsibility for that on Kerosene Billy.

Then there are the ruins of structures supposedly destroyed by Sherman, that didn't exist in 1864-65.

Foolishness.
 
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Hi Cash, I see you are
"I expect you can still get some interesting, opinionated answers to this question by interviewing people whose families have always lived in the path of Sherman's march."

Sometimes it gets a little silly, though. A while back I came across an inquiry from a young man on Facebook, wanting to know if his ancestor's property had been the target of Sherman's bummers. (It was in southwest Georgia, so the answer to that turned out to be no.) The person asking had got it in his head that his ancestor was a wealthy planter who'd been burned out by Sherman, and he was very up front about believing that his family's present-day economic difficulties, almost 150 year later, were the result of that. He had a vague sense of anger and resentment about his circumstances, it seems, and really wanted to be able to hang the responsibility for that on Kerosene Billy.

Foolishness.


Hi Andy,

Yes you will have some get into that Foolishness territory. I have seen some of that myself. Then of course you will have those that are in denial also, seen that some too. Kerosene Billy was not responsible for all the burnings.......just enough......lol

Thanks,

Respectfully,

William
 
"I expect you can still get some interesting, opinionated answers to this question by interviewing people whose families have always lived in the path of Sherman's march."

Sometimes it gets a little silly, though. A while back I came across an inquiry from a young man on Facebook, wanting to know if his ancestor's property had been the target of Sherman's bummers. (It was in southwest Georgia, so the answer to that turned out to be no.) The person asking had got it in his head that his ancestor was a wealthy planter who'd been burned out by Sherman, and he was very up front about believing that his family's present-day economic difficulties, almost 150 year later, were the result of that. He had a vague sense of anger and resentment about his circumstances, it seems, and really wanted to be able to hang the responsibility for that on Kerosene Billy.

Then there are the ruins of structures supposedly destroyed by Sherman, that didn't exist in 1864-65.

Foolishness.

You know, there's something about losing your wars that does odd things to the descendants. There's Indian families around here claim they would have been rich if their land hadn't been stolen by the whites. Truth is, when you look at the real histories and family lore, they never had anything to steal in the first place!
 
"I expect you can still get some interesting, opinionated answers to this question by interviewing people whose families have always lived in the path of Sherman's march."

Sometimes it gets a little silly, though. A while back I came across an inquiry from a young man on Facebook, wanting to know if his ancestor's property had been the target of Sherman's bummers. (It was in southwest Georgia, so the answer to that turned out to be no.) The person asking had got it in his head that his ancestor was a wealthy planter who'd been burned out by Sherman, and he was very up front about believing that his family's present-day economic difficulties, almost 150 year later, were the result of that. He had a vague sense of anger and resentment about his circumstances, it seems, and really wanted to be able to hang the responsibility for that on Kerosene Billy.

Then there are the ruins of structures supposedly destroyed by Sherman, that didn't exist in 1864-65.

Foolishness.
Andy, I'm sure all of this is quite true, too. I intended to infer these sorts of answers and inquiries in my "interesting, opinionated" category. I am pretty sure you understood my drift. Thanks for responding.
 
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