Sherman Pre - War Sherman loved South Carolina

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When Sherman graduated West Point in 1840, sixth in his class, he was given a very desirable commission as a lieutenant in the Third U.S. Artillery. He briefly served in Florida near the end of the Seminole War, then at Fort Morgan in Mobile Bay. He was then assigned to garrison duty at Fort Moultrie in Charleston, South Carolina in 1842. Since he was the foster son of Thomas Ewing, a prominent Whig politician from Ohio, Sherman had access to the high society of the Charleston upper class. In his letters home, he wrote of his pleasures in his spare time of fox hunting, fishing, boating, dancing, and making hundreds of visits to his new friends in Charleston and the resorts of Sullivan's Island. He found his South Carolina home "so bright and delightful, that I have almost renounced all allegiance to Ohio, although it contains all whom I love and regard as friends."
I find this something of a paradox with regards to his march through the Carolinas in 1865. With all his fond memories of South Carolina, it somewhat puzzles me that he could unleash his harshest reprisals against it.

Photo of Lieutenant W.T. Sherman's 1832 artillery coat he wore at Fort Moultrie

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http://americanhistory.si.edu/blog/...vil-war-general-william-tecumseh-sherman.html
 
I find this something of a paradox with regards to his march through the Carolinas in 1865. With all his fond memories of South Carolina, it somewhat puzzles me that he could unleash his harshest reprisals against it.
He didn't hide his contempt for the secessionists, and (in his view) what they had wrought. South Carolina was the spiritual heart of the rebellion. ("Too small for a republic. . . .")

The gloves came off in South Carolina.
 
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There's some interesting speculation about Sherman and South Carolina! For instance...why didn't he end his march at the seaport of Charleston instead of Savannah? Seems like Charleston would have been more fitting and symbolic! He was assigned duty at Ft Moultrie, but he had spent a lot of vacations as a kid down that way with family friends of the Ewings. And, he got a heavy crush on a pretty belle while down there - his first - but the lady did not reciprocate. Sherman took it well - we think! - and actually met the lady's family as he was coming through SC from Georgia. His old flame was long gone but he made sure her parents were safely placed out of harm's way...then burned down their plantation! (Except for the rice - that he kept...)
 
This is from a letter he wrote in early 1864, before he set out on what would become the Atlanta Campaign:

If they want eternal war, well and good; we accept the issue, and will dispossess them and put our friends in their place. I know thousands and millions of good people who at simple notice would come to North Alabama and accept the elegant houses and plantations there. If the people of Huntsville think different, let them persist in war three years longer, and then they will not be consulted. Three years ago by a little reflection and patience they could have had a hundred years of peace and prosperity, but they preferred war; very well. Last year they could have saved their slaves, but now it is too late.

All the powers of earth cannot restore to them their slaves, any more than their dead grandfathers. Next year their lands will be taken, for in war we can take them, and rightfully, too, and in another year they may beg in vain for their lives. A people who will persevere in war beyond a certain limit ought to know the consequences. Many, many peoples with less pertinacity have been wiped out of national existence.

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Tecumseh_Sherman#Letter_to_R.M._Sawyer_.28January_1864.29
 
This is from a letter he wrote in early 1864, before he set out on what would become the Atlanta Campaign:

If they want eternal war, well and good; we accept the issue, and will dispossess them and put our friends in their place. I know thousands and millions of good people who at simple notice would come to North Alabama and accept the elegant houses and plantations there. If the people of Huntsville think different, let them persist in war three years longer, and then they will not be consulted. Three years ago by a little reflection and patience they could have had a hundred years of peace and prosperity, but they preferred war; very well. Last year they could have saved their slaves, but now it is too late.

All the powers of earth cannot restore to them their slaves, any more than their dead grandfathers. Next year their lands will be taken, for in war we can take them, and rightfully, too, and in another year they may beg in vain for their lives. A people who will persevere in war beyond a certain limit ought to know the consequences. Many, many peoples with less pertinacity have been wiped out of national existence.

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Tecumseh_Sherman#Letter_to_R.M._Sawyer_.28January_1864.29
Great quote from the man himself
 
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