Shermans 1864 campaign

[observator]

American heritage December 1978

From Atlanta To The Sea

A newly discovered Union diary shows that Sherman’s march was about as Ruthless as Southerners have always said it was

www.americanheritage.com

Civil Wa r Times Illustrated also had in the 1980's I think a transcriptiion of 1865 newspaper account from 1 of Terry Texas Rangers in the 1864 Atlanta campaign

File:Terry's Texas Rangers, c. 1863.jpg - Wikimedia Commons

commons.wikimedia.org

 

[Nathan Stuart]

18 y.o. Pvte. Charles S. Brown, Co. K, 21st. Michigan Infantry, who became the unit adjutant clerk, marched with Sherman's Army from Chattanooga, TN, to Raleigh, NC, during 1864 to 1865.

His retained letters to home describe the destruction inflicted, and some of the worst excesses committed, by Sherman's Army over the course of the campaign, that he witnessed.

Brown's series of letters can be viewed at the link below:

Charles S. Brown papers / Charles S. Brown papers / Duke Digital Repository (total length- 114 pages)

Relevant extracts from Brown's letters (together with relevant page references to the above repository) mentioning the hardships he experienced and/or the destruction he saw are reproduced as follows:

@ Page 39 ( from letter written Dec. 16, 1864)
…"We 'moged' into Atlanta (15th of Nov.). We lay there that afternoon & such a sight I never saw, a place as large as Dayton Ohio laid in ashes"…

@ Page 73 (from letter written circa April , 1865)
…"I was as comfortable as could be expected on the S.C. raid,…..We lived for 65 days on 5 days rations or 13 days on one days rations & were obliged to steal the rest or go with out & you never heard of a more desolate country. I do not believe you can find food enough in S.C. to keep a dozen chickens over winter, or shelter enough to cover them. I saw property destroyed until I was perfectly sick of it, & that for me to say in S.C. is considerable."…

@ Page 96 (from letter written circa April, 1865)
…"South Carolina may have been the cause of this whole thing but she has had an awful punishment. I have been thankful ever since I have been in the army that this war was south. You never can imagine a pillaged house, never – unless an army passes through your town & if this thing had been in the North I would Bushwack until every man was either dead or I was, if such scenes should be marched through Mich. I would never live as long as one of the invading army did. I do not blame the south & shall not if they do go to Guerrilla warfare."…

The scenes Brown witnessed during Sherman's Atlanta Campaign, and afterwards, left an indelible mark in the young soldier's mind. His penned descriptions clearly indicate he was one of Sherman's soldiers who abhorred the unbridled and ruinous behavior of the Union Army during the campaign and expressed some empathy towards the Southern people subjected to this conduct.

 

[Reconstructed Rebel]

Just my point of view, but I'm not sure of the purpose here. Is anyone going to pretend that looting, burning, and far worse things were not done by both armies (or any army that ever marched for that matter) into enemy territory?

Southern citizens suffered greatly because Sherman was virtually unopposed in his march. Shame on him for taking advantage of that, or shame on the government in Richmond for the way they conducted the war? The idea that it's the Yankee's fault because they didn't all act like proper gentlemen has run its course in my mind. Southerners need to admit we used every opportunity to give back as good as we got...and we had a lot of successes with that.

If Lee and Early had not been forced back south by Union armies, they would have cheerfully continued to strip the northern countryside of supplies, and in Early's case, demand ransoms in millions of dollars in today's money from towns threatened with being burned or sacked. Morgan on his 1863 raid didn't hold back either, and why would he? It's war, and it's not pretty. Sherman generally destroyed stuff rather than carry it off, but the civilians in both cases still were the losers.

 

[observator]

a bit ironic the Ga reliead on the US Army to exhile the Cherokees..so they could be despoiled of land they lived on
30 years later they were despoiled by the US Army of their foodstuffs,,,,

 

[GwilymT]

Ahh, enter the Native American move. You wouldn't be taking about the operation carried out to appease Georgia? Demanded by white Georgian southerns, executed by white Georgian militias and local government, with the blessing of a southern President would you?

This "point the finger to get the south off the hook" ploy is tired.

 

[Nathan Stuart]

Just my point of view, but I'm not sure of the purpose here.

Thought the purpose of including in the OP the sub-headline, ...'A newly discovered Union diary shows that Sherman's march was about as Ruthless as Southerners have always said it was'... , may have been to garner individual subjective views from participants on both sides of Sherman's application of 'total war' during this particular campaign. (But I could be wrong).

 

[SJU]

Here's a new academic study regarding the march rather than an article from a self professed right wing political publication:

https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3672&context=all_theses

American Heritage Magazine? Haven't seen it in years but thought it was non political?

 

[observator]

American heritage December 1978

From Atlanta To The Sea

A newly discovered Union diary shows that Sherman’s march was about as Ruthless as Southerners have always said it was

www.americanheritage.com

Civil Wa r Times Illustrated also had in the 1980's I think a transcriptiion of 1865 newspaper account from 1 of Terry Texas Rangers in the 1864 Atlanta campaign

File:Terry's Texas Rangers, c. 1863.jpg - Wikimedia Commons

commons.wikimedia.org

Ladd Diary goes from
Nov 13, 1864 to Dec 18, 1864

I found the CS article
Civil War Times Illustrated: Fort Pulaski and the Defense of Savannah 1985
"Shannon's Scouts on the Road to the sea" pp.42-44 {transcried from The Galveston "Weekly News" March 8, 1865)
Nov 18 1864 to Dec 18, 1864 pp.42-44
Also of Interest "Raid in Liberty County" pp.46-48

It can be found online pp.29-31 from the following source:

https://scholarworks.uttyler.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1049&context=cw_newstitles

 

[DixieRifles]

Sherman generally destroyed stuff rather than carry it off, but the civilians in both cases still were the losers.

That was his philosophy— take the war to the civilians so they will get sick of it.
Ive toured several antebellum homes and have heard stories of the destruction. Why burn homes??

 

[Reconstructed Rebel]

That was his philosophy— take the war to the civilians so they will get sick of it.
Ive toured several antebellum homes and have heard stories of the destruction. Why burn homes??

Because it was war and the wealthy plantation owners were the ones giving the most support to the Confederacy?

I've seen references to orders not to burn the homes of the poorer farmers, but any citizens who owned slaves or lied or attempted to deceive the soldiers often found their home in flames.

I'm in no way trying to say this wasn't devastating for civilians, of course it was. But I grew up believing that only Sherman's soldiers acted that way (curse them) and that is not the reality, so to keep playing the "but Sherman's March!" card to portray Southerners as victims rings hollow for me today. And that seems to be the only reason Southerners like to bring up the march. It certainly wasn't an example of Confederate superiority in anything.

Note a couple of the highlights of General Early's jaunts in 1863 and 1864 listed below. And keep in mind this was before Sherman's March to the Sea (November 15 - December 21, 1864). Was Early an evil man? No, he was fighting a war.

In Pennsylvania (1863) he threatened to burn down any home which harbored a fugitive slave.

On July 30, 1864, they burned more than 500 buildings in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, nominally in retaliation for Union Maj. Gen. David Hunter's burning VMI in June and the homes of three prominent Southern sympathizers in Jefferson County, West Virginia, earlier that month, as well as the Pennsylvania town's failure to heed his ransom demands (town leaders collecting door to door could only raise about $28,000 of the $100,000 in gold or $500,000 in greenbacks demanded, the local bank having sent its reserves out of town in anticipation)

Later, a rift developed between Early's two cavalry commanders because Marylander Johnson was loath to raze Cumberland and Hancock for likewise failing to meet ransom demands, because he saw McCausland's brigade commit war crimes while looting Chambersburg

Jubal Early - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[jackt62]

We all know that General Sherman has long been the whipping boy for what the "evil Yankees" did to the south. Making Sherman the poster child for the Union's reliance on "hard war" actually ignores the numerous occurrences of depredations committed by Union troops and units throughout much of the war, regardless of whether they were sanctioned or not. Some prime examples of southern towns that were looted and pillaged without any apparent military goal include Fredericksburg, Athens, Darien, and Alexandria. So the irony is that Sherman's March has been castigated hook, line, and sinker in that nasty category even though the March was designed to wreck havoc on legitimate southern infrastructure and war resources. Where there instances of individual depredations that went beyond permissible military actions during the March? Of course, and anyone who has studied military history and human conduct should not be surprised. As noted, bad behavior could be found in the fewer occasions when southern forces occupied northern soil. By 1864, in accordance with the intent of Grant and the Administration, the war was no longer limited to hostilities between two armed opponents; it had morphed into a larger struggle in which targets included industrial, food, production, transportation, and anything that remotely aided in the southern war effort. And that succeeded in helping the Union attain final victory.

 

[observator]

Ladd Diary goes from
Nov 13, 1864 to Dec 18, 1864

I found the CS article
Civil War Times Illustrated: Fort Pulaski and the Defense of Savannah 1985
"Shannon's Scouts on the Road to the sea" pp.42-44 {transcried from The Galveston "Weekly News" March 8, 1865)
Nov 18 1864 to Dec 18, 1864 pp.42-44
Also of Interest "Raid in Liberty County" pp.46-48

It can be found online pp.29-31 from the following source:

https://scholarworks.uttyler.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1049&context=cw_newstitles

I beleive in letting the facts speak for themselves-so that is why I placed together two contemporary accounts of the March to the sea..
.

 

[GwilymT]

When thinking of the march one has a different perspective when seeing these locations not as "homes" but rather as enslaved labor farms and cottage enslaved labor industries integral to and actively supporting the rebel war effort.

 

[observator]

8th Texas Cavalry aka Terry Texas Rangers

File:Terry's Texas Rangers, c. 1863.jpg - Wikimedia Commons

commons.wikimedia.org

Members of the Terry's Texas Rangers, ca. 1863. The men have been identified as Walter S. Wood, William Wyatt, Anthony D. Schumaker, William A. Lynch, and Peter L. Kendall, from left to right. All five men are wearing dark hats with a five pointed star pin at the front. Note: this is correct..