- Joined
- Dec 28, 2008
- Location
- Pennsylvania
We've sometimes heatedly discussed here the significance, the cruelty and the strategy behind Sherman's March to the Sea and his scorched earth policies in 1864. However, I think the Shenandoah Valley Campaign of 1864, conducted by Sheridan, was perhaps smaller in distance but no less brutal, and no less important.
Grant knew that until the Shenandoah Valley was secured, Washington DC would never be safe. He gave Sheridan free reign to accomplish this: make the Valley "a desert", and "a barren waste." Sheridan burned thousands of barns and homesteads, and decimated crops, as he and Early clashed again and again. Women and children were not spared the assault. This culminated in the Union victory Battle of Cedar Creek in October 1864.
My point is this: Sherman's campaign seems to have gotten most of the attention, but Sheridan's Valley Campaign was as brutal and made to humiliate and retaliate just as Sherman's was. Like Sherman, Sheridan was able to "hand" Lincoln a Christmas gift of a capitol, but Sheridan's gift was no less important. With the Shenandoah Valley in Union control finally, Washington was no longer in immediate danger.
I don't feel, IMHO, that the Valley Campaign of 1864 was any less important than Sherman's March. In fact, it's interesting that Stonewall Jackson, in 1862 before his brillant Valley Campaign, said, "If this Valley is lost, Virginia is lost."
Just my thoughts.
Pam
Grant knew that until the Shenandoah Valley was secured, Washington DC would never be safe. He gave Sheridan free reign to accomplish this: make the Valley "a desert", and "a barren waste." Sheridan burned thousands of barns and homesteads, and decimated crops, as he and Early clashed again and again. Women and children were not spared the assault. This culminated in the Union victory Battle of Cedar Creek in October 1864.
My point is this: Sherman's campaign seems to have gotten most of the attention, but Sheridan's Valley Campaign was as brutal and made to humiliate and retaliate just as Sherman's was. Like Sherman, Sheridan was able to "hand" Lincoln a Christmas gift of a capitol, but Sheridan's gift was no less important. With the Shenandoah Valley in Union control finally, Washington was no longer in immediate danger.
I don't feel, IMHO, that the Valley Campaign of 1864 was any less important than Sherman's March. In fact, it's interesting that Stonewall Jackson, in 1862 before his brillant Valley Campaign, said, "If this Valley is lost, Virginia is lost."
Just my thoughts.
Pam