the Sherman torch

donna

Brev. Brig. Gen'l
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The Sherman torch was the name given by General Robert E. Lee to Major General W.T. Sherman's policy of burning his way through Mississippi in 1863. Sherman called it "a swath of desolation fifty miles broad across the State of Mississippi which the present generation will not forget." Lee said three-fourths of the destruction was to private property, and he put the total damage at $5 million.

From The Language of the Civil War by John D. Wright page 269.
 
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