Being directly on this topic, I will repost this from an above thread.
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One book I've read that is directly on this topic is:
When Sherman Came: Southern Women and the “Great March” edited by Katharine M Jones Bobbs-Merrill Co 1964.
Jones has selected a series accounts by women who were in the Path of Sherman’s GA anc Carolina campaigns. Exactly what her selection process was I don’t know. Some accounts are from diaries, some from letters and some from recollections written after or possibly long after, we are given no indication.
The book is divided into the following sections with the number of accounts in ().
Atlanta to Milledgeville (7)
Sandersville to Chatham Co (11)
Savannah (8)
Savannah River to Lexington SC (9)
Columbia SC (16)
More Columbia SC (11)
Ridgeway to Cheraw SC (13)
Pee Dee River to Fayetteville NC (7)
Goldsboro to Chapel Hill NC (15)
Jones does not do much fact-checking or provide much background information on either the writer or the persons appearing in their account. At the least, some identification of Lt so and so or MR such and such is called for. Also, though the OR appears on the list of General Bibliography, Jones has not made much use of it determining which units or officers were in which towns on which days to compare with the account.
The accounts follow a general pattern. There is consternation at the approach of the Yanks, valuables are hidden, livestock moved out to the swamp in the care of a kinsman or trusted slave. The confederates retreat, of course stopping in for a hearty meal or two. The yanks arrive suddenly, rushing about always moving quickly entering the house, to search for weapons or rebs, looking through everything, breaking stuff, taking property. The women search out an officer to place a guard, which is generally given. The out buildings are often burnt, the smokehouse, larder, pantry, all sources of food and forage are cleaned out. The contents destroyed if not taken. At some point, the writer defies the yanks in some way, telling them off and saying they will never surrender. Very few accounts contain any first hand information about either assaults or the burning of houses (Columbia is an exception here.)
Gov Brown released the convicts from the State Penitentiary in Milledgeville:
page 29 Anna Maria Green
“... and on another train quite late the cadets passed and 150 convicts pardoned by the governor.” In other accounts the convicts were armed and put in the militia.
I read this book because I was told that it would "educate" me about the death and destruction brought down by Shermans men. The actual effect was rather the opposite.
A few examples of the more lurid events:
page 229 account of Julia Frances Gott
"I must tell you some of the outrages the Yankees have committed around here. An old man by the name of Brice lived in Fairfield district...The Yankees hung him because he would not tell where he had hid his money and silver."
page 297 account of Georgia Hicks
"
My courageous mother saw her husband, Doctor James Hicks, carried away in the night by the soldiers on the pretext of attending a sick man. She pled with him not to go but his one thought was to relieve suffering. He was carried far away and when he was brought back later, he had the appearance of a man that had almost seen death. These ruffians hung him by the neck twice, in their endeavor to secure information as to hidden valuables. They finally released their victim who refused to divulge his secrets. He never recovered from this terrible shock."
I was told these two accounts would "prove" Sherman killed civilians. Neither is a first hand account (ie neither Gott nor Hicks claims to have herself seen the incident), and Jones has included no additional information that would allow a discerning reader to determine the accuracy of the statements. But if we are to include these hearsay accounts as sufficient evidence to call a man a killer, Ms Jones book clearly gives the Confederate side the edge in murders committed:
page 38 account of Ella Mitchell
"Later in the evening, a skirmish occurred in which thirteen Federal soldiers were made prisoners. Captain Deason, one of the prisoners, was severely wounded, and was cared for at the home of Brother Anthony. The prisoners were brought into town and a barracks improvised in a store. During the night the sentries placed by General Wheeler's order were overpowered and rendered senseless before they could make an outcry....The eleven prisoners of war were silently stolen away to a field on the Flournay place and shot."
I was also told these accounts would "prove" widespread starvation and and diease in the wake of Sherman's March:
page 246 is Mary Elinor Bouknight Poppenheim's diary entry for March 1st 1865:
"
We are starving here; nothing left to eat but sorghum molasses and black shortbread."
page 256 the account of Esther Alden for March 12,1865. "Mama is greatly distressed and says famine is inevitable."
A large number of the accounts reveal that the confederate army was using the food of the civilians to feed its men. Therefore, destroying or confiscating food, hard as it may have been, was clearly within the bounds of the rules of war of the day. Ms Jones book contains no accounts of widespread starvation, though I have no doubt many citizens ate less than they were accustomed to eating for some time. Her accounts typically end with the departure of Sherman's army and do not address what may have happened in the following weeks and months, so they can in no way be considered definitive on this topic.
I wish to make a point regarding Ms Jones as an editor. In her lead-in to the account of Anna Maria Green [pg 28] she quotes the Savannah Daily News of 11/23/1864 as reporting the Federal Capture of Milledgeville and stating "
The State House, Governor's Mansion, and penitentiary were burned." Having read at least four eyewitnesses accounts which contradict this statement, including Anna Maria Green's, I decided to check it out.
According to:
http://www.milledgevillega.com/index4.html
The State House burned in 1941
. The Governor's Mansion "a National Historic Landmark....the home of 10 Georgia governors.....is open for tours 10:00am - 4:00pm"
Penitentiary Square. Selected as the location for the state prison in 1808, this square served its intended purpose for more than 50 years. The previously mentioned eyewitnesses stated the penitentiary was destroyed by Sherman.
Now why would Ms Jones, writing in 1964, use a Newspaper account from 1864 instead of merely checking the information herself? I would guess a Savannah paper from 1864 would be harder to obtain than the phone number of Milledgeville's Chamber of Commerce. The only reasons I can think of are incompetence or a desire to mislead. Ms Jones is hardly the only editor I've experienced engaged in this type of chicanery, but finding such an egregious instance, one contradicted by eyewitness accounts in her own book, makes me wonder about her competence, not to mention her widespread use of ellipsis in accounts that are 7,8 or even 10 pages long.
page 30 Anna Maria Green
“Papa then went in at once to see him [Gen Slocum]. He treated him very gentlemanly and volunteered a guard for the institution [State Asylum in Milledgeville]. All day Wednesday they were in crowds and the asylum would have suffered much loss of property but for the efficiency of one of our guards, a Mr Evelyn.
Thursday we had another guard, but before they reached us some of them had taken two of the mules, we think at the instigation of Tom who had gone to them.....The worst of their acts was committed to poor Mrs. N.—violence done an atrocity committed that ought to make her husband an enemy unto death. Poor woman. I fear she has been driven crazy.”
page 58 Nora N. Canning
quoting “One of the Negro Women”:
“
Marster...what kind of folks dese her yankees? Dey wont even let de dead rest in de grave....You know my chile I bury last week? Dey take em up and left em on top of the ground for de hog to root. What you tink of dat, sir?”
“Her story was true. WE found that the Vandals had gone to the graveyard and, seeing a new made grave, had dug down into it and taken up the little coffin containing a dead baby, no doubt supposing treasure had been buried there. When they discovered their mistake, they left it above ground...”
page 220 Nancy Armstrong Furmann
“Our Negroes behaved very well. Only one went off—old John who used to belong to your father.....There has been a good deal of insubordination among some in the neighborhood and district. A Company from Chilsom’s cavalry, of Cheatham’s Division, stopped on this side of the river and restored order in a good degree. Several have been shot and a great many severely whipped. Eight of Chisolm’s cavalry took dinner here about a week ago, and they told me that in the fork in Richland, the Negroes had taken possession. Had divided the land among them and gone to work for themselves.”
page 230 Account of Julia Frances Gott
“
I tell you it was amusing to see the men from Chester skedaddling when the Yanks were coming, every one went to the woods. Wheeler’s men killed sixteen yanks I hear in retaliation for whipping Mrs. R. Oh Ann, I do think the idea of a lady being stripped and whipped by those villians is outrageous, the most awful thing I have heard of....”
page 263 Ester Alden
Alden’s family had left their plantation for about two weeks or so to avoid the Yanks. Upon her return she writes:
“Never was a man more astonished than Mr. Thad was when he came this morning and found us here. He never imagined ladies would attempt the journey up here at this time. Soon after he came the country people began to drop in, and after staying a long time in their fashion one said, ‘Well I would like to know when the auction is to begin.’ Mamma said very quietly, ‘there will be no auction her to-day,’ upon which they all left. It seems Mr Thad had announced that he would sell at 12 to-day all the things remaining on the place, and the country people had assembled for that purpose. When mamma asked Mr. Thad the meaning of his conduct, he replied that he had done what he thought best in ordering the Negroes to leave the place, that ‘no one in the country had provisions for themselves, and to have a lot of starving ******s among them wouldn’t help matters.’ Mamma told him she had arranged about their provisions and would see that they were not in any danger of starving, that she had no intention of allowing them to be driven off the palce, adn that in future she would dispense with his services.”
page 298 Cornelia Phillips Spencer
“
When within a mile of the capital they saw the flames rising to a great height above the station house, which had been first plundered, then set on fire by stragglers from the retreating forces of General Wheeler”
page 317
“Guards were placed at every house immediately, and with a promptness that was needful; for one residence, standing a little apart, was entered by a squad of bummers in advance of the guard, and in less than ten minutes the lower rooms, store rooms, and bed-rooms were over-hauled and plundered with a swift and business-like thoroughness only attainable by long and extensive practice. A guard arriving, they left, but their plunder was not restored. The village guards, belonging to the Ninth Michigan Cavalry, deserve special mention as being a decent set of men, who, while they were here, behaved with civility and propriety...”
page 320 Lucy Phillips Russell
“
There were many queer hiding places sought for jewelry and silver, in view of the stories of looting that had preceded the entrance of the troops to the village. Mattresses and feather beds had becomes too obvious. Dr WP Mallett, the village physician, put his treasures into a bag and lowered it into his deep well. Judge William H Battle buried his silver service under a maple tree in the woods back of his home, then forgot which tree guarded the secret...”
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