The civil was was considered the first modern war and Sherman understood destroying the material support and invading the South would undermine the morale of the Army of Virgina.
Strictly speaking, the burning of Atlanta was mostly Hood's fault. His troops set fire to provisions and positions, which then spread. Sherman wasn't exactly in a hurry to put it out, but he didn't start it.
@@fatpowerfulNo. He was depriving the Condferacy of wealth as soon a possible. The majority of mortality in the south was not in the battlefield but of malnutrition. Hyper-inflation of food prices was major contributor to the down fall of the confederacy. This is a tactic now being used by the US against Russia because of the current Russo-Ukrainian War and Iran. However, the US treasury is weak in punishing sanction violations due to bribes.
General Sherman actually possessed much integrity, often making efforts to spare the Southern civilians. He viewed the wealthy plantation owners as part of the problem…to which he showed less mercy.
Too bad the Plains Indians didn’t feel that way. Following the war, he headed west to wage total war on them, take their land, and nearly annihilate all of the bison. All of this at the behest of the great and wonderful “Honest Abe” Lincoln. Railroad expansion and the discovery of gold brought out the colossal ugliness of the very men who purportedly fought against slavery. Hypocrites, all of them.
"When Georgia Howled," is a video I've avoided watching for years. At nearly an hour's run time - it takes more than a notion to commit to such - especially knowing the scorched earth policy that General Sherman employed. Souls suffered for many years after he passed through.... So, I thank your team for condensing this harsh story. I didn't realize how much the media linked Sherman to insanity - and I had forgotten his own statement about Grant supporting him when he was crazy - and how Sherman, in turn, supported Grant when he was drunk. Both men knew the depths of severe depression - which I can relate to. I deplore the cruel actions these men took to end the war - but I cannot condemn them. "Total War": that title greeted me when I returned home after failing at college. My younger brother had been assigned that book in high school while I was gone. War isn't hell - but it is a terrible precursor. And with wars going on in Ukraine and Gaza, gang warfare in Haiti and the streets of the U.S. - it's more than evident that humankind has not learned its lesson and won't until Christ returns....
Sherman believed that only total war would ultimately end the suffering sooner and that more lives would ultimately be spared. In WW2 the Allies fought total war for the same reason. Simply dubbing a campaign as criminal is facile.
Let's leave out the Civil War and talk about him after, he is on a council called the indian peace group formed by an act of Congress on July 20, 1867 "to establish peace with certain Indian tribes." Sherman makes peace deals with the following tribes the Comanche, Kiowa, Arapaho, Kiowa-Apache, Cheyenne, Lakota, Navajo, Snake, Sioux, and Bannock, breaks his word and signature and it starts with the black hills a violation of a government deal made on natives already once removed, then decided that massacring them and sending the children to boarding schools is a great idea, then decided he's going to starve them and quoted Sherman tecumseh every dead buffalo means a starved Indian and starts a program cash for just the hide as proof, and New Yorker go west on buffalo kills for fun example bill Cody and Major General Phillip Sheridan, the man with the task of forcing Native Americans off the Great Plains and onto reservations, had come along with him and a mob of new Yorkers. This was a leisure hunt, but Sheridan also viewed the extermination of buffalo and his victory over the Native Americans, buffalo soldiers spent 20 years in over 171 so called battles like Wounded Knee they were there against innocent natives yeah this stuff is crimes against humanity. Sherman tecumseh who doesn't deserve the name of the great Shawnee warrior chief, went total warfare on the south with no problem on civilians and he didn't even consider natives people the man was a lunatic
So? The "native amercans" were a stone age level society who was of no use for the development of humanity. As is natural they were concured by a superior culture. As it should be. No loss.
@@AndreasGlad-rq7vx whatever dude make excuses for war crimes, native Americans were civilized people, they even fought on both sides of the Civil War ever hear of the 5 civilized tribes? So there civilized enough to fight and die for use, but not enough because they have a different way of living, weren't Christians for the most part you might of well just said like that, I read part of your comment and had to stop, because I'm not trying to hear that racist garbage, what are you a descendant of a Buffalo Soldier, and have carried a generational thing against natives? There is nothing a person could say that would excuse the behaviors of the men during the time when slave owning Grant and Sherman massacred natives and turned starving people and Extinction of the buffalo into a paid sport, let me guess you collected CDV photos and bill Cody is your favorite.
@@AndreasGlad-rq7vx yeah dude make excuses for war crimes, and call people uncivilized only because they are different, so even before Sherman starts to massacre native Americans, they had several tribes that fought in the Civil War called the 5 civilized tribes, that is some racist nonsense you're saying, so you lost the argument is he criminal, you don't have to be all racist about it, how about yeah your correct.
Sherman did not do anything worse than when Hitler flattened Warsaw or Stalin created famine and death of women and children with his Holodomor against Ukraine. Sherman encoraged slaves to join him during his march but left them to be recaptured and starve by denying the access to the pontoon bridge as they closed in on Savannah as they were short of food even though the 600 slaves only accounted for 1% of his 60,000 troops. Some slaves drowned trying to cross the river as they feared being recaptured or starving but this is not talked about much. Sherman did authorize a firing squad and his troops stole valubles like silverware from the women & children who's homes they burnt to the ground after taking all their food & livestock, leaving them to starve. One documentary I recently watched quoted Sherman saying, once I destroyed the railroad hubs in Atlanta the south lost their ability to transport weapons and supplies, but Sherman went on to terrorize defenseless women & children anyways. Sherman is considered the father of total war targeting civilians like Hitler, Japan and Stalin did. The allies in WW2 did the same, but only after the Axis powers did so. As a Yankee, I consider Sherman a war criminal who went nuts and think Lincoln was wrong and ruthless to approve such barbarism.
“Sherman was the most successful of union officers in the civil war. The claims of "unbounded licenses" of Sherman's soldiers in Georgia were greatly exaggerated” - Robert E Lee
@@Legamster3584 Thank goodness someone came on here with some decent information. Thank you. As to the person to whom you replied, I've one thing to say. Ft. Pillow.
@@danielbruns1675 Those words came straight from the mouth of Robert E. Lee, a Confederate general in the Civil War. Even though you probably know that.
@@Legamster3584 Yes. Just like he refused to be buried in his uniform, and how he didn't want statues of himself as a Confederate. (By memory, he may have been against all Confederate memorials.)
Post war, with the Indian tribes, certainly. In the Civil War, no. All he did was engage in the same warfare the South tried, but effectively. He did what he could to avoid civilian casualties, but ultimately his goal was victory for the Union and for what he believed to be the progress of civilisation. I have no doubt I'd hate him as a person if I met him, but it's hard to have sympathy for slavers.
“Sherman was the most successful of union officers in the civil war. The claims of "unbounded licenses" of Sherman's soldiers in Georgia were greatly exaggerated” - Robert E Lee
“Sherman was the most successful of union officers in the civil war. The claims of "unbounded licenses" of Sherman's soldiers in Georgia were greatly exaggerated” - Robert E Lee
