Remembering William T. Sherman
on his 200th birthday
American Thinker,
by
Monica Showalter
Original Article
Posted By: PageTurner,
2/8/2020 8:43:37 AM
At a time when Confederate monuments are being pulled down, it would make sense to think that the military geniuses who defeated the real live Confederates might in conversity be honored, right?
Not in an age of idiocy.
So, the 200th birthday of General William T. Sherman, destroyer of Atlanta and much of the South across the Civil War, the master strategist who, alongside U.S. Grant. led the Union forces to victory, goes virtually unnoted.
It shows that the Confederate statue pulldown isn't really about winners or losers.
Reply 1 - Posted by:
Ida Lou Pino 2/8/2020 9:10:41 AM (No. 311910)
Contrary to popular pronunciation - - the great general did not say "War is HELL" - -
- - he said "War IS hell."
Try to remember that.
8 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
Ming 2/8/2020 9:26:41 AM (No. 311932)
My favorite Sherman quote because even back then the media were craven, treasonous jerks:
"If I had my choice I would kill every reporter in the world, but I am sure we would be getting reports from Hell before breakfast."
26 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
kiwinews 2/8/2020 9:49:00 AM (No. 311964)
I was born and raised in Atlanta, forgive me if I remember but fail to celebrate his work there.
26 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
Rather Read 2/8/2020 10:23:51 AM (No. 311993)
It's so true the wokesters hate all history. Maybe that's why I love history so much. I am about as un-woke as you can get.
5 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
bgarrett 2/8/2020 10:28:01 AM (No. 311997)
Sherman waged war on women and children and will NEVER be forgiven
16 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
obdurate 2/8/2020 10:32:59 AM (No. 312001)
Sherman was not afraid to win!
2 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
FleetUSA 2/8/2020 10:33:59 AM (No. 312003)
You can look it up, but in 1859 he was the first superintendent at the Louisiana State Seminary of Learning & Military Academy. Now known as LSU.
3 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
snakeoil 2/8/2020 10:34:51 AM (No. 312004)
Sherman was obviously a Republican. The dims celebrated his birthday earlier this week by burning The Constitution. His middle name is Tecumseh who was a Shawnee Injun Chief. So he was more Injun than Lying Lizzie Warren. Have no desire to refight the War of Northern Aggression. But freeing the slaves was never the origin of the war. Abe freed the slaves to prevent England and other foreign powers from entering the war on the side of The South. The cause of the war was The South didn't want to becomes slaves to the federal government. Am not into genealogy. Am not responsible for what anyone other than me did or didn't do. But in the War Between the states my ancestors fell into three categories: Those for fought to free the South, those for fought for the feds, and the ones who hid out in the woods until the thing blew over. But all of us are losing the War of Political Correctness. Expect Southern Fried Chicken to be replaced with sushi.
15 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
Mad Dog 2/8/2020 10:38:48 AM (No. 312008)
Oh, he will always be remembered in Georgia as the war criminal dog he was. He turned his drunken mob loose on the innocent, starving, and defenseless citizens as they raped, robbed, and murdered their way from Tennessee to Savanah, and back up through the Carolinas. Destroying everything they couldn't steal, enclouding homes and livestock. I do believe that if Lincoln had not been assassinated, he would have hung the SOB himself.
15 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
jacksin5 2/8/2020 10:49:33 AM (No. 312020)
Sherman was the epitome of what was to later be named "Total War". Civilians and non- combatants, were no longer exempt from the ravages of war.
6 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
fayebeck 2/8/2020 10:55:53 AM (No. 312029)
I suggest that the sore head losing rebels here read Victor Davis Hanson's essay on the greatest General of the War of Southern Stupidity. William T. Sherman.
5 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
StormCnter 2/8/2020 11:06:43 AM (No. 312042)
And I suggest, #12, that many of our ancestors suffered greatly from Sherman's depredations. If I'm a "sorehead", I stand proudly as a Daughter of the Confederacy (and of the Daughters of the American Revolution, but that's another story).
17 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
felixcat 2/8/2020 11:12:31 AM (No. 312055)
I would like to see some authoritative citations about allegations of rapes of the women along the March to the Sea. I am sure it happened but was not policy. I don't believe Sherman would have ever encouraged such behavior if only because of the time period.
But like the way we fought the Japanese in World War II. You started it and we will end the war on our terms. Sorry proud daughters and sons of the Confederacy.
7 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
JHHolliday 2/8/2020 12:08:25 PM (No. 312104)
I don't think Sherman actually ordered his men to rape and pillage but discipline was apparently way too loose on the part of his officers. I have a copy of a letter written by a Union lieutenant to his wife that he has managed to 'acquire' over fifty 'fine' watches. Burning and robbing civilian homes and, in many cases, homes of people who voted against secession was cruel and unnecessary. Many southerners were against slavery but were also afraid of what might happen if you suddenly freed over two million mostly illiterate and unskilled people with no means of support on their own.
An interesting fact....Sherman and his old enemy, Joseph E. Johnston, were close friends after the war and frequently dined together. Johnston died of pneumonia he caught while standing hatless in the rain at Sherman's funeral.
8 people like this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
MattMusson 2/8/2020 12:57:43 PM (No. 312152)
Sherman was pro slavery and violently anti Semitic. He made war on American civilians. He should have been Court Marshalled and HUNG!
5 people like this.
Reply 16 - Posted by:
Krause 2/8/2020 1:06:36 PM (No. 312165)
Keep in mind Truman's tactics in ending the war with Japan.
2 people like this.
Reply 17 - Posted by:
Sam1 2/8/2020 1:37:47 PM (No. 312180)
From Lincoln's letter to Horace Greeley (Aug 22, 1862) :
http://housedivided.dickinson.edu/sites/lincoln/letter-to-horace-greeley-august-22-1862/
"My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union. I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more whenever I shall believe doing more will help the cause. I shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors; and I shall adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to be true views."
5 people like this.
Reply 18 - Posted by:
texaspast 2/8/2020 1:54:54 PM (No. 312199)
Some families whose ancestors were in Georgia during the war have long memories. They passed on the stories of the depredations of the soldiers (and camp followers) on Sherman's march. Many of these have never been written down. It is one thing to seek revenge if attacked by a foreign force. But this was calculated violence against the civilian population that the North claimed was NOT a foreign country, but a part of the USA - and they were willing to kill, rape and plunder to make sure they stayed (and died) a part of the USA. I'm as much a patriot of the USA as you can get. But W.T. Sherman was a murdering, despicable low-life. Sherman's own letter to one of his fellow officers said "We are not only fighting armies, but a hostile people, and must make old and young, rich and poor, feel the hard hand of war, as well as their organized armies." From all appearances, he took great pleasure in doing so. Yep, a hero.
9 people like this.
Reply 19 - Posted by:
red1066 2/8/2020 2:00:56 PM (No. 312203)
Sherman was on his way to Charleston South Carolina which was viewed as the center of the Confederacy since that's where the Civil War started with the firing on Fort Sumter. Many of the great plantation homes were burned to the ground during Sherman's march. There are a couple left just outside of Charleston. The war ended before Sherman's troops got to Charleston S.C., so these homes were spared. If in Charleston, taking a tour through one these homes is a must.
2 people like this.
Don't know if it's true but I once read that Sherman also stated that something akin to: "War is not pretty, and the best way to prevent the next one is to make this one as ugly as possible." Maybe the second clause was a corollary to his "War is hell" quote.
1 person likes this.
Reply 21 - Posted by:
MissMann 2/8/2020 2:57:56 PM (No. 312259)
I'm happy to see that not everyone thinks the unconstitutional war on our southern states was wonderful. Ridding America of the scourge of slavery and preserving the union of states are/were admirable goals, but shredding the Constitution was a terrible--and totally unnecessary!--way to go about it. It pains me to see conservatives support Lincoln and his bunch.
8 people like this.
Reply 22 - Posted by:
DaddyO 2/8/2020 3:55:42 PM (No. 312312)
We used to live just down the road from a plantation home in rural SC that was spared by Sherman, probably because a woman whose husband had died owned and ran the plantation.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keziah_Goodwyn_Hopkins_Brevard_House
Age finally did the old house in, the house was so decrepit it was completely demolished just last year..
0 people like this.
Reply 23 - Posted by:
Rumblehog 2/8/2020 5:19:40 PM (No. 312369)
Our great-grandfather was in Sherman's Army, but was wounded at the Battle of Resaca, GA and sent home before the raping and pillaging began. Sherman's war crimes should be re-investigated by a Military Tribunal, and he should be disgraced forever in American history for the actions he and his command fomented against fellow Americans. Grant and Lincoln should be tarnished by his crimes, as well.
6 people like this.
Reply 24 - Posted by:
49 Ford 2/8/2020 6:55:56 PM (No. 312422)
The Civil War was, at its core, brought about by the existence of slavery and the need for its abolition. The individual motivations of men were all over the lot, but the overriding fact is that the war would never have come to be if slavery had not existed.
The Confederacy of 1860-61, organized for the preservation and EXPANSION of slavery, was a bad idea. And our nation - north and south - paid a heavy price. Sherman's excesses, and I am sure there were many, are the inexcusable but to be expected products of total war.
So where are we headed today, with half the country convinced that killing children in the womb - and beyond - is a mere "choice"? I'm glad I am an old guy, and may God bless and keep President Trump.
2 people like this.
Reply 25 - Posted by:
doctorfixit 2/9/2020 11:12:55 PM (No. 313469)
"War is the remedy our enemies have chosen, and I say, let us give them all they want of it".
True of Democrats then, and true of today's Democrats as well.
The war between Freedom and Totalitarian Socialism will not be resolved by politics.
One will triumph, the other will be eradicated.
0 people like this.
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It goes to show that wokesters don't like any history, not just Confederate history.