Sherman's Letter to the Mayor of Atlanta

[BaalChatzaf]

This is in response to a discussion else where on the Civil War, the War against Southron Rebellion and Treason.

Please read this for the full text of the letter written to the Mayor of Atlanta by William T. Shermn:

http://www.rjgeib.com/thoughts/sherman/she...rn-atlanta.html

Ba'al Chatzaf

[Brant Gaede]

This is in response to a discussion else where on the Civil War, the War against Southron Rebellion and Treason.

Please read this for the full text of the letter written to the Mayor of Atlanta by William T. Shermn:

http://www.rjgeib.com/thoughts/sherman/she...rn-atlanta.html

The SOB was a hell of a writer. Essentially he said the knife was falling, stop standing under it.

--Brant

[Chris Grieb]

Victor Davis Hanson has a book about three great generals one of whom was Sherman. One of the other two was George Patton. Another was a Greek who fought the Spartans.

The Siege of Atlanta and the March to the Sea shorten the Civil War. One of the things Sherman found was that all the Southerns all seemed to think now the War was a bad idea.

The book also makes the point that Patton shorten the Second World War and had Patton been provided with enough gasoline might have shorten it more.

[BaalChatzaf]

Victor Davis Hanson has a book about three great generals one of whom was Sherman. One of the other two was George Patton. Another was a Greek who fought the Spartans.

The Spartan commander was King Leonidas.

Of Sherman.s march through South Carolina (which made his march through Georgia seem like a Sunday School picnic by comparison), Confederate General Joseph Johnson said of Sherman's army: Not since the time of Julius Ceasar has there been such an Army.

Wm. T. Sherman was the American general who discovered, nay he invented, total war. He discovered that the key to putting an end to the war was to make life for the civilians as miserable as possible.

Ba'al Chatzaf

[Chris Grieb]

Baal; On your last post we are in agreement.

Thanks for the name of the Spartan general.

I have to mention my favorite comment about South Carolina before the Civil War. That South Carolina was too small to be a county and too big to be an insane asylum

[sbeaulieu]

This is in response to a discussion else where on the Civil War, the War against Southron Rebellion and Treason.

Please read this for the full text of the letter written to the Mayor of Atlanta by William T. Shermn:

http://www.rjgeib.com/thoughts/sherman/she...rn-atlanta.html

The SOB was a hell of a writer. Essentially he said the knife was falling, stop standing under it.

--Brant

Ba'al,

The link provided is no longer available. Do you have an alternate link?

~ Shane

[BaalChatzaf]

This is in response to a discussion else where on the Civil War, the War against Southron Rebellion and Treason.

Please read this for the full text of the letter written to the Mayor of Atlanta by William T. Shermn:

http://www.rjgeib.com/thoughts/sherman/she...rn-atlanta.html

The SOB was a hell of a writer. Essentially he said the knife was falling, stop standing under it.

--Brant

Ba'al,

The link provided is no longer available. Do you have an alternate link?

~ Shane

Try http://www.sagehistory.net/civilwar/docs/ShermanAtl.htm

Ba'al Chatzaf

[Mindy Newton]

This is in response to a discussion else where on the Civil War, the War against Southron Rebellion and Treason.

Please read this for the full text of the letter written to the Mayor of Atlanta by William T. Shermn:

http://www.rjgeib.com/thoughts/sherman/she...rn-atlanta.html

The SOB was a hell of a writer. Essentially he said the knife was falling, stop standing under it.

--Brant

Ba'al,

The link provided is no longer available. Do you have an alternate link?

~ Shane

Try http://www.sagehistory.net/civilwar/docs/ShermanAtl.htm

Ba'al Chatzaf

I happen to have an ancestor who fought with Sherman during his march through Georgia. His name was Pliny Trumbo. We have his civil war diary. The diary shows a lot of misery, but no political or military thought of significance.

= Mindy

[sbeaulieu]

Ba'al - That was a great letter. Appreciate you sharing it with us.

Mindy - It's amazing that you have a Civil War journal. To see something handwritten that long ago would bring me chills. Especially knowing it was from family!

~ Shane

[algernonsidney]

Here is a summary of Sherman's attitude, which applied to everyone he disagree with:

"We are not going to let a few thieving, ragged Indians check and stop the progress of the railroads.... I regard the railroad as the most important element now in progress to facilitate the military interests of our Frontier. We must act with vindictive earnestness against the Sioux, even to their extermination, men, women and children. (The Sioux must) feel the superior power of the Government. During an assault, the soldiers cannot pause to distinguish between male and female, or even discriminate as to age."

[Mindy Newton]

Ba'al - That was a great letter. Appreciate you sharing it with us.

Mindy - It's amazing that you have a Civil War journal. To see something handwritten that long ago would bring me chills. Especially knowing it was from family!

~ Shane

Coincidentally, he mentions being in a city very near where I grew up, a place we visited often!

= Mindy

[Brant Gaede]

Here is a summary of Sherman's attitude, which applied to everyone he disagree with:

"We are not going to let a few thieving, ragged Indians check and stop the progress of the railroads.... I regard the railroad as the most important element now in progress to facilitate the military interests of our Frontier. We must act with vindictive earnestness against the Sioux, even to their extermination, men, women and children. (The Sioux must) feel the superior power of the Government. During an assault, the soldiers cannot pause to distinguish between male and female, or even discriminate as to age."

Ah. A war criminal! Is that a baby? Throw it up and catch it on your knife! There was a terrible genocide against American Indians, absolutely. Disease, starvation and bullets. Disease did the worst damage, but mostly it wasn't part of the genocide which essentially consisted of the God-given right of the white man to kill a red man.

--Brant

[BaalChatzaf]

Here is a summary of Sherman's attitude, which applied to everyone he disagree with:

"We are not going to let a few thieving, ragged Indians check and stop the progress of the railroads.... I regard the railroad as the most important element now in progress to facilitate the military interests of our Frontier. We must act with vindictive earnestness against the Sioux, even to their extermination, men, women and children. (The Sioux must) feel the superior power of the Government. During an assault, the soldiers cannot pause to distinguish between male and female, or even discriminate as to age."

Union General Phillip Sheridan went one better: The only good Indian is a dead Indian.

But it was Andrew Jackson, the stone killer, who really implemented the program with the march of the Cherokee to Oklahoma Territory. Half the Cherokee nation perished on that march (The Trail of Tears), the American version of the Bataan Death March. What goes around comes around. Thomas Jefferson feared divine retribution for the Sin of Slavery. He was right. God in his Wrath gave us a 2000 mile border with Mexico and gave us Puerto Rico as a booby prize.

Ba'al Chatzaf

[Guyau]

.

Modern technology enables illumination of the scene at the Gettysburg Address on 19 November 1863.

Finding the Real Lincoln

[BaalChatzaf]

Here is a summary of Sherman's attitude, which applied to everyone he disagree with:

"We are not going to let a few thieving, ragged Indians check and stop the progress of the railroads.... I regard the railroad as the most important element now in progress to facilitate the military interests of our Frontier. We must act with vindictive earnestness against the Sioux, even to their extermination, men, women and children. (The Sioux must) feel the superior power of the Government. During an assault, the soldiers cannot pause to distinguish between male and female, or even discriminate as to age."

Ah. A war criminal! Is that a baby? Throw it up and catch it on your knife! There was a terrible genocide against American Indians, absolutely. Disease, starvation and bullets. Disease did the worst damage, but mostly it wasn't part of the genocide which essentially consisted of the God-given right of the white man to kill a red man.

--Brant

The 19th century was the time of American genocide. We no longer do that. You will notice we were at our greatest when we were at our most ferocious. Is there a lesson in there for us?

[PDS]

.

Modern technology enables illumination of the scene at the Gettysburg Address on 19 November 1863.

Finding the Real Lincoln

Thanks for posting this Stephen. Fascinating photos. Interesting to see AL's receding hairline too, which of course is not something one sees in the portraits.

[caroljane]

Here is a summary of Sherman's attitude, which applied to everyone he disagree with:

"We are not going to let a few thieving, ragged Indians check and stop the progress of the railroads.... I regard the railroad as the most important element now in progress to facilitate the military interests of our Frontier. We must act with vindictive earnestness against the Sioux, even to their extermination, men, women and children. (The Sioux must) feel the superior power of the Government. During an assault, the soldiers cannot pause to distinguish between male and female, or even discriminate as to age."

Union General Phillip Sheridan went one better: The only good Indian is a dead Indian.

But it was Andrew Jackson, the stone killer, who really implemented the program with the march of the Cherokee to Oklahoma Territory. Half the Cherokee nation perished on that march (The Trail of Tears), the American version of the Bataan Death March. What goes around comes around. Thomas Jefferson feared divine retribution for the Sin of Slavery. He was right. God in his Wrath gave us a 2000 mile border with Mexico and gave us Puerto Rico as a booby prize.

Ba'al Chatzaf