Thursday, March 28, AD 2024 4:15pm

To Make Georgia Howl

 

On October 9, 1864 Sherman was still in pursuit of Hood but he recognized the futility of such operations to protect his railroad supply lines, as he made clear in a telegram to Grant on that date:

 

It will be a physical impossibility to protect the roads, now that Hood, Forrest, Wheeler, and the whole batch of devils, are turned loose without home or habitation. I think Hood’s movements indicate a diversion to the end of the Selma & Talladega road, at Blue Mountain, about sixty miles southwest of Rome, from which he will threaten Kingston, Bridgeport, and Decatur, Alabama. I propose that we break up the railroad from Ohattanooga forward, and that we strike out with our wagons for Milledgeville, Millen, and Savannah. Until we can repopulate Georgia, it is useless for us to occupy it; but the utter destruction of its roads, houses, and people, will cripple their military resources. By attempting to hold the roads, we will lose a thousand men each month, and will gain no result. I can make this march, and make Georgia howl! We have on hand over eight thousand head of cattle and three million rations of bread, but no corn. We can find plenty of forage in the interior of the State.

Sherman had learned in his march to Meridian, Mississippi how easy it was to live off the land in the dead of winter in February 1864 in an agriculturally rich country.  How much easier to do so after the harvest had just been gathered, as would be the case in a fall march across Georgia.  Union military operations had been hampered and limited since the outset of the War by the necessity of maintaining and protecting Union supply lines in the teeth of aggressive Confederate raiding.  Now Sherman realized that such protection of supply lines was not necessary if the goal was to destroy rather than to hold territory.  He had a war winning theory, and he would soon get to put it into practice.

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T. Shaw
T. Shaw
Thursday, October 9, AD 2014 7:37am

Gen’l Sherman was a military genius. He held an interesting opinion regarding the press.
.

“I hate newspapermen. They come into camp and pick up their camp rumors and print them as facts. I regard them as spies, which, in truth, they are. If I killed them all there would be news from Hell before breakfast.”

Judy
Judy
Thursday, October 9, AD 2014 11:09am

I’m not really sure what the point of this post is. I’m from the south, where we still refer to him as “that low-life bastard, Sherman.” Sherman abandoned his honor by striking at civilian property and turning a blind eye to the crimes of his soldiers.

Mico Razon
Mico Razon
Thursday, October 9, AD 2014 2:21pm

Echoing Judy’s comments, how will this blog help non-Catholic Southerners find the true religion with posts like this? If I can bring more Southerners to the Catholic Church by bringing up history, I would do it. If I can bring more Southerners to the Catholic Church by not bringing up history, I would do it.

In my opinion, bringing back memories of Sherman and his ilk does nothing to promote the Catholic Faith in the South. It’s already an uphill battle, don’t make it any harder with Sherman on your back.

Dante alighieri
Admin
Thursday, October 9, AD 2014 2:43pm

I’m not sure if Mico and Judy are new to this blog, but there’s probably a Civil War post on this site just about every week, if not more frequently. Don and myself are both history buffs, and then some, as are many of the people who read this blog. Removing the Civil War posts from this blog would be like removing the movie reviews from Ace of Spades.

Walter N Neta
Walter N Neta
Thursday, October 9, AD 2014 3:06pm

“[B]ringing back memories of Sherman and his ilk does nothing” – not to nit pick but I cannot help it; were you even alive to have said memories? No, then you have no memories of Sherman and his ilk. You do have memories of what you were taught be it correct or not.

Mary De Voe
Saturday, October 11, AD 2014 5:22am

Judy and Mico: Southern plantation owners were civilian collateral collaborators. Andersonville was worse, if that is possible, than any concentration camp run by Hitler. Had the South fed the Union prisoners of war at Andersonville, the South would not have incurred Sherman’s March to the Sea. There was enough food for everybody. The Southerners refused to share. The South’s lack of humanity brought the wrath of God down on their heads.
See also:
February 27, 1864: First Union Prisoners Arrive at Andersonville
Published Thursday, February 27, A.D. 2014 | By Donald R. McClarey

One hundred and fifty years ago Union prisoners began arriving at the Andersonville prison camp. A blot on American honor is the callous way in which many prisoners of war were treated during our Civil War, north and south. (For a Union prison camp that had a death rate of 25%, google Elmira prison camp, or as the Confederates imprisoned there referred to it, Helmira.) 45,000 Union soldiers would be held at Andersonville and 13,000 of them would die through starvation, bad water, no sanitation and disease. Accounts of what went on inside Andersonville beggar description. Jesus wept, sums up the reaction of any decent soul to this abomination. See the accompanying post for today for the grim details, and for a shining example of humanity by a man motivated by God’s love to love his enemies.
– See more at: https://the-american-catholic.com/2014/02/#sthash.OME6yUvt.dpuf

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