I think we can whip them in Alabama and it may be Georgia, but the Devils seem to have a determination that cannot but be admired. No amount of poverty or adversity seems to shake their faith. Slaves gone, wealth & luxury gone, money worthless, starvation in view within a period of two or three years, are Causes enough to make the bravest tremble, yet I see no signs of let up. Some few deserters are plenty tired of war, but the masses determined to fight it out.
Sherman pays a tribute to the Confederates in a letter dated to his wife March 12, 1864
Brave men served on both sides. Thank God, today we are blessed with such men and women in uniform.
What will happen today when liberal progressives start to use violence to force their homosexualism and gender equality policies down our throats? The blood bath of 1860 to 1865 wiill be mild in comparison.
Exactly when did Sherman say this? It must have been early in the war.
His campaign thru Georgia and the Carolinas seems to have had the desired effect of breaking Southern morale, undermining confidence in the CSA gov’t and encouraging desertion.
It was on March 12, 1864. Southern morale did not start breaking until the winter of 64-65. Even then after the failure of the abortive peace conference most historians detect a resurgence in Confederate morale just before the end of the War. The Confederates fought on until almost every major city was occupied and all state capitals except Austin and Tallahassee. Theirs was truly a half past midnight resistance.
Regarding bravery, devotion to duty and full measure, The losses (37%) of the Light Brigade at Balaclava sink to insignificance when compared to 82% losses in the charge of the First Minnesota at Gettysburg (another comparison the First saved the line, the Light Brigade charge was a fiasco). The numbers of troops involved at Waterloo and Gettysburg were similar. However, the American losses were graver. The worst losses of a Prussian regiment in the Franco-Prussian War were 49%. In the Civil War, there were 64 Federal regiments and 53 Confederate regiments with casualties over 50% in single actions. There were 13 battles (not including Fort Donelson and Vicksburg) where one side or the other lost over 10,000. Among the greatest losses on both sides Gettysburg was the worst, then Spotsylvania – 36,800, then Wilderness 35,300, Chickamauga – 34,600, Chancellorsville – 30,000. Info source the Book: Campfires and Battlefields, A Pictorial Narrative of the Civil War by Rossiter Johnson, The Civil War Press, New York, 1967, Chapter entitled “The Measure of Valor.”
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Thinking of names: “Tecumseh.” A close friend of Alexander Hamilton was a man named Hercules Mulligan. I could have named my sons: Hercules, Achilles, and Agamemnon, except these are not Christian names.
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“compared to 82% losses in the charge of the First Minnesota at Gettysburg”
When they were ordered to charge they were on a rise and could see precisely the Confederate mass moving forward that they had to stop temporarily to buy time with their lives. Veteran soldiers, they knew what the cost to them would be. They did not hesitate. Incredibly the survivors of the regiment were involved in combat on the next day.
“Greet them ever with grateful hearts.” Chapter heading in Laurence Stallings’ book The Doughboys.