Wednesday, March 26, 2014
The Wit and Wisdom of War Criminal, Bigot, and Madman,William Tecumseh Sherman
1) "I would not abolish or modify slavery......Negroes in the great numbers that exist here must of necessity be slaves."............2) "Like Burton in Toodles, I say, 'damn the niggers'."............3) "We must act with vindictive earnestness against the Sioux, even to their extermination, men, women, and children."............4) The cause of the war is not alone in the nigger, but in the mercenary spirit of our countrymen (here he is referring to the speculator and the speculator being the Jew)."............5) "Gentlemen, niggers and cotton caused this war, and I wish them both in hell."............6) "All the congresses on earth can't make the negro anything else than what he is; he must be subject to the white man."............7) "Theoretical notions of humanity and religion cannot shake the commercial fact that their labor (the slave's) is of great value and and cannot be dispensed with."............So much for the notion of the enlightened liberal northerners dragging the backward conservative southerners into modernity.
But, but, but... believing the enlightened liberal veneer is so much better than confronting stark gruesome realities Will.
ReplyDeleteYou know that right?
Like much of the population in those years, the Jews were involved on both sides . There were ugly incidents, particularly in Grant's
ReplyDeletetheatre, when he attempted to ban
Jewish speculators dealing in contraband cotton seized by US
troops. I agree, Sherman was a
loud-mouth Patton type and note
The CSA general Bedford Forrest was perhaps an atypical southern gentleman who started the KKK
as the war closed. Both generals
were fierce warriors with their
many warts.
It is your opinion that Sherman was an "enlighten liberal northerner"? What's that based on?
ReplyDeleteLes, for over a hundred years historians saw this conflict in a very balanced light and it was only when the leftists and Marxists assumed a greater control on campus that this 1970s wrestling caliber/looking for a singular cause analysis of the war started gaining hold but it doesn't change the fact that there wasn't a single economic or political fact on the ground which indicated that slavery was in any sort of immediate danger or that Abe Lincoln himself gave what was essentially a "slavery forever" speech in his inaugural. I mean, I know that these are painful facts for those whose psychic comfort is fully reliant upon there being a good guys versus bad guys "reality" and all but it is what it is.
ReplyDeleteSherman was a racist and a war criminal who intentionally targeted civilians, BB. I really don't think that Patton was quite that bad (though if you have some evidence I would be more than happy to take a look at it).
ReplyDelete"Les, for over a hundred years historians saw this conflict in a very balanced light..." "... when the leftists... assumed a greater control on campus... this 1970s wrestling caliber/looking for a singular cause analysis of the war started gaining hold..."
ReplyDeleteThis is true. I was majoring in history in 1970, my freshman year, and this was a discussion occurring even then. I believe the profs that were of the "classical school of history" if you will called it REVISIONIST history, the move to rewrite American history.
Dervo certainly has bought into the revision[st school of thought.
ReplyDeleteDon't be so quick to denigrate Sherman....it was a different place and a completely different time,you are equating his actions with todays world.
Sherman did exactly what Lincoln asked of him.
He absolutely did, Russ, and it was a little something called "total war".
ReplyDeleteWar is hell.
ReplyDeleteHistorians "balanced light" indicates they remain impressed with Lincoln. 81 placed him first among presidents; am assuming the
ReplyDelete82nd who did not was from the
Austrian School.
ReplyDeleteSherman's march to the sea and north along the Carolina coast's was ment to demoralize what ever remnants of the southern army remained and destroy their will to fight.He succeeded beyond all of Lincoln's desires.
If you go to war....it is best to wage "total war," or stay home.
If total war means killing civilians, raping female slaves, burning entire towns (including places of worship) to a crisp, and stealing anything that wasn't tied down, then I'm going to have to disagree with you on this one, Russ. Sherman was a vile war criminal.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteHow different was Sherman then the guy who ordered the bombing of Dresden or dropping the bombs on Japan? Were they war criminals?
Who was it who said "war is hell."
A military concept known as
ReplyDelete"destruction of infrastructure"
and "reducing the will to fight",
starting with the salting of the soil at Carthage on up through the
depopulation of the German states during the 30 years war. Gotta go with Rusty on this one.
I'm consistent, Russ. I've always said that Dresden was a war crime.
ReplyDeleteI'm a supporter of the Geneva Convention of 1863, BB. Thought that you would be, too. And "total war" a) doesn't always lead to good results (the bombing of Hanoi, for example) and b) isn't even remotely necessary (I refer you to 2 excellent books on the matter; "Among the Dead Cities" by A.C. Grayling and "Fire and Fury' by Randall Hanson).
ReplyDeleteAnd you really do have to be careful about being too punitive. One of the main reasons why a madman such as Hitler was able to rise to power was the fact that the Treaty of Versailles essentially devastated his country in the aftermath of the first world war. Got to be careful.
ReplyDelete