View single post by BHR62
 Posted: Thu Dec 27th, 2012 01:32 pm
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BHR62
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Joined: Sun Dec 12th, 2010
Location: Indiana USA
Posts: 236
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Mana: 
 TD....I have no probs with your southern sympathies....because I'm a partisan Unionist. You are very well informed on a lot of subjects and I've learned some things from you.

Albert...I have states rights views also. The Federal Government of 1860s doesn't even remotely compare to today's government though. Hell the states of the north had to do all the initial recruiting and raising of armies in 1861. Plus in the case of Indiana most of the initial financing. Not until the Fed Reserve and income tax came in (1913) did the government of today come about, IMO.

That all being said...Sherman's March was to break the backbone of the south. It demonstrated their governments weakness to defend them. The destruction may have got out of hand on occasions but one historian has noted people speaking bitterly about their grand dad's barn getting torched etc...then he finds out Sherman wasn't anywhere close to where their grand dad's barn was. But there were complaints from Union officers and enlisted on the things being destroyed. But all armies throughout history have at times got carried away on destruction. Sherman himself had no post war plans on what was destroyed. He did have negative views on the blacks. But what white person of the 1860's, including Lincoln, didn't?

Last edited on Thu Dec 27th, 2012 01:33 pm by BHR62