General Sherman Alternate Ending

Some would argue that Sherman’s reluctance to face the Confederate army head on would make the march fairly peaceful. After all, he avoided bloodshed; however instead of facing of with an army, he faced off with the people, practicing psychological warfare, instead of waging a physical battle against the Confederacy. Yet this type of warfare didn’t fail to devastate the south. He successfully made the southern people fear his army so much, that Confederate wives begged their husbands to come home so the war would end and “told one South Carolina woman that he was ransacking her plantation so that her soldier husband would come home and Grant would not have to kill him in the trenches at Petersburg” (Groce). Sherman’s genius approach to show his army’s power through destruction of property instead of the through slaughtering men on the battlefield is quite ironic, considering the Civil War was one of the bloodiest battles in history; however, it created a big blow to the south, convincing the people to give up. From the words of Sherman himself, “If the people raise a howl against barbarity and cruelty, I will answer that war is war, and not popularity-seeking. If they want peace, they and their relatives must stop the war” (Mitchell). He admits to his brutality, declaring that to stop the burning of plantations and destruction, the civilians must give up. Sherman recognized that the fuel to any war was the people. (expand) The brutality he brought to the southern

While many of these large stately homes perished under the torch of Sherman’s Army, those that remain provide a unique glimpse into what life must have been like in antebellum America.

The battle of Fredericksburg happened in December 11-15 1862.It was one of the largest and deadliest battles in the civil war. Union and confederate soldier fought in the streets of Fredericksburg. Nearly 200,000 combatants no other civil war battle featured a larger concentration of soldiers.The union army’s main assault against Stonewall Jackson produced initial success and held the promise to destroy the confederate right. In the meantime Burnside’s “diversion” against veteran Confederate soldiers behind a stone wall produced a similar number of casualties but most of these were suffered by the union troops. Wave after wave of Federal soldiers marched forth to take the heights, but each was met with devastating

In the book Merchant of Terror: General Sherman and Total War the author John Bennett Walters mentions a quote from General Sherman, “ you cannot qualify war in harsher terms than I will. War is cruelty and you cannot refine it,” the people who caused this war deserve all the punishment they can get (133). The south divided themselves from the north causing the civil war, they started it, so they shall aquire punishment for it, but when is the punishment too much. Then Wheeler provides evidence about how the 60,000 men that Sherman possess left marks on the southern territory which includes burning towns and barns, kill their animals and possible torture to the enemy (64). After Sherman left a town in Atlanta, observers said the ground held home to many trees because of the union’s axe, and also the woods and fields were home of dead bodies of animals (61). Sherman gave the orders to his soldiers which allowed his men to forage, it was Special Field Orders NO. 120 (62). This allowed his men to enter any private property looking for food. Wheeler also writes while Sherman’s men looked for food and opened up barns it is said that any livestock they found was killed (110). In her article “Reconstruction: Photography And History In E.L. Doctorow’s The March,” Laura Barrett sometimes portrays Sherman as a ruthless person by mentioning that “Sherman talks about what he executed in the south, he says that the south needed his soldiers to give them a warring imprint to give the south value (63). He implying that the South asked for this punishment with the decisions they made. Barrett surely is right about how Sherman’s men absolutely left a mark on the south because as she may not be aware, recent studies from Richard Wheeler shown that the plantation owners in the south whoever lived in the march’s route gathered their stock and hid them, confederate cavalry revised the owners when

A despondent Lincoln told his Cabinet he didn't expect to win the election. "I'm going to be beaten... badly," he told an army official, "unless some great change takes place." Grant and Sherman began finishing off the South. While Grant continued to pin down Lee at Richmond and Petersburg, Sherman cut loose from Atlanta and marched to the sea, destroying everything in his path in an effort to terrorize the South and break its will and ability to fight. As Sherman said before his march: "This war is different from European wars of the past. We're fighting not only a hostile army, but a hostile people. And we must make them, old and young, rich and poor, feel the hard hand of

Sherman’s critics claim that his tactics in the Southern Campaign were not part of a thought filled military strategy, but were instead brutalities rained upon the civilians for the purpose of inflicting maximum pain. However, this is a misperception. Sherman did destroy civilian property, but it was not a random act and the Union was not solely responsible for the destruction. The worst damage to civilian property occurred in South Carolina, where Sherman aimed to take over Columbia

I agree with you.Sherman had a deliberate plan to cut off all resources to the Confederate Army; which it would weakened the Confederate Army as a whole. After the burning in Atlanta, Shermans army basically walked through Savannah untouched. Sherman set guidelines and purpose for his army to follow with direct intent. A group of men call Bummers formed and disobeyed Shermans orders. Sherman couldnt be everywhere on the battlefield and the Bummers took advantage of that to terrorize innocent people.

General Sherman had many titles including American soldier, businessman, educator, and author. He served as a general for the Union army in the Civil War. He was known for “total war” because he believed in it. He received both great praise and recognition as well as criticism for this strategy against the confederate states. Sherman lead the Union Army in the West. He had a partnership with General Ulysses S. Grant and together they advanced toward Atlanta. Sherran ordered to burn the warehouses that manufactured cotton and ended up setting fire to buildings. He burned most of the entire city of Atlanta. They seized crops and livestock and pulled up railroad tracks, leaving a path of destruction over 60 miles wide. He also participated in

At the end of 1864, Sherman was in charge of over 60,000 union fighting men. Sherman realized that he had to find a way to bring about a quicker resolution to the war. To bring about this resolution he wanted to get the people of the Confederacy to feel the effects of war. He was not interested in the limited war that had been fought in the preceding years. Sherman, and his superior Grant, both understood that if the Confederacy’s spirit could be broken the north would prevail quickly. Unlike many others in the union army, these men knew that “as long as the southern psyche remained whole, southerners would support the war effort, no matter the casualties suffered or the territory lost” (Lance). Sherman understood that by affecting southern morale and the southern will to fight, he could win the war. His “March to the Sea” was determined to break the back of the Confederacy and bring a speedy end to the Civil War. To do this there needed to be new tactics and a new type of warfare. Sherman had institutionalized a type of warfare new to the Civil War. His desire to crush southern resolve had embraced the principle of total war.

Any idea where they are? How could I reach them?” Nick said. “I don’t know. Can’t say.”

The United States Civil War can be considered as one of the darkest times in American history. The Southern states were fighting for their way of life, and the Northern states were fighting to preserve the Union. The war had begun in the year of 1861, and it would end in 1865 with the capture of Jefferson Davis and surrender of Robert E. Lee. The war had begun at the battle of Fort Sumter. After this battle, the newly elected Abraham Lincoln called for volunteers to join the Union forces. In 1862, Union and Confederate forces would meet again at the battle of Fort Henry and Donelson. With the Union succeeding at pushing the Confederate forces further back into the South, General Grant and his army made their way down the Tennessee River. The forces would meet again at the Battle of Shiloh and Pittsburg Landing. There have been many arguments supporting the theory that the Confederacy did in fact win at the Battle of Shiloh. Although the Union lost more troops at this battle, the Confederacy failed in many ways. In order to determine how exactly they failed, it is important to study what the goal of the Confederacy was at Shiloh and whether or not they accomplished this goal. In this essay, the Confederacy’s goals for attacking Grant’s troops at Shiloh and their failure to accomplish those goals will show just how unsuccessful the Confederate army truly was at this battle.1

Soldiers would write that “it is better to spend out all in defending our country than to be subjugated and have it taken away from us” (What They Fought For 1861-1865, p. 12). When these men wrote home, they never knew whether they would return or not, nor did they care so long as they knew the war was continuing. “The concepts of southern nationalism, liberty, self-government, resistance to tyranny, and other ideological purposes I quoted earlier all have a rather abstract quality. But for many confederate soldiers these abstractions took a concrete, visceral form: the defense of home and hearth against an invading enemy. This purpose in turn became transformed for many soldiers into hatred and a desire for revenge” (What They Fought For 1861-1865, p. 18). Fighting to save their home, property, and liberty could not have be a more powerful reason to fight. They knew if they allowed the Union to win, they would have to give up everything they spent so much time and effort into acquiring, not only in regard to land, but also referring to slaves. A lieutenant from Tennessee said it best when he stated, “the yankees are sacrificing their lives for nothing; we ours for home, country, and all That is dear and sacred… Every on seems to know that his life liberty and property are at stake, hence we never can be whipped” (What They Fought For1861-1865, p.18). It has become very evident throughout this book

“But, where did they come from?" she asked. He glanced at her, smiled, but did not answer her question

I really did enjoy this article because it portrays that even kids can make new doors from their old ones. Sherman is really inspirational because he taught himself how to read from a superman comic book and he didn’t decided to stick with, he wanted more, more knowledge, more power. He didn’t want to stay on path of failure and that anyone who was Indian would do the same. I liked this article because he knew that people were going to bring him down to the ground and a traditional failure, but no he pushed them back and grab anything that “[he] read anything that had words and paragraphs”(Alexie 3). He wanted to prove everyone wrong and that he can be proud of himself and at the same time, to save himself. He wanted to be a success and all

“War is hell,” William T. Sherman said as his Union Army was ravaging and torching the city of Atlanta during the Civil War. Sherman’s statement stands true and strong to this day and I, unfortunately, fully sympathize with it.