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I'll dust off the books, but my recollection of Shermans Southern campaign is that it was for the most part unopposed and where he met opposition he went around rather than through it. I guess that is the mark of a good General. Patton did the same thing.

Our leaders today should pattern themselves after Robert E. Lee, who never took the credit and was more than willing to take the blame, as he does in this letter he wrote to Jeff Davis after Gettysburg.




Sherman was opposed, he just did exactly what you said, went AROUND everything Johnston threw in his path, with one brief exception, Kennesaw Mountain (Sherman tried a direct assault, lost 3000 dead in an hour and said fuck it...) Of course, Shreman had the numbers to outmaneuver Johnston, but Johnston could, and should have done some maneuvering on his own and attacked Sherman's one HUGE vulnerability, the lengthy supply line back into Tennessee and Kentucky. With calvary geniuses like Bedford Forrest and Joe Wheeler, Johnston had the tools, but it's all monday morning quarterbacking...The Southern Government, by 1864 was up shits creek (I called the Atlanta Campaign "The Battle of Shits Creek" in a class I took with Eliot Cohen...he was not amused but I still got an A-), and Atlanta was THE MOST IMPORTANT city in the South at that point, they HAD to defend and thus, their hand was pretty much forced.

James is right about the prior history of war having examples of complete destruction and mayhem employed but the American civil war marked a turning point in the Political nature and manifestation of war aims coupled with Technological advances. It was a lot more than just artillery and subs: Repeating Rifles, Grenades, Mines, Air reconaissance, Railroads, and the INTENTIONAL, systematic destruction of civilian property on a vast scale for the sole purpose, not to capture and use the other guy's shit, but to just flat out break their will and enforce your own political will, it was groundbreaking.

Really though, as deadly as the Civil War was, only one out of 8 casualties was from actual battle trauma. Disease and hunger killed far more soldiers than anything else...they all basically shit themselves to death with dysentary...medicine was still WAY behind the curve. The tales of the camps and hospitals are far more grisly than the battles, imho.

"The Bonnie Blue Flag" is one of Da Burglar's favourite ditties...
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Are you gonna eat that?