View single post by ole
 Posted: Thu Sep 4th, 2008 02:00 pm
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ole
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Mana: 
 Wasn't it Shelby Foote who expressed amazement that 60,000 troops could behave themselves so well in crossing three states?

Tales of rape, murder and executions are just that: tales -- augmented by time, family history, rumor and bitterness. Granaries and mills were destroyed. Occupied homes were not. Livestock was taken and eaten or destroyed. To be sure, some of the bummers got out of hand -- one can't expect a horde of battle-hardened veterans to behave like altar boys -- so there were exceptions.

It is from these exceptions that we get the myths of depredations, expanded over time to criminal dimensions. That and Lost Cause resentment.

ole

Last edited on Thu Sep 4th, 2008 02:05 pm by ole