View single post by cklarson
 Posted: Mon Sep 24th, 2007 06:15 pm
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cklarson
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Mana: 
 Belatedly I come to this discussion. I was not able to see Sherman's march on the History Channel, but get the gist of it from these postings. I heartily agree with "Great Grandson's" posting regarding African-Americans and slavery. To my mind, the broader issue is: rarely are African-Americans considered citizens of the South during the war, even though thousands' families, for sure, had been in the nation longer than many Southern whites. Moreover, given the "customs" of many slave owners, many slaves were the descendants of the some of the most prominent men of the South.

As to general slave comprehension, a clue can be taken from an incident that occurred in Marietta, GA in 1864. As the 59th IL led the way into town, the soldiers were met by slaves with offerings of tobacco and gourds of water. One remarked: "Ise been looking for you for six months, Massa."

As to Sherman's march generally, a few new books have come out. The general academic consensus seems to be that fewer depradations were made than popularly believed or held. Sherman basically stuck to items that had a military use for part of the objective was not just to supply his army, but to keep supplies from going to Lee in VA. It must also be kept in mind that both sides' armies were so huge that just a gambol through any territory would pretty much pick it clean: of fences, trees, apples, corn, water, even before the real "provisioning" began. In GA, inmates were released from prison and I've read that many dressed in Union uniforms to rob the locals. There were GA Unionists who believed that SC should be ravaged for starting the war. An anecdote from a friend's family indicates that when owners cooperated with Union forces, homesteads were not burned (it also helped when you had a personal visit from Sherman). In Columbia, initially the fires of cotton bales were begun by retreating Confederates and the US soldiers tried to put them out.

So a lot went into the mix of Sherman's march.

CKL