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SouthwestRanger
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 Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2008 3:05 am Post subject: Southern Storm - Sherman's March To The Sea.... |
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From Atlanta to the Sea
Southern Storm
By Noah Andre Trudeau
Harper, 671 pages
There are Civil War geeks who relish every word of sentences like: "A two-gun section from Battery H, 1st Illinois Light Artillery, Captain Francis DeGress commanding, operated throughout the day, joined for a period by a section from Battery H, 1st Missouri Light Artillery, Lieutenant John F. Brenner in charge." For them, Noah Andre Trudeau's "Southern Storm: Sherman's March to the Sea" is just the book. For other readers, though, "Southern Storm" may often resemble what Sherman's March was for the troops who undertook it: a long slog, only intermittently enlivened by assorted diversions.
But at least most readers will know where they are going. That wasn't the case for Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman's 62,000 soldiers. When they turned their backs on a burning Atlanta and headed east in November 1864, their destination was a secret even from President Lincoln. Five weeks later Sherman presented Lincoln "a Christmas gift" of Savannah, Ga. Behind him was a swath of destruction "sixty miles of latitude, three hundred to the main" — in the words of "Marching Through Georgia," a popular song written the next year.
Sherman's men broke up the monotony of the March by burning buildings, wrecking railroad lines, feasting on looted chickens and hogs, bullying civilians, and occasionally engaging Confederate cavalry. Footsore readers of Mr. Trudeau's account will find relief in various episodes: the citizens of Monticello, Ga., turning in a hiding Confederate officer whom they found to be arrogant; property owners in Sherman's path playing whatever cards they had to get protection from marauding Yankees (Masonic regalia often did the trick); or a spunky teenager named Zora Fair blacking herself up as a Negro, sneaking into occupied Atlanta on her own to spy and mailing her findings to the governor of Georgia in a letter intercepted by the Yankee army. (Sherman sent soldiers knocking on doors — "I don't mean to hurt her," he said, "but will give her a scare" — but they couldn't find her.)
Mr. Trudeau's narrative is peppered with trenchant observations from Sherman, one of history's more quotable military leaders. He was a realist whose lack of sentimentality was perhaps matched only by that of Confederate Lt. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest (whom Sherman admired). Forrest's dictum — that "war means fighting, and fighting means killing" — was matched by Sherman's own: "War is cruelty. There is no use trying to reform it. The crueler it is, the sooner it will be over."
And just as all that marching turned out to have a point — it broke the back of the Confederacy — readers who persevere with "Southern Storm" will see the point of Mr. Trudeau's method. Sherman himself gave a brisk account of the March in his memoirs. But to gain a real understanding, there is no substitute for taking it one step at a time, all the way to Savannah. Mr. Trudeau accomplishes what he set out to do: march through the experience in all its detail.
(John Shelton Reed in The Wall Street Journal Opinion Journal, August 4, 2008)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121781346320208921.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
The South fired on Fort Sumter in SELF DEFENSE because the Northern troops were blockading the port in order to make it submit to Northern mismanagement.
And you, of all people. should know that the Southern troops didn't fire on the Northern troops but aimed their bombardment against the walls of the fort. For something like 36 hours they hammered those walls until the North gave up WITHOUT suffering a SINGLE causality from the bombardment.
And, like true Southern Gentlemen, the South not only gave safe passage to the Northern command and troops out of Fort Sumter but also gave the retreating troops a 100 gun salute.
Now compare that kind treatment to when the Northern forces retook Charleston later on, went into the Charleston cemetery and disinterred the corpses, many of which were Revolutionary War heroes, and used their above-ground tombs for Yankee soldier barracks. They flung the corpses into the surrounding woods, |
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_Billy_
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| Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2008 3:07 am Post subject: |
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| You could have gone on forever without posting that ass wipe's picture on here. Damn Yankee. |
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SouthwestRanger
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| Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2008 3:11 am Post subject: |
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| _Billy_ wrote: |
| You could have gone on forever without posting that ass wipe's picture on here. Damn Yankee. |
Billy: I understand Blacks actually picked up arms to DEFEND their homes against Sherman's criminal hordes....
And I hear tell Southern parents invoke Sherman's name to scare their children into behaving !  |
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_Billy_
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| Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2008 4:37 am Post subject: |
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| History was written in the North by the damn Yankees, and it's true, blacks did help defend our homeland. |
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SouthwestRanger
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| Posted: Thu Aug 07, 2008 4:21 am Post subject: |
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| _Billy_ wrote: |
| History was written in the North by the damn Yankees, and it's true, blacks did help defend our homeland. |
Cherokee Indians fought for the Confederacy and owned slaves ...Also Freed Blacks fought for the Confederacy in INTERGRATED UNITS and even owned slaves too !
Blacks fought for the South because it was there homeland as well and even though slavery was wrong, mistreatment of slaves by SOB slave owners was the exception rather than the rule in the Antebellum South...
If you really want to look at horrid racism, look at the way Blacks were treated in Northern Cities before and after the WBTS
And exactly how many of those braggart Abolitionists pick up arms and run to end slavery when Ft. Sumter was fired upon ?
VERY LITTLE !
And Jefferson Davis was more of a defender of the US Constitution that Old Abe ever was...
Lastly if anyone really wants to consider a hero to give kudos towards I wish to nominate the Grey Ghost himself Colonel John Singleton Mosby who was the bane of Lincoln and his Generals using clever and often humorus tactics and later refused to surrender after Appomatox and then went on to a Government position as Counsel to Hong Kong and cleaned out Government Corruption ! |
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Cole_Trickle
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| Posted: Thu Aug 07, 2008 7:01 am Post subject: |
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Since you've brought Indians into the thread I thought I might crash the party. Imagine if you will that if The Native American had been so equipped as the U S Military was, that their might be an Indian in the White House.
Most people never speak of this, I've been there and relay it as an awesome, liberating experience. Sadly the youth of today could care less about real history, even the very young history of the early 70's. What a people the Indians truly were and still are despite being cast aside as common rubbish.
If you ever visit wounded knee and have even a speck of heart or soul you'll come away humbled, changed, better.
http://www.geocities.com/crazyoglala/WK73to98_Record.html
Cole |
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BlackJim
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| Posted: Fri Aug 08, 2008 7:12 pm Post subject: |
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| _Billy_ wrote: |
| You could have gone on forever without posting that ass wipe's picture on here. Damn Yankee. |
I don't agree with you much Billy, but this time - Yeah. |
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BlackJim
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| Posted: Fri Aug 08, 2008 7:23 pm Post subject: |
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SouthwestRanger
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| Posted: Sat Aug 09, 2008 6:13 am Post subject: |
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| BlackJim wrote: |
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gs3VlnOLJEU
If Jackson was not killed, perhaps things would have turned out in a different manner. |
Or if Stuart did'nt go joyiriding around PA like a drunken Frat Boy during Gettysburg
Or if Longstreet advised Lee not to order Pickett's Charge
Or if Meade had decided to risk heavy casualties and go after Lee when Gettysburg ended
Also The Sioux Indians rebelled against the North in Minnesota in 1862 over flagrant mistreatment by Government Agents...
As a result Yankee soldiers were diverted from other battlefields to quell the uprising... |
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BlackJim
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| Posted: Sat Aug 09, 2008 12:28 pm Post subject: |
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Or if the Southern forces would of followed up, by proceeding to a then weakly defended Washington following First Manassas in July of 1861, with the Federals in panic stricken full flight. For many Virginians, myself included, this was the best chance the Confederates had of defeating the Yankee invaders and any small defending Federal force at the Capitol thus imposing terms and conditions upon that Republican Lincoln. After missing such a good opportunity it was a glorious downhill situation for The South, especially after Southern ports were blockaded and major River mouths became secured by Northern warships and troops. The South won more battles, but lost hard in the end.
The Santee Lakota cause was doomed from the start, mostly starving and ill-armed and burdened by women and children were no match for Colonel Sibley's companies.
JEB Stuart, 'Beau Sabreur' of the Confederate Cavalry proved his prowess early in The Struggle but by the time of Gettysburg he was overly caught up in his own myth.
The bold cavalier he was.
Sherman was naught but a bloody brigand, hardly better than Quantrill or Custer, and with less of a reason. |
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BlackJim
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| Posted: Sat Aug 09, 2008 2:13 pm Post subject: |
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The Cavalier in song -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bh1YU3YKFBI
I admired John Singleton Mosby more so.
All in all everytime I walk by what's left of an old redoubt, trenchline or anyother earthwork that are so very numerous here and near abouts, my thoughts are that Virginia was first among the States that saw the worst of it all. Every now and then some local will turn up min'eballs that have hit eachother in midair as the fighting was hot and heavy from Richmond and many miles out in all directions. Without a metal detector I've found buttons, shot, and a buckle, all around the Williamsburg area. |
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SouthwestRanger
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| Posted: Tue Aug 12, 2008 6:37 am Post subject: |
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Or What If.....
The UK went to war over the Trent Affair on the side of the Confederacy ?
Lincoln was killed during that Baltimore Plot of 1861 ?
Vicksburg held out a little longer ?
The South decided to use its untapped resource of Black Male Slaves as soldiers ? |
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BlackJim
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| Posted: Wed Aug 13, 2008 11:02 am Post subject: |
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Nope, they missed their best chance right after 1st Manassas. Maybe the Confederate forces had half a chance after Fredericksburg if they would of advanced to destroy Burnside's withdrawing demoralized army.
The British saw this too. |
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