Was Sherman's Raid Right?

Sherman’s Raid

11-18-08

The Civil War is known as the first “All Out War”. Where men in uniform, on a designated battlefield, were not the most important targets. The civilians and, more importantly, their crops and industries that were feeding and supporting the masses of armed, uniformed men were some of the more important pieces of tactics.

The army was just the thing that they were trying to stop. And there were many different ways to do that.

One of the ways was to destroy their capitol city and dissolve their government, and in so doing, taking away their cause. Another means was to simply over power the oppositions army and make the government surrender, in stead of attacking outright.

The way that General Sherman decided to help win the war was to weaken the armies so they surrendered causing the government to surrender. How was he going to do that? He was going to take the third option.

This third option was to take out the industry and other support that sustained the armies. In other words, destroy anything and everything that the Confederates were using.

So General Sherman marched down through Georgia and destroyed their biggest cities and industries. Atlanta was one of his first targets, and then he made a very wide B line for a port on the coastline, Savannah. On his way he burned and destroyed any crops or other supporting faculties that the Rebels used.

So General Sherman was just trying to do his part to help the Union cause in the war. And it did help. When he made it so the Union controlled that entire band of land. He cut the Confederates armies into even more small sections.

And, here is one more thing to think about. In more recent wars, taking out the opponents factories and other munitions was just one of the things that both sides did.

The other side of the story is, that even though it is looked upon as “just part of war” in recent years. Doesn’t make it ok. Even though it did help the war, he was still killing, or at least ruining the lives of, many innocent people.

So I say that, even though Sherman’s march to the sea was just another part of a very bad and bloody war, it was not a moral thing to order. But it was also a very tactically brilliant and maybe Union cause saving move on his part. That should be carefully examined from both sides before making a final decision.

Eli