THE RELIGION OF WAR


Even though war is horrible, it does happen. So to keep it from being too horrid and to get too far out of hand, rules were set up to protect the citizens. Christian ideals, then, are what lead to the "rules of war," as Christian morals dictated that there were some things that you just can't do during war.


But Sherman cared not for Christianity or Christian rules of war. Morality mattered little to Sherman. And his lack of following the rules led to his soldiers becoming not only irreligious, but sacreligious.
Soldiers under Sherman were some of the wickedest and most debauched men. As they pillaged the South, they would often sing, "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," as they carried out their atrocities.
On one ocassion, soldiers of Sherman taunted nuns, and blew cigar smoke in their faces, yelling, "Oh, holy! Yes, Holy! We're just as holy as you are! Now, what do you think of God? Ain't Sherman greater?"


Of Sherman and his soldier's atrocities towards the Southern people, there is not time to write here. Death, destruction, dearth, devilment, and depravity followed him wherever he went as countless thousands of Southern people suffered unimaginable terror at his hand. Morals were thrown out the window, and for his soldiers, war became an excuse to unleash their basest depravations upon others.


SHERMAN'S LACK OF CONCERN


That Sherman was unmoved by what his soldiers did is clearly seen in his letter to Major R.M. Sawyer, in which he says, "We of the North are beyond question, right in our lawful cause...Next year your lands will be taken; for in war we can take them, and rightfully too; and in another year they may beg in vain for their lives."


Captain Daniel Oakley fo the 2nd Mass. commented: "It was sad to see the wanton destruction of property...[as they committed] every sort of outrage."


I could go on and one with the horrendous evil that Sherman and his hordes unleashed against the Southern People. And if that was all Sherman was guilty of, he would be rightfully convicted of his crimes. But that's not the worst of it. What Sherman did had not been done before in modern warfare. It was not only unlawful and immoral, but it was the first time someone did such a thing. For hundreds and thousands of years a moral conduct in war was followed, in which armies met each other face to face upon battlefields and fought only each other, not the populace. There was even "honor" in war which kept men from criminal activicty, and soldiers who engaged in misconduct were "court martialed" for their crimes.


But Sherman somehow got away with what he did. And he not only practiced "Total War" by burning, pillaging, and raping the innocent citizens of the South, but he also did things that had not been done before, and were not only unlawful but unheard of, such as: executing random civilians, using prisoners of war to clear minefields, and illegally seizing private property at his whem. And Sherman didn't seem to care that what he was doing was immoral, much less illegal.


So widespread was the terror under Sherman that many Southerners left the South for Texas. Finding and empty homes with the letters GTT (standing for "Gone to Texas") painted on the door was commonplace throughout the South, as people fled for their lives. There was no law, not even martial law. It was pandimonium and anarchy. It was terror in its evilest form. And there was no justice.


THE FRUIT OF SHERMAN'S EVIL


Because of Sherman's actions, and his not being prosecuted for his war crimes, a precedent was set, which lead to much more atrocities later. Seeing no reprucussions for what Sherman did, many of Sherman's cohorts accepted his method of total warfare and practiced it as well.


Gen. Philip Sheridan was one of those who believed in the absolute correctness of the state (known as "Statism"), and how that gave soldiers a license to do whatever they desired in war to bring the opposition to subjection or demise.


Sheridan used Sherman's methods in war agains the Indians by destroying Indians food supplies and even massacring Indians at his will. Many other soldiers bought into this method and cruelly massacred Indians without feeling.