William Tecumseh Sherman:

[Floyd R. Turbo]

“The American press is a shame and a reproach to a civilized people. When a man is too lazy to work and too cowardly to steal, he becomes an editor and manufactures public opinion.”

[Algernon Moncrieff]

1. Cousin Billy was a smart guy.

(Read the letters he exchanged with John Bell Hood!)

(Yes - he and I are super distant cousins. I'm delighted with what he did in the CW and displeased with his leadership in the West after the CW).

[hlthe2b]

2. No hero. William Tecumseh Sherman on the need to "exterminate the Indians, men, women, & children"

In 1867, following a fierce Indian assault led by the Lakota Chief Crazy Horse, Sherman said, "we must act with vindictive earnestness against the Sioux, even to their extermination, men, women, and children." And one year later he issued an order permitting the Sioux's "utter annihilation."

https://www.thirteen.org/wnet/historyofus/web08/features/source/C01.html

He was a truly abysmal man--even if you feel his scorched earth policy in the Civil War was justified.

[bovine6]

3. Sherman's only mistake

Was to not obliterate Columbia, SC and the rest of the state for that matter. You know, FAFO.

Sorry, LOL, I'm still bitter about losing the country I'd known for six decades last night.

[hlthe2b]

4. He was engaged in genocidal extermination of the Sioux in the West. Cool with THAT?

I'd love to have seen him strung up for THAT cruelty even while I am anti-death penalty. His cruelty towards Indian women and children rivals that of an early-day Hitler. Everyone likes to get their testosterone up and laud him for his civil war acts but boy do they not want to admit what a monster he became in his attempts to exterminate the Indian.

[bovine6]

5. No I'm not but I was referring to South Carolina, you know the first state to demonstrate treason by seceding.

It's always a fine line. The history of humankind is the history of war, like it or not.

[hlthe2b]

6. You said that was his "ONLY MISTAKE..." Hardly...

I get your fury at the election and SC (among other states that propelled Trump). I am with you and share your immense anger.

But, that said, it horrifies me that so many on DU deify this genocidal monster.

[bovine6]

7. I apologize.

I wrote poorly, and of course genocide is never acceptable, except perhaps in self-defense (if that has even happened.) Something like poisoning the wells on one's island right before the invading brutes arrive. Something I'd do myself.

But, sorry, when I hear "Sherman" I only think War Between the States and my mind went there. I come from a family of military people (and southerners) and I don't like most of them. In fact, many are criminal pieces of shit and, naturally, Trump voters. They don't like me, either. I'm sorry that I overreacted. Mea culpa.