# Sherman's March



## Resica (Dec 19, 2014)

As we close in on the 150th anniversary of the termination of  Sherman's march in Georgia does anyone have any stories that were handed down from relatives of that expedition.

   My ggg Grandpa Hulsey was in his 40's from Clermont in Hall county. Hid his cows and his outfit joined Wheeler in defending against the march as well as  they could. Can't remember the outfit he joined at this moment.  Any stories?


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## Scrapy (Dec 19, 2014)

My great granddaddy lived to be 106. He told me himself he thought Lee's biggest mistake was not gathering all the forces and coming down here and "killing every last one of them" for burning Atlanta.


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## lcopeland22 (Dec 19, 2014)

Theres a guy off the square in Social Circle, his house is the second oldest in town and was the town doctors house.  As the story goes when Shermann came through he brought some injured soldiers for the doc to work on.  The owner showed me a large blood stain on the original wood floor thats from a Union Soldier.


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## Walker44 (Dec 19, 2014)

I would strongly suggest that people read  SHERMANS MEMORIS .
If Lee had focused his attention to the area in lower VA/TN area and not ventured north in northern VA / PA . He might have been able to defend Atlanta by cutting off Sherman at the TN line.


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## Scrapy (Dec 20, 2014)

Walker44 said:


> I would strongly suggest that people read   SHERMANS MEMORIS.  While the history of the " The March to the Sea " had some distructive points, Sherman was only a military member performing his job , His quote of  "War is CensoredCensoredCensoredCensored "  is a basis of any successful warfare.  To read the book will show the many actions he took that are never reported.
> Shermans biggest blunder is that he trusted the politicans and as all militray learn will betray them in the end.
> Sherman did what he had to do to cease the conflict by what even means he needed
> Now depending on what side you were on the actions might seem strong but they were what he had to do !  I am sure that some of the JAPANEESE fell the say way after they were on the wrong end of the atomic bomb
> ...


Yes, you are politically correct and that is what the history books do say.. Imagine a bunch of looters turned aloose to pillage NY city.  As for General Lee , he let the South get raped and robbed by Yankees looters  , preferring to fight a gentleman's war while Hicks were overtaking us . -Sherman , Lee, Grant and all ._em all. LOOTEERS is what they were > deny ,deny all you want to. Stick with the nice clean written history side of things.A bunch of Criminals at best you can say.


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## westcobbdog (Dec 20, 2014)

Scrapy said:


> Yes, you are politically correct and that is what the history books do say.. Imagine a bunch of looters turned aloose to pillage NY city.  As for General Lee , he let the South get raped and robbed by Yankees looters  , preferring to fight a gentleman's war while Hicks were overtaking us . -Sherman , Lee, Grant and all ._em all. LOOTEERS is what they were > deny ,deny all you want to. Stick with the nice clean written history side of things.A bunch of Criminals at best you can say.



Mr. Scrapy, Lee dispatched Longstreet late to assist "us" but the Yanks had numbers on the South and of course all the materials of war. Remember General Lee was charged with defending Richmond with a thin line, too. Lee was a worry wart, so of course he worried about the Deep South. He did all he could. Blame Jeff Davis for not offering more assistance, but really where were these extra troops supposed to come from?


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## Scrapy (Dec 20, 2014)

westcobbdog said:


> Mr. Scrapy, Lee dispatched Longstreet late to assist "us" but the Yanks had numbers on the South and of course all the materials of war. Remember General Lee was charged with defending Richmond with a thin line, too. Lee was a worry wart, so of course he worried about the Deep South. He did all he could. Blame Jeff Davis for not offering more assistance, but really where were these extra troops supposed to come from?



I'm relaying what my great granddaddy's take on it was.  He figured Lee new it was already about lost. Lee had access to enough to kill every one of Sherman's men but did not stop that scoundrel . A common criminal in our midst. That's what I am relaying. Lee would have been a hero had he accomplished stopping that invalid in the South. Would not have changed the outcome of the war but his people would not have been raped and robbed  by criminal forces.


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## westcobbdog (Dec 21, 2014)

Scrapy said:


> I'm relaying what my great granddaddy's take on it was.  He figured Lee new it was already about lost. Lee had access to enough to kill every one of Sherman's men but did not stop that scoundrel . A common criminal in our midst. That's what I am relaying. Lee would have been a hero had he accomplished stopping that invalid in the South. Would not have changed the outcome of the war but his people would not have been raped and robbed  by criminal forces.



Scraps, with all due respect to your Grandad, Lee had NO men to release to the Ga. theater other than Pete Longstreet's what division of men? Was he supposed to abandon Richmond to save Chattanooga / Atlanta?
I pin many issue's on political infighting and sectional politics, as Ga. Governor Joe Brown, keeping his "pets", or State troops, in state. Plus Braxton Bragg gave away Chattanooga, essentially, he was Davis' pet and a very  mediocre field general.


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## Milkman (Dec 21, 2014)

Gary,

The only family story I have is one passed down from my ancestors in White County Ga at the time. My great, great, grandmother said she buried everything of value in the ground under the wood pile. They were in NE White county not far from your folks in Clermont. 


There is not a man alive today who has more sympathy and compassion for the Southern cause than I do.  I descend directly from 6 Confederate veterans and laterally from many  more. I currently serve as Commander of my Sons of Confederate Veterans camp.

However, anyone then or now that felt General RE Lee had resources to come to Tenn/Ga/Carolinas and stop the Federal Army is mistaken IMO. The reality is that he didn't even have resources to even fight along the James river in Va. without moving hundreds of miles to fight.  Horses and mules, clothing, shoes, firearms, powder, tents, etc, etc. were all used up and with no possibility for replacement. 

 The Federal Army in the south on the other hand had unlimited resources.  They were 60,000 men strong. They lacked nothing.   The Army led by Gen. WT Sherman was doubly supplied, they had a wagon train many miles long full of supplies when they left Atlanta. Then they confiscated every sort of supply or animal they could carry as they went through the just harvested bread basket of east Ga. They had thousands of cattle and hundreds of extra horses and mules. 

I have read several books on the event we now call "Sherman's March".  The best I have read by far is "_Southern Storm_" 
http://www.amazon.com/Southern-Stor...rds=southern+storm+sherman's+march+to+the+sea


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## 35 Whelen (Dec 21, 2014)

No family stories but I agree with Milkman, "Southern Storm" by Noah Andre Trudeau is a great read!


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## Scrapy (Dec 21, 2014)

Milkman said:


> Gary,
> 
> The only family story I have is one passed down from my ancestors in White County Ga at the time. My great, great, grandmother said she buried everything of value in the ground under the wood pile. They were in NE White county not far from your folks in Clermont.
> 
> ...



I feel certain my Great Grand dad was not a war historian. He was 106 when he died. I was five. This is about family tales. He was 15 when the war ended. The only parts he had first hand knowledge of was Sherman's march(explitives withheld) and Reconstruction. He would reminisce to put me to sleep but I actually remember a good bit of it. I never heard the N word till I got to public school. I never heard the word Yankee without D in front of it either. I'm relaying what he thought and he thought Richmond was in hindsight a place to pick your battles whereas Sherman was "in the house" burning, looting and pillaging . 
I still have the clay urn the silverware was buried in and some of the silver. I have $640 and some cents in confederate money that he rode a blind horse to Darian(I think) to pay taxes but the yankees had conquored it the week before. I'm sure Lee did what he thought was right but Pappah thought it would have made better history to "kill every last one of them" Sherman's troops.

He said they buried the urn in the garden and left to hide themselves (because of the women folk) between the forks of the Salkehatchies thinking Sherman was headed to Charleston and they were in direct route. However the main force left Savannah headed to Columbia and they ran into it on what is now US highway 21. Before they got back home they were met by a servant telling them the silverware was safe but that was all. The servant said he had a feeling they were being watched when they buried it so he went out one night and buried it on the other end of the garden. Sure enough he, ggrandy, found that the end of the garden originally buried in was dug all up.


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## Al Medcalf (Dec 22, 2014)

Milkman, what Camp are you the Commander of?  I'm Commander of The Gen. John B. Gordon Camp #1449 in Thomaston.


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## BROWNING7WSM (Dec 22, 2014)

Very disappointed the war ended before I could enlist. 

Rtr


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## Resica (Dec 22, 2014)

BROWNING7WSM said:


> Very disappointed the war ended before I could enlist.
> 
> Rtr



Tough luck huh? Maybe next one. How much did you miss it by?


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## BROWNING7WSM (Dec 22, 2014)

Resica said:


> Tough luck huh? Maybe next one. How much did you miss it by?



Next one can't come soon enough.

Missed the last one by quite a bit.


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## Scrapy (Dec 22, 2014)

Resica said:


> Tough luck huh? Maybe next one. How much did you miss it by?



Ya'll gona start another one on the issue of slavery again? Maybe inhuman treatment of dogs running loose this time?


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## Gary Mercer (Dec 22, 2014)

Funny thing about Sherman's March is that it cut a pretty wide swath up towards Columbia.  Our farm was part of the old Matty Polk Plantation near Jedburg, SC.
(Actually, part of it lies along what is now I-26 @ the Jedburg exit.)  That is about 75 miles east of Orangeburg.
I have told many of you about David, who lived on the place when we bought it in 57.  David had been born on the place a slave.  (As I have told many of you, David sorta raised this teenage boy from So. Cal. in the ways of the South, such as fishin and hunting in the Low Country.  And, manners like "Yes Sir, and No Maam")
David told me of the Yankee Cavalry riding into the Yard, looking for food and loot.  He thinks he was for or five. (everything was already hidden from those rascals.)  They told all the slaves that they were free to go.
David said he asked his Momma where they were going, and she told him to hush.  "This was home and this was where they were going to stay."  
David has to be in his nineties, but that fella could still plow the straightest furrow you ever saw.   Pitch a "tawba" worm up next to the stumps.  And fix a boy's favorite dinner.  Fish and grits!!!


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## westcobbdog (Dec 22, 2014)

Scrapy said:


> Ya'll gona start another one on the issue of slavery again? Maybe inhuman treatment of dogs running loose this time?



if possible post up a pic or two of your relics, thanks.


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## Resica (Dec 22, 2014)

Scrapy said:


> Ya'll gona start another one on the issue of slavery again? Maybe inhuman treatment of dogs running loose this time?



You're a frisky one aren't ya?


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## Scrapy (Dec 22, 2014)

resica said:


> you're a frisky one aren't ya?


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## Milkman (Dec 22, 2014)

Scrapy said:


> Ya'll gona start another one on the issue of slavery again? Maybe inhuman treatment of dogs running loose this time?



Two things to correct you on sir. And I can tell you are much more intelligent than you want us to think you are. A little time with google will give you facts on what I am going to state below. 

We Southern Nationalists didn't start that one in 1861. The Dyanks did by not evacuating property of the sovereign state of South Carolina. The devil Lincoln then raised an army of 75,000 and invaded the South. 

Also the idea that that war was solely about slavery is simply not true. Slavery was one issue the Dyanks had at the beginning. But the devil Lincoln chose to make it the key issue in the fall of 1862 for his own reasons.


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## Scrapy (Dec 22, 2014)

Milkman said:


> Two things to correct you on sir. And I can tell you are much more intelligent than you want us to think you are. A little time with google will give you facts on what I am going to state below.
> 
> We Southern Nationalists didn't start that one in 1861. The Dyanks did by not evacuating property of the sovereign state of South Carolina. The devil Lincoln then raised an army of 75,000 and invaded the South.
> 
> Also the idea that that war was solely about slavery is simply not true. Slavery was one issue the Dyanks had at the beginning. But the devil Lincoln chose to make it the key issue in the fall of 1862 for his own reasons.


Why did you retire moderating? Thank you for that information. Very good points made. I stand corrected.


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## Milkman (Dec 22, 2014)

Here is a link to a very well written article by a professor at Emory University.  I think his references and footnotes give it a lot of authenticity.  

The title is "Why the War was not about Slavery"

http://www.carolannwilson.net/Livingston.pdf


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## Scrapy (Dec 22, 2014)

westcobbdog said:


> if possible post up a pic or two of your relics, thanks.



They ain't relics. The silverware is still in use. The urn is on standby.  and the Money?????? Who knows?? But I'll try to figure out how to post pics.


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## Scrapy (Dec 22, 2014)

Milkman said:


> Here is a link to a very well written article by a professor at Emory University.  I think his references and footnotes give it a lot of authenticity.
> 
> The title is "Why the War was not about Slavery"
> 
> http://www.carolannwilson.net/Livingston.pdf



Very good reference to address your point. And before folks comment on it they should maybe read it twice and ponder it some.

Pappah had that figured out when he called them Yankees but I knew he was referring to the New England "elitists", Philly types , as pointed out in your link. They just always know better than us and they will prove it by force if necessary. 

I think I'll free my yard dog out of the fenced yard. Maybe not. That might fly in the face of the Animal Rights elitists. Maybe I'll make house dogs out of my yard dogs ?  Maybe not. That might fly in the face of the Animal Rights elitists. What to do? What to do?? Tell you the truth, I spend so much time worrying about what the elitists want me to think about that I ain't got time for thinking about much else. So I recon, MISSION ACCOMPLISHED elitists. Either way, I will pay a fine if the dog goes loose or I will pay a levy if he ain't newtered, so I will pay either way but the elitists will never call it a TAX. I can't see nothing being half blind and ignorant and all like the elitists swear I am.


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## Scrapy (Dec 23, 2014)

Resica said:


> You're a frisky one aren't ya?


Who gonna spank me into submission?? { Smilie face}.


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## Scrapy (Dec 23, 2014)

lcopeland22 said:


> Theres a guy off the square in Social Circle, his house is the second oldest in town and was the town doctors house.  As the story goes when Shermann came through he brought some injured soldiers for the doc to work on.  The owner showed me a large blood stain on the original wood floor thats from a Union Soldier.


Same as today. Benefactor or terrorist?. Good cop /bad cop? Both maybe? Methodology of control has not changed a bit.


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## Milkman (Dec 23, 2014)

Al Medcalf said:


> Milkman, what Camp are you the Commander of?  I'm Commander of The Gen. John B. Gordon Camp #1449 in Thomaston.



Good to know you Commander.  I am with the General TRR Cobb Camp # 97, Athens


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## Milkman (Dec 23, 2014)

Scrapy said:


> Why did you retire moderating? Thank you for that information. Very good points made. I stand corrected.



I served as a moderator from the beginning of this site until August 2013 which was 12.5 years. I never took the responsibility lightly in all those years. I tried to enforce the rules I helped create. It is a never ending task.
 I decided 12 years was enough and moved on to let others fight that battle.


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## JustUs4All (Dec 23, 2014)

And thank you for your service.


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## redneck_billcollector (Dec 25, 2014)

Scrapy said:


> My great granddaddy lived to be 106. He told me himself he thought Lee's biggest mistake was not gathering all the forces and coming down here and "killing every last one of them" for burning Atlanta.



Had Lee done that, Richmond would have been captured and the war would have ended a year earlier.


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## Scrapy (Dec 25, 2014)

redneck_billcollector said:


> Had Lee done that, Richmond would have been captured and the war would have ended a year earlier.



"Had Lee done that, Richmond would have been captured" . That's about all you can say for fairly certain.

Even if the war had ended a year earlier Sherman and his band of thieves would be destroyed. Macon-Savannah-Columbia and all in between would not have been ravaged. The South would have been more unified. That was ggd's feelings.

I'll take that concept a step farther. The war would not have ended until there was a surrender, not because Richmond fell. Who's to say Richmond could not have been recaptured? 

But I am digressing. This thread is about family stories.


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## redneck_billcollector (Dec 25, 2014)

Scrapy said:


> "Had Lee done that, Richmond would have been captured" . That's about all you can say for fairly certain.
> 
> Even if the war had ended a year earlier Sherman and his band of thieves would be destroyed. Macon-Savannah-Columbia and all in between would not have been ravaged. The South would have been more unified. That was ggd's feelings.
> 
> ...



Well, I don't think the Army of the Potomac would have just stayed in Virginia, aside from a small occupying force, it would have followed the Army of Northern Virginia down through the Carolinas forcing Lee to fight a "fighting retreat"  leaving Virginia and the Carolinas at the mercy of the Army of the Potomac.  Lee's forces would have been in no shape to fight in GA after such a long "rearward" action.  By 1864 the Army of the Potomac greatly out numbered the Army of Northern Virginia and the only reason it held out as long as it did is because the battlefields of North Virginia had become similar to those of the western front in WWI, defending from fixed, Lee's army was fighting from numerous fixed and fortified possitions.  He would have lost a lot of his Carolina soldiers and Ga soldiers who would have deserted to protect their homes.  The papers in Virginia did not carry news of the battles in Tenn and GA for fear that the Tenn and GA soldiers would have deserted.


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## Scrapy (Dec 25, 2014)

redneck_billcollector said:


> Well, I don't think the Army of the Potomac would have just stayed in Virginia, aside from a small occupying force, it would have followed the Army of Northern Virginia down through the Carolinas forcing Lee to fight a "fighting retreat"  leaving Virginia and the Carolinas at the mercy of the Army of the Potomac.  Lee's forces would have been in no shape to fight in GA after such a long "rearward" action.  By 1864 the Army of the Potomac greatly out numbered the Army of Northern Virginia and the only reason it held out as long as it did is because the battlefields of North Virginia had become similar to those of the western front in WWI, defending from fixed, Lee's army was fighting from numerous fixed and fortified possitions.  He would have lost a lot of his Carolina soldiers and Ga soldiers who would have deserted to protect their homes.  The papers in Virginia did not carry news of the battles in Tenn and GA for fear that the Tenn and GA soldiers would have deserted.



Aside from all that you just stated, Lee had enough forces to kill Sherman. And did Not do it. This area, that supported N Virginia was ravaged. The War effort was surrendered a year later. . Sherman lived . The south was plundered. That was my ggd's feelings about it, right or wrong military wise.
 This thread is about family tales in the path of Sherman am I correct?


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## Resica (Dec 25, 2014)

Hijack away as far as I'm concerned, as long as it's civil. It's all interesting.


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## Milkman (Dec 26, 2014)

Now if we are going to apply theory and what ifs...........

There is no doubt that Lee was a better commander and strategist than Joseph Johnston. But Johnston had around 60,000 or so men. His forces were pushed back and/or flanked all the way from Chattanooga to Atlanta.  It took them a few months but Sherman's Army took Atlanta.  However, they were over 100,000 strong and had unlimited supplies. 

If Lee and his men had been here in Ga. the outcome would have been different, here.   _*But *_other sections of our country would have likely suffered worse.  Read up on how Union General Phillip Sheridan used very similar tactics on the poor folks of the Shenandoah Valley.


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## Resica (Dec 26, 2014)

Scrapy said:


> Aside from all that you just stated, Lee had enough forces to kill Sherman. And did Not do it. This area, that supported N Virginia was ravaged. The War effort was surrendered a year later. . Sherman lived . The south was plundered. That was my ggd's feelings about it, right or wrong military wise.
> This thread is about family tales in the path of Sherman am I correct?



The Confederate Army under Hood could also have confronted Sherman after Atlanta , the government chose a different route. Lee could have confronted Cump's advance through Georgia and the Carolina's possibly. If you (your grandfather)think Grant's army would have  stood idle you're kidding yourself.


  Once Lee's army was out of the entrenchments around Petersburg and Richmond , The Army of the Potomac would probably have annihilated his army. 

  Sherman's swath through Georgia was fairly narrow . The war certainly took it's toll on Georgia as it did on all other southern states but his Army's physical presence  was small geographically.


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## Walker44 (Dec 26, 2014)

Different points of views BUT very interesting reading !    Wish there were more stories but I guess as time goes on the stories get lost in the generations.

I would like to throw out 2 thoughts for opinion

1 - In retrospect did it make any sense to make RICHMOND the Capital due to its being so close to DC?  Atlanta would have been a much safer choice .

I know I will take flak on this one BUT 

2 - Is it possible that LEE was so " connected to Northern Virginia "  as his home that he loss sight of the fact the the CSA was made up of areas other than Virginia ?

Just some questions for the conversation


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## Scrapy (Dec 26, 2014)

How many times I got to say I am not arm chair quarterbacking the civil war? I am relaying tales my GGD told. 

He was not a war historian. He probably gave Lee blame for Hood's failure. All I'm certain of is he thought that "Sherman was the lowest scoundrel that ever lived" and nothing was done about it, other than local militia which was almost non existent. Is that clearer?


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## Scrapy (Dec 26, 2014)

He lived through the scoundrel and carpetbaggers too after Sherman. Carpet baggers and sons of Carpet baggers that bought land at tax sales. I recon the grandsons of carpetbaggers still hit the tax sales today and they still are thought of as low class scoundrels. But I have tried to limit my Tales he told to Sherman.


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## Resica (Dec 26, 2014)

I realized I did have a connection to " The March" and typed it up . I'm at my cabin in the mountains of Pa.  and lost it when I tried to send. I'll retype fore too long.


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## Resica (Dec 26, 2014)

Walker44 said:


> Different points of views BUT very interesting reading !    Wish there were more stories but I guess as time goes on the stories get lost in the generations.
> 
> I would like to throw out 2 thoughts for opinion
> 
> ...



Not gonna take flak from me. Yankee by birth from Confederate parents.

 I've often thought the same thing about Richmond. Why not put your Capital further away from your enemy. Fredericksburg is midway between Washington and Richmond. It worked for several years. Would it have made a difference, probably not.

   Eventually the Federal thought was , don't worry about getting the town, hammer the army.


     I believe Gen. Lee was well aware  of the situation in all areas of the conflict. He was taxed with fighting in the eastern theater. He was only one man. If he could have been cloned and sent everywhere, things may have been better.


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## Scrapy (Dec 27, 2014)

I have no doubt the South could NOT have won. We had fewer fighting age soldiers plus slaves to feed.  Other than cotton as a commodity crop for income the North had as good or better Agricultural soils (ie corn belt) . The north had an industrial complex bar none in the world. The south basically had no industry.  That's my take on it.

Probably GGD's too. And as has been mentioned about getting entrenched, getting entrenched and holding out is not a Southerner's way to fight. Kick butt , call role,  and come home is still the warrior way regardless of what the Pentagon might say. That being said, by the time Sherman burned Atlanta , Lee should have seen the end in sight. So why did he not apply his resources to kill that scumbag?


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## JustUs4All (Dec 27, 2014)

At least one reason was that Lee was a thorough military man instilled with military discipline and committed to the idea of tne necessity of following orders.  He was not free to take his army any where he wished.  He had orders to follow.


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## Scrapy (Dec 27, 2014)

JustUs4All said:


> At least one reason was that Lee was a thorough military man instilled with military discipline and committed to the idea of tne necessity of following orders.  He was not free to take his army any where he wished.  He had orders to follow.


Yes , Lee was Military. He took orders from() and where was() from? And what was ()'s idea to let Sherman pillage the South? SOMEBODY missed it.


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## Milkman (Dec 27, 2014)

Lee , Hood , Johnston, all of them had no more resources to fight with. AWOL was rampant. 


Also, the Confederate Capitol started out in Montgomery. 
They moved it closer to where the war was. If they hadn't tryed to keep the invaders out it would have been over in no time. Lee had to fight along the border.


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## JustUs4All (Dec 27, 2014)

Scrappy, you should read more.  You seem to think that all the other posters here exist to fill the gaps in your knowledge base.  One last time I will humor you.  Jefferson Davis, for better or worse, was the Commander in Chief of all Confederate forces.


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## Milkman (Jan 27, 2015)

Part of the lecture series announced here deals with the wars effect on Georgia.

http://forum.gon.com/showthread.php?t=832190


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## elfiii (Jan 28, 2015)

Scrapy said:


> Aside from all that you just stated, Lee had enough forces to kill Sherman.



Maybe, but Gen. Grant made sure those forces were kept busy fighting the Army of the Potomac with no time to spare for anything else.


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## The Longhunter (Jan 29, 2015)

elfiii said:


> Maybe, but Gen. Grant made sure those forces were kept busy fighting the Army of the Potomac with no time to spare for anything else.



I just finished reading a book that is a detailed history of Lee's Army, fron start to finish.  It uses a lot of original sources to detail every aspect of the army --food, weaponry, religion, leadership, tactic, and so on.

For example, I have read a lot of Civil War history, and I never realized that the South was using 2 different caliber rifles, and this really hampered supply problems in ammunition for the south.

Just generally the South was stymied by an inadequate industrial base, and inadequate transportation infrastructure to even move the limited supplies it had.

Desertion had reached critical proportions, and a march across the N.C. and Georgia would have only exacerbated the problem.

Anyway, Lee could not have cut off Sherman because he (Lee) did not have the means to transport his army into Georgia.  The Army of Virginia had a severe shortage of draft animals, and could not adequately move within its much shorted interior lines in Virginia.  Lee did not have adequate forage for his cavalry horses, and cavalry operations were already restricted in Virginia because of it.  Lee did not have sufficient rations for his men.  Lee simply did not have the means to move his entire army that far at that time of the war.

Plus to chase down Sherman, Lee would have had the Union forces on his flank in Chattanooga which would have been an intolerable situation.

Sherman was smart enough to realize that with the Mississippi/Tennessee river and Chattanooga at his back, once he go into the interior of the South, there was nothing to resist him.  Truth is once Atlanta fell, he could have marched across Georgia with about half the manpower he had.

It makes a nice "what if" 150 years later, but from a military and logistical point, there simply no way Lee could have pulled out gone south.


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## JustUs4All (Jan 29, 2015)

My understanding is that Lee's army was not completely armed with "modern" percussion weapons until after the capture of Harpers Ferry just before Antietam.  There were still an array of different caliber weapons present.


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## Resica (Jan 29, 2015)

The Confederates definately did alot with a little. It's surprising the south lasted as long as they did, although the Confederate territory was enormous. I've read( don't quote me) that New York's industrial capacity was 4 times greater than the entire south. 

    Was the north fighting with one arm behind their back, if so, why? With plenty of fighting age men why wouldn't the Yankees attempt to overwhelm the south with sheer numbers and end the war more quickly. I suppose they could have. Instead of outnumbering Confederates by say 20,000 in aparticular battle, wouldn't it be better to outnumber them by 50,000. It would have made the job easier from their point of view and apparently they had the youth to make it happen. I don't know.


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## westcobbdog (Jan 29, 2015)

Resica said:


> The Confederates definately did alot with a little. It's surprising the south lasted as long as they did, although the Confederate territory was enormous. I've read( don't quote me) that New York's industrial capacity was 4 times greater than the entire south.
> 
> Was the north fighting with one arm behind their back, if so, why? With plenty of fighting age men why wouldn't the Yankees attempt to overwhelm the south with sheer numbers and end the war more quickly. I suppose they could have. Instead of outnumbering Confederates by say 20,000 in aparticular battle, wouldn't it be better to outnumber them by 50,000. It would have made the job easier from their point of view and apparently they had the youth to make it happen. I don't know.





With the resistance growing in the north late against the war and vs ol'abe it could have turned in favor of the south if not for the norths great industrial might. More yanks would have helped but also more yanks would not have made it home, as in higher casualty counts.


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## Milkman (Feb 2, 2015)

Since we have a few reading here I will give a plug to Cassy Grays website and e magazine.

Go to this site and register for a great free subscription to her e-zine that honors our Confederate heros.


http://www.thestainlessbanner.com/index.html


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## Panther25 (Dec 29, 2015)

Milkman said:


> Here is a link to a very well written article by a professor at Emory University.  I think his references and footnotes give it a lot of authenticity.
> 
> The title is "Why the War was not about Slavery"
> 
> http://www.carolannwilson.net/Livingston.pdf



This article was very interesting. He does bring up some good points, but his research was very thin. Twenty-two end notes for an article of this length is extremely brief. An undergraduate history paper twelve pages (double-spaced) will have anywhere from 35-45 footnotes using around twenty sources.


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## bcleveland (Jan 10, 2016)

*Southern Hart County*

One I always heard growing up was Shermans men making camp on the old Norman plantation. When they were ready to leave they started to loot the house. They brought an old trunk out that had been hidden in the attic. When the soldiers opened it up it contained all of Mr. Normans Masonic things. The company commander who was said to be a Mason himself had everything put back in the house just like it was and pulled out.


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## Milkman (Jan 10, 2016)

bcleveland said:


> One I always heard growing up was Shermans men making camp on the old Norman plantation. When they were ready to leave they started to loot the house. They brought an old trunk out that had been hidden in the attic. When the soldiers opened it up it contained all of Mr. Normans Masonic things. The company commander who was said to be a Mason himself had everything put back in the house just like it was and pulled out.



Some say Sherman himself gave mercy to Mason related folks. 

I assume you are referring to Hart County Ga. Were Sherman troops supposed to have come into Hart county on its way SE through Ga or going north thru SC and NC ?


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## bcleveland (Jan 10, 2016)

Yea, Hart County GA. The way it's been told here was this group came through South Carolina.


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## Milkman (Jan 10, 2016)

bcleveland said:


> Yea, Hart County GA. The way it's been told here was this group came through South Carolina.



There was a bunch of Dyanks who got whooped down at Aiken SC in Feb. of 1865.  Wonder if it was them?  

 I need to read up on what happened in that period.  I know Sherman himself was in northern NC in early April 65


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