Sherman Voiceover

The video discusses the controversial figure of General William Sherman and his actions during the Civil War. Sherman's March to Sea, where his troops adopted scorched earth tactics, caused devastation in Georgia and the Confederacy. Southerners saw him as a terrorist, while some Northerners believed he did what was necessary to win the war. Sherman's actions ended the war and were highly effective, but also controversial. The video encourages viewers to consider both perspectives and engage in respectful discussions. Hey guys, Dumb History Kid here. I want to go ahead and just start off with a thank you to all of you guys with a very warm reception for my first video. Today's video, we're going to be talking about, it's kind of a controversial figure, we're going to be talking about General William Sherman and whether or not his actions in the Civil War were acts of terrorism or simply fighting a war. So a little bit of historical context here. The Civil War started when 11 Confederate States seceded from the United States of America. These 11 states would be Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Florida. The Civil War would officially start April 12th of 1861 when Confederate troops attempted to seize Fort Sumter in South Carolina. Now we're going to be talking about the controversial part of this video. We're going to be talking about Sherman's March to Sea. Sherman's March to Sea, also known as the Savannah Campaign or simply Sherman's March, was a military campaign of the American Civil War conducted through Georgia from November 15th until December 21st. The campaign began with Sherman's troops leaving Atlanta, recently taken by Union forces, and ended with the capture of the port of Savannah on December 21st. Sherman's March became controversial because Sherman's army adopted the idea of scorched earth. Their targets were primarily military targets and they would target anything that would be used in the war fighting effort and they would subsequently burn it down. Now obviously to the Southerners they saw this man as a terrorist and as a war criminal and him coming through and destroying millions of dollars worth of stuff and just march him right on through and take him when he can. His scorched earth policies have always been highly controversial and Sherman's memory has long been reviled by many Southerners. Slaves' opinions varied concerning the actions of Sherman and his army. Some who welcomed him as a liberator chose to follow his armies, while other slaves looked upon the Union's armies ransacking and invasive actions with disdain. They felt betrayed as they suffered along with their owners, complicating their decision of whether to flee with or from the Union troops. A Confederate officer estimated that 10,000 liberated slaves followed Sherman's army and hundreds died from hunger, disease, or exposure along the way. The march to the sea was devastating to Georgia and the Confederacy. Sherman estimated that he inflicted, of today's money, $982 million worth of damage. One-fifth was inured to our advantage while the other is simply waste and destruction. The army wrecked 300 miles of railroad. It seized 5,000 horses, 4,000 mules, and 13,000 head of cattle. It confiscated 9.5 million pounds of corn and 10.5 million pounds of fodder. It destroyed uncounted cotton gins and mills. Military historians cited the significant damage of rot to railroads and Southern logistics in the campaign and stated that Sherman's raid succeeded in knocking the Confederate war effort to pieces. Truthfully, the main reason that the march to the sea is considered controversial is because Sherman very quickly adopted the idea of total war. The idea of total war is not unique to this scenario. It has happened many times in history. Some good examples would be the Crusades, the Mongol Wars. World War II is another great example. A total war is essentially when an entire nation, everything about a nation is pushed into this war. So we can think Japan. Japan's entire nation in World War II was focused on the war. So General Sherman very quickly thought to himself, Well, if they're completely dedicated to this, I'm going to knock out the civilians. Not like literally, but he would go through and burn down homes. He would burn down industrial millhouses. He would burn down whatever he could get his hands on that were vital to keeping this war going for the Confederacy. Now most Southerners at the time did see him as a war criminal. Some Southerners did see this man as a war criminal while others simply saw him as a man taking action that needed to be taken. Now we're going to get into both sides. I'm going to say it. I'm going to make it obvious, clear that I'm speaking from the Confederate side, and then abundantly clear that I'm speaking from the Union side. Whenever you listen to both sides, I'm not asking you to choose a side. I'm asking you to just listen, get some good thoughts and processes out of this, and tell me what you think. Tell me what you think, whether or not General Sherman was a war criminal, or if you think he was just doing what he had to do. I will remind you that the comments, let's please keep them respectful. We're trying to have a nice community here where we can have genuine conversations about history. So please try to keep it respectful and just have a general taste and be good people in the comments, and everyone will be happy. So we're going to dive into a diary writing from somebody who lived in South Carolina, and this is truthfully a firsthand account of how they feel about Sherman. So let's dive into it. Georgia has been desolated. The resistless flood has swept through that state, leaving but a desert to mark its track. They're preparing to hurl destruction upon the state they hate most of all. In Sherman, the brute avows his intention of converting South Carolina into a wilderness. Not one house, he says, shall be left standing. And his licentious troops, whites and Negroes, shall be turned loose to ravage and violate. End quote. Another little snippet from her diary. This was in February 17th. This is when Sherman's men took Columbia. She wrote, I ran upstairs to my bedroom window just in time to see the U.S. flag run up over the statehouse. Oh, what a horrid sight. What a degradation. After four bitter years of bloodshed and hatred, now to float there at last, that hateful symbol of despotism. Over the following hours and days, she writes of the horror, misery, and agony that accompanied the occupation. Now, Southerners absolutely hated this guy's guts. He invaded their home, tore down their flags, which they thought was their righteous cause, liberated their lands to the Union, and burnt down whatever he saw. I mean, truthfully, if you think about it word for word, as a Southerner, you would see him as a terrorist. But let's dive a little further into this, and we're going to look at this from the North's perspective. As Sherman himself writes, this is a little post after editing, realizing that I didn't elaborate what this was about. So this was him writing back to them defending Georgia in the March to See. So let's just dive a little into it. You people of the South don't know what you are doing. You will be drenched in blood, and God only knows how it will end. It is a folly madness, a crime against civilization. You people speak so lightly of war. You do not know what you are talking about. War is a terrible thing. Now, most of Sherman's damage was truthfully property damage. He did kill some Confederate soldiers, but most of the damage was property damage, and you could say psychological damage if you're looking at it from that standpoint. Now it will be noted that some Northerners did dislike Sherman's policy of total war and scorched earth. But it will also be noted that other Northerners felt like he did what he had to do to help in the war, as well as Abraham Lincoln. He probably killed less people than most other major generals in that time, but was relatively hard on property. Another thing to take into account is your source of information. So Shelby Foote noted that a man said that he hated Sherman because he burnt down his great-grandfather's barn. When asked where his barn was, Sherman was at least 100 miles away from said barn. Still, Sherman got the blame. So yes, his march was devastating, and it did cripple the Confederates' war efforts, but it is oftentimes exaggerated by the Southern populace at the time, so we cannot attribute absolutely everything that happened to Sherman. But to put it mild and to put it simple, Sherman did what he had to do. Sherman understood what he was doing would have to take a severe toll on the South, but to take a nation out of war, you have to blow a severe, severe loss. Sherman's mercy essentially ended the war, and it was something that Northerners, whether or not they liked it, understood that needed to be done to end the war. So what do you guys think? Do you guys think that General Sherman was a terrorist, or do you think that he was a man that understood total war and what it implied? I please ask that everyone remain constructed in their topics that they're going to talk about in the comments. Let's just please keep opinions out of this, and let's talk pure facts. Thank you. I thank you all for watching the video and getting it all the way through. I will be checking out the comments, replying to everyone, you know, having some good conversations. I hope to see you all in the next video.