"If I thought this war would free the negro... Gen. Grant...

 "More than two-thirds of the soldiers never realized until after they were in service some time, that the war was to enfranchise the negro. Many of them complained and threatened to revolt at prospects of such a calamity, when they were assured that such was not the case by some of the officers. Grant himself said: "If I thought this war would free the negro I would put my sword in its scabbard and go home." (The Cause of the War” The Unwritten South: Cause, Progress and Result of the Civil War--Relics of Hidden Truth after 40 Years, J Clarence Stonebraker, first published in 1903.)

Grant, born in Ohio, is said by some of his biographers to have detested slavery, but a man could find slavery abhorrent and still not want to have former slaves hanging around his neighborhood. A man could dislike slavery, yet not wish to go out and bleed in order to free them instantaneously. Grant may have had enough sense to know that Southerners had already begun freeing slaves long before the war---that, certainly, Louisiana and Mississippi, as well as most other Southern states were full of freed slaves--that Robert E. Lee and other leading Southerners had freed their slaves. And some of the freed folks owned slaves of their own. Grant did keep at least one of his slaves (claiming his wife owned the slave) until long after the end of the War. Lincoln, of course, did not free any slaves in the North with his emancipation propaganda proclamation.

Grant was a bosom buddy with Sherman, according to Sherman’s own words. Sherman found black folks repugnant and made no bones about it. It is unlikely that there could be wide differences of opinions in two such close friends. Sherman wrote that he supported Grant when Grant was a drunkard and Grant supported him when Sherman was crazy, so these two men were close. When Grant became bankrupt, Sherman went to his aid.

Unlike Sherman, Grant aligned himself very closely with numbers of those Lincoln’s “Radical Republicans” whom we identify today as including many of Karl Marx’s followers. (Walter Kennedy and Al Benson: Red Republicans and Lincoln’s Marxists: Marxism in the Civil War.) Grant, perhaps harboring presidential desires, may not have been as outspoken about his anti-black feelings as was Sherman, since the Radicals were very likely the instigators of the emancipation proclamation in the middle of the war when the North was losing it.

Sherman wrote Thomas Ewing, Jr., a leading Republican in Kansas in December 1859, “I would not if I could abolish or modify slavery.... Negroes in the great numbers that exist here must of necessity be slaves.”

He wrote to Ellen, “like Burton in ‘Toodles, I say, ‘damn the niggers.’ I wish they were anywhere [else] or [could] be kept at work" (Michael Fellman, Citizen Sherman: A Life of William Tecumseh Sherman, University Press of Kansas, Random House, 1995, p. 74).

Grant, of course, aligned himself with Lincoln’s “Radical Republicans” which we know now was loaded with Karl Marx’s followers.

Although slavery was abolished in 1802 in Grant's Ohio, when Virginian John Randolph's 518 slaves were freed in in 1803, a codicil on Randolph's will provided the money to transport and settle them in Ohio. When an Ohio congressman learned this, he threatened that the banks of Ohio River would be lined with men with muskets to prevent the blacks from entering.

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Making Saints Of Monsters ...

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On Indian Genocide:

Drawing on Michael Fellman's book, Citizen Sherman, the general is quoted as saying the following about the Plains Indians shortly after the war: "It is one of those irreconcilable conflicts that will end only in one way, one or the other must be exterminated . . . . We must act with vindictive earnestness against the Sioux, even to the extermination, men, women and children" (p. 26). According to Fellman, Sherman "had given [General Phillip] Sheridan prior authorization to slaughter as many women and children as well as men Sheridan or his subordinates felt was necessary . . . . Sherman would cover the political and media front" and "maintained personal deniability." "The more Indians we can kill this year, the less will have to be killed next year," wrote Sherman. "They all have to be killed or be maintained as a species of paupers."

Valerie quotes Professor Harry Stout of Yale Divinity School as recently writing that Sherman's "religion" was "America, and America's God was a jealous God of law and order." All those who "resisted" were "reprobates who deserved death."

But Sherman's "religion" was not "America," which at the time was comprised of some 30 million people. His God was the federal government or, more specifically, the Lincoln administration and Lincoln himself. This is what motivated Sherman, not the ending of slavery or anything else. After all, the citizens of the Southern states were Americans and included the descendants of Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Jackson, and Patrick Henry, among other notable historical figures (Robert E. Lee's wife, Mary Custis Lee, was descended from Martha Washington's family).

It was Lincoln, not "America," who defined obeying his own dictatorial orders as "law and order." There was no national plebiscite that decided to pillage, plunder and burn Southern cities and towns and murder civilians by the tens of thousands, as Lincoln's army did. And even if there was, it certainly would not have been approved by all of "America," as Sherman contended. Lincoln won only 39% of the popular vote in 1860 and still only 55% in 1864 despite having rigged the elections by shutting down hundreds of opposition newspapers, imprisoning tens of thousands of political dissenters without due process, and having soldiers intimidate Democratic Party voters throughout the North. The fact that he also had to recruit and pay hundreds of thousands of European mercenaries, and invoke conscription, speaks volumes about how popular his war was among Americans of the Northern states. Moreover, it is absurd to label the bombing, pillaging and plundering of the entire South, along with killing its people by the hundreds of thousands, as "law and order" or the protection of life, liberty and property, as called for by the U.S. Constitution.

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On Genocide in the South:

Quoting again from the Fellman biography, Sherman said this about Southerners: "To the petulant and persistent secessionists, why death is mercy, and the quicker he or she is disposed of the better . . . . Until we can repopulate Georgia, it is useless to occupy it, but the utter destruction of its roads, houses, and people will cripple their military resources" (emphasis added).

Here you have a clear statement that Sherman's goal was to commit genocide against the people of Georgia. Remember that his famous "march" was not met by any serious military resistance other than a few cavalry skirmishes. It was almost entirely a campaign of death and destruction of civilians and their property. And he wanted to "repopulate" the state with fine New England stock such as himself, the son of a New England lawyer of Puritan descent.

Readers who are familiar with the U.S. Constitution may find it difficult to find the part of the document that permits the U.S. government to murder its own citizens or to completely suspend the Constitution during wartime, but Sherman apparently read between the lines better than most. "The Government of the United States has in North Alabama," he once declared, "any and all rights which they choose to enforce in war – to take their lives, their homes, their lands, their everything . . . . war is simply power unrestrained by constitution or compact." "We will . . . take every life, every acre of land, every particle of property, everything that to us seems proper," said the maniacal murderer in the blue uniform.

Writing to his wife in 1862, Sherman informed her that "the war will soon assume a turn to extermination not of soldiers alone, that is the least part of the trouble, but the people . . . . There is a class of people, men women, and children, who must be killed or banished . . ."
In a January 1865 letter to General Grant, Sherman once again explained his philosophy of mass murder: "We are not fighting against enemy armies but against an enemy people; both young and old, rich and poor must feel the iron hand of war . . ."

Europeans, meanwhile, were comparing Sherman to the Marquis de Sade and predicting that future wars outside of America would likely be waged against innocent civilians, once Sherman's "success" was understood. They also considered Sherman's war crimes to be the mark of an unsuccessful military man. He did not establish any particularly stellar record as a military commander under fire; his "forte" was the mass murder of civilians and acts of terrorism reigned upon Southern cities with weapons of mass destruction.

Lincoln always knew about all of this, as Walter Brian Cisco explains in his must-read book, War Crimes Against Southern Civilians. He gladly rewarded and praised generals such as Sherman and Sheridan for murdering and terrorizing citizens – American citizens – all in the name of defending "law and order in America."

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Sherman's Army of Emancipation in Georgia...

The African slaves who saw Sherman's rabble in blue as "agents of God" would quickly learn that they were really petty criminals who would rape, burn and plunder regardless of color, and hang black servants from their thumbs in order to elicit confessions about hidden valuables. It is also well known that the freedmen's "day of jubilee" in the North were illusory; those States had already erected sturdy laws and barriers to keep Southern black's from emigrating, including Lincoln's own State of Illinois.

But the newly-freed slaves would have these looters as examples to follow as the Georgia Capitol building in Milledgeville fell under their ruthless hands, and quite unfortunately saw how Northerners could conduct themselves as "legislators."

“By the time their brief stay in Madison had ended, Sherman, Howard and Slocum were giving sober thought to a problem which had been growing steadily since they left Atlanta. What were they going to do with the hordes of Negroes who wanted to march with the troops to what they knew vaguely as “freedom?” In their confused minds they had generated and blossomed the firm belief that all they had to do when the Yankees came along was fall into line, with their squalling babies, their bleating, barking animals and their variegated personal possessions and follow the liberators to Paradise. At almost every crossroads community, and indeed at almost every plantation, there would be droves of them, eager, ready and waiting to join the procession. Many read deep religious meaning into the events they were witnessing. To them these marching men in blue were agents of God sent to earth to end their earthly troubles.

It never occurred to them that they might not be wanted or that there might not be enough food for both them and the army. Nor did they give a thought to where they would go, how they would be treated once they got there or what would happen to them eventually in that strange land in the North about which they had been dreaming, but about which they knew nothing. It took some strong talk to dissuade them from going along. Many who went anyhow soon wished they hadn’t.

They (Sherman’s troops) spread desolation broadcast---taking everything in their way in the breadth of about 20 miles. Corn, fodder, meal, flour, horses, mules, hogs, cattle, sheep, poultry of every description, servants that could be enticed and forced off, and these in great numbers, (were taken)…we heard of a great many private dwellings, gin houses, and much cotton burnt by the enemy on their different routes---some within sight; also that several private citizens were shot….In the country, families were frequently ill-treated and their houses sacked.

The Capitol building (in Milledgeville) was spared (from burning). General Slocum posted guards for the protection of private homes, but the troops nevertheless enjoyed full freedom in many, and in the Capitol and places of business. In the State Library on the first floor of the Capitol, Major Connolly looked on in strong disapproval, though without protesting, while a mob (of drunken soldiers and Negroes) attacked the accumulation of valuable volumes and carried away what struck their fancies. He blamed his commander in chief for allowing such a thing to happen…”Sherman will, some day, regret that he permitted this library to be destroyed and plundered.”

From other rooms drunken soldiers and Negroes grabbed up handfuls of valuable fossils and mineral specimens. Many left with armfuls of Georgia State bonds and paper currency, which they found in the treasurer’s office. One colored man, dazzled by all this wealth, shouted his delight: “Bress de Lord, we’re richer dan poor massa now!” Soon the soldiers and Negroes fell to fighting amongst
themselves for the treasures.

(Sherman’s) troops, satiated with food and leisure became bored, as armies do when they stop marching. So somebody suggested a mock session of the Georgia House of Representatives, using the seats, podium, gavel and other official paraphernalia left behind…The session opened with a round of drinking. A “Committee on Federal Relations” was appointed and retired to a committee room. Its members forgot all about Federal relations for a while and entered into an animated and noisy discussion of the comparative merits of various brands of (stolen) whiskey.

The “legislators” waiting for the “committee’s” report were not idle. General Kilpatrick, whose cavalrymen had a reputation for heavy drinking and ruthless treatment of civilians and their property, kept them in high hilarity with recitals of his gallant campaigns against enemy wine cellars and whiskey storerooms. They had managed to draw up some resolutions….the Georgia Ordinance of Secession was termed “highly indiscreet and injudicious,” a “damned farce,” which is hereby repealed and abrogated.” They promised that Sherman’s men “will play the devil with the Ordinance and the State itself”…and also whip the State into the Union.

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