Thank you very much paul. And thank you all very much for coming. Merchant of terror, demon, a killer. If you type was sherman a into google the auto complete includes war criminal, hero or villain. And if you add a couple more letters you get terrorist. The urban dictionary, a popular website, describes generally william t. Sherman as having employed the vicious tactic of targeting civilians. Continuing, such tactics had previously been deemed morally unacceptable. The deliberate targeting of the civilians for attack was taken up in world war ii ending in the deaths of millions. The bombing of european cities by both sides of the war and japanese cities by the u. S. , as well as attacks on civilians in china, the philippines and korea by japan were consistent with and encouraged by shermans precedent. The logic of saving lives in the long run by these tactics seems to have been refuted by history. Finally if you scroll through this entry, the words related to general william t. Sherma
Said that or not, but if he did, that alone should take his reputation down many notches. Because among other things, johnston almost never commanded troops in front of grants army. Only for a few weeks in january and february 1864 did johnston command troops in front of grant and those troops that time sat in their Winter Quarters and had snowball battles with each other. I dont know why grant was so worried. Johnstons men are attacking with snowballs. We have to worry about that. Johnston benefited from a lot of the early writing about the war. One of the early prolific historians was edward a. Pollard, a richmond journalist who absolutely hated Jefferson Davis and pollard was writing books almost by the month i mean almost as furiously as brian does here. Just books vomiting out of edward a. Pollard. In which he denounced Jefferson Davis in very harsh terms especially for his treatment of joe johnston and its interesting to sit down with pollards books because a lot of it sounds an
Day before, in which johnston himself reported to the confederate government that he had 55,000 men present for duty. I dont know what happened to those 12,000 men on the night of april 30thmay 1st. Mass desertion. Who knew. Maybe the radioactive atomic cloud got there and wiped out 12 thousand of his men. Or the question of casualties. Johnston had his medical director, johnston lost according to his medical director 9,972 men killed and wounded in his infantry and artillery in may and june. Historians have taken that up. And said johnston lost 9,972 men and they ignore those qualifications. Killed and wounded. Infantry and artillery, may and june. What about prisoners . What about men lost to sickness during the retreat . One time, johnston said he was losing 300 men a day to sickness. What about deserters . Hood said johnston lost 22,750 men. You make Reasonable Estimates for casualties in the cavalry, in the first two weeks in july which included the evacuation of kennesaw mountain
In may 1864, had hundreds and hundreds of trains moving down a rail system through kentucky and tennessee stockpiling supplies in nashville and chattanooga. In chattanooga alone between the months of march and may of 1864, there are 145 rail cars unloading on a daily basis there. So hes Building Supply bases that hell need as he advances into georgia. During the campaign, he had about 5,000 wagons that were constantly on the move from the railroad to the army in the field. As Richard Mcmurray, who is one of the foremost scholars of the Atlanta Campaign writes in one whats one of the best overviews of the campaign, and like some of the other speakers youve heard, ill throw out some book titles. If youre like me, you love books about the civil war. Mcmurrays atlanta 1864 is a very, very, very good overview. If youre looking for one book that gives you an overview, decision in the west by Albert Castel is also an outstanding book. Mcmurray points out that sherman had a couple of big advan
And had the federal authorities not arrested him, put him in a cell at fort monroe, clamped him in irons and made a martyr out of him, he would have been denounced through much of southern history. But they turned him into the man who was persecuted for the white south but made him a hero. Even so, postwar confederates did not like to air their dirty linen in public and most of them did not do so. Johnston was also praised in the writings of his federal opponents. William t. Sherman had good things to say about johnston in his memoirs published in 1875. U. S. Grant had good things to say about johnston. I mean, after all, grant said i worried more when joe johnston was in command in front of my army than when robert e. Lee was. I dont know if grant actually said that or not, but if he did, that alone should take his reputation down many notches. Because among other things, johnston almost never commanded troops in front of grants army. Only for a few weeks in january and february 1864