Sherman Actrocities

Please note the below information was not written by me, but it is from the book, "The South Was Right!!!

Below is just one of the many atrocities Sherman's Army commited. Early in July of 1864, Gen William Tecumseh Sherman's army was pressing towards Atlanta. Although greatly outnumbered, the Southern Army was making the invader pay dearly for his conquest. As usual, when an invader has difficulty with the standin Army of the invaded, he will start to attack those whom he knows he can defeat with little trouble. True to form, General Sherman sent his army into the heartland of the South with the orders to "make Georgia howl". The food supply and factories of the outh were the object of Sherman's wrath. Sherman declared that there could be no peace in the country until large parts of the Southern population had been exterminated. He put his words into action. First, all the food that could be found was taken for the Yankee army. Then all means of food production were either taken or destroyed. Then he turned his attention to the destruction of factories that aided the Southern War effort. It may be difficult for us to understand today what it means to have all t e food in one's home taken away and also have the means to replace the food stolen or destroyed. When they needed food, Southerners one hundered and thirty years ago did not run down to the supermarket or corner convenience store. They grew their own foo . Some food could be bought, but in times of war when invading armies made normal commerce impossible, the family unit had to depend on it's own resources. Therefore, by depriving people of the means of food production, the Yankee invader was condemning hem to death by starvation. Who were these people upon Sherman had pronouned the death sentence? For the most part they were women, children, old men, and the sick and wounded who were unfit for military service. These innocent and defenseless victims w re the ones upon whom the full measure of anger was poured. It seems strange that while Yankees wrapped the cloak of self righteousness around themselves and proclaimed themselves as the beacon of all that was right and good, they would stoop so low as t starve and destroy defenseless women, children, the sick wounded, and dying! After the battle of Kennesaw Mountain, in which the invader was thoroughly punished for being in the wrong place, Sherman send elements of his army around Atlanta and into the owns of Marietta, Rosswell, and New Manchester. Several factories that were important to the Southern War effort were located in these areas, the Yankees moved in and began there work. Food and the means of food production were taken away, and homes were ulled down or burned. All personal property that could be consigned to the flames was destroyed. The only items that could be taken by the hapless Southerners were the clothese on their backs. Even jewerly, such as wedding bands, was pulled from ladies' hands by the noble defenders of the Union. If the saga of these poor people were to stop here, it would still rate as one of the lowest points in American histroy. But for these Southerners, there odyssey of horror had only begun. Sherman then ordered all those who worked in the factories to be gathered up and shipped out of the country. The invader evidently feared that by some miracle these people might not die of starvation, and by some enormous stroke of luck might rebuild their factories from the ashe . With little or no concern for homes, women and children were torn from their families and shipped north. The vast majority of these people were never to see their loved ones again. In all, more than two thousand women, children, and a few old men were collected. Families were divided. Children were seperated from their mothers. Tearful mothers were forced to watch as children, who had worked in the factories, were dragged away from home- almost none of them would ever be heard from again. With no rem rse than that shown by the Yankee Slave trader(And oh yes the majority of slave traders were Yankee Slave traders, but that is obviously another story for another time), the invaders went about their dirty work of kidnapping defenseless women and children Even after the end of the war, the United States goverment never made any attempt to reunite these families! In the town of Roswell, over four hundred young women and children were kept in the open town square for nearly a week. Imagine the suffering of those who were cramped in that hot(Remember this was July in Georgia!) dirty place. As if that ere bad enough, the whiskey stores found their way into the hands of the guards. From that time on, the young girls of Roswell lived a continual nightmare. All the factory workers of New Manchester were taken off in the same manner as the other towns. So complete was the destruction that the town never recovered from the raid and soon passed from existence. New Manchester became a martyr for the cause of Southern Independence. The following comment appeared in a Louisville, Kentucky, newspaper concernign the women and children whom Sherman had shipped north; "The train which arrived from Nashiville last evening brought up from the South, 249 wo en and children, who are sent here by the orders of General Sherman to be transferred north of the Ohio river. These people are mostly in a destitute condition, having no means to provide for themselves a support." These people were hired out to preform ork at a price that was at no more than a subsistence level, making them virtually white slaves for the Yankees. More than 2,000 women and children were sent into the North in this manner. The papers in the area advertised them as if they were any other c mmodity for sale. And so the Yankee maintained their illicit trade in human flesh even as they were singing glory, glory, hallelujah.