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Hosted the talk. Thank you for that brief introduction. I know everyone appreciates that. Welcome to georgia. I know many of you are traveling and are in our state probably for the first time. We specially ordered this weather for you. I know you have been on battlefields and im glad it has cooperated and we have been able to provide you with a great experience. We hope you will come back. I want to thank the Shenandoah Valley battlefields association for asking me to speak about somebody and something i have no idea when i started hitting my phd would become such an important part of my life. I cannot get away from general sherman. Topics ate to change some point and move into another area, but he is a fascinating person. A fascinating topic. I am delighted to see so many folks here. That you care this much about the civil war, battlefields, and preserving the battlefields. One of my favorite things to do is to hike battlefields. When you can unite the outdoors and the study of the civil war, theres nothing else like it. Thank you for all you do come and the association does, to preserve our battlefields and to teach civil war history. He has been called the savior of the union and the ruthless destroyer of the south. The prophet of 20th century warfare. A sadist who waged war on women and children. A modern soldier. And a terrorist. Few names from the past invoke as much emotion as William Tecumseh sherman. If you think history does not matter or sherman has faded from memory, walk into any place in georgia and proclaim sherman is a hero and atlanta got what it deserved and see what happens. His is a true story i first moved to georgia 21 years ago, i was on my way to atlanta from savanna. I passed a pickup truck on i16. The Bumper Sticker said general sherman where are you now that atlanta really needs you . [laughter] thing i want to show you is this wonderful piece of civil war memorabilia. Are those of you in the back, you may not be able to read this. This was given to me as a gift. It says general william t sherman, still wiping up the self. The south it comes with a dispenser. Every time you tear off a piece of the paper, it plays dixie. That gives you some idea of the fame of general sherman. Possible exception of property league, no civil war general is so well known by the public. There is no soldier more associated with georgia than the hand that became infamous as its destroyer. What i would like to do during the time allotted to me this afternoon is to cut through some of the myths, folklore, and distortion surrounding sherman and the march to the sea. To that end, i will attempt to answer three broad questions about the man, the march, and the memory. The man, the march, the memory. Who was sherman, what were his reasons and motivations for waging what has come to be called hard war . What was the nature and impact of the march to the sea. Was it necessary . What is the legacy of sherman and the march to the sea in modern america . What influence did he and the can we learnhat from the man and his march . Lets talk to the man. Historians disagree. Lach said it was his search for order that defined his life as he tried to find stability following the death of his father and separation from his mother in early childhood. Others say that his life was defined by the overwhelming fear of mental instability that plagued his motherss family. His maternal grandmother, uncle, all died ortom spent years in insane in insane asylums. One of his brothers died the delay in stable while the other died an alcoholic. There is general agreement that he was a brilliant but tormented sadnesso knew and only occasional happiness. His early life was chaotic. His father died when he was nine years old and his mother turned him over to another family. The combination of losing his parents and the mental problems he inherited from his mothers side contributed to the depression he suffered from as an adult. Although many biographers ignore or reject the notion that he was plagued by mental illness, symptomsxhibited many of depression. On at least 2 occasions he suffered a nervous breakdown. Notably during the winter of 1862 and he was relieved from command for showing acute paranoia over the Confederate Forces raid against him, exaggerating their numbers. He was sent home in disgrace and almost committed suicide. Sherman was essentially a conservative. He believed in the rule of law, warning the mayor of atlanta in 1864 that the easiest way to end the war would be for those in a billion to obey the laws and the constitution. He was an admirer of southern planters. He felt no moral revulsion over the institute of slavery. In the army he spent time in the south, where he felt at home and was truly happy. On the eve of the civil war he was appointed superintendent of a new military school in louisiana, which is today Louisiana State university. Shermans racism made him comfortable with slavery, but he had little patience with southerners who resorted to disunion to protect the institution. For him it represented treason and anarchy. On american soldiers and the American Flag at fort sumter was to him an attack on the constitution and an insurrection against the laws of the United States. When the United States conceded the right to break away, sherman feared the process would go on perpetually. It states were allowed to break away every time they lost a constitutional election america would end up, like he said, mexico. Continually in the grip a revolution. Be crushed ort the experiment and republicanism would fail discrediting the only example at that time of a successful democratic government. And 11 slaveholding states declared independence following the election of lincoln, sherman looked upon them as resurgent forces needed to be repressed. They had an open antislavery present for the First Time Since the founding of the republic, but he did not give southerners and slave owners provocation to destroy the government. They had no right to seize the board, arsenals, and mints which were property of the United States and placed in the south for the benefit and protection of the people. I the contracts of government, he wrote to the mayor of atlanta, the United States had certain rights in georgia which were never relinquished and never would be through its army. The United States had a right to put down rebellion, reclaim property, and it forced laws. Andring to an end unnecessary and people wore it did not start but would finish. The decision to mark an army from atlanta to the sea was a revolutionary process. Through the first years, sherman watched as the battles became bloodier and seemed to resolve nothing. The search for the battle of annihilation, where one army would destroy the other in an allout decisive engagement was elusive. The bloodlettings at shiloh, even the great twin Union Victories of the when Union Victories of vicksburg and gettysburg. Chairman was not surprised, having lived in the south he knew the southern people intimately. He knew their spirit and pride. The determination to fight. He decided a new way to wage war must be developed. To demonstrate to the supporters of the confederacy that their cause was hopeless and the confederate government did not protect them on the power of the United States. This point was evident when he and his troops were called upon to garrison parts of the mississippi delta that had fallen after the battle of shiloh. Initially sherman went along with the lincolns administrations policy. In the misguided belief that support was shallow among the Common People for the new confederacy. If the federal government treated southerners reasonably, their loyalty would reassert itself. As the Army Advanced into the south, the white population became determined to resist. Many civilians defied federal authority by smuggling medicine, bushwhacking soldiers, and harboring guerillas. The war was no longer a fight between armies where the lines between combatants and noncombatants was clear. Of the on many characteristics of the type of insurgency waged during the 20th and 21st centuries in places like vietnam, iraq, and afghanistan. This was one of the areas where shermans legacy has not been explored. We talk about the march to the sea, but sherman dealing with an insurgency and his attempts at counterinsurgency, something that would he relevant to modern america after what we have been through in the middle east, an area that is rife for historians to explore. Confronted with this hostility on the part of noncombatants, his attitude again to harden. He came to the conclusion that those in rebellion, soldiers and civilians, most feel the hard hand of war. That the United States had the power to penetrate every part of its National Domain to reestablish its authority and destroy insurgent forces. Those termsthey use frequently, insurgent and insurgency. The continued resistance justified it. It made no difference whether it was one year, two years, 10 years, or 20, they would remove and destroy every obstacle, take every life, every acre of land, every particle of property that seems proper. They would not stop until the end of the chain. That all who oppose us our enemies and we will not account for them for our actions. Sherman was not the only one coming to the conclusion that if it were to be won the war needed to be harsher. The Lincoln Administration issued special order number 100 entitled instructions for the government of the armies of the United States in the field. A set of rules for the u. S. Army that delineated what types of conduct was permissible and what was not. Called the lever code out a friend after frances labor Francis Lieber it prohibited visitors,xecution of assassination, and the breaking of flags of truce and agreements between warring parties. The code prohibited, as a historian put it, the infliction of suffering for its own sake. Authorizedr hand, it the u. S. Army to destroy civilian property of a star of noncombatants starve noncombatants, free slaves, and summarily execute guerillas if such measures were deemed necessary to winning the war. Country is paramount to all other consideration. I will over p that. To save the country is paramount to all other consideration. Like other wartime chief executives to the present day, lincoln was willing to take drastic measures to ensure the survival of the United States. Sherman could not have agreed more. When he captured atlanta in 1864, his thoughts had matured. The rebel army had been defeated. Another major city had fallen. The confederates would not give up. Rather then continue the futile war against people, he would wage war against property. A shift in objectives sanctioned by the u. S. Government has code. Sed in the lieber it would bring victory with a minimum loss of life on both sides and undermine confederate ,orale on the home front trigger a wave of desertions, destroy the ability to wage war, and prove to the rebels that the confederate government was them andto protect their property. The history of the war demonstrated there could be no peace without making it as harsh as possible. War is cruelty and you cannot refine it he wrote to the mayor and aldermen of atlanta when they protested against the removal of citizens from the city. You may as well appeal against a thunderstorm. The hardships of war are navigable. The only way the people of atlantic and hope to live in peace and quiet at home is to stop the war. We do not want your negroes, horses, houses, land but we do want and will have obedience to the laws of the United States. That, we will have. If it involves the destruction of your property, we cannot help it. It is important to remember the context in which sherman put the code into action. The civil war of 1864 was no longer the gentlemans conflict of 1861. When sherman headed to atlanta, one million u. S. And confederate soldiers had been killed, wounded, or died of disease. Graveyards and hospitals covered the land. The country was drenched in blood. The guerrillas bushwhacked soldiers while other confederate guerrillas and guards robbed, tortured, and murdered southern civilians. Regular horses had burned hampton, virginia and chambersburg, pennsylvania. Confederate officials executed southern civilians for suspected disloyalty, including a mass hanging of 40 texans in october for nothing more than failing to show for the draft. Confederate soldiers murdered hundreds of black prisoners. In accordance with official confederate policy, rebel authorities sent the black soldiers they did not kill back into slavery. Thousands of white u. S. Prisoners were suffering and dying in hell holes. In short, the civil war, like other wars had taken an ugly turn. The United States and Confederate States were struggling for existence. It was life or death. Actions that would have been considered atrocities at the beginning of the war were becoming commonplace on both sides. Sherman thought it was hypocritical or confederates who had plunged the nation into war to appeal to god and humanity when the tide turned against them given their own brutal actions. No one could attack the United States, especially from within, he reasoned, and not expect consequences. Sherman believe there was a broader goal to widen distractions to include noncombatants. Demanding the war become as brutal and painful as possible. In this way the enemies of the United States would never try to break up the country to ensure ends. Political the war, sherman said, was the choice of a minority of disaffected citizens. Having lost the president ial sought to overturn the will of the majority by resorting to succession. Now that the United States were at war, they had to prosecute those who appealed to it and come to the emblem of our nation to sue for peace. I would not coax them are made them halfway, but make them so sick of four that generations would pass away before they would appeal to it. Those were tough words indeed. As usual, with a hyperbolic sherman, his bark was worse than his bite. His rhetoric harsher than his actions. As his troops set out for atlanta in 1864, sherman swore howl. E georgia historical evidence shows the general was neither as destructive as he planned to be, nor as barbaric as he was accused of. Numbercial field order 120 sherman laid out the rules of destruction and conduct. The army was to forge liberally. N the country the details of men and officers sent out each day to gather food. Were not to enter private homes and to discriminate from the rich, who were usually hostile, and of the poor and industrious who were usually neutral or friendly. To be sure, there was more destruction than allowed by the orders. Officers were not always present to control their men. Saw this as as golden opportunity to teach the people of georgia the hardships and terror of war. Which they blamed the confederates for starting and continuing despite defeats on the battlefields. Homes of the wealthy were burned. Private dwellings were entered. Personal property was taken. Civilians were stripped of more food than army needed or could consume. Sherman called this eating out the country. The worst discussion of private are pretty continued after the march to the sea and South Carolina because sherman and his men considered the state responsible for the war. As in georgia, the primary destruction was infrastructure and anything that could be used to continue the struggle. Factories, mills, caught gents, bridges, and railroad. Hundreds of miles of track were torn up. They were wrapped around trees and telegraph poles are they would require a rolling mill to usable. M in georgia and North Carolina, the march to the sea was savannah to atlanta but let South Carolina deal with their own history. Were talking about torture. In georgia and North Carolina few private homes were burned. Those that were belonged to men cobb,ow called howell who sherman considered guilty of bringing on the rebellion. Cribs were and corn put to the torch, but rarely a private home. Compared to were existing structures, finding most along the march were still in existence. The few that were gone had been. Ost to post were accidents despite the commonly held belief reinforced by gone to the wind that sherman reduced atlanta to smoldering ruin, only the business and industrial sections were put to the torch. The residential area and courthouse area were spared. In general, the residential areas survived. Although battered. 60 of the city was Still Standing when sherman set out on his infamous march to the sea. 40 of atlanta destroyed was the confederates burned of chambersburg, previous july. E sherman proved merciful in forgiving when his enemies submitted to the authority of the national government. Savanna is the prime example. In savannah, sherman was offered one of the finest mansions as headquarters. He described mayor arnold as completely subjugated. The citizens as orderly and well behaved. Escaped the fate of others along the march. Jaclyn jones conducted resources from primary sources like diaries and letters, savannah welcomed the army as liberators. They were ready to throw off the yoke of the confederacy. Succession had only brought death and deprivation. Peace. Ple wanted greeted by contrition rather than defiance, sherman changed course. As he said to the mayor of atlanta, if those in rebellion would acknowledge the authority of the national government, i and this army will become your protectors and supporters of shielding you from danger. The mayor of atlanta did not heed the warning. Did. Nahs mayor where the march ended was different than where it began. Another kind of property destroyed during the march to the sea was slavery. The emancipation proclamation, issue two years earlier, freed the slaves in the rebellious states. As they advanced deeper into the south, sherman and the United States army became an instrument of liberation. Despite being order to stay put plantations,ers thousands of newly liberated african americans, men, women, and children, followed in the wake of shermans march. It must have been trying to tell people that had been interred in a concentration camp, do not leave now. Those following the army would have fatal consequences. For many of those drowned attempting to swim at the knees or creek after the army corps took up the pontoon bridge, stranding jews slaves on the north bank. Sherman saw emancipation as useful, not because he cared about the plight of africanamericans, but because it damaged the confederate war effort. The fact remains that sherman helped to end slavery and brought freedom to millions of black southerners. As the author intended, the march to the sea was harsh on civilians. Losing crops, food, livestock, left noncombatants with little to eat. The fear that sherman created was as powerful as his destruction. The site of federal troops marching across the state, destroying property, pillaging unopposed, had a demoralizing affect on white georgians that supported the confederacy. By waging war against the mind of his opponents, the market achieved the goal of hastening the end of the conflict. The wives of confederate soldiers along the march or feared they lay in the path of shermans advancing legions begged husbands to come home and desertions increased her magically during 18641865. This hemorrhaging from lees army allowed grant to deliver the knockout low in 1865. The the Vantage Point of 21st century, shermans way of war seems a dramatic departure from earlier methods and has prompted some to characterize the march to the sea and beyond as the birth of modern total war. The hard war was not total war. Of march was destructive public property and theastructure, it lacked wholesale destruction of human life that characterized world war ii and other 20thcentury conflicts. Shermans primary targets were food, livestock, government, industrial, military properties. They were chosen to create the desired effect and never included killing civilians. German claimed his war on property was more humane than traditional sherman claimed his war on property was more humane than traditional war. He told one woman the reason that he was ransacking her plantation was so his soldier husband would come home and general grant would not have to kill him. He was fighting to bring soldiers back into the union. As the treatment of savannah demonstrated, there was no need for destruction. Sherman demonstrated for the first time in the modern era the power of psychological warfare in breaking down an enemys will to resist. This would come into bloom in world war ii when allied powers, british and americans, would bomb civilians to create terror and win the war by any means at their disposal, atomicng dropping 2 bombs. It would be seen again in the vietnam war when america carpet bombed hanoi and other parts of vietnam, dropping on a single small country more ordinance then we dropped in the entire Pacific Theater during world war ii. America in the 20th century wage total war to such a frightening extent that one cannot help but wonder if sherman had commanded in world war ii or vietnam, with his detractors be so repelled . Especially those white southerners that had been taught to hate him as a work criminal. If he had served in the same army, the union army was the United States army, look at issued orders if he had served in the same army a century later and had worn khaki or green instead of blue if his targets had been germans, vietnamese, japanese, would we still loathe him to the same extent . Perspective the southerners represented more of a threat to the United States then did the nazis, the communists, or the japanese imperialists here dealing with domestic enemies anticipated how americans in the 20th century would fight their countrys foreign foes. Strike violently and boldly at armed forces, destroy his ability to wage war, and undermine the will of the civilian population to resist. When enemy sues for peace, treat him no longer as an enemy. A doctrine historian Robert Oconnell calls hard war soft peace. It is no wonder that such distinguished general such as stored patton and Norman Schwarzkopf would revere and him you late sherman. Schwarzkopf even kept on his desk a quote from sherman during the first iraq war. War is the remedy our enemies have chosen. I say, let us give them all they want. Like his hero, norman destroyed his foe and offered lenient terms of surrender. Sherman has been demonized for waging war against noncombatants, but his hard hand of war established a model of how america would win future conflicts. Robert oconnell described shermans army as the first truly archetypal american ground force. Is still used today by the armed forces of the United States, and continues to govern how we fight. As world war ii and vietnam noonstrated, americans have problem wreaking destruction on their enemies when the existence of the nation is at stake. Macarthurs admission to congress was lifted out of shermans playbook. When war is forced upon us there is no other alternative than to apply every available means to bring it to a swift end. Object is a victory, not prolonged indecision. Words written in 1862, to save the country is paramount to other considerations could have been spoken by general bradley or patton as they smashed through a germantown. Ordereds lemay as he the firebombing of japanese cities. Deemed heroes because their actions were against foreign foes, where sherman was vilified as a terrorist, because his actions, the less severe, were against a mystic enemies. Rightly or wrongly he deemed what necessary laid down by the rules of his government to save his country. Rather than an aberration his war fits within the american tradition. Tactics of his successors and the enhanced interrogation techniques employed recently, his march to the sea reveals the moral ambiguity of war and the extent to which americans are willing to go when our National Existence is at stake. Thank you, very much. [applause] i have no idea what time it is. If we are on track and if we have time for questions. 3 48, we are on track. Yes, sir. I am taking a path that would have taken him through there did he know how important the powder mill was to confederate efforts . Todd yes, they did. It is interesting. Many people in augusta are strangely disappointed sherman did not come to their town. [laughter] there, youyou go hear why didnt he come here . Part of what sherman was doing during the march was keeping confederates off balance. Though he outnumbered the forces opposed to him. Wanted to throw them off balance. He did this repeatedly throughout the march to the sea and later in the campaigns beyond. There is the march to the sea, savanna to atlanta, then South Carolina really gets kicked. Most of the burning happened in North Carolina. In South Carolina, sherman says, back to your best behavior. Do not burn down everyones house. Sherman sainted to the left toward augusta and up. He could probably tell me exactly what that is. To the left, to the right, right up the middle. Ok. [laughter] herschel got the ball. In this case, sherman got the ball and they went right through. Illersville. They go to savannah. Then he feigns to augusta. They think he is coming this way, and he goes to columbus. He is continually doing this, keeping them off balance. At that point it was imperative for him to keep moving. He had a map that he looked at. Planning where they would go. He was able to see according to the 1860 census the crops produced. How many hogs, how much corn, how much wheat. He will try to go to the bread basket. He is living off the land. The idea he got from grant from the vicksberg campaign. He told him it wouldnt work, and it did. He tested it in ready and here 20 march to cross georgia he implemented it on a grander scale. And they get past millersville you are moving into an area of georgia that we call the pine barons. Food is scarce. Youre wearing out shoes and uniforms. One of the first things requested at the coast were shoes. Part of it was to keep moving in as much a Straight Line as possible. That would be the best as nation the best explanation i could give us to why they skipped augustine. The march to the sea, not augusta. Towards the sea. There was question on if he would go to mobile. Even lincoln said, im not sure where he is going. He is like a rat, i know which hole he went in, i just dont know what hole he will come out. Lincoln, he always had a way with words. Wait for the mic. Thes shermans man got into rice fields of georgia, they actually did not know what rice was or had not eaten much. Did not know how to eat it. There was an account that i read , i dont know if i can believe it, about the Union Soldiers putting gunpowder on rice to spice it up to give it flavor. May be they didnt have salt or pepper. Todd i prefer sharp or gravy shrimp or gravy online. Ive never tried gunpowder. Though, it may help with a bad case of constipation. [laughter] i have read those accounts. I do not know if they are accurate. Rice does require seasoning. It probably tasted better. What we have today is not the same kind of race they were riceg the same kind of they were eating. People in savannah, the white population, and black, too, were eating a lot of rice. They were very tired of eating seafood. Fish for breakfast, which some people still do. That was getting old. The diet was getting monotonous. I understand how they thought it was not all that good. It is like the first time you try grits. If you are from the north, the first thing you say is what is a grit. When you see it in a bowl, your first instinct is to put sugar or something on it. All it needs is salt, pepper, and butter. I have people take instant grits come eat them, and say this is terrible. How could you eat this . Because you didnt fix it the right way. Like cream of wheat. Same with rice. It is disconcerting with that in your mouth, but go ahead. For everyone here [indiscernible] [laughter] todd that reminds me of a joke which i dont know if i should tell. It has to do with george washington, the british, and an american going to england and finding a picture of general washington in the water closet, as the british call it. When he came out, the british generald did you see washington, sir . He said, yes i did. Arent you offended we put his picture in the bathroom . He said no, i figured there was nothing that would scare someone into going to the bathroom more than general washington. Maybe that is the place it should go. I tried to clean that up as much as i could. We are on television. Yes, sir. I could be wrong, but my observation is that sherman is reviled more in georgia than sheridan is in the valley. Im wondering, is there a reason you are aware of, or think, that, especially given the evidence is that he was not that . If im that might be wrong, maybe the folks in the valley can say, you are wrong. Todd it was bad. Mass murderer, no. It was bad enough as it was. If the confederates were going to be demoralized it had to be pretty bad. With of it has to do postwar accounts. Sherman was not demonized during the war. If you came into georges to see how the land looked after the march, it would not have looked that much different than Northern Virginia behind the lines. When an army passes through, things will look bad. It would not have looked a lot different. Even after the war, sherman made 2 visits to atlanta. Both times he was greeted as a hero. Many atlantans said thank you for getting rid of the Downtown Business area, now we can rebuild and a phoenix has risen. The symbol of atlanta is a phoenix rising. He was greeted as a hero by many people. It was not until the lost cause and the development of that narrative that kicked in and the late 19th century and early 20th century that sherman became demonized to the extent he was. Theres a great book. I have my list of books here it i figured someone would ask me what is good to read. One i would recommend is a book by Anne Sarah Ruben called through the heart of dixie. It looks at shermans march, how it developed, the memory on both sides. Another book is called shermans march in myth and memory. They explore this phenomenon of what sherman comes to represent. Their argument is sherman represents everything that is the antithesis of the cavalier society. It is the industrial north. It is not romanticizing war in any way. Its doing what has to be done to destroy and win on a grand scale. Grant killed a lot more people. A lot more than sherman. Sherman because the villain because sherman killed a culture, grant defeated an army. Or something in that about the scale. Sherman has the Shenandoah Valley. From atlanta, savannah, South Carolina. Images of shermans march to georgia, but South Carolina remembers it, tol. Too. What we know today is filtered through movies and books. Thing thatbly the popularized shermans march the most was gone with the wind the movie and book. It presented sherman as the wind that came through that destroyed the culture. It gets back to what they said, sherman destroys the culture. ,hat becomes the terthey used the wind and fire that came through georgia. Sarah ruben made an interesting point about the destruction itself. I thought it was interesting. She said we have the sense of the march to the sea as being a tidal wave, a tsunami. 60 miles from one end to the other. She says, in reality it was more like fingers of destruction. Stitches through the landscape. The army was advancing down roads. In most places, they stayed the day. Most of the destruction is limited to how far off the roads they go. She says there are vast areas between the roads untouched. Those people supplied food and help to other people who had lost so much. It is interesting. And not hot about it. I had not thought about it. We have the image of a tsunami of fire, but it is more like angers of destruction. Fingers of destruction. Yes, sir. People in the valley not only sheridan planned, organized, and carried out his own destruction this was an order of destruction. It was very thorough, though there are other phases. That is different from what happened in georgia. Todd in georgia, there was the order to destroy. Shermans order was to destroy certain types of property. Sheridan in the valley, same thing. The myths continue in both. Laces as to what was destroyed a very distinguishing story that we know tells the fact that he was with a group of people in a meeting and a man swore that every mel in the Shenandoah Valley was burned. After the program is over, the guy said where do we eat. The guy said we go to this restored mill that has been converted into a restaurant. So, there is the image that everything gets wiped out or destroyed. I do not know the differences. , and these were orders to destroy as well. Grant knew what was going on. It happened with his consent. We have an image of sherman as a lunatic that convinced 60,000 people to go along with him on a binge of destruction. No one knows what he is doing, he is doing it on his own. It was done with the permission of his superior officers. It is not coincidence that it is happening at the same time. The Lincoln Administration is saying enough is enough, lets get it over with. I think of it like the atomic bomb. No one would say the atomic bomb was a good thing. It was a horrible thing. Beyond horror. At the time, it was felt it was necessary to do it to end the war. To use the tools at the disposal of the government. , looking back, we realize that although hundreds of thousands of people died the casualties would have been were worse on both sides. Think about how many japanese would have died and americans would have died . It would have been a mass slaughter based on what we saw in other places like okinawa. It was a horrible thing. You look back on the consequences now, what it led to slavery andyed preserves the United States of america. And horrible thing that have the consequence of giving us the world we live in today, the great country we live in today. With that one question in the back. You ended with contemporary times. My question is, you mentioned sherman fought a heart for to. Reate a soft peace in contemporary times it seems we are fighting a software in many a soft war in places, and these continue, and we have a hard peace. One comment i have is enhanced interrogation techniques, these individuals are not entitled to labor code protections. To be entitled to the code you have to be in full uniform. Guess my question is, if sherman was general or present for a day or president for a day, would hard war be justified to create soft peaces everywhere we are. We have multiple soft wars that will grow like a virus because we are not doing what sherman did in terms of bringing about closure. Todd i love questions like this. These questions tell me that history is relevant. It is not just something fun. We want to understand what happened because of the relevancy. That is what i mentioned. This area of shermans career, counter insurgency, has not been explored. I wish i knew the answer. Youre making me think about it. This is the thing i always say, you may not by a single thing i say, but what i say is a compilation of what the historians a consensus to a large extent. You may not buy it, but i hope you will never look at this man and march in the same way. From thestep away podium is an honor to be here with so many distinguished historians. There are so many great people. Richard, murray, you started the day with the best. You started with bud robertson. You ended with the least, as far as im concerned. [laughter] thank you, very much. [applause] interested in American History tv . Visit cspan. Org history. You can see our Upcoming Schedule or watch a recent program. American artifacts, wrote to the white house rewind, lectures to history, more at cspan. Org history. This weekend on rewind, we look at the start of Dwight Eisenhowers 1952 president ial campaign. Heres a preview of his speech he gave in abilene, kansas. Must, as a people, hold fast to our faith and ideals, which are fundamental to the free system. We must Work Together in an atmosphere of good will and confidence. We see an increasing trend for an unreasonable antagonism between economic elements of our own country. Indulgence in the fantastic notion that any major part of our society can long prosper unless the whole enjoys prosperity. This is a danger that is easier , byntensify than to reduce depending exclusively on legislation. Prepared tof us are apply responsible citizenship to our problems on the alternative is to resort to masses of punitive laws. Such a process will be costly, funeral, and stupid. If long pursued aiken and only in regimentation of all workers and bureaucratic controls of all means of production. The settlement of disputes and grievances requires them a together with simple and clear legal processes, a climate of goodwill and appreciation of good citizenship and responsible concern for all people. Most important, Public Confidence in the fairness and impartiality of appointed agents and agencies. More benefit for americans is to be found in real leadership and honest speech than in law that fails to reflect the considered will of the vast majority. [applause] watch the entire speech sunday 10 00 a. M. Eastern sunday on our weekly series road rewind onlyhouse on cspan3. Next on American History tv, former war correspondents talk about their frontlines of vietnam and how it compares with the official version of the war. Reports aired on cbs from 1965 to 1966. Peter arnett worked for the toociated press from 1962 1965. Andrew sherry, a former Foreign Correspondent moderates. We began with dan rather reporting from vietnam. It was part of a threeday library. E from the lbj it is called the vietnam war summit. It is about one hour. Did you tell us what is happening, what the situation is . I think this is the second or third day that i was in vietnam

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