Absolutely there were atrocities and actions against the proper rules of warfare of the day. Grant and Sherman knew the only way to restore union was to subjugate the south.

Ahhh poe old Cump. Whenever any war has been fought on whatever soil, there have been actions against humanity. Were orders issued to rape and sodomized, I don't think so. The damage in the South was vastly done to property, to stop the war. Worked well for the Union. Looting, yes though orders were issued against it, one may wonder about the blind eye being turned. South Carolina was the state made "To Howl" because it was considered the hot bed of seceesion. North Carolina was mostly a walk about...like those Aussie terms...The feelings about Sherman in the South aren't likely to change and would be rather a waste of time to try, views on Uncle Billy are written in stone one way or another. I can see where had if he had put the smack down on me I would be one unhappy hombre, and he did put the smacketh down. Believe he said it..was a disagreeable thing to be whipped... So true.

Now, John while I can see the Southron view on things (Southron..notice how Chasey can speak the lingo?) You know what... please compare Sherman's march to any other comparable campaign in military history..want to talk about unrestrained havoc, my friend. The thing that always gets me is when Europeans get in on the old bandwagon. Guess they never heard of Napolean or the British Empire. How about the Peninsular Campaign in Spain. Or those so civilized Brits who used a much greater scorched earth policy thirty years later against the Boers. I's believe the South African historian Hermann Giliomee declares that it "looks as if Sherman struck a better balance than the British commanders between severity and restraint in taking actions proportional to legitimate needs." So while my southern friends can keep putting their pins in their Uncle Billy Vodoo dolls, my suggestion to our lordly overseas critics is this "remove the beam from your eye, before you worry about the mote in ours amigo."

Chase.