War on the citizens of the South as a military tactic was not just a Sherman fenomenon during the Civil War. The actions of the Union troops at Fredericksburg comes to mind; the acts of Fremont's troops in the Valley Campaign; Wilson's Raid, ect., this was a matter of policy that went all the way to Washington. Both sides had plunderers, foragers, and guerillas but the one side that had a standing policy for the regular armies to take and or destroy the property of and terrorize one sides citizenship would have to be solely the North. This policy started near the first days of the war like with Colonel Ellsworth's men trespassing and stealing private property, and killing a private citizen in Alexandria Va. This policy even invaded into the South's houses of worship with armed soldiers forcing church services to include prayers to Abraham Lincoln. This was not just a military tactic, it was a complete forced social reforming and political submission of the South and it was done by the flame and the sword.
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David Upton