Mike,

I do not believe all Union generals would have allowed this to happen or that all Union soldiers would have enjoyed doing it. I believe that the Union forces were just as culturally divided as the North and South. New Englanders were known for their intollerance and hatred towards Southerners. One Massachusetts Officer is quoted as stating that they weren't going down South to just free slaves, they were going to take, steal and destroy as much of the South as they could. His was a decree of plunder and booty, much like the pirates of old. I can Imagine the religious hatred brought down from the stronghold of Puritanism to the South, with its deverse religious communities and differences.

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David Upton