I agree with all of your sentiments and find the idea of destroying one of the great natural resources of North America, the great buffalo herds as a terrible act.

My "real" purpose; however, was to show how a story could be conveniently used as sympathetic in one instance, yet completely ignored or downplayed in another.

I hate hypocrisy. I hate it in others and I hate it in myself. As you may know, my Civil War ancestry is about 50-50 Confederate and Union. My surname comes from a family of Indianans, where five (5) of my g-grandfather's brothers fought and died, primarily in the Western Theater. Another Indiana gg-grandfather, John W. McPike, was seriously wounded as a member of Sheridan's division, Francis Sherman's Brigade at Missionary Ridge. You may remember, I posted some photos after visiting my g-granduncles grave at Marietta, GA. He was killed in the assault on the "Dead Angle" at Kennesaw Mountain as one of Sherman's soldiers. What I'm trying to say, by posting part of my pedigree, is that I have Union credentials equal to most pro-Union historians.

I do not believe the individual Union soldiers were "evil", in fact just the opposite; however, I do believe that the total war concept, as it was carried out on the Southern citizenry was one of those "evils" done "for the greater good". But, instead of justification of this tactic in the case of Southerners and lamenting it when it comes to Native-Americans, I believe the same view should be held for each. Even in the texts you've just read the authors state that the tactics used on the Indians were learned during the Civil War.

This is one of those, "what's done is done", sort of issues. An "uncivilized" type of warfare was waged on the citizenry of the South according to an American president's view of morality and "the greater good".

Today, we are struggling with the decisions to firebomb Hamburg and Dresden, Germany and Tokyo, Japan. Our national consciencious is sensitive to these horrific acts, which in the case of Dresden and Tokyo were strictly used to destroy Civilian morale. I will not state the rightness or wrongness of these bombings of civilians in this forum, but I do wish that our Northern brethren would at least feel a tinge of discomfort over the way the war was carried out on Southern women, children and old men, just as we do regarding the WWII bombings.

As a son of Northern veterans, I respect and honor their views, beliefs, their courage and their sacrifice. I celebrate their victory and those who survived the conflict. But I feel shame that this great victory will always carry the scar of the atrocities carried out on the Southern civilians. For those of us who were raised in the South, we know that the injuries to the economy and infrastructure lasted even until recent times. A ravaged South, not only effected whites, but also African-Americans for generations. In fact, I believe that the "fight over the scraps" that were left on the Southern table, made the relationship between Whites and African-Americans much more difficult.

In closing, you can't condemn the tactics used against the Plains indians on one-hand and then support such tactics when used against Southerners. That's what I call "hypocrisy".

Jim