Old Cump

I tend to think that Sherman does deserve the antipathy that surrounds him, particularly from Southern sources. I also think placed more emphasis upon a logic than his peers. Much, as Roger noted, those soliders who vouted for lincoln in 1864 were, in effect, hastening many of their own deaths. Sherman understood that by gutting the South such would effective as opposed to the feint-and-roll which was nearly universal amongst the North, especially the paper-collared East. Vollmann may be right in condemning Sherman for introducing a naive yet effective Total War to the conflict.

I am on p. 656