Thursday, October 31, 2013

Why Total War?

This reading perhaps tells us one of the darkest chapters of the Civil War--one where the Union went on a campaign of complete and utter destruction of the state of Georgia on its march from Atlanta to Savannah. 

How did this final stage of the war differ from previous ones?  Why did General Sherman use this strategy?  Do moral decisions get totally undermined by wartime strategy here, and was that OK?

8 comments:

  1. After reading this I noticed that this final stage of the civil war was different than the other stages of the U.S Civil War. Georgia seceded from the Union as the "Republic of Georgia" and joined the newly formed Confederacy the next month during the introduction to the American Civil War. During the war. Georgia also sent nearly 100,000 soldiers to battle, mostly to the armies in Virginia were the rest of the chaos was. The state also switched from cotton to food production, but severe transportation difficulties eventually restricted supplies. General Sherman used this strategy to make sure they had enough supplies in case of emergency. This had a huge impact on them. Towards the start of the war, the state's 1,400 miles of railroad tracks provided a frequently used means of moving supplies and men but, by the middle of 1864, much of these lay in ruins or in Union hands. Moral decisions do get undermined by wartime strategy here, but that hurt's them during the Civil War.

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  2. This final stage of the war differed from previous stages in the war because Grant, “had taken hold of the problem of destroying the Confederate strength in the only way that the strength of such an army, so commanded, could be destroyed... wasting very little time or strength in efforts to make a... display of generalship.” Instead of waiting between battles, Grant kept hitting the Confederate soldiers, swiftly. Unfortunately, it lost him, a, “hideous 60,000” men and the, “stalemate was not really broken.” Unlike Grant, General Sherman relied more on maneuver and less on assault. Moral obligations still stood for some time. At the final stages of the war though, Sherman, along with Lincolns and Grant’s encouragement thought that, “civilized warfare,” must go. Morally wrong, the Union had, already destroyed the property of Southern civilians; but in war, it is not just the army fighting, it is the country as a whole. Not only were prisoners being treated horribly, the civilians were too. The confederacy endured an astounding 50,000 civilian deaths. As seen in Glory, the Union showed no mercy when raiding and destroying the homes of the civilians in the southern states they had taken; after all, it was war and this was just a fallout of it.

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  3. The final stage of the Civil War was different from previous ones because it totally destroyed the power and strength of the Confederacy, and also push the Civil War to end. The march was strong and it destroyed most of the Southern facilities and paralyzed its economy, which was a great hit to the Confederacy and so then they couldn't even fight back. Its strategy was the most important reason that made it so different from the others because the strategy was...so...inhuman and brutal. I think General Sherman used this strategy was just because he was doing what he wanted: destroyed everything, let the Southerners remember the pain so they would never think about independent or fight a war again. I believe that moral decisions got totally undermined by wartime strategy here, and it was OK because in order to make a big change, A BIG CHANGE that could totally change everything, we had to use such strategy to make the war as terrified as it could be, and make our enemies couldn't accept it as possible as we can, because only craziness and coldness could damage the enemy more than just fight them. Destroyed their facilities and economy and people could destroyed them not only physically, but also mentally. General Sherman's decision was right.

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  4. The final stage of war was different than most because it completely abolished the Confederacy, everyone wanted to get out, to make it end faster which destroyed the south. Unlike previous stages where the armies would protect or defend the civilians this time was totally different. General Sherman believed the only way was to be cruel and inmoral, resulting in taking civilians resources or burning them down. General Sherman believed "war is hell." and wanted other people believe it so well that no one would ever have to resort to war again. General Sherman used this strategy to make the people fearful of war and as a last resort because he needed food and resources for his armies. Moral decisions were toally undermined because that was their only resort to living.

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  5. The last stage of the war was different because is completely destroyed the Confederacy. The march was powerful and destroyed a lot of the South's economy by ruining facilities. After this the South couldn't fight back. Everyone wanted to get out of the war and the brutal strategy just made the war final. It was incredibly different from other strategies because of its brutality. That is what General Sherman believed was the only way which is why it was done like that. He knew that if he could make people believe war was as bad as that no one would resort to war again

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  6. This last stage of the war was different than the rest because it truly marked the point where glory ended and it just became about bloodshed and destruction. General Sherman said how war is hell and intended to make everyone believe it, wreaking destruction wherever he went. He realized that the South could never be subdued as long as its people resisted. This realization caused him the cease all prevailing niceties of civilized warfare so as to make to march to victory smooth, yet it was filled with blood, destruction, and immorality. There comes a time in any kind of feud where "Mr. Nice Guy" goes away and you do anything you can to get what you want, no matter the consequences.

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  7. This last stage of the war was different because instead of just fighting the confederate soldiers, Sherman decided to use the total war strategy and kill everything in his way and burn everything in his way. I feel like he went with this strategy because he felt the South needed a "cleansing" from all of its beliefs it had on succession and fighting against the Union. I dont think that morals really matter in wartime because you are fighting for your life and for your country. I think it was ok because it was a wake up call to the South that if they kept fighting then this was gonna happens to every single southern state that was next attacked.

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  8. After reading the article, there were different tactics in the final stage of war. The changed made he Union have a victory over the confederacy and it made them end the civil war sooner. It was also different because most people wanted the civil war to be done with so the Union used different advances to do so. I agree with Anni when she says General Sherman believed war is like hell. He wanted people to know that war was not something you go into with a rash mind. It’s something that has to be planned out carefully and thoughtfully before you go into it because once you do it is actually hell because of the burden you put on yourself. This why the last stage of the war was different.

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