Paul,
I'm sorry, but Patton was a Californian. Perhaps you've confused him with
the actor who played him in the movie - George C. Scott - who was born in
Virginia.
-Paul Shelton
-----Original Message-----
From: Paul Finkelman [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Wednesday, August 15, 2001 7:27 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: sherman
One might view Sherman as the man who was responsible for freeing more human
being from bondage than any other person. His march from the Mississippi to
the
Atlantic Ocean resulted in the liberation of more than a million slaves and
the
destruction of a nation, whose "cornerstone," accoring to its own Vice
President, was slavery. I suppose we should not be surprised that those who
lost their slaves, and the wealth that came from it, hated General Sherman.
His
tactics, ironically, were no different that those of laster used by
Eisenhower,
Patton (a Virginian) and the rest of the Allied High Command in World War
II, to
prevent the enemy from making war, by destroying the enemy's ability to make
war. We used the same tactic against Japan, only with carpet bombing and
firebombing.
Gross and vile? Interesting terms. I am not sure what "gross" means here
(disgusting, ill mannered, overweight?) Vile. I would reserve that term, at
least in the American context, to perhaps traitors, who having taken oaths
of
allegience to the United States, made war against the United States when
they
did not like the outcome of a presidential election.
Paul Finkelman (father of a first generation Virginian!)
--
Paul Finkelman
Chapman Distinguished Professor
University of Tulsa College of Law
3120 East 4th Place
Tulsa, Oklahoma 74104-2499
918-631-3706 (office)
918-631-2194 (fax)
[log in to unmask]
Deane wrote:
> Well, let me just say this.
> I am a 54 year old housewife with nothing but Southern roots on each side
of
> my family, so I admit to a strong bias.
> My paternal grandparents were born in North Carolina in the 1880's.
> My maternal grandparents were born in Tidewater Virginia in the 1880's.
> During my childhood and formative years in the 1950's, it was their
> reflections on their parents' lives that shaped my thinking and taught me
to
> regard certain aspects of Southern American history the way I do.
> I certainly will not bore you folks with that.
> However, it was my beloved and dear and college degreed (i.e., not
ignorant
> red neck) grandparents who taught me that men like Sherman were gross and
> vile.
> On the other hand, one of my grandfathers (whose name was Wade Hampton
> King) had a brother whose middle name was Grant......that brother was
named
> after Ulysses Grant. The family legend has it that my great-grandfather
> named that son after the Union general out of gratitude for being able to
> take his horse home from Appomatox.
> In fairness, I think that it was the horrors of Reconstruction.... the
> salted fields that the Yankee troops had left behind them along with
> poisoned water wells, needlessly slaughtered live stock, the ring-barked
> fruit and nut trees and the resulting starvation that caused the deepest
and
> most induring bitterness.
> I do not think that Margaret Mitchell's book created myths. I think that
> when many Southerners read GONE WITH THE WIND they were relieved that
after
> so many decades someone had finally come close to putting it right and
> putting it down on paper.....and better yet, folks everywhere were reading
> it and, perhaps, coming to a better understanding, albeit a romanticized
> one, of what Southerners tended to be like.
> I could go on and on and on, but I won't.
> I could tell you about the teacher I had in college in the 1960's who
asked
> me (the only southerner in that small Vermont college), "Is it true that
you
> Southerners despise the blacks, the Jews and the Catholics. And if so,
why?"
> I was so flabberghasted that I could not answer except to say, "Why no. We
> just hate Yankees!"
> I could try to describe to you the anguish on my own mother's face as she
> told me about her own grandmother's stories of eating insects and make
'tea'
> out of shoe leather after the "Wah".
> I can hear my mother now, telling me how her grandmother said over and
over
> and over,
> "We were SO hungry."
> Deane Ferguson Mills
> a 13th generation Tidewater Virginian and proud of it.
>
> > I agree with your assessment of Margaret Mitchell's role in tarnishing
any
> > understanding of Sherman. But no matter what is written, I'm afraid,
> some
> > Southerners, and nearly all Native Americans, will continue having a
> > difficult time believing Sherman had any noble purpose in waging all out
> > war, either against the Confederacy, or against the Sioux and other
> Western
> > peoples he subjugated in the Indian Wars.
> >
> > -Paul Shelton
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Jim Watkinson [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> > Sent: Wednesday, August 15, 2001 3:21 PM
> > To: [log in to unmask]
> > Subject: sherman
> >
> >
> > Harold is right. Total war is key. There was a review of a bio of
> Sherman
> > 2 or 3 weeks ago in the NYT Review of Books which strongly suggested
that
> > the man who said "war is hell" believed he could end the war sooner --
and
> > stop the carnage -- by fighting the war in a differrent manner. This
> seems
> > to ring true. Margaret Mitchell (and David Selznick) probably did more
to
> > set back the cause of understanding the war than anyone who has ever
> lived.
> >
> > Jim Watkinson
> >
> > To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the
instructions
> > at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html
> >
> > To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the
instructions
> > at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html
>
> To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions
> at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html
To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions
at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html
To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions
at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html
|
