my mistake; wasn't his family from Virginia?
Paul Shelton wrote:
> 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
--
Paul Finkelman
Chapman Distinguished Professor of Law
University of Tulsa College of Law
3120 East 4th Place
Tulsa, OK 74104-3189
phone 918-631-3706
Fax 918-631-2194
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions
at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html
|
