Current Events — HabitableZone

Current Events » in reply to Nobody wants casualties

Civil war history
Gary — (archived)

Mary Anne made the following comment:

>Why do we do a happy dance and pat ourselves on the back that there are "so
>few"? These are not tokens on a Parchisee board.

I was reminded of a letter written by General William T. Sherman to General U.S. Grant shortly after concluding the Battle of Vicksburg. General Sherman was laying out different strategies for the defeat of the South (sorry, don't have a reference URL). What was interesting about Sherman's letter was how he perceived his own troops. It was clear that he perceived them as "coin" for purchasing victories. In his letter to Grant, Sherman spelled out different potential military targets, the potential rewards in attacking the different targets and the anticipated cost in terms of casulties and loss of war material, etc. An important concern for Sherman was his ability to sustain the overall campaign for the long term. There is an excellent picture of General Sherman at:

http://www.sfmuseum.org/bio/sherman.html

If you take a look at his face, it's clear that war was having an erossive effect upon him (supposably he suffered terribly from depression). Of course, General William T. Sherman was one of America's greatest generals and arguably one of the greatest military leaders that ever lived. To achieve victory, William T. Sherman DID treat his own soldiers like tokens on a Parchisee board.

Gary

Log in or register to post.

The whole thread (38 posts)