Did the Union commit war crimes against the Confederacy?

@RonElFran (1214)
Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania
November 13, 2015 8:00pm CST
As the Civil War progressed, the Union became more and more committed to destroying anything its armies came upon that could be used to support Confederate forces. That's why, for example, when General William Tecumseh Sherman marched his Union army from Atlanta to the sea, they cut a 60-mile wide swath of destruction along their path. Barns, silos, farm implements, factories, and machinery were all fair game to be burned or destroyed in order to prevent them being used to supply the Confederate army. And it worked. Georgia had been the breadbasket of the Confederacy. But after Sherman, Georgia's contribution to the rebel war effort was greatly reduced. The same thing happened in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, where Union General Philip Sheridan was under orders from Ulysses S. Grant to destroy all facilities for raising and distributing crops and livestock that Robert E. Lee's Confederate army defending Richmond depended on. This dearth of supplies led directly to Lee's final surrender to Grant at Appomattox. As far as the Confederates were concerned, this deliberate destruction by Union forces of civilian property constituted war crimes of the highest order. But were they? For the most part, Union armies did not deliberately burn Southern civilians out of their homes, or execute individuals unless they were involved in guerrilla activity. The destruction was all of property that was being used to provide the food and other resources that were keeping Confederate armies in the field. The destruction of that property, painful as it was to the civilians involved, shortened the war, and thereby saved many lives on both sides. To me, that's definitely not a war crime.
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@TheHorse (238268)
• Walnut Creek, California
14 Nov 15
Interesting post. I know little about the history of the Civil War. My sense is that Southerners were not treated well AFTER the war.
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@RonElFran (1214)
• Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania
14 Nov 15
I don't think it's that Southerners weren't treated well after the war (except for African Americans, who where often terrorized by whites). It was more that the war destroyed so much Southern wealth that it took decades to recover. Through the administration of Ulysses Grant federal troops were still stationed in the South to prevent mistreatment of African Americans. But after that, Southern whites were pretty much allowed to do what they wanted.