Wednesday, October 8, 2014

The Civil War (sic) and 150 Years of Forgotten US Military Atrocities

Via LH

Troops cheering Sheridan amid the flames of the Shenandoah Valley.

Sheridan's Scorched Earth Campaign

by JAMES BOVARD

George Orwell wrote in 1945 that “the nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them.” The same moral myopia has carried over to most Americans’ understanding of the Civil War. While popular historians have recently canonized the war as a practically holy crusade to free the slaves, in reality civilians were intentionally targeted and brutalized in the final year of the war.

The most dramatic forgotten atrocity in the Civil War occurred 150 years ago when Union Gen. Philip Sheridan unleashed a hundred mile swath of flames in the Shenandoah Valley that left vast numbers of women and childrens tottering towards starvation.  Unfortunately, the burning of the Shenandoah Valley has been largely forgotten, foreshadowing how subsequent brutal military operations  would also vanish into the Memory Hole. 

9 comments:

  1. As an aside; have you ever noticed that Phil Sheridan is a doppelganger for Lee Van Cleef from "the Good the Bad and the Ugly"? Check it out, it is uncanny. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Van_Cleef
    http://suvcw.org/mollus/pcinc/psheridan.htm

    ReplyDelete
  2. Perhaps one of Obama's muslim immigrants will burn Chicago or New York. Would that not be justice?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yes... I have had people tell me those types of atrocities could never happen here in Lee Greenwood's america... I tell them they have already happened here and will again. US Army shooting into the Bonus Army, sheridan in the Shenandoah Valley, Vicksburg, Anderson (sic) POW camp to name but just a few... but only a very few. I fully expect it to happen and soon. God help us... I know I will fight back to my last breath. I don't expect a hero's burial, just a hole in a blood soaked muddy field.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. a hole in a blood soaked muddy field.

      Well, you will have the same as many other Patriots.

      Delete
    2. And it would be an honor, Sir to be buried in that muddy field with those Patriots

      Delete
  4. And the damn Yankees have the unmitigated gall to disrespect the stars and bars. The rage is to much for me to bear.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They respected the First on the Battlefield, but now the insidious commies attack it as is their wont.

      Delete