The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1896-02-26
SARGE PLUNKETT.
The Part That General Sherman Played
In the CIvI! War,
atlanta Constitution.

! invite a return of the Crusades, the
newspapers are filed with var talk
and wal pictures, all Of which operates
to make my old friend Brown a very
gloomy man and a most unpleasant
companion.
We look upon the pictures giving
| the conditions in Cuba and our hearts
go out to the sufferers. Especially
have the pictures Of the fleeing refu-
gees touched a tender chord with
Brown and myself. We know what it
means to refugee before an invading
army, what suffering it brings upon
women and children and. 'What desola-
ton it spreads over a land. There
are yet in Georgia many reminders Of
Sherman's great march to the sea, and
all old people can well remember how
cruel it was, but the author of those
cruelties has passed away and will go
down in history as the hero of a great
cause-even Southern youths will
have this rung in their ears till they
will accept it, giving only a passing
thought to the poor sufferers that
scampered away on his approach.
In this connection I would pause a
moment and digress a little to unload
myself Of some ''facts" in connection
with General Sherman that have never
been dwelled upon by any Of the
writer's or historians. General Sher-
man was not only the hero of the
march through Georgia, but the honors
of the fall Of Richmond and the cap.
ture of Lee should be quito his credit
as well.
For four long years the best gener-
ais Of the North had been hammering
at the gates Of Richmond. From
every direction the yankee army, Of
Virginia, had tried to approach the
Confederate capital till st last General
Grant himself undertook the matter
in person. Starting at the Wilderness,
he had spent months tugging at Lee
to accomplish his end, TO settle down
at last upon the James, where he could
have gone from the first without the
loss Of q man or the firing Of a gun.
General Grant wasted months Of pre-
cious time and sacrificed thousands Of
men to arrive at last upon the very
ground and take up the very tactics
that Mcclellan had advocated three
years before. and it is not out of place
to remark here that if Lee had had
such an army to confront Grant with
as he had to confront Mcclellan there
would have been nothing left of Mr..
Grant.
But I have no desire TO disparage
| General Grant further than is neces-
sary to bring out the facts in the case.
| The fact is chat General Sherman cap
tured Lee from this way, or he was
the prime cause of Lees surrender at
the time he did. While Grant lay for
months around Richmond using his
greatest endeavor to GUST Lee, Sher-
man marched through several States
and in ten days more would have been
in the rear Of. the army that all the
yankee generals, including Grant him
| self, had made 80 much effort to over
come. Scott, at Manassas. Mcclellan,
Meade, Burnsides, Hooker, and at
last Grant in person had failed to
cause the rout of Lee, and but for the
approach of Sherman from clear across
the Confederacy, there would not have
been o surrender ct Appomattox at
the time there was.
This brings me to remark upon what
was whispered at that time and what
was justified from an estimate Of what
was then considered the cruel nature
Of General Sherman. The situation
made it certain that in a very few
days more General Sherman would
capture Lee from the rear. This
would have made Sherman the hero Of
Appomattox and would have taken
from General Grant the laurels that
carried him to the white house and
make him the foremost hero of all the
war. That General Lee weighed these
matters and that General Grant ap-
preciated the motives in his favor is
not a bit Of doubt in my mind. That
General Grant was a nor humane
man than Sherman none will coubt,
and in this lies the wisdom of Lee'in
allowing the inevitable capitulation to
rebound to his honor. With Lincoln
dead and Grant overshadowed the
.cruelties of the Spaniards, in Cuba,
would be small to what would have
been in the South with Sherman in
the place Of Grant. And yet I say,
and Brown says, and thousands that
We know believe that Sherman was the
greatest geieral-the military genius
Of all the war. War 10 a bad thing,
and %whosoever engageth therein may
expect to endure hardahips that they
never dreamed Of and to suffer cruel
ties as painful as can be devised by
advanced methods or the abandoned
heartlessness of military genius in
every age and every country.
I have just read Brown the above
for his sanction aud as I mentioned
"genius" I saw the first smile fit owe
his face that has been there since u
present war talk began. It tickles
Brown to think how much "genius'
it took to keep out Of the slate un-
pleasantness," and it gives a boost to
his conceit when he considers that he
was equal to the emergency and thinks
he will be again if the circumstances
call for it. Hehas just remarked that
it took a genius to keep out Of the
war, one of whom he was, and this set
him to telling of some of his trials
and tribulations Of those days.
The conscript officer vas the bane of
Browns life in those times. He soon
saw that there was no escaping from
old age. Higher and higher they went
until they took them up to seventy,
and Brown was certain that they
would go higher still, SO his "genius'
suggested that he was entirely too
healthy for the times. Suddenly his
back got in such a condition that he
could hardly inch a chair from one
side of the fireplace to the other, and
he got his folks and friends to narrate
it everywhere that Brown was a plum
invalid" and some said it wal spinal
affection and others that it was lifting
too much when he was young-some
..l kl:oo ,oJ co~o ,pothar hut