One letter home from his army described the spoils that a team of designated foragers returned to camp with one night: "Pumpkins, chickens, cabbages" for the evening meal, but also "a looking-glass, an Italian harp..., a peacock, a rocking chair," and more.
Much destruction was formally ordered. Whatever might benefit the Confederacy-- cotton gins, barns, factories, Confederate leaders' homes-- could be set ablaze. Teams were assigned to wreck rail lines made bonfires of torn-up ties, heated the iron rails red hot and then twisted them around trees. these were known as "Sherman's neckties."
Resistance could trigger instant punitive wreckage. Sherman's men torched towns that harbored snipers and guerrillas hindering his advance.
--Old Secesh
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