Sherman was cloaking his movements so well that this served to heighten his reputation as a crazed leader of a ruthless army. They could be anywhere and heading for anywhere.. It could be termed a "war on the Confederate mind."
Some Georgians will claim that Sherman burned their ancestor's barn. Often, it turns out that Sherman was never anywhere near it.
Said John Marszalek, "He got into people's psyche. That's exactly what he wanted to do. And it's very much there." Along Sherman's route today, you can see signs advertising for an "antebellum trail." This features many unburned plantations. If Sherman had burned them all, would there be any left?
Just the other day, I was talking with my mother who recounted that she had heard that Sherman's army, while in North Carolina a few months after the March to the Sea, had killed cattle and sheep and tossed their carcasses into the Neuse River to poison it for the Southerners.
--Old Secesh
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