Alright so a policy which you would consider lawful right ? can have exeptions say burning down homes and harming civilians when those are war crimes. Here's more I think you may find interesting about Sherman's bummers getting a little carried away.
“I have no time for particulars. We have had a glorious time in this State, Unrestricted license to burn and plunder was the order of the day. The chivalry have been stripped of most of their valuables. Gold watches, silver pitchers, cups, spoons, forks, &c., &c., are as common in camp as blackberries. The terms of plunder are as follows: The valuables procured are estimated by companies. Each company is required to exhibit the result of its operations at any given place. One-fifth and first choice falls to the commander-in-chief and staff, one-fifth to corps commander and staff, one-fifth to field officers, two-fifths to the company. Officers are not allowed to join in these expeditions, unless disguised as privates. One of our corps commanders borrowed a rough suit of clothes from one of my men, and was successful in his place. He got a large quantity of silver (among other things an old milk pitcher), and a very fine gold watch from a Mr. DeSaussure, of this place (Columbia). DeSaussure is one of the F. F. V.’s of South Carolina, and was made to fork out liberally. Officers over the rank of captain are not made to put their plunder in the estimate for general distribution. This is very unfair, and for that reason, in order to protect themselves, the subordinate officers and privates keep everything back that they can carry about their persons, such as rings, earrings, breastpins, &c., &c., of which, if I live to get home, I have a quart. I am not joking. I have at least a quart of jewelry for you and all the girls, and some No. 1 diamond pins and rings among them. General Sherman has gold and silver enough to start a bank. His share in gold watches and chains alone at Columbia was two hundred and seventy-five.
“But I said I could not go into particulars. All the general officers, and many besides, have valuables of every description, down to ladies’ pocket handkerchiefs. I have my share of them, too.
“We took gold and silver enough from the damned rebels to have redeemed their infernal currency twice over. * * * I wish all the jewelry this army has could be carried to the Old Bay State. It would deck her out in glorious style; but, alas! it will be scattered all over the North and Middle States.
“The damned niggers, as a general thing, preferred to stay at home, particularly after they found out that we wanted only the able-bodied men, and, to tell the truth, the youngest and best-looking women. Sometimes we took them off by way of repaying influential secessionists. But a part of these we soon managed to lose, sometimes in crossing rivers, sometimes in other ways. I shall write you again from Wilmington, Goldsboro, or some other place in North Carolina. The order to march has arrived, and I must close hurriedly.
“Love to grandmother and Aunt Charlotte. Take care of yourself and the children. Don’t show this letter out of the family.
“Your affectionate husband, “THOMAS J. MYERS,”Lieutenant, &c.
“You permitted, if you have not ordered, the commission of these offences against humanity and the rules of war. You fired into the city of Columbia without a word of warning. After its surrender by the mayor, who demanded protection to private property, you laid the whole city in ashes, leaving amid its ruins thousands of old men and helpless women and children, who are likely to perish of starvation and exposure. Your line of march can be traced by the lurid light of burning houses, and in more than one household there is an agony far more bitter than death.”
On the 31st of July, 1865, Captain E. J. Hale, Jr., of Fayetteville, N. C., who had been on General James H. Lane’s staff, and who is vouched for by General Lane as “an elegant educated gentleman,” wrote to General Lane, telling him of the destruction and devastation at his home, and in that letter he makes this statement:
“You have doubtless heard of Sherman’s ‘bummers.’ The Yankees would have you believe that they were only the straggling pillagers usually found in all armies. Several letters written by officers of Sherman’s army, intercepted near this town, give this the lie.
“In some of these letters were descriptions of the whole bumming process, and from them it appears that it was a regularly organized system, under the authority of General Sherman himself; that one-fifth o£ the proceeds fell to General Sherman, another fifth to the other general officers, another fifth to the line officers, and the remaining two-fifths to the enlisted men.”
Now, compare this division of the spoils with that set forth in the Myers’ letter, published, as we have said, eighteen years later, and it will be seen that they are almost identical, and this statement was taken, as Captain Hale states, from “several letters written by officers of Sherman’s army,” intercepted near Fayetteville, N. C., and as we have said, they confirm the statements of the Myers’ letter, and its consequent genuineness, to a remarkable degree. It is proper, also, to state, that we have recently received a letter from Dr. Jones, in which he states that after carefully considering this whole matter again, he is now satisfied that he was mistaken in his editorial comments on Colonel Stone’s letter, that he is now satisfied of the genuineness of the Myers’ letter, and that in his opinion we could use it in this report “with perfect propriety and safetey".
(Captain E. J. Hale, Jr.)
It seams to me from these accounts Sherman was behind it all and his policy was nonsense.
