"From the editor: The sacking of Lawrence, Kansas, by William Quantrill and his men, and the shelling of Charleston by General Quincy Gillmore mark a dramatic shift in the tenor of the war. In both cases, innocent civilians are deliberately attacked by military forces. Guerilla warfare and the killing of civilians is nothing new in the territory along the Kansas-Missouri border, but Quantrill's attack and systematic murder of all the men in Lawrence is unprecedented. Reverend Richard Cordley described the scene. "Going over the town one saw the dead everywhere, on the sidewalks, in the streets, among the weeds in the gardens, and in the few remaining homes." As a result, General Ewing will issue General Orders Number 11, which is believed to be the harshest act the United States government has ever taken against its own people. In the order, a strip of land along the border, eighty-five miles long and fifty miles wide, is to be made into a wasteland. Everyone living within these boundaries will have to leave the area within fifteen days; every home, barn, and outbuilding is to be burned to the ground, and every bit of food is to be appropriated or destroyed. Ewing's order will displace over twenty-thousand families and lay the groundwork for Phil Sheridan's firing of the Shenandoah Valley and "Cump" Sherman's destructive march to the sea later in the war. Prior to Gillmore's shelling of Charleston, most military commanders had gone out of their way to avoid placing civilians at risk from artillery fire. Rarely did the armies battle each other in populated areas, and when it was unavoidable, ample time was usually given for noncombatants to leave the disputed area. However in Charleston, the precedent was set that cities can be construed as legitimate military targets. Both "Cump" Sherman in Atlanta, and Ulysses Grant at Richmond and Petersburg will follow this precedent later in the war. As the war drags on, more and more of the old "rules of civilized warfare" are destined to fall by the wayside, and it is inevitable that more and more innocent civilians will have their lives forever changed by the increasingly violent tactics of the Civil War"
http://www.civilweek.com/1863/aug1663.htm
but Quantrill's attack wasnt sanctioned by the confederate government i dont think ...quantrill was a lone guirella warrior ,,he was nuts ,, i saw movie outlaw josey wales about this based on a conferate war diary ,,he also wrote movie/book"the education of little tree
well today i saw tv show "little house on the prarie" of an episode of jesse james or something so i looked up this stuff and lo and behold saw the thing on general grant ,, i never knew he was such a bigot !!but of course the northern schools i went to in the north never told me this ..or in phoenix arizona where i lived too
7th December 2004, 20:03
Linear Mode
