Greatest American? (All Over on Page Eight)

[TheAuldGrump]

I am going to leave aside the Civil War argument, aside from saying that in may ways the North and the South were fighting over two very different reasons rather than different sides of the same reason.

My choice was Franklin, with Jefferson a very close second.

 

[Brother Shatterstone]

I found some interesting things at this site on Sherman (Link)

Its a fare amount of text so I'll just highlight the things that I found intresting.

He hated politics and rebuffed all attempts to draft him as a candidate for the Republican Party. "If nominated I will not accept. If elected I will not serve,"

In 1891, he died of pneumonia at 71. His old adversary, Joe Johnston, helped carry his casket, and died of pneumonia not long after he had stood bareheaded in the rain at Sherman's funeral.

For Sherman — the man who said, "War is all Hell" — his style of warfare was a military issue, not a moral one: "This may seem a hard species of warfare, but it brings the sad realities of war home to those who have been directly or indirectly instrumental in involving us in its attendant calamities,"

If a traveler wanted to exactly follow Sherman's "March to the Sea," they would need an army tank and a lot of time, because Sherman's armies didn't take the interstate or travel together on the same single route. Splitting his army into four main columns, Sherman's men traveled on many different roads and bridges which don't exist today. They went through towns that are neither found on a map or on the ground. And towns have sprung up on his March route which didn't exist when his troops came through.

 

[Mark]

Just a reminder, Sherman isn't on the list.

 

[Brother Shatterstone]

Just a reminder, Sherman isn't on the list.

Very true, and with good reason, but people have libeled Lincoln and I only offer my support for him.

Besides its fun to enjoy a friendly debate with others.

 

[David Howery]

OOOOO..... where's that?

it is, appropriately enough, alternatehistory.com. These kinds of arguements take place there all the time... and even on this exact subject about the ACW, Sherman, etc. WW2 gets a lot of coverage, and the Arab/Israeli wars get a lot of heated discussion as well.... if you go there, you'll find me there under the name of (prepare for a shock) Dave Howery....

 

[The_lurkeR]

Tough choices, but I went with Franklin.

 

[diaglo]

Just a reminder, Sherman isn't on the list.

the War of Northern Aggression as it was taught in school

 

[Gentlegamer]

When did those rules come out? Honestly? It’s pretty harsh to judge the world of yesterday with the rules of today.

Those were the rules of that era. Like I said, the debate on the wisdom of fighting by the rules of civilized warfare is another topic.

 

[Gentlegamer]

I'd also like to point out that the United States has never had a civil war.

 

[Jeremy Ackerman-Yost]

I'd also like to point out that the United States has never had a civil war.

Semantics.

I really don't want to get into the debate on the ethics of the Civil War, but I want to make one side point:

Everyone is getting tied into knots about "the rules of civilized warfare" and other such nonsense phrases. You're talking about the escalation of a situation where two parties have already come to the decision that killing vast numbers of people is a better solution to their differences than continuing to talk about it. The question of which side is "more morally defensible" or more "civilized" is like asking which of these two apples is more like an orange.