INTRODUCTORY COMMENTS
The phrase "to the victor go the spoils" is very true when it comes to writing the history of a conflict. If we never read beyond the "accepted" history of the war, we would likely think that the War For Southern Independence was just a "civil war" in which the noble, freedom-loving North had to force the evil, slave-holding South to free its slaves. Once that deed was accomplished everyone shook hands, and everything since then has been just grand.
Yankee myth and Southern reality ARE NOT brothers! They are not even related! In the following posts we will take a look at some of the handiwork of the people who are held up to our school children as noble and righteous defenders of human rights.
Volumes could be written about the hideous actions of the men who came down South to rape, pillage, and burn. No doubt some were sincere (although misdirected) in their desire to assist the slaves in Dixie. But they were to be disappointed by their fellow invaders who saw only loot to be had. Also, the blacks refused to cooperate by NOT revolting against their masters. Many refused to turn their backs on their white families. The idealistic Yankees became disillusioned. Disillusionment comes easy to those who have been fed a steady diet of lies about how things should be, as apposed to how they actually are. This was the fate of many do-gooders from Yankeedom, and the scenario has been repeated every few decades since then.
The Yankee apologist will attempt to discount this record of Northern atrocities by claiming that both sides committed acts of violence during the war. No doubt this is partly true, human nature and war being what they are, but the United States committed FAR MORE such acts and those acts were committed with the FULL Knowledge and Consent of United States officers and officials. This stands in sharp contrast to the orders of Gen. Robert E. Lee and other Southern officers and officials who instructed their troops to PROTECT the Property and Civil Liberties of the civilian population. Edward Pollard noted that President Jefferson Davis was urged to adopt a cruel war policy similar to the one President Abraham Lincoln had adopted. He was urged to do so in retaliation for the sufferings inflicted upon the Southern people at the hands of the United States authorities. Confederate Cabinet member Judah P. Benjamin noted that:
"...
when it was urged upon Jefferson Davis, not only by friends in private letters, but by members of his cabinet in council, that it was his duty to the people and the army to endeavor to repress these outrages by retaliation, he was immovable in his resistance to such counsels, insisting that it was repugnant to every sentiment of justice and humanity that the innocent should be made victims for the crimes of such monsters."
Compare this, the official stand of our president, with the Yankee president Lincoln's inquiry to Gen. George McClellan asking him if he could get close enough to Richmond to "throw shells into the city."
The facts that will be presented here have been carefully documented. If anyone finds these stories too hard to believe, I can provide a list of books and documents for the unbeliever to review. There will, of course, be those who will dismiss out of hand any evidence whatsoever because their minds are already made up and they don't care to be bothered with facts. To them, no matter what the evidence of history says, the South was and still is wrong. But it is to those who are open-minded and fair that these posts will be submitted.
Yankee Atrocities
THE RAPE AND MURDER OF
NEW MANCHESTER, GEORGIA
Most people would Never look at the American "Civil War" if they were looking for stories of genocide and of the destruction and death of a whole town. Most people would look to the invading armies of Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union for such accounts. If they would take the time to look beyond the accepted version of the history of the war, they would find many Nazi-like accounts of brutality in the Yankees' actions during the war. Such is the case of the Union invasion of Georgia. Here we find accounts of wholesale genocide and of kidnapping of women and children.
Early in July of 1864, Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman's army was pressing toward Atlanta. Although greatly outnumbered, the Southern army was making their invader pay dearly for his conquest. As usual, when the invader has difficulty with the standing army of the invaded, he will start to attack those whom he knows he can defeat with little trouble. True to form, General Sherman sent his army into the heartland of the South with the orders to "Make Georgia Howl." The food supply and factories of the South were the object of Sherman's wrath. Sherman declared that there could be no peace in the country until large parts of the Southern population had been exterminated. He put his words into action. First, all the food that could be found was taken for the Yankee army. Then all means of food production were taken or destroyed. Then he turned his attention to the destruction of factories that aided in the Southern war effort.
It may be hard for us to understand today just what it means to have all the food in one's home taken away and also have the means to replace the food stolen or destroyed. One hundred forty-five years ago, Southerners didn't run down to the local Piggly Wiggly or Wal Mart or convenience store to get the food they needed. They grew and preserved their food, or they bought from others who did the same. Some food could be bought, but in times of war when invading armies made normal commerce impossible, the family unit had to depend on its OWN resources. Therefore, by depriving people of the means of food production, the Yankee invader was condemning them to death by starvation.
Who were these people upon whom Sherman had pronounced the death sentence? For the most part, they were women, children, old men, and the sick and wounded who were unfit for military service. These innocent and defenseless victims were the ones upon whom the full measure of anger was to be poured. It seems strange that while the Yankees wrapped the cloak of self-righteousness around themselves and proclaimed themselves as the beacon of all that was right and good, they would stoop so low as to starve and destroy defenseless women, children, the sick, wounded, and dying!!
After the battle of Kennesaw Mountain, in which the invader was thoroughly punished for being in the wrong place, Sherman sent elements of his army around Atlanta and into the towns of Marietta, Roswell, and New Manchester. Several factories that were important the war effort of the Confederacy were located in these towns. When the Southern soldiers were forced to evacuate these areas, the Yankees moved in and began their work. Food and the means of food production were taken away, and homes were pulled down or burned. All personal property that could be consigned to the flames was destroyed. The only items that could be taken by the hapless Southerners were the clothes on their backs. Even jewelry, such as wedding bands, was pulled from the ladies' hands by the noble defenders of the Union.
If the saga of these people were to stop here, it would still rate as one of the lowest points in American History. But for these Southerners, their odyssey of horror had only begun. Sherman then ordered all those who worked in the factories to be gathered up and shipped out of their country. The invader evidently feared that by some miracle these people might not die of starvation, and by some enormous stroke of luck might rebuild their factories from the ashes. With little or no concern for homes, women and children were torn from their families and shipped North. The vast majority of these people were never to see their loved ones again. In all, more than two thousand women and children, and a few old men were collected. Families were divided. Children were separated from their mothers. Tearful mothers were forced to watch as children, who worked int he factories, were dragged away from home - almost none of them would ever be heard from again. With no more remorse that that shown by the Yankee slave trader, the invaders went about their dirty work of kidnapping defenseless women and children. Even after the end of the war, the United States government never made any attempt to reunite these families!!
In the town of Roswell, over 400 young women and children were kept in the open town square for nearly a week. Imagine the suffering of those who were cramped in that hot (remember, this was July in Georgia), dirty place. As if that were not bad enough, the whiskey stores found their way into the hands of the guards. From that time on, the young girls of Roswell lived a continual nightmare.
All the factory workers were taken off in the same manner as the other towns. So complete was the destruction that the town never recovered form the raid and soon passed from existence. New manchester became a martyr for the cause of Southern Independence.
The following comment appeared in a Louisville, Kentucky newspaper concerning the women and children whom Sherman had shipped north: "The train which arrived from Nashville last evening brought up from the South 249 women and children, who are sent here by orders of General Sherman to be transferred north of the Ohio River. These people are mostly in a destitute condition, having no means to provide for themselves a support." These people were hired out to perform work at a price that was no more than a subsistence level, making them virtual white slaves for the Yankees. Remember, more than 2000 women and children were sent to the North in this manner. The papers in the area advertised them as if they were any other commodity for sale. And so the Yankees maintained their illicit trade in human flesh even as they were singing glory, glory, hallelujah.
TO BE CONTINUED... 
