"Major General William Tecumseh Sherman - he brought the concept of total war to the south."
Well, considering that our magnificant uncle Billy did his thing after Lookout Mountain and Atlanta when the greatly outnumbered Southern forces had been depleted so his road through Georgia and the Carolines was defended by scattered handsfull of old men and boys. It's hardly amazing that his army found it easy to crush the scattered old people, women and children over the path of his brave 'historic march', in which he invented the policy of 'war is hell' on civilians, actions that would outrage American citizens today and our military would punish as "war crimes." While little of what Billy did speeded the end of confilct he single handedly embittered much of the South for a very long time and he still would, if our "history" books hadn't been PC edited for propoganda effect.
While it's likely true that most of the northern forces didn't themselves commit pillage, murder and rape, it is well known that the 'good boys' did nothing to stop the 'bad boys' - what good would it have done when the crimes were condoned by the officers, including the commanding officer. So, yeah, Billy was a 'great' Northern general... if that means anything. Fact is, if uncle Billy was in command of the same actions in Iraq today, he and a large part of his valiant yankee army would be in jail for many years, if not hung.