Statue of General Sherman in Atlanta?

[lpetrich]

With all the controversy about statues of Confederate leaders, I thought of a good response to those statues.

Make a big statue of General William Tecumseh Sherman and put it in the middle of Atlanta GA. Since it represents heritage and tradition, nobody can possibly object to it, right?

 

[Keith&Co.]

My aunt, who moved from Idaho to Georgia, always thought one of the men on Stone Mountain was Sherman.
"I dunno," she said, "I just always associated that name with Atlanta."

 

[untermensche]

Ignoramuses living today that never suffered any hardship of the Civil War will wail and cry if such a thing happened.

How a person creates an entire persona around a losing war effort that ended a century or more before they were born is beyond me.

It shows a real emptiness of a present day life with little present day aspirations. It is living in the distant past for some strange reason.

 

[Bronzeage]

There is a full length portrait of William Tecumseh Sherman in the Louisiana State University Library. He was first superintendent of LSU's predecessor before the Civil War. After the war, he used his influence to insure the university survived after the war. I imagine we could find a place for his statue in Baton Rouge.

 

[ideologyhunter]

I nominate a statue of Frederick Douglass in front of the Southern White House in Richmond.

 

[SimpleDon]

My aunt, who moved from Idaho to Georgia, always thought one of the men on Stone Mountain was Sherman.
"I dunno," she said, "I just always associated that name with Atlanta."

The building facing the carving on Stone Mountain is called Memorial Hall. Today it houses a pretty generic museum of the immediate area's history back to the pre-Columbian period and the story of the carving. But not too many years ago it was a shrine to "The Lost Cause", as its name implies. One summer it was a popular destination for my teenage daughter and her friends to go to the laser light show because it had everything that they needed, boys and darkness, boys and no cost. I would always tell them to meet me at The Hall of Traitors or Treason Hall to go home.

Simple ways to raise children to understand the world we live in #46. .

 

[Cheerful Charlie]

William T. Sherman's Memoires

About 7 a.m. of November 16th we rode out of Atlanta by the Decatur
road, filled by the marching troops and wagons of the Fourteenth
Corps; and reaching the hill, just outside of the old rebel works,
we naturally paused to look back upon the scenes of our past
battles. We stood upon the very ground whereon was fought the
bloody battle of July 22d, and could see the copse of wood where
McPherson fell. Behind us lay Atlanta, smouldering and in ruins,
the black smoke rising high in air, and hanging like a pall over
the ruined city. Away off in the distance, on the McDonough road,
was the rear of Howard's column, the gun-barrels glistening in the
sun, the white-topped wagons stretching away to the south; and
right before us the Fourteenth Corps, marching steadily and
rapidly, with a cheery look and swinging pace, that made light of
the thousand miles that lay between us and Richmond. Some band, by
accident, struck up the anthem of "John Brown's soul goes marching
on;" the men caught up the strain, and never before or since have I
heard the chorus of "Glory, glory, hallelujah!" done with more
spirit, or in better harmony of time and place.


----

November 16, 1864 Sherman brings culture to the South.

 

[Sarpedon]

The predecessor to the LSU was a military academy. The establishment of Louisiana's military academy is just one of many things the south did to prepare for their rebellion long before the formalities of secession. I remember Sherman's droll comment in his memoirs: (paraphrase)

"I was so happy to get the job [of superintendant] that I didn't think to inquire as to why the State of Louisiana thought they needed a military academy."

 

[Cheerful Charlie]

I think from now on, I will celebrate November 16th as William Tecumseh Sherman day.

 

[Jobar]

I've read that until well up in the 1960s, an air traveler who knew what they were looking at could still see the path, some 70 miles wide, where Sherman's troops had burned their way across Georgia, from Chattanooga all the way to Savannah. Few structures were left in their wake.

He's famous for his observation that "War is Hell";

I am tired and sick of war. Its glory is all moonshine. It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, for vengeance, for desolation. War is hell.

But before anyone puts up any more statues of him anywhere, consider another quote of his- which many people have heard, but not many can identify the source.

The only good Indian is a dead Indian.

 

[Politesse]

I think he was a monster, and not just because of that quote. I am not a fan of memorial statues that are nowhere near a grave, whoever they depict. They are always political statements, and only encourage deification of those who ought to stay human.

 

[Jobar]

Like George S. Patton, I think that Sherman was a born warrior. He fully recognized the horrors of war, but didn't let those horrors stop him. One of his quotes I agree with, addressed to Southern leaders before hostilities started:

The North can make a steam engine, locomotive or railway car; hardly a yard of cloth or a pair of shoes can you make. You are rushing into war with one of the most powerful, ingeniously mechanical and determined people on earth - right at your doors. You are bound to fail. Only in spirit and determination are you prepared for war. In all else you are totally unprepared, with a bad cause to start with.

I respect him for another quote, after the war was over, when he was encouraged to run for political office.

I will not accept if nominated, and will not serve if elected.

 

[lpetrich]

I've read that until well up in the 1960s, an air traveler who knew what they were looking at could still see the path, some 70 miles wide, where Sherman's troops had burned their way across Georgia, from Chattanooga all the way to Savannah. Few structures were left in their wake.

He's famous for his observation that "War is Hell";

I am tired and sick of war. Its glory is all moonshine. It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, for vengeance, for desolation. War is hell.

William Tecumseh Sherman - Wikiquote -- he did state some approximation of that.

But before anyone puts up any more statues of him anywhere, consider another quote of his- which many people have heard, but not many can identify the source.

The only good Indian is a dead Indian.

That's General  Philip Sheridan. From that article on him,

Sheridan Road in Lawton, Oklahoma, leads to Fort Sill, where Sheridan supposedly uttered the words "The only good Indians I ever saw were dead."

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

Like George S. Patton, I think that Sherman was a born warrior. He fully recognized the horrors of war, but didn't let those horrors stop him. One of his quotes I agree with, addressed to Southern leaders before hostilities started:

The North can make a steam engine, locomotive or railway car; hardly a yard of cloth or a pair of shoes can you make. You are rushing into war with one of the most powerful, ingeniously mechanical and determined people on earth - right at your doors. You are bound to fail. Only in spirit and determination are you prepared for war. In all else you are totally unprepared, with a bad cause to start with.

I respect him for another quote, after the war was over, when he was encouraged to run for political office.

I will not accept if nominated, and will not serve if elected.

They were both very complex men, embodying both the best and the guttural worst in men.