Secession
Here's another aspect which fascinates me.
When Sherman's troops gave South Carolina a drastic "makeover" it was justified on the basis that this was the state which was responsible for the whole conflagration.
But the whole logical basis for the Union war effort was that South Carolina was as integral a part of the U.S. as Massachusetts. So Sherman's bummers were trashing their own real estate. Or, to use a metaphor, what they were doing was like slashing their own arms.
Well, they manifestly didn't feel as if they were doing that, did they? So, logically, they must have believed that the region they were destroying was something alien. And if it was alien to them it was surely entitled to leave their Union.
Anyway, how does one get to grips with the logic behind the idea that you can't let Southerners leave the Union because they are your fellow-Americans. You insist that they are your fellow-countrymen and, to prove your point, you send armies to liquidate them. Killing as a means of cementing kinship....can anyone explain that?
