THE RACISM OF GENERAL WILLIAM TECUMSEH SHERMAN

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The following is Sherman's view of black soldiers. I have never read anything like these words being spoken by Robert E. Lee. Maybe we need to look into removing the statues of William T. Sherman.

"I like niggers well enough as niggers, but when fools and idiots try and make niggers better than ourselves, I have an opinion".

Sherman hated Black troops so much that he refused to use them for anything other than garrison duty, or digging fortifications and entrenchments. Garrison duty was defined as manning rear area forts, stockades, and guard duty. Sherman refused to use them in the armies that he personally commanded. His friend Ulysses S. Grant on the other hand used Black troops in combat in the Eastern theater and would later champion the cause of black soldiers. During the battle of Nashville, out of necessity, Sherman was forced to use blacks as combat troops. They would be under the direct command of the Virginian George H. Thomas. Thomas like Lee was forced to decide between serving his home state or remain loyal to the Union at the beginning of the war. A decision that was no less difficult as Lee's. Thomas was in favor of recruiting black soldiers but he did not have confidence in their fighting abilities. His attitude on this would change after witnessing their bravery first hand at the battle of Nashville. On December 17th he rode over that portion of the battlefield where the black troops of General James Steedman had fought. The bodies of black soldiers were piled in heaps, intermingled with the bodies of their white comrades. Thomas exclaimed to his subordinates, "Gentlemen, the question is settled; Negroes will fight."

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