Mr. Lincoln was just as much an "Oberster Kriegsherr" at
one period of his term as the German Emperor could ever be; in fact,
rather more.
Sherman's March to the Sea.
In truth, the sense of outrage which Americans feel over the horrors of
war, while most creditable to them, is very often based upon an
ignorance of the rules and regulations of so-called civilized warfare,
and upon a sentimentality, which, though also very creditable, is
unfortunately not one of the factors in the world's work. It would not
hurt Americans occasionally to recall Sherman's march to the sea, during
which every known kind of devastation occurred, or to recall Gen.
Hunter's boast that he had made the Valley of Virginia such a desert
that a crow could not find sustenance enough in it to fly from one side
to the other, and yet at that time, in what we considered the supreme
danger to our country, the conduct of those men was approved, and they
themselves were almost deified for their actions.
While parallels are dangerous and the existence of one wrong does not
make another action right, yet at the same time a very considerable
amount of open-mindedness must be exercised in a neutral country when
regarding the passionate devotions of combatant nations to their
culture, to their safety, to their interest; and it should be recalled
that in the heats and horrors of war it is extremely difficult, however
trained or disciplined troops may be, to prevent outrages, and that so
far as we have gone in accurate information the least that can be said
is that it is slowly dawning upon us that horror for horror and outrage
for outrage there has been no overwhelming balance on either side.
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