How One Psychopath Brought the World the Evils of Total War
(Been there, done that… Had to wait in line. – DD)
War is an “unpleasant business.” That two-word euphemism reflects the divergent experiences of two separate groups: those who profit from violence and those who experience violence firsthand. For anyone in the latter group, war is hell. That’s how Civil War general William Tecumseh Sherman described it, and he was an expert in the subject. He set everything ablaze on his marches through the South. Scorched-earth conquests are meant to break the spirit of opposing soldiers and civilians alike, and Sherman broke everything in his sight.
Sherman’s effectiveness in demoralizing Southerners influenced military minds around the world and shifted military war planning toward tactics that would define the “total wars” to come. Psychological warfare, industrial sabotage, the destruction of civilian infrastructure, and even the targeting of noncombatants became standard practices of war in the twentieth century. The First Great War introduced the terrors of trench warfare, mustard gas, mechanized weaponry, and widespread use of explosives that left many survivors permanently “shell-shocked.” Civilians faced their own horrors as the slaughter of livestock and ruination of farmland spawned famine and disease.
When hostilities officially ended on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of…
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