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by Patricia G. McNeely (Author)
General William T. Sherman created a new form of physical, economic and psychological "total warfare" against civilians and private property in Georgia and the Carolinas that he readily admitted would be violent and cruel. In addition to physical and economic assaults, he designed a massive psychological strategy designed to cripple the Confederacy, to destroy the faith of civilians in their leaders and their government, and to kill the will of the people to fight for their cause. Even though Sherman openly admitted most of the strategies and his efforts to "mystify the enemy," those elements have been all but overlooked through the years. However, they were an integral part of the campaign that would help end the Civil War in 1865.
Author Biography
Patricia G. "Pat" McNeely is Professor Emerita at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, South Carolina, where she taught reporting for 33 years. Before joining the USC faculty, she was a reporter and editor for The State, The Columbia Record and The Greenville News. She is the author of "Eyewitnesses to General Sherman's Atrocities," "Lincoln, Sherman, Davis and the Lost Confederate Gold," "Knights of the Quill: Confederate Correspondents and their Civil War Reporting," "Fighting Words: A Media History of South Carolina," "Palmetto Press: The History of South Carolina's Newspapers," and "Handwritten Recipes and Memories from America's First Families."
