Someone wrote to me after viewing my page on Sheridan's 1864 Campaign. They wanted to know the source of this quote:
"Death is popularly considered the maximum of punishment in war, but it is not; reduction to poverty brings prayers for peace more surely and more quickly than does the destruction of human life, as the selfishness of man has demonstrated in more than one great conflict."
Phil Sheridan
This quote is from Sheridan's Memoirs as posted by the Patton Historical Library. Sheridan wrote this as a comment on the instructions he received from U.S. Grant in November 1864 which led to "the burning" in the Shenandoah Valley. Here are Grant's words:"Do you not think it advisable to notify all citizens living east of the Blue Ridge to move out north of the Potomac all their stock, grain, and provisions of every description? There is no doubt about the necessity of clearing out that country so that it will not support Mosby's gang. And the question is whether it is not better that the people should save what they can. So long as the war lasts they must be prevented from raising another crop, both there and as high up the valley as we can control."
See Amazon's list of books on the 1864 Shenandoah Valley Campaign.
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