I don’t know all the particulars as much as you. However, Sherman has my attention and from books and his quotes, I’m more than fairly sure vengeance for secession most certainly was his mindset. He took particular measure to destroy S. Carolina because they were the first State to do so.
This war differs from other wars, in this particular. We are not fighting armies but a hostile people, and must make old and young, rich and poor, feel the hard hand of war. William Tecumseh Sherman Read more at https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/william_tecumseh_sherman_205668
“I have for some days held and controlled every avenue by which the people and garrison of Savannah can be supplied, and I am therefore justified in demanding the surrender of the city…I am prepared to grant liberal terms to the inhabitants and garrison; but should I be forced to resort to assault, or the slower and surer process of starvation, I shall then feel justified in resorting to the harshest measures, and shall make little effort to restrain my army—burning to avenge the national wrong which they attach to Savannah and other large cities which have been so prominent in dragging our country into civil war.” ― William T. Sherman, Memoirs of General W.T. Sherman
Sherman made Bloody Bill Anderson look like a shrinking violet.
