Sherman targeted civilians and burnt practically anything in sight to the ground on his infamous “March to the Sea.” Now, there has been some debate among scholars regarding to what extent some Union soldiers went rogue without being directed or ordered by Sherman to do more of the heinous sh*t, but I don’t believe there is any doubt Sherman regularly violated what we know today as the Fourth Geneva Convention. And I have no problem condemning that.I don't, we were in a war, and Sherman was in it to win it. "War is Hell", coined by the man himself. You don't want the hell to come down on you, don't commit treason in defense of slavery.
I will add one aspect of the Civil War that is often overlooked is the fact most white Southerners were dirt poor and not much better off than black slaves. In fact, Frederick Douglass in one of his autobiographies wrote about how he would provide food for a few poor white boys in exchange for them teaching him how to read and write.