As backward as this might sound, Sherman's views were not at all deviant from the popular views held at that time. Slavery was an established institution under the United States government-- prior to the Kansas-Nebraska Act, there was no intention to remove slavery from the areas in which it existed "only to prevent it from spreading across the Mississippi. Sherman's opinion represents that of the average citizen, without differentiating between Northern or Southern. The truth of the issue stands that before the war, no one except radical abolitionists wanted to free the slaves. Sherman understood this to be the case and his memoirs reflect this view accordingly.
For Sherman, secession was an unpardonable act of anarchy. The same sort of structure that was critical to keeping an army together and cohesive was imperative to running a nation as well. The thoughtless and hasty decision which caused Ft. Sumter to be fired upon was not so different than a chaotic situation Sherman witnessed in his California days. Casey and King, the two reporters with different agendas, egged one another to the extent that Casey reacted with brutality and fired upon the practically unarmed King. Both men were popular, and the commotion that rose within the city formed a chaotic mob. "There were a good many citizens," Sherman notes, "who contended that, if civil authorities were properly sustained . . . they could execute the law. But papers inflamed the public mind". The only way to defeat the surging Vigilance Committee and restore calm was to bring in the army and literally crush the life out of the insurrection. .
In A Place Called Appomattox, the fact that most southerners were detached from the political issue of secession was obvious. Yet as soon as the South fired upon Ft. Sumter, there was no choice but to be swept away on the tide of war. To Sherman, the Rebels were no different that the Vigilance Committee "they were attempting to disrupt the lawful state of the nation by imposing their own form of justice.