Military Monday~War Atrocities

SPECIAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. SEVENTEENTH ARMY CORPS, Numbers 56.
Thirteen Miles from Cheraw, S. C., March 2, 1865.
I. In accordance with instructions from the major-general commanding the army, directing that for each of our men murdered by the enemy a life of one of the prisoners in our hands should be taken, Major J. C. Marven, provost-marshal, Seventeenth Army Corps, will select from the prisoners in his charge one man and deliver him to Big. General M. F. Force, commanding Third Division, to be shot to death in retaliation for the murder of Private R. M. Woodruff, Company H, Thirtieth Illinois Volunteers, a regularly detailed forager, who was beaten to death by the enemy near Blakeny's Bridge on or about the 1st of March, 1865. ^[1]

At a New Year 1864 celebration, Private R. M. Woodruff gave the NEW YEAR’S ADDRESS to the Soldier of Sherman’s Grand Army. Where this celebration took place I do not know but a printed copy of a flyer/handout from the event is in the Digital Collections at Duke University and can be viewed here:^[2] 
http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/songsheets_bsvg601738/

The death of Private R. M. Woodruff by the Southern Military forces resulted in the murder of Private James Madison Miller on 2 March 1865 by the Northern Army. Private Miller, a Methodist Minister, is buried near Pageland in Chesterfield County, South Carolina.^[3]

In 1879, General William T. Sherman gave his famous speech to a class of Cadets in Michigan where he stated “War is Hell”.

I wondered if he was reflecting on his actions during the Civil War? 
 
 
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[1] http://ehistory.osu.edu/osu/sources/recordView.cfm?Content=099/0650
[2]  http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/songsheets_bsvg601738/
[3] Find A Grave Memorial# 61996385