General Sherman's strategy--On the Ken Burns’ Civil War show last night,

[raccoon]

when the show was covering the Atlanta campaign, it sounded to me like Sherman was more careful with the lives of his soldiers than most other generals in that war, because he lay siege to Atlanta instead of the usual frontal assault with soldiers getting mowed down.

Any history/Civil War buffs care to offer their thoughts?

PS--I grew up in SC, so, not surprisingly, I never heard great things about Sherman. In fact I had a relative born in 1911 who still bitterly resented Sherman.