Editor's note:
Following is a Sept. 12, 1864 letter written by General William
Tecumseh Sherman, Commander of the Western Theater of the War, to
James M. Calhoun, Mayor, and E. E. Rawson and S. C. Wells,
representing the City Council, of Atlanta, in reply to their
petition to revoke his orders for the civilian population to
evacuate the city. Italics are mine. Commentary is also mine.
- John C. Fazio
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William T.
Sherman
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Gentleman: I have your letter of
the 11th, in the nature of a petition to revoke my orders removing
all the inhabitants from statements of distress that will be
occasioned, and yet shall not revoke my orders, because they were
not designed to meet the humanities of the cause, but to prepare for
the future struggles in which millions of good people outside of
Atlanta have a deep interest. We must have peace, not only at
Atlanta, but in all America. To secure this, we must stop the war
that now desolates our once happy and favored country. To stop war,
we must defeat the rebel armies which are arrayed against the laws
and Constitution that all must respect and obey. To defeat those
armies, we must prepare the way to reach them in their recesses
provided with the arms and instruments which enable us to accomplish
our purpose. Now, I know the vindictive nature of our enemy, that we
may have many years of military operations from this quarter; and,
therefore, deem it wise and prudent to prepare in time. The use of
Atlanta for warlike purposes is inconsistent with its character as a
home for families. There will be no manufacturers, commerce, or
agriculture here, for the maintenance of families, and sooner or
later want will compel the inhabitants to go. Why not go now, when
all the arrangements are completed for the transfer, instead of
waiting till the plunging shot of contending armies will renew the
scenes of the past month? Of course, I do not apprehend any such
things at this moment, but you do not suppose this army will be here
until the war is over. I cannot discuss this subject with you
fairly, because I cannot impart to you what we propose to do, but I
assert that our military plans make it necessary for the inhabitants
to go away, and I can only renew my offer of services to make their
exodus in any direction as easy and comfortable as possible.
You cannot qualify war in harsher
terms than I will. War is cruelty,* and you cannot refine it; and
those who brought war into our country deserve all the curses and
maledictions a people can pour out. I know I had no hand in making
this war, and I know I will make more sacrifices to‐day than any of
you to secure peace. But you cannot have peace and a division of
our country. If the United States submits to a division now, it will
not stop, but will go on until we reap the fate of Mexico, which is
eternal war.** The United States does and must assert its authority,
wherever it once had power; for, if it relaxes one bit to pressure,
it is gone, and I believe that such is the national feeling. This
feeling assumes various shapes, but always comes back to that of
Union. Once admit the Union, once more acknowledge the authority of
the national Government, and, instead of devoting your houses and
streets and roads to the to the dread uses of war, I and this army
become at once your protectors and supporters, shielding you from
danger, let it come from what quarter it may. I know that a few
individuals cannot resist a torrent of error and passion, such as
swept the South into rebellion, but you can point out, so that we
may know those who desire a government, and those who insist on war
and its desolation.
You might as well appeal against
the thunder‐storm as against these terrible hardships of war. They
are inevitable, and the only way the people of Atlanta can hope once
more to live in peace and quiet at home, is to stop the war, which
can only be done by admitting that it began in error and is
perpetuated in pride.
We don't want your Negroes, or
your horses, or your lands, or anything you have, but we do want and
will have a just obedience to the laws of the United States.
That we will have, and if it involved the destruction of your
improvements, we cannot help it.
You have heretofore read public
sentiment in your newspapers, that live by falsehood and excitement;
and the quicker you seek for truth in other quarters, the better.
I repeat then that, by the original compact of government, the
United States had certain rights in Georgia, which have never been
relinquished and never will be; that the South began the war by
seizing forts, arsenals, mints, custom-houses, etc., etc., long
before Mr. Lincoln was installed, and before the South had one jot
or tittle of provocation. I myself have seen in Missouri,
Kentucky, Tennessee, and Mississippi, hundreds and thousands of
women and children fleeing from your armies and desperadoes, hungry
and with bleeding feet. In Memphis, Vicksburg, and Mississippi, we
fed thousands and thousands of the families of rebel soldiers left
on our hands, and whom we could not see starve. Now that war comes
to you, you feel very different. You deprecate its horrors, but did
not feel them when you sent car-loads of soldiers and ammunition,
and molded shells and shot, to carry war into Kentucky and
Tennessee, to desolate the homes of hundreds and thousands of good
people who only asked to live in peace at their old homes, and under
the Government of their inheritance. But these comparisons are idle.
I want peace, and believe it can only be reached through union and
war, and I will will ever conduct war with a view to perfect an
early success.
But, my dear sirs, when peace
does come, you may call on me for anything. Then will I share with
you the last cracker, and watch with you to shield your homes and
families against danger from every quarter.***
Now you must go, and take with you
the old and feeble, feed and nurse them, and build for them, in more
quiet places, proper habitations to shield them against the weather
until the mad passions of men cool down, and allow the Union and
peace once more to settle over your old homes in Atlanta.
Yours in haste.
W.T.
Sherman
Major‐General commanding
Footnotes:
| *
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On another
occasion, he was not quite so civil, characterizing it, rather,
as "hell". |
| **
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Perhaps better
stated as the "Balkanization" of the continent, where political
division follows political division in the wake of each
factional or regional dispute. |
|
*** |
Following the
war, Sherman's erstwhile antagonist in the field and in their
correspondence, General John Bell Hood, visited Sherman's home
in Lancaster, Ohio. While there, he asked for Sherman's help in
getting his memoirs published. Sherman, of course, said he would
do all he could, and did. |
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