MEMPHIS, Dec. 20th,
1862.
Dear Brother:
I embarked to-day on the Forest Queen and will have 20,000
men in boats by noon and be off for the real South. At Helena I will get about
12,000 more. Like most of our boasts of the “Myriads of the northwest sweeping
away to the Gulf,” “breaking the back bone,” &c. &c., the great
Mississippi expedition will be 32,000 men. Vicksburg is well fortified and is
within telegraphic and railroad reach of Meridian, Mobile, Camp Moore and
Grenada, where Pemberton has 30,000 to 35,000 men. Therefore don't expect me to
achieve miracles. Vicksburg is not the only thing to be done. Grant is at
Coffeeville! (?) with say 40,000 men. He expected me to have the same but they
are not here. We can get the Yazoo, can front in any and every direction and
can take Vicksburg, clean out the Yazoo, capture or destroy the fleet of
enemy's gunboats and transports concealed up about Yazoo city — and do many
other useful things. Blair is down at Helena and will doubtless form a part of
the expedition. He will have a chance of catching the Elephant by the tail and
get a good lift.
Of course the pressure of this force acting in concert with
Grant must produce good results. Even if we don't open the Mississippi, by the
way an event not so important as at first sight, until the great armies of the
enemy are defeated — we are progressing. I wish Burnside and Rosecrans were
getting along faster, but I suppose they encounter the same troubles we all do.
. . .
The great evil is absenteeism, which is real desertion and
should be punished with death. Of course I would have the wounded and sick well
cared for, but the sick list real and feigned is fearful. More than one-half
the paper army is not in the enemy's country and whilst the actual regiments
present for duty are in arrears of pay and favor, sick and discharged men are
carefully paid and provided for. Unite with others and discriminate in favor of
the officers and soldiers who are with their companies. The “absent and sick”
should receive half pay because of the advantages they receive of fine
hospitals and quiet residence at home. The “absent without leave” should be
treated as deserters and in no event receive a dollar’s pay — clothing or
anything else. In course of time we may get an army. Finance is very important
but no use of discussing that now; we must fight it out if it devastates the
land and costs every cent of the North. . . .
I rise at 3 A.M. to finish up necessary business and as
usual write in haste. . . . I am very
popular with the people here and officers and indeed with all my men. I don’t
seek popularity with the “sneaks and absentees” or the “Dear People.” . . .
Affectionately,
W. T. SHERMAN.
SOURCE: Rachel Sherman Thorndike, Editor, The
Sherman letters: correspondence between General and Senator Sherman from 1837
to 1891, p. 176-7
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