HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF
TENNESSEE,
September 12,
1864.
Maj. Gen. W. T. SHERMAN,
Commanding Military Division of the Mississippi:
GENERAL; I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your
letter
of the 9th [10th] instant, with its inclosure, in reference to the women,
children, and others whom you have thought proper to expel from their homes in
the city of Atlanta. Had you seen proper to let the matter rest there, I would
gladly have allowed your letter to close this correspondence, and without your
expressing it in words would have been willing to believe that whilst “the interests
of the United States,” in your opinion, compelled you to an act of barbarous
cruelty, you regretted the necessity, and we would have dropped the subject.
But you have chosen to indulge in statements which I feel compelled to notice,
at least so far as to signify my dissent and not allow silence in regard to
them to be construed as acquiescence. I see nothing in your communication which
induces me to modify the language of condemnation with which I characterized
your order. It but strengthens me in the opinion that it stands “pre-eminent in
the dark history of war, for studied and ingenious cruelty.” Your original
order was stripped of all pretenses; you announced the edict for the sole
reason that it was “to the interest of the United States.” This alone you
offered to us and the civilized world as an all-sufficient reason for
disregarding the laws of God and man. You say that “General Johnston himself,
very wisely and properly, removed the families all the way from Dalton down,”
It is due to that gallant soldier and gentleman to say that no act of his
distinguished career gives the least color to your unfounded aspersions upon
his conduct. He depopulated no villages nor towns nor cities, either friendly
or hostile. He offered and extended friendly aid to his unfortunate
fellow-citizens who desired to flee from your fraternal embraces. You are
equally unfortunate in your attempt to find a justification for this act of
cruelty either in the defense of Jonesborough, by General Hardee, or of Atlanta
by myself. General Hardee defended his position in front of Jonesborough at the
expense of injury to the houses, an ordinary, proper, and justifiable act of war.
I defended Atlanta at the same risk and cost. If there was any fault in either
case, it was your own, in not giving notice, especially in the case of Atlanta,
of your purpose to shell the town, which is usual in war among civilized
nations. No inhabitant was expelled from his home and fireside by the orders of
General Hardee or myself, and therefore your recent order can find no support
from the conduct of either of us. I feel no other emotion than pain in reading
that portion of your letter which attempts to justify your shelling Atlanta
without notice under pretense that I defended Atlanta upon a line so close to
town that every cannon shot, and many musket balls from your line of
investment, that over-shot their mark went into the habitations of women and
children. I made no complaint of your firing into Atlanta in any way you
thought proper. I make none now, but there are a hundred thousand witnesses
that you fired into the habitations of women and children for weeks, firing far
above and miles beyond my line of defense. I have too good an opinion, founded
both upon observation and experience, of the skill of your artillerists to
credit the insinuation that they for several weeks unintentionally fired too
high for my modest field-works, and slaughtered women and children by accident
and want of skill.
The residue of your letter is rather discussion. It opens a
wide field for the discussion of questions which I do not feel are committed to
me. I am only a general of one of the armies of the Confederate States, charged
with military operations in the field, under the direction of my superior
officers, and I am not called upon to discuss with you the causes of the
present war, or the political questions which led to or resulted from it. These
grave and important questions have been committed to far abler hands than mine,
and I shall only refer to them so far as to repel any unjust conclusion which
might be drawn from my silence. You charge my country with “daring and
badgering you to battle.” The truth is, we sent commissioners to you
respectfully offering a peaceful separation before the first gun was fired on
either side. You say we insulted your flag. The truth is we fired upon it and
those who fought under it when you came to our doors upon the mission of
subjugation. You say we seized upon your forts and arsenals and made prisoners
of the garrisons sent to protect us against negroes and Indians. The truth is,
we, by force of arms, drove out insolent intruders, and took possession of our
own forts and arsenals to resist your claims to dominion over masters, slaves,
and Indians, all of whom are to this day, with a unanimity unexampled in the
history of the world, warring against your attempts to become their masters.
You say that we tried to force Missouri and Kentucky into rebellion in spite of
themselves. The truth is my Government, from the beginning of this struggle to
this hour, has again and again offered, before the whole world to leave it to
the unbiased will of these States and all others to determine for themselves
whether they will cast their destiny with your Government or ours? and your
Government has resisted this fundamental principle of free institutions with
the bayonet, and labors daily by force and fraud to fasten its hateful tyranny
upon the unfortunate freemen of these States. You say we falsified the vote of
Louisiana. The truth is, Louisiana not only separated herself from your
Government by nearly a unanimous vote of her people, but has vindicated the act
upon every battle-field from Gettysburg to the Sabine, and has exhibited an
heroic devotion to her decision which challenges the admiration and respect of
every man capable of feeling sympathy for the oppressed or admiration for
heroic valor. You say that we turned loose pirates to plunder your unarmed
ships. The truth is, when you robbed us of our part of the navy, we built and
bought a few vessels, hoisted the flag of our country, and swept the seas, in
defiance of your navy, around the whole circumference of the globe. You say we
have expelled Union families by thousands. The truth is not a single family has
been expelled from the Confederate States, that I am aware of, but, on the
contrary, the moderation of our Government toward traitors has been a fruitful
theme of denunciation by its enemies and many well-meaning friends of our
cause. You say my Government, by acts of Congress, has “confiscated all debts
due Northern men for goods sold and delivered.” The truth is our Congress gave
due and ample time to your merchants and traders to depart from our shores with
their ships, goods, and effects, and only sequestrated the property of our
enemies in retaliation for their acts, declaring us traitors and confiscating
our property wherever their power extended, either in their country or our own.
Such are your accusations, and such are the facts known of all men to be true.
You order into exile the whole population of a city, drive
men, women, and children from their homes at the point of the bayonet, under
the plea that it is to the interest of your Government, and on the claim that
it is an act of “kindness to these families of Atlanta.” Butler only banished
from New Orleans the registered enemies of his Government, and acknowledged
that he did it as a punishment. You issue a sweeping edict covering all the
inhabitants of a city and add insult to the injury heaped upon the defenseless
by assuming that you have done them a kindness. This you follow by the
assertion that you will “make as much sacrifice for the peace and honor of the South
as the best born Southerner.” And because I characterized what you call a
kindness as being real cruelty you presume to sit in judgment between me and my
God and you decide that my earnest prayer to the Almighty Father to save our
women and children from what you call kindness is a “sacrilegious, hypocritical
appeal.” You came into our country with your army avowedly for the purpose of
subjugating free white men, women, and children, and not only intend to rule
over them, but you make negroes your allies and desire to place over us an
inferior race, which we have raised from barbarism to its present position,
which is the highest ever attained by that race in any country in all time. I
must, therefore, decline to accept your statements in reference to your
kindness toward the people of Atlanta, and your willingness to sacrifice
everything for the peace and honor of the South, and refuse to be governed by
your decision in regard to matters between myself, my country, and my God. You
say, “let us fight it out like men.” To this my reply is, for myself, and, I
believe, for all the true men, aye, and women and children, in my country, we
will fight you to the death. Better die a thousand deaths than submit to live
under you or your Government and your negro allies.
Having answered the points forced upon me by your letter of
the 9th [10th] of September, I close this correspondence with you, and
notwithstanding your comments upon my appeal to God in the cause of humanity, I
again humbly and reverently invoke His Almighty aid in defense of justice and
right.
Respectfully, your
obedient servant,
J. B. HOOD,
General.
SOURCES: John Bell Hood, Advance and Retreat, p.
232-5; The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records
of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 39, Part 2 (Serial
No. 78), p. 419-22
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