CAMP BEFORE VICKSBURG,
April 23, 1863.
Dear Brother:
I have noticed in the Conscript Act the clauses which
empowered the President to consolidate the ten companies of a regiment into
five, when the aggregate was below one-half the maximum standard, and to reduce
the officers accordingly. Had I dreamed that this was going to be made
universal, I should have written you and begged you for the love of our ruined
country to implore Lincoln to spare us this last and fatal blow. Two years of
costly war have enabled the North to realize the fact that by organized and
disciplined armies alone can she hope to restore the old and found a new
empire. We had succeeded in making the skeletons of armies, eliminating out of
the crude materials that first came forth the worthless material, and had just
begun to have some good young colonels, captains, sergeants and corporals. And
Congress had passed the Conscript Bill, which would have enabled the President
to fill up these skeleton regiments full of privates who soon, from their
fellows, and with experienced officers, would make an army capable of marching
and being handled and directed. But to my amazement comes this order. . . .
This is a far worse defeat than Manassas. Mr. Wade, in his report to condemn
McClellan, gave a positive assurance to the army that henceforth, instead of
fighting with diminishing ranks, we should feel assured that the gaps made by
the bullet, by disease, desertion, &c., would be promptly filled, whereas
only such parts of the Conscript Law as tend to weaken us are enforced, viz.: 5
per cent for furlough and 50 per cent of officers and non-commissioned officers
discharged to consolidate regiments. Even Blair is amazed at this. He protests
the order cannot be executed, and we should appeal to Mr. Lincoln, whom he
still insists has no desire to destroy the army. But the order is positive and
I don't see how we can hesitate. Grant started to-day down to Carthage, and I
have written to him, which may stave it off for a few days, but I tremble at
the loss of so many young and good officers, who have been hard at work for two
years, and now that they begin to see how to take care of soldiers, must be
turned out. . . .
If not too late, do, for mercy’s sake, exhaust your
influence to stop this consolidation of regiments. Fill all the regiments with
conscripts, and if the army is then too large disband the regiments that prefer
to serve north of the Potomac and the Ohio. Keep the war South at all hazards.
If this Consolidation Law is literally enforced, and no new draft is made, this
campaign is over. And the outside world will have a perfect right to say our
Government is afraid of its own people. . . .
Affectionately yours,
W. T. SHERMAN.
SOURCE: Rachel Sherman Thorndike, Editor, The
Sherman letters: correspondence between General and Senator Sherman from 1837
to 1891, p. 199-200
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