HEADQUARTERS MILITARY
DIVISION OF THE MISSISSIPPI.
ACWORTH, Geo., June 9,
1864.
I don't know that you can find this place on your map, but
it is on the main road from Chattanooga into Georgia, 7 miles in front of
Allatoona, 12 from Marietta and 30 from Atlanta. The army lies about the place,
extending east, north and south. We are replenishing our wagons with
ammunition, forage and provisions. The railroad to our rear is all in good
order except the bridge across Etowah burned by the enemy, which will soon be
done. I am forced to move with due deliberation to give time for other
combinations from Memphis and New Orleans, in Mobile, etc. But we will soon
move forward to the Chattahoochee eleven miles beyond Marietta. Johnston may
fight us at the ridge of hills just this side of Marietta, but I think I can
dislodge him and this will leave the great battle on or near the Chattahoochee,
the passage of which he must dispute. He has a strong, well-disciplined army,
but I think we can lick him on any thing like fair terms. So I will not run
hot-headed against any works prepared for us. He thinks he checked us at
Dallas. I went there to avoid the Allatoona pass, and as soon as I had drawn
his army there I slipped my cavalry into Allatoona pass and round the main army
in its front, a perfect success. I never designed to attack his hastily
prepared works at Dallas and New Hope Church, and as soon as he saw I was
making for the railroad around his flank he abandoned his works and we occupied
them for a moment and moved by the best road to our present position. We have
captured several of their mails and it is wonderful to see how the soldiers
talk of driving me back to the Ohio, and then returning to their loving
families in Tennessee and Kentucky. I fear they count without their host, as
they will have an awful reckoning if they attempt to pass over or around this
army.
The paucity of news from the army at this time in Northern
papers is most satisfactory to me. My circular was exactly right. Every officer
and soldier should keep his friends and family advised of his own adventures
and situation, whilst the busy and mischievous scribblers for newspapers are
discountenanced. I know my course is right and meets the unqualified approval
of all good soldiers. The press is angry at my term, the 'cheap' flattery of
the press. We all know that Generals and aspirants bribe these fellows by the
loan of government horses and other conveniences not at their individual cost
but at the cost of the United States, and in return receive the cheap flattery
of the press. The press caused the war, the press gives it point and
bitterness, and as long as the press, both North and South, is allowed to fan
the flames of discord and hostility, so long must the war last. The Southern
press is just the same, and as long as people look to the press for truth and
counsel so long will war and anarchy prevail. The liberty of the press, like
that of individuals, must be restrained to just limits consistent with the good
of the whole, and every fool must not be allowed to print and publish falsehood
and slander as he pleases. . . .
SOURCES: M. A. DeWolfe Howe, Editor, Home Letters of
General Sherman, p. 294-6. A full copy of this letter can
be found in the William
T Sherman Family papers (SHR), University of Notre Dame Archives
(UNDA), Notre Dame, IN 46556, Folder CSHR 2/15
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