IN THE FIELD,
GOLDSBORO, N. C.,
April
9, 1865.
. . . To-morrow we move straight against Joe Johnston
wherever he may be. Grant's magnificent victories about Petersburg, and his
rapid pursuit of Lee's army, makes it unnecessary for me to move further north,
and I expect my course will be to Raleigh and Greensboro. I will fix up the
railroad to Raleigh, but then shall cast off as my custom has been and depend
on the contents of our wagons and on the resources of the country. Poor North
Carolina will have a hard time, for we sweep the country like a swarm of
locusts. Thousands of people may perish, but they now realise that war means
something else than vain glory and boasting. If Peace ever falls to their lot
they will never again invite War. But there is a class of young men who will
never live at peace. Long after Lee's and Johnston's armies are beaten and
scattered they will band together as highwaymen and keep the country in a
fever, begetting a Guerilla War. It may be that the Government may give us who
have now been working four years a rest and let younger men follow up the
sequel. I feel confident we can whip Joe Johnston quick if he stops, but he may
travel back towards Georgia, and I don't want to follow him again over that
long road. I wish Grant had been a few days later or I a few days sooner, but
on the whole our campaigns have been good. The weather now seems settled, and
if I have good roads think I can travel pretty fast. The sun is warm, the
leaves are all coming out, and flowers are in bloom, about as you will have it
a month hence. The entire army has new clothing, and with soap and water have made
a wonderful change in our appearance. The fellows who passed in review before
me with smokeblack faces, dirty and ragged, many with feet bare or wrapped in
cloth, now strut about as proud as young chicken cocks, with their clean faces
and bright blue clothes. All are ready to plunge again into the labor and toil
and uncertainty of war. You doubtless have heard all you can stand of these
matters. My health is good. . . . I send to Tommy today a hundred dollars, and
now enclose you $200, which is all I can raise and I got it of the
quarter-master. I think, however, you will not suffer, but as a rule don't
borrow. “’Tis more honest to steal.”
SOURCES: M. A. DeWolfe Howe, Editor, Home Letters of
General Sherman, p. 342-3. 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 2/23
No comments:
Post a Comment