IN THE FIELD, ATLANTA, GA.,
Sept. 8, 1864
DEAR SIR:—Yr kind note of Aug. 24 from Rochester, N. Y.
reached me here and I am really thankful for the warm terms in which you write,
and I know you will not feel the less kindly when you know we are inside
Atlanta. I don’t see why we cant have
some sense about negroes as well as about horses, mules, iron, copper, etc.—but
say nigger in the U. S. and from Sumner to Atty Kelly to the whole country goes
crazy. I never thought my nigger letter
would get into the papers but since it has I lay low—I like niggers well
enough, as niggers, but when fools & idiots try & make niggers better
than ourselves I have an opinion. We are
also ruining our country in this bounty & substitute business. It only amounts to spending money, it don’t make
a single soldier.
Fools think they can buy off, and will spend their money on
some worthless substitute who shirks and as is of no use & after spending
all his money will have to serve besides.
Well this thing will work out its natural solution.
W. T. SHERMAN,
Maj. Gen.
SOURCES: “Negroes in Their Places,” The Montgomery Advertiser, Montgomery, Alabama, Tuesday, December
17, 1889, p. 4; “General Sherman on ‘Niggers,’” The Sentinel, Carlisle, Pennsylvania, Thursday, December 26, 1899,
p. 1.
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