HDQRS. MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSISSIPPI,
In the Field, Atlanta, Ga., September 12, 1864.
JAMES M. CALHOUN, Mayor,
E. E. RAWSON, and
S. C. WELLS,
Representing City Council of Atlanta:
GENTLEMEN: I have
your letter
of the 11th, in the nature of a petition to revoke my orders removing all
the inhabitants from Atlanta. I have read it carefully, and give full credit to
your statements of the distress that will be occasioned by it, and yet shall
not revoke my orders, simply because my orders are not designed to meet the
humanities of the case, but to prepare for the future struggles in which
millions of good people outside of Atlanta have a deep interest. We must have
peace, not only at Atlanta but in all America. To secure this we must stop the
war that now desolates our once happy and favored country. To stop war we must
defeat the rebel armies that are arrayed against the laws and Constitution,
which all must respect and obey. To defeat these armies we must prepare the way
to reach them in their recesses provided with the arms and instruments which
enable us to accomplish our purpose. Now, I know the vindictive nature of our
enemy, and that we may have many years of military operations from this
quarter, and therefore deem it wise and prudent to prepare in time. The use of
Atlanta for warlike purposes is inconsistent with its character as a home for
families. There will be no manufactures, commerce, or agriculture here for the
maintenance of families, and sooner or later want will compel the inhabitants
to go. Why not go now, when all the arrangements are completed for the
transfer, instead of waiting till the plunging shot of contending armies will
renew the scenes of the past month? Of course, I do not apprehend any such
thing at this moment, but you do not suppose this army will be here until the
war is over. I cannot discuss this subject with you fairly, because I cannot
impart to you what I propose to do, but I assert that my military plans make it
necessary for the inhabitants to go away, and I can only renew my offer of
services to make their exodus in any direction as easy and comfortable as
possible. You cannot qualify war in harsher terms than I will. War is cruelty
and you cannot refine it, and those who brought war into our country deserve
all the curses and maledictions a people can pour out. I know I had no hand in
making this war, and I know I will make more sacrifices to-day than any of you
to secure peace. But you cannot have peace and a division of our country. If
the United States submits to a division now it will not stop, but will go on
until we reap the fate of Mexico, which is eternal war. The United States does
and must assert its authority wherever it once had power. If it relaxes one bit
to pressure it is gone, and I know that such is the national feeling. This
feeling assumes various shapes, but always comes back to that of Union. Once
admit the Union, once more acknowledge the authority of the National
Government, and instead of devoting your houses and streets and roads to the
dread uses of war, and this army become at once your protectors and supporters,
shielding you from danger, let it come from what quarter it may. I know that a
few individuals cannot resist a torrent of error and passion such as swept the
South into rebellion, but you can part out so that we may know those who desire
a government and those who insist on war and its desolation. You might as well
appeal against the thunder-storm as against these terrible hardships of war.
They are inevitable, and the only way the people of Atlanta can hope once more
to live in peace and quiet at home is to stop the war, which can alone be done
by admitting that it began in error and is perpetuated in pride.
We don't want your
negroes or your horses or your houses or your lands or anything you have, but
we do want, and will have, a just obedience to the laws of the United States.
That we will have, and if it involves the destruction of your improvements we
cannot help it. You have heretofore read public sentiment in your newspapers
that live by falsehood and excitement, and the quicker you seek for truth in
other quarters the better for you. I repeat then that by the original compact
of government the United States had certain rights in Georgia, which have never
been relinquished and never will be; that the South began war by seizing forts,
arsenals, mints, custom-houses, &c., long before Mr. Lincoln was installed
and before the South had one jot or tittle of provocation. I myself have seen
in Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Mississippi hundreds and thousands of
women and children fleeing from your armies and desperadoes, hungry and with
bleeding feet. In Memphis, Vicksburg, and Mississippi we fed thousands upon
thousands of the families of rebel soldiers left on our hands and whom we could
not see starve. Now that war comes home to you, you feel very different. You
deprecate its horrors, but did not feel them when you sent car-loads of
soldiers and ammunition and molded shells and shot to carry war into Kentucky
and Tennessee, and desolate the homes of hundreds and thousands of good people
who only asked to live in peace at their old homes and under the Government of
their inheritance. But these comparisons are idle. I want peace, and believe it
can now only be reached through union and war, and I will ever conduct war with
a view to perfect an early success. But, my dear sirs, when that peace does
come, you may call on me for anything. Then will I share with you the last
cracker, and watch with you to shield your homes and families against danger
from every quarter. Now you must go, and take with you the old and feeble, feed
and nurse them and build for them in more quiet places proper habitations to
shield them against the weather until the mad passions of men cool down and allow
the Union and peace once more to settle over your old homes at Atlanta.
Yours, in haste,
W. T. SHERMAN,
Major-General, Commanding.
SOURCE: 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. 418-9
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