Major-General William T. Sherman to Miss P. A. Fraser, October 22, 1862

MEMPHIS, October 22, 1862.

Miss P. A. FRASER, Memphis:

DEAR LADY: Your petition is received. I will allow fifteen days for the parties interested to send to Holly Springs and Little Rock to ascertain if firing on unarmed boats is to form a part of the warfare against the Government of the United States.

If from silence or a positive answer from their commanders I am led to believe such fiendish acts are to be tolerated or allowed it would be weakness and foolish in me to listen to appeals to feelings that are scorned by our enemies. They must know and feel that not only will we meet them in arms, but that their people shall experience their full measure of the necessary consequences of such barbarity.

The Confederate generals claim the Partisan Rangers as a part of their army. They cannot then disavow their acts, but all their adherents must suffer the penalty. They shall not live with us in peace. God himself has obliterated whole races from the face of the earth for sins less heinous than such as characterized the attacks on the Catahoula and Gladiator. All I say is if such acts were done by the direct or implied concert of the Confederate authorities we are not going to chase through the canebrakes and swamps the individuals who did the deeds, but will visit punishment upon the adherents of that cause which employs such agents. We will insist on a positive separation; they cannot live with us. Further than that I have not yet ordered, and when the time comes to settle the account we will see which is most cruel—for your partisans to fire cannon and musket-balls through steamboats with women and children on board, set them on fire with women and children sleeping in their berths, and shoot down the passengers and engineers, with the curses of hell on their tongues, or for us to say the families of men engaged in such hellish deeds shall not live in peace where the flag of the United States floats.

I know you will say these poor women and children abhor such acts as much as I do, and that their husbands and brothers in the Confederate service also would not be concerned in such acts. Then let the Confederate authorities say so, and not employ their tools in such deeds of blood and darkness. We will now wait and see who are the cruel and heartless men of this war. We will see whether the firing on the Catahoula or Gladiator is sanctioned or disapproved, and if it was done by the positive command of men commissioned by the Confederate Government, you will then appreciate how rapidly civil war corrupts the best feelings of the human heart.

Would to God ladies better acted their mission on earth; that instead of inflaming the minds of their husbands and brothers to lift their hands against the Government of their birth and stain them in blood, had prayed them to forbear, to exhaust all the remedies afforded them by our glorious Constitution, and thereby avoid "horrid war," the last remedy on earth.

Your appeals to me shall ever receive respectful attention, but it will be vain in this case if General Holmes does not promptly disavow these acts, for I will not permit the families and adherents of secessionists to live here in peace whilst their husbands and brothers are aiming the rifle and gun at our families on the free Mississippi.

Your friend,

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 17, Part 2 (Serial No. 25), p. 287-8

Diary of 1st Lieutenant John S. Morgan: Sunday, April 23, 1865

Inspection at 9. A. M. Lt Hook comes to the Regt with the sad intiligence of the Assassination of President Lincoln & Sec Seward which is published in the Mobile paper. The news quickly spreads & groups of men can be seen all arond talking in low tones with a look of sadness never worn by them before, at 10, a. m the Div Brass Band plays the “dead march” & is followed by the bands of Regts in order. It is truly a solemn day & the boys one & all vow to take vengance in Southern blood, many who favored peace this morning now favor utter extermination; about noon we are greeted with the arrival of Luit Sharman looking like altogether a different man from the Luit Sharman we left at Little Rock the 14 of Feb he brings an extra which states that it is thought Seward is not mortally wounded & hopes of his recovery is enertained, he spent the night last night with Capt Lacy & reports that Genl Steeles Corps proceeded up the Alabama river this morning, embarked on 15 transports escorted by a fleet of gun boats, says a very fine Gulf steamer was blown up in the channel in the Bay by a torpedo of which there remain some yet. Luit Seevers is detailed to proceed to New Orleans to bring up our Books & Records. Weather cool.

SOURCE: “Diary of John S. Morgan, Company G, 33rd Iowa Infantry,” Annals of Iowa, 3rd Series, Vol. 13, No. 8, April 1923, p. 594-5

Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: January 27, 1863

It is too true that several thousand of our men were captured at Arkansas Post, and that Little Rock is now in danger.

There seems to be no probability, after all, of an immediate advance of the enemy across the Rappahannock.

But there are eight iron-clad gun-boats and ninety sail at Beaufort, North Carolina, and, it is reported, 52,000 men. Wilmington will probably be assailed.

Mr. Foote said, yesterday, if Indiana and Illinois would recede from the war, he should be in favor of aiding them with an army against Lincoln. And all the indications from the North seem to exhibit a strong sentiment among the people favoring peace. But the people are not the government, and they sink peace and reconstruction together.

Yesterday Mr. Crockett, of Kentucky, said, in the House of Representatives, that there was a party in favor of forming a Central Confederacy (of free and slave States) between the Northern and Southern extremes. Impracticable.

To-day we have news of the bombardment of Fort McAlister, near Savannah. No result known. Now we shall have tidings every few days of naval operations. Can Savannah, and Charleston, and Wilmington be successfully defended? They may, if they will emulate the example of Vicksburg. If they fall, it will stagger this government — before the peace party in the North can operate on the Government of the United States. But it would not “crush the rebellion.”

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 247-8

Diary of 1st Sergeant John S. Morgan: Saturday, January 21, 1865

Wet drizzly rain all day. Fort detail relieved. Lt Seevers brings report of a march for 10 days. No orders until near noon, orders come to be ready by 8, A. M. tomorrow over to see Lt Sharman. he is better. Evening prevailing opinion that it is good bye Little Rock how are you Shrevesport. A cooperating column reported moving up Red River, nearly all the troops cav. & Inft to go.

SOURCE: “Diary of John S. Morgan, Company G, 33rd Iowa Infantry,” Annals of Iowa, 3rd Series, Vol. 13, No. 8, April 1923, p. 571

Diary of 4th Sergeant John S. Morgan: Saturday, November 21, 1863

All quiet at Little Rock.

SOURCE: “Diary of John S. Morgan, Company G, 33rd Iowa Infantry,” Annals of Iowa, 3rd Series, Vol. 13, No. 7, January 1923, p. 500

Diary of 4th Sergeant John S. Morgan: Sabbath, September 13, 1863

Verry sick. 5th Kan. squad went on to Little Rock train of 28 wagons in from Little Rock to take convalescents to their regiments.

SOURCE: “Diary of John S. Morgan, Company G, 33rd Iowa Infantry,” Annals of Iowa, 3rd Series, Vol. 13, No. 7, January 1923, p. 497

Diary of 4th Sergeant John S. Morgan: Tuesday, September 15, 1863

Rooled out early too sick to walk rode to Little Rock, too sick to get to regt stay at a private house all night.

SOURCE: “Diary of John S. Morgan, Company G, 33rd Iowa Infantry,” Annals of Iowa, 3rd Series, Vol. 13, No. 7, January 1923, p. 497

Diary of 4th Sergeant John S. Morgan: Tuesday, September 8, 1863

A. M. quiet; P. M. Hospital draws 7 days rations — Report in that Steeles forces are in Little Rock. Cavalry 7. miles beyond ——— in the rear. Price trying to cut out. Areadelphi ours — Health better—

SOURCE: “Diary of John S. Morgan, Company G, 33rd Iowa Infantry,” Annals of Iowa, 3rd Series, Vol. 13, No. 7, January 1923, p. 497

Diary of 4th Sergeant John S. Morgan: Friday, September 11, 1863

Couriers bring in the news that at 5. P. M. yesterday Steele marched into Little Rock. We had to furnish guards today and night. Men hanging rond the pickets.

SOURCE: “Diary of John S. Morgan, Company G, 33rd Iowa Infantry,” Annals of Iowa, 3rd Series, Vol. 13, No. 7, January 1923, p. 497

Diary of 4th Sergeant John S. Morgan: Monday, August 17, 1863

Out foraging today. 2d Division get here. P. M. Skirmish over the river, troops crossing. Rebs reported at pine bluff. 12¼ miles this side Little Rock entrenching. Col Rice promoted to Brig Gen.

SOURCE: “Diary of John S. Morgan, Company G, 33rd Iowa Infantry,” Annals of Iowa, 3rd Series, Vol. 13, No. 7, January 1923, p. 494

Diary of 4th Sergeant John S. Morgan: Tuesday May 12, 1863

At Mary Anna 11. A. M. Met 6 Rebs. flag truce from Little Rock to Helena on business. At La Grange 5.30. camped after dark camped at Col McNeils house.

SOURCE: “Diary of John S. Morgan, Company G, 33rd Iowa Infantry,” Annals of Iowa, 3rd Series, Vol. 13, No. 7, January 1923, p. 489

Major General William T. Sherman to Senator John Sherman, December 22, 1865

ST. LOUIS, Dec. 22, 1865.

Dear Brother:

I am just back from Little Rock, have read the message and all the reports which seem satisfactory. Grant's report is all I ask, but no one ever has and may not agree with me as to the very great importance of the march north from Savannah. The march to the sea seems to have captivated everybody, whereas it was child's play compared with the other. All well with me. I will write soon.

W. T. SHERMAN.

SOURCE: Rachel Sherman Thorndike, Editor, The Sherman Letters: Correspondence Between General and Senator Sherman from 1837 to 1891, p. 260

From the South

PITMAN’S FERRY, Ark. 8.

Gentlemen who have been in the South since the commencement of the blockade, arrived here today.  They say they left Memphis two weeks since, coming to Jacksonport on the steam ram Hale, which arrived there last Tuesday; but her officers hearing that our troops were marching on that town, she immediately started down the river.  Our troops reach there the following evening.

Provisions, clothing, and all merchandise are very scarce, throughout the South.  Tennessee money is at a premium of 20 per cent., and gold 100 per cent.  Drafting for the army is going on regardless of position and money.  Union men are flying to the mountains and swamps.

Fort Pillow is the only defense on the Mississippi that is considered secure on the water side.

Price’s army has gone to Fort Pillow and Corinth.  The force at Corinth is supposed to be 100,000.  Fifteen boats are now at Little Rock, taking on board 12,000 Arkansas troops for Corinth.  The rivers have been very high, and Napoleon is now flooded.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Saturday Morning, May 10, 1862, p. 1

Gov. Rector of Arkansas . . .

. . . seems to be satisfied with neither the old nor the new condition of affairs.  He has issued a proclamation calling for 4,500 volunteers for the defense of Little Rock against the approaching army of Gen. Curtis, but he denounces the inefficiency of the Confederacy in very high-flown language, and threatens that his mighty State may make a new secession.  Jeff Davis’ Little Rock organ is shocked at the Governor’s presumption.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, May 24, 1862, p. 2

From Gen. Curtis’ Column

Correspondence of the St. Louis Democrat.

BATESVILLE, Ark., May 10 – A portion of Gen. Davis’s and Gen. Asboth’s divisions and two of Gen. Longstret’s regiments left her to-day for the North.  An adequate force is still here, however, for operations in this district.  Our advance, under Gen. Osterhause, crossed White River and took the road to Little Rock, the Capital of the State.

As many as 150 persons per day have come in and taken the oath of allegiance, embracing judges, ministers and many of the most influential citizens.  The sentiment of the people is rapidly becoming more and more loyal.

The news of our occupation of this place was received by Gov. Rector, at Little Rock, on the 5^th, and produced great excitement.  Some of the citizens advised peace, while others were rampant for defending the city to the last extremity.  The following day the Governor issued a proclamation to the State militia to repair immediately to the Capital to repel the invaders. – Many of the militia were issuing special calls.

6,000 Texans were daily expected at Little Rock, but they were under orders for Corinth.  Guerrilla bands are being formed in some sections and large mobs may be mustered at county seats, but no serious obstacles to our advance are anticipated.

Albert Pike, at last accounts, was camped at Boggy Department, 100 miles southwest of Fort Smith.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, May 17, 1862, p. 3