Do I Have to Come Down There Again
"Yous cannot qualify state of war in harsher terms than I volition. War is cruelty, and you cannot refine information technology; and those who brought war into our state deserve all the curses and maledictions a people tin cascade out. I know I had no manus in making this state of war, and I know I will make more than sacrifices to-day than any of you to secure peace."
General William Tecumseh Sherman
to the Mayor and Councilmen of Atlanta
In the mind of Full general William Tecumseh Sherman, who fabricated famous the phrase "State of war is hell," there was no dubiety as to the integrity of the North'southward cause. Sherman was renowned as a fierce - some would say tyrannical - armed services leader, and in September 1864 he gave orders for the metropolis of Atlanta to be evacuated and burned. Despite appeals from the citizens of Atlanta, including reminders that there were elderly and pregnant women whom it would exist difficult and even perilous to motion, Sherman's conclusion was final. He explained himself to the mayor and council members of the city.
HEADQUARTERS Military machine Sectionalisation of the MISSISSIPPI in the FIELD
Atlanta, Georgia,
James M. Calhoun, Mayor,
E.East. Rawson and S.C. Wells, representing Urban center Council of Atlanta.
Gentleman: I have your letter of the 11th, in the nature of a petition to revoke my orders removing all the inhabitants from Atlanta. I accept read it carefully, and give total credit to your statements of distress that will be occasioned, and yet shall not revoke my orders, because they were non designed to meet the humanities of the cause, only to prepare for the future struggles in which millions of good people outside of Atlanta accept a deep interest. We must have peace, not only at Atlanta, only in all America. To secure this, nosotros must stop the war that now desolates our one time happy and favored country. To stop war, we must defeat the insubordinate armies which are arrayed against the laws and Constitution that all must respect and obey. To defeat those armies, we must set up the way to reach them in their recesses, provided with the arms and instruments which enable usa to achieve our purpose. Now, I know the vindictive nature of our enemy, that we may accept many years of military operations from this quarter; and, therefore, deem it wise and prudent to fix in time. The use of Atlanta for warlike purposes in inconsistent with its character as a home for families. There will be no manufacturers, commerce, or agriculture here, for the maintenance of families, and sooner or later on want volition hogtie 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 volition renew the scenes of the past calendar month? Of grade, I do non apprehend whatsoever such things at this moment, but you do not suppose this regular army will be here until the war is over. I cannot discuss this subject with you adequately, considering I cannot impart to you what we propose to do, but I affirm that our military plans brand it necessary for the inhabitants to get abroad, and I can only renew my offering of services to make their exodus in any direction as easy and comfortable as possible.
Y'all cannot qualify state of war in harsher terms than I will. War is cruelty, and y'all cannot refine information technology; 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 than sacrifices to-twenty-four hours than any of you to secure peace. Just you cannot have peace and a division of our country. If the United States submits to a division now, it will not cease, but will continue until nosotros reap the fate of Mexico, which is eternal war. The United States does and must assert its dominance, wherever it once had power; for, if information technology relaxes one chip to pressure, information technology is gone, and I believe that such is the national feeling. This feeling assumes diverse shapes, just always comes back to that of Union. Once admit the Union, once more acknowledge the authority of the national Regime, and, instead of devoting your houses and streets and roads to the dread uses of war, I and this ground forces become at one time your protectors and supporters, shielding you lot from danger, let it come from what quarter information technology may. I know that a few individuals cannot resist a torrent of fault and passion, such as swept the Due south into rebellion, but you can point out, so that we may know those who want a government, and those who insist on war and its desolation.
Yous might besides entreatment against the thunder-storm as against these terrible hardships of war. They are inevitable, and the only way the people of Atlanta tin can hope in one case more than to live in peace and repose at home, is to stop the war, which can simply be washed by albeit that it began in error and is perpetuated in pride.
We don't want your Negroes, or your horses, or your lands, or any matter y'all take, but we do desire and will have a just obedience to the laws of the United states. That we volition have, and if it involved the destruction of your improvements, we cannot help it.
Y'all have heretofore read public sentiment in your newspapers, that alive by falsehood and excitement; and the quicker y'all seek for truth in other quarters, the better. I repeat then that, bu the original compact of government, the United states had sure rights in Georgia, which have never been relinquished and never will be; that the Southward began the war by seizing forts, arsenals, mints, custom-houses, etc., etc., long before Mr. Lincoln was installed, and before the Due south had one jot or championship 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 anxiety. In Memphis, Vicksburg, and Mississippi, we fed thousands and thousands of the families of rebel soldiers left on our hands, and whom we could non run into starve. Now that war comes to you, you feel very different. Yous deprecate its horrors, but did non feel them when you sent car-loads of soldiers and ammunition, and moulded shells and shot, to carry state of war into Kentucky and Tennessee, to desolate the homes of hundreds and thousands of good people who only asked to live in peace at their sometime homes, and under the Authorities of their inheritance. But these comparisons are idle. I want peace, and believe it can only be reached through union and war, and I will e'er comport state of war with a view to perfect an early success.
But, my dearest sirs, when peace does come, you may call on me for any thing. Then will I share with yous the last cracker, and watch with yous to shield your homes and families against danger from every quarter.
Now you lot must go, and have with you the sometime and feeble, feed and nurse them, and build for them, in more tranquility places, proper habitations to shield them against the weather until the mad passions of men cool down, and allow the Union and peace over again to settle over your old homes in Atlanta. Yours in haste,
Due west.T. Sherman, Major-General commanding
Source: https://www.rjgeib.com/thoughts/sherman/sherman-to-burn-atlanta.html
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