NOVEMBER 17, 1864:
Colonel (later General) T.W. Brevard writes to
his father, General T.W. Brevard regarding the re-election of Abraham Lincoln.
His letter reads in part:
The re-election of
Lincoln gives us the certainty of four more years of war . . . made constantly
necessary by . . . bloody and wasting campaigns . . . [and by the] European
Governments [who do not] depart from the[ir] non-intervention policy . . . The
Northern people are completely in subjection to the Washington Government. No
ruler is more absolute than Lincoln . . . We . . . long ago ceased to hope for foreign
intervention. There is no earthly chance for terms of agreement . . . for
Lincoln makes it a condition precedent . . . that we shall lay down our arms
and abolish slavery. We stand therefore at the expiration of nearly four years
of bloodshed in the face of a powerful military despotism armed with every
possible warlike appointment and equipment, determined . . . upon our
subjugation, and we have no choice but to fight for it to the bitter end. Long
ago I said . . . that the great danger .
. . in our struggle was the possible depression and arrest of fortitude on the
part of our people . . . in the event of Lincoln’s re-election . . . That test
has come upon the country and may God grant the people of the South strength
and grace to . . . meet the issue honestly and defiantly.
Thomas
Jefferson Moses is a Union soldier engaged in Sherman’s March to the Sea. In a
quick diary entry he writes:
To day we marched 20
miles. We come through Jackson a prety nice town. To day our regiment was train
guard. We marched very hard to day.
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