SEPTEMBER 12, 1864:
Having
decided to burn Atlanta to the ground, General Sherman renews his Order that
the city must be evacuated by all civilians. The City Fathers implore him not
to drive out the returning inhabitants a second time. Sherman writes them a
stern letter, though the careful reader will see that the man does not have ice
water in his veins. In the penultimate paragraph of his answer to the Mayor and
the City Council he betrays his true feelings about what circumstance is
forcing him to do:
William T. Sherman
Headquarters Military
Division of the Mississippi,
in the Field,
Atlanta, Georgia
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, and yet shall not revoke my
orders, because they were 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 which
are arrayed against the laws and Constitution that all must respect and obey.
To defeat those 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, 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 we propose to do,
but I assert that our 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; for, if it relaxes one bit to pressure,
it is gone, and I believe 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,
I 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 point 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 only 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 any thing 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.
But, my dear sirs,
when peace does come, you may call on me for any thing. 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.
German-Americans in New York State celebrate their seventh
annual Rifle Union Festival in Jones’ Woods, of which the New York Times writes glowingly:
The Germans have an
intenser national fondness for social organizations than any other people. Go
into the smallest German hamlet, and you will find the inhabitants combined
into one or more societies or clubs, each of which has in view some pleasant
social object. You will find the drinking club a quiet, orderly, sober
organization, generally composed of the middle-aged men of the community, with
the pastor or village burgomaster at the head . . . Then there are the musical
clubs -- there is probably not a town in Germany that has not a musical club .
. .
There is something
sensible in the way the Germans set about enjoying themselves. They have been
called a "nation of thinkers and philosophers;" but they have a
practical instinct that esthetic pleasures never set well on an empty stomach . . .
But the great
national organization of the Germans is the Schulzen Bund, (Rifle Union) which
comprises the various rifle corps of Germany and Switzerland . . . The grand
object of this Union is to preserve in Germany a democratic organization,
devoted to the highest interests of the nation . . .
[T]he New-York branch
of the Schutzen Bund has . . .
contributed a large number of efficient soldiers and officers to the
Union army . . .
The primary object of
the organization in this country being to keep alive the memory of the pleasant
social festivities of "Fatherland," the details of the annual
gatherings are modeled on those of Germany, and the same ceremonies are
observed from year to year. This year, as heretofore, the scene of the festival
is Jones' Woods . . .
[T]he lucky marksman
who [wins the contest] will be entitled to $85 in money, a gold medal, and the
honors of royalty for one year. His praises will be chanted by a choir of
beautiful girls, who will adorn his brows with flowers, and proclaim him King
of the Schutzen Corps . . .
[N]o person need
hesitate from apprehension of disturbances, to take his family to the festival.
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