FEBRUARY 24, 1865:
Panic
spreads in North Carolina as rumors of Sherman’s impending approach circulate. Hundreds
of North Carolinian men desert the Confederate ranks in order to return home to
aid their families, or at least be with them. In the face of mass desertions,
Robert E. Lee sends a letter to North Carolina’s Governor, Zebulon B. Vance:
HEADQUARTERS CONFEDERATE STATES ARMIES
Feb. 24, 1865.
HIS EXCELLENCY Z. B.
VANCE
GOVERNOR OF NORTH CAROLINA
RALEIGH
GOVERNOR:
The state of despondency
that now prevails among our people is producing a bad effect upon the troops.
Desertions are becoming very frequent, and there is good reason to believe that
they are occasioned to a considerable extent by letters written to the soldiers
by their friends at home. In the last two weeks several hundred have deserted
from Hill's corps, and as the divisions from which the greatest number of
desertions have taken place are composed chiefly of troops from North Carolina,
they furnish a corresponding proportion of deserters. I think some good can be
accomplished by the efforts of influential citizens to change public sentiment
and cheer the spirits of the people. It has been discovered that despondent
persons represent to their friends in the army that our cause is hopeless, and
that they had better provide for themselves. They state that the number of
deserters is so large in the several counties that there is no danger to be
apprehended from the home-guards. The deserters generally take their arms with
them. The greater number are from regiments from the western part of the State.
So far as the despondency of the people occasions this sad condition of
affairs, I know of no other means of removing it than by the counsel and
exhortation of prominent citizens. If they would explain to the people that the
cause is not hopeless, that the situation of affairs, though critical, is so to
the enemy as well as ourselves, that he has drawn his troops from every other
quarter to accomplish his designs against Richmond, and that his defeat now
would result in leaving nearly our whole territory open to us; that this great
result can be accomplished if all will work diligently, and that his successes
are far less valuable in fact than in appearance, - I think our sorely-tried
people would be induced to make one more effort to bear their sufferings a
little longer, and regain some of the spirit that marked the first two years of
the war. If they will, I feel confident that with the blessing of God what seems
to be our greatest danger will prove the means of deliverance and safety.
Trusting that you will
do all in your power to help us in this great emergency.
I remain, very respectfully,
your obt. servt.,
R. E. LEE
General.
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