Sherman's March to the Sea

[unionblue]

Thea,

In reference to your post number 39 above, 'The Letter' please view the following thread here on this board and Civil War History, General Discussion fourum under the 'Was Sherman Insane?' thread. Here you will find an excellent post (#30) by Georgiana and response by Dawna, explaining why this letter is a bit suspect.

This is a letter once refered to by Dawna as the 'Thomas Myer' letter. Georgiana pretty much calls the letter into question as the name Thomas Myer was tracked down to a private from Massachusetts in the US Colored Infantry and the only Lieutenant Thomas Myer in the Union army was unmarried, a second lieutenant in the 17th Indiana Infantry and stationed at Nashville during the time of Sherman's march through South Carolina.

In other words, a 'found in the street' letter begins to smell very badly as historical proof but makes for a good read on a partisan website when all you want to do is hammer a point instead of check it. Just my own observation, of course.

Now as to your post before number 39, I agree with the letters and messages you give from Sherman himself, as I have read those orders also. Though harsh, they are within the limits of military tactics in what the man was trying to do, demoralize the South and inflict the hard hand of war upon those who had not been touched.

But we have also read that the General had a knack of speaking harshly and not following up on some of the things he said. Hence, I do not believe the man thought he was really going to kill everyone in Georgia and repopulate the state. It is a historical fact that he did not do so as again, we simply do not have a body count that equals the sentiment.

I also ask any who reads your account of the Roswell Women to refer to the 'Was Sherman Insane?' thread on the fourum, as they will find the arguments between Georgiana and Dawna very interesting and informative, with 'the rest of the story' as our friend Paul Harvey tends to say.

As for the acts of Union soldiers described by your post that took place in South Carolina, I have no argument or opposing view. I really do think that did happen, as the army really reserved its feelings for the State that 'started it all.'

Sincerely,
Unionblue

[johan_steele]

The "Thomas Myers Letter" holds a large part of the reason for my contempt of partisan websites and the Lost Cause mentality. If facts and letters have to be invented or exaggerated... credibility goes right out the window. Found on the street... I shake my head in amusement. There is just too much of that letter that rings false, as w/ the Roswell women and some extreme embelishments of the March to the Sea.

I find it amusing that Stones letter calling the letter the hogwash it was is suprising in that it is so ineptly responded to.

It is quite difficult to hide anything in a beuracracy like the military and the idea that the name of a Lt might be struck from the records at a whim is so preposterous as to be almost insulting to anyone who has looked up names in the NARA databases or put in an SUVCW application. At the very least the site that published it is complicit of ignorance and poor research.

I'm glad the NARA was not readily available when this letter was written... at least the ugly slander is reserved for a man of fiction. But it has gone far, I'm sure, to further the Lost Cause and the hate it espouses.

[dawna]

Neil:

I only have a few comments to make regarding your last posting to me and I'll try to keep it brief as there is nothing worse than a boring, repetitious Canadian. As you indicated, the thrust of your posts have been "Where is the proof?", and rightly so. Here is the suggestion from my last posting, and I'll take this opportunity to quote myself:

And from your Posting # 24, I'm providing this excerpt from "Marching Through Georgia": "Given the way Sherman's men scattered over the countryside and the casual approach they took to their work of destruction, the figures he (Sherman) gives are open to question. While the length of track destroyed was easy enough to calculate, a good many of the other figures were probably pulled out of the air." I would invite you to consider that just as it was difficult to ascertain the full extent of the destruction to the South, it would also be impossible to determine exactly how many civilians were killed, hung, raped and murdered during Sherman's march to the sea."

Having said the above, and referring back to the "Was Sherman Insane Thread" that I started last fall (I was so young and innocent back then), my question regarding rape allegations was, "Who would the women tell, and who would listen?" With respect to "not enough written evidence" and given the chaos in the South that reigned during and after Sherman's campaign, it might be difficult to determine the exact statistics regarding crimes that were committed against civilians. But if you have come across any written evidence at all to support any of these claims, I would interested to hear it.

The Leiber Code. Please bear with my thoughts here as I try to understand your viewpoint. You indicated that according to J.M. Spaight, Sherman violated the rules of war only once, during his campaign. I have a few difficulties in this area since Sherman waged total war on civilians (that was the entire purpose of "the march," was it not?), and you still haven't explained to me why the Leiber Code was originally introduced, if only to be broken a few months later....even once. And I'm sure that I don't need to remind you that Francis Leiber was arrested in Germany on more than one occasion for engaging in subversive activities.

Are you suggesting that Eliza Andrew's Journal is a fabrication? It seems that everytime a Southern letter or diary is produced, it comes under scrutiny, and no one is more guilty of this than Mark Grimsby. His comments regarding the ability of Southern women to accurately record the truth of their experiences is suspect of his own abilities to accurately read and comprehend. I've read hundreds of letters and journals written by Southern women, and they were either fan-swatting, scatter-brained females who were prone to flights of fancy and not capable of telling the truth even in their own personal journals; or they were women expressing their horror and angst in the only method available to them at the time. Which would you rather believe?

Since there are a few discrepancies in the essay that you provided written by George M. Hovsepian on December 14, 1998, and the excerpt that I included in a previous posting by the Emory International Law Review, Volume 9, Number 2, which one then are we to believe is accurate?

Neil, I have the distinct impression that you perceive my postings on this thread to be dictated by emotion, rather than logic, and I am hard-pressed to find the basis for this thinking on your part. I am interested in Sherman's actions and capabilites as a commander of the Union army, but I am equally interested in Sherman as a man, and as a human being.

It is for certain that I have an enormous amount of sympathy and concern for the civilians who suffered as a result of Sherman's march, but I've tried not to let that affect my desire to comprehend the "what, why, and if" of Sherman's campaign...I genuinely want to understand everything that happened. And I agree, Gone With the Wind was an entertaining story, but at no time in my life have I ever thought it to be based on historical fact, and I can't imagine who would, other than a few impressionable teenage girls. I can assure you that I'm not some Belle up here in the North with a cause who has been disillusioned by torched fields, swooning women, and "mean" generals...far from it.

The accuracy and the manner in which history is recorded is equally important to me Neil, and the cool, hard logic of it all. But I care very deeply about people throughout history, and their tremendous courage and abilities to cope in the face of adversity and in the midst of horrific circumstances. I like to think I balance both, without tipping the scales in the direction of Scarlett Ohara.

But I apologize...I hadn't meant to turn this posting into yet another version of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Dawna

[thea_447]

As to the Myer letter, I noted at the bottom of my post:
I tried to add the rest of this article, the pros and cons of the validity of it but found that it was too long. But you can view this for yourself at:
http://www.southernmessenger.org/yankee_letter.htm

As to the "Roswell women" Tommy posted some rather lengthy remarks on this a long time ago as I did. I have found nothing to dissuade the evidence that Tommy produced, or that I added to.

Everyone on this board has an opinion about Sherman and Phil Sheridan. They are either saints or sinners, depending on which side of the Mason/Dixon line you hail from or, as in the case of our distinguished posters from other countries, depending on which information seems more valid.

Just as I, a Southerner, tend to be more emotional about Sherman and the March to the Sea, it amuses me no end to see the lengths to which my worthy counterparts strive to "appear" cool and calm as they discuss Sherman and "total war". It's odd to me how the tone changes when one recalls "total war" as practiced on the Indians, yet "war is war, nothing more" when discussing Sherman and "total war".

I promised myself that tonight I would try to get some sleep so I'll make this brief.

I can think of no better way to judge a man than by his very own words. As to the question of whether Sherman was insane, I do not think so. I believe that he was probably bipolar or something similar that they didn't understand back then, thus did not know how to treat. Other than that, strictly speaking, and in as dispassionate a voice as I can muster (grin) I believe he truly hated the South and her inhabitants.

But getting back to listening carefully to a man's own words:

The young bloods of the South; sons of planters, lawyers about towns, good billiard players and sportsmen, men who never did any work and never will. War suits them. They are splendid riders, first rate shots and utterly reckless. These men must all be killed or employed by us before we can hope for peace....Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman

Look to the South and you who went with us through that land can best say if they have not been fearfully punished. Mourning is in every household, desolation written in broad characters across the whole face of their country, cities in ashes and fields laid waste, their commerce gone, their system of labor annihilated and destroyed. Ruin and poverty and distress everywhere, and now pestilence adding to the very cap sheaf of their stack of misery.............Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman, the man who left a 60 mile wide, 300 mile long path of death and desolation across GA and up through SC.

I have destroyed over 2,000 barns filled with wheat, hay and farming implements; over 70 mills filled with flour and wheat, and have driven in front of the Army over 4,000 head of stock and have killed and issued to the troops not less than 3,000 sheep. Tomorrow I will continue the destruction down to Fisher’s Mill. When this is completed, the Valley from Winchester to Staunton, 92 miles, will have but little in it for man or beast.....from an Oct. 7, 1864 report to Gen. Grant from Gen. Sheridan.

"The government of the U.S. has any and all rights which they choose to enforce in war - to take their lives, their homes, their land, their everything...war is simply unrestrained by the Constitution...to the persistent secessionist, why, death is mercy, and the quicker he or she is disposed of the better...Mjr. Gen. W. T. Sherman, Jan. 31, 1864.

This war on citizens was not simply restrained to be applied against men and women but also children. Gen. Sherman in a June 21, 1864, letter to Lincoln's Sec. of War, Edwin Station wrote, "There is a class of people men, women and children, who must be killed or banished before you can hope for peace and order." Stanton replied, "Your letter of the 21st of June has just reached me and meets my approval." While the war on civilians started much earlier than 1864, the above is simply proof that the war on children was part of that scheme.

Although we are all familiar with most of the elements of Sherman's March to the Sea, it is important to learn where he first honed his "skills".



In 1862 Sherman was having difficulty subduing Confederate sharpshooters who were harassing federal gunboats on the Mississippi River near Memphis. He thencities in ashes and fields laid waste, their commerce gone, their system of labor annihilated and destroyed. Ruin and poverty and distress everywhere, and now pestilence adding to the very cap sheaf of their stack of misery.............Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman, the man who left a 60 mile wide, 300 mile long path of death and desolation across GA and up through SC.

I have destroyed over 2,000 barns filled with wheat, hay and farming implements; over 70 mills filled with flour and wheat, and have driven in front of the Army over 4,000 head of stock and have killed and issued to the troops not less than 3,000 sheep. Tomorrow I will continue the destruction down to Fisher’s Mill. When this is completed, the Valley from Winchester to Staunton, 92 miles, will have but little in it for man or beast.....from an Oct. 7, 1864 report to Gen. Grant from Gen. Sheridan.

"The government of the U.S. has any and all rights which they choose to enforce in war - to take their lives, their homes, their land, their everything...war is simply unrestrained by the Constitution...to the persistent secessionist, why, death is mercy, and the quicker he or she is disposed of the better...Mjr. Gen. W. T. Sherman, Jan. 31, 1864.

This war on citizens was not simply restrained to be applied against men and women but also children. Gen. Sherman in a June 21, 1864, letter to Lincoln's Sec. of War, Edwin Station wrote, "There is a class of people men, women and children, who must be killed or banished before you can hope for peace and order." Stanton replied, "Your letter of the 21st of June has just reached me and meets my approval." While the war on civilians started much earlier than 1864, the above is simply proof that the war on children was part of that scheme.

Although we are all familiar with most of the elements of Sherman's March to the Sea, it is important to learn where he first honed his "skills".



In 1862 Sherman was having difficulty subduing Confederate sharpshooters who were harassing federal gunboats on the Mississippi River near Memphis. He then adopted the theory of "collective responsibility" to "justify" attacking innocent civilians in retaliation for such attacks. He burned the entire town of Randolph, Tennessee, to the ground. He also began taking civilian hostages and either trading them for federal prisoners of war or executing them.

Jackson and *******n, Mississippi, were also burned to the ground by Sherman’s troops even though there was no Confederate army there to oppose them. After the burnings his soldiers sacked the town, stealing anything of value and destroying the rest. As Sherman biographer John Marzalek writes, his soldiers "entered residences, appropriating whatever appeared to be of value . . . those articles which they could not carry they broke." After the destruction of *******n Sherman boasted that "for five days, ten thousand of our men worked hard and with a will, in that work of destruction, with axes, sledges, crowbars, clawbars, and with fire.... *******n no longer exists."



In 1862 Sherman wrote his wife that his purpose in the war would be "extermination, not of soldiers alone, that is the least of the trouble, but the people" of the South. His loving and gentle wife wrote back that her wish was for "a war of extermination and that all [Southerners] would be driven like swine into the sea. May we carry fire and sword into their states till not one habitation is left standing."



The Geneva Convention of 1863 condemned the bombardment of cities occupied by civilians, but Lincoln ignored all such restrictions on his behavior. The bombardment of Atlanta destroyed 90 percent of the city, after which the remaining civilian residents were forced to depopulate the city just as winter was approaching and the Georgia countryside had been stripped of food by the federal army. In his memoirs Sherman boasted that his army destroyed more than $100 million in private property and carried home $20 million more during his "march to the sea."

Sherman was not above randomly executing innocent civilians as part of his (and Lincoln’s) terror campaign. In October of 1864 he ordered a subordinate, General Louis Watkins, to go to Fairmount, Georgia, "burn ten or twelve houses" and "kill a few at random," and "let them know that it will be repeated every time a train is fired upon."

Another Sherman biographer, Lee Kennett, found that in Sherman’s army "the New York regiments were . . . filled with big city criminals and foreigners fresh from the jails of the Old World." Although it is rarely mentioned by "mainstream" historians, many acts of rape were committed by these federal soldiers. The University of South Carolina’s library contains a large collection of thousands diaries and letters of Southern women that mention these unspeakable atrocities. Shermans’ band of criminal looters (known as "bummers") sacked the slave cabins as well as the plantation houses. As Grimsley describes it, "With the utter disregard for blacks that was the norm among Union troops, the soldiers ransacked the slave cabins, taking whatever they liked." A routine procedure would be to hang a slave by his neck until he told federal soldiers where the plantation owners’ valuables were hidden.

Sherman himself admitted after the war that he was taught at West Point that he could be hanged for the things he did. But in war the victors always write the history and are never punished for war crimes, no matter how heinous. Only the defeated suffer that fate.

In a September 17, 1863, letter to Henry W. Halleck, the general in chief of the Union armies, Union Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman wrote:

"The United States has the right, and ... the ... power, to penetrate to every part of the national domain…. We will remove and destroy every obstacle - if need be, take every life, every acre of land, every particle of property, everything that to us seems proper."

Halleck liked Sherman's letter so much that he passed it on to President Lincoln, who declared that it should be published. Sherman, in a follow-up to Halleck on October 10, 1863, declared:

"I have your telegram saying the President had read my letter and thought it should be published…. I profess ... to fight for but one single purpose, viz, to sustain a Government capable of vindicating its just and rightful authority, independent of ******s, cotton, money, or any earthly interest."

Cont'd in Part II

[thea_447]

Part II

On June 21, 1864, before his bloody March to the Sea, Sherman wrote to the secretary of war: "There is a class of people [in the South] … men, women, and children, who must be killed or banished before you can hope for peace and order." A few months later, Sherman informed one of his subordinate commanders:

"I am satisfied ... that the problem of this war consists in the awful fact that the present class of men who rule the South must be killed outright rather than in the conquest of territory, so that hard, bull-dog fighting, and a great deal of it, yet remains to be done…. Therefore, I shall expect you on any and all occasions to make bloody results."

On September 27, 1864, Sherman wrote to Gen. John Hood, the Confederate commander of the Army of Tennessee, and announced, "I have deemed it to the interest of the United States that the citizens now residing in Atlanta should remove, those who prefer it to go south and the rest north."

Sherman lived up to his boast - and left a swath of devastation and misery that helped plunge the South into decades of poverty.

The source of the preceding quotes is The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies (128 volumes published by the Government Printing Office). Thomas Bland Keys compiled some of the most shocking comments in his excellent 1991 book, Uncivil War: Union Army and Navy Excesses in the Official Records, published by the Beauvoir Press in Biloxi, Mississippi. For a masterful examination of the broad issues surrounding the war, check out Jeffrey Rogers Hummel's Emancipating Slaves, Enslaving Free Men (Chicago: Open Court, 1996).

Some Northern leaders claimed to be deeply concerned about the well-being of slaves liberated by the Northern armies. However, Union tactics intentionally devastated the economies of much of the South - leaving people to struggle for years to avert starvation. This destruction made the South's recovery far slower than it otherwise would have been - and greatly increased the misery of both white and black survivors.

The more ruthless the Northern armies acted, the more exalted federal power became. For many, the greatness and sanctity of the federal government was confirmed by the fact that the government possessed the power to burn Southern cities, destroy Southern crops, and starve Southern families.

An 1875 article in the American Law Review noted: "The late war left the average American politician with a powerful desire to acquire property from other people without paying for it." The tragic mistakes, blunders, and crimes of politicians led to a war that resulted in a vast expansion of the power of the political class.

[thea_447]

As early as 1861, Federal soldiers looted, pillaged, raped and plundered their way through Virginia and other Southern states, completely burning to the ground the towns of Jackson and *******n, Mississippi, Randolph, Tennessee, and others. Historian Jeffrey Rogers Hummel estimates that some 50,000 Southern civilians were killed during the war, and this number, even if it is exaggerated by a multiple of two, most likely includes thousands of slaves. In his March to the Sea, General William Tecumseh Sherman boasted of having destroyed $100 million in private property and that his "soldiers" carried home another $20 million worth.

It has been announced on another new thread that we should check all our references. I hate to keep pounding on the Myers letter but I have in fact posted twice now on this thread that one should look at the following url and decide for one's self the pros and cons. I will post the parts that were not covered (those that claim "The Letter" is a fake). Since these type incidences probably took place more than once on the infamous "March" I want it noted that others took exception to saying the letter is a fake. The url which you should read in it's entirety is:http://www.southernmessenger.org/yankee_letter.htm

......Colonel Henry Stone, styling himself "Late Brevet-Colonel U. S. Volunteers, A. A. G. Army of the Cumberland," realizing the gravity of the statements contained in this letter, and the disgrace these, if uncontradicted, would bring on General Sherman and his army, and especially on the staff, of which he (Colonel Stone) was a member, wrote a letter to the Rev. J. William Jones, D. D., the then editor of the Historical Society Papers, in which he undertook to show that the Myers letter was not written by any officer in General Sherman's army. (This letter can be found in Vol. 13, S. H. S. Papers, page 439.) The reasons assigned by Colonel Stone were plausibly set forth, and Dr. Jones, in his anxiety to do justice even to Sherman's "bummers," after publishing Colonel Stone's letter, said editorially, he was "frank to admit that Colonel Stone seems to have made out his case against the authenticity of this letter." If the matter had rested here, we would not have thought of using this letter in our report, notwithstanding the fact (1) that we think the letter bears the impress of genuineness on its face; (2) it is vouched for by what Dr. Jones termed a "responsible source," and what the first paper publishing it cited as a "distinguished lady," who, it also stated, said that the original was "still preserved and could be shown and substantiated ;" (3) the statements contained in Colonel Stone's letter are only his statements, uncorroborated and not vouched for by any one, or by any documentary evidence of any kind, and being those of an alleged accomplice, are not entitled to any weight in a court of justice; (4) we think the reasons assigned by Colonel Stone for the non-genuineness of this letter are for the most part not inconsistent with its genuineness; and (5) some of his statements are, apparently, inconsistent with some of the facts as they appear in the records we have examined, e. g., He says "that of the ninety regiments of Sherman's army, which might have passed on the march near Camden, S. C., but a single one--a New Jersey regiment--was from the Middle States. All the rest were from the West. A letter (he says) from the only Thomas J. Myers ever in the army would never contain such a phrase," referring to the fact that Myers had said this stolen jewelry, &c., would be scattered "all over the North and Middle States." Sherman's statement of the organization of his army on this march shows there were several regiments in it from New York and Pennsylvania, besides one from Maryland and <shv29_114>one from New Jersey (all four Middle States). But we think this, like other reasons assigned by Colonel Stone, are without merit. But, as we have said, notwithstanding all these things which seemingly discredit the reasons assigned by Colonel Stone for the non-genuineness of this letter, we should not have used the letter in this report, had not the substantial statements in it been confirmed, as we shall now see. The Myers' letter was first published on October 29, 1883. On the 31st of July, 1865, Captain E. J. Hale, Jr., of Fayetteville, N. C., who had been on General James H. Lane's staff, and who is vouched for by General Lane as "an elegant educated gentleman," wrote to General Lane, telling him of the destruction Myers' letter was first published on October 29, 1883. On the 31st of July, 1865, Captain E. J. Hale, Jr., of Fayetteville, N. C., who had been on General James H. Lane's staff, and who is vouched for by General Lane as "an elegant educated gentleman," wrote to General Lane, telling him of the destruction and devastation at his home, and in that letter he makes this statement: "You have doubtless heard of Sherman's 'bummers.' The Yankees would have you believe that they were only the straggling pillagers usually found in all armies. Several letters written by officers of Sherman's army, intercepted near this town, give this the lie. "In some of these letters were descriptions of the whole bumming process, and from them it appears that it was a regularly organized system, under the authority of General Sherman himself; that one-fifth o£ the proceeds fell to General Sherman, another fifth to the other general officers, another fifth to the line officers, and the remaining two-fifths to the enlisted men." Now, compare this division of the spoils with that set forth in the Myers' letter, published, as we have said, eighteen years later, and it will be seen that they are almost identical, and this statement was taken, as Captain Hale states, from "several letters written by officers of Sherman's army," intercepted near Fayetteville, N. C., and as we have said, they confirm the statements of the Myers' letter, and its consequent genuineness, to a remarkable degree. It is proper, also, to state, that we have recently received a letter from Dr. Jones, in which he states that after carefully considering this whole matter again, he is now satisfied that he wasmistaken in his editorial comments on Colonel Stone's letter, that he is now satisfied of the genuineness of the Myers' letter, and that in his opinion we could use it in this report "with perfect propriety and safety." (*) We have discussed this letter thus fully because we feel satisfied that the annals of warfare disclose nothing so venal and depraved. Imagine, if it is possible to do so, Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson commanding an army licensed by them to plunder the defenceless, and then sharing in the fruits of this plundering! We can barely allude to Sherman's burning of Columbia, the proof of which is too conclusive to admit of controversy. On the 18th December, 1864, General H. W. Halleck, major-general and chief-of-staff of the armies of the United States, wrote Sherman as follows: * * * * "Should you capture Charleston, I hope that by some accident the place may be destroyed, and if a little salt should be thrown upon its site, it may prevent the future growth of nullification and secession." To this suggestion from this high (?) source to commit murder, arson and robbery, and pretend it was by accident, Sherman replied on December 24, 1664, as follows: "I will bear in mind your hint as to Charleston, and do not think that 'salt' will be necessary. When I move the Fifteenth corps will be on the right of the right wing, and their position will naturally bring them into Charleston first, and if you have watched the history of that corps, you will have remarked that they generally do their work pretty well; the truth is, the whole army is burning with an insatiable desire to wreak vengeance upon South Carolina. I almost tremble for her fate, but feel that she deserves all that seems in store for her. I look upon Columbia as quite as bad as Charleston, and I doubt if we shall spare the public buildings there, as we did at Milledgeville." (See 2 Sherman's Memoirs, pages 223, 227-8.) We say proof of his ordering (or permitting, which is just as bad) the destruction of Columbia is overwhelming. (See report of Chancellor Carroll, chairman of a committee appointed to investigate the facts about this in General Bradley T. Johnson's Life of Johnson, from which several of these extracts are taken.) Our people owe General Johnson a debt of gratitude for this and his other contributions to Confederate history. And Sherman had the effrontery to write in his Memoirs that in his official report of this conflagration, he distinctly charged it to General Wade Hampton, and (says) confess I did so pointedly go shake the faith of his people in him." (2 Sherman's Memoirs, page 287.) The man who confessed to the world that he made this false charge with such a motive needs no characterization at the hands of this committee. General Sherman set out to "make Georgia howl," and preferred, as he said, to "march through that State smashing things to the sea." He wrote to Grant after his march through South Carolina, saying: "The people of South Carolina, instead of feeding Lee's army, will now call on Lee to feed them." Memoirs, page 298.) So complete had been his destruction in that State. He also says: "Having utterly ruined Columbia, the right wing began its march northward, Memoirs, page 288.) On the 21st of February, 1865, only a few days after the burning of Columbia, General Hampton wrote to General Sherman, charging him with being responsible for its destruction, and other outrages, in which he said, among other things: "You permitted, if you have not ordered, the commission of these offences against humanity and the rules of war. You fired into the city of Columbia without a word of warning. After its surrender by the mayor, who demanded protection to private property, you laid the whole city in ashes, leaving amid its ruins thousands of old men and helpless women and children, who are likely to perish of starvation and exposure. Your line of march can be traced by the lurid light of burning houses, and in more than one household there is an agony far more bitter than death. The Southern Historical Society Papers

*************End Part I*****************

[thea_447]

Part II
Some items of Proof: 1. "According to my sources, it was found by "an old Negro woman outside of Camden SC in 1865". > Tom Elmore 2. The Thomas Myers letter says he was near Camden, SC.. 3. The Yankee army did fight on Feb. 24th at Camden, but due to the floods, could not pull out until the 26th, as documented by "The Civil War Day By Day". 4. The letter is dated on the 26th, near Camden. 5. Yankee Colonel Stone admits the existence of a Yankee Officer--Thomas J. Myers 6. Even if Lt. Myers was discharged in Alabama, he would have headed toward Sherman's Bummers in Georgia. 7. The SHSP concluded that Yankee Colonel Stone was an accomplice. More of Sherman's official orders: I repeat my orders that you arrest all people, male and female, connected with those factories, no matter what the clamor, and let them foot it, under guard, to Marietta, whence I will send them by cars to the North. "Pick up whatever provisions and plunder you can." On June 3d the question of torpedoes is discussed, and General Stedman receives the following instructions: "If torpedoes are found in the possession of an enemy to our rear, you may cause them to be put on the ground and tested by wagon-loads of prisoners, or, if need be, by citizens implicated in their use. In like manner, if a torpedo is suspected on any part of the railroad, order the point to be tested by a car-load of prisoners or citizens implicated, drawn by a long rope." "Implicated," we suppose here means "residing or captured in the neighborhood." I will see as to any man in America hoisting the French flag, and then devoting his labor and capital to supplying armies in open hostility to our government, and claiming the benefit of his neutral flag. Should you, under the impulse of anger, natural at contemplating such perfidy, hang the wretch, I approve the act beforehand. All saw-mills and factories dispose of effectually, and useful laborers, excusedby reason of their skill as manufacturers from conscription, are as much prisoners as if armed." "If you entertain a bare suspicion against any family, send it to the North. Any loafer or suspicious person seen at any time should be imprisoned and sent off. If guerillas trouble the road or wires they should be shot without mercy." September 8. To General Webster, after the capture of Atlanta: "Don't let any citizens come to Atlanta; not one. I won't allow trade or manufactures of any kind, but will remove all the present population, and make Atlanta a pure military town." To General Halleck he writes, "I am not willing to have Atlanta encumbered by the families of our enemies." Of this wholesale depopulation, General Hood complained, by flag of truce, as cruel and contrary to the usages of civilized nations, and customs of war, receiving this courteous and gentlemanly reply (September 12)--"I think I understand the laws of civilized nations and the 'customs of war'; but if at a loss at any time, I know where to seek for information to refresh my memory." General Hood made the correspondence, or part of it, public, on which fact General Sherman remarks to General Halleck, "Of course he is welcome, for the more he arouses the indignation of the Southern masses the bigger will be the pill of bitterness they will have to swallow." On October 20th he writes to General Thomas from Summerville, giving an idea of his plan of operations: "Out of the forces now here and at Atlanta I propose to organize an efficient army of 60,000 to 65,000 men, with which I propose to destroy Macon, Augusta, and, it may be, Savannah and Charleston. By this I propose to demonstrate the vulnerability of the South, and make its inhabitants feel that war and individual ruin are synonymous terms." Dispatch of October 22d to General Grant: "I am now perfecting arrangements to put into Tennessee a force able to hold the line of the Tennessee, while I break up the railroad in front of Dalton, including the city of Atlafrom conscription, are as much prisoners as if armed.&aCentury Gothic">memory." General Hood made the correspondence, or part of it, public, on which fact General Sherman remarks to General Halleck, "Of course he is welcome, for the more he arouses the indignation of the Southern masses the bigger will be the pill of bitterness they will have to swallow." On October 20th he writes to General Thomas from Summerville, giving an idea of his plan of operations: "Out of the forces now here and at Atlanta I propose to organize an efficient army of 60,000 to 65,000 men, with which I propose to destroy Macon, Augusta, and, it may be, Savannah and Charleston. By this I propose to demonstrate the vulnerability of the South, and make its inhabitants feel that war and individual ruin are synonymous terms." Dispatch of October 22d to General Grant: "I am now perfecting arrangements to put into Tennessee a force able to hold the line of the Tennessee, while I break up the railroad in front of Dalton, including the city of Atlafrom conscription, are as much prisoners as if armed." "If you entertain a bare suspicion against any family, send it to the North. Any loafer or suspicious person seen at any time should be imprisoned and sent off. If guerillas trouble the road or wires they should be shot without mercy." September 8. To General Webster, after the capture of Atlanta: "Don't let any citizens come to Atlanta; not one. I won't allow trade or manufactures of any kind, but will remove all the present population, and make Atlanta a pure military town." To General Halleck he writes, "I am not willing to have Atlanta encumbered by the families of our enemies." Of this wholesale depopulation, General Hood complained, by flag of truce, as cruel and contrary to the usages of civilized nations, and customs of war, receiving this courteous and gentlemanly reply (September 12)--"I think I understand the laws of civilized nations and the 'customs of war'; but if at a loss at any time, I know where to seek for information to refresh my memory." General Hood made the correspondence, or part of it, public, on which fact General Sherman remarks to General Halleck, "Of course he is welcome, for the more he arouses the indignation of the Southern masses the bigger will be the pill of bitterness they will have to swallow." On October 20th he writes to General Thomas from Summerville, giving an idea of his plan of operations: "Out of the forces now here and at Atlanta I propose to organize an efficient army of 60,000 to 65,000 men, with which I propose to destroy Macon, Augusta, and, it may be, Savannah and Charleston. By this I propose to demonstrate the vulnerability of the South, and make its inhabitants feel that war and individual ruin are synonymous terms." Dispatch of October 22d to General Grant: "I am now perfecting arrangements to put into Tennessee a force able to hold the line of the Tennessee, while I break up the railroad in front of Dalton, including the city of Atlanta, and push into Georgia and break up all its railroads and depots, capture its horses and negroes, make desolation everywhere; destroy the factories at Macon, Milledgeville and Augusta, and bring up with 60,000 men on the sea-shore about Savannah or Charleston." To General Thomas, from Kingston, November 11: "Last night we burned Rome, and in two more days will burn Atlanta" (which he was then occupying). December 5th: "Blair can burn the bridges and culverts, and burn enough barns to mark the progress of his head of column." December 18th. To General Grant, from near Savannah: "With Savannah in our possession, at some future time, if not now, we can punish South Carolina as she deserves, and as thousands of people in Georgia hope we will do. I do sincerely believe that the whole United States, North and South, would rejoice to have this army turned loose on South Carolina, to devastate that State in the manner we have done in Georgia." A little before this he announces to Secretary Stanton that he knows what the people of the South are fighting for. What do our readers suppose? To ravage the North with sword and fire, and crush them under their heels? Surely it must be some such delusion that inspires this ferocity of hatred, unmitigated by even a word of compassion. He may speak for himself: "Jeff. Davis has succeeded perfectly in inspiring his people with the truth that liberty and government are worth fighting for." This was their unpardonable crime.

[thea_447]

December 22d, to General Grant. "If you can hold Lee, I could go on and smash South Carolina all to pieces." General Sherman charged the arson in Columbia to General Hampton-- not because he believed him to be guilty, but to shake confidence in him. Even our Northern brethren, or some of them, will reluctantly admit that a commanding general who will boast that he accused an opponent of a crime of which he knew him to be innocent is capable, at this late day, of lying squarely to gratify his spite and save himself from blame. to General Kilpatrick: "Let the whole people know the war is now against them, because their armies flee before us and do not defend their country or frontier as they should. It is pretty nonsense for Wheeler and Beauregard and such vain heroes to talk of our warring against women and children. But wherever Sherman's army went, in South Carolina, they burned, ravaged and destroyed. This was so in Blackville, Lexington, Winnsboro' and other places. When Confederate soldiers were absent, Sherman's army touched nothing that it did not destroy. Our reliance here is not on Southern testimony, though it were easy to find hundreds of our people who saw, and who suffered by, the work of devastation. There was not a town or village in the State which Sherman reached where the gaunt chimneys, rising from smoking ruins, did not stand as monuments of the victories of his legions over sad-eyed women and wailing children. Colonel Conyngham, United States Army, in his "History of Sherman's Great March," says: "There can be no doubt of the assertion that the feeling among the troops was one of extreme bitterness towards the people of South Carolina. It was freely expressed as the column hurried over the bridge at Sister's Ferry, eager to commence the punishment of the original Secessionists. Threatening words were heard from soldiers who prided themselves on conservatism in house burning while in Georgia, and officers openly confessed their fears that the coming campaign would be a wicked one. Just or unjust as this feeling was toward the country people in South Carolina, it was universal. I first saw its fruits at Purisburg, where two or three piles of blackened bricks and an acre or so of dying embers marked the site of an old revolutionary town; and this before the column had fairly got its hand in." Again: "The ruined homesteads of the Palmetto State will long be remembered. The army might safely march the darkest night, the crackling pine woods shooting up their columns of flame, and the burning houses along the way would light it on. * * * As for the wholesale burnings, pillage, devastation committed in South Carolina, magnify all I have said of Georgia some fifty-fold, and then throw in an occasional murder, 'just to bring an old hard-fisted cuss to his senses,' and you have a pretty good idea of the whole thing. Besides compelling the enemy to evacuate Charleston, WE destroyed Columbia, Orangeburg, and several other places, also over fifty miles of railroad, and thousands of bales of cotton." Major Nichols, of General Sherman's staff, in his History, under date of January 30, 1865, says: "The actual invasion of South Carolina has begun. The well-known sight of columns of black smoke meets our gaze again. This time, houses are burning, and South Carolina has commenced to pay an installment, long overdue, on her debt to justice and humanity. With the help of God, we will have principal and interest before we leave her borders." This is Federal testimony. And why should not officers and men have acted in the way described? General Sherman was in supreme command. Had they aught to fear from him? They came into South Carolina with the determination to make an example of the Palmetto State.

[johan_steele]

The biggest problem w/ the supposed Myer letter is that it fails to ring true on so many levels as to be comical. First and foremost is the lack of a Lt Myers w/ Sherman. On the tread where I called the letter the poor forgery that it was/is I listed a link for anyone interested to try and find the Lt... Union records are for the most part quite complete.

I noted the link, and if my reply had been read I would think it fairly obvious I noted the link. I gave the site the historical weight it was worth. It is shrill hate filled propoganda and poorly concocted propoganda at that.

I bid you a good day.

[thea_447]

Partial Diary of Union Soldier: Cornelius C.Platter 1864-1865

(Portions of this diary have been changed to the color RED for emphasis by me.)

Rome Ga Nov 10th 1864 [View Civil War timeline for this date]During the last two weeks we have been expecting "marching orders". More than a week since we rec'd [received] orders to prepare for a "long arduous & successful campaign". Many different opinions have been expressed as to our probable destination - Some think we will make direct for Charleston S.C. others that we will visit Mobile - but the most general belief is that Savannah will be the objective point - Nothing definite however is known concerning the coming movement - Received orders this evening to move at six o'clock tomorrow morning - All tents and other government property which we can not take with us to be left standing undisturbed - The 52d [unclear: Ills. [Illinois] ] is to be left behind to destroy everything and bring up the rear. The Division wagon train moved out this evening on the Kingston road accompanied by the 3rd Brigade - they will go about six mile. Quarters and buildings in town were burning [deleted: on] all afternoon - Large fire in town tonight. All is the work of rowdy soldiers. Had Dress Parade this morning. Made one mistake - Read an order consolidating "B" and "D" C & II during the coming campaign. No mail nor trains today - We packed up this evening and will be ready.



Friday Nov 11th 1864. [View Civil War timeline for this date]Up this morning at an early hour and commenced loading up the things - After Breakfast I discovered that my pocket [added book] containing $175. was either lost or stolen - I looked in every nook & corner for it - but could not find it. Left at six o clock. 81st bringing up the rear of the Brigade - We left all our tents standing and many things which we could not bring away with us - they were all destroyed by fire by the 52d [unclear: Ills. [Illinois] ] which brought up the rear of the Division. The Railroad Depots Foundry and every thing of value to the enemy in Rome was destroyed. All the way from Rome to Kingston the road was lined with "contrabands" of all ages sizes and sexes - It was indeed a novel sight to see these people fleeing from Slavery. Every one was loaded - some with bundles of clothes and bedding larger than themselves. We passed through a country which showed plainly the ravages of war. We reached Kingston at 3 P.M., the town was full of soldiers waiting to see a Rebel Captain hung who had murdered several soldiers of the 33d [unclear: O.V.s [Ohio Volunteers] ] - they were found in the woods hung up by the heels with their throats cut. We marched past Genl [General] Shermans Head Quarters at "Shoulder Arms" with band playing and Colors flying. Presented a fine appearance. Went into camp about Sundown 4 mile South of Kingston on the R.R. A beautiful day. fine weather for marching. Made out a report of "effective strength". Wrote a short letter to Father and sent it North by Mr [unclear: Alehurst (Sutler)] - Orders to march at 3.45 tomorrow morning.



Saturday Nov 12th 1864 [View Civil War timeline for this date]Up at 2 A.M. had breakfast at 3 AM were under way at the appointed time our Brigade having the advance. Reached Cassville by daylight. The place was burned by our troops last Summer and presented nothing but a mass of ruins. Only two houses are standing and they are churches. Reached Cartersville at 10 AM where we halted several hours. Everything at Cartersville has been destroyed today Quite a number of wagons were burned and enough medical supplies to last a Division 3 months. Some of the brave heroes who fell at Allatoona were buried here. Col [Colonel] Bedfield Capt [Captain] Agors & c. [et cetera] We passed through the famous "Allatoona pass" this afternoon. - If Sherman had attempted to reach Atlanta through this "pass" he certainly would have been defeated. Reached Allatoona at 3 P.M. Passed over the battle ground of Oct 4th and 5th which still presents many evident signs of a hard fought battle. Everything along the [unclear: road] gave us evident proof that Sherman intends to evacuate the R.R. from Atlanta North to Resaca or Dalton - Twelve long trains heavily loaded went north today and none South.(Writer's underlining of word "none", not mine) We crossed the Etowa River at noon. Went into Camp at 4 P.M. 2 mile South of Allatoona. We had a Sumptuous supper coffee "& Hard tack" - Roads are in splendid condition and trains keep well "closed up" -

http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/hargrett/platter/001.php

_______________________________

Please note the "twelve long trains heavily loaded went north today and NONE south. It has been said before on these boards that nothing of value was taken north by Sherman's men. I have expressed the thought that it either went by train or by wagons. Here we have a dozen heavily loaded TRAINS heading north, and nothing going South.