The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1864-09-22
GENERAL HOOD INDIGNANT.


The Rebel General Hood cries out with ndg-
nation at the order of General Sherman sending
away the few remaining inhabitants from Atlanta.
He says it "transcendS in studied and ingenious
cruelty all acts ever before brought to my atten-
tion in the dark history Of war"
Hood having been whipped and out-generaled,
4 now assumes the role of martyr. Like P arson
/ Nasty, "pastor IN said church in charge" he un-
derstands the importance of the "martyr." Tho
jpretense is ingenious; the occasion Is favorable
lit will powerfully appeal to the sympathios of
Northern Copperheads against the barbarism Of
Lincoln and his "butcher" generals; it will help
the election.
To those who are familiar with the conduct Of
The Rebel generals aud their army during the late
campaign IN Georgia, the yirtuously Indignant
attitude of Hood il ludicrous. Not Atlanta only,
but every village, town, and ham miCt nearly
every house from Rlnggold to Atlanta-was
swept clean OF its inhabitants during the running
fight into GeOrgil, by compulsory orders of the
Rebel generals. No entreaties, no arguments suf-
feed for those who wished to remain by their
homes. They were denounced as Lincolnites and
traitors if they dared to hint that they preferred
I their homes, aud the risks of the Yankees ad-
vent, to following the rtunes of the retreating
Rebel army. If they persisted. their farms,
houses, and barns were always stripped, making
1 it impossible for them 10 live. The universal
preteNt for the outrage was IF we don't take
your stock, your bacon, your corn, the Yankees
will get IT," Not an able bodied white man or
negro was left behind, from BuZZard's RoOst to
the Chat hoOchee.
For weeks before General Sherman reached
Kenesaw, and captured Marietta the whole Of
Middle Geol gia was densely populated by "refu-
gees" from tOSns along the route pursued by the
two armies Re aca, Calhoun, Adairsville, Rowe,
RareIville, Kings on, Casvile, Dallas, Alatoona,
nd finally Marietta and Atlanta were swept as
th broom. Old men and women, invalids
i cripples, were ab jut the only human beings
~ behind, and these, in nearly every instance,
nd to be supplied with food by the army COM
missaries TO keep them from starvation. IL was
part Of their policy TO cripple the Union army
by leaving this class to be fed out of its COM
missaTiat.
Scores of people who concealed themselves to
escape being OrlVen from their homes state that
first persecution, then threats, aud finally force
was used TO compel them to fall back. This of
course, obliged each family to carry with them
most or all their prOvisons-thus accomplishing
several objecIs OF great Importance TO the Rebel
leaders-keepirg the people from holding any
intercourse with the ''Eauks," and depriving our
forces of any food, aid, comfort from resident
population. They found all towns all farm
houses along the route swept and garnished by
the Rebels BET re they arrived. Thousands of
people would have remained at their homes if
they had been permitted to do so by the Rebel
generals in JohnstOn's army.
The same wholesale expulsion of the people
and negroes was carried out in Atlanta. Nothing
but the sudden and unexpected evacuation of the
place by Hood accounts for the larger number of
families found here than at Marietta and other
places. But they are chiefly the families of men
who are in the Rebel army, or who, from fear OF
compulsion, have gone South.
4 1t would no OOubt p case General Hood if
General Sherman would now consent TO feed this
deserted and dep -ndent crowd, and permi, them
TO remain where, as 10 hundreds of cases hereto
tore, they could be made useful to him in giving
information of our army movements. General
Sherman understands this aud acts accordingly.