Weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1858-1865, 1865-03-15

The following letter from Gen. Sherman We find
in the Richmond Wig:
HEADeRs MI. Div. or THE NssisslPPL)
In the Field, near Marietta, Ga,
--as.s.4s June 80, 1864 p.
Mr.. Anns Gilman Bosoen, Baltimore Nd:
Dear Madam-Your welcome letter of June 18th
came to me here amid the sound Of battle, and, IS
you say, little did dream, wher knew you play.
ing As school girl on Sullivans Island beach, that
l should control vast army, pointing, like the
swarm OF Alaric, towards the plains of the South.
why, Oh why is this? If know my own heart,
1t beats as warmly Us ever towards those kind and
generous families that greeted us with such warm
hospitality in days long passed, but still present in
memory; and to-day, were Frank and Mrs. Por-
cher, and Eliza Gilman. and Mary Lamb and Mar
garet Blake, the Barksdales, the Quashs, the Pry.
ors, indeed, any and all of Our cherished circle,
their children or even their chldrens children, to
como to me as of old the stern feelings of duty and
conviction would melt as snow before the genial
sun, and believe would strip my own children
that they might be sheltered and yet they call me
barbarian, vanda and monster and all the epithets
That language can invent that are significant OF
mahgnity and hate. All pretend to say, on earth
as IN heaven, 10 man must submit to some arbiter.
tic must not throw off his allegiance to his govern
ment or his God without just reason and cause
The South had no cause-not even pretext. In.
deed, by her unjustifable course she has thrown
away her proud history of the past, and laid open
her fair country to the tread Of devastating war
She bantered and bullied us to the conflict
Had We declined battle, America would have
sunk back, cowardhand craven, metiting the con
tempt of all mankind. As nation, We were forced
to accept battle, and that once begun, it has gone
on till the war has assumed proportions at which
even We in the hurly burly, sometimes stand
aghast would not subjugate the South in the
sense so Extensively assumed, but I would make
every citizen of the land obey the common law,
submit to the same that we do-no worse, no bet
ter-our equals and not our superiors. know,
and you know, that there were young men in our
day, now no longer young, but who control their
fellows, who assumed to the gentlemen OF the
South superiority Of courage and manhood, and
boastingly defed US of Northern birth to arms
God knows how reluctantly we accepted the issue,
but once the issue joined like in other ages, the
Northern race, though slow to anger, once aroused
are more terrible than the more infammable people
Of the South. Even yet my heart bleeds when see
the carnage of battle, the desolation of homes the
men Of the South say that instead Of appealing to
war they should have appealed to reason, to our
Congress, to our courts to religion, and to the ex.
perience Of history, then will l say Peace-Peace
60 back to your point Of error, and resume your
places as American citizens, with all their proud
heritages
Whether shall live to see this period is pro-
blematical, but you may, and may tell your mothe,
and sisters that never forgot one kind look o,
greeting, or ever wished to eface its remembrance
but in putting on the armor Of war. I did it thai
our common country should not perish in infamy
and dishonor. am u.arried-haye wife and si1
children living in Lancaster, Ohio. Ny course has
been an eventful one, but hope when the clouds
Of anger and passion are dispersed, and truth emer
ges bright and clear, you and all who knew me il
early years. will not blush that we were once dea,
friends. Tell Eliza for me that hope she maj
live to realize that the doctrine of secession il
as monstrous in our civil code as disobedienc
was in the divine law. And should the fortunes O
war ever bring you or your sisters, or any of on
old clique, under the shelter of my authority, d
not believe they will have cause to regret it Civ
my love to your children, and the assurance Of m,
respects to your honored husband.
Truly, W. T. SHERMAN.