M'arthur Democrat. (McArthur, Vinton County, Ohio) 1853-1865, 1865-03-09
A Letter from General sherman.
The following letter from Genera
Shermansshas just been published:

ohermans has just been published:
H'D-QR' NIL DIV. OF THE Mss, IN rH2l
FIELD, near Marietta, Ga, Jupe 80, 1854.
Mrs. Anna Gilman Bowen, Baltimore, NIL:
DEAR MADAM Your welcome let
ter OF june 18th came to me here
amid the sound Of battle, and as YOU
say, little did dream when knew
you playing as a schoolgirl ON Sulli.
vans Island beach, that 1 shonld con
troll a vast army, pointing, like u'e
swarm Of Alarac, toward the plains
Of the South. Why,Soh, why is thisi
Ill know my own heart, it beats az
warmly as ever towards those kind
and generous families that greeted
US with such warm hospitality in
days long past but still present in
memory, and to day, were Frank and
Mrs. Porcher, and Ellen Gilman aud
Mary Lamb, aud Margaret Blake.
the Barksdales, the Quashis, the
Pryors, indeed any and all ol our
cherished circle, their children, or
childreu's children, to come 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 childi9n that they
might be sheltered; and yet they call
me barbarian, Vandal, and monster,
and all the epithets that language
can invent that are significant of ma.
hgnity and hate. All pretend to
say, on earth as in heaven, man must
submit to some arbiter. He must
not throw off his allegiance to his
Government or his God without Just
reason aud cause. The South had
no cause-not even pretext.
Indeed by her unjustiHable course,
she has thrown away the proud his
tory Of the past, and lail open her
fair country to the tread OF devasta.
ting war. She bantered and 5ullied
ns to the conflict. Had we declined
battle, America would havo SINK
back, coward and craven, meriting
the contempt Of all mankind. As a
nation we were forced to accept bat
tic, and that once begun, it has gone
on till the war has assumed proper
tionsj Of which even we, in the hurry
burly sometimes stand aghast. l
would not su5jugate the South in the
sense So of5nsively assumed, but |
would make every tizen in the land
obey the common law, submit to tle
same that We do-no worse, no bet.
ter our equals and not our superi
ors. | know and you know that there
we're young men in our day, now no
longer young, but who control their
fellows, who assumed to the gentle
men Of the south q superiority of
courage and manhood, and boastingly
defed US Of Northern birth to arms.
God knows how reluctantly we ac-
cepted the issue. but once the issue
Joined, like in other ages, the Nor
tlern race, though slow to anger,
once aroused, are more terrible than
the more inaammable of the South.
Even yet my heart bleeds when |
see the carnage Of battle, the desola.
ton of homes, the bitter anguish of
families, but the very moment 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
experience Of history, then will | say
Peace Peace 60 back to your point
of error, and resume places as A
merican citizens, with all their proud
heritages. Whether shall live to
see this period is problematical, but
you may, and may tell your mother
and sisters that never forgot one
kind look or greeting, or ever wished
tc efface it's remembrance; but in
putting on the armor OF war did it
that our common country should not
perish in intamy and dishonor. |
am married, have a wife and six chill.
dren living in Lancaster, Ohio. My
course has been all eventful one, but
! | hope when the clouds Of anger and
passion are dispersed and truth emer.
ges bright and clear, you aud all who
knew me in early years will not blush
that we were once Gear friends. Tell
Eliza for me that hope she may live
to realize that the doctrine of "seces.
sion" is as monstrous in our civil
code as disobedience was in the Di-
vine law. And should the fortunes
of war bring you or your sisters OF
any Of our old clique under the shell
ter OF my authority, lido not believe
they will have cause to regret it,
Give my love to your children, and
the assurance of my respects to YOU
Ihonored husband. H..'5
Truly, W, I. SHERMAN.
Among all my boys" said an ole