The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1865-03-03
A Letter from Gen. Sherman.
His Views Of the Causes OF the War
and of its Inevitable Results.
The following letter from Gen. SHERMAN
has just been. published:
HEADQUARTERS MILITARY DIVISION OF THE1

The following letter from Gen. SHERMAN
has just been published:
HEADQUARTERS MILITARY DIVISION OF THE1
MIssIssIPPl, IN THE FIELD,
NEAR MARIETTA, Ga, June 80, 1864.
Mrs. Anaa Gilman Bo,oen, Baltimore, Nd:
DEAR MADAM-Your welcome letter of June
18th came to me here amid the sound of bat
tie, and, as you say, little did dream, when
l knew you playing as school girl on Sulli-
vans Island beach, that should control
vast army, pointing, like the swarm of Alaric,
toward the plains of the South. Why, oh
why is this? I'll know my own heart, it beats
as warmly as ever toward those kind and gen.
erous 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 Eliza Gilman, and Mary Lamb,
and Margaret Blake, the Barksdales, the Qua
shis, the Pryors, indeed any and all of our
cherished circle, their children, or even their
childrens children, TO come to me as of old,
the stern feelings Of duty and conviction would
melt as snow before the genial sun, and be-
feve would strip my own children that they
might be sheltered and yet they call me bar.
barian, vandal, and monster, and all the cpl.
thets that language can invent that are signif-
cant of malignity and hate. All pretend to
say Is. that 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 and cause. The South had
no cause-not even pretext. Indeed, by her
unjusti6able course she has thrown away the
proud history of the past, and laid open her
fair country 70 the tread Of devastating war.
She bantered and bullied us to the conflict.
Had we declined battle, America would have
sunk back, coward and craven, meriting the
contempt of all mankind. As nation, we
were forced to accept battle, and that once
begun, it has gone on till the war has as
sumed proportions at which even we, in the
hurly-burly sometimes stand aghast. would
not subiu9ate the South in the sense 90 Often
sively assured, but would make every citizen
of the land obey the common law, submit to
the same that we do-no worse, no better-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 defied US of North
ern birth to arms. God knows how reluc-
family 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 in6ammable of the
South. Even yet my heart bleeds when
see the carnage of battle, the desolatiOn 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
courts, to religion, and to the experience of
history, then will say Peace-Peace; 90 back
to your point OF error, and resume your places
as American citizens, with all their proud her
itages. Whether I shall live to see this period
Is problematical, but You may, and may tell
your mother and sisters that I never forgot
one kind look or greeting or ever wished to
eface its remembrance but in putting on the
armor of war did it that our common coun-
try should not perish in infamy and dishonor.
am married, have wife and six children liv.
ing ia Lancaster, Ohio. My course has been an
eventfnl one, but hope when the clouds OF
anger and passion are dispersed and truth
energies bright and clear you and all who
knew me in early years viii not blush that we
were once dear friends Tell Eliza for me that
Ihope she may live to realize that the doctrine
of secession is as monstrOus in our civil
code as disobedierce was in the Divine law.
And should the fortunes of war ever bring you
or your sisters or any of our old clique under
the shelter of my authority, / do not believe
they will have cause to regret it. Give my love
to your children, and the assurance of my re-
spects to your honored husband
Truly, w. T. SHERMAN.