The Evansville journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 1866-1870, 1866-06-16
Correspondence to the Cincinnati Gazette.
NASHVILLE, Tenn, June II.
A WORD OF PREFACE.

The following document, addressed
to the Secretary of War, has been for
warded from Georgia 10 the headquar-
ters of General Thomas. My heart
was so full after reading it, that /
could make no comment. BUTT needs
none.
Poor Union men of the South So
far the triumph of the Government
they loved, and for whose sake they
braved all social and political ostra-
cism, all dangers, all prosecutions. all
poverty and all forms of death, has but
given force to the vengeance of their
traitor enemies, and made their con-
,dition more horrible than beforel
The appeal, which follows. sounds
like the sorrowful wall of those vino,
lost to hope and pierced with a sense
of cruel ipgTatitude, utter their des-
pair before they die. Heaven, save
my country, if she disregards the ut
| terancel
4 THE DOCUMENT i,6 p
"CHERoKRE CoUNTY. GRoRGfA.p
2d saan ~ May 10th, 1866. {
$50 70 TIE IFF55s. lSeoetagg Of War.
:. I embrace this opportunity to adj
dress you few woFdsvcn the situa-
ton Of my part of the country, and to
say. to yousthat it issindeed in a ba0
condition. We Union men and Union
soldiers of Northern Georgia are left
in the worst situation of any men in
the Government. 1rgs
= Whilst myself and number of
others were in the Union service, and
others still were gone North to escape
the rebel conscriptiOn, our houses
were burnt and our property destroyed
4 or carried of byroYing and murder
ing guerrillas. dI1
Does not your honor know that
the way in which an attempt has been
i madefo settle matters in Georgia is
detrimental to the interests of the
Union men? The amnesty oath that
Provisional Governor johnson sad-
ministered to traitors and guerrillas
continues them In Office, and cOnse-
quently they have possession of all
the courts throughout the State! Be-
fore these courts we Union soldiers
and loyal men cannot get even hear
ing for the recovery of the property,
which we lost because we continued
faithful to the Government. Every
thing that belongs to US is In the
hands of guerrillas who took posses
| sion of. it while we were fighting for
our country, and now we cannot even
obtain hearing for our rights before
the rebel courts. +d
l. Now we ask you, as Secretary of
/ War, to say to Congress to remember
their friends in the South; for we
cannot live here unless our own is re-
stored to US, and we are protected In
the possession of it.
The rebels have everything their
own way, and no punishment is meted
out to them. And / ask, in the
name of heaven. if we Union men of
the South who have lost all our pro-
perty, taken from us by traitors, and
had our fathers and brothers murder
ed by our merciless enemies-if we
are to have no help and no protection,
while those who fought against the
country and did us all these wrongs,
are fully protected and restored, and
permitted still further to wrong and
ruin us? Where shall we turn for
relief, if not to that Government for
whose sake wei brought all this woe
upon our heads reae
Now, our honored friend, we pray
you to do all you can for us, Say to
Congress that we pray them to give us
a little aid | can truthfully say that
this paper expresses the wants and
wishes of all the Union men in North
ern Georgia whom I know. Myself
! and others have heen rreneafedlv
, for Justice here or elsewhere. We
know, in thus appealing to you, we
are not asking more than merest JUS
tice and commonest consistency would
| award to us.
/ In conclusion, we beg you again
to lay our case before Congress, and
! urge our forlorn situation upon them
2 IF they fail, we ask you to send a COM
mand of soldiers hither. to compel the