The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1877-03-01
GEN. EWTNa,s oRpER.
Letter from Major General schoaeld.
WEST POINT, n. Y,
January o. 1877

NY DGuT uettf uG.-1 iNtll NY oSli
of the first opportunity that has pre-
scented itself to reply in detail to
your letter of the 30th of December
last.
1t was in May 1868, that the ON
mand of the Department of the Mis-
souri, devolved upon me, and you
were soon after assigned to COM
mand the District which embraced
the border of Missouri and Kansas.
The guerrilla warfare which had been
waged in that district with only tenn
porary intermissions, for two years,
had finally degenerated, as all such
contests are liable to do, into revolt
ing barbarism. Civilization and hu
manity demanded it's prompt sup
preston, whatever might be the
means necessary to that end.
A large majority of the people had
already been driven from their homes
or had voluntarily left them. None
remained beyond the immediate pro-
lection of the military posts, except
such as were, whether voluntarily or
not, useful to the guerrilIas. Those
who remained were simply purveyors
for those border warriors furnishing
them the provisions, forage and tenn
porary shelter necessary for their
operations.
There were two, and only two,
possible ways by which this border
war could he stopped. The one was
to permanently station in that region
troops enough to protect all the peo-
pie, drive out the guerrillas and pre-
vent their return. The other was
to remove the source from which the
guerrillas obtained their supplies.
The latter vas proposed by you and
at once admitted by me as a measure
absolutely necessary to be adopted if
the former vas impracticable, but l
preferred the former and hence hest
tated to adopt the latter. But I had
the States of Missouri, Arkansas,
Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado and the
Indian Territory--over 100000
square miles of disturbed territory
Ito take care of, and operations a
gainst the Confederate army in Ar
kansas to be prosecuted. It was
difficult to spare even a small force
to guard the border of Kansas and
Missouri. There had already come q
demand upon me from Washington
to send all possible reinforeements
to Gen. Grant who was beseiging
V~icksburg. To this all minor con-
siderations had to yield. The pre-.
servation of q few farms with their
crops in Western Missouri or any.
where else could not be considered
for a moment in comparison with the
success of Grants army in opening
the Mississippi to the Gulf. Ot
course I sent to Gen. Grant all the
troops I had in reserve and had a
that time none left to reinforce yor
on the border of Kansas.
Soon after, the guerrilla operations
eliminated in the fiendish massaer,
of defenseless people st Lawrence
!, There was no longer any question
! what must be done and you prompt
ly issued the order which had befor
been contemplated and discussed
A few days thereafter, l visited yo1
at Kansas City and went to Indepen
dence. I spent several days in in
vestigating the subject and in con
versing with the people who had lef
their homes in obediance to your OF
der. There was left no room 70
: doubt of the necessity of the mea
= sure that had been adopted. Hence
after q comparative unimportan
modification, 1 approved of your o.
der and thus assumed the whole, @
: at least NY full share Of the respor
sibility for it.
Upon returning to st. Louis 1 mad
= a full report of the matter to Pres
dent Lincoln explaining the necess
ty of what had been done and assun
e ing the responsibility thereto
Neither that humane President nc
any other officer of the Governmer
ever uttered one word of dissent q
= to the wisdom, justice or humanit
of that policy. And 1 now repes
that the responsibility for that polio
I was fairly shared with you by til
President and by me in proportio
to our respective rank and author
t..
You understand that have no d,
:, sire in this to throw any resposibil
n ty on President Lincoln nor to defen
n myself. 1 have V regarded TIL
e act as one requiring e~xculpatio'
# On the contrary, it vas an act
wisdom, courage and humanity, /
y which the lives of hundreds of inn,
cent people were saved and a di
graceful conflict brought to q sur
d mary close. Not a life was sacrifice
n nor any great discomfort inflicted
: carrying out the order. The necess
ties of all the poor people were pr
vided for and none were permitted
70 suffer.
A few u%nthinking people have I
doubt supposed that order was an a
Ie liberalization for the massacre at La
er renee. Nothing could be more absur
/ The farmers of western Nilsson
were not regarded in any. wise 1
J sponsible for Quantrell's ACT
y Whether they were willing or n
r made no difference. If they raisI
IS crops his men would live upon the
as did also II troops when they h!
occasion. A large proportion
u those citizens who were in good Ct
is cumstances had voluntarily ceas,
h this Improbable purveying and h
of gone elsewhere. 1t was simply
:. act of dispassionate wisdom and Ii
' mainly to stop it altogether. Toe;
y your order an act Of inhumanity
s. of retaliation upon the people of M
souri, is like accusing the Russii
Commander of similar crimes agair
Id the people Of Moscow when he ord
ed the destruction of that city to pl