Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1881-07-12
BEFORE TILE RAIN.
MISCELLANEOUS.
sherman,s Maroh to the Sea.
fTfon Mr.. Davis history Of the w.r.l

Prom Mr.. Davis History of the wsr.l
Since ALIAS atroeious eruelties to the nor.
eombatant population of the Low Countries.
IN the sixteenth. century, thu history of war
records no instance of such barbarous cruelty
as that which the order Of Sherman for Al
civilians to vacate Atlanta within Eve DAYS
was designed to perpetrate. It involved the
immediate expulsion from their homes and
only means of subsistence of thousands of
naofending women and children, whose hus.
bands and fathers were either in the army,
u Nertheru prisons or had died in battle.
In vain did the Mayor and corporate su>
tnerlsles OF Atlanta appeal to Sherman to re.
woke OF modify this inhuman order. repre.
santisg in piteeus language "the woe, the
horror aud the suffering, not to be described
ey Wordss which its execution would infiiot
On helpless women and infant children. His
snly reply was:
give full oredit TO your staten en.s OF the
distress that will be ocoasioned BY IL. and
jet shall not revoke my order, because nv
orders are not designed to meet the humans
ties of the case.
Al. the time appointed tho women and
children were expelled from their houses and
before they were passed within our lines
complaint was generally made that the Fed.
eral cheers and men who were sent to guard
them had robbed them of the few articles of
value they had been permitted to take
from their homes. The ceuardly dishonesty
OF ns executieners was in perfect hafmony
with the temper and spirit of the order.
Still further On Mr.. Davis speaks as fol-
3. O.: y '' '''
Hypocrisy is the tribute which vice paws
TO virtue; Therefore General Sherman has
endesvored to escape the repreaohss for the
harning of Columbia by attribntipg it to
Gen. Hampton's order to burn the cotton in
che city that it might not fall into the hands
of the enemy. Gen. Hampton has proved
Enthusiastically that Gen. Sherman's state
snent Is untrue, and, though in any esntre-
vetsy to which Gen. Hampton may be
party, no oorreborstiye evidence is necessary
to substantiate his assertion of fact coming
within his personal observation, hundreds of
uuimpeachable witnesses have testified that
the burning of Columbia was the deliberate
act of the Federal soldiery, and that il was
certainly permitted If not ordered by tie
commanding general.
Were thisthe only instance of such bar
barity perpsesated by Gen. shernau's army.
his effort 10 escape the responsibility might
be more successful, because more plausible
but when the sulegists of his exploits note
sxultingly that "Wide spreading columns of
smoke rose wherever the army went" when
it is incontrovertably true that tho line of
his msroh could be traced by the burning
dwelling houses and by the wall of women
and children pitilossly left TO die from star.
yation and exposure in the depth of winter,
his plea of "not guilty" in the case of the
city OF Columbia cannot free him from the
reprobation which outraged humanity must
attach to an act Of cruelty which only finds
parallel in the barbarous excuses Of wal
lsnstein's army in the Thirty Years. War.
and which, even at that period of the worlds
civilization, sullied the fame of that other
wise great soldier.