Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1891-02-19
ONE OF GEN. SHERMAN'S LETTERS
Showing Some Side Lights of
the Late War.

Pecunlary Greed and Political Expe-
diency DO Much Toward Shaping
Active observation-disclosures Wanted
to Confscate the Southern Plantations
ard Colombo Them with Northerners
CLEVELAND, o., Feb. 16.-Ex- United
States Commissioner A. j. Williams, a
member of the Loyal Legion, yesterday,
gave ont for publication letter written
by General Sherman to his brother,
Senator John Sherman, in 1862, while
the former was at Memphis. II is
interesting at this time and is as follows
MEMPHIS, Tenn, Aug. 10. 1s62.-Ny Dear
Brother; | have not written to YOU for so
long that | suppose you think | have
dropped the correspondence. For six
weeks | was marching along the road from
Corinth to Memphis mending roads, build
ing bridges, and all sorts Of work,
At last ! got here and found the city
contributing gold, arms, powder, salt and
everything the enemy wanted. 1t was
smart trick on their part thus to give up
Memphis, that the desire of gain to DIR
northern merchants should supply them
with the things needed in war. | stopped
this at once, and declared gold, silver,
treasury notes and salt, as much contra
band of war as powder. ] have one man
under sentence of death for smuggling
arms across the lines and hope Mr..
Lincoln will approve it, But the mer-
cenary spirit of our people is too much
and my orders are reversed and | am
ordered to encourage the trade in cotton
and all orders prohibiting gold, silver and
notes to be paid for it are annulled by
orders from Washington. Grant promptly
ratified my order, and all military men
here say at once that gold spent for cotton
went to the purchase of arms and muni-
tions of war. But what are the lives of our
soldiers to the profits of the merchants?
After whole year Of bungling the coun-
try has at last discovered that we want
more men. All knew il last fail as well as
now; but it was not popular. Now l3000,-
600 the general evidently intended only
100000 men as required when 100000
was deemed absurd before. It will
take time to work Zip these recruits
and they will reach us in Octo-
her when we should be in Jackson,
Meridian and Vicksburg. Still | must not
| growl. | have purposely put back and
| have no right to critcse save that | am
| glad the papers have at last found out we
are at war and have a formidable enemy
| to combat.
Of course approve the confiscation act
and would be willing to reyolutionize the
government so as to amend that article of
the constitution which forbids the forfeit
ure of land to the heirs, my full belief is
we must colonize the country de
novo beginning with Kentucky and
Tennessee and should remove 4,OOO,OOO
of our people at once south Of the
Ohio river taking the farms and planta-
tions of the rebels. i deplore the war as
much as ever, but if the thing has to be
done, let the means be adequate. Don't
expect to over-run such a country or sub
due such people in one two or five
years. 1t is the task Of half a
century although our army is thus far
| al, utt ig1tI ID
Our men are killed or captured within
sight of our lines. | have two divisions
here-mine and Hurlhut's about 1900
men; am building a strong fort, and think
this is to be one of the depots and bases of
operations for future movements.
The loss of Halleck is almost fatal We
have no one to replace him. Instead Of
having one head We have five or six all in
dependent of each other. | expect our
enemies will mass their troops and fall
upon our entertainments before new
reinforcements come. | cannot learn
that there are any large bodies OF
men near us here. There are attachments
ent terminal of the railroads from the
south, and all the people of the country are
armed as guerrillas.
Curtis is at Helena, 80 miles south, and
Grant at Cornith, Bragg's army from
Tripoli has moved to Chattanooga
and proposes the march on Nash
Vile, Lexington and Cincinnati
They will have about 10000
men; Bnell is near Huntsville with about
10000 and suppose detachments of the
new levies can be put in Kentucky
from Ohio and Indiana in time. The
weather is very hot and Bragg cant
move his forces very fast; but fear he
will give trouble. Ny own opinion is, we
ought not to venture too much into the
interior until the river is safely in our pos
session, when we could land at any point
and strike inland. To attempt to hold all
the south would demand an army toe
large even to think Of. We must COLOMBO
and settle as we go south for in Missouri
there is as much strife as ever. Enemies
must be killed or transported to some
other country. Your afIectionate brother
w. I. SHERMAN.