The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1898-04-22

Would let him. he burned Alianta. ne
urned Columbia, he made a wide
swathe of destruction all through Geor-
gia, twenty miles wide. hardly leaving
a residence, marking his vandal march
with burned houses, the chimneys
alone standing as solitary sentinels.
(See General Bradley Johnson's work
on General 10 Johnston) and see in
Draper "a northern book his order
creating a corps of thieves and plum
derers and rapists and murderous now
called "bummers." Now for some
extracts Ropes gives in his book:
To General Grant he telegraphed on
October 9, 1864:
Until we can repopulate Georgia. it
is useless to occupy it: but the utter
destruction of its roads. houses and
people will cripple their military re-
sources. = . " I al make the march,
and make Georgia howl"
To General Schoield, he telegraphed
on October II:
Il will make the interior of Georgia
feel the weight of the war"
To General Beckwith on October 49,:
II propose to abandon Atlanta and
the railroad back to Chattanooga, and
sally forth to ruin Georgia and bring
up on the s~eashOre."
To General Hardee. the confederate
commander at Savannah. he wrote:
Should 1 be forced to resort 10 as
sault, and the slower and surer pro-
cess of starvation, / shall then feel
justified in resorting to the harshest
roQa C11rQC and Chal1 make LITTLE affnrf
to restrain my army-burning to
avenge a national wrong they attach
to Savannah and other large cities,
which have been so prominent in drag
ging our country into civil war"
To General Grant on December is,
he wrote:
with Savannah in our possession at
some future time, if not now, we can
punish South Carolina as she deserves,
n as thousands Of people in Georgia
hoped we would do. I do sincerely be-
lieve that the whole United States,
north and south, would rejoice to have
this army turned loose on South Caro-
lima to devastate that state, in the
manner we have done in Georgia, and
it would have a direct and immediate
J bearing on your campaign in Virginia"
There are other sweet morsels Of the
same poisoned kind, but the above will
answer. A more constituencies villain,
a more brutal devil was never turned
loose upon a civilized people than this
modern Vandal of the north, who has
been canonized and put in the Pan
theon of northern gods. When did
any northern soldier, or newspaper, or
high official, or pulpit ever d%enounce
the ruin wrought, the Internal deeds
performed of the moral monster? Gen.
Sherman's own estimate is that he de-
stroyed 800, 900, 900 of properly in Geor-
gia and $40, 900, 900 of this "enured to
our own advantage the thief and de-
stroyer complacently adds. The south
ern man who can read of this devilish
work and then put trust in the blow
ing of Mckinley and Company of the
high humanities is not of our sort. Let
the s~ensationalists do their own fight
ing in their own way. The Charleston
News and Courier says:
"Mr. Roper says, and it is worth es-
pecial emphasis here, that Sherman's
hold on his army was perfect; there
was nothing that the men would not dc
at his bidding He destroyed 500, 900,
900 worth of property in Georgia; he
left a track of desolation in South Car
DINA; he made old and young, rich
and pOOr, feel the hard hand of war;
he turned his army loose on South Car
DINA to ~devastate that state, in the
manner we nave lone in Georgia." he
trembled for the fate of South Caro-
lima, but felt that she deserved all he
had in store for her. In saying tina
Weyler'S methods in Cuba were not
more criminal than Sherman's methods
on his march to the sea- The Evening
Post stated a horrible fact in the sim
plicity of truth.
"The comparison of Weyler to Sheri-
dan in the Shenandoah Valley was tC
the prejudice of Weyler. The story OF
Sheridan's brutality is written in the
official reports. What he did not re.
quire for he supply of his army was
simply waste and destruction'-and Sc
Thoroughly was his work done that ever
the crows a to carry their rations
with them in flying over the desolateC
region"