The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1901-10-27

g&1nsS escaped the ireErand, except yG
some strange interposit ion. War may IL
cense an army to subsist on the enemy,
S=ibut civilized warfare stops at live stock
forage and provisions. It does not enter
+ the houses Of the sick and helpless, and
rob women Of their, finger rings and car
ryssoff their clothing
He then tells of the deliberate burning
Of Atlanta by Sherman s order: of the
driving out from the city.of its whole
population. of all ages, sexes and condi-
tons in the fields OF a desolated country
Z to starve and die, as far as he knew or
cared. You have only to read these re-
ctals and you have the picture which
Sherman made and which he truly de-
nominated Hall.
The correspondence between Mayor
Calhoun and two Councilmen of Atlanta,
representing to General Sherman the
frightful suffering that would be visited
on the people of that city by the eXecu-
K ton OF his inhunlan order, and General
Sherman's reply, can be found in the
second volume of Sherman's Memoirs at
pages 124-5; we can only extract one or
two para graphs from each. The letter
of the former says, among other things:
MANY poor women are in advanced
state OF pregnancy. others now having
young children. and whose husbands. Tor
the greater part, are either in the army,
prisoners or dead. Some say l have
such a one sick at my house, VINO Will
wait on them when l aln gone: Others
say what are we to do! we nave no
house to go to, and no means TO buy.
build or rent any, no parents, relatives
or friends to go to-
This being SO. they say how is it
possible for the people still here tmossly
women and childrenl to find any shell
Ter? And how can they live through the
winter in the woods-no shelter Or sub
sistence, and without the power to as
sst them much if they were willing to do
sou
"J'his, they say, is but q feeble picture
OF the consequences Of this measure. You
know the woe, the horrors ana the suf-
fering cannot be described by words:
Imagination can only conceive 1t, and we
ask you to take these things into consid
era ton
BRUTAL REPLI.
TO this pathetic appeal, Sherman cooly
replied on the next day, his letter COM
ncncing, as follows:
81 have your letter of the 18th, in the
nature of petition to revoke my or
ders removing all the inhabitants from
Atlanta. l have read it carefully, and
give full credit to your statements Of the
distress that will be occasioned, ana yet
| shall not revoke my orders. because
they were not designed to meet the hui
manities of the case but to prepare for
the future struggles in which millions of
good people outside of Atlanta have a
deep interest" etc.
After he had started on his "narch to
the sea" he gives an account of how the
foragng details were made and carried
orr a,1,f hide hI-c inp
Although this forasing was attended
with great danger and hard work, there
seemed to be a charm about it that 1T
tracted the soldiers, and it was q priv
lege to be detailed on such a party
Lastly he says, they returned
mounted on all sorts of beasts. which
were at once taken from them ana ap-
propriateG to the general use; but the
next day they would start out again on
foot. only to repeat the experience of
the dav before. No doubt he further
says, ''many acts OF, pillage, robbery and
violence were committed by these parties
o. foragers, usually called 'bummers.'
for 1 have since heard of jewelry taken
from women, and the Dlunder of art-
ces that never reached the commissary,'
etc. y
fSee . Mem, page 1922
He not only does not say that he tried
to prevent this army from committing
these Outragcs, but says on page 235. in
referring to his march through South
Carolina:
would not restrain the army. lest
its vigor and energy. should be impaircd."
He tells on page $50 how. when he
reached General Howell Cobb's planta-
ton. he sent word back to General Da-
Wis to explain whose plantation it was
and instructed him to spare nothing
To show what a heartIess wretch he
was, he tells. on page 1884, about one Of
his officers having been wounded by the
explosion of a, torpedo that had been hid
den in the line OF march. and on which
this officer had stopped. He says:
II Immediately ordered q lot of rebel
prisoners TO be brought from the provost
guard, armed with picks and spades and
made them march in close order along
the road SO as to explode their own tor
pedoes or to discover and dig them up.
They begged hard but l reiterated the
order, and could hardly help laughing al
their stepping SO gngerly along the road,
where it was supposed s.,n!sen torpedoes
might explode at each step
y CONFESSED VANDAL.
It may be fairly inferred from General
Shcrman's middle name CTecumseh) that
some of his ancestors were Indians; but
whether this be true or not no one can
read this statement Of his without being
CCHNIiCeu tiidl he WAS IL savage. But he
was not only Z confessed savage, as we
have seen, but Il confessed vandaI as
well. lie says, on page :56, in telling of
q night he spent in one of the splendid
old houses of South Carolina, where, as
he says, the Ioroprietors formerly h.
dispensed a hospitality that distinguished
the old regime Of that proud State l
slept" he says. ION the floor of the
house. but the night was SO bitter cold
that l got up by the fire several times,
and when it burned low, l rekindied it
with an old mantel clock and the wreck
of 4 beGstead which stood in the corner
of the rOOm-the only act OF. vandalism
that l recall done by myself personally
during the war. Since the admissions
of Il criminal are always taken
as conclusive proof OF his crime,
we now know from his own lips that
General Sherman was a vandal
But We also find. on page 2S7. that he
confessed having told a faisehood on
General Hampton, SO that We cannnat
credit his statement, that the foregoing
was his only act of vandalism. Indeed.
we think we have most satisfactory evi-
dence to the contrary. ct will be noted
however, that Sherman makes a distinc-
tioE between his personal acts of vandal-
ism and those he committed through 9th
ers.) y part OF this evidence is to be
found in the following letter from a
Tho.,>ac FJy.,-s -