The National tribune., 1906-05-10
MORE SOUTHERN MYSTERIES.

lltttSsdhtty anu CHCStiNSiS oEpii '"e
chord This was that the North was al
ways grievously expressing, insulting
and abusing the South. They have kept
| their people in constant state of IN
! fammation over allegations of wrongs
| and injuries from the North. Words
| fail to express the volume of indigna-
| ton that they aroused over the North
stealing their niggers," yet the
statistics will show that the number of
fugitive slaves lost to the South did
not, up until the outbreak of the war
reach over 1,500. The total value of
| the same did not equal the number OF
horses and other stock stolen in al
most any well-settled State in the
! North. Yet it was made to appear that
/ the whole North was engaged in wick
| edly and criminally depriving every
man in the South of his valuable prop
erty. The tariff always was fruitful
theme upon which to dilate upon the
| Northerners robbing the Southerners
for their own aggrandisement, and
| bies of 1882. Next came the intoler-
able grievance of not being allowed to
| take their slaves into the Territories.
| 1t was made to appear that every man
in the South was suffering keenly be-
cause he was not allowed to take his
| slaves into Kansas and Nebraska. AS a
matter of statistics not one man in 40
| in the South owned slaves, and prob
| ably not one in thousand wanted to
take his slaves to the new countries
beyond the Mississippi. These alleged
| grievances. however, were sufficient to
bring about the war, and then the war
| furnished them with an abundance of
| others.
| Not. however. since Booker Wash
| inston took lunch with the President
/ has there been anything by which the
| Southern heart has been fired so
successfully as by a proposition by
| Father Sherman to revisit the CAM
! paigning grounds of his father attend
ed by All escort of United States
| troops.
| a number of officers We're to make a
practice march over the fields of the
Atlanta campaign attended by small
cavalry escort. Father Sherman was
! invited to accompany the party. These
practice marches for the purpose OF
studying the operations Of the war
are made every Summer by officers of
! the Army and are in every way COM
mendable The politicians of the
South saw an opportunity. from
the presence of Father Sherman, to
throw some successful fits, and they
! did so. All over the South, and par
| ticularly in Georgia, swept a storm of
protest against "the gratuitous insults
TO the Southern people" involved in
| sending the son of Cen Sherman with
an escort of United States troops over
the ground over which his fathers army
swept in the March to the Sea. There
| We're shrieks and vociferatiOns led by
United States Senators and Represent
atives as to recalling the outrages and
cruelties perpetrated upon the innocent
and defenseless people of Georgia by
| the March to the Sea. Again there
was absolutely no basis for this. The
orders to the commander at Fort Nc
Pherson, Atlanta, seem to have been
to furnish the officers and Father Sher-
man with an escort of cavalrymeu to
accompany them from Chattanooga to
| Atlanta This cid not mean the March
| to the Sea by any means, for the At
lanta campaign was over and done
months before the March to the Sea
began.
| The campaign from Chattanooga to
Atlanta was one of the greatest oper-
! ations in the history of military sci
i ence and 1t can be well studied with
1 advantage to history and to the art OF
war II cannot be too much studied
, because the highest principles of the
art of war were exemplified by the
two great Captains opposing each
other, William T. Sherman and Joseph
L. Johnston, and the magnificent arm
les under their command. The Con.
, fedcrates should be proud of that cam.
paign, of the splendid ability with
which it was conducted by Gen. John.
| ston and his subordinates and The
magnificent fighting of the Confeder'
ate forces during those momentoas 10(
: days. The more the campaign is stud
5 led the better it will appear for al
parties to it, and the object of tht
practice march was n laudable one anc
Y should have received cordial support.
As everyone knows, the March t.
D the Sea began at Atlanta in November
the campaign for the capture of tina
city having closed Sept. 1, 1864. Tha
c famous march was a very spectacula
$ thing, but its unpleasant features have
been grossly exaggerated to the South
In place of being a destructive raid i
Is doubtful IL ever a march of tina
length by an army was accomplishe'
u with as little real loss to the people
= This is cold history which all the raw
II ings of the Southern politicians an
i the people of Georgia cannot alteI
After the fall of Atlanta the Georgi
" militia was dismissed to their home
> TO gather their crops. They got ther
{ safely housed just in time for Sherma
to come along and appropriate ther
for the support of his army. Sher
mans army made pretty clean swat
d for a front of so miles through tn
g heart of the agricultural region OF Geor
n gia, and undoubtedly left little corr
w sorghum, cattle, pigs and chickens 1
II its wake. Beyond this the loss to tn
II ueople was very little. The march wa