The letter below is from the Alderson, West Virginia Statesman, dated October 29, 1883. It was authenticated and republished in the Southern Historical Society Papers in March 1884. I found a copy of this very revealing letter in the book “The Confederate Cause and Conduct in the War Between the States” by George L. Christian and Hunter McGuire, published in 1907.
Camp near Camden, S.C.,
February 26, 1865
My Dear Wife:
I have no time for particulars. We have had a glorious time in this State. Unrestricted license to burn and plunder was the order of the day. The chivalry have been stripped of most of their valuables. Gold watches, silver pitchers, cups, spoons, forks, &c., are as common in camp as blackberries.
The terms of plunder are as follows: Each company is required to exhibit the results of its operations at any given place. One-fifth and first choice falls to the share of the commander-in-chief [General Sherman] and staff; one-fifth to the corps commanders and staff; one-fifth to field officers of regiments, and two-fifths to the company. Officers are not allowed to join these expeditions unless disguised as privates. One of our corps commanders borrowed a suit of rough clothes from one of my men, and was successful in this place. He got a large quantity of silver (among other things an old milk pitcher) and a very fine gold watch from a Mrs DeSaussure, at this place (Columbia). DeSaussure is one of the F. F. V.’s of South Carolina, and was made to fork out liberally..
Officers over the rank of Captain are not made to put their plunder in the estimate for general distribution. This is very unfair, and for that reason, in order to protect themselves, subordinate officers and privates keep back every thing that they can carry about their persons, such as rings, earrings, breast pins, &c, &c. of which, if I live to get home, I have about a quart. I am not joking. I have at least a quart of jewelry for you and all the girls, and some No. 1 diamond rings and pins among them. General Sherman has silver and gold enough to start a bank. His share in gold watches alone at Columbia was two hundred and seventy-five.
But I said I could not go into particulars. All the general officers and many besides had valuables of every description, down to embroidered ladies' pocket handkerchiefs. I have my share of them, too. We took gold and silver enough from the damned rebels to have redeemed their infernal currency twice over. This, (the currency), whenever we came across it, we burned, as we considered it utterly worthless.
I wish all the jewelry this army has could be carried to the Old Bay State [Massachusetts]. It would deck her out in glorious style; but, alas! it will be scattered all over the North and Middle States.
The damned niggers, as a general thing, prefer to stay at home, particularly after they found out that we wanted only the able-bodied men, and to tell the truth, the youngest and best-looking women.
Sometimes we took off whole families and plantations of niggers, by way of repaying influential secessionists. But the useless part of these we soon managed to lose; sometimes in crossing rivers, sometimes in other ways. I shall write you again from Wilmington, Goldsboro, or some other place in North Carolina. The order to march has arrived, and I must close hurriedly.
Love to grandmother and Aunt Charlotte. Take care of yourself and children. Don't show this letter out of the family.
Your affectionate husband,
Thomas J. Myers,
Lieut. &c.
P.S. --I will send this by the first flag of truce to be mailed, unless I have an opportunity of sending it to Hilton Head. Tell Lottie I am saving a pearl bracelet and earrings for her. But Lambert got the necklace and breast pin of the same set. I am trying to trade him out of them. These were taken from the Misses Jamison, daughters of the President of the South Carolina Secession Convention. We found these on our trip through Georgia."
Addressed to Mrs. Thomas J. Myers, Boston, Massachusetts.
General Sherman's March Across Georgia - Photo from Harper's Weekly, December 10, 1864
Below is an excerpt from A Woman's Wartime Journal by Dolly Sumner Lunt: An account of the passage over a Georgia plantation of Sherman's army on the march to the sea, as recorded in the diary of Dolly Sumner Lunt.
NOVEMBER 19, 1864.
Slept in my clothes last night, as I heard that the Yankees went to
neighbor Montgomery's on Thursday night at one o'clock, searched his
house, drank his wine, and took his money and valuables. As we were
not disturbed, I walked after breakfast, with Sadai, up to Mr. Joe
Perry's, my nearest neighbor, where the Yankees were yesterday. Saw
Mrs. Laura [Perry] in the road surrounded by her children, seeming to
be looking for some one. She said she was looking for her husband,
that old Mrs. Perry had just sent her word that the Yankees went to
James Perry's the night before, plundered his house, and drove off
all his stock, and that she must drive hers into the old fields.
Before we were done talking, up came Joe and Jim Perry from their
hiding-place. Jim was very much excited. Happening to turn and look
behind, as we stood there, I saw some blue-coats coming down the hill.
Jim immediately raised his gun, swearing he would kill them anyhow.
"No, don't!" said I, and ran home as fast as I could, with Sadai.
I could hear them cry, "Halt! Halt!" and their guns went off in quick
succession. Oh God, the time of trial has come!
A man passed on his way to Covington. I halloed to him, asking him if
he did not know the Yankees were coming.
"No--are they?"
"Yes," said I; "they are not three hundred yards from here."
"Sure enough," said he. "Well, I'll not go. I don't want them to get
my horse." And although within hearing of their guns, he would stop
and look for them. Blissful ignorance! Not knowing, not hearing, he
has not suffered the suspense, the fear, that I have for the past
forty-eight hours. I walked to the gate. There they came filing up.
I hastened back to my frightened servants and told them that they had
better hide, and then went back to the gate to claim protection and a
guard. But like demons they rush in! My yards are full. To my
smoke-house, my dairy, pantry, kitchen, and cellar, like famished
wolves they come, breaking locks and whatever is in their way. The
thousand pounds of meat in my smoke-house is gone in a twinkling, my
flour, my meat, my lard, butter, eggs, pickles of various kinds--both
in vinegar and brine--wine, jars, and jugs are all gone. My eighteen
fat turkeys, my hens, chickens, and fowls, my young pigs, are shot
down in my yard and hunted as if they were rebels themselves. Utterly
powerless I ran out and appealed to the guard.
"I cannot help you, Madam; it is orders."
As I stood there, from my lot I saw driven, first, old Dutch, my dear
old buggy horse, who has carried my beloved husband so many miles, and
who would so quietly wait at the block for him to mount and dismount,
and who at last drew him to his grave; then came old Mary, my brood
mare, who for years had been too old and stiff for work, with her
three-year-old colt, my two-year-old mule, and her last little baby
colt. There they go! There go my mules, my sheep, and, worse than all,
my boys [slaves]!
Alas! little did I think while trying to save my house from plunder
and fire that they were forcing my boys from home at the point of the
bayonet. One, Newton, jumped into bed in his cabin, and declared
himself sick. Another crawled under the floor,--a lame boy he
was,--but they pulled him out, placed him on a horse, and drove him
off. Mid, poor Mid! The last I saw of him, a man had him going around
the garden, looking, as I thought, for my sheep, as he was my
shepherd. Jack came crying to me, the big tears coursing down his
cheeks, saying they were making him go. I said:
"Stay in my room."
But a man followed in, cursing him and threatening to shoot him if he
did not go; so poor Jack had to yield. James Arnold, in trying to
scape from a back window, was captured and marched off. Henry, too,
was taken; I know not how or when, but probably when he and Bob went
after the mules. I had not believed they would force from their homes
the poor, doomed negroes, but such has been the fact here, cursing
them and saying that "Jeff Davis wanted to put them in his army, but
that they should not fight for him, but for the Union." No! Indeed no!
They are not friends to the slave. We have never made the poor,
cowardly negro fight, and it is strange, passing strange, that the
all-powerful Yankee nation with the whole world to back them, their
ports open, their armies filled with soldiers from all nations, should
at last take the poor negro to help them out against this little
Confederacy which was to have been brought back into the Union in
sixty days' time!
My poor boys! My poor boys! What unknown trials are before you! How
you have clung to your mistress and assisted her in every way you
knew.
Never have I corrected them; a word was sufficient. Never have they
known want of any kind. Their parents are with me, and how sadly they
lament the loss of their boys. Their cabins are rifled of every
valuable, the soldiers swearing that their Sunday clothes were the
white people's, and that they never had money to get such things as
they had. Poor Frank's chest was broken open, his money and tobacco
taken. He has always been a money-making and saving boy; not
infrequently has his crop brought him five hundred dollars and more.
All of his clothes and Rachel's clothes, which dear Lou gave her
before her death and which she had packed away, were stolen from her.
Ovens, skillets, coffee-mills, of which we had three, coffee-pots--not
one have I left. Sifters all gone!
Seeing that the soldiers could not be restrained, the guard ordered me
to have their [of the negroes] remaining possessions brought into my
house, which I did, and they all, poor things, huddled together in my
room, fearing every movement that the house would be burned.
A Captain Webber from Illinois came into my house. Of him I claimed
protection from the vandals who were forcing themselves into my room.
He said that he knew my brother Orrington [the late Orrington Lunt, a
well-known early settler of Chicago]. At that name I could not
restrain my feelings, but, bursting into tears, implored him to see my
brother and let him know my destitution. I saw nothing before me but
starvation. He promised to do this, and comforted me with the
assurance that my dwelling-house would not be burned, though my
out-buildings might. Poor little Sadai went crying to him as to a
friend and told him that they had taken her doll, Nancy. He begged her
to come and see him, and he would give her a fine waxen one. [The doll
was found later in the yard of a neighbor, where a soldier had thrown
it, and was returned to the little girl. Her children later played
with it, and it is now the plaything of her granddaughter.]
He felt for me, and I give him and several others the character of
gentlemen. I don't believe they would have molested women and children
had they had their own way. He seemed surprised that I had not laid
away in my house, flour and other provisions. I did not suppose I
could secure them there, more than where I usually kept them, for in
last summer's raid houses were thoroughly searched. In parting with
him, I parted as with a friend.
Sherman himself and a greater portion of his army passed my house that
day. All day, as the sad moments rolled on, were they passing not only
in front of my house, but from behind; they tore down my garden
palings, made a road through my back-yard and lot field, driving their
stock and riding through, tearing down my fences and desolating my
home--wantonly doing it when there was no necessity for it.
Such a day, if I live to the age of Methuselah, may God spare me from
ever seeing again!
As night drew its sable curtains around us, the heavens from every
point were lit up with flames from burning buildings. Dinnerless and
supperless as we were, it was nothing in comparison with the fear of
being driven out homeless to the dreary woods. Nothing to eat! I could
give my guard no supper, so he left us. I appealed to another, asking
him if he had wife, mother, or sister, and how he should feel were
they in my situation. A colonel from Vermont left me two men, but
they were Dutch, and I could not understand one word they said.
My Heavenly Father alone saved me from the destructive fire. My
carriage-house had in it eight bales of cotton, with my carriage,
buggy, and harness. On top of the cotton were some carded cotton
rolls, a hundred pounds or more. These were thrown out of the blanket
in which they were, and a large twist of the rolls taken and set on
fire, and thrown into the boat of my carriage, which was close up to
the cotton bales. Thanks to my God, the cotton only burned over, and
then went out. Shall I ever forget the deliverance?
To-night, when the greater part of the army had passed, it came up
very windy and cold. My room was full, nearly, with the negroes and
their bedding. They were afraid to go out, for my women could not
step out of the door without an insult from the Yankee soldiers. They
lay down on the floor; Sadai got down and under the same cover with
Sally, while I sat up all night, watching every moment for the flames
to burst out from some of my buildings. The two guards came into my
room and laid themselves by my fire for the night. I could not close
my eyes, but kept walking to and fro, watching the fires in the
distance and dreading the approaching day, which, I feared, as they
had not all passed, would be but a continuation of horrors.
While passing through the town of Dallas, Georgia recently I was very interested to notice that the main intersection of town is Confederate Avenue and Main Street. Dallas is the county seat of Paulding County, which is in the Atlanta metro area and one of the fastest growing counties in the United States.
Here in Paulding County during the War Between the States, Union General William T. Sherman's invading troops were soundly defeated by the Confederates, May 26-27, 1864, at the battle of New Hope Church. The Yankees suffered 1,600 casualties at the hands of Confederate defenders under the command of General Joseph E. Johnston. I'm proud to say that among the Confederates who mauled the Yankee hoards in Paulding County was one of my great, great uncles, Pvt. John Thomas Conn. Unfortunately, Uncle John Thomas was the only one of four Conn brothers from Georgia who survived the War. The Yankees had already killed three of his brothers - two of my uncles and my great, great grandfather.
My Conn ancestors lived in Big Shanty (now Kennesaw), Georgia. The town was called Big Shanty because it consisted of just a big cluster of shanties occupied by poor tenent farmers and railroad workers along the tracks where it skirts Kennesaw Mountain. The only crime of the people of Big Shanty was that they dared to defend their homes (shanties) and their families against a brutal and merciless invading Union army. After Sherman and his men murdered all the people they could in Big Shanty, they burned the town, leaving the survivors (women, children and feeble old men) destitute and homeless.
This Confederate Flag, now surrounded by the urban sprawl of Metropolitan Atlanta, still waves proudly. and defiantly, over the graves of Confederate dead at the New Hope Cemetery in Paulding County.
Four weeks into his Atlanta Campaign, during the War to Prevent Southern Independence, General William T. Sherman ordered an attack on Confederate defenders in the environs of Dallas, Georgia, northwest if Atlanta, Yet, although Sherman instigated what became known as the Battle of Pickett's Mill, he omitted any mention of it in his memoirs. Perhaps Sherman wanted to forget Pickett's Mill - a humiliating defeat and a setback in Abraham Lincoln's War of Northern Aggression.
Sherman's omission in recording this battle is just another example of how northern generals and state historians have worked to slant and shape history in ways that cast the Union in the most favorable light possible - historical accuracy be damned.
On May 24, 1864, the Federal invaders were already stinging, having been stopped in their advance on Atlanta two days earlier by the Battle of New Hope Church. Now, under Sherman's orders, some 14,000 Federal troops, led by General Oliver Howard, marched on Pickett's Mill. There, a smaller contingency of 10,000 Confederate troops were assembled under the command of General Patrick Cleburne.
The Yankee assault at Pickett's Mill began at 5 p.m. and continued into the night. When the sun rose the next morning the outnumbered, but not outfought, Confederates were still in possession of the field. The Yankee invaders had lost 1,600 men compared to the Confederate loss of 500.
This Confederate victory resulted in a one-week delay for Sherman and his invading hoard as they killed, burned, raped and plundered their way across Georgia.
Today Pickett's Mill Battlefield State Historic Site is one of the best preserved battlefields of the War Between the States. On a recent visit there I contemplated the battle as I walked on the same roads used by both Federal and Confederate troops, saw earthworks constructed by these men, and explored the peaceful ravine through which Little Pumpkinvine Creek flows, where hundreds of men died, all to satisfy Sherman's insanity and Abraham Lincoln's lust for money and power.
The Ravine and Little Pumpkinvine Creek at Pickett's Mill
Many people have heard of the Confederate prison known as Andersonville (or Camp Sumter). Far fewer are aware of Camp Lawton (also known as Fort Lawton) which was built in Jenkins County, Georgia, to relieve the unhealthy, crowded conditions at Andersonville.
During it's brief existance, Camp Lawton was the largest prison in the world. Occupying 42 acres beside beautiful Magnolia Springs, it was designed to hold 40,000 prisoners of war. The prison consisted of a log stockade, 1398 feet by 1329 feet, with guard towers on the walls, and a ditch dug within the walls for a deadline. It was built in September, 1864, by a crew of 800 workers. On high ground surrounding the prison, three earthen forts were excavated and armed with cannon to prevent escape and guard from attacks.
One of the reasons the prison was located here was the large, pure spring, which could supply ample water to the prisoners Another factor was the Augusta Railroad which passed just one mile from the camp. If the camp was threatened, prisoners could be loaded onto trains and moved north to Augusta or southeast to Savannah, and to other points from there.
The first prisoners began arriving in October 1864 and within a month 10,299 men were held there. Then on Nov. 25, 1864, the camp was quickly abandoned in advance of the Left Wing of Sherman's army during their cruel and infamous "March to the Sea." Sherman's invading horde burned the new stockade and it was never rebulit.
Today, the spring is the site of Magnolia Springs State Park. Some of the earthworks remain and historical markers outside and inside the park tell help interpret the site. The nearby railroad town of Millen had a beautiful depot and hotel which were burned when Sherman's Yankee invaders came through on Dec. 3, 1864. The local Chamber of Commerce, located in the new depot, built 1915, has a large picture of the prison and various historical displays.
Historic Fort Lawton Earthworks
I have visited Magnolia Springs on several occasions and have found it to be a beautiful, uncrowded place to hike, camp and study nature - especially rare birds and alligators. It is also a significant Confederate historical site which is too often overlooked and unknown.
This simple monument to Confederate Colonel George R. Reeves stands in front of the Reeves County Courthouse, Pecos, Texas. The county was named for Reeves, who was a not only a soldier but also served as a Texas state legislature and as Speaker of the House.
The monument was placed by the state of Texas as a part of the centennial observance of the War for Southern Independence. The inscription reads:
The stately, antebellum Rosalie Mansion in Natchez, Mississippi, witnessed the conception of some of the worst atrocities and war crimes in American history. It was here, in 1863, that General Ulysses S. Grant, commander of the invading Union forces, set up temporary headquarters after his Union troops occupied Natchez during the War Between the States. According to a docent at Rosilie Mansion, a table in one of the upstairs rooms is where Grant signed and sent his consent to General William Tecumseh "War is Hell" Sherman to wage "total war" against Southern civilians, ultimately leading to Sherman's diabolical March to the Sea.
Grant and Sherman, along with Abraham Lincoln, who eagerly gave them his blessings, are responsible for the burning, destruction and plunder of countless undefended homes, fields, farms and towns, as well as the rape and murder of countless undefended women, children and old men, both black and white, slave and free. Their despicable deeds, which have never been redressed by the United States government, are a blight on the good name and honor of our nation. Lincoln, Grant, Sherman and others of their ilk are highly praised by sanitized history books and revisionist television documentaries. Their evil is either overlooked or excused by those who say that the South lost the war and Southerners like myself should "just get over it."
Am I still fighting the War Between the States? No, but I am upholding the good name of my ancestors, many of whom died while defending their homes against an invading foreign army from the North. A conflict is never really over until the truth is told.
***
Today, Rosalie Mansion, standing high on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi River is a National Historic Landmark near the center of Natchez, Mississippi. The Mansion was a private residence for more than 100 years. Since 1938 the house and gardens have been owned by the DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution) and are open for tours year round. Visitors may see the actual furniture, clothing, household possessions, garden plantings and family traditions of the family that long called Rosalie home.
Rosalie was built from 1820-1823 by Peter Little who came to Natchez as a young man from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Peter developed the Steam Circular saw which was the beginning of the lumber industry in the area. He established the first sawmill in the Natchez Territory and made his fortune from the vast tracts of woodlands in the Mississippi River Valley.
Before the War Between the States, Natchez is said to have been the wealthiest town in America. Both Natchez and Mississippi have never fully recovered from the destruction of Mr. Lincoln's War to prevent Southern Independence.
Sherman’s infamous March through Georgia was one of the great war crimes, and crimes against humanity, of the past century-and-a-half. Because by targeting and butchering civilians, Lincoln and Grant and Sherman paved the way for all the genocidal honors of the monstrous 20th century.
There has been a lot of talk in recent years about memory, about never forgetting about history as retroactive punishment for crimes of war and mass murder. As Lord Acton, the great libertarian historian, put it, the historian, in the last analysis, must be a moral judge. The muse of the historian, he wrote, is not Clio, but Rhadamanthus, the legendary avenger of innocent blood. In that spirit, we must always remember, we must never forget, we must put in the dock and hang higher than Haman, those who, in modern times, opened the Pandora’s Box of genocide and the extermination of civilians: Sherman, Grant, and Lincoln.
Perhaps, some day, their statues, like Lenin’s in Russia, will be toppled and melted down; their insignias and battle flags will be desecrated, their war songs tossed into the fire. And then Davis and Lee and Jackson and Forrest, and all the heroes of the South, "Dixie" and the Stars and Bars, will once again be truly honored and remembered. The classic comment on that meretricious TV series The Civil War was made by that marvelous and feisty Southern writer Florence King. Asked her views on the series, she replied: "I didn’t have time to watch The Civil War. I’m too busy getting ready for the next one." In that spirit, I am sure that one day, aided and abetted by Northerners like myself in the glorious "copperhead" tradition, the South shall rise again.
Murray N. Rothbard (1926-1995), was the founder of modern libertarianism and the dean of the Austrian School of economics.
It was here in the Burt-Stark Mansion, also known as the Armistead Burt House, Abbeville, South Carolina, that President Jefferson Davis met with his cabinet for the last Council of War for the Confederate States of America, May 2, 1865.
Just three weeks earlier, on April 9, 1865 General Robert E. Lee had surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia to General William T. Sherman at Appomattox Courthouse. Many people regard Lee's surrender as the end of the War Between the States, but actually only a portion of the Confederate Army surrendered at that time.
On April 26, 1869, Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston followed Lee by surrendering his Army of Tennessee, also to General Sherman, near Greensboro, North Carolina. One of my great uncles, John Tomas Conn, was among those who surrendered with Johnston.
However, when the last Confederate Council of War met, there were still other very determined Confederate armies fighting in the field, including the Alabama, Mississippi and East Louisiana Department, the Trans-Mississippi (Texas) Department, and others. President Davis wanted to continue the struggle for Southern Independence. However, despite the righteousness of the Confederate cause, the Council persuaded Davis that to continue fighting against such overwhelming odds was futile and that the government should be.
Just two days later, May 4, 1865, Confederate Lt. Gen. Richard Taylor, son of former U.S. president Zachary Taylor, surrendered the Confederate Department of Alabama, Mississippi, and East Louisiana, with some 12,000 troops.
The last land fight of the War occurred May 12--13 May at Palmito Ranch, Texas, where 350 Confederates of the Trans-Mississippi Department were victorious over 800 invading Federals. Afterwards, upon learning that Richmond had fallen that General Robert E. Lee had surrendered, the Trans-Mississippi Confederates gave up their fight for Independence Most of the soldiers simply went home, but some 2000 of them fled into Mexico, alone or in scattered groups.
Last of the Confederate Generals to surrender was Brigadier General Stand Waite of Oklahoma. Stand Waite was also a Chief of the Cherokee Nation. Fighting until the bitter end, General Waite finally surrendered his battalion of Creek, Seminole, Cherokee, and Osage Indians on June 23. 1865.
There was never a formal surrender by the Confederate States of America. No peace treaty or armistice was ever signed, and it could be argued that the Confederate States of America is still an occupied nation.
A week after that fateful last Council of War in Abbeville, President Davis and a large entourage traveling with him, was captured in Irwinsville, Georgia, by the Fourth Michigan Calvary during the early morning hours of May 10, 1865.
The Burt-Stark Mansion was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1992 because of its importance as the last meeting place of the leadership of the Confederate nation.
***
Incidentally, Abbeville, South Carolina lays claim to being both the birthplace and the deathbed of the Confederacy. I'll tell more of Abbeville as the birthplace in a future post.
The kindest thing that could possibly be said about General William T. Sherman is that he was stark, raving mad. If he was insane - as many contemporary newspapers alleged and as he actually once claimed to be - then it might offer the only lame defense for the dastardly deeds of the United States’ most infamous war criminal.
Commanding General of the United States Army during the War Between the States, William Tecumseh Sherman was born in Lancaster, Ohio, and this statue to him stands in Zane Square Park, in downtown Lancaster. According to Lancaster's official travel guide: "Due to strong southern sentiment, more than 100 years passed before a Sherman statue was unveiled on July 2, 2000 during Lancaster's bicentennial celebration."
Sherman, with the blessing and enthusiastic approval of General Ulysses S. Grant and President Abraham Lincoln, waged "Total War" against defenseless civilians throughout the Confederate States of America, 1861 - 1865. It was truly a "War of Northern Aggression" against a people who only wanted to be left alone.
General Sherman was personally responsible for the pillaging, plundering and burning of countless undefended cities, towns and homes. He and his barbaric Union troops brought wrought total destruction on farms, livestock and civilian food supplies. They turned thousands of women and children out into the winter cold, leaving them to fend for themselves with no food and no shelter. He and his troops hauled thousands of wagon loads of stolen Southern goods back to the North. They gang raped both black and white women and slaughtered thousands of innocent Americans, including old men, women, and children of all races.
Sherman had no shame. Here are some of his own words that illustrate his maniacal lust for blood. In a letter to his wife he said of the southern secessionists: “why death is mercy, and the quicker he or she is disposed of the better . . . . 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 resources"
In an order to one of his generals, Thomas Ewing (Order #11) Sherman said “There is a class of people (in the South), men women and children, who must be killed or banished before you can hope for peace and order.”
And again to his wife he wrote from north Georgia, “I begin to regard the death and mangling of a couple thousand men as a small affair, a kind of morning dash.”
Sherman once declared, "The Government of the United States has in North Alabama any and all rights which they choose to enforce in war – to take their lives, their homes, their lands, their everything . . . . war is simply power unrestrained by constitution or compact.... We will . . . take every life, every acre of land, every particle of property, everything that to us seems proper,"
Sherman's own words condemn him.
Some of the people who were exterminated by Sherman's army in both Georgia and Alabama were my own kin, including my great, great grandfather and two of his brothers, uncles on both sides of my family, plus several cousins. Not a one of them was a slave owner. They were poor farmers whose only crime was that they were defending their homes and families from a hostile, invading, foreign army.
It is beyond my comprehension to understand why some people today think of Sherman as a great war hero when to me was the personification of evil - a shameful dark stain on the history of the United States.
The people of Lancaster, Ohio honor this mad man with a historical marker that spins the memory of Sherman’s despicable deeds by calling him: “a four star military genius … a brilliant commander and grand strategist who revolutionized war by incorporating psychological and economic warfare into his military tactics.”
After his atrocities against the people of the Confederate States, Sherman continued his maniacal murders by overseeing the genocide of the Native American population in the West in Indian Wars. Of the Plains Indians he said, "It is one of those irreconcilable conflicts that will end only in one way, one or the other must be exterminated . . . . We must act with vindictive earnestness against the Sioux, even to the extermination, men, women and children" ... "The more Indians we can kill this year, the less will have to be killed next year," wrote Sherman. "They all have to be killed or be maintained as a species of paupers."
William T. Sherman wrote his own epitaph - “Faithful and Honorable.” A more fitting epitaph would be “Insane and Conscienceless.”
As a current resident of the state of Ohio I can only hang my head in shame.
Peter Kalajian's article comparing the Confederacy to Nazi Germany and its battle flag to the swastika is highly offensive, especially to those of us who are Jewish, & shows he knows little about either the Confederacy or the Nazis.
Some 3,500 to 5,000 Jews fought honorably and loyally for the Confederacy, including its Secretary of War & later State, Judah Benjamin. My great grandfather also served, as did his four brothers, their uncle, his three sons, and some two-dozen other members of my Mother's extended family (The Moses’ of South Carolina and Georgia). Half a dozen of them fell in battle, largely teenagers, including the first and last Confederate Jews to die in battle.
We know first hand, from their letters, diaries, and memoirs, that they were not fighting for slavery, but rather to defend themselves and their comrades, their families, homes, and country from an invading army that was trying to kill them, burn their homes and cities, and destroy everything they had.
If you want to talk about Nazi-like behavior, consider the actions of the leading Union commander, General Ulysses S. Grant, whose war crimes included the following actions:
Ordering the expulsion on 24 hours notice of all Jews "as a class" from the territory under his control (General Order # 11, 17 December, 1862), and forbidding Jews to travel on trains (November, 1862);
Ordering the destruction of an entire agricultural area to deny the enemy support (the Shenandoah Valley, 5 August, 1864).
Leading the mass murder, a virtual genocide, of Native People, mainly helpless old men, women, and children in their villages, to make land available for the western railroads (the eradication of the Plains Indians, 1865–66). What we euphemistically call "the Indian Wars" was carried out by many of the same Union officers who led the war against the South – Sherman, Grant, Sheridan, Custer, and other leading commanders.
Overseeing the complete destruction of defenseless Southern cities, and conducting such warfare against unarmed women and children (e.g., the razing of Meridian, and other cities in Mississippi, spring, 1863).
Contrast these well-documented atrocities (and many others too numerous to list) with the gentlemanly policies and behavior of the Confederate forces. My ancestor Major Raphael Moses, General James Longstreet’s chief commissary officer, was forbidden by General Robert E. Lee from even entering private homes in their raids into the North, such as the famous incursion into Pennsylvania. Moses was forced to obtain his supplies from businesses and farms, and he always paid for what he requisitioned, albeit in Confederate tender.
Moses always endured in good humor the harsh verbal abuse he received from the local women, who, he noted, always insisted on receiving in the end the exact amount owed.
Moses and his Confederate colleagues never engaged in the type of warfare waged by the Union forces, especially that of General William T. Sherman on his infamous "March to the Sea" through Georgia and the Carolinas, in which his troops routinely burned, looted, and destroyed libraries, courthouses, churches, homes, and cities full of defenseless civilians, including my hometown of Atlanta.
It was not the South but rather our enemies that engaged in genocide. While our ancestors may have lost the War, they never lost their honor, or engaged in anything that could justify their being compared to Nazi’s. It was the other side that did that.
Sincerely yours,
Lewis Regenstein
Atlanta, GA
This letter is reprinted with the permission of Lewis Regenstein, a writer and author from Atlanta, Georgia. You may contact him at regenstein@mindspring.com .
The Historic Grand Army of the Republic Hall in Litchfield, Minnesota, is the only one of its kind remaining in the state and one of only three in the United States. The Grand Army of the Republic was an organization of men who were veterans of the Union army who fought in the War Between the States, 1861-1865.
Today the old hall still stands much as it did well over a century ago. It is now used as a museum to preserve relics and records of America's tragic and unnecessary conflict, often misnamed the Civil War. Being a history buff, and a descendent of several Confederate veterans, I have long had a special interest in the War Between the States, so I enjoyed visiting this historic old hall and exploring many of the exhibits.
When the nice lady at the GAR Museum learned that I was of Confederate descent, she took me over to see their small case with a display of Confederate items. In it was obsolete Confederate currency, a saber which was like those used by both Union and Confederate soldiers, and a very interesting wool Confederate Blanket.
The blanket was brought back to Minnesota after the war by a Union Soldier, Sargent Marty, who was in the First Minnesota Volunteers. As Sargent Marty lay wounded on the battlefield at Gettysburg, an unknown Southern soldier came and covered the enemy soldier with his own blanket. Marty survived the War and brought the blanket back to Minnesota, where it was preserved for generations by his family, before being donated to the museum.
Another very interesting artifact in the Grand Army of the Republic Museum is the ornate chandelier which hangs over the old meeting hall.
There are two stories of the origin of the chandelier. One is that it was originally from a bordello in New Orleans, Louisiana. The other is that it was brought back to Minnesota from the South as a part of the "spoils of war." Perhaps both stories are true.
The War Between the States, was fought mostly on Southern soil by Northern aggressors. When Union soldiers captured a town or even a farm in the Confederate states it was very common for them to steal every item of value and destroy that which they could not carry away. Such plunder was clearly criminal according to the established rules of war, and a vile and evil act according to every standard of human decency. Yet the rape of the south was overlooked or even encouraged by Northern generals such as Sheridan, Sherman and Grant. Because the North won the war, such despicable actions were never punished.
Here is but one quote from a Union invader of Louisiana from the "Official Records: War of the Rebellion" published by the United States Government after their subjugation of the South: "No squad of men ... can live anywhere we have been. The people have neither seed, corn, nor bread, or mills to grind the corn if they had it, as I burned them wherever found.... I have taken from these people the mules with which they would raise a crop the coming year, and burned every surplus grain of corn...."
General William T. Sherman wrote from Vicksburg on January 31, 1864: "The Government of the United States has ... any and all rights which they choose to enforce in war - to take their lives, their homes, their lands, their everything ...."
The chandelier, which is a symbol of these heinious atrocities against innocent civilians, hangs in the GAR museum in Litchfield to their shame, and they don't even seem to realize it.
The thing about this plaque which caught my eye is that America's war of 1861-1865 is properly called the "War Between the States."
While on a trip to visit my grandchildren in Georgia over the Robert E. Lee/Martin Luther King Jr. long weekend, we stopped at a rest area on I-75 in Gordon County, north Georgia, where I saw the plaque honoring Georgia veterans, and all American soldiers who have been POWs (prisoners of war) or MIAs (missing in action). Interestingly, this rest area is directly on the route General William T. Sherman took when his invading Union army marched south on their way to plunder and burn Atlanta.
Most people nowadays call that darkest hour in the history of the United States the "Civil War." Few who do so realize they are parroting a bit of propaganda first used by Abraham Lincoln in an effort to put a better face on a brutal war of aggression which was both unnecessary and illegal.
A true civil war is one in which two or more opposing sides fight for control over the government of a single country. That was definitely not the case in the War Between the States. The South had no more desire to conquer Washington than the colonies wanted to rule London during the American Revolution. Believing that the United States had departed from the original intent of the Constitution, the people of the seceding states in the South saw themselves as fighting a war for indepencence -a Second American Revolution.
During and after the War Between the States, the government in Washington called it the "War of the Rebellion," which is reflected to this day on countless monuments throughout the northern states. "War Between the States" was a term popularized by Alexander H. Stephens, a constitutional authority, former Governor of Georgia, and Vice President of the Confederate States of America.
Abraham Lincoln, who was a master of political spin, used the term "civil war" during his Gettysburg Address, but it took many more decades of "politically correct" revisionism before the term came into general use. There has never been an American Civil War, and every time I see the term I cringe a bit at the erroneous message it sends.
Many other terms have been used to label America's war of 1861-1865. I'll talk about a few more of them in a later post.
Click on the photo above to enlarge it for much easier reading.
Confederate Digest is my way of celebrating America's proud Southern heritage. This blog is dedicated to the memory of William Elisha Conn, who died April 26, 1862, as a private in the Georgia/Confederate volunteer infantry. He was only 24-years-old at the time of his death, leaving behind his grieving 19-year-old widow and two babies, one of which grew up to become my great grandfather. William Elisha was a poor tenant farmer whose ancestors came to the United States from Ireland as indentured servants. He and three of his brothers fought for freedom from governmental tyranny and in defense of their homes and families against a hostile, invading Union army. Three of the four brothers were killed; the other was captured. The four Conn brothers, plus numerous cousins and uncles, along with hundreds of thousands of brave Confederates, young and old, black and white, fought for the principles of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution with the hope that their sacrifice would not be forgotten. Deo Vindice!
I am a freelance writer and photographer, and also a retired pastor and syndicated newspaper columnist. My writing credits include authoring six books and more than 300 articles which have appeared in a large variety of magazines and scores of newspapers.
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