Details
SHERMAN, William Tecumseh. Autograph letter signed ("W.T. Sherman") as Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Army, to Julius L. Brown, Washington, D.C., 8 October 1878. 3½ pages, 8vo, on imprinted stationery of "Headquarters Army of the United States." With original postmarked envelope addressed by Sherman.
SHERMAN DECLINES TO VISIT ATLANTA: WHILE "MANY PEOPLE OF GEORGIA HOLD MY NAME IN DETESTATION...MY CONSCIENCE IS CLEAR..."
One of Sherman's most outspoken postwar statements regarding his still controversial Atlanta campaign and subsequent March to the Sea, boldly insisting that, in spite of the widespread destruction inflicted upon Georgia by his army, "my conscience is clear." Even now, as Boatner notes "it is difficult to discuss unemotionally the morality of Sherman's devastation in Georgia..." but Sherman himself never acknowledged moral doubts or contrition. "War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it," he told the Mayor of Atlanta at the time. Here, writing to Brown, Chairman of the "North Georgia Stock & Fair Association," he reports that he has just returned "from a long trip across the Continent, via New Mexico and Arizona, and find a large accumulation of letters received..., among them your very acceptable favor...inviting me to attend your Fair in Atlanta. I thank you sincerely for this...and assure you that I know of no single place I would prefer to visit on such an occasion as Atlanta; but I am already committed to go to New York...and to Indianapolis...."
But Sherman hopes "this winter to be able to visit your city [Atlanta] in whose growth and prosperity I feel such interest. Of course I know that many people of Georgia hold my name in detestation because of the scourge that befell them in 1864, but my conscience is clear because their sacrifice was necessary to the end, in which their children have as much interest as mine, the maintenance and perpetuation of our common Union and Government. I assure you that I feel a deep interest in the prosperity of North Georgia...."
Philip D. Sang (sale Sotheby's, 4 December 1981, lot 1304).
SHERMAN DECLINES TO VISIT ATLANTA: WHILE "MANY PEOPLE OF GEORGIA HOLD MY NAME IN DETESTATION...MY CONSCIENCE IS CLEAR..."
One of Sherman's most outspoken postwar statements regarding his still controversial Atlanta campaign and subsequent March to the Sea, boldly insisting that, in spite of the widespread destruction inflicted upon Georgia by his army, "my conscience is clear." Even now, as Boatner notes "it is difficult to discuss unemotionally the morality of Sherman's devastation in Georgia..." but Sherman himself never acknowledged moral doubts or contrition. "War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it," he told the Mayor of Atlanta at the time. Here, writing to Brown, Chairman of the "North Georgia Stock & Fair Association," he reports that he has just returned "from a long trip across the Continent, via New Mexico and Arizona, and find a large accumulation of letters received..., among them your very acceptable favor...inviting me to attend your Fair in Atlanta. I thank you sincerely for this...and assure you that I know of no single place I would prefer to visit on such an occasion as Atlanta; but I am already committed to go to New York...and to Indianapolis...."
But Sherman hopes "this winter to be able to visit your city [Atlanta] in whose growth and prosperity I feel such interest. Of course I know that many people of Georgia hold my name in detestation because of the scourge that befell them in 1864, but my conscience is clear because their sacrifice was necessary to the end, in which their children have as much interest as mine, the maintenance and perpetuation of our common Union and Government. I assure you that I feel a deep interest in the prosperity of North Georgia...."
Philip D. Sang (sale Sotheby's, 4 December 1981, lot 1304).