Details
SHERMAN, WILLIAM TECUMSEH, Major General, U.S. Army. Autograph letter signed ("W.T. Sherman Maj. Genl. Comdg.") TO CONFEDERATE GENERAL JOHN BELL HOOD, "Commdg Depot. of Tenn., Confederate Army," "Headquarters, Military Division of the Mississippi, In the Field, Atlanta," Georgia, 12 September 1864. 2 1/4 pages, 4to, on printed Headquarters stationery, several deletions or corrections by Sherman in the text. Very fine condition.
SHERMAN'S ANGRY LETTER TO CONFEDERATE GENERAL JOHN BELL HOOD, DEPLORING CONDITIONS AT ANDERSONVILLE PRISON
A part of one of the most remarkable exchanges between combatants in the Civil War. Sherman and Hood's bitter correspondence, replete with charges and counter-charges, developed in the wake of Sherman's hard-fought capture of Atlanta. "General, I have yours of today. You asked to Exchange Prisoners, and I consented as far as those which remained in my hands and [on] this side of Chattanooga. These I will exchange in the manner I have stated and not otherwise. As you cannot know those of our men whose terms [of enlistment] have expired I authorized Col. [Willard] Warner to say I could receive any number taken of this Army between certain dates. [The word "captured" after "Army" is deleted]. Say the last two thousand ["captured out of my Army" is deleted] or in any other single period: but as a matter of business I offered terms that could not be misunderstood.
"You have not answered my proposition as to the 'men captured in Atlanta who are soldiers of the Confederate Army detailed on Extra duty,' in the shops.
"I think I understand the Laws of Civilized nations and the 'Customs of War,' but if at a loss at any time I know where to seek information to refresh my memory. If you will give our prisoners at Anderson [Andersonville, Georgia] a little more Elbow room, and liberty to make out of the abundant timber shelters for themselves, as also a fair allowance of food to enable them to live in health, they will ask nothing more till such time as we will provide for them...."
Sherman gives an account of his and Hood's acrimonious exchange in his Memoirs: "Soon after our reaching Atlanta, General Hood had sent in by flag of truce a proposition, offering an exchange of prisoners," including soldiers held at Andersonville, the most notorious of the Confederate prisons. According to Sherman, escapees from Andersonville "had described the pitiable condition of the remainder," and "although I felt a sympathy for their hardships and sufferings as deeply as any man could, yet as nearly all the prisoners who had been captured by us during the campaign had been sent...to the usual depots North, they were then beyond my control." Sherman did offer to exchange some two thousand rebels captured mostly at Jonesboro, for the unfortunate General Stoneman (captured on a raid to free Union prisoners) and Union men captured in the Atlanta campaign, "but I would not exchange for his prisoners generally [i.e., those captured from other Union Armies in other areas], because I knew these would have to be sent to their own regiments, away from from my army, whereas all we could give him could at once be put to duty in his immediate army" Memoirs, 1885, Library of America edn., p.585). As Sherman describes it: "Quite an angry correspondence grew up between us, which was published at the time in the newspapers," concerning the forced evacuation of civilians from Atlanta, at Sherman's direction, which, Hood complained to Sherman, "transcends, in studied and ingenious cruelty, all acts ever brought to my attention in the dark history of war" (his letter of 9 September, ibid., p.593). Sherman replied at length, touching on the root causes of the war, and on the 12th Hood made a detailed and impassioned response, which concluded "we will fight you to the death! Better to die a thousand deaths submit to live under you or your government...." In the present letter, Sherman pointedly limits the discussion to military matters regarding the prisoner exchange, although there is a palpable tone of bitterness in his references to Andersonville and a bitter sarcasm in his comment on knowing where to seek information on the customs of war. A brief letter from Sherman on September 14, terminated their correspondence; on the 28th, Grant wrote Sherman, expressing his full support of Sherman's war measures (ibid., p.602-604). In the end the prisoner exchanges were accomplished consistent with Sherman's stipulations.
SHERMAN'S ANGRY LETTER TO CONFEDERATE GENERAL JOHN BELL HOOD, DEPLORING CONDITIONS AT ANDERSONVILLE PRISON
A part of one of the most remarkable exchanges between combatants in the Civil War. Sherman and Hood's bitter correspondence, replete with charges and counter-charges, developed in the wake of Sherman's hard-fought capture of Atlanta. "General, I have yours of today. You asked to Exchange Prisoners, and I consented as far as those which remained in my hands and [on] this side of Chattanooga. These I will exchange in the manner I have stated and not otherwise. As you cannot know those of our men whose terms [of enlistment] have expired I authorized Col. [Willard] Warner to say I could receive any number taken of this Army between certain dates. [The word "captured" after "Army" is deleted]. Say the last two thousand ["captured out of my Army" is deleted] or in any other single period: but as a matter of business I offered terms that could not be misunderstood.
"You have not answered my proposition as to the 'men captured in Atlanta who are soldiers of the Confederate Army detailed on Extra duty,' in the shops.
"I think I understand the Laws of Civilized nations and the 'Customs of War,' but if at a loss at any time I know where to seek information to refresh my memory. If you will give our prisoners at Anderson [Andersonville, Georgia] a little more Elbow room, and liberty to make out of the abundant timber shelters for themselves, as also a fair allowance of food to enable them to live in health, they will ask nothing more till such time as we will provide for them...."
Sherman gives an account of his and Hood's acrimonious exchange in his Memoirs: "Soon after our reaching Atlanta, General Hood had sent in by flag of truce a proposition, offering an exchange of prisoners," including soldiers held at Andersonville, the most notorious of the Confederate prisons. According to Sherman, escapees from Andersonville "had described the pitiable condition of the remainder," and "although I felt a sympathy for their hardships and sufferings as deeply as any man could, yet as nearly all the prisoners who had been captured by us during the campaign had been sent...to the usual depots North, they were then beyond my control." Sherman did offer to exchange some two thousand rebels captured mostly at Jonesboro, for the unfortunate General Stoneman (captured on a raid to free Union prisoners) and Union men captured in the Atlanta campaign, "but I would not exchange for his prisoners generally [i.e., those captured from other Union Armies in other areas], because I knew these would have to be sent to their own regiments, away from from my army, whereas all we could give him could at once be put to duty in his immediate army" Memoirs, 1885, Library of America edn., p.585). As Sherman describes it: "Quite an angry correspondence grew up between us, which was published at the time in the newspapers," concerning the forced evacuation of civilians from Atlanta, at Sherman's direction, which, Hood complained to Sherman, "transcends, in studied and ingenious cruelty, all acts ever brought to my attention in the dark history of war" (his letter of 9 September, ibid., p.593). Sherman replied at length, touching on the root causes of the war, and on the 12th Hood made a detailed and impassioned response, which concluded "we will fight you to the death! Better to die a thousand deaths submit to live under you or your government...." In the present letter, Sherman pointedly limits the discussion to military matters regarding the prisoner exchange, although there is a palpable tone of bitterness in his references to Andersonville and a bitter sarcasm in his comment on knowing where to seek information on the customs of war. A brief letter from Sherman on September 14, terminated their correspondence; on the 28th, Grant wrote Sherman, expressing his full support of Sherman's war measures (ibid., p.602-604). In the end the prisoner exchanges were accomplished consistent with Sherman's stipulations.