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Union Orders, Reports and Letters Page 1 --Georgia |
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The war of the rebellion: a compilation of the official records of the Union and Confederate armies. ; Series 1 - Volume 39 (Part III)
Author: United States. War Dept., John Sheldon Moody, Calvin Duvall Cowles, Frederick Caryton Ainsworth, Robert N. Scott, Henry Martyn Lazelle, George Breckenridge Davis, Leslie J. Perry, Joseph William Kirkley
page 162 KY., SW. VA., TENN., MISS., ALA., AND N. GA. [CHAP. LI.
HDQRS. MiLITARY DIVISION OF THE Mississippi, In the Field, Allatoona, Ga., October 9, 1864 7.30 p. m. Lieutenant-General GRANT, (Received 11 a. ni. 10th.) City Point, Va.: It will be a physical impossibility to protect the roads, now that Hood, Forrest, and Wheeler, and the whole batch of devils, are turned loose without home or habitation. I think Hoods movements indicate a diversion to the end of the Selma and Talladega Railroad at Blue Momitain, about sixty miles southwest of Rome, from which he will threaten Kingston, Bridgeport, and Decatur, Ala. I propose we break up the railroad from Chattanooga, and strike out with wagons for Mil- ledgeville, Millen, and Savannah. 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. By attempting to hold the roads we will lose 1,000 men monthly, and will gain no re- sult. I can make the march, and make Georgia howl. We have over 8,000 cattle and 3,000,000 of bread, but no corn; but we can forage in the interior of the State. W. T. SHERMAN, Major- General, Commanding.
OFFICIAL RECORDS: Series 1, vol 38, Part 5 (The Atlanta Campaign) Page 141
Major-General, Commanding.
SHERMAN'S HEADQUARTERS,
July 14, 1864.
Brigadier General JOHN E. SMITH:
Everything in the nature of grain, forage, and vegetables should be collected. No suspicious citizens should be allowed near the railroad or in the country. The safety of this army must not be imperiled by citizens. If you entertain a bare suspicious against any facile send it to the North. Any loafer of suspicious person seen at any time should be imprisoned and sent off.
W. T. SHERMAN,
Major-General, Commanding.
Title: The war of the rebellion: a compilation of the official records of the Union and Confederate armies. ; Series 1 - Volume 39 (Part II) page 503
HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY
WASHINGTON, September 28, 1864,
Major-General SHERMAN, Atlanta, Georgia.
GENERAL: Your communications of the 20th in regard to the removal of families from Atlanta, and the exchange of prisoners, and also the official report of your campaign, are just received. I have not had time as yet to examine your report. The course which you have pursued in removing rebel families from Atlanta, and in the exchange of prisoners, is fully approved by the War Department. Not only are you justified by the laws and usages of war in removing these people, but I think it was your duty to your own army to do so. Moreover, I am fully of opinion that the nature of your position, the character of the war, the conduct of the enemy (and especially of non-combatants and women of the territory which we have heretofore conquered and occupied), will justify you in gathering up all the forage and provisions which your army may require, both for a siege of Atlanta and for your supply in your march farther into the enemy's country. Let the disloyal families of the country, thus stripped, go to their husbands, fathers, and natural protectors, in the rebel ranks; we have tried three years of conciliation and kindness without any reciprocation; on the contrary, those thus treated have acted as spies and guerrillas in our rear and within our lines. The safety of our armies, and a proper regard for the lives of our soldiers, require that we apply to our inexorable foes the severe rules of war. We certainly are not required to treat the so-called non-combatant rebels better than they themselves treat each other. Even herein Virginia, within fifty miles of Washington, they strip their own families of provisions, leaving them, as our army advances, to be fed by us, or to starve within our lines. We have fed this class of people long enough. Let them go with their husbands and fathers in the rebel ranks; and if they won't go, we must send them to their friends and natural protectors. I would destroy every mill and factory within reach which I did not want for my own use. This the rebels have done, not only in Maryland and Pennsylvania, but also in Virginia and other rebel States, when compelled to fall back before our armies. In many sections of the country they have not left a mill to grind grain for their own suffering families, lest we might use them to supply our armies. We most do the same.
I have endeavored to impress these views upon our commanders for the last two years. You are almost the only one who has properly applied them. I do not approve of General Hunter's course in burning private homes or uselessly destroying private property. That is barbarous. But I approve of taking or destroying whatever may serve as supplies to us or to the enemy's army.
Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
H. W. HALLECK, Major-General, Chief of Staff
From the OR's --The war of the rebellion: a compilation of the official records of the Union and Confederate armies. ; Series 1 - Volume 39 (Part II)
page 132 KY., SW. VA., TENN., MISS., ALA., AND N. GA.
MILITARY DIVISON OF THE Mississippi, In the Field, Big Shanty, Ga., June 21, 1864. Hon. E. M. STANTON, Secretary of War, Washington, D. C.:
--- there are in our midst the class of men that we all know to be conspiring against the peace of the State, and yet who if tried by jury could not be convicted. Our civil powers at the South are ridiculously impotent, and it is as a ship sailing through seaour armies traverse the land, and the waves of disaffection, sedition, and crime close in behind, and our track disappears. We must make a beginning, and I am will- ing to try it, but to be effectual it should be universal. The great diffi- culty will be in selecting a place for the malcontents. Honduras, British or French Guiana, or San iDomingo would be the best countries, but these might object to receive such a mass of restless democrats. Madagascar or Lower California would do. But one thing is certain, there is a class of people, men, women, and children, who must be killed or banished before you can hope for peace and order, even as far south as Tennessee. I would like to have your assent and to name the land to which I may send a few cargoes, but if you will not venture, but leave me to order, I will find some island where they will be safe as against the district of my command.
OFFICIAL RECORDS: Series 1, vol 38, Part 5 (The Atlanta Campaign)
Page 104
HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE CUMBERLAND,
July 10, 1864.
Major-General SHERMAN:
The Roswell Factory hands, 400 or 500 in number, have arrived at Marietta. The most of them are women. I can only order them transportation to Nashville, where it seems hard to turn them adrift. What had best be done with them?
GEO. H. THOMAS,
Major-General.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
HDQRS. MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSISSIPPI,
In the Field, near Chattahoochee, July 10, 1864.
General THOMAS:
I have ordered General Webster, at Nashville, to dispose of them. They will be sent to Indiana.
W. T. SHERMAN,
Major-General, Commanding.
Newspaper comments http://www.women-will-howl.com/index.html/
Marietta, for three days has been overrunning with men, women and children from Roswell.
New York Tribune, 21 July 1864
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Only think of it; Four hundred weeping and terrified Ellens, Susans, and Maggies transported in springless and seatless army wagons, away from their lovers and brothers of the sunny South, and all for the offense of weaving tent-cloth and spinning stocking yarn...
Cincinnati Daily Commercial, 19 July 1864
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Precious Haul -- Four hundred factory girls were captured by the Federal forces below Marietta, and are expected here to-day or tomorrow, on their way north.
Nashville Dispatch, 23 July 1864
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The train which arrived from Nashville last evening, brought up from the south 249 women and children, who are sent by order of Gen. Sherman...Why they should be sent here to be transferred North is more than we can understand.
Louisville Daily Journal, 21 July 1864
OFFICIAL RECORDS: Series 1, vol 38, Part 5 (The Atlanta Campaign)
Pages 91-92
HDQRS. MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSISSIPPI,
Near Chattahoochee, July 9, 1864.
Major General H. W. HALLECK, Washington, D. C.:
----I call your attention to the inclosed paper* in reference to the Roswell factories. They were very valuable, and were burned by my orders. They have been engaged almost exclusively in manufacturing cloth for the Confederate Army, and you will observe they were transferred to the English and French flags for safety, but such nonsense cannot deceive me. They were tained with treason, and such fictitious transfer was an aggravation. I will send all the owners, agents, and employee up to Indiana to get rid of them here. I take it a neutral is no better than one of own citizens, and we would not respect the property of one of our own citizens engaged in supplying a hostile army.
Your friend,
W. T. SHERMAN,
Major-General, Commanding.
OFFICIAL RECORDS: Series 1, vol 38, Part 5 (The Atlanta Campaign)
Pages 76-77
HDQRS. MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSISSIPPI,
In the Field, near Chattahoochee, July 7, 1864.
General GARRARD,
Roswell, Ga.:
GENERAL: Your reports is received and is most acceptable. I had no idea that the factories at Roswell remained in operation, but supposed the machinery had all been removed. Their utter destruction is right and meets my entire approval, and to make the matter complete you will arrest the owners and employee and send them, under guard, charged with treason, to Marietta, and I will see as to any man in America hoisting the French flag and then devoting his labor and capital in supplying armies in open hostility to our Government and claiming the benefit of his neutral flag.
----------I repeat my orders that you arrest all people, male and female, connected with those factories, no matter what the clamor, and let them foot it, under guard, to Marietta, whence I will send them by cars to the North. Destroy and make the same disposition of all mills save small flouring mills manifestly for local use, but all saw-mills and factories dispose of effectually, and useful laborers, excused by reason of their skill as manufacturers from conscription, are as much prisoners as if armed. The poor women will make a howl. Let them take along their children and clothing, providing they have the means of hauling or you can spare them. We will retain them until they can reach a country where they can live in peace and security.
I am, with respect, yours, truly,
W. T. SHERMAN,
Major-General, Commanding.
OFFICIAL RECORDS: Series 1, vol 38, Part 5 (The Atlanta Campaign) pages 92-93
HDQRS. MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSISSIPPI,
In the Field, near Chattahoochee River, July 9, 1864.
General WEBSTER, Nashville:
I have ordered the arrest of the operators at the Confederate manufactories at Roswell and Sweet Water, to be sent North. When they reach Nashville have them sent across the Ohio River and turned loose to earn a living where they won't do us any harm. If any of the principals seem to you dangerous, you may order them imprisoned for a time. The men were exempt from conscription by reason of their skill, but the women were simply laborers that must be removed from this district.
W. T. SHERMAN,
Major-General, Commanding
OFFICIAL RECORDS: Series 1, vol 38, Part 5 (The Atlanta Campaign) Page 60
HEADQUARTERS CAVALRY DIVISION,
July 5, 1864.
Captain DAYTON,
Acting Assistant Adjutant-General:
CAPTAIN: I have to report for the information of the major-general commanding that my command is camped on the Willeyo Creek near Roswell Factory. My advance is at the Factory. I will destroy all buildings. The bridge at this point over the river is burnt by the rebels. The ford is passable; so reported by citizens. I sent a regiment to the paper-mills, burnt the paper-mills, flouring-mills, and machine-shops. The citizens report the banks of the river high at Powers' Ferry and batteries in position on south bank. They had a pontoon bridge at Pace's Ferry, a few miles below, where a portion of their army crossed. There is a road running from Roswell Factory down the river below the paper-mills, and near the mills and above passes on the bank of river. As fast as possible I will send information of the roads, fords, ferries, &c.
Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
K. GARRARD,
Brigadier-General, Commanding Division.
SPECIAL
HDQRS. MILL. DIV. OF THE MISSISSIPPI, FIELD ORDERS,
In the Field, near Lovejoy's, No. 64. September 4, 1864.
The army having accomplished its undertaking in the complete reduction and occupation of Atlanta will occupy the place and the country near it until a new campaign is planned in concert with the other grand armies of the United States.
------------------
----------------
By order of Major General W. T. Sherman:
L. M. DAYTON,
Aide-de-Camp.
OFFICIAL RECORDS: Series 1, vol 38, Part 5 (The Atlanta Campaign) Page 141
Major-General, Commanding.
SHERMAN'S HEADQUARTERS,
July 14, 1864.
Brigadier General JOHN E. SMITH:
Everything in the nature of grain, forage, and vegetables should be collected. No suspicious citizens should be allowed near the railroad or in the country. The safety of this army must not be imperiled by citizens. If you entertain a bare suspicious against any facile send it to the North. Any loafer of suspicious person seen at any time should be imprisoned and sent off.
W. T. SHERMAN,
Major-General, Commanding.
OFFICIAL RECORDS: Series 1, vol 38, Part 5 (The Atlanta Campaign) Page 97
CARTERSVILLE, July 9, 1864.
Colonel E. H. MURRAY:
General Sherman says that's very well. Take no prisoners if it can be avoided. When it is evident they are railroad destroyers, he will approve the severest measures. Part of our army is across the Chattahoochee.
W. W. LOWE,
Colonel, Commanding.
OFFICIAL RECORDS: Series 1, vol 44, Part 1 (Savannah)
OOPERATIONS IN S. C., GA., AND FLA. Chapter LVI. Page 252 -260
Numbers 91. Report of Colonel James S. Robinson, Eighty-second Ohio Infantry, commanding Third Brigade. HDQRS. THIRD Brigadier, FIRST DIV., TWENTIETH CORPS, Near Savannah, Ga., December 28, 1864.
On the 15th [November], at 7 a. m., my brigade filed out of its encampments and made its final exit from the city of Atlanta. Behind us all means of communication and supply had been utterly destroyed, and the town itself was a blazing ruin, abandoned alike by citizens and soldiers to the harsh a fortunes of war. Before us lay a vast stretch of country, containing no organized army, yet thoroughly infested with enemies clear to its natural boundary, the ocean. ------------
253----------Moving out on the Decatur road, my brigade passed the village of Decatur at 2 p. m. Our first day's march terminated near Stone Mountain, about fifteen miles from Atlanta. Early on the morning of the 16th I was directed by General Jackson, commanding division, to take my brigade and commence destroying the Georgia railroad at a point about half a mile beyond my encampment. Extending my brigade along the track, I succeeded in thoroughly destroying about two miles of it by 10 a. m. ------
The country now being traversed was quite fertile, and afforded an abundance of all kinds of supplies. A considerable number of fine horses and mules were also brought in. -----------
255 ----- was directed to send a regiment to drive them off. I immediately dispatched the One hundred and first Illinois Volunteers, Lieutenant-Colonel Le Sage. This regiment charged the enemy and drove him precipitately to the woods, capturing one prisoner, and discovering about 100 bales of cotton, which were burned, including the cotton gin. ----
-------- At daylight the next morning, November 28, my brigade marched down the railroad track three miles and commenced its destruction. Inasmuch as the track bed for the most part ran through a difficult swamp much of it was composed of trestle-work and bridges, all of which were effectually destroyed. When the track was laid upon a road bed the rail upon one side, with the stringer attached, was unfastened by means of levers and lifted over against the rail on the other side. Rails and dry wood were then piled on top and the whole set on fire. The heat would soon spring the rails, still attached to the wooden stringers, into a variety of contortions, and the work of destruction was completed. Thus my brigade, in connection with the other brigades of the division and alternating with them, proceeded down the track, destroying mile after mile.
----At 7 a. m. on the 29th my brigade returned about two miles up the track and completed its destruction down as far as Spiers. The station house and other railroad fixtures were then burned or otherwise effectually destroyed.
256 ------ Shortly after passing Birdville, having received reliable information that a planter named Bullard, living in that neighborhood, had made himself conspicuous for his zeal in recapturing and securing prisoners from our army escaped from the rebel authorities, I dispatched an officer with authority to destroy his outbuildings and cotton. He accordingly sorn cribs, cotton gin, cotton presses, and a warehouse containing $50,000 worth of cotton. These were all consumed, and the owner admonished that a repetition of his offense would bring a similar fate upon his dwelling at the next visitation of our army. ---------
259 ------- During the extraordinary campaign which has terminated, my command marched over 350 miles, completely destroyed 9 miles of railroad track, burned a station-house, several water-tanks, and a large quantity of wood and railroad lumber; burned 12 cotton-gins and presses, and 250 bales of cotton; captured 5 serviceable horses, 42 serviceable mules, 460 head of cattle, 200 sheep, 500 hogs, 12 barrels of molasses, 1 barrel of whisky, 50,000 pounds of sweet potatoes, 10,800 pounds of rice, besides a vast quantity of flour, meal, bacon, poultry, and other promiscuous kinds of provisions. The quantity of forage captured it is difficult to estimate, but is safe to say that it amounted to not less than 130,000 pounds. Excepting the articles of bread, coffee, and sugar, my troops subsisted almost entirely from the country. The animals also were fed almost exclusively upon what was obtained from the same source. -------
260 -----------------------
Respectfully, your obedient servant,
J. S. ROBINSON,
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