The war of the rebellion: a compilation of the official records of the Union and Confederate armies. ; Series 1 - Volume 30 (Part III) Page 694
HEADQUARTERS FIFTEENTH ARMY Corps Camp on Big Black, Miss., September 17, 1863. Maj. Gen. H. W. HALLECK, General-in-Chief, Washington, D. C.: DEAR GENERAL: I have received your letter of August 29, and with pleasure confide to you fully my thoughts on the important matters you suggest, with absolute confidence that you will use what is valuable and reject the useless or superfluous.
Page 696 Fourth, the young bloods of the South, sons of planters, lawyers about towns, good billiard players, and sportsmen, men who never did work nor never will. War suits them, and the rascals are brave; fine riders, bold to rashness, and dangerous subjects in every sense. They care not a son for niggers, land, or anything. They hate Yankees per Se, and don’t bother their brains about the past, present, or future. As long as they have good horses, plenty of forage, and an open country, they are happy. This is a larger class than most men supposed, and are the most dangerous set of men which this war has turned loose upon the world. They are splendid riders, shots, and utterly reckless. Stuart, John Morgan, Forrest, and Jackson are the types and leaders of this class. This class of men must all be killed or employed by us before we can hope for peace. They have no property or future, and therefore cannot be influenced by any- thing except personal considerations. I have two brigades of these fellows to my front, commanded by Cosby, of the old army, and Whitfield, of Texas, Stephen D. Lee in command of the whole. I have frequent interviews with the officers and a good understanding. Am inclined to think when the resources of their country are exhausted we must employ them. They are the best cavalry in the world, but it will tax Mr. Chase's genius of finance to supply them with horses.
697 The people, even of small and unimportant localities, North as well as South, had reasoned themselves into the belief that their opinions were superior to the aggregated interest of the whole nation. Half our territorial nation rebelled on a doctrine of secession that they themselves now scout, and a real numerical majority actually believed that a little State was endowed with such sovereignty that it could defeat the policy of the great whole. I think the present war has exploded that notion, and were this war to cease now, the experience gained, though dear, would be worth the expense. Another great and important natural truth is still in contest and can only be solved by war. Numerical majorities by vote is our great arbiter. Heretofore all have submitted to it in questions left open, but numerical majorities are not necessarily physical majorities. The South, though numerically inferior, contend they can whip the Northern superiority of numbers, and therefore by natural law are not bound to submit. This issue is the only real one, and in my judgment all else should be deferred to it. War alone can decide it, and it is the only question left to us as a people. Can we whip the South? If we can, our numerical majority has both the natural and constitutional right to govern. If we cannot whip them,
698 they contend for the natural right to select their own government, and they have the argument. Our armies must prevail over theirs. Our officers, marshals, and courts must penetrate into the innermost recesses of their land before we have the natural right to demand their submission. I would banish all minor questions and assert the broad doctrine, that as a nation the United States has the right, and also the physical power, to penetrate to every part of the national domain, and that we will do it; that we will do it in our own time, and in our own way; that it makes no difference whether it be in one year or two, or ten or twenty; that we will remove and destroy every obstacle if need be, take every life, every acre of land, every particle of property, everything that to us seems proper; that we will not cease until the end is attained. That all who do not aid are enemies, and we will not account to them for our acts. If the people of the South oppose, they do so at their peril; and if they stand by mere lookers-on the domestic tragedy, they have no right to immunity, protection, or share in the final result.
700 Excuse so long a letter. With great respect, W. T. SHERMAN, Major- General. SEPTEMBER 17, 1863.
Union Brigadier General James H. Lane: “We believe in a war of extermination. I want to see every foot of ground . . . burned over – everything laid waste. . . .” Whoa! A war of extermination? Why? Wasn’t the restoration of the Union the goal of all this? Wouldn’t that have been accomplished simply by occupying the offending states? As we shall see, some other motive was at work
Yankee War Criminals of the War for Southern Independence 1. Gen Ulysses S. Grant; Crimes against humanity, too numerous to count. 2. Brig. Gen. Thomas Ewing; Murderer of women and children in Kansas City, Missouri 3. Capt. Nathaniel Lyon (Connecticut); Butchered women and children in St. Louis, Missouri. 4. Andrew Johnson (future Vice President under Lincoln whom he made military governor of Tennessee in the areas of occupation) ordered churches, schools, hospitals and homes burned and jailed innocent citizens. 5. Maj. Gen. Robert H. Milroy; Stole land, animals, materials, money and re-located thousands of Southern civilians in order to steal what he could. 6. Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside looted Fredericksburg and destroyed innocent citizen's property. Stole $175,000. from it's citizens. 7. Maj. Gen. Ormsby M. Mitchell; Sacked and destroyed Athens Alabama even though there was nothing there of military value. 8. Maj. Gen. Benjamin F. Butler; Stole property, imprisoned citizens, stole personal items and committed atrocities against the women of New Orleans. 9. Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman; Allowed pillaging, rape, murder and theft during the march to Atlanta. After destroying Georgia, he destroyed South Carolina then North Carolina burning his way northward. 10. Dr. Mary Edwards Walker; Surgeon in charge of the Louisville Female Military Prison abused and starved women and children held as prisoners. ("War Crimes against Southern Civilians" by Walter Brian Cisco) There were many others guilty of similar crimes but space does not allow for further elaboration. To read further information, please click on the pdf file, if available, or the links provided for further study and draw your own conclusions.
The Yankee Letter (PDF file) or The Yankee Letter (Link) War Crimes Against Southern Soldiers & Civilians Alan Stang - Yankee Genocide Still Here (PDF file) or Alan Stang - Yankee Genocide Still Here (Link)
The longer the American Civil War lasted, the more Union generals acted as if they were conducting a crusade to crush infidels. In a September 17, 1863, letter to Henry W. Halleck, the general in chief of the Union armies, Union Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman wrote:
"The United States has the right, and ... the ... power, to penetrate to every part of the national domain. We will remove and destroy every obstacle - if need be, take every life, every acre of land, every particle of property, everything that to us seems proper."
Halleck liked Sherman's letter so much that he passed it on to President Lincoln, who declared that it should be published. Sherman, in a follow-up to Halleck on October 10, 1863, declared:
"I have your telegram saying the President had read my letter and thought it should be published. I profess ... to fight for but one single purpose, viz, to sustain a Government capable of vindicating its just and rightful authority, independent of niggers, cotton, money, or any earthly interest."
On June 21, 1864, before his bloody March to the Sea, Sherman wrote to the secretary of war: "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." A few months later, Sherman informed one of his subordinate commanders:
"I am satisfied ... that the problem of this war consists in the awful fact that the present class of men who rule the South must be killed outright rather than in the conquest of territory, so that hard, bull-dog fighting, and a great deal of it, yet remains to be done. Therefore, I shall expect you on any and all occasions to make bloody results."
On September 27, 1864, Sherman wrote to Gen. John Hood, the Confederate commander of the Army of Tennessee, and announced, "I have deemed it to the interest of the United States that the citizens now residing in Atlanta should remove, those who prefer it to go south and the rest north." Sherman's comments could have been a model for the Serbian leaders who drove ethnic Albanians out of Kosovo.
On October 9, 1864, Sherman wrote to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant: "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. I can make the march, and make Georgia howl." Sherman lived up to his boast - and left a swath of devastation and misery that helped plunge the South into decades of poverty.
Scorched-earth tactics were also used in the Shenandoah Valley in 1864-65. On September 28, 1864, Gen. Phil Sheridan ordered one of his commanders to "leave the valley a barren waste." General Grant ordered Union troops to "make all the valleys south of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad a desert as high up as possible ... eat out Virginia clear and clean ... so that crows flying over it for the balance of the season will have to carry their provender with them." Union Gen. Wesley Merritt proudly reported to Sheridan on December 3, 1864, that "the destruction in the valley, and in the mountains bounding it, was most complete."
Such tactics were typical towards the end of the war. On December 19, 1864, a Union colonel reported that he had followed orders "to desolate the country from the Arkansas River to Fort Scott, and burn every house on the route." In the same month, a major general with the Army of the Potomac noted the success of a Union expedition south of Petersburg, Virginia: "Many houses were deserted contained only helpless women and children ... almost every house was set on fire."
Many Union officers were horrified at the wanton destruction their armies inflicted on the South. On March 8, 1865, Gen. Cyrus Bussey reported:
"There are several thousand families within the limits of this command who are related to and dependent on the Arkansas soldiers in our service. These people have nearly all been robbed of everything they had by the troops of this command, and are now left destitute and compelled to leave their homes to avoid starvation.... In most instances everything has been taken and no receipts given, the people turned out to starve, and their effects loaded into trains and sent to Kansas."
