Sherman, William Tecumseh (1820-1891) to David D. Porter re: southerners moving to Texas
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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC02501 Author/Creator: Sherman, William Tecumseh (1820-1891) Place Written: Camp before Vicksburg Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 03/30/1863 Pagination: 1 p. 25 x 20 cm + 1 engraving ; b&w ; 24.2 x 15.3 cm Order a Copy
Sherman writes that the enemy "are all moving to Texas with their negroes. God grant all may go there and that our government will open the back door wide and promise to let them stay there in peace." 1 black and white seated engraving of Sherman included.
As the war dragged on, enthusiasm faded and class tensions flared. In the North, the worst mob violence in American history took place in New York City in July 1863, two weeks after the Battle of Gettysburg. About 120 people were killed, mainly by police and soldiers. Irish Catholic immigrants and their children had been egged on by Democratic leaders who told them that Republicans wanted to free the enslaved people in order bring them north to replace Irish workers. During four days of rioting, mobs lynched at least a dozen African American men, destroyed draft offices, burned and looted black neighborhoods and the homes of leading Republicans and abolitionists.
In the South, the imposition of a military draft in April 1862 produced protests that this was "a rich man's war and a poor man's fight." Although the law made all abled-bodied men ages 18 through 35 liable for three years' service, the draft law allowed draftees to pay a substitute to serve for him (the North adopted a similar draft law in March 1863). Further aggravating tension was enactment of the "Twenty Negro Law" in October 1862 which exempted one white man from the draft on every plantation with 20 or more enslaved people.
In the following selection, General William Tecumseh Sherman (120-1891) mentions that some slaveowners were fleeing with their enslaved people to Texas to avoid wartime disruptions.
Headquarters, Military Division of the Mississippi,
In the Field, Savannah, Ga 1865
January 21,
Dear Wilson,
I got yours of January 5, and am glad to reciprocate your Kind expressions. I remember well our talks at the Camp fire at Gaylesville and think we have Cause of personal Congratulation that we have worked out the calculation of that time. I Knocked daylight through Georgia, and in retreating to s[outh] like a sensible man I gathered up some plunder and walked into this beautiful City, whilst you & Thomas gave Hood & Forest, a taste of what they have to Expect by trying to meddle with in Conquered Territory [2] Kirkpatrick did very well and by Circling round pretty freely he Completely bamboozled Wheeler and so befuddled Hardee that he had no idea what was going on. - It is time for me to be off again for Columbia, but it has been raining hard and the Country is all under water, but I will soon be off. Kirkpatrick will have to keep close to our Infantry as Wheeler has a superior force but Kirkpatrick did whip him fairly at Waynesboro and thinks he can do it [ag]ain. I want Thomas to make the trip to Selma but can only give him general instructions.
I know that there is plenty of Forage in Alabama after you get 60 miles south of the Tennessee River all along down the Tombigbee and [3] Black [Rivers] to arrive in large fields of Corn last fall, Also below Talladega on the Coosa. The proper Route is from Decatur & Eastport to Columbia, then Tuscaloosa, Selma, and up the Coosa or Tallapoosa to [text loss]
[written in another hand]
My route north is well inland
Signed
W. T. Sherman
Maj
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