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Sherman, William Tecumseh (1820-1891) to Charles A. Morton

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC03780 Author/Creator: Sherman, William Tecumseh (1820-1891) Place Written: Washington, D.C. Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 9 January 1880 Pagination: 4 p. ; 20.3 x 12.8 cm. Order a Copy

Commander in Chief of the Army Sherman writes to Colonel Morton regarding the destruction incurred on Sherman's March to the Sea. He discusses the term "Sherman's Monuments" for the chimneys left after houses burnt down, claims that he never sanctioned the burning of a private dwelling, and states that there was more desolation in Vicksburg and the Shenandoah Valley left by Grant's troops. He dismisses Southern politicians who decry vandalism in the South during the war, seeing such destruction as something the South brought upon itself.

Headquarters Army of the United States.
Washington, D.C., Jan 9 1880
Col Chas. A. Morton,
St Paul Minn.
Dear Morton,
I received this morning a St. Paul Newspaper containing your letter of Jan 4. - about the newspaper paragraph to the Effect that Genl Grant on his trip South, pointed out the chimneys of a burned house as one of "Sherman's Monuments." I have recd other letters on the same [2] subject and infer that some of the newspapers have given more importance to the casual remark
of Genl Grant than it merits. - I attach no importance to it at all, for if made at all, it was jocular. Such chimneys are habitually called Sherman's Monuments. just as the twisted rails used to be called Shermans "corkscrews," and "hair pins." These have disappeared because the iron could be used again but some of the chimneys [3] remain because the people have not the Enterprise to rebuild the houses. I am willing they should remain as monuments of the folly & madness of a people who appealed from peaceful tribunals to the dread Code of War. I never sanctioned the burning of a private dwelling anywhere - but I do know that houses & private property were destroyed by the Enemy, as well as by our troops - that more desolation existed around Vicksburg, and [4] in the Shenandoah Valley, under General Grant's immediate command than along our Route in Georgia & the Carolinas.
Some of the Southern Politicians try to make Capital out of the vandalism of the Yankees, but they don't say that they made war, dared & defied us to come South, threatening to kill & mutilate us, &c &c, and then when war came home to them, they whined and complained of the inevitable consequences of their own Act - to such I only feel contempt, but for the more manly who now are engaged in building up, I feel friendship and respect.
your friend,
W.T. Sherman

Sherman, William T. (William Tecumseh), 1820-1891
Morton, Charles A., fl. 1880

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