"When men take arms to resist our rightful authority, we are compelled to use force, because all reason and argument cease when arms are resorted to. When the provisions, forage, horses, mules, wagons, etc., are used by our enemy, it is clearly our duty and right to take them, because otherwise they might be used against us.
"In like manner, all houses left vacant by an inimical people, are clearly our right, or such as are needed as storehouses, hospitals, and quarters. But a question arises as to dwellings used by women, children, and non-combatants, So long as non-combatants remain in their houses and keep to their accustomed business, their opinions and prejudices can in no wise influence the war, and, therefore, should not be noticed. But if any one comes out into the public streets and creates disorder, he or she should be punished, restrained, or banished, either to the rear or front, as the officer in command adjudges. If the people, or any of them, keep up a correspondence with parties in hostility, they are spies, and can be punished with death, or minor punishment.
"These are well established principles of war, and the people of the South, having appealed to war, are barred from appealing to our Constitution, which they have practically and publicly defied. They have appealed to war, and must abide its rules and laws.
"The United States, as a belligerent party claiming right in the soil as the ultimate sovereign, have a right to change the population; and it may be, as is, both politic and just, we should do so in certain districts. When the inhabitants persist too long in hostility, it may be both politic and right we should banish them and appropriate their lands to a more loyal and useful population. No man will deny that the United States would be benefitted by dispossessing a single prejudiced, hard-headed, and disloyal planter, and substituting in his place a dozen or more patient, industrious, good families, even if they be of foreign birth. I think it does good to present this view of the case to many Southern gentlemen, who grew rich and wealthy, not by virtue alone of their industry and skill, but by reason of the protection and impetus to prosperity given by our hitherto moderate and magnanimous Government. It is all idle nonsense for these Southern planters to say that they made the South, that they own it, and that they can do as they please,—even to break up our Government and to shut up the natural avenues of trade, intercourse, and commerce.... Whilst I assert for our Government the highest military prerogatives, I am willing to bear in patience that political nonsense of slave-rights, State-rights, freedom of conscience, freedom of press, and such other trash, as have deluded the Southern people into war, anarchy, bloodshed, and the foulest crimes that have disgraced any time or any people.
"I would advise the commanding officers at Huntsville, and such other towns as are occupied by our troops, to assemble the inhabitants and explain to them these plain, self-evident propositions, and tell them that it is for them now to say whether they and their children shall inherit the beautiful land which by the accident of nature has fallen to their share. The Government of the United States has in North Alabama any and all rights which they choose to enforce in war—to take their lives, their homes, their lands, their everything; because they cannot deny that war does exist there; and war is simply power, unrestrained by Constitution or compact. If they want eternal war, well and good; we will accept the issue and dispossess them and put our friends in possession. I know of thousands and millions of good people who, at simple notice, would come to North Alabama and accept the elegant houses and plantations now there. If the people of Huntsville think differently, let them persist in war three years longer, and then they will not be consulted. Three years ago, by a little reflection and patience, they could have had a hundred years of peace and prosperity, but they preferred war. Very well. Last year they could have saved their slaves, but now it is too late: all the powers of earth cannot restore to them their slaves, any more than their dead grandfathers. Next year their lands will be taken—for in war we can take them, and rightfully, too,—and in another year they may beg in vain for their lives. A people who will persevere in war beyond a certain limit ought to know the consequences. Many, many people, with less pertinacity than the South, have been wiped out of national existence."
[CHAPTER XX.]
MERIDIAN.
Freeing the Mississippi—A March of Destruction—Retreat of the Enemy—Polk's Flight from Meridian—Failure of Smith's Expedition—Destroying Rebel Property—Confiscating a Chicken—Results of the Raid—Scenes among the Liberated Negroes—The Red River Expedition.
The Mississippi had been freed from Rebel control by the capture of Vicksburg. To keep it free was the task that now devolved upon Sherman, and to the execution of which he addressed himself with characteristic energy. His plan was to place a number of detachments of his army at various points in the State of Mississippi, to observe the movements of the enemy and operate against him, and then to send a powerful force through the heart of the State, destroying roads and military supplies—a raid of destruction. This campaign he planned during January, 1864. The objective point of the raid was Meridian, Mississippi. It was then the headquarters of General Polk, the Rebel commander in that State, and garrisoned by French's Division of the army. Of the Rebel leaders, Loring was at Canton, Forrest with his cavalry was in the northern counties, and several others were in the neighborhood of the Mississippi.