"The City of Atlanta, belonging exclusively for warlike purposes, it will at once be vacated by all except the armies of the United States and such civilian employes as may be retained by the proper departments of the Government.... At a proper time full arrangements will be made for a supply to the troops of all the articles they may need over and above clothing, provisions, etc., furnished by Government, and on no pretence whatever will traders, manufacturers, or sutlers, be allowed to settle in the limits of fortified places; and if they manage to come in spite of this notice the quartermaster will seize their stores, apply them to the use of the troops and deliver the parties, or other unauthorized citizens who thus place their individual interest above that of the United States, over to the hands of some provost-marshal, to be put to labor on forts or conscripted into one of the regiments or battery already in service. The same military principles will apply to all military posts south of Atlanta."
If the people of Atlanta had already become panic-stricken, what shall be said of their state of mind when this thunderbolt fell upon them? Consternation is far too weak a word. The Mayor and City Council made a formal and impassioned appeal to Sherman to revoke it. They said, in part:
"At first view, it struck us that the measure would involve extraordinary hardship and loss, but since we have seen the practical execution of it, so far as it had progressed, and the individual condition of many people, and heard their statements as to the inconveniences, loss, and suffering attending it, we are satisfied that it will involve, in the aggregate, consequences appalling and heartrending.
"We know your mind and time are constantly occupied with the duties of your command, which almost deters us from asking your attention to this matter; but thought it might be that you had not considered the subject in all its awful consequences, and that on more reflection you, we hope, would not make this people an exception to all mankind, for we know of no such instance ever having occurred; surely none such in the United States; and what has this helpless people done that they should be driven from their homes, to wander as strangers, outcasts, and exiles, and to subsist on charity?"
To this Sherman replied at considerable length, in explicit and unmistakable terms. He had, he said, read their appeal carefully and he gave full credit to their statements of the distress that was about to be caused to the people of Atlanta. But there were greater issues involved than the personal comfort and welfare of these people. He said:
"I cannot revoke my order. I have to prepare for a future struggle in which millions, yea, hundreds of good people outside of Atlanta have a deep interest. We must have peace, not only in Atlanta, but in all America. To have peace, the Rebel armies must be defeated. To defeat them, we must reach them in their recesses. My military plans make it necessary for the inhabitants to go away, and I can only renew my offer of services to make their exodus in any direction as easy and comfortable as possible.
"War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it. Those who brought war on our country deserve all the curses and maledictions a people can pour out. I had no hand in making this war, and I will make more sacrifices to-day than any of you to secure peace. But you cannot have peace and a division of our country. We don't want your negroes, or your houses, or your land, or anything that you have, but we do want, and will have, a just obedience to the laws of the United States. That we will have, and if it involves the destruction of your improvements we cannot help it.
"You have heretofore read public sentiment in your newspapers. They live by falsehood and excitement, and the quicker you seek for truth in other quarters the better for you. You began this war without one jot or tittle of provocation. I myself have seen in Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Mississippi hundreds and thousands of women and children fleeing from your own armies and desperadoes, hungry and with bleeding feet. In Memphis, Vicksburg, and Mississippi we fed thousands upon thousands of the families of Rebel soldiers, left on our hands, and whom we could not see starve. Now that war comes home to you, you feel very differently—you deprecate its horrors. But you did not feel them when you were sending car-loads of soldiers and ammunition, and were moulding shells and shot to carry war into Kentucky and Tennessee, and desolate the homes of hundreds and thousands of good people who only asked to live in peace at their old homes under the government of their inheritance.
"But, when peace does come, you may call upon me for anything. Then I will share with you the last cracker, and watch with you to guard your homes and families against danger from every quarter. Now you must go, and take with you the old and feeble, feed and nurse them, and build for them in more quiet places proper habitations to shield them against the weather until the mad passions of men cool down, and allow the Union and Peace once more to settle on your old homes in Atlanta."
Sherman also had some correspondence with Hood on the same subject. He notified Hood of the order he had issued and proposed that hostilities be suspended for ten days while the people of Atlanta were being removed. Hood agreed to the truce, saying that he did not consider that he had any alternative in the matter. But he took occasion of this correspondence to denounce Sherman's conduct in the strongest terms, concluding his letter as follows: