.
I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

W. T. SHERMAN, Major-General commanding.

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE TENNESSEE
September 12, 1864

Major-General W. T, SHERMAN, commanding Military Division of the
Mississippi.

GENERAL: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter
of the 9th inst., with its inclosure in reference to the women,
children, and others, whom you have thought proper to expel from
their homes in the city of Atlanta. Had you seen proper to let the
matter rest there, I would gladly have allowed your letter to close
this correspondence, and, without your expressing it in words,
would have been willing to believe that, while "the interests of
the United States," in your opinion, compelled you to an act of
barbarous cruelty, you regretted the necessity, and we would have
dropped the subject; but you have chosen to indulge in statements
which I feel compelled to notice, at least so far as to signify my
dissent, and not allow silence in regard to them to be construed as
acquiescence.

I see nothing in your communication which induces me to modify the
language of condemnation with which I characterized your order. It
but strengthens me in the opinion that it stands "preeminent in the
dark history of war for studied and ingenious cruelty." Your
original order was stripped of all pretenses; you announced the
edict for the sole reason that it was "to the interest of the
United States." This alone you offered to us and the civilized
world as an all-sufficient reason for disregarding the laws of God
and man. You say that "General Johnston himself very wisely and
properly removed the families all the way from Dalton down." It is
due to that gallant soldier and gentleman to say that no act of his
distinguished career gives the least color to your unfounded
aspersions upon his conduct. He depopulated no villages, nor
towns, nor cities, either friendly or hostile. He offered and
extended friendly aid to his unfortunate fellow-citizens who
desired to flee from your fraternal embraces. You are equally
unfortunate in your attempt to find a justification for this act of
cruelty, either in the defense of Jonesboro, by General Hardee, or
of Atlanta, by myself. General Hardee defended his position in
front of Jonesboro at the expense of injury to the houses; an
ordinary, proper, and justifiable act of war. I defended Atlanta
at the same risk and cost. If there was any fault in e