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[b]Butcher Grant Pushes Rebs Through North Carolina[/b]
-- [i]Boston Herald[/i] Headline

[b]Grant's Bloody Tactics Not Worth The Results[/b]
-- [i]Baltimore Sun[/i] Editorial Headline

[b]Yankees thirty miles from Atlanta![/b]
-- [i]Charleston Courier[/i] Headline

--

Lt. General Ulysses S. Grant
Federal Army Headquarters
Raleigh, NC

Sam,

I have read the papers from up North today and I am sickened by what I have read. These men are armchair generals who know of none of war's finer details, or of the logistics of combat. If I had my choice I would kill every reporter in the world, but I am sure we would be getting reports from Hell before breakfast. Sam, you stood by me when I was crazy, and I stood by you when you were drunk, and now we stand by each other. This war has been hard fighting, with much more hard fighting to come. The sooner the public accepts that, the sooner we can do our jobs. We will win the war, it will be up to the President to win the peace. As always, I await your comments or orders.

Yours,
Major General W.T. Sherman
Department of the West

--

Maj. General William T. Sherman
Federal Army of Georgia
Marietta, GA

Cump, 

I received your letter the same day as a telegram from the president arrived at my headquarters. President Lincoln's message was brief, but in the same vein as yours. He said he believed in our actions, both in the East and West, and that we should continue pressing the Rebels where we can. Attached with this communique are orders for the next offensive. God be with us both, and I hope to see you in South Carolina soon.

Your friend,
Lt. General U.S. Grant
Commanding General, Federal Army

-

[center][b]An Address to the People of Atlanta[/b][/center]

To the Citizens of Atlanta, 

You cannot qualify war in harsher terms than I will. War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it; and those who brought war into our country deserve all the curses and maledictions a people can pour out. I know I had no hand in making this war, and I know 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. The United States does and must assert its authority, wherever it once had power; for, if it relaxes one bit to pressure, it is gone, and I believe that such is the national feeling. This feeling assumes various shapes, but always comes back to that of Union. Once admit the Union, once more acknowledge the authority of the national Government, and, instead of devoting your houses and streets and roads to the dread uses of war, I and this army become at once your protectors and supporters, shielding you from danger, let it come from what quarter it may. I know that a few individuals cannot resist a torrent of error and passion, such as swept the South into rebellion, but you can point out, so that we may know those who desire a government, and those who insist on war and its desolation.

You might as well appeal against the thunder-storm as against these terrible hardships of war. They are inevitable, and the only way the people of Atlanta can hope once more to live in peace and quiet at home, is to stop the war, which can only be done by admitting that it began in error and is perpetuated in pride. To General Lee, this is your first and only warning: Lay down your arms and declare Atlanta an open city, surrender now and save the entire state of Georgia from turmoil. We don't want your Negroes, or your horses, or your lands, or any thing 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 involved the destruction of your improvements, we cannot help it.

-- Major General William Tecumseh Sherman