Friday, October 3, 1862

Memphis, Tennessee

The armies of the rebels have invaded Kentucky under Bragg and Kirby Smith. When I was in command in Kentucky, this was just what I feared. The rebels outnumbered us and could have easily defeated us and gone to the Ohio River last year. By bluff and bluster, we held them back from doing so. Now, the people of the North can see that I was not crazy, that I was not exaggerating the numbers of troops needed to hold Kentucky. I sent this letter to my Brother, Senator John Sherman:

TO JOHN SHERMAN

Memphis October 1, 1862
Dear Brother,

I did not expect you would come after the Confederates got possession of Kentucky, for even on the Mississippi the Boats are fired on daily. I have been compelled to burn down one town & resort to retaliation. I understand General Prentiss has ordered back from Helena a part of the forces towards St. Louis on the ground that Confederates are again advancing on Missouri.

I rather think you now agree with me that this is no common war, that it was not going to end in a few months or a few years, for after 18 months of war the enemy is actually united, armed and determined, with powerful forces well handled disciplined & commanded on the Potomac, the Ohio, and Missouri. You must now see that I was right in not seeking prominence at the outstart. I knew & know yet that the northern people have to unlearn all their experience of the past thirty years & be born again before they will see the truth.

Newspapers & Politicians have such influence that even you would throw overboard such men as Halleck, McClellan, Wright & others and take up Fremont, Hunter & Cassius Clay, because these are radical men. Now in Revolutions, extremes must for a time prevail and this war has soon got to that. North vs. South. Free vs. Slave labor. Now put Fremont in my place here. What would he do with refugee negroes? Would he attempt to feed them in idleness? What could he do with them? They are free, but freedom don’t clothe them, feed them & shelter them. I admit these things are beyond my comprehension. I don’t see where they end. The President declares negroes free, but makes no machinery by which such freedom is assured. I still see no solution of this Great problem except in theory, and am still resolved to keep my subordinate place.

My theory is that without Government, there is no property. That we must have a Government. That two Rival Governments cannot exist in Peace here, and that of necessity one must prevail. Of the two now struggling for existence, the old is the best and can be easiest modeled into the one that will be best adapted to the interests of the People. That of Course the South will not submit until their country is repeopled by a New Race. I think that when we have made one convert during the war we have made ten Enemies.

The President’s Emancipation Proclamation can do no good & but little harm. The South has an united People, and as many men as she can arm, and though our armies pass across & through the land, the war closes in behind and leaves the Same enmity behind. We attempt to occupy places, and the People rise up & make the Detachments prisoners. I know you all recognize in these facts simply that Mason (who served admirably in McClellan’s penninsula campaign) is a coward, Ford an ass, McClellan slow, Buell over-cautious & Wright timid. This may all be so, but the causes lie deeper.

Every body thought I exaggerated the dangers so I have no right to an opinion, but I rather think many now see the character of the war in which we are engaged. I don’t see the end or beginning of the end, but suppose we must prevail or perish. I don’t believe that two nations can exist within our old limits and therefore that war is on us and we must fight it out. I never dreamed of any thing else. You know I always said the war was inevitable but I felt sure that the Republican party brought it on too Soon, and entirely ignorant of the full extent of the work. And also that your leaders gave the Southern Politicians the means of uniting their people on the issues.

Were the work to do over again, I know many would be more cautious and less bold in pushing on the War. It reminds me of a strutting boy in Battle, who when the balls were cutting thick & fast, exclaimed that if Old Crittenden would offer his Compromise again he would vote aye.

When any body tells you that I ever doubted your honesty and patriotism tell him he says false. I may have said you were a politician and that we differed widely in the origin of this war, but that being in it we fully agreed that it must be fought out. But you have more faith than I in the People. They are not infallible. People may err as much as men, as individuals and whole communities may err. Can the People of the North be right, and the South too? One of the Peoples must be wrong.

The People of the North are satisfied with killing the leaders, and by making newspaper armies. Where are the 600,000 men raised this summer? I have not seen a man of them yet. I fear it is a delusion, but every one of that number will be wanted even to recover Virginia, Tennessee & Missouri. These states must be secured & populated by the North before this war is even approximated to an end.

All well & quiet here. Your Brother,
W. T. Sherman