On my return from Atlanta last evening, I found three letters awaiting me

Joseph Culver Letter, September 13, 1864, Page 1[google-map-v3 width=”400″ height=”300″ zoom=”12″ maptype=”hybrid” mapalign=”right” directionhint=”false” language=”default” poweredby=”false” maptypecontrol=”false” pancontrol=”false” zoomcontrol=”true” scalecontrol=”false” streetviewcontrol=”false” scrollwheelcontrol=”false”  addmarkermashupbubble=”false” addmarkerlist=”33.866348; -84.46611{}1-default.png” bubbleautopan=”true” showbike=”false” showtraffic=”false” showpanoramio=”false”]

Head Quarters, Co. “A” 129th Regt. Ills. Vols. Infty.
Chattahoochie River, Ga. September 13th 1864
My Dear Wife

On my return from Atlanta last evening, I found three letters awaiting me. I am most happy to hear that you enjoy such good health, and feel thankful to “Our Father” for the continued manifestation of “His” love and mercy so richly bestowed upon us. Your letters were dated respectively 27th, 29th, & 31st. I also recd. Chicago papers to the 3d inst. How greatly God has blessed us in all things.

I wrote a short note from the Hospital in Atlanta yesterday but had to send it without an envelope. Atlanta looked very desolate yesterday. Genl. Sherman ordered all the citizens to leave and gave them their choice to go North or South.1 1,000 teams started out to Rough & Ready loaded with families with a little furniture allowed to each. They seemed in good spirits generally, except some few women who had several children and seemed quite delicate in health. All the Ambulances of the Army were sent out also, some of them filled with fair looking ladies.

The city is not over half as large as Nashville,2 but is very much scattered and in prosperous times was doubtedly a very pleasant place. I was only in the city a few hours. All that portion North of the square is very much injured with the shells, many houses are utterly ruined and quite a number burned to the ground. A majority of the principal business places are very seriously injured. There has been some fine gardens, but they are almost wholly destroyed. The citizens have dug large holes in their yards in which to protect themselves from shells. Nearly all the houses are vacated.

There are a few families which could not be moved at present. I saw one or two with very small infants & several whose condition would preclude the possibility of their being removed with safety; such, I presume, will be allowed to remain.

I am very much surprised that the Rebel Army should destroy all their commissary stores and abandon the wives and families of their soldiers to starvation. Had they left even a short supply, it had not been necessary to adopt such harsh measures as this seems to be. But it would be a matter of impossibility to take care of them here with our long base of supplies open to interruption all the time, and they did not wish to be sent North.3

I have not received Maggie’s promised letter yet, but hope it may arrive by next mail. I am almost satisfied that I shall get no opportunity to visit home this season. We are preparing rapidly for the fall Campaign, and it will doubtless open by the 1st of next month.

I have had no letters from home except the one from Harry and Jennie [Cheston], which I mentioned ten days ago. I have not heard from Bro. John [Murphy] since about the 20th of last month. I sent Seph. Ullery out [to] the front yesterday evening and expect to hear from him in a few days.4 I must close for the present but will try and add some this afternoon.

Till then, Good bye. I will write to-night. May our Father in Heaven keep & bless you and our child. We are all well.

Your affect. Husband
J. F. Culver

  1. General Sherman, having “resolved to make Atlanta a pure military garrison or depot, with no civil population to influence military measures, issued orders deporting all citizen and family residents.” In notifying General Hood of his decision on September 7, Sherman announced that those who preferred could go south and the rest north. For the latter the Union would “provide food and transportation to points of their election in Tennessee, Kentucky, or farther north.” For the former, he would “provide transportation by cars as far as Rough and Ready, and also wagons; but that their removal may be made with as little discomfort as possible, it will be necessary for you to help the families from Rough and Ready to the cars at Lovejoy’s.” The refugees would be allowed to take with them their moveable property (clothing, trunks, reasonable furniture, bedding, &c), and their servants, white and black, provided they did not coerce the blacks. Sherman knew that this measure would “raise a howl against my barbarity and cruelty,” and he answered that “war is war, and not popularity-seeking.” General Hood, in agreeing to Sherman’s proposal for a “truce in the neighborhood of Rough and Ready” to facilitate the mass deportation, branded it as “an unprecedented measure,” transcending “in studied and ingenious cruelty, all acts ever brought to my attention in the dark history of war.” On September 10 Sherman announced that pursuant to an agreement made with General Hood, “A truce is hereby declared to exist from daylight of Monday, September 12, until daylight of Thursday, September 22 … at the point on the Macon railroad known as Rough and Ready, and the country round about for a circle of two miles’ radius, together with the roads leading to and from in the direction of Atlanta and Lovejoy’s Station,” for the purpose of affording the people of Atlanta a safe means of removal to points south. Sherman’s chief quartermaster at Atlanta was directed to afford the refugees “all the facilities he can spare to remove them comfortable and safely, with their effects, to Rough and Ready, using cars and wagons and ambulances for that purpose.” O. R., Ser. I, Vol. XXXVIII, pt. V, p. 822; O. R., Ser. I, Vol. XXXIX, pt. II, p. 356; Sherman, Memoirs, II, pp. 111-12. []
  2. In 1861 the population of Atlanta was about 10,000 compared with Nashville’s 37,000. By 1864 the number of people living in Atlanta had burgeoned to 20,000. []
  3. The destruction of the commissary stores did not trigger Sherman’s decision to order the evacuation of Atlanta by the citizens, as J.F.C. supposed. In a letter to Maj. Gen. Henry W. Halleck on September 4, Sherman, in outlining an autumn campaign, announced his proposal “to remove all the inhabitants of Atlanta, sending those committed to our cause to the rear, and the Rebel families to the front.” He would “allow no trade, manufacturers, nor any citizens there at all, so that we will have the entire use of railroad . . ., and also such corn and forage as may be reached by our troops.” O. R., Ser. I, Vol. XXXVIII, pt V, p. 794. []
  4. Company M, 1st Illinois Light Artillery, the unit to which John and Sam Murphy belonged, was camped two miles east of Atlanta, on the Decatur road. Ibid., p. 840. []
This entry was posted in 1864, September. Bookmark the permalink.

Comments are closed.