Civil War Terror: Sherman's March To The Sea

[Diane Amberg]

Red, I never met him, he died before I was born. The family said he was very much against slavery, but I can't verify how he felt about the other.
  No, sweat shops are not OK. But, I can't control what other countries do except choose not buy their products if I know about their working conditions. Of course, starving to death isn't alright either. Some have to make that choice I guess.The world can be very ugly sometimes.

[W. Gray]

Missouri was a slave state.

When Lincoln "freed" the slaves, the proclamation had no bearing on the slaves in Missouri or any of the other Union states having slaves, it was business as usual until the Constitution was amended.

Below is a photo of the first courthouse for Jackson County, Missouri, built in 1827 at Independence, the county seat.

There were several bidders involved when the new county advertised for a courthouse.

All the bidders had slaves as their laborers. The winning bid was $150, which is  equal to around $6,500 today.

Slaves built the building and it has been in continuous use since that time housing a county government office or a nonprofit office of some type.

[redcliffsw]

Yankees in Missouri had slaves. 

[W. Gray]

Jackson County was in a belt of counties lying on both sides of the Missouri River across the state known as Little Dixie. All of the slave owners in this area migrated from various southern states.

When I was in high school, two large impressive plantation houses similar to something like Tara still existed. They were both in bad shape and have since been torn down to make way for progress.

Some smaller ones are still around but no one talks much about them. One is used as a business along Highway 40 in Independence.

In the 100 block of north Main Street once stood a slave auction house.

A resident of Independence was Hiram Young, a freed slave. He ran a wagon making business and employed slaves. He was supposed to have turned out several hundred wagons a year. He bought each one of his workers from a slave owner and employed each until they worked their cost out. They were then free to leave or keep working for wages.

Even though this was a successful wagon making operation the location was banned to a distance of one-half mile out of town. 

Young could build a wagon but he could not read or write. He had a business relationship with a local slave owner and town businessman to represent him in legal dealings. I suspect this businessman was a "car dealer" and sold the wagons in town for the great westward migration.

[Diane Amberg]

That's a good example of the indentured servant.Nice information, thank you. Did the people of MO consider themselves Yankees or did confederates label them that way? Why are those labels so important to some people? Who really cares anyway?

[srkruzich]

That's a good example of the indentured servant.Nice information, thank you. Did the people of MO consider themselves Yankees or did confederates label them that way? Why are those labels so important to some people? Who really cares anyway?

You dont know that missouri was a confederate state? :O

Missouri's Ordinance of Secession

"AN ACT declaring the political ties heretofore existing between the State of Missouri and the United States of America dissolved.

WHEREAS, the Government of the United States, in the possession and under the control of a sectional party, has wantonly violated the compact originally made between said government and the State of Missouri, by invading with hostile armies the soil of the State, attacking and making prisoners the militia whilst legally assembled under the State laws, forcibly occupying the State capital, and attempting, through the instrumentality of domestic traitors, to usurp the State governement, seizing and destroying private property, and murdering with fiendish malignity peaceable citizens, men, women, and children, together with other acts of atrocity, indicating a deep settled hostility toward the people of Missouri and their institutions; and,

WHEREAS, the present administration of the government of the United States has utterly ignored the Constitution, subverted the government as constructed and intended by its makers, and established a despotic and arbitrary power instead thereof; Now, therefore,

Be it enacted by the general assembly of the State of Missouri, as follows:

That all political ties of every character now existing between the government of the United States of America and the people and government of the State of Missouri, resuming the sovereignty granted by compact to the said United States upon admission of said State into the Federal Union, does again take its place as a free and independent republic amongst the nations of the earth.

This act to take effect and be in force from and after its passage.

Passed by the Senate, Oct 28, 1861

Passed by the House, Oct 30, 1861


Signed by Governor Claiborne Fox Jackson, Oct 31 1861.

[W. Gray]

Missouri was admitted to the Confederacy and had a provisional rebel government headquartered in Neosho.

But Missouri stayed with the Union.

Here is some additional information about Missouri, and particularly the area where I am from (after Howard):

"Order No. 11 was the most drastic and repressive military measure directed against civilians by the Union Army during the Civil War. In fact, with the exception of the hysteria-motivated herding of Japanese-Americans into concentration camps during World War II, it stands as the harshest treatment ever imposed on United States citizens under the plea of military necessity in our nation's history." Albert Castel, Missouri Historical Review 57, State Historical Society of Missouri, July 1963, 357-368.


President Abraham Lincoln personally approved Order Number 11. The Union army commander in Kansas City issued the order on August 25, 1863, against a predominantly enemy population in Jackson and two other area counties. The order imposed a total depopulation of men, women, and children in the affected area.

Most people in Jackson County were sympathetic to the rebel cause and provided aid and assistance to the Missouri Bushwhackers, an irregular and particularly vicious rebel fighting group. Bushwhackers sometimes included Jesse James, William Quantrill, Bloody Bill Anderson, and others. Order number 11 was an attempt to dissolve the aid.

The order had no direct effect on the citizens of Independence or those living within a mile of Independence, but for the vast majority of those living in Jackson, Cass, and Bates counties; these people without exception had to vacate their homes and farms.

Those who could prove their loyalty to the nearest Union commander received a certificate of such loyalty. A "certified" loyalist could then move into Independence or another military district such as Hickman Mills, Pleasant Hill, or Harrisonville. Loyalists also had the option of moving to the state of Kansas west beyond its eastern column of counties.

It is not that Independence did not have any southern sympathizers, it did. By one account nine-tenths of the people in Jackson County were aiding and abetting the Bushwhackers with food and shelter, ammunition, and Union military movements. However, Union forces occupied Independence and presumably had the rebel population under control.

Those people living in the area of the order who could not or would not prove their loyalty had to move out of the affected counties to wherever they could find. Those who remained were subject to military punishment—forced shipping as far south as Arkansas.

Whether a family was loyal or not, all hay and grain had to be taken to the nearest military district and vacancy completed within fifteen days of the order. If not, the hay and grain were to be destroyed in place by Union forces and those people remaining shipped south.

A story of the Missouri Bushwhackers was most recently told in the 1999 Ang Lee movie "Ride with the Devil" starring Tobey Maguire.

Order number 11 generally had the opposite effect to what was intended.

Bushwhackers could go to any of the vacated farms where they found plenty of hay and grain and much to eat. The hens kept laying and abandoned livestock were roaming at will.

As long as the Bushwhackers stayed ahead of the Union soldiers, who were methodically burning each farm, they had plenty to eat and feed their horses.

Order Number 11 was partially rescinded a few months later in November 1863 by allowing those who had pledged loyalty and those who would pledge an oath of allegiance to the Union to return and rebuild their farms and homes.

[W. Gray]

Here is another photo of mine showing a wall plaque on the wall of the sheriff's office in the 1859 Jail at Independence, Missouri.

[Diane Amberg]

Steve, my question was based on what Red had said about MO Yankees having slaves. I know what I thought I knew, but that confused me. Waldo, thanks for the information. Nicely presented.

[Warph]

MEMOIRS OF GENERAL W. T. SHERMAN
By William T. Sherman
THE MARCH TO THE SEA--FROM ATLANTA TO SAVANNAH--NOVEMBER AND DECEMBER, 1864
CONTENTS

Volume II

ATLANTA CAMPAIGN-NASHVILLE AND CHATTANOOGA TO KENESAW—MARCH, APRIL, AND MAY, 1864

ATLANTA CAMPAIGN—BATTLES ABOUT KENESAW MOUNTAIN—JUNE, 1864  

ATLANTA CAMPAIGN—BATTLES ABOUT ATLANTA—JULY, 1864  

CAPTURE OF ATLANTA—AUGUST AND SEPTEMBER, 1864  

ATLANTA AND AFTER—PURSUIT OF HOOD—SEPTEMBER AND OCTOBER, 1864

THE MARCH TO THE SEA--FROM ATLANTA TO SAVANNAH--NOVEMBER AND DECEMBER, 1864

SAVANNAH AND POCOTALIGO--DECEMBER, 1864, AND JANUARY, 1865

CAMPAIGN OF THE CAROLINAS--FEBRUARY AND MARCH, 1865

END OF THE WAR--FROM GOLDSBORO' TO RALEIGH AND WASHINGTON--APRIL AND MAY, 1865

CONCLUSION--MILITARY LESSONS OF THE WAR

AFTER THE WAR
                                                                       CHAPTER XXI.
                                    THE MARCH TO THE SEA FROM ATLANTA TO SAVANNAH.
                                                   NOVEMBER AND DECEMBER, 1864.

                         


On the 12th of November the railroad and telegraph communications with the rear were broken, and the army stood detached from all friends, dependent on its own resources and supplies. No time was to be lost; all the detachments were ordered to march rapidly for Atlanta, breaking up the railroad en route, and generally to so damage the country as to make it untenable to the enemy. By the 14th all the troops had arrived at or near Atlanta, and were, according to orders, grouped into two wings, the right and left, commanded respectively by Major-Generals O. O. Howard and H. W. Slocum, both comparatively young men, but educated and experienced officers, fully competent to their command.

The right wing was composed of the Fifteenth Corps, Major-General P. J. Osterhaus commanding, and the Seventeenth Corps, Major-General Frank P. Blair commanding.

The left wing was composed of the Fourteenth Corps, Major-General Jefferson C. Davis commanding, and the Twentieth Corps, Brigadier-General A. S. Williams commanding.

The Fifteenth Corps had four divisions, commanded by Brigadier-Generals Charles R. Woods, W. B. Hazen, John E. Smith, and John M. Gorse.

The Seventeenth Corps had three divisions, commanded by Major-General J. A. Mower, and Brigadier-Generals M. D. Leggett ad Giles A. Smith.

The Fourteenth Corps had three divisions, commanded by Brigadier-Generals W. P. Carlin, James D. Morgan, and A. Baird.

The Twentieth Corps had also three divisions, commanded by Brigadier-Generals N. J. Jackson, John W. Geary, and W. T. Ward.

The cavalry division was held separate, subject to my own orders. It was commanded by Brigadier-General Judson Kilpatrick, and was composed of two brigades, commanded by Colonels Eli H. Murray, of Kentucky, and Smith D. Atkins, of Illinois.

The strength of the army, as officially reported, is given in the following tables, and shows an aggregate of fifty-five thousand three hundred and twenty-nine infantry, five thousand and sixty-three cavalry, and eighteen hundred and twelve artillery in all, sixty-two thousand two hundred and four officers and men.

The most extraordinary efforts had been made to purge this army of non-combatants and of sick men, for we knew well that there was to be no place of safety save with the army itself; our wagons were loaded with ammunition, provisions, and forage, and we could ill afford to haul even sick men in the ambulances, so that all on this exhibit may be assumed to have been able-bodied, experienced soldiers, well armed, well equipped and provided, as far as human foresight could, with all the essentials of life, strength, and vigorous action.

The two general orders made for this march appear to me, even at this late day, so clear, emphatic, and well-digested, that no account of that historic event is perfect without them, and I give them entire, even at the seeming appearance of repetition; and, though they called for great sacrifice and labor on the part of the officers and men, I insist that these orders were obeyed as well as any similar orders ever were, by an army operating wholly in an enemy's country, and dispersed, as we necessarily were, during the subsequent period of nearly six months.

[Special Field Orders, No. 119.]
HEADQUARTERS MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSISSIPPI
IN THE FIELD, KINGSTON, GEORGIA, November 8, 1864
The general commanding deems it proper at this time to inform the officers and men of the Fourteenth, Fifteenth, Seventeenth, and Twentieth Corps, that he has organized them into an army for a special purpose, well known to the War Department and to General Grant. It is sufficient for you to know that it involves a departure from our present base, and a long and difficult march to a new one. All the chances of war have been considered and provided for, as far as human sagacity can. All he asks of you is to maintain that discipline, patience, and courage, which have characterized you in the past; and he hopes, through you, to strike a blow at our enemy that will have a material effect in producing what we all so much desire, his complete overthrow. Of all things, the most important is, that the men, during marches and in camp, keep their places and do not scatter about as stragglers or foragers, to be picked up by a hostile people in detail. It is also of the utmost importance that our wagons should not be loaded with any thing but provisions and ammunition. All surplus servants, noncombatants, and refugees, should now go to the rear, and none should be encouraged to encumber us on the march. At some future time we will be able to provide for the poor whites and blacks who seek to escape the bondage under which they are now suffering. With these few simple cautions, he hopes to lead you to achievements equal in importance to those of the past.

By order of Major-General W. T. Sherman, L. M. DAYTON, Aide-de-Camp


[Special Field Orders, No. 120.]
HEADQUARTERS MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSISSIPPI
IN THE FIELD, KINGSTON, GEORGIA, November 9, 1864
1. For the purpose of military operations, this army is divided into two wings viz.:

The right wing, Major-General O. O. Howard commanding, composed of the Fifteenth and Seventeenth Corps; the left wing, Major-General H. W. Slocum commanding, composed of the Fourteenth and Twentieth Corps.

2. The habitual order of march will be, wherever practicable, by four roads, as nearly parallel as possible, and converging at points hereafter to be indicated in orders. The cavalry, Brigadier-General Kilpatrick commanding, will receive special orders from the commander-in-chief.

3. There will be no general train of supplies, but each corps will have its ammunition-train and provision-train, distributed habitually as follows: Behind each regiment should follow one wagon and one ambulance; behind each brigade should follow a due proportion of ammunition-wagons, provision-wagons, and ambulances. In case of danger, each corps commander should change this order of march, by having his advance and rear brigades unencumbered by wheels. The separate columns will start habitually at 7 a.m., and make about fifteen miles per day, unless otherwise fixed in orders.

4. The army will forage liberally on the country during the march. To this end, each brigade commander will organize a good and sufficient foraging party, under the command of one or more discreet officers, who will gather, near the route traveled, corn or forage of any kind, meat of any kind, vegetables, corn-meal, or whatever is needed by the command, aiming at all times to keep in the wagons at least ten days' provisions for his command, and three days' forage. Soldiers must not enter the dwellings of the inhabitants, or commit any trespass; but, during a halt or camp, they may be permitted to gather turnips, potatoes, and other vegetables, and to drive in stock in sight of their camp. To regular foraging-parties must be intrusted the gathering of provisions and forage, at any distance from the road traveled.

5. To corps commanders alone is intrusted the power to destroy mills, houses, cotton-gins, etc.; and for them this general principle is laid down:

In districts and neighborhoods where the army is unmolested, no destruction of each property should be permitted; but should guerrillas or bushwhackers molest our march, or should the inhabitants burn bridges, obstruct roads, or otherwise manifest local hostility, then army commanders should order and enforce a devastation more or less relentless, according to the measure of such hostility.

6. As for horses, mules, wagons, etc., belonging to the inhabitants, the cavalry and artillery may appropriate freely and without limit; discriminating, however, between the rich, who are usually hostile, and the poor and industrious, usually neutral or friendly. Foraging-parties may also take mules or horses, to replace the jaded animals of their trains, or to serve as pack-mules for the regiments or brigades. In all foraging, of whatever kind, the parties engaged will refrain from abusive or threatening language, and may, where the officer in command thinks proper, give written certificates of the facts, but no receipts; and they will endeavor to leave with each family a reasonable portion for their maintenance,

7. Negroes who are able-bodied and can be of service to the several columns may be taken along; but each army commander will bear in mind that the question of supplies is a very important one, and that his first duty is to see to those who bear arms.

8. The organization, at once, of a good pioneer battalion for each army corps, composed if possible of negroes, should be attended to. This battalion should follow the advance-guard, repair roads and double them if possible, so that the columns will not be delayed after reaching bad places. Also, army commanders should practise the habit of giving the artillery and wagons the road, marching their troops on one side, and instruct their troops to assist wagons at steep hills or bad crossings of streams.

9. Captain O. M. Poe, chief-engineer, will assign to each wing of the army a pontoon-train, fully equipped and organized; and the commanders thereof will see to their being properly protected at all times.

By order of Major-General W. T. Sherman,

L. M. DAYTON, Aide-de-Camp.

CONTINUED at:  

http://www.sonofthesouth.net/union-generals/sherman/memoirs/general-sherman-march-sea.htm