There will be no manufactures, commerce, or agriculture here, for the maintenance of families, and sooner or later want will compel the inhabitants to go. The use of Atlanta for warlike purposes is inconsistent with its character as a home for families. Now I know the vindictive nature of our enemy, that we may have many years of military operations from this quarter and, therefore, deem it wise and prudent to prepare in time. To defeat those armies, we must prepare the way to reach them in their recesses, provided with the arms and instruments which enable us to accomplish our purpose. To stop war, we must defeat the rebel armies which are now arrayed against the laws and Constitution that all must respect and obey. To secure this, we must stop the war that now desolates our once happy and favored country. We must have Peace, not only in Atlanta, but in All America.
#GENERAL SHERMAN FULL#
I have read it carefully, and give full credit to your statements of the distress that will be occasioned, any yet shall not revoke my orders, because they were not designed to meet the humanities of the case, but to prepare for the future struggles in which millions of good people outside of Atlanta have a deep interest. I have your letter of the 11th, in the nature of a petition to revoke my orders removing all the inhabitants from Atlanta.
Wells, representing City Council of Atlanta.
Headquarters Military Division of the Mississippi, in the Field, Atlanta, Georgia, September 12, 1864.
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