THE WAR IN GEORGIA: LATER NEWS FROM SHERMAN; His Army between the Ogechee and Savannah Rivers (12/9/1864)

Richmond papers of Tuesday, Dec. 6, received here at the office of the Philadelphia Inquirer, contain the following information of SHERMAN'S movements:

We have reason to believe, from all we have heard, that SHERMAN's army has united and is marching with measured pace toward the Atlantic coast, south or southwest of Millen. We also have reason to anticipate a battle at some point north or northwest of Savannah ere the close of the present week. We learn that an official telegram, received last night, states that Gen. WHEELER had inflicted another severe blow upon the enemy. The locality of this fight is not given for sufficient reasons. It occurred last Sunday morning. One corps of the enemy and KILPATRICK's cavalry, attacked WHEELER in a strong position. They came up boldly to the attack, and made several charges, all of which were repulsed by WHEELER's men, who, though largely outnumbered, maintained their ground and raked down the foe. The dispatch states that the enemy lost heavily, and it was reported that KILPATRICK was wounded.

The two wings of SHERMAN's army united at Milledgeville, where they staid three days. The enemy were under strict discipline, and when privates were found depredating on private property, they were severely punished by order of Gen, Sherman. Of course, stragglers committed depredations with impunity.

The Augusta Chronicle of the 2d says there is much straggling among the Yankees, and prisoners report the men greatly exhausted by their marchings. SHERMAN's force is estimated at thirty thousand infantry and five thousand cavalry. The situation, as indicated for SHERMAN, places him between the Ogeechee and Savannah Rivers, in the neighborhood of Millen,

Free Republic University, Department of History presents U.S. History, 1861-1865: Seminar and Discussion Forum
The American Civil War, as seen through news reports of the time and later historical accounts

First session: November 21, 2015. Last date to add: May 2025.
Reading: Self-assigned. Recommendations made and welcomed.

Posting history, in reverse order

https://www.freerepublic.com/tag/by:homerjsimpson/index?tab=articles

To add this class to or drop it from your schedule notify Admissions and Records (Attn: Homer_J_Simpson) by reply or freepmail.

Link to previous New York Times thread

https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/4283237/posts

The War in Georgia: Later News from Sherman – 2
Gen. Foster’s Operations: The Battle of Honey Hill – 2-3
The War in Tennessee: Erection of a Rebel Battery on the Cumberland River – 3
A Rumor About Forrest-Probable Movement of the Rebels into Kentucky – 3
A Rebel Battery Planted at Harpeth Shoals – 3
Lieut.-Gens. Scott and Grant: Interesting Correspondence – 3
The Battle of Franklin: Details of the Battle at Franklin – 3-4
News from Washington – 4-5
Thirty-Eighth Congress: Second Session – 5-6
Editorial: Sherman’s March – The Topography of Georgia – 6
The Nation’s Development – Report of the Secretary of the Interior – 6
The Financial Position of the Sanitary Commission – 6-7
Lord Lyons – 7
Amusements – 7

These posts make me sick. Calling secessionists “the enemy”.

It probably would have been easier to resist calling the secessionists "the enemy" if, on the way out the door, they didn't try multiple times to assimilate President-elect Lincoln, and if they didn't lay a siege on U.S. island Fort Moultrie and attack Fort Sumter.

On Nov 20, 1860, Lincoln even said that his administration would allow states to control their own affairs. And he traveled then neutral, but pro-slavery Maryland to tell them so. But the war mongering Dims tried multiple times to kill him. Later on March 4, 1861, on his inauguration day Lincoln again says that states will be allowed to handle their own affairs.

On March 8, 1861, Robert Hunter, the new Confederate Sec of Foreign Affairs, proposed that the U.S. could avoid war if they treated the Confederacy as a "belligerent power", not as a new separate nation parting ways with the U.S. It'd be analogous to what Israel has had to put up with since 1948 of having organized groups within their border always at war with Israel, always claiming they need Israel to meet their demands to have peace, but never being satisfied. Calling them "secessionists" would be about as truthful as calling Biden "brilliant"

These events by the 19th century war-mongering Dims were BEFORE they attacked Fort Sumter in April 1861.

Now you know what it was easy to see them as "the enemy".

Don't forget what it was like to be a Christian pushing abolition, and being in one of the "free states". In 1850, the pro-slavery Dims passed the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act. That law allowed US marshalls to go into free states and grab blacks, some of whom were never slaves or ever lived in a slave state. All it took was a slave owner to claim he had a slave flee into a free state. Anyone thought to be helping a "slave" was fined or jailed --- in a free state. This was very much like the SCOTUS in 1973 Roe v Wade and 1992 Casey v Planned Parenthood telling pro-life states they couldn't be pro-life.

Then in 1854 SCOTUS did the Dredd Scott case and said that blacks could never be citizens. Again, this was the Dims at the federal level overreaching and telling states they couldn't have Christian policies of treating people like people.

And in the 1860 election, few Republicans said they wanted to abolish slavery federally. Most said they wanted to get the govt out of the way and let the slaves decide. Lincoln said the same thing (like Trump saying let the states decide on abortion). But that didn't stop the Dims from saying that the Republicans were trying to intervene in states' affairs and free all the slaves (very much like todays Dims warning women that the Republicans will end abortion all over the U.S. and make women sit at the back of the bus or whatever). Also, as I pointed out in the earlier post, President-elect Lincoln traveled and assured states that they'd get decide on their affairs, yet Dims in Dim majority states tried to assassinate him multiple times. Just like Dims tried multiple times to assassinate Trump (though before the election).

So I ask you, a century and a half from now, will someone say Trump won because of "highly greedy Radical Republicans" and claim today's pro-lifers are just "Puritan liberals") like you're saying about the Christian abolition movement? I guarantee you, the famed abolitionist, Pastor Theodore Weld, didn't get rich while earning the nickname "the most mobbed man in America". Elites like Thomas Dewey were writing that the Bible supports slavery, and he must be smart cuz he's the president of William and Mary college, dontcha know. But Pastor Weld wrote The Bible Against Slavery, followed by Slavery As It Is in America, and he toured up and down the eastern part of modern U.S., teaching people to turn to God in more than words, in how we treat other people. The pro-slavery folks physically attacked him, but some listened to him and made freeing their slaves part of their Christian holiness living. Thanks to people like him, the number of free blacks grew even before the Emancipation Proclamation and the 13th Amendment. Elites like Charles Darwin were pushing Darwin's scientific racism (Origin of Species in 1959) while Harriet Beecher Stowe (influenced by Weld's As It Is) was changing people's minds with her Uncle Tom's Cabin.

Don't get me wrong. I don't believe in today's Dims preaching a culture of bitterness towards the past and forever unforgiveness towards the south over slavery. The slave owners are long dead. Nobody pushes slavery or segregation any more. But I do learn from the past. And what I learn is not to look over my shoulder at regions that committed past sins (i.e. the south) but at people who push ideas like people in the past did when comitting atrocities. i.e. Today's "It's not a person. It's just a clump of cells." is just as bad as "It's not a person. It's property."

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