Page:American Historical Review vol. 6.djvu/482

472 J. F. Rhodes " the very handsome depot, railroad hotel and three or four large storehouses." A negro from whom Sherman asked information regarding the operations of the right wing, thus described what he had seen: "First there come along some cavalrymen and they burned the depot ; then come along some infantry men and they tore up the track and burned it ; and just before I left they sot fire to the well." It was the policy of the general to forbear destroying private property, but in one important case he deviated from the rule. Stopping for the night at a plantation he discovered to be- long to Howell Cobb, Buchanan's Secretary of the Treasury, he sent back word to the corps commander, "spare nothing." In nearly all of his despatches after he reached the sea he gloated over the destruction of property, giving in the one to Halleck the most emphatic statement of the damage which had been done. " We have consumed the corn and fodder in the region of country thirty miles on either side of a line from Atlanta to Savannah as also the sweet potatoes, cattle, hogs, sheep and poultry, and have carried away more than 10,000 horses and mules as well as a countless number of their slaves. I estimate the damage done to the State of Georgia and its military resources at $100,000,000 ; at least g 20,000,000 of which has inured to our advantage and the re- mainder is simple waste and destruction. This may seem a hard species of warfare but it brings the sad realities of war home to those who have been directly or indirectly instrumental in involving us in its attendant calamities." Well might he say afterwards, "War is hell." Various orders given from time to time show that there was not only lawless foraging but that there was an unwarranted burning of buildings. A more serious charge against the men of this Western army is pillage. Sherman admits the truth of it and so does General Cox. Since the end of the campaign Sherman had heard of jewelry being taken from women and is of the opinion that these depredations were committed by parties of foragers usually called " bummers." Cox dubs with that name the confirmed and habitual stragglers to whom he ascribes a large part of the irregular acts. Some of the pilfering was undoubtedly due to the uncontrollable American desire for mementos of places visited which were con- nected with great events. Moreover while three and one half years of civil war had built up an effective fighting machine, they had caused a relaxation in the rules of right conduct among its mem- bers so that it had come to be considered proper to despoil any- one living in the enemy's country ; but there was a sincere desire on the part of the commander and his officers to restrain the soldiers