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General Smith had an illustrious example.
General W. T. Sherman said: ‘War is hell’; and General Sherman knew, for he certainly endeavored to make it so. On October 29, 1864, General Sherman issued the following official order, viz.:
That order is printed in the war record, serial volumn No. 79, page 494, and each of the instances hereinafter mentioned are likewise not legends, but taken from the same official publication.
On October 19, 1864, he wrote to General James H. Wilson from Summerville, Ga.: ‘I am going into the very bowels of the Confederacy, and propose to leave a trail that will be recognized fifty years hence.’
To Colonel A. Beckwith he wrote of same date: ‘I propose to abandon Atlanta and the railroad back to Chattanooga, and sally forth to ruin Georgia, and bring up on the seashore.’
To General Grant he wrote on that date—‘I am perfecting arrangements to break up the railroad in front of Dalton, .including the city of Atlanta, and push into Georgia, break up all its railroads and depots, capture its horses and negroes and make desolation everywhere.’
All these promises he literally fulfilled, as witness the pages.
of history.
But coming back to Memphis, we find General Sherman issuing the following special orders, No. 283, as shown in war record, No. 17, part 2, page 280:
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Richmond, VA. 1907.
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