William Boynton, Sherman's Historical Raid

[242] in the West, except through rebel authorities, who, of course, could not be relied on. I repeat that my suggestions had reference only to the facts and wishes of the Government as known to me at the time, and was intended in no respect to reflect upon, or be disrespectful to General Sherman. If I had been able to communicate with General Sherman, or had known at the time the condition of affairs in North Carolina, there would have been no necessity or occasion for any suggestion to you, and most probably none would have been made.

With these remarks, I respectfully submit that General Sherman's report, so far as he refers to me, is unjust, unkind, and contrary to military usage, and that his statements are contrary to the real facts of the case. I beg leave further to remark that I have, in no way, shape, or manner, criticised or reflected upon General Sherman's course in North Carolina, or upon his truce, or as General Grant styles it ‘arrangement’ with Johnston and Breckinridge, but have simply acted upon the orders, instructions, and expressed wishes of my superiors as communicated to me, and as I understand them.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

H. W. Halleck, Major-General

The same officer who captured the original of Mr. Reagan's draft of the rejected terms, also secured the written opinions of the different members of Mr. Davis' Cabinet, rendered in accordance with his request, made at the session of his Cabinet held on the 21st of April, at Charlotte, N. C. All reviewed the situation at length.

A few extracts from these opinions will serve to show that the rebel Cabinet held substantially the same views of the scope of Sherman's terms as, according to Mr. Stanton, were entertained at Washington.

Mr. Reagan wrote:

* * * * ‘The agreement under consideration secures to our people, if ratified by both parties, the uninterrupted continuance of the existing State Governments; the guarantees of the Federal Constitution, and of the Constitutions of their respective States; the guarantee of their political rights, and of their rights of person, and property, and immunity from future prosecutions, and penalties for their participation in the existing war, on the condition that we accept the Constitution and Government of the United States, and disband our armies by marching the troops to their respective States, and depositing their arms in the State arsenals, subject to the future control of that Government, but with a verbal understanding that they are only to be used for the preservation of peace and order in the respective ’