Camp Near Vicksburg, Mch 3, 1863.

 

Dear Phil.

            Yours of Feb 23 is received. I did not and do not intend to quit the Service unless I find the Press influences the powers above me or those below me. I feel every assurance that my own command puts in me the same confidence as before. They have the means to know & feel the falsehood of the facts reported and the false deductions therefrom. I know that in M^cDowell's, Sunmer's & Franklins cases the President did allow a cl[?] to influence him and presumed he would in my case, and knowing as I well do that reputation can be more easily acquired near home than abroad I made up my mind I would no longer submit to this blind abuse. The Army is now well stocked with General Officers most of them prefer service north of the Ohio where they can criticize and find fault with their fellows nearer the front and why should not they come and vindicate their prowess in the rain & mud of actual warfare instead / in cheap newspapers. Our Government have now spent two years of valuable time and near two thousand millions of dollars in arriving at a conclusion that was plain to any man who had ever been South, and the late Conscription Act is the first sensible move I have yet seen. We have from the start been compelled to combat superior forces and to operate in a country full of natural difficulties, whose population was & is deadly hostile, whilst our own people have been more intent in building up and pulling down characters than in defeating the enemy.

 

            If we have ever approached an end to this I will serve with as much zeal as ever, but if I find that the same game is to be continued, that men come to the Army for political advantage in the hereafter, preventing the truth, distorting facts, and belying all who stand in the way of their fancied glory, I will quit.

 

            If politicians want fame let them win it, if newspapers know but how to maneuver & fight, why for gods sake let them pitch in. There is fighting / enough for them all. If the people prefer to believe deserters, spies & sneaks, I cant help it, and as they pay the bill I suppose they have the right to play the game according to their own notions. I will not serve a Cause bolstered up by a set of sneaks and miscreants. The Army is tongue tied, but if I mistake not the day will come when a man who has not fought his share will be debarred his share in the Government. We all feel that it is wrong for us to have all the risks, dangers and privations, besides the abuse & misrepresentation and allow these to [?] us.

 

            Jeff Davis has his people well in hand, his Army is well organized, trained and disciplined, and nothing keeps the war from the well stocked plains & valleys of the North but the Armies in the Field. Yet our people plot & plan regardless of our opinions or wishes—never think ahead—but wait till the emergency comes and then complain of us. The whole people of the South are armed & enlisted in this cause and if the North wish to succeed as succeed they must, they must unite as one man and not underrate the / magnitude of their task. All that has hitherto been done is in the way of education, and the war is yet to be fought.

 

            We will not take Vicksburg by any combinations yet made, but may by means of the Yazoo River reach land, so as to make Vicksburg untenable. I sent Ellen my map, which is the best extant which will enable you to follow events. The loss of the Queen of the West & Indianola ar is a very serious one, as it gives the enemy again the use of the river below Vicksburg and above Port Hudson, embracing the mouth of Red River.

 

            If I see the least symptom of a want of confidence in Grant or the President or in my own Corps, I will of course resign, and really am I tired of the vacillating policy of our government & people, & sorry that I am embarked on a voyage so sure to be disastrous to the first actors.

 

            All have very good health now and send love to the folks at home—Ellen writes very often and I write to her almost daily.

                                                                       

Affectionately             W. T. Sherman

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