HDQRS. MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSISSIPPI,
In the Field, Atlanta, September 12, 1864.

General A. J. SMITH, Cairo, Ill.:

I have been trying for three months to get you and Mower to me, but am headed off at every turn. General Halleck asks for you to clean out Price. Can't you make a quick job of it and then get to me? Your command belongs to me, and is only loaned to help our neighbors, but I fear they make you do the lion's share. However, do as General Halleck orders, and as soon as possible come to me. All well.

W. T. SHERMAN,

Major-General, Commanding.

HDQRS. MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSISSIPPI,
In the Field, Atlanta, Ga., September 13, 1864-6. 30 p. m.

(Received 12. 15 a. m. 14th.)

Honorable EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War:

I am very glad to hear the draft will be enforced: First, we need the men; second, they come as privates to fill up our old and tried regiments with their experienced officers already on hand; and THIRD, because the stern enforcement of the law will manifest a power resident in our Government equal to the occasion. Our Government, though a democracy, should in times of trouble and danger by able to wield the most despotic power of a great nation. All well.

W. T. SHERMAN,

Major-General.

HDQRS. MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSISSIPPI,
In the Field, Atlanta, Ga., September 13, 1864.

Major-General HALLECK, Washington, D. C.:

GENERAL: I inclose you a couple of rebel papers of September 9 and 13, which contain articles I would have you and Mr. Stanton to read. In the latter you will find General Hood has published my letter about moving the people of Atlanta and his answer. You will observe he characterizes this removal in somewhat harsh terms, and I feel sure he has made his answer public before it went to the Richmond government, as is required by their official usage. He has, therefore, appealed to the public as a demagogue, and hopes to make capital. Of course, he is welcome, for the more he arouses the indignation of the Southern masses the bigger will be the bill of bitterness they have to swallow. They people of Atlanta are going, and we will have the place for military uses, and not have to engage in a ceaseless wrangle every time we need a house or a site for a battery. The present rebel lines would require a garrison of 30,000 men, whereas we must contract it to the vital points, viz, the railroad and unnecessary storehouses - all of which can be embraced in a circle of quarter the radius and requiring less than a sixth part of that number. I can't use this line of reasoning to a people who have no right to gain such a clue to our future plans and purposes. At some future time I will submit to you the entire correspondence between General Hood and myself on the subject, as also of the special exchange of prisoners not yet concluded, and at the present I send you only my reply* to his insinuations of unprecedented cruelty toward the families

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*See Sherman to Hood, September 10, p. 416.

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