Note: A reader in the TMVI of this letter has doubted it's authenticity. It was e-mailed to me by the fellow named at the bottom of this letter. To try to get more varification of this letter I sent him this e-mail letter on 6/8/00.

Mr Coleman-

I have recieved your e-mail that was the Yankee letter from Shermans' Army on their march to the Sea. I am a member of the SCV and SgtMjr of the Trans-Miss Volunteer Infantry Battalion reenacting group. This group has in excess of 300 members.

I recently put this letter on our site for others to read but I had to pull it back down as one fellow commented and complained --- he doubted that this letter was real. He said that the way the guy writes is not of the period. He also says this letter may be some misinformation put out by hate groups such as the Klan.

As my family had some dealings with Sherman, I was happy to put his bit of info on the sites I have access to. However, if you have any varification or history on this letter it would help me put down it's detractors.

Dixie Forever,
Preston Ware

Mr Coleman promptly replied to my e-mail. He sent me these letters and articles from Southern Historical Society Papers.

This letter was first published October
29, 1883, in
THE STATESMAN, an Alderson, West Virginia newspaper. Later, it
appeared in the Southern Historical Society Papers, Vol. XII, page 113,

Southern Historical Society Papers.
Volume XII. Richmond, Va., March, 1884. No. 3.
How they made South Carolina "Howl!" --
Letter from one of "Sherman's Bummers."

(From the Alderson Statesman, West Va., of October 29th, 1883.)
The following letter was found in the streets of Columbia after the army of
General Sherman had left. The original is still preserved and can be shown
and substantiated, if anybody desires. We are indebted to a distinguished
lady of this city for a copy, sent with a request for publication. We can
add nothing in the way of comment on such a document. It speaks for itself:

Camp near Camden, S. C.,

Feb 26, 1865.

My dear wife--I have no time for particulars. We have had a glorious
time in this State. Unrestricted license to burn and plunder was the
order of the day. The chivalry have been stripped of most of their valuables. Gold watches,
silver pitchers, cups, spoons, forks, &c., are as common in camp as
blackberries.
The terms of plunder are as follows: Each company is required to exhibit
the results of its operations at any given place--one-fifth and first choice
falls to the share of the commander-in-chief and staff; one-fifth to the
corps commanders and staff; one-fifth to field officers of regiments, and
two-fifths to the company.
Officers are not allowed to join these expeditions without disguising
themselves as privates. One of our corps commanders borrowed a suit of
rough clothes from one of my men, and was successful in this place. He
got a large quantity of silver (among other things an old-time milk pitcher)
and a very fine gold watch from a Mrs DeSaussure, at this place. DeSaussure was one of the F. F. V.s of South Carolina, and was made to fork over
liberally..Officers over the rank of Captain are not made to put their
plunder in the estimate for general distribution. This is very unfair,
and for that reason, in order to protect themselves, subordinate officers and
privates keep back every thing that they can carry about their persons,
such as rings, earrings, breast pins, &c., of which, if I ever get home, I
have about a quart. I am not joking--I have at least a quart of jewelry for
you and all the girls, and some No. 1 diamond rings and pins among them.

General Sherman has silver and gold enough to start a bank. His share in gold
watches alone at Columbia was two hundred and seventy-five. But I said I
could not go into particulars. All the general officers and many besides
had valuables of every description, down to embroidered ladies' pocket
handkerchiefs. I have my share of them, too. We took gold and silver
enough from the damned rebels to have redeemed their infernal currency twice
over.
This, (the currency), whenever we came across it, we burned, as we
considered it utterly worthless.

I wish all the jewelry this army has could be carried to the "Old Bay
State". It would deck her out in glorious style; but, alas! it will be
scattered all over the North and Middle States. The damned niggers, as a
general rule, prfer to stay at home, particularly after they found out
that we only wanted the able-bodied men, (and to tell the truth, the youngest
and best-looking women). Sometimes we took off whole families and plantations
of niggers, by way of repaying secessionists. But the useless part of them
we soon manage to lose, sometimes
in crossing rivers, sometimes in other ways.

I shall write to you again from Wilmington, Goldsboro', or some other
place in North Carolina. The order to march has arrived, and I must close
hurriedly. Love to grandmother and aunt Charlotte. Take care of yourself
and children. Don't show this letter out of the family.
Your affectionate husband, Thomas J Myers, Lieut., &c

.
P.S. I will send this by the first flag of truce to be mailed, unless I
have an opportunity of sending it at Hilton Head. Tell Sallie I am saving a
pearl bracelet and ear-rings for her; but Lambert got the necklace and breast
pin of the same set. I am trying to trade him out of them. These were taken from the Misses Jamison, daughters of the President of the South Carolina
Secession Convention. We found these on our trip through Georgia."

End of
Letter.

From: "Elijah S. Coleman"

After the above letter was published a former Union Col. replied to the Southern Historical Society Papers. He stated the letter was in fact a fake and "made a good case". The following letter is the Southern Historical Society Papers' reply to his letter.

This letter was published in the Southern Historical Society Papers, in
March, 1884.

About a year thereafter, one Colonel Henry Stone, styling
himself "Late Brevet-Colonel U. S. Volunteers, A. A. G. Army of the
Cumberland," realizing the gravity of the statements contained in this
letter, and the disgrace these, if uncontradicted, would bring on General
Sherman and his army, and especially on the staff, of which he (Colonel
Stone) was a member, wrote a letter to the Rev. J. William Jones, D. D., the
then editor of the Historical Society Papers, in which he undertook to show
that the Myers letter was not written by any officer in General Sherman's
>army. (This letter can be found in Vol. 13, S. H. S. Papers, page 439.) The
>reasons assigned by Colonel Stone were plausibly set forth, and Dr. Jones,
>in his anxiety to do justice even to Sherman's "bummers," after publishing
>Colonel Stone's letter, said editorially, he was "frank to admit that
>Colonel Stone seems to have made out his case against the authenticity of
>this letter." If the matter had rested here, we would not have thought of
>using this letter in our report, notwithstanding the fact (1) that we think
>the letter bears the impress of genuineness on its face; (2) it is vouched
>for by what Dr. Jones termed a "responsible source," and what the first
>paper publishing it cited as a "distinguished lady," who, it also stated,
>said that the original was "still preserved and could be shown and
>substantiated ;" (3) the statements contained in Colonel Stone's letter are
>only his statements, uncorroborated and not vouched for by any one, or by
>any documentary evidence of any kind, and being those of an alleged
>accomplice, are not entitled to any weight in a court of justice; (4) we
>think the reasons assigned by Colonel Stone for the non-genuineness of this
>letter are for the most part not inconsistent with its genuineness; and (5)
>some of his statements are, apparently, inconsistent with some of the facts
>as they appear in the records we have examined, e. g., He says "that of the
>ninety regiments of Sherman's army, which might have passed on the march
>near Camden, S. C., but a single one--a New Jersey regiment--was from the
>Middle States. All the rest were from the West. A letter (he says) from the
>only Thomas J. Myers ever in the army would never contain such a phrase,"
>referring to the fact that Myers had said this stolen jewelry, &c., would be
>scattered "all over the North and Middle States." Sherman's statement of the
>organization of his army on this march shows there were several regiments in
>it from New York and Pennsylvania, besides one from Maryland and
><shv29_114>one from New Jersey (all four Middle States). But we think this,
>like other reasons assigned by Colonel Stone, are without merit.
>But, as we have said, notwithstanding all these things which seemingly
>discredit the reasons assigned by Colonel Stone for the non-genuineness of
>this letter, we should not have used the letter in this report, had not the
>substantial statements in it been confirmed, as we shall now see.

The Myers'letter was first published on October 29, 1883. On the 31st of July, 1865,
>Captain E. J. Hale, Jr., of Fayetteville, N. C., who had been on General
>James H. Lane's staff, and who is vouched for by General Lane as "an elegant
>educated gentleman," wrote to General Lane, telling him of the destruction
>and devastation at his home, and in that letter he makes this statement:
>"You have doubtless heard of Sherman's 'bummers.' The Yankees would have you
>believe that they were only the straggling pillagers usually found in all
>armies. Several letters written by officers of Sherman's army, intercepted
>near this town, give this the lie.
>"In some of these letters were descriptions of the whole bumming process,
>and from them it appears that it was a regularly organized system, under the
>authority of General Sherman himself; that one-fifth o£ the proceeds fell to
>General Sherman, another fifth to the other general officers, another fifth
>to the line officers, and the remaining two-fifths to the enlisted men."
>Now, compare this division of the spoils with that set forth in the Myers'
>letter, published, as we have said, eighteen years later, and it will be
>seen that they are almost identical, and this statement was taken, as
>Captain Hale states, from "several letters written by officers of Sherman's
>army," intercepted near Fayetteville, N. C., and as we have said, they
>confirm the statements of the Myers' letter, and its consequent genuineness,
>to a remarkable degree. It is proper, also, to state, that we have recently
>received a letter from Dr. Jones, in which he states that after carefully
>considering this whole matter again, he is now satisfied that he was
>mistaken in his editorial comments on Colonel Stone's letter, that he is now
>satisfied of the genuineness of the Myers' letter, and that in his opinion
>we could use it in this report "with perfect propriety and safety." (*)
><shv29_115>
>We have discussed this letter thus fully because we feel satisfied that the
>annals of warfare disclose nothing so venal and depraved.

Present Day Comments

"The Civil War Day By Day An Almanac" by E.B. Long and Barbara Long
Foreword by
Bruce Catton
p. 643 Thursday Feb. 23rd
"There was a skirmish near Camden. But heavy rains now set in, causing
delays until
the 26th, although some movement continued."

As you can see, the Yankees were in Camden on the same day the letter
was written near Camden.