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CORRESPONDENCE.ATLANTA LETTER.Correspondence Cincinnati Commercial. The Dead of Sherman’s Army.Atlanta, Ga., May 25.It is with pleasure that I am able to inform your many readers and the friends and relatives of our dead soldiers that the ground has been selected at this place for a National Cemetery, fifty acres, lying between the city limits and the battle-field of the 28th of July, three miles from the City Hall. No better selection around the city could be made, as the ground is well adapted for the purpose, and is susceptible of a great deal of natural ornamentation. As soon as the requisite order can be received from the Quartermaster General the work of laying off and preparing the ground will commence, and it is hoped that within a few weeks preparation for removing our dead heroes to their final resting-place will be made. Will Ohio, and the other States whose dead will be buried here, evince their love and gratitude by the erection of suitable monuments? For the day will certainly come when a better feeling will exist between the people of this broad republic, and thousands from both sections will make pilgrimages to the national cemeteries as the shrine of truth, honor, and invincible loyalty. The aged sire will point to the honored flag, and teach his children to emulate the example of our dead heroes, and that the love of country is man’s noblest duty. Some men cavil at the Southern women for decorating with flowers the graves of their dead. It is woman’s pride that teaches her to love and reverence the memory of the brave and gallant soldier, and I for one sincerely hope that the ladies of Atlanta will succeed in raising sufficient funds for the purpose of carrying out their noble undertaking of gathering together the confederate dead. I am sorry, though, that I can not speak so favorably of some people in the South. There are some people, but I sincerely h»pe vefy few, who seem to be possessed of the instincts of the hyena, and who are without respect for God, man. or the devil. I mean men who make targets of the head-boards of federal dead, and, as happened near Resaca a few days ago, some person or persons pulled up ten head-boards and threw them into a ditch, so that it will be impossible to identify the bodies, and, as yet, it has been impossible to discover the perpetrators of the foul crime. The English language possesses no word sufficiently strong to express a man’*contempt for the abortion on humanity that will desecrate a soldier’s grave. Stringent orders have been issued by General Thomas, commanding the Military Division of the Tennessee, and by the Secretary of War, forbidding persons owning lands upon which Union soldiers are buried from mutilating or obliterating the traces of such graves by plowing or otherwise, making it the duty of post commanders to send information of any breach of these orders to the Quartermaster General. I am sorry to say that, in several places, I have found graves plowed over, and head-boards knocked down by plowing, but, with the exception of a very few cases, it was not the fault of the owners of the land. A great deal of land has been rented to the freedmen, and, strange to say, that, in almost every case of the kind that I have been able to follow up, I find that it was through their willful carelessness and indifference. The pulling up of the head-boards, though, at Resaca, was not the work of the freedmen; they may be careless and indifferent, but I am certain they have too much love for the memory and graves of the dead men who won for them the priceless boon of liberty to commit so foul a crime. I send you another partial list, arranged by States, of soldiers buried in and about Atlanta, including Indiana. Ohio, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Illinois. Minnesota, Michigan, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Kentucky, and a few regular troops. E. McB. T., U. S. Agent.ILLINOIS DEAD.Lieut T W Raub, F,5lst Light Art. died July 22, ’64. Sami B Reed, F, 1st Light Art. died July 20.Sergt C Y Kennedy, F, 1st Light Art, died July 21. John Mays, E, 48th Infantry, died July 21.Stephen Ooten. B. 48th, died July 21.George Clark.G, 48th, died July 21.Lieutenant C C Monroe, B. 48th.Ira White, C. 11th, died September 28.Moses Loe, F, 103d. died July 25.Jared L Cook, C,12th, died July 24.Jonas Denton, H, 66th, died July 24.PCox, K,90th.J E Liston. 1), 116th.Richard Ray. C, 1st, died July 22.John Martin, E, 111th, died July 23.George Deboys, K. 116th, died July 23.Sergeant Alex Dennis. C, 127th, died July 24. James A Bains, G, 55th. died July 25.T Rogers. K,*89th, died in Prison Hospital in 1863.B Stephens. G, 36th, died in Prison Hospital in ’63. Charles S Warner, A, 19th, died, Prison Uosp’l, '63. J Rinde, —, 25th, died in Prison Hospital in ’63.J Dalie, H, 93d. died in Prison Hospital in '63.
Newspaper Details
Cincinnati Commercial
Cincinnati, Ohio, US
Thu, May 31, 1866
Page 4
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
DC, USA 13 Nov 2023
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