William T. Sherman

Civil War-dated ALS signed “W. T. Sherman, Maj. Gen. Comd'g,” three pages on two adjoining sheets, 7.75 x 9.75, Head-Quarters, Military Division of the Mississippi letterhead, February 21, 1865. Handwritten letter to Maj. Gen. Hugh Judson Kilpatrick, relating to operations in South Carolina. In part: "I presume you now to be about Lemon's or or Buckhead P.O. and base my present calculations on that supposition. I would like you to move with your whole force to the neighborhood of Black Station Depot or Springwell P.O. taking position & maneuvering so as to seem to be the advance of the whole army in the direction of Chesterfield and Charlotte, and to cover General Davis' operations in breaking up the Railroad as far as he can during tomorrow & next day. As soon as David withdraws to cross the Catawba, move with him and cross to the east bank…

I would like to have the RR Bridge across Broad River at the mouth of Tiger burned, and think the enemy himself will burn it if you approach it or send a small party to threaten it. Also several of the bridges & trestles on the same railroad below where it crosses Broad River about Ashford's Ferry and Dawkins. I hope you have already damaged that Road considerably. I wish, as a rule, whenever you are near a Railroad you will unless cautioned otherwise have your men burn bridges, depots, and water-tanks and break switches.—also all sawmills should be destroyed, not only burned, but the engines and boilers disabled.

Davis will be near you and will be at hand in case of need, but I don't want you to be drawn off so that you cannot have your trains & men ready to piss the pontoons during the night of the 23rd. Better caution your commanders so as to keep in the foragers, else they will be left behind, as some were about Columbia. I will be with this wing some days, and should like to see you. Either here or better at the Bridge in crossing the Catawba." In fine condition, with a few scattered small stains.

Written just days after the fall of Columbia, this battlefield letter belongs to the climactic phase of Sherman’s Carolinas Campaign, the final destructive sweep that followed his March to the Sea. Addressed to Maj. Gen. Hugh Judson Kilpatrick, it captures Sherman actively directing cavalry movements in South Carolina while coordinating with General Davis’s operations against Confederate rail lines. The letter reflects the fluid, fast-moving nature of the campaign, with specific references to strategic points as Sherman pressed northward toward North Carolina in the closing weeks of the war.

Most significantly, the letter provides vivid, firsthand evidence of Sherman’s 'hard war' strategy. He explicitly orders the systematic destruction of railroads, bridges, depots, water tanks, and sawmills—directing not only that structures be burned, but that engines and boilers be disabled to ensure lasting damage to Confederate infrastructure. Such instructions illustrate the deliberate dismantling of the South’s logistical and industrial capacity that defined Sherman’s campaigns of 1864–65. Written less than seven weeks before Lee’s surrender at Appomattox, the letter stands as a powerful operational document from the war’s final chapter, embodying the tactics that helped bring about the Confederacy’s collapse.