When Longstreet Objected to Amnesty Offer for Confederate Soldiers January 1864

Here is an unusual correspondence between Union General J.G. Foster and Confederate General James Longstreet. In December, 1863 Abraham Lincoln had offered an amnesty to, among others, Confederate soldiers who surrendered and took a loyalty oath. The following month, Longstreet found out that his men had somehow obtained handbills printed with the amnesty offer. Longstreet was on detached service in Tennessee, where the Confederates had recently been defeated at Missionary Ridge and where morale was particularly low. Incensed, Longstreet fired off a letter to the Union forces protesting the presence of the amnesty offer among his troops. 

The correspondence seemed so ridiculous that it made its way into the Northern papers, including the New York Times. General Foster forwarded the correspondence to General Halleck in Washington.  Compounding Longstreet’s protest over the handbills themselves was his characterization of the Confederates who might avail themselves of the amnesty. He wrote: 

men who may desert under the promise held out in the proclamation cannot be men of character or standing. If they desert their cause, they disgrace themselves in the eyes of God and of men.

In other words, the Union would not be getting the best class of deserters!

Foster cheekily responded that he understood Longstreet’s concern and accordingly sent twenty copies of the amnesty offer to Longstreet to distribute among his men. Here is how he phrased it:

I accept, however, your suggestion that it would have been more courteous to have sent these documents to you for circulation, and I embrace, with pleasure, the opportunity thus afforded to inclose to you twenty copies…

Below is the complete amnesty correspondence between Foster and Longstreet:

Source: ORR 125 pp. 50-52

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE OHIO, Knoxville, East Tenn., January 26, 1864.

Major General H. W. HALLECK,

General-in-Chief U. S. Army, Washington, D. C.:

GENERAL: I have the honor to inclose copies of correspondence between General Longstreet and myself upon the subject of the amnesty proclamation.

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

J. G. FOSTER,

Major-General, Commanding

(Copies to Major-General Grant same date.)

[Inclosure No. 1.] HDQRS. CONFEDERATE FORCES EAST TENNESSEE, January 3, 1864.

COMMANDING GENERAL U. S. FORCES EAST TENNESSEE:

SIR: I find the proclamation of President Lincoln of the 8th of December last in circulation in handbills amongst our soldiers.* The immediate object of this circulation appears to be induce our soldiers to quit our ranks and take the oath of allegiance to the United States Government. I presume, however, that the great object and end in view is to hasten the day of peace.

I respectfully suggest for your consideration the property of communicating any views that your Government may have upon this subject through me, rather than by handbills circulated amongst our soldiers.

The few men who may desert under the promise held out in the proclamation cannot be men of character or standing. If they desert their cause, they disgrace themselves in the eyes of God and of men. They can do your cause no good nor can they injure ours. As a great Nation you can accept none but an Honorable peace; as a noble people you could have us accept nothing less.

I submit, therefore, whether the mode that I suggest would not be more likely to lead to an Honorable end than such a circulation of a partial promise of pardon.

I am, sir, very respectfully, your most obedient servant,

J. LONGSTREET,

Lieutenant-General, Commanding.

[Inclosure No. 2.] HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE OHIO, Knoxville, East Tenn., January 7, 1864.

Lieutenant General J. LONGSTREET,

Commanding Confederate Forces in East Tennessee:

SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter dated January 3, 1864.

You are correct in the supposition that the great object in view in the circulation of the President’s proclamation is to induce those now in rebellion against the Government to lay aside their arms and return to their allegiance as citizens of the United States, thus securing the reunion of States now arrayed in hostility against one another and restoration of peace.

The immediate effect of the circulation may be to cause many men to leave your ranks to return home, or come within our lines, and, in view of this latter course, it has been thought proper to issue an order announcing the favorable terms on which deserters will be received. I accept, however, your suggestion that it would have been more courteous to have sent these documents to you for circulation, and I embrace, with pleasure, the opportunity thus afforded to inclose to you twenty copies of each of these documents, and rely upon your generosity and desire for peace to give publicity to the same among your officers and men.

I have the honor to be, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

J. G. FOSTER,

Major-General, Commanding.

[Inclosure Numbers 3.]

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF EAST TENNESSEE,

January 11, 1864.

Major General J. G. FOSTER,

Commanding Department of the Ohio:

SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 7th of January, with its enclosures, & c.

The disingenuous manner in which you have misconstrued my letter of the 3rd instant has disappointed me. The suggestion which you claim to have adopted is in words as follows, viz:

I presume, however, that the great object and end in view is to hasten the day of peace. I respectfully suggest for your consideration the propriety of communicating any views that your Government may have on that subject through me, rather than by handbills circulated amongst our soldiers.

This sentence repudiates, in its own terms, the construction which you have forced upon it. Let me remind you, too, that the spirit and tone of my letter were to meet Honorable sentiments.

The absolute want of pretext for your construction of the letter induces me to admonish you against trifling over the events of this great war. You cannot pretend to have answered my letter in the spirit of frankness due to a soldier. And yet, it is hard to believe that an officer commanding an army of veteran soldiers, on whose shoulders rests, in no small part, the destiny of empires, could so far forget the height of this great argument at arms; could be so lost in levity, and so betray the dignity of his high station, as to fall into a contest of jests and jibes.

I have read your “order announcing the favorable terms on which deserters will be received.” Step by step you have gone on in the violation of the rules of civilized warfare. Our farms have been destroyed, our women and children have been robbed, and our houses have been pillaged and burnt.

You have laid your plans and worked diligently to produce wholesale murder by servile insurrection. And now, the most ignoble of all, you propose to degrade the human race by inducing soldiers to dishonor [themselves]. Soldiers who have met your own upon so many Honorable fields, who have breasted the storm of battle in defense of their honor, their families, and their homes for three long years, have a right to expect more of honor, even in their adversaries.

I beg leave to return the copies of the proclamation and your order. I have the honor to renew to you the assurance of great respect.

Your most obedient servant,

Leutenant-General, Commanding.

[Inclosure Numbers 4.]

Note: The complete correspondence was reprinted in the January 26, 1864 New York Times. The opening paragraph of the Times reprint is this:

This correspondence is also discussed in Armies of Deliverance: A New History of the Civil War by Elizabeth R. Varon at page 308.

 

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