"The City of Atlanta, belonging exclusively for warlike purposes, it will at once be vacated by all except the armies of the United States and such civilian employes as may be retained by the proper departments of the Government.... At a proper time full arrangements will be made for a supply to the troops of all the articles they may need over and above clothing, provisions, etc., furnished by Government, and on no pretence whatever will traders, manufacturers, or sutlers, be allowed to settle in the limits of fortified places; and if they manage to come in spite of this notice the quartermaster will seize their stores, apply them to the use of the troops and deliver the parties, or other unauthorized citizens who thus place their individual interest above that of the United States, over to the hands of some provost-marshal, to be put to labor on forts or conscripted into one of the regiments or battery already in service. The same military principles will apply to all military posts south of Atlanta."
If the people of Atlanta had already become panic-stricken, what shall be said of their state of mind when this thunderbolt fell upon them? Consternation is far too weak a word. The Mayor and City Council made a formal and impassioned appeal to Sherman to revoke it. They said, in part:
"At first view, it struck us that the measure would involve extraordinary hardship and loss, but since we have seen the practical execution of it, so far as it had progressed, and the individual condition of many people, and heard their statements as to the inconveniences, loss, and suffering attending it, we are satisfied that it will involve, in the aggregate, consequences appalling and heartrending.
"We know your mind and time are constantly occupied with the duties of your command, which almost deters us from asking your attention to this matter; but thought it might be that you had not considered the subject in all its awful consequences, and that on more reflection you, we hope, would not make this people an exception to all mankind, for we know of no such instance ever having occurred; surely none such in the United States; and what has this helpless people done that they should be driven from their homes, to wander as strangers, outcasts, and exiles, and to subsist on charity?"