Atlanta is no place for families or non-combatants, and I have no desire to send them north if you will assist in conveying them south.

If this proposition meets your views, I will consent to a truce in the neighborhood of Rough and Ready, stipulating that any wagons, horses, animals, or persons sent there for the purposes herein stated, shall in no manner be harmed or molested; you in your turn agreeing that any care, wagons, or carriages, persons or animals sent to the same point, shall not be interfered with.

Each of us might send a guard of, say, one hundred men, to maintain order, and limit the truce to, say, two days after a certain time appointed.
I have authorized the mayor to choose two citizens to convey to you this letter, with such documents as the mayor may forward in explanation, and shall await your reply.

I have the honor to be your obedient servant.
W.T.SHERMAN, Major-General commanding.
Major General W.T.SHERMAN, commanding United States Forces in Georgia GENERAL: Your letter of yesterday's date, borne by James M.Ball and James R.Crew, citizens of Atlanta, is received.

You say therein, "I deem it to be to the interest of the United States that the citizens now residing in Atlanta should remove," etc.