Your article notes that Forrest was defeated at Selma in April 1865 by U.S. Gen. James Wilson. That's true, but its reference to Wilson as "part of Gen. William Sherman's March to the Sea" is mistaken.

Sherman's 62,000 troops, along with tens of thousands of former slaves, marched to Savannah in the fall of 1864. Wilson's cavalry, meanwhile, operated in northern Alabama and middle Tennessee.

Like all U.S. forces in the western theatre, they were under Sherman's overall command. But it was in a different campaign, four months later, that Wilson's 13,000 horse soldiers moved south to defeat Forrest and raid western Georgia.

Wilson's troops occupied several Georgia cities and, as the Confederacy disintegrated, arrested its executive officers, Jefferson Davis and Alexander Stephens. General Wilson was 27 years old at the time.

Steve Marshall
Marietta, Georgia

 
Solidarity with China
The U.S. spy plane violating China's sovereignty is a deliberate provocation. The U.S. capitalist empire is rightly humiliated before the world, caught in its web of lies.

The dignity of the sovereign peoples should never be allowed to be compromised by the arrogance of the imperial U.S. Empire. Solidarity with the Peoples Republic of China.

E. Craig
San Jose, California

 
Hospitals' power cut off
Nearly 200 hospitals and other emergency services in Northern California recently learned they are no longer considered "essential customers" by Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E). "Essential customers" are considered those who are deemed vital due to the public service they provide.

The San Francisco Chronicle explained that PG&E "rethought" their list of outage exemptions and decided to implement a 1980 Public Utilities Commission ruling allowing power outages to hospitals with less than 100 beds or to any public service facility that owned a backup generator. Ironically, state law requires most hospitals to have a source of backup power.

An administrator at a hospital in Castro Valley, California, explained that a recent blackout at the -medical facility "came as a surprise...(we) believed we were exempt until it hit." A representative from St. Rose Hospital explained, "They changed our status and didn't notify us." The California Healthcare Association, which represents California hospitals, labeled PG&E's new policy "dangerous" and called for its reversal.

A spokeswoman for the group explained, "Backup generators were never intended to be used in that capacity. They were always intended to be used in a true disaster...provide (electricity) to the most critical areas."

Shirley Peña
Albany, California

 
Strike in Indonesia
The struggle by workers at the Shangri-La hotel in Jakarta, mentioned in the April 9 Militant, still continues. After more than three months on strike the workers are determined to win a new contract, including pay increases, shorter hours, and menstruation leave for women employees.

The strikers, who are members of the Serkat Mandiri Shangri-La union, told me that they face intimidation and violence from the hotel managers, who also organize replacements to do their work. The police have arrested strikers, and have collaborated with the hotel's own security officers. The workers say that the government Ministry of Manpower has sided with the employers.

Teguh Wienarto
Jakarta, Indonesia


 
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