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L.IKK OP 
 
 WM.TECUMSEH SHERMAN. 
 
 Late Retired General U. S. A. 
 
 A GRAPHIC HISTOUY OF HIS CAREER IN WAR AND PEACE; HIS ROMANTIC YOtH'H, 
 
 HIS STERN AND PATRIOTIC MANHOOD ; HIS CALM AND BEAUTIFUL 
 
 OLD AGE; A MARVELLOUS MARCH FROM THE MOUN- 
 
 TAINS OF TIME TO THE SEA OF ETERNITY. 
 
 By W.nFLETCHER JOHNSON, 
 
 Author of " Stanley'! Adventures in Africa," " History of the Johnstown Flood," " Li& oi 
 Sitting Bull and History of the Indian Wars," etc., etc. 
 
 Carefully Reviewed, Chapter by Chapter, and with an Introduction 
 By MAJ. GEN. O. O. HOWARD, U. S. A. 
 
 With Numerous Maps and Illustrations! 
 
 E;DQE;>A<^OOD PUBLvISHINO CO^vlPANY. 
 
 1891, 
 

 Copyright 1891, by A. R. Keller, 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The title of this work is hardly a fair index to the contents. 
 
 The " Life of General Sherman," written with any reasonable 
 detail so as to depict his formative period, the gradual develop- 
 ment of his energies, the bulk of his achievements and the great 
 consumation of his genius, could not be contained in any three 
 volumes of this size. 
 
 The work, so far as the labor of the author, Mr. Johnson, is 
 concerned, is eclectic, — mainly a compendium. 
 
 There are beautiful sketches, choice pictorial presentations of 
 Sherman and his environments from childhood to age. But, I do 
 not think that the work, valuable as it undoubtedly is, could in 
 any degree take the place of Sherman's Personal Memoirs. 
 
 There are some chapters which have been furnished by war 
 editorials and the writings of field correspondents which the 
 author must have collected and carefully preserved. 
 
 Many of these are life-like, and bear the impress and the inspi- 
 ration of the exciting events amid which they were composed. 
 
 There are, furthermore, in this book, chapters which are in- 
 geniously formed and elaborated by quotations from officers who 
 were themselves part and parcel of the campaigns which they 
 describe. 
 
 To me, the author appears to have done exceedingly well, and 
 has herein furnished a choice entertainment to his readers. 
 
 The part undertaken by me, and to which I have strictly con- 
 fined myself, has been to review the work, some of it already in 
 proof type, and the remainder in manuscript, going over each 
 
INTRODUCTION, 
 
 chapter with considerable care, and suggesting such changes as 
 I thought the truth of history demanded. 
 
 Where one has expressed an opinion and a quotation of that 
 opinion appears, of course no change was admissable ; so that I 
 am entirely unwilling to assume that such a quoted writer gave 
 utterance to my own convictions. 
 
 For example : different views are given of the fearful struggle 
 during the first day of " Shiloh " at Pittsburgh Landing. A 
 famous journalist takes General Sherman to task for want of 
 epaulements, intrenchments, and other means of defence. He 
 claims that Sherman and Grant were both surprised, as they had 
 known for a week or more that the enemy was close by, and 
 liable to attack. 
 
 Certainly the ansv/er to this allegation, and it should be a very 
 clear and decided answer, would be found in any completed 
 history. Our troops had not yet, at that period of the war of 
 the rebellion, made much use of intrenching tools. Grant and 
 Sherman did not design to put their new troops into intrenched 
 camps. 
 
 They believed, and very justly, that it was next to impossible 
 to handle them offensively, as we say, against the enemy. But 
 they did have some cover. The woods, ravines, and general 
 contour of the ground gave them protection, and it was in faith- 
 ful use of this cover that during the battle-storm of the first day 
 near Shiloh church, they were able to hold out till reinforce- 
 ments came. 
 
 This example will suggest others to the reader. Still, the 
 phases presented by the different writers, from whom extracts 
 are taken, afford a kaleidoscopic variety, interesting especially 
 to those of us who lived at the time of the occurrences in question. 
 
 Probably none of us can do more than our noble General 
 Sherman, years ago, suggested. He said in substance: We 
 who were involved in the controversies, the battles, and cam- 
 paigns of the great war, are not the men to write the history. 
 We are like witnesses in court. Each should give his own 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 testimony of what he saw and knew. Somebody else, will in 
 the future, after passion and prejudice shall have subsided, rise 
 up to make a search, a selection, a summation, and so the better 
 evolve the true history. 
 
 With regard to General Sherman and his career, in my judg- 
 ment the more of truthful statements that are made the better. 
 Let eye witnesses give all the evidence they can. 
 
 In his heart was a love of truth, a ghenominal loyalty to his 
 country, a fearless and prompt devotion to duty and markedly 
 an absence of aught that was malicious. True, he resented 
 wrong often with a fiery indignation, but he forgave a fault con- 
 fessed with quick generosity. So that at Lancaster, Ohio; the 
 home of his childhood, at West Point, N. Y., in Florida and 
 South Carolina, where were his early army stations ; in California 
 and Louisiana, where he made his civil record ; at all places 
 during the war of four years, and at his headquarters, or upon 
 extensive tours; as Commander, after the war, of a military 
 division and finally of a whole army ; all his acts, all his orders, 
 and all his writings v^^ill bear most careful inspection. They, if 
 truthfully given, will furnish to our youth something for medita- 
 tion, for instruction, for emulation. 
 
 To whatever extent this little volume may contribute such 
 quota, it will be a welcome guest to our people, North and South, 
 East and West. 
 
 O. O. HOWARD, 
 Major- General U. S. Army. 
 
 Governor's Island, N. Y. City, 
 March igth, i8<pi. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE SHERMAN FAMILY. 
 
 HoDorable Rank in the Mother Country — Early Migration to New Eng 
 land — Settling in the Connecticut Valley — Playing an Important Part 
 at Woodbury — Long Term of Public Service — The Stoddards — A Mili- 
 tant Minister — Seeking New Fortunes in the West — An Early Ohio 
 Judge — The Mother of Great Men ny 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 BOYHOOD AND CADETSHIP. 
 
 Why He Was Named Tecumseh — His Adoption by Mr. Ewing — Charac- 
 ter in Boyhood — Work as a Surveyor — Appointment to a Cadetship — 
 From Lancaster to West Point — "Old Hickory" — Letters to His Sweet- 
 heart — A Youthful Philosopher — Character and Standing as a Cadet 29 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 EARLY MILITARY DUTIES. 
 
 Winding up the Seminole War — Comedy and Tragedy in the Florida 
 Wilderness — The Capture of Coacoochee — Service at Fort Moultrie — 
 Getting Acquainted with the See le of His Greatest Campaign — Seces- 
 sion Talk — Outbreak of the Mexican War-^Rebuked for too Much Zeal 
 — The Long Voyage to California — Arrival at Monterey 40 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 AMONG THE FORTY-NINERS. 
 
 Days of Idleness at Monterey — Adam and Eve — Sunday Diversions — 
 Who is Governor ? — General Fremont — The Discover)- of Gold and the 
 Rush for the Mines — Domestic Economy of Ciimp Life — Ne^ro Fidelity 
 — Back to the East — Marriage of Sheiman and Miss Ewing — How he 
 Heard Webster's Speech — A Shady Travelling Companion — Entering 
 and Quitting the Law 50 
 
CONTENTS. 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE CRISIS OF A CAREER. 
 
 Sherman in the Prime of Manhood — Great Events Approaching — How He 
 Came to be a Schoolmaster — Organization of the Seminary — Political 
 Talk — liis View on Slavery — The Campaign of i860 a-nd Election of 
 Lincoln — Secession — Sherman's Prompt Decision to Stand by the Union 
 — Resignation of His Principalship — Departure for the North — Fate of 
 the Seminary 62 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE OUTBREAK OF THE WAR. 
 
 The South Excited and Ready — The North Indifferent and Unprepared 
 — Sherman's Interview with Lincoln — His Plain Talk to his Brother — 
 Disgusted with the Politicians — A St. Louis Street Railroad President 
 — War Talk in St. Louis — A Clerkship Declined — His Loyalty Doubted 
 — Prophesying a Great Struggle — Bloodshed in St. Louis — Back to 
 Washington — In Service at Last 75 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 " On to Richmond !" — Sherman's Brigade at Bull Run — Features cf Bat- 
 tle — Sherman's Official Report — The Stampede Back to the Potomac — 
 How Sherman Dealt with Mutineers — A Threat that the President 
 Thought he would Execute — Re-organization and Promotion — General 
 McClellan Assumes Command — Sherman's Frank Criticism and Un- 
 comfortable Truth-Telling and Consequent Unpopularity 85 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 SERVICE IN KENTUCKY. 
 
 Serving Under Anderson — Critical Condition 01 the State — Seeking Help 
 in Other States— A Visit to Fremont — That Famous Interview with 
 Cameron — How the Story of Sherman's Insanity was Started — Attacks 
 and Insults — Sherman's Official Correspondence — His Request for 
 200,000 Men — An Extraordinary Newspaper Article — Sherman Trans- 
 ferred to Missouri — Kalleck's Confidence in Him — Planning the Don- 
 elson Campaign 99 
 
CONTENTS. 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 SHILOH. 
 The Gloomy Winter of 1861-2 — Exultation over Donelson — The Advance 
 up the Tennessee — Responsibility for the Encampment at Pittsburgh 
 Landing — Controversies over the Battle — Varying Accounts — Sherman's 
 Personal Heroism — Numher of Troops Engaged on Both Sides — Ser- 
 vices of the Army of the Ohio — Loses of the two Armies 116 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 OFFICIAL REPORTS ON SHILOH. 
 
 Sherman's Own Story — How his Troops were Posted — The Attack — 
 Troops in Disorder — Grant and Buell at the Bivouac — The Battle Re- 
 sumed in the Morning — Death of General Johnston — Gallant Conduct 
 of Individual Oflicers — Grant's Official Report — Special Mention of 
 Sherman for his Gallantry as a Soldier and his Skill as a Commander. 124 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 "agate's" story of SHILOH. 
 
 The Situation Before the Battle — The First Skirmish — Plans of the Rebel 
 Leaders — The Scene on Sunday Morning — Troops in Disorder — Analy- 
 sis of the Situation — Faulty Disposition of the Federal Troops — Ar- 
 rangement of Sherman's Division — The Rebel Plan of Attack — Sher- 
 man's Old Friend Bragg among the Rebel Leaders I42 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 "agate's" story continued. 
 The Battle of Sunday, April 6th — The Union Troops Surprised — An Army 
 in Disorder — Sherman's Heroic Effort to Stem the Tide — McClernand's 
 Share in the Battle — The Rebels Pressing their Advantage — The As- 
 sault on Sherman's Left — Men too Brave to be Killed — Desperate Posi- 
 :'»aE of the Union Army — Looking to the Gunboats for Aid — Three 
 Desperate Charges Repulsed — Death of General Wallace 153 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 "agate's" story continued. 
 The Close of Sunday's Fight — What had been Lost During the Day — Five 
 Thousand Cowards on the River Bank — Opportune Arrival of General 
 Buell — The Grand Attack and its Grand Repulse — Aid from the Gun- 
 boats — The Night Between Two Battles— Desperate Preparations for 
 the M orrow — G unboats on Gu ard Through the Darkness 1 72 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 " agate's" story concluded. 
 The Work of Sunday Night — Landing of Buell's Troops — Effect of the 
 Bombardment — Lack of System in the Union Army — Renewing the 
 Battle — A Change of Tactics — Turning the Tide — Crittenden's Advance 
 — The Advance at the Centre— A Grand Parade on the Field of War 
 — Redeeming the Losses of Sunday — Facing the Louisiana Troops — 
 Silencing the Battery — End of the Great Struggle 183 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 CORINTH. 
 
 Halleck Takes the Field — Organization of the Army — Progress at a Snail's 
 Pace — Sherman's Advance — The Flight of the Rebels — Sherman's 
 Official Report — Congratulating the Troops — Beauregard's Address to 
 his Soldiers — Some Accounts of Corinth — Abrupt Plnale of a Rebel 
 Harangue 196 
 
 CHAPTER XVL 
 
 MEMPHIS, VICKSBURG AND ARKANSAS POST. 
 
 Changes in Command — Restoring Order at Memphis — Sherman's Views 
 of the Situation — Grant's Critical Position — Moving Against Pemberton 
 — Meeting with Porter — The Expedition Against Vicksburg — Why it 
 did not Succeed — The Surrender at Holly Springs — Sherman Removed 
 from Command — The Capture of Arkansas Post — General McClernand, 219 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 VICKSBURG. 
 Co-operation of Grant and Porter — Grand Gulf and Sherman s Demonstra- 
 tion on the Yazoo — The Advance on Vicksburg — Capture of Jackson — 
 Gallant Assaults Upon the Works at Vicksburg — The Siege — Sherman 
 Holding Johnston at Bay — Surrender of Vicksburg — Flight of Johnston 
 — Importont Results of the Campaign — Sherman's Meed of Praise. 241 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 SOME WAR CORRESPONDENCE. 
 
 Sherman's Characteristic Letters — Congratulations to Porter at Vicksburg 
 — Views of t'ne Reorganization of the Army — The Conduct of the War 
 and the Spirit of the South — Manners and Morals of the Soldiers — 
 No Wanton Spoliaton of the Enemy's Property — The Heroic Cartridge 
 Boy of Vicksburg , - C49 
 
CONTENTS. 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 CHATTANOOGA. 
 
 Darks Days in 1863 — A Sunburst of Victory — Sherman Leaves Vicksburg 
 — Orders to his Troops — The March to Chattanooga — The Battle Above 
 the Clouds — Sherman's Attack on Missionary Ridge — The Victory 
 Complete — Pursuit of the Enemy — A Forced March to Rescue liSurnside 
 — Sherman's Report — Views Concerning the Treatment of the Rebels 259 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 MERIDIAN. 
 Freeing the Mississippi — A March of Destruction — Retreat of the Enemy 
 — Polk's Flight from Meridian — Failure of Smith's Expedition — De- 
 stroying Rebel Property — Confiscating a Chicken — Results of the Raid 
 — Scenes Among the Liberated Negroes — The Red River Expedition, 2S6 
 
 CHAPTER XXL 
 
 THE BEGINNING OF THE END. 
 Grant Made Lieutenant-General — Correspondence with Sherman — Their 
 Memorable Interview — Planning a Scientific Campaign — General How- 
 ard's Pen Picture of the Two Soldieri — Schofield, McPherson and 
 Tl'.omas — Grant's Final Orders — Sherman's Army in Line — Strength 
 of Johnston's Army — General Howard's Account of the Advance 298 
 
 CHAPTER XXH. 
 
 ATLANTA. 
 The Turning of Rocky Face — Resaca — General Howard's Narrative — 
 Adairsville — Crossing the Etowah — Sherman on Familiar Ground — 
 Dealing with Breaches of Discipline — Allatoona Pass — The Siege and 
 Turning of Kenesaw —Smyrna and Peach Tree — Hood Succeeds John- 
 ston — Death of McPherson — Howard m Command of the Army of the 
 Tennessee — Ezra Church — Operations around Atlanta — The Rush to 
 Jonesboro — Capture of Atlanta 314 
 
 CHAPTER XXHL 
 
 PREPARING FOR THE MARCH. 
 
 Congratulations and Rejoicings — Sherman's Address to his Army — Inci- 
 dents of the Campaign — Appearance of Atlanta and its Environs — 
 Hood's Northward March — How Corse Held the Fort — Sherman's Stern 
 Work at Atlanta — Exchange of Prisoners — Organizing for the March to 
 the Sea — Sketches of Howard and Slocum — Orders for the Campaign — 
 Cutting off all Communication with the North — Atlanta in Ruin^ — 
 Marching Toward to the Sea 338 
 
CONTENTS. 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 "MARCHTOG THROUGH GEORGIA." 
 
 The " Lost Army" — Speculations, North and South, as to its Doings — 
 Diary of an Officer — Keeping Thanksgiving Day — Howell Cobb's Plan- 
 tation — The Negroes — A Quiant Philosopher — Strategy of the March — • 
 Howard's Brilliant Advance — Investment of Savannah — Capture of 
 Fort McAllister — Fall of Savannah 364 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 SHERMAN'S STORY OF THE MARCH. 
 
 The Soldier's Modest Narration of his Ardous Deeds — Why the March 
 was Decided Upon — Operations around Savannah — Material Results of 
 the Campaign — Handsome Tributes to the Officers and Men of his 
 Army 394 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 THE CAROLINA CAMPAIGN. 
 
 In the Cradle of Secession — The Occupation and Destruction of Columbia 
 — Reprisals Against Wade Hampton ; Men — Arrival at Goldsboro — 
 Summing up the Results of the Northward March — Work Accomplished 
 by the Engineers 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 THE END OF THE WAR. 
 
 Lincoln, Grant and Sherman at City Point — Surrender of Lee — Murder 
 of Lincoln — Negotiations with Johnston — Stanton's Disapproval — An 
 Outcry Against Sherman — The Grand Review — Sherman's Refusal to 
 Shake Hands with Stanton — Farewell Address to the Army 407 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIIL 
 
 THE DUTIES OF PEACE. 
 
 Aiding the Pacific Railroad — A Fool's Errand to Mexico — Political Intri- 
 gues at Washington — The Tenure of Office Affair — Work Among the 
 Indians — A Trip to Europe — The Belknap Scandal — Sherman's Speech 
 on Military Honor — Travels in the Northwest — Yellowstone Park — 
 Writing His Memoirs — Life in New York — Death of Mrs. Sherman, 449 
 
CONTENTS. 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 DEATH AND BURUL. 
 
 A Fatal Cold — Lingering Between Hope and Fear — The Last Rally— 
 The End of Life's Campaign — A Son's Sad Home-Coming — Prepara- 
 tions for the Funeral — Public Tributes of Respect — The Military Parade 
 ir. New York — Progress of the Funeral Train Across t'njs Country — 
 Ceremonies at St. Louis — The Warrior's Last Encampment by the Side 
 of his Loved Ones 474 
 
 CHAPTER XXX, 
 
 A National Outburst of Grief — The President's Message to Congress — 
 The Senate's Memorial Resolutions — Senator Hawley's Eulogy — ^A 
 Touching Tribute from a Southern Senator — Speeches by Senators who 
 were also Soldiers — Eloquent Words from Lawrence Barrett — Judge 
 Gresham Recalls Sherman's Prophetic Words — A Comparison Between 
 Sherman and Lee — General Slocum's Reminiscences — Chauncey 
 Depew on Sherman in Social Life 491 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 IN MEMORIAM. 
 
 New York's Official Tribute— The Consolidated Stock Exchange— The 
 Union League Club — The Republican County Committee — The Grand 
 Army of the Republic — The Chamber of Commerce — Speech by the 
 Hon. CarlSchurz — The Ohio Society — Brief Words from Many Friends, 512 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 TRAITS AND INCIDENTS. 
 
 His Positive Refusal to be a Presidential Candidate — Remembering a 
 California Drummer — Dealing with a Newspaper at Memphis — Sup- 
 pressing Praise of Himself at Savannah — Confiscating Medicine — The 
 Electorial Commission — His Love of Music— Excuses for Swearing — A 
 Tril)ule to his Mother — An Incident at Yale — Expressions of Kind 
 eeling Toward the South and Toward his Foes 537 
 
CONTENTS. 
 CHAPTER XXXIIL 
 
 REMINISCENCES. 
 
 Life at the Fifth Avenue Hotel — Ex-President Hayes's Memories — Gen- 
 eral Meigs's Tribute — Professor Howe on Sherman's School Days — A 
 Visit to the Catskills — Sherman and Joe Johnston — Telling about Resaca 
 — Thinking of the Sea — Marvellous Versatility — General Rosecrans's 
 Reminiscences of Sherman at West Point 562 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 
 SHERMAN'S OWN WORDS. 
 
 Speech at a Clover Club Dinner — A Famous New England Society Dinner 
 — Teaching Geography in Georgia — Speaking for the United States — 
 Old Times in Ohio — At a Grand Army National Encampment — Why he 
 did not March to Augusta — One of his Last Letters — A Story of Grant 
 — Congratulations to President Harrison 587 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 General Wm. Tf.cumseh Sherman (frontispiece), Steel 
 
 Mrs. General Sherman, 20 
 
 Sherman's Birthplace, 37 
 
 Sherman Entering U. S. Senate, 56 
 
 '^Hon. John Sherman, 73 
 
 ''General John C, Fremont, 91 
 
 General Thomas' Bivouac (after the first day's battle), 109 
 
 Major-General O. O. Howard, 128 
 
 Major-General Slocum, . . 145 
 
 Lieutenant-General Sheridan, 164 
 
 Major-General BuTTERFiELD, 181 
 
 General John A. Logan, 200 
 
 Grant's March upon Vicksburg, 217 
 
 Admiral D. D, Porter, 236 
 
 Battle OF Lookout Mountain, 253 
 
 Sprague's Brigade protecting Sherman's Wagon 
 
 Train at Decatur, 272 
 
 Capturing their Headquarters, 289 
 
 Major-General Schofield, 308 
 
 Map of Atlanta Campaign 317 
 
LIST OF ILL USTRA TIONS. 
 
 Death of General J. B, McPherson, 325 
 
 Battle of Atlanta, 344 
 
 Battle of Atlanta — the Contest of Bald Hill, 361 
 
 A Bivouac Among the Georgia Pines, 3S0 
 
 Map of Atlanta to Savannah, 388 
 
 Sherman Sending his Last Telegram Before 
 
 Cutting the Wires, 397 
 
 Capturing the Flag, .416 
 
 Camp of the Second Massachussets — City Hall, 
 
 Atlanta, 433 
 
 Battle of Ezra Church, July 28th, 1864, . . . .452 
 
 The Road From McPhersonville, 469 
 
 Army and Corps Commanders of the Army of the 
 
 Tennessee, 488 
 
 Head of the Procession Coming Down Broadway, 
 
 New York City, 505 
 
 The Catafalque Passing Fifty-seventh Street 
 
 and Broadway, New York City, 524 
 
 The Riderless Horse, 541 
 
 General Lew\ Wallace, 559 
 
 Sherman's Sentiments Approved, 578 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE SHERMAN FAMILY. 
 
 MoNORABLE Rank in the Mother Country — Early Migration to 
 New England — Settling in the Connecticut Valley — Playing an 
 Important Part at Woodbury — Long Term of Public Service — 
 The Stoddards — A Military Minister— Seeking New Fortunes in 
 THE West — An Early Ohio Judge — The Mother of Great Men. 
 
 The artificial law of primogeniture has little effect upon 
 the natural law of heredity. In nations where the family 
 descent outranks all other personal or social considerations, 
 degenerate sons — even first sons — of noble sires are often 
 found, and famous families become extinct, or worse. In 
 other nations, where descent is scorned, and the proud 
 individualism of democracy prevails, hereditary genius 
 appears, and families contribute to the service of society 
 and of the State generation after generation of great men. 
 Thus human nature vindicates its disregard of time and 
 places, and establishes itseif as the one immutable factor 
 in the life of the world, albeit changeful, capricious, and 
 kaliedoscopic. 
 
 In the United States no laws of entail or descent pre- 
 vail. Yet scarcely elsewhere in the world, within two cen- 
 turies and a-half, have tnere appeared so many striking 
 instances of worth and greatness made hereditary. The 
 names that lived at Plymouth and at Massachusetts Bay 
 in the early sixteen hundreds, live now in the late eighteen 
 hundreds, in old plantations, or in the greater and newer 
 
1 8 THE ENGLISH SHERMANS. 
 
 England that has risen beyond the Appalachian ranges. 
 With such a name this memoir has to deal. 
 
 The name Sherman is not a common one in England, 
 from which country the family migrated to America, but 
 where it occurs in that country's annals it is mentioned 
 with honor and respect. The will of Lord Stanley, Earl 
 of Derby, dated May 23d, 152 1, bears the name of Sir 
 Henry Sherman as one of its executors. In the time of 
 Henry VHI. one William Sherman was invested with a 
 knighthood. The Davy manuscripts relating to the County 
 of Suffolk, which are to be found in the British Museum, 
 contain much mention of the Shermans of Laxley, who 
 were the direct progenitors of the American branch of the 
 family. The direct line of the Laxley Shermans is re- 
 corded as follows: Thomas Sherman, of Laxley; Thomas 
 Sherman, 2d, of Laxley ; Thomas Sherman, 3d, gentleman, 
 of Laxley and Stutson, and afterward of Ipswich ; John 
 Sherman, son of Thomas Sherman 2d ; William Sherman, 
 eldest son of John. This William Sherman was born in 
 1588, and married Mary Lascelles, of Nottinghamshire. 
 Their son, John Sherman, came to America in 1634, and 
 settled at Watertown, Massachusetts. He took a promi- 
 nent part in the military operations of the infant colony, 
 and v/as known as Captain John Sherman ; by which title 
 he is distinguished from his cousin John Sherman, who 
 also lived at Watertown. This Captain John Sherman 
 was the grandfather of Roger Sherman, famous in Ameri- 
 can history as one of the chief signers of the Declaration 
 of Independence. 
 
 Two brothers, cousins of Captain Sherman, came to 
 America at the same time with him in 1634. One of these 
 was the Rev. John Sherman, already mentioned, who be- 
 came famous throughout the New England colonies as the 
 
/ 
 
 
 MRS. GENERAL SHERMAN. 
 
HISTOR V OF ANCIENT WOODS UR V. 21 
 
 most eloquent preacher and most accomplished mathema- 
 tician and astronomer of the day. The other was Samuel 
 Sherman, the progenitor of the illustrious subject of this 
 work. These two brothers soon removed from Watertown, 
 Mass., to the Valley of the Connecticut, and thenceforward 
 for several generations the family was conspicuously identi- 
 fied with that colony. 
 
 In Cothren's " History of Ancient Woodbury," much 
 mention of Samuel Sherman is to be found. " The Court," 
 says Cothren, " grants Mr. Samuel Sherman, Lieutenant 
 Wm. Curtice, Ensign Joseph Judson, and John Minor, them- 
 selves and associates, liberty to erect a plantation at Pom- 
 perouge ; provided it does not prejudice any former grant 
 to any other plantation or particular person ; provided any 
 other honest inhabitants of Stratford have liberty to joyne 
 with them in setleing there, and that they enterteine so 
 many inhabitants as the place will conveniently enterteine, 
 and that they setle there within the space of three years." 
 Again, in. the same work, appears the following: "In 
 October, 1675, Wm. Curtiss was appointed by the General 
 Court captain of sixty men to be raised in Fairfield County, 
 to serve in King Philip's war, with power to appoint his 
 inferior officers. In May, 1676, when the people of Wood- 
 bury were at Stratford, on account of this war, he and 
 Mr. Samuel Sherman were appointed Commissioners for 
 Stratford and Woodbury. Intimately associated with 
 Captain Curtiss in all that related to the welfare of the 
 new town, was the Hon. Samuel Sherman. He was, at 
 the date of its settlement, undoubtedly the most distin- 
 guished man connected with the enterprise. He was from 
 Dedham, Essex County, England. He came to this 
 country in 1634, and previous to the date of the new 
 plantation, had been a leading man in the colony. TT, 
 
22 "IN THE GOOD OLD COLONY DAYS." 
 
 had assisted in the settlement of several other towns in 
 the colony, and now undertook the same for Woodbury." 
 Samuel Sherman died in 1682, leaving a son, John 
 Sherman, who became the leading man of Woodbury and 
 one of the most conspicuous citizens of the colony. Be- 
 ginning in 1684, he was for forty-four years an Associate 
 County Court Judge ; for seventeen sessions a Repre- 
 sentative in the Legislature ; for two terms Speaker of the 
 Law House ; for twenty-five years Town Clerk ; and for 
 nine years Judge of Probate for the District of Woodbury, 
 beginning with the organization of that Court in 17 19. 
 A direct descendant of John Sherman was Daniel Sherman, 
 of whom it is recorded that on November 17th, 1774, he 
 was Moderator of a great town meeting at Woodbury, held 
 to take into consideration measures for carrying into effect 
 the " Resolves of the late General Congress," and of the 
 House of Representatives of Connecticut, one of which re- 
 solves was to have no dealing with the "foes to ye Rights 
 of British America." On September 19th, 177*5, another 
 mass-meeting of the people of Woodbury was held, at 
 which a "Committee of Inspection" was appointed, con- 
 sisting of thirty members. The heads of this committee 
 were Daniel Sherman and Gideon Stoddard, who held their 
 places during the entire War of the Revolution. Again, 
 at a similar meeting held on April 3d, 1777, Daniel 
 Sherman was chosen Moderator and it was "Voted, that 
 the selectmen in this town, for the time being, be a com- 
 mittee, as is specified in the Resolve issued by his honor, 
 the Governor and Committee of Safety, dated March the 
 1 8th, 1777, to take care of such soldiers' Famelys as shall 
 Inlist into the Continental army." This order was given 
 by the Governor with the advice and consent of the Council 
 of Safety, which Council was appointed annually by the 
 
DANIEL SHERMAN. 23 
 
 Assembly and consisted of from nine to fourteen of the 
 most distinguished men in the colony, whose duty it was 
 to assist the Governor when the Assembly was not in ses- 
 sion. Daniel Sherman represented Woodbury in this 
 Council for four years, beginning in May, 1777 ; and 
 another member of the Council was his kinsman, Roger 
 Sherman. 
 
 To quote again from Cothren's history : " Daniel Sher- 
 man was perhaps the most distinguished man that had 
 arisen in the town to his day. He was a descendant of 
 Samuel Sherman, of Stratford, was a Justice of" the 
 Quorum for twenty-five years, and Judge of the Litchfield 
 County Court five years, from 1786. For sixteen years 
 he was Probate Clerk for the District of Woodbury, and 
 Judge of that District thirty-seven years. He represented 
 his native town in the General Assembly sixty-five ses- 
 sions. This was by far the longest period of time any one 
 has ever represented the town. He was of commanding 
 powers of mind, of sterHng integrity, and every way quali- 
 fied for the various public trusts confided to his care. His 
 son, Taylor Sherman, the fifth from Samuel, was married 
 in 1787 to Elizabeth Stoddard, the great grand-daughter of 
 the.parson who shot one Indian after church on Sunday 
 and another before breakfast the next morning. He lived 
 and died as a lawyer and judge in Norwalk, Connecticut. 
 He was one of those who went West to arrange a treaty 
 with the Indians in 1808, and the same year came to Ohio 
 again to make a partition of the Fire Lands, He died in 
 May, 1815, and his widow came to Ohio, and died in 
 Mansfield, in 1848." 
 
 The Stoddard family, which became closely allied with 
 the Shermans, demand some notice here. Their American 
 progenitor, Anthony Stoddard, came from the West of 
 
24 A FIGHTING PARSON 
 
 England to Boston in 1638 or 1639. His first wife was 
 Mary, daughter of the Hon. Samuel Downing, of Salem, 
 and sister of Sir George, afterwards Lord George Down- 
 ing. Solomon Stoddard, a son of Anthony, was graduated 
 at Harvard College in 1662 and ten years later was settled 
 as minister at Northhampton, Mass. His son, Anthony, 
 was graduated at Harvard in 1697, and settled at Wood- 
 bury, Conn. The first wife of this second Anthony Stod- 
 dard was Prudence Wells, and his second, Mary Sherman. 
 The great grand-daughter of Anthony Stoddard and 
 Prudence Wells, Elizabeth Stoddard has already been 
 mentioned as the wife of the Hon. Taylor Sherman, the 
 grandfather of the subject of this work. 
 
 Anthony Stoddard was for sixty years minister of the 
 church at Woodbury, at the same time a successful lawyer 
 and physician, and for forty years Clerk of Probate for the^ 
 District of Woodbury. One Sabbath evening during the 
 French and Indian war, it is related, while walking in his 
 garden after the services at church, the Rev. Anthony 
 Stoddard discovered an Indian skulking with hostile intent 
 among the trees and bushes near by. Without seeming 
 to notice the movements of the intruder, he managed to 
 return to his house and obtain his gun. Going back to 
 the garden he crept to within easy range, took careful aim 
 and fired and the Indian fell dead. He then gave the 
 alarm to his neighbors who barricaded themselves within 
 their houses and kept guard for the night. The next 
 morning Mr. Stoddard observed another Indian near his 
 house, and shot and killed him also. 
 
 Both the Shermans and Stoddards were strict Presby- 
 terians, and of Mrs. Taylor Sherman (Elizabeth Stoddard) 
 it is related that she could never be induced to enter a 
 church of any other denomination. " She always made us 
 
JUDSE TAVLOR SWERMAN. 25" 
 
 stand around," says one of her grand-chlldrerl. " Her 
 will was law. I could coax mother to let me do as I 
 pleased, but never grandmother." 
 
 Judge Taylor Sherman, as already recorded, went to 
 Ohio as a commissioner to survey and apportion the Fire 
 Lands. The State of Connecticut ceded to the National 
 Government in 1786 her claim to a part of the great 
 western domain, but reserved a considerable district in 
 what is now northern Ohio, which is even still known as 
 the "Western Reserve." Half a million acres of this, 
 known as the Fire Lands, and comprising the present 
 counties of Huron and Erie, were to be divided among the 
 people of Norwich, Norwalk, New London and other Con- 
 necticut towns whose houses had been burned by Generals 
 Arnold, Tryon and other British raiders, to indemnify them 
 for their losses. Judge Taylor Sherman received two sec- 
 tions of land in Ohio to pay him for his work as commis- 
 sioner, and was much impressed by that country's prospects 
 of future greatness. He, however, returned to Norwalk, 
 where he died in 1815 ; after which the remainder of his 
 family migrated to Ohio. His wife and daughter went to 
 Mansfield, where the latter married Judge Parker ; one of 
 his sons, Daniel, settled at Monroeville as a farmer ; and of 
 the other son, Charles R. Sherman, some more extended' 
 notice is necessary. 
 
 Charles R. Sherman was born in 1790, and during his 
 early life lived in Norwalk, Conn., of which place he was a 
 conspicuous citizen. He was married to Mary Hoyt, a ra€m- 
 ber of a numerous and influential family, who were {unong 
 the first settlers of Norwalk. Mr. Sherman was admitted, 
 to the bar in 18 10, and during the administration- of Presi- 
 dent Monroe was appointed Collector of Internet Revenue. 
 While he held this office two of his depu^jjfes defaulted 
 
26 LIFE AT LANCASTER. 
 
 for large amounts, and as he was responsible for them, 
 almost his entire fortune was taken to make good the loss. 
 From this financial embarassment he never fully recovered ; 
 but the incident had a most important effect upon the 
 future history of the family, and indeed it is to this turn 
 in affairs, apparently so disastrous, that the subsequent 
 prosperity and greatness of the Shermans may be directly 
 traced. 
 
 Charles R. Sherman, being thus apparently ruined by 
 his rascally subordinates, determined to seek new for- 
 tunes in the Western country of which his father had given 
 such a glowing account. He at first intended to settle at 
 Zanesville, Ohio, but finally selected Lancaster, in Fair- 
 field Count}'. Having established himself there as a 
 lawyer, he returned to Norwalk for his wife, who mean- 
 while had become the mother of their first-born, Charles 
 Taylor Sherman. Then, in 1811, he and his wife set out 
 on horseback for Ohio, he carrying their infant child on a 
 pillow on the saddle before him. After a weary and peril- 
 ous journey, largely through a wilderness, they reached 
 the village of Lancaster and there made their new home. 
 By lovers of curious co-incidences it will be observed with 
 interest that Sir Henry Sherman, the first English Sher- 
 man mentioned, was a resident of the County of Lancas- 
 ter, England. 
 
 Mr. Sherman rapidly rose to eminence in Ohio as a 
 painstaking and trustworthy counsellor at law and a most 
 eloquent and forcible advocate. He also maintained the 
 reputation of his family for earnest and practical piety. It 
 is told that, failing one Saturday night to reach the place 
 where Court was to be held on Monday, he, in company 
 with several other eminent lawyers, resolved, out of regard 
 to the day of rest, to remain at the small town where they 
 
JUDGE SHERMAN'S DEATH. 2/ 
 
 were over Sunday. There was no minister of the Gospel 
 in that place, and so Mr Sherman, who was then Judge of 
 the Supreme Court, was selected to preach a sermon and 
 conduct other religious exercises, which he did with great 
 acceptability. 
 
 At the age ot thirty-five, Mr. Sherman was made by 
 the Ohio Legislature a Judge of the Supreme Court. 
 It was an honorable position, and offered prospect of a 
 brilliant future. He did not occupy it long, however. 
 While on the bench at Lebanon he was stricken with 
 sudden illness, and died on June 24th, 1829, being then 
 only forty-one years old. His salary had been small and 
 he had been able to save almost nothing. His widow 
 therefore, was left practically penniless, with eleven chil- 
 dren to care for, the oldest eighteen years of age, and 
 the youngest six weeks. This was a desperate situation 
 indeed. But Mary Hoyt Sherman was not the woman 
 to be daunted. She addressed herself to the training and 
 education of her children with energy, patience and 
 prayer, and was remarkably successful in her arduous 
 work. From four of her children she was for a time 
 partially separated in order that they might enjoy the ad- 
 vantages offered to them by kind relatives and friends. 
 Two of them were thus taken into the family of their 
 aunt, Mrs. Parker, one into the family of the Hon. Thomas 
 Ewing and one into the family of her kinsman, John Sher- 
 man, a merchant of Mount Vernon, Ohio. The last men- 
 tioned child was John Sherman, who has since become one 
 of the foremost of American statesmen, while the ward of 
 Mr. Ewing was William T. Sherman, whose famous career 
 we are now about to consider. 
 
 The Hoyt family were Episcopalians, but Mrs. Charles 
 Sherman, on going to the West, found there no church of 
 
28 THE MO YT FA MIL Y 
 
 thai denomination, and accordingly attached herself to the 
 Presbyterian Church, of which her husband was a member, 
 Later in life she had an opportunity to return to the Epis- 
 copal Church, and remained in its communion until her 
 death, in 1852. She was a woman of quiet and unobtru- 
 sive, but most earnest piety. In manner she was courtly 
 and affable, and in temper calm and placid. She had, 
 however, a strong will and great energy. These latter 
 traits were inherited by her illustrious sons, and indeed it 
 is to her example, precepts and untiring labors that we 
 must largely attribute their sterling characters, and the 
 greit success which they have achieved in their widely 
 dif/ >ring life works. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 BOYHOOD AND CADETSHIP. 
 
 Why He Was Named Tecumseh — His Adoption by Mr. Ewing — Char- 
 acter IN Boyhood — Work as a Surveyor — Appointment to a Cadet- 
 ship — From Lancaster to West Point — " Old Hickory" — Letters to 
 His Sweetheart — A Youthful Philosopher — Character and Stand- 
 ing as a Cadet. 
 
 William Tecumseh Sherman was the sixth of the eleven 
 thildren of Judge Charles R. Sherman, and John Sherman, 
 the great Senator and national financier, the eighth. It is 
 related that the distinctive family names had been ex- 
 hausted upon the first five children, and when the sixth was 
 born, perplexity arose as to how he was to be christened. 
 William was presently adopted, but the father was not 
 satisfied with it alone. Another must be chosen, and it 
 must be a warrior's name; for, said the Judge, "likely 
 enough this little chap will be a fighter." Finally Judge 
 Sherman determined to call his baby by the name of 
 Tecumseh, the illustrious Shawnee warrior and statesman, 
 who had been killed in battle some seven years before. 
 This Indian chief was well-known in that part of 
 Ohio, and had often saved the lives of settlers there 
 and averted bloodshed by his wise counsels and peaceful 
 influence, and it was in fact more because of these benign 
 29 
 
30 CUMP IS THE SMAh'JEST. 
 
 features than on account of his powers in war that 
 Judge Sherman admired him and gave his name to the 
 boy. 
 
 Our hero was born at Lancaster, Ohio, on February 8th, 
 1820, and was consequently nine years old when his father 
 fell a victim to Asiatic cholera. Little is to be recorded 
 of those early years. They were spent in the customary 
 manner of childhood, modified in a measure by the breezy, 
 vigorous life of the sparsely settled frontier community, 
 and cherished tenderly by a fond father and mother. 
 When the catastrophe of death broke the family circle, 
 "Cump" was a merry, active, bright-eyed, red-haired boy, 
 fonder of play than of work or study, but truthful and 
 trustworthy beyond a doubt. 
 
 And what now ? The members of the bar who had been 
 associated with Judge Sherman saw clearly that the widow 
 could not properly care for all those eleven children, and 
 they felt that it would be a privilege to aid her. The fore- 
 most of them, Thomas Ewing, a lawyer and statesman of 
 national reputation, was quick to act, " I will adopt one 
 of the boys," he said ; and forthwith he. proceeded to the 
 stricken home and laid his offer before Mrs. Sherman. He 
 was a distant relative as well as a warm friend of the fam- 
 ily, and Mrs. Sherman, with mingled grief and joy, ac- 
 cepted his proposition. But which boy should he take } 
 " I must have the smartest of the lot," said Mr. Ewing. 
 "Well," replied the mother, " come and look at them and 
 take your pick." So they went out to where the children 
 were at play, but Mr. Ewing was undecided. " They all 
 look alike to me," he said. But the mother and her eldest 
 daughter soon made the choice. "Take ' Cump,' Mr. Ew- 
 ing," they said; "he's by far the smartest." So Mr. Ew- 
 ing picked up the nine-years-old urchin from where he was 
 
A \OL>'.va E.xaixEER. 31 
 
 playing on a sand bank, and look him away in his carriage 
 to a new home. " He ever after treated me as his own 
 son," wrote General Sherman of his adopted father in later 
 years ; and indeed the boy soon won the hearts of all the 
 Kwings, so that they loved him as much as though he 
 belonged to them by birth instead of by adoption. 
 
 For seven years thereafter "Cump" was a member of the 
 Ewing household, and attended the local school at Lancas- 
 ter. He ranked high in his classes and was generally re- 
 garded as a promising boy. " There was nothing speci- 
 ally remarkable about him," Mr. Ewing wrote in later 
 years, "excepting that I never knew so young a boy who 
 could do an errand so correctly and promptly as he did. 
 He was transparently honest, faithful and reliable. Stud- 
 ious and correct in his habits, his progress in education 
 was steady and substantial." 
 
 One other thing, however, is to be recorded of these 
 years. Mr. Ewing had a pretty little daughter, named 
 Nellie, who was "Gump's" favorite playmate and upon whom 
 " Gump " untiringly lavished all the chivalric attention of 
 his boyhood. She was his sister by adoption, but even in 
 these early years the boy seemed to hope that one day she 
 would be more than a sister to him. And when he left 
 home, at the age of sixteen, his adieus to her were 
 more tender and more reluctant than to all the others. 
 
 One incident of his boyhood life deserves to be recorded. 
 In 1 834 he was large and strong for his age, and fond of labor 
 and adventure. Ganal construction was then being greatly 
 pushed in Ohio, and it was planned to build one from the 
 great Ohio Ganal at Garroll, eight milcb from Lancaster, 
 and run down the Hocking Valley to Athens and thence to 
 the Ohio River. A Mr. Garpenter, of Lancaster, had 
 charge of the preliminary surveys, and recruited his force of 
 
32 APPOINTMENT TO iV£ST POINT. 
 
 assistants from among the youth of that town. Young Sher- 
 man was delighted at the opportunity for serious work and 
 adventure, and rejoiced when he was chosen together with 
 three other boys from his school. He was appointed a rod- 
 man. They worked during the fall of 1834 and spring of 
 1835, laying out two experimental lines for the canal, and 
 each boy received half a dollar in silver for each day's 
 work. This was the first money young Sherman ever earned. 
 Mr. Ewing was now United States Senator, and had 
 within his gift an appointment to a cadetship at West Point. 
 During the fall of 1835 and spring of 1836, Sherman devoted 
 himself chiefly to grammar, geography and mathematics, 
 in which studies he would have to be examined to enter 
 the Military Academy. In the spring of 1836 he received 
 his appointment. Mrs. Ewing provided him with a liberal 
 outfit of clothes, etc., and on May 20th he left Lancaster 
 in a stage coach for Zanesville. There he took passage on 
 a coach on the Great National Road. Three days later he 
 reached Frederick, Maryland, whence there was a steam 
 railroad to Washington. But he was afraid of this strange 
 device, and continued his journey by coach. When he got 
 to Washington he put up for the night at Gadsby's Hotel, 
 and next morning hunted up Senator Ewing. The latter 
 lived in a boarding house, and to that house young Sher- 
 man removed at once, for the week which he was to spend 
 at the Capitol. He saw more of Washington in that week 
 than he ever saw in his many subsequent visits. " Old 
 Hickory " Jackson was then President, and at the height of 
 his fame. Sherman spent a full hour gazing at him with 
 boyish awe through the picket fence that surrounded the 
 White House grounds. Jackson was pacing up and down 
 the gravel walks within. "He wore a cap," says Sherman, 
 " and an overcoat so full that his form seemed smaller than 
 
THE JOURNEY TO WEST FOINT. 33 
 
 I had expected. I also remember Postmaster-General 
 Amos Kendall, Vice President Van Buren, Messrs. Cal- 
 houn, Webster, Clay, Cass, Silas Wright," etc. 
 
 From Washington he went by rail to Baltimore, thence 
 by boat to Havre de Grace, by rail to Wilmington, Dela- 
 ware, and by boat to Philadelphia. Thence by boat to 
 Bordentown, New Jersey, by rail over the old Camden and 
 Amboy railroad to Amboy, and by boat to New York. He 
 spent a week with his uncle on Brooklyn Heights, and 
 with another relative on White Street, New York, and 
 then took passage on the steamboat" Cornelius Vanderbilt,' 
 up the Hudson, to West Point, where he was duly entered 
 as a cadet. West Point was not as large a school then 
 as now. But the routine of military dicipline and instruc- 
 tion was fully established, very much as it has remained 
 ever since. Colonel R. E. De Russy was the Superinten- 
 dent, and Major John Fowle, Commandant of Cadets. 
 The chief members of the faculty were: Professors Mahan, 
 engineering; Bartlett, natural philosophy ; Bailey, chem- 
 istry ; Church, mathematics ; Weir, drawing ; and Berard, 
 French. That was in June, 1836. In the summer of 1838 
 he had a vacation of two months, which he gladly spent 
 with the Ewings. With that exception, he was absent 
 from Lancaster and present at West Point continuously 
 until his graduation in June 1840. His scholastic career 
 was not unlike that in the school at Lancaster. He stood 
 high, but not highest, in his class. There were forty-two 
 men in that class, Sherman ranked sixth. George H. 
 Thomas was twelfth. Other members were R. S. Ewell, 
 Stewart Van Vliet, Bushrod R. Johnson, George W. Getty, 
 William Hays and Thomas Jordan. 
 
 By far the most interesting feature of his cadet life was 
 the correspondence he maintained with Miss Ellen Ewijng. 
 
34 LETTERS TO MISS EWING. 
 
 More characteristic letters were never penned. Years 
 afterward the stern War Secretcry, Stanton, perusing his 
 vigorous letters from the front, declared that Sherman 
 wrote as well as he fought. These earlier epistles were a 
 fitting prelude to the more serious writings of after years. 
 They were sprightly and vivacious, touched with humor, 
 often eccentric, sometimes inclining to egotism, but always 
 intensely earnest and decidedly vigorous. He was not as 
 much a lover of "society" then as in his later life, for on one 
 occasion he wrote : "We have two or three dancing parties 
 each week, at which the gray bobtail is a sufficient recom- 
 mendation for an introduction to any one. You can well 
 conceive how the cadets have always had the reputation, 
 and have still, here in the East, of being great gallants and 
 ladies' men. God only knows how I will sustain that rep- 
 utation." As he got nearer and nearer to the actual army, 
 he was more and more impressed with the responsibilities 
 that would be placed upon him, and he almost shrank 
 from them. One day in 1839 he wrote of himself: "Bill 
 is very much elated at the idea of getting free of West 
 Point next June. He does not intend remaining in the 
 army more than a year, then to resign and study law, prob- 
 ably. No doubt vou admire this choice ; but to speak 
 plainly and candidly, I would rather be a blacksmith. In- 
 deed, the nearer we come to that dreadful epoch, gradua- 
 tion day, the higher opinion I conceive of the duties and 
 life of an officer of the United States Army, and the more 
 confirmed in the wish of spending my Hfe in the service of 
 my country. Think of that ! " 
 
 The commonest topics in his letters, however, related to 
 the practical details of life. "The last encampment," he 
 once wrote, " taken all in all, I think was the most pleasant 
 one I have ever spent, even to me, who did not participate 
 
COMMENTS ON CADET LIFE. 35 
 
 in the dances and balls given every v^eek by the different 
 classes ; besides the duties were of altogether a different 
 nature from any previous ones, such as acting as officers 
 upon guard and at artillery drills, practicing at target-firing 
 with long twenty-fours and thirty-twos, mortars, howitzers, 
 etc., as also cavalry exercise, which has been introduced 
 this year." He was not slow in taking to the knack 
 of command. "As to lording it over the plebs, to which 
 you referred, I had only one, whom I made, of course, 
 'tend to a pleb's duty, such as bringing water, policing the 
 tent, cleaning my gun and accoutrements, and the like, and 
 repaid in the usual and cheap coin — advice ; and since we 
 have commenced studying, I make him 'bone,' and explain 
 to him the difficult parts of algebra and the French gram- 
 mar, since he is a good one and a fine fellow ; but should 
 he not carry himself straight, I should have him ' found' in 
 January and sent off, that being the usual way in such 
 cases, and then take his bed, table and chair, to pay for the 
 Christmas spree." 
 
 Sherman had already learned to do his own thinking, in 
 politics and other matters, and he was not at all back- 
 ward in revealing that fact to his fair correspondent. 
 He gravely discussed the most important National 
 topics, and hesitated not to express radical and 
 positive opinions. His foster-father, Mr. Ewing, was 
 a Whig, but the bumptious cadet did not approve 
 of that party. In the Presidential campaign of 1840, 
 when Mr. Ewing was laboring hard for the election 
 of William Henry Harrison, Sherman wrote to Miss 
 Ewing : "You, no doubt, are not only firmly impressed, 
 but absolutely certain, that General Harrison will be our 
 next President. For my part, though, of course, but a 
 
36 PROFOUND PHILOSOPHIZING. 
 
 'superficial observer,' I do not think there is the least 
 hope of such a change, since his friends have thought 
 proper to envelope his name with log-cabins, ginger-bread, 
 hard-cider and such humbugging, the sole objeet of which 
 plainly is to deceive and mislead his ignorant and pre- 
 judiced, though honest, fellow citizens ; whilst his qualifi- 
 cations, his honesty, his merits and services are merely 
 alluded to ! " 
 
 Nor was he overawed by the superior attainments of his 
 instructors, and of the Examining Board. Rather did he 
 seem to regard the " Board of Visitors " as subjects for him 
 to examine and criticise. "There is but little doubt," he 
 wrote, " of the Board being nearly as well selected as 
 circumstances would admit of. Party seems to have had 
 no influence whatever, and, for my part, I am very glad of 
 it, I hope that our Army, Navy, and the Military 
 Academy, may never be affected by the party rancor 
 which has for some time past, and does now, §o materially 
 injure other institutions." Again he wrote : "I presume 
 you have seen the register of cadets for the last year, and 
 remarked that I still maintain a good standing in my 
 class ; and if it were not for that column of demerits it 
 would still be better, for they are combined with pro- 
 ficiency in study to make out the standing in general 
 merit. In fact, this year, as well as the last, in studies 
 alone, I have been among the stars — " meaning among 
 the first five in the class. " I fear I have a difficult part 
 to act for the next three years," he wrote, as graduation 
 day approached, " because I am almost confident that your 
 father's wishes and intentions will clash with my incli- 
 nations. In the first place, I think he wishes me to strive 
 and graduate in the Engineer Corps. This I can't do. 
 Next to resign and become a civil engineer. . . , 
 
/ 
 
 '|i,|i!;Mii i* 
 
HIS STANDING IN HIS CLASS. 39 
 
 Whilst I propose and intend to go into the infantry, be 
 stationed in the Far West, out of the reach of what is 
 termed civihzation, and there remain as lonp^ as possible." 
 
 In June, 1840, he received his diploma. The class had 
 originally numbered more than one hunured, but had 
 been reduced to forty-three. In reviewing, from the 
 point of view of maturer years, his life at West Point, 
 General Sherman wrote: "At the Academy I was not 
 considered a good soldier, for at no time was I selected for 
 any office, but remained a private throughout the whole 
 four years. Then, as now, neatness in dress and form, 
 with a strict conformity to the rules, were the qualifi- 
 cations required for office, and I suppose I was found not 
 to excel in any of these. In studies I always held a re- 
 spectable reputation with the professors, and generally 
 ranked among the best, especially in drawing, chemistry, 
 mathematics and natural philosophy. My average de- 
 merits, per arnum, were about one hundred and fifty, 
 which reduced my final class standing from number four 
 to number six." 
 
 It is of interest to observe that Sherman's rank at West 
 Point was higher than that ot Grant, who was gradu- 
 ated three years later. Grant stood twenty-first in his 
 class. In the details of engineering and of deportment, 
 especially, Sherman surpassed his illustrious comrade. 
 But from this fact no moral may profitably be drawn, 
 except that of Mr. Toots, that such "grades" are of no 
 consequence whatever. For many of those who far out- 
 ranked both Grant and Sherman at the school, remained 
 in after life unknown to fame. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 EARLY MILITARY DUTIES. 
 
 Winding Up the Seminole War — Comedy and Tragedy in the Florida 
 Wilderness — The Capture of Coacoochee — Service at Fort Moul- 
 trie — Getting Acquainted with the scene of His Greatest Cam- 
 paign — Secession Talk — Outbreak of the Mexican War — Rebuked 
 FOR too Much Zeal — The Long Voyage to California — Arrival at 
 Monterey. 
 
 Immediately after his graduation at West Point, in June, 
 1840, Sherman received the usual leave of absence of three 
 months. He hastened back to Lancaster, eager to be with 
 Miss Ewing again, and spent most of the furlough there, 
 visitins: his relatives at Mansfield for a short time. Pres- 
 ently he received an appointment and commission as Sec- 
 ond Lieutenant in the Third Artillery, and was ordered to 
 report for duty at Governor's Island, New York, at the end 
 of September. On goingthither he was assigned by Major 
 Justin Dimock, who commanded the recruiting rendezvous, 
 to take charge of a company of recruits about to sail for 
 Florida. Early in October this company, with three others, 
 sailed for Savannah under command of Captain and Brevet 
 Major Penrose. At Savannah they were transferred to a 
 small steamer which took them by the inland route to St. 
 Augustine, Florida. General Worth arrived at St. Au- 
 40 
 
IN THE WILDERNESS. 4 1 
 
 gustine at the same time with the Eighth Infantry, and 
 General Zachary Taylor had then the chief command in 
 Florida, with headquarters at Tampa. 
 
 Sherman was now detached from the company of re- 
 cruits, which belonged to the Second Infantry, and 
 sent to join his own regiment at Fort Pierce, on the Indian 
 River. He went thither by steamer and anchored off the 
 bar of Indian River. A whale boat came out and took 
 him and his baggage with the mails through the iurf over 
 the bar, and into the mouth of Indian River Inlet. There 
 he was transferred to a smaller boat and pulled Ihrough a 
 channel among the Mangrove Islands. It was now night 
 and thousands of pelicans and other birds were roused 
 from their roosts on the islands, while the water about 
 them swarmed with fish which could be seen in the phos- 
 phoric wake of the boat. The pilot entertained Sherman 
 with many stories of the Indian War, which was then in 
 progress, and of hunting and fishing in the Florida wilder- 
 ness. Thus they made their way up to Fort Pierce, which 
 was situated on a sand bluff. There were six or seven log 
 houses thatched with palmetto leaves, for the officers quar- 
 ters, and large log barracks for the men. Sherman was at 
 once assigned to service with Company A, commanded by 
 Lieutenant Taylor. 
 
 No Indian fighting was at this time in progress, so Sher- 
 man spent a part of his time hunting, and fishing with the 
 pilot who brought him up the river. Thus he learned the 
 arts of shark spearing, trolling for red fish, and taking 
 sheep's head and mullet, which were found there in great 
 abundance. He also caught many green turtles in nets, 
 these animals being so common that the soldiers actually 
 grew tired of eating them and preferred salt beef. In No- 
 vember, however, operations against th« Indians began. 
 
42 ROMANCE AT THE FORT. 
 
 This work consisted chiefly in capturing scattered frag- 
 ments of the Seminole tribe and sending them on to the 
 Indian Territory. The expeditions were mostly made in 
 boats, and there was seldom much fighting. One day, 
 hovvever, several Indian warriors were killed. One of the 
 soldiers, Sergeant Broderick, was so elated at his skill in 
 shooting an Indian, that on returning to the post he got 
 very drunk. While in this condition he became too atten- 
 tive to the wife of one of his comrades, and the 
 injured husband, a half-witted man, appealed to Lieuten- 
 ant Taylor for protection. Taylor carelessly replied : 
 " Haven't you got a musket } Can't you defend your own 
 family ? " An hour later the husband actually did shoot 
 and kill Broderick. For this he was arrested and sent to 
 St. Augustine, Lieutenant Taylor and the pilot, Ashlock, 
 going along as witnesses. 
 
 About a month later, Ashlock re-appeared in his old boat 
 with two uncommonly pretty women, aged about fourteen 
 and eighteen respectively. They were sisters, and the 
 elder was introduced as Mrs. Ashlock. The pilot had 
 met and married her during the progress of the murder 
 trial at St. Augustine. Soon after, Ashlock, leaving the 
 ladies at the Fort, started back with the whale boat across 
 the bar. In crossing the bar the boat was upset by the 
 surf, and Ashlock and all his crew but one man were 
 drowned, Ashlock himself, strangely enough, being unable 
 to swim. The bereaved ladies were courteously cared for 
 by the officers, and presently returned to St. Augustine. 
 Sherman afterward met these ladies again at St. Augus- 
 tine, and yet again he saw the younger one many years 
 later at Charleston, South Carolina. She was then 
 happily married to an army officer, who had a fad for 
 inventing new guns, «tc., upon which Sherman did not 
 
CAPTURING CHIEF WILD CAT. 43 
 
 look with much favor; he was bothered with too many- 
 would-be geniuses. And thus ended this romance of the 
 Florida wilderness. 
 
 One day in the summer of 1841 a number of Indians 
 came to the post accompanied by a negro named Joe, who 
 spoke English, They said they had been sent in by the 
 famous Seminole Chief, Coacoochee, or Wild Cat, and 
 showed a passport signed by General Worth who had suc- 
 ceeded General Taylor in supreme command at Tampa. 
 They said that Coacoochee himself was close by and would 
 come to the post "if it was all right." Major Childs said 
 it was all right, and sent Sherman with eight or ten 
 mounted men to accompany Joe, and one Indian, to bring 
 in the great chief. Six or seven miles away they found 
 Coacoochee, a handsome young Indian of twenty-five years, 
 and a dozen other warriors, and invited them to go to the 
 Fort. They had some little difficulty in persuading them 
 to do so, but finally Coacoochee dressed himself in all his 
 finery and went to the Fort. There he said he was tired 
 of the war and wanted to go with his people to the Indian 
 Territory, but he wanted rations for a month, which time 
 it would take to get his people together for the journey. 
 This was agreed to and then the great chief got gloriously 
 drunk. A few days later he went away, but frequently 
 sent back messengers for more whiskey and provisions. 
 At the end of the month he was but little nearer ready to 
 travel than before. 
 
 A council was accordingly called, at which Coacoochee be- 
 came drunk again. Then Sherman and some of his men 
 put the whole party in irons, and they were promptly 
 shipped off to the Indian Territory. Among Sherman's 
 associates were Lieutenants Ransom, Ord, George H. 
 Thomas, Field, and Van Vliet, all of whom afterward 
 attained distinction 
 
44 SCENES A T FOR T PIERCE. 
 
 Writing from Fort Pierce in 1841, Sherman gave this 
 sketch of his existence there : "Books we have few, but it 
 is no use — we cannot read any but the lightest trash ; and 
 even the newspapers, which you would suppose we would 
 devour, require a greater effort of mind to reach than we 
 possess. We attribute it to the climate, and bring up these 
 lazy native Minorcans as examples, and are satisfied. 
 Yet, of course, we must do something, however little. 
 The Major and I have a parcel of chickens in 
 which we have, by competition, taken enough interest to 
 take up a few minutes of the day ; besides I have a little 
 fawn to play with, and crows, a crane, etc., and if you were 
 to enter my room you would doubt whether it was the 
 abode of man or beasts. In one corner is a hen, setting ; 
 in another, some crows, roosted on bushes ; the other is a 
 little bed of bushes for the little fawn ; whilst in the fourth 
 is my bucket, washbasin, glass, etc. So you see it is three 
 to one." Again : " I have yet more pets than any bache- 
 lor in the country — innumerable chickens, tame pigeons, 
 white rabbits and a full-blooded Indian pony — rather small 
 matters for a man to deal with, you doubtless think, but it 
 is far better to spend time in trifles, such as these, than in 
 drinking or gambling." 
 
 Life in Florida did not lessen his fancy for the Western 
 frontier. " We hear that the new Secretary of War in- 
 tends proposing to the next Congress to raise two rifle regi- 
 ments for the Western service. As you are in Washing- 
 ton I presume you can learn whether it is so or not, for I 
 should like to go in such a regiment, if stationed in the Far 
 West ; not that I am the least displeased with my present 
 berth, but when the regiment goes North, it will, in all 
 likelihood, be stationed in the vicinity of some city, from 
 which, God spare me." Lieutenant Sherman prided him- 
 
SOCIAL SIDK oh A ^uJJJlER'S LIFE. 45 
 
 self on his downright way of saying things, and in one of 
 his letters he wrote : " If you have any regard for my 
 feelings, don't say the word 'insinuation' again. You 
 may abuse me as much as you please ; but I'd prefer, of 
 the two, to be accused of telling a direct falsehood than 
 stating anything evasively or underhand ; and if I have 
 ever been guilty of such a thing it was unintentionally." 
 
 On November 30th, 1841, Sherman was promoted to be 
 First Lieutenant of Company G, and was ordered on duty 
 at St. Augustine, which place he reached before Christ- 
 mas. He had a pleasant time there, but in February he 
 was sent on to Fort Morgan, Mobile Bay, Alabama. 
 There he remained until June, when he was ordered to 
 Charleston, South Carolina. There he remained at Fort 
 Moultrie for nearly five years. His life there was one of 
 strict garrison duty, with plenty of leisure for hunting and 
 social entertainment. He formed many pleasant acquaint- 
 ances in Charleston, especially among wealthy families, 
 who spent the Summer on Sullivan's Island. 
 
 His duties and pleasures, did not, however, alienate him 
 from the sweetheart of his boyhood, for he kept up as fre- 
 quent and interesting a correspondence with Miss Ewing 
 as he had done at West Point. In the summer of 1843 he 
 got a leave of absence for three months and spent that 
 time with her at Lancaster. In November of that year he 
 set out to return to Charleston by way of New Orleans. 
 Part of the way he travelled with Henry Stanbery, after- 
 ward Attorney General of the United States. At Cincin- 
 nati he spent some time with his two brothers, who were 
 employed in the Gazette printing ofBce. He spent a week 
 at St. Louis, visiting the arsenal and Jefferson Barracks, 
 and was much impressed with the future possibilities of the 
 city, which then had only about 40,000 inhabitants. 
 
46 SCENE OF THE GREA T MARCH. 
 
 So he returned to Charleston, and there he was a busy 
 student, concerning himself -chiefly with observations 
 of the country from a professional point of view. Says 
 Mr, Reid in his "Ohio in the War": "Nothing could 
 more strikingly exhibit the foundations of that won- 
 derful knowledge of the topography and resources 
 of the South which was afterwards to prove so 
 valuable, than this scrap of a letter to Philemon Ewing: 
 ' Every day I feel 'more and more in need of an atlas, 
 such as your father has at home ; and as the knowledge 
 of geography, in its minutest details, is essential to a 
 true military education, the idle time necessarily spent 
 here might be properly devoted to it. I wish, therefore 
 you would procure for me the best geography and atlas 
 (not school) extant.' " Writing from Fort Moultrie he 
 said : "Since my return I have not been running about in the 
 city or the island, as heretofore, but have endeavored to<in- 
 terest myself in Blackstone. I have read all four volumes, 
 Starkie on 'Evidence,' and other books, semi-legal and 
 semi-historical, and would be obliged if you vi^ould give 
 me a list of such books as you were required to read, 
 not including your local or State law. I intend to read 
 the second and third volumes of 'Blackstone' again; also 
 ' Kent's Commentaries,' which seem, as far as I am capa- 
 ble of judging, to be the basis of the common law prac- 
 tice. This course of study I have adopted from feeling 
 the want of it in the duties to which I was lately assigned. 
 . . . I have no idea of makingthelawa professsion ; but 
 as an officer of the army, it is my duty and interest to be pre- 
 pared for any situation that fortune or luck may offer. It is for 
 this alone that I prepare and not for professional practice. 
 
 Soon after getting back to Charleston he was assigned 
 to duty in the upper part of Georgia asnd Alabama, and 
 
IVAJ? JiUMORS. 47 
 
 on this errand he travelled over the region in which, many 
 years later, he conducted one of his greatest cami>aigns. 
 Thus he acquired knowledge which was afterward of incal- 
 culable value to him and to the National Government. 
 
 In the winter of 1844-45, he was on a deer hunting expe- 
 dition on the Carolina coast, and got his right arm thrown 
 out of joint by an accident. Being thus disabled he got a 
 leave of absence and went North, going as usual to the 
 centre of attraction at Lancaster. In March he returned 
 to Fort Moultrie, just at the time when Congress provided 
 for the annexation of Texas and war with Mexico was 
 expected. He remained at Fort Moultrie, however, fof 
 some time longer. Charleston was then a proud, aristo- 
 cratic city, and considered itself a most important place 
 in the Union. There was already much talk about the 
 right of secession and there were often angry controversies 
 over the subject, even at the officers' own mess-tables. 
 But Sherman at this time had no idea that such talk would 
 ever go further than it had already gone in 1833-33, when 
 " Nullification " was so promptly stamped out by President 
 Jackson and General Scott. 
 
 In the spring of 1846 Sherman was at Fort Moultrie, 
 under the command of Captain, afterward General, Robert 
 Anderson. Among other officers there at the time were 
 Henry B. Judd, George B. Ayres, William Gates, Martin 
 Burke, E. D. Keyes, T. W. Sherman, H. B. Field and Joseph 
 Stewart. George H. Thomas and John F. Reynolds had 
 already gone on to join General Taylor's army in Texas. 
 In April, Sherman was sent to Governor's Island, New 
 York, and thence to the recruiting station at Pittsburgh, 
 Pennsylvania. Soon after this he received authority to 
 open a recruiting station at Zanesville, Ohio, to his great 
 
4 8 OFF FOR A LONG VOYAGE. 
 
 delight, for Lancaster and Miss Ewing were only thirty- 
 six miles away. 
 
 When news arrived of the battles of Palo Alto and Re- 
 saca de la Palma he became much excited at the prospect 
 of actual war and hurried back to Pittsburgh. There he 
 found a letter from his friend Ord, then at Baltimore, say- 
 ing that his company had just received orders to go to 
 California and urging him to go also. Sherman at once 
 wrote to the Adjutant-General, at Washington, D. C, ap- 
 plying for active service. Then, in his impatience and 
 without authority, he left a corporal in charge of his office 
 and hastened to Cincinnati. There he reported to Col- 
 onel Fanning, a veteran officer, and asked to be sent on to 
 the front. But Fanning, instead of appreciating the young 
 soldier's zeal, gave him a hearty scoring for leaving his 
 post without orders, and told him to get back to Pittsburgh 
 as quickly as he could. Sherman obeyed, but of course 
 stopped off at Lancaster on the way. He arrived at Pitts- 
 burgh late in June and found there awaiting him an order 
 relieving him from the recruiting service and assigning 
 him to Company F, then under orders for California. He 
 made up his accounts, turned over the balance of cash to 
 the physician, and in a few hours was on his way to New 
 York where his company was already aboard ship and 
 ready to sail for California by the way of Cape Horn. 
 
 Sherman and his fellow officers went aboard on July 14th, 
 1846, and set off on their long voyage. The "Lexington" 
 was an old ship, formerly a sloop of war but now a store 
 ship. Sherman and Ord roomed together. On the voyage 
 they drilled the men as thoroughly as possible. They 
 amused themselves with various games, but no gambling 
 was allowed. On "crossing the line" a few of the 
 greenhorns were put through the usual ceremonies, but 
 
SAIV THE EMPEROR AND HIS FAMIL Y. 49 
 
 the officers were exempted. In sixty clays they reached 
 Rio Janeiro, where they had a jolly time for a week. 
 Sherman's companion in his rambles about town was Lieu- 
 tenant, afterward General Halleck. They saw the Emperor 
 and his family. Their first supper in the city was a sump- 
 tuous meal and the bill footed up to 26,000 reis. This 
 sum staggered them, until they found out that it meant 
 only about $16. 
 
 From Rio they proceeded to Cape Horn, which they 
 rounded in very rough weather, and in sixty days reached 
 Valparaiso, where they remained ten days. About the 
 middle of January they neared the California coast, which 
 they had to approach cautiously because no trustworthy 
 charts were then in existence. They made their landing 
 at Monterey, and there learned that the Californians had 
 broken out into an insurrection, that the fleet under Com- 
 modore Stockton was down the coast near San Diego, that 
 General Kearney had been defeated in battle, and that the 
 whole country was in a pretty bad plight. Accordingly 
 they got their weapons into shape for immediate use and 
 expected to begin fighting the moment they set foot on 
 the shore. It was January 26th, 1847, when they dropped 
 anchor in the bay of Monterey, after a voyage of one hun- 
 dred and ninety-eight days from New York. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 AMONG THE FORTY-NINERS. 
 
 Days of Idleness at Monterey — Adam and Eve — Sunday Diver. 
 SIGNS — Who is Governor? — General Fremont — The Discovery of 
 Gold and the Rush for the Mines — Domestic Economy of Camp 
 Life — Negro Fidelity — Back to the East — Marriage of Sherman 
 and Miss Ewing — Hov^r he Heard Webster's Speech — A Shady 
 Travelling Companion — Entering and Quitting the Law. 
 
 The voyagers of the " Lexington " found Monterey a 
 particularly peaceful and sleepy place, despite the war-like 
 rumors that had greeted them, and Sherman was com- 
 pelled to drop into a li-fe of dull routine in the Quarter- 
 master's department. Monterey was inhabited by about 
 a thousand persons, Americans, Spaniards, Mexicans and 
 Indians, mixed. They were a kind and pleasant people, 
 apparently with nothing to do. Horses and cattle were 
 ridiculously cheap, and game of all kinds was abundant. 
 Coffee, sugar and such supplies were, however, scarce and 
 costly. The half dozen shops in the town were almost 
 empty and seldom patronized, and the people spent 
 their time mostly in riding, dancing and shows of all 
 kinds. Every Sunday there was a grand ball, and Sherman 
 pronounced the girls very graceful dancers. Soon after 
 their arrival the officers were invited to witness a play 
 called "Adam and Eve." "Eve was personated," says 
 Sherman, " by a pretty young girl known as Dolores 
 50 
 
RIVAL CLAIMANTS. 5 1 
 
 Gomez, who, however, was dressed very unlike Eve, for 
 she was covered with a petticoat and spangles. Adam 
 was personated by her brother, who has since become 
 somewhat famous. God Almighty was personated, and 
 Heaven's occupants seemed very human." 
 
 Sherman spent a month at Monterey, doing some rou- 
 tine work, studying a little Spanish, and cultivating the 
 acquaintance of the people. On one occasion he and Ord 
 went on an excursion inland. They stayed over night at 
 the house of Senor Gomez, father of the young people 
 who had played Adam and Eve, and then rode to the 
 old Mission of St. John the Baptist. It was Sunday, and 
 th^y went to church, Ord's gorgeous uniform attracting 
 much attention. .After church the priest tucked up his 
 robes, and betook himself to playing billiards, while the 
 rest were cock-fighting and horse racing. Sherman im- 
 proved the opportunity to buy a splendid new horse. 
 
 News soon came of the quarrel between General Kear- 
 ney, Colonel Fremont and Commodore Stockton, as to 
 the right of supreme authority on the coast. General 
 Mason and Commodore Shubrick also laid claim to sup- 
 reme control. So the young officers were asking, " Who 
 the devil is Governor of California.-'" One day Sherman 
 and the others were aboard the frigate " Independence " 
 when General Kearney approached on board another .ship, 
 the "Cyane." Kearney soon came aboard the "Inde- 
 pendence," dressed in an old dragoon coat, and an armv 
 cap to which he had added the broad visor cut from a full 
 dress hat, to screen his face and eyes from the hot sun. 
 As he was received by the officers on the " Independence" 
 one of them exclaimed, " Fellows, the problem is solved; 
 
 there is the Grand Vizier (Visor), ! He is Governor 
 
 of California ! " And in fact Kearney and Shubrick at 
 
5 2 DISCO VER Y OF G OLD. 
 
 that very meeting came to a most cordial understanding, 
 Kearney being recognized as the supreme commander. 
 
 Fremont still disputed Kearney's authority, however, 
 and soon came down to Monterey. Sherman called on 
 him and took tea with him, but, he says, " left without 
 being much impressed." Kearney and Sherman after this 
 went up to Los Angeles, to replace the authority which 
 Fremont had set up there. The country was peaceful 
 and Sherman's experiences and observations were pictur- 
 esque rather than important. He also went up to Sonoma, 
 and Yerba Buena, as San Francisco was then called. 
 
 In the spring of 1848, Sherman went with Colonel 
 Mason to Santa Barbara, where he had a good time hunt- 
 ing deer and bear in the mountains, and ducks and geese 
 on the Salinas Plains. In the course of a few hours he 
 had shot as many geese and ducks as could be loaded 
 on a mule's back. Sometimes he killed as many as nine 
 with one discharge of his gun. 
 
 At about this time one day two Americans came to the 
 ofifice at Monterey to see the Governor (Mason). Their 
 business was most important, for they brought specimens 
 of placer gold which had just been found. Captain Sut- 
 ter had found it in the tail-race of a saw mill he was 
 building at Colma, and he wanted a title for his property. 
 This was^the commencement of the gpld discoveries which 
 revolutionized California and startled the world. Soon 
 every one was talking of gold, and the excitement became 
 feverish. Soldiers began to desert and rush to the mines. 
 Sherman himself did not escape the infection, and soon 
 convinced Colonel Mason that it was their duty to go and 
 investigate the matter personally. So in June, 1848, 
 Sherman set out with four soldiers, a negro servant and a 
 number of horses and mulss. On reaching Sutter's place 
 
DISCO VER Y OF GOLD. 53 
 
 he heard from Captain Sutter himself the story of the 
 discovery of gold by Marshall, the workman who built the 
 mill. As Marshall was working in the ditch which was 
 to carry off the water, he saw some particles of yellow 
 metal. He picked them up and the thought flashed into 
 his mind that they were gold. He hurried to Captain 
 Sutter and showed them to him. Sutter attached Httle 
 importance to the discovery and told Marshall to go back 
 to work and say nothing about it. But he at once sent 
 the specimens down to Governor Mason. Marshall could 
 not keep his secret, however, and soon the other men 
 wanted to gather the gold. Marshall threatened to shoot 
 them if they did so. Thereupon they went fifteen miles 
 further down the stream, and they discovered one of the 
 richest placer mines in the world. 
 
 While Sherman was travelling about in the gold country 
 his soldiers deserted him and all his followers, except the 
 negro servant, and when he got back to Monterey he found 
 the same state of demoralization there. Every one was 
 crazy over gold. But in September, 1848, official news of 
 the treaty of peace with Mexico reached them, and most 
 of the soldiers were regularly mustered out. In Septem- 
 ber and October, Sherman, Mason and others made a 
 second visit to the mines, and during that fall Sherman, Ord 
 and Warner camped on the bank of the American River, 
 near Sutter's Fort. Sherman was cook, Ord washed the 
 dishes and Warner looked after the horses. They soon dis- 
 missed Ord from his position, however, because he would 
 only wipe the tin plates with a tuft of grass, while Warner 
 wanted them thoroughly washed with hot water. So Warner 
 took to washing the dishes and Ord cared for the horses. 
 
 General Persifer F. Smith came out to California in 
 February, 1849 to take supreme command, arriving at 
 
54 LIFE A T SAN FRANCISCO. 
 
 Monterey on the first steamship that reached that coast, 
 Sherman became his Adjutant-General/ and went up to 
 San Francisco with him. General Smith and his family had 
 much trouble with their servants, who all deserted them 
 for the gold mines excepting one little negro, named Isaac, 
 who was cook, chambermaid and general man and maid of 
 all work. Accordingly, domestic affairs were chaotic. 
 Breakfast was announced at any time between ten and 
 twelve, and dinner according to circumstances. " Many a 
 time," says Sherman, "have I seen General Smith, with a 
 can of preserved meat in his hands, going toward the 
 house, take off his hat on meeting a negro, and on being 
 asked the reason of his politeness, he would answer that 
 they were the only real gentlemen in California." Indeed 
 the fidelity of Isaac and of Colonel Mason's negro boy, at a 
 time when white men laughed at promises as things made 
 only to be broken, gave Sherman a kindly feeling of re- 
 spect for negroes which he never lost. 
 
 Having little official business on hand, Sherman and 
 some of his comrades made a contract with Colonel J. B. 
 Stevenson to survey his projected city of "New York of 
 the Pacific " at the mouth of San Joaquin River and to 
 mark out a channel through Suisun Bay. For this they 
 were well paid, but the city never was built. After this 
 Sherman surveyed a large ranch in Sacramento Valley 
 and had some lively experiences with grizzly bears. All 
 his earnings he invested in real estate at Sacramento, on 
 which he made good profit. He was an interested wit- 
 ness of the great rush of prospectors to the coast in 1849, 
 of the organization of government under a State Consti- 
 tution, the election of Fremont and Gwin as Senators, and 
 all the picturesque scenes that the rising community in 
 those days presented. 
 
SHERMAN ENTERING U. S. SENATE. 
 
AT NEW YORK AND WASHINGTON. 57 
 
 In the fall of 1849 his friend Warner was surveying 
 Feather River and its source, Goose Lake. While en- 
 gaged in that work he was murdered by Indians, and 
 Sherman was much shocked and grieved at the loss. It 
 was impossible at that time to punish his murderers, and 
 it was not until the next Spring that his scattered bones 
 were found and buried. 
 
 Sherman now became anxious to return to the East, 
 chiefly, it is surmised, on account of his old playmate at 
 Lancaster. Accordingly, he induced General Smith to send 
 him home with dispatches. In January, 1850, he weet down 
 to Monterey to bid his friends there good-bye, and then took 
 passage on a steamer for Panama. There they crossed the 
 Isthmus, partly on mule-back and partly in a canoe. 
 Thence they made their way to New York by steamer. 
 Senator Gwin, Ord and A. J. Smith were members of the 
 party, and Sherman brought along two Spanish boys from 
 Monterey to put into college at Georgetown, D. C. Sher- 
 man's party on reaching New York put up at Delmonico's 
 Hotel, on Bowling Green. The next day Sherman went 
 to General Scott's office and delivered General Smith's 
 dispatches, and was "ordered" (not invited) to dine with 
 him the next day. At the dinner General Scott enter- 
 tained his guests with stories of the Mexican war. Sher- 
 man felt deeply the fact that the country had passed 
 through a foreign war and that his comrades had participat- 
 ed in great battles, while he himself had not even heard a 
 hostile shot. He thought that his last chance was gone 
 and his career as a soldier at an end. But Scott startled 
 him with the prophecy that the country would soon be 
 plunged into a terrific civil war. 
 
 After a few days in New York, General Scott sent him 
 on to Washington. Mr. Ewing was then Secretary of the 
 4 
 
58 MARRIAGE TO MISS E WING. 
 
 Interior, and Sherman, of course, became a member of his 
 family. Sherman soon went to call on President Taylor at 
 the White House, He had never seen him before, though 
 he had served under him in Florida in 1840-41. He had 
 a long and very pleasant chat with him, and was, he says, 
 most agreeably surprised at his fine personal appearance, 
 and his pleasant, easy manners. 
 
 As soon as possible Sherman obtained six months' leave 
 of absence. He visited his mother at Mansfield, Ohio, and 
 then returned to Washington. There, on May ist, 1850, 
 he was. married to his first and only love, Ellen Boyle 
 Evving. The ceremony occurred at the house of Mr. 
 Ewing, on Pennsylvania avenue, opposite the War Depart- 
 ment building. A large and distinguished company at- 
 tended, including President Taylor and all the members of 
 his Cabinet, Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, Thomas H. 
 Benton, aud many other prominent statesmen. The young 
 couple made a wedding journey to Baltimore, New York, 
 Niagara Falls and Ohio, returning to Washington on July 
 1st. 
 
 President Taylor took part in the celebration of the 
 Fourth of July, and immediately afterward was taken ill 
 and died. Sherman was present in the gallery of the 
 Senate chamber when Fillmore took the oath of office and 
 succeeded to the Presidency. He also attended General 
 Taylor's funeral as an Aid-de-Camp. 
 
 Important political changes soon came on, which were 
 watched by Sherman with much interest. Mr. Evving re- 
 signed his office as Secretary of the Interior and became 
 Senator. Sherman listened to many of the interesting de- 
 bates that took place in the Senate at this time. He 
 heard Webster's last speech in the Senate before he en- 
 tered Fillmore's Cabinet. Learning that Webster was to 
 
GETTING INTO THE SENATE. 59 
 
 make a speech, he went to the Capitol at an early 
 hour, but found all the galleries already overcrowded. 
 Anxious to hear the speech, he appealed to Senator Cor- 
 win, who asked him what he wanted. Sherman said he 
 wanted him to take him to the floor of the Senate, add- 
 ing that he had often seen from the gallery persons on the 
 floor no better than he was. Corwin asked him in a quiz- 
 zical way if he was a foreign ambassador. Sherman said 
 he was not. A Governor of a State .'' No. A member of 
 the House of Representatives ? No. Ever received a 
 vote of thanks from either house.'' No. Well, Corwin ex- 
 plained, those were the only persons entitled to go upon 
 the floor; but there was just one other chance. "Have 
 you any impudence?" "Yes, if occasion calls for it." 
 ' Could you become so interested in talking with me as not 
 to see that door-keeper.?" "Yes, if you will tell me one 
 of your funny stories." So Corwin took Sherman's arm 
 and walked around the vestibule for a few minutes with 
 him, and then led him through the doorway into the Senate 
 Chamber. The door-keeper began asking him if he was 
 an Ambassador, or Governor, or Representative, but Sher- 
 man paid no attention to him, pretending to be so absorbed 
 in Corwin's story as not to hear him. Once in, Corwin 
 told the young man to take care of himself, and he did so. 
 
 He sat near General Scott and not far from Webster, and 
 heard the whole of the speech. He has recorded that it 
 was heavy in the extreme, and he was disappointed and 
 tired long before it was finished. The speech could not, 
 in Sherman's estimatien, be compared with Mr. Clay's 
 efforts. 
 
 At the end of July all the family went home to Lancaster 
 and Sherman was soon sent to St. Louis. In September, 
 1852, he was sent thence to New Orleans. But he soon 
 
60 A MEMORABLE VOYAGE. 
 
 applied for and obtained a leave of absence, desiring to go 
 to San Francisco with a view to settling there. So he sent 
 his family back to Ohio and went himself to California by the 
 way of Nicaragua, When he boarded the steamer bound 
 from San Juan del Sur for San Francisco there was a great 
 rush for state-rooms. Just as he had secured his, a lady who 
 had been a fellow-passenger from New Orleans asked him 
 to secure one for her and her lady friend. The purser an- 
 swered that there was not another left, and so put down 
 their names for the other two berths in Sherman's state- 
 room, promising to make other arrangements as soon as 
 the vessel was off. So down went the entry, " Captain 
 Sherman and ladies." A few minutes later the purser gave 
 Sherman a berth in another state-room, so that the two 
 ladies had the room to themselves. At every meal the stew- 
 ard invited Sherman to bring " his ladies " to the table, and 
 they had the best seats there. The two ladies were, Sher- 
 man says, the most modest and best behaved on the ship. 
 But soon after his arrival at San Francisco he discovered 
 that one of them at least — the one who had asked him to 
 secure the state-room for her — was a notorious woman. 
 
 It was a poor ship they travelled in, and the weather wasr 
 foggy. In trying to make San Francisco harbor they ran 
 aground, and Sherman went off in a small boat to reach the 
 city and bring help. He came near getting drowned, but 
 finally reached the city and sent back help to the stranded 
 vessel. All the passengers were taken off and brought to 
 the city in safety and the next night the ship went to 
 pieces. Had even a slight storm arisen when they ran 
 aground, probably not one of the passengers would have 
 escaped. 
 
 Sherman now went into business in San Francisco. In 
 the summer of 1853 he returned East and took his family 
 
VARIED BUSINESS EXPERIENCES. 6 1 
 
 back to the Pacific coast. On September 6th he resigned 
 his commission in the army and devoted himself earnestly 
 to various business enterprises, but the unhealthy state 
 of speculation disgusted him. Presently there was a finan- 
 cial panic, in which Sherman and those associated with 
 him lost considerably. But he held on there with varying 
 fortunes until the spring of 1857, when he returned with 
 his family to New York. Again in 1858, he went to San 
 Francisco and closed up his business there, making full 
 payment of all dues and then after some experience in St. 
 Louis and elsewhere, settled his family at Lancaster in the 
 fall of 1859. 
 
 Among his various adventures at this period was the 
 practice of law. The young Ewings, his brothers-in-law, 
 were establishing themselves as lawyers at Leavenworth, 
 Kansas, and Sherman, after living for some time on a farm 
 of 160 acres which he owned, near Topeka, joined their 
 law firm. For two years he strove to be a lawyer, but with 
 indifferent success While the Ewings rose rapidly among 
 the foremost leaders in the law and the politics of the 
 State, their eccentric ofifice partner gained but little in- 
 fluence and no prominence ; the citizens knew little of him. 
 "It happened one day," says an old copy of The Leaven- 
 worth Conservative, "that Sherman was compelled to 
 appear before the Probate Judge, Gardner, we believe. 
 The other partners were busy ; and so Sherman, with his 
 authorities and his case all mapped out, proceeded to court. 
 He returned in a rage two hours after. Something had gone 
 wrong. He had been pettifogged out of the case by a sharp 
 petty attorney opposed to him in a way which was disgusting 
 to his intellect and his convictions. His amonr propre was 
 hurt, and he declared that he would have nothing to do with 
 the law in Kansas. That afternoon the business was closed, 
 partnership dissolved, and in a very short time Sherman 
 was on his way to a more congenial clime and occupation. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE CRISIS OF A CAREER. 
 
 Sherman in the Prime of Manhood — Great Events Approaching — 
 How He Came to ke a Schoolmaster — Organization of the Semi- 
 nary — Political Talk — His View on Slavery — The Campaign of i860 
 AND Election of Lincoln — Secession — Sherman's Prompt Decision 
 TO Stand by the Union — Resignation of His Principalship — De- 
 parture for the North — Fate of the Seminary. 
 
 Sherman's real history begins with 1859. Up to that 
 time, as we have seen, his Hfe was one of preparation, 
 checkered, adventurous, often picturesque, always earnest. 
 Yet it comprised no word or act of vital import or perma- 
 nent value to the world. Whether hunting in Florida, or 
 mingling in gay society at Charleston, or watching the rush 
 for gold and the rise of a new State in California, or bank- 
 ing in New York, or practicing law in Kansas, he did 
 nothing that unfolded his own character to the fullest extent, 
 or seriously impressed the history of the nation. The most 
 interesting personal feature of those years was his long 
 courtship and happy marriage ; the incident of most public 
 value, undreamed of at the time, was his horseback 
 journeys through Northern Georgia. Neither of these, 
 however, had his career been ended at that time, would 
 have secured him more than a local and a transient fame. 
 The work of his life yet lay before him. 
 
 It is interesting to observe, in passing, as significant 
 of his general character, that he was admitted to practice 
 law at the Kansas bar, not on the strength of his legal 
 62 
 
THE COMING OF Ott^ORTL^J 1 ll-.S. 63 
 
 attainments nor because he had successfully passed the 
 required examination, but simply on the score of his general 
 intelligence. Ke did not, in fact, profess to be a lawyer 
 in the technical sense of the term. He had indeed studied 
 a few of the ordinary law books, but he could hardly have 
 passed a satisfactory examination. He arranged, there- 
 fore, to enter partnership with Thomas Ewing, Jr., on this 
 basis : Ewing, who was a thorough lawyer, was to manage 
 all the business in the Courts, and Sherman was to look 
 after collections, agency work, etc., such as his business 
 experience had qualified him to attend to. It was neces- 
 sary even under these circumstances for him to obtain a 
 lawyer's license, so he went one day to Judge Lecompte, of 
 the United States Court, and mentioned the matter to 
 him. The Judge told him to go to the Clerk and get a 
 license. "But," said Sherman, "shall I have to be exam- 
 ined .'* " " No," said the Judge, " we will admit you on the 
 strength of yon.ir general intelligence." 
 
 Behold our hero, then, in the midsummer of 1859; a 
 tall, slender man in the prime of life, who had never 
 known a day's ill health, and whose mind and body were 
 briming with ambition and energy that had not yet found 
 scope for full expansion. He had weighed many things in 
 the balance of practical achievement, but had found them 
 all wanting. His heart was set upon a soldier's Hfe, but 
 as yet he had been compelled to remain amid scenes of 
 inglorious peace. He had missed the opportunities of the 
 Mexican war, and the sanguinary prophecies of General 
 Scott had lacked fulfilment. 
 
 But now the shadows of great events began to fall 
 thickly all about him. He had already witnessed the Free 
 State Struggle in California, and had seen Fremont tri- 
 umphantly elected Senator. The same conflict was now 
 
64 A SCHOOL PRINCIPAL. 
 
 rapidly assuming national dimensions. The old Whig 
 party had melted away, and a new and stronger party had 
 arisen in its place. Already the new organization had 
 fought a great presidential campaign with Fremont as its 
 leader, and had shown a strength that promised success 
 when next it shoud measure forces with its opponent. In 
 Congress the new party was an important factor, and there 
 Sherman's brother, John, was one of its most conspicuous 
 leaders. Although in his cadet days Sherman had not 
 been in full sympathy with the Whig partisanship of his 
 foster father, the whole bent of his nature was now 
 strongly toward freedom as against slavery, and toward 
 nationalism as against sectionalism and secession. But 
 not yet did he even dream of the nearness and the magni- 
 tude of the coming struggle, and the mighty part that 
 he was destined to play therein. 
 
 He was invited, in July, 1859, ^^ become the head of a 
 new military school at Alexandria, Louisiana. The 
 national government sometime before had given to that 
 State a considerable tract of public land, the proceeds from 
 the sale of which were to be used in founding " a seminary 
 of learning." For some time the authorities of Louisiana 
 discussed the name and scope of the proposed institution, 
 and finally adopted the title of " Louisiana Seminary of 
 Learning," to which Sherman afterward added " and Mili- 
 tary Academy." Sherman appears to have obtained the 
 principalship of this seminary through the influence of 
 Major Don Carlos Buell and General G. M. Graham, and 
 Aipt, as has been alleged, through the personal friendship of 
 'General Bragg and General Beauregard. Indeed, the lat- 
 ter two gentlemen had nothing to do with it, and did not 
 know of his appointment until it was actually made. 
 Sherman had written to Buell, who was on duty in the War 
 
 M,. 
 
 J C-^^,»-Xl-X.^ 
 
MADE PLANS FOR THE SEMINARY. 65 
 
 Department at Washington, applying for a place as army 
 paymaster. Buell reiDlied by sending him a prospectus of 
 the Louisana Seminary and advising him to apply for the 
 principalship. Sherman did so, and soon after was in- 
 formed by Governor Wickliffe that he had been appointed 
 to the desired position. Sherman was made principal and 
 professor of engineering ; Anthony Vallas was professor of 
 mathematics and philosophy ; Francis W. Smith was pro- 
 fessor of chemistry ; David F. Boyd was professor of lan- 
 guages, English and Ancient ; and E. Berti St. Ange was 
 professor of French and Modern languages. 
 
 Sherman went to Louisiana in the autumn of 1859 and 
 reported for duty to Governor Moore, who had succeeded 
 Governor Wickliffe. Governor Moore sent him in his own 
 carriage to Alexandria, and there Sherman and General 
 Graham looked over the ground and made plans for the 
 Seminary. The college building stood on a tract of four 
 hundred acres of pine land, and was under the charge of a 
 carpenter named James. It was a large and handsome 
 house, but did not contain a chair or table or blackboard, 
 or indeed any of the essentials of school work. Sherman 
 accordingly set la work at once to supply the deficien- 
 cies. He engaged James and three other carpenters, and 
 'set them to work making furniture out of some of the fenc- 
 ing of the place and a lot of boards that were piled near the 
 house. 
 
 The Governor issued a notice on November 17th, announc- 
 ing that the seminary would be open on January jLst, i860. 
 On the latter date some sixty students reported to the 
 principal. Sherman organized the school as nearly as pos- 
 sible on the basis of West Point, with roll calls, etc., but 
 without uniforms or muskets. He himself attended to the 
 business of the institution and gave but little actual claaa 
 
66 FRANK VIE. frL' OF SLA VER Y. 
 
 instruction. There were seventy-three students during the 
 first term, and fifty-nine of them passed the examination 
 on July 30th, i860. Meantime Sherman had secured new 
 legislation, granting the school a larger fund for its main- 
 tenance, and generally increasing its efficiency and scope. 
 
 While advocating the cause of the school before the leg- 
 islature he necessarily spent much time at Baton Rouge, 
 and there was drawn into the political discussions that were 
 then rife. His brother, John Sherman, was the Repub- 
 lican candidate for the Speakership of the House of Rep- 
 resentatives at Washington, and was regarded through the 
 South as an " Abolitionist " — a synonym for all that was 
 monstrous and devilish. For this reason W. T, Sherman 
 was looked upon with suspicion in Louisiana, and many 
 people openly expressed their doubt of the propriety of re- 
 taining him at the head of an important State institution. 
 One evening Sherman took dinner at the Governor's, and 
 there met General Bragg and a number of leading politi- 
 cians. After the ladies had left the table, the gentlemen 
 took to talking politics, and General Moore, referring to 
 John Sherman's candidacy for the Speakership, asked Col- 
 onel Sherman to speak his own mind frankly on the sub- 
 ject of slavery and the political conflict between the North 
 and the South. 
 
 Sherman responded frankly and fully. He declared that 
 his brother was not an Abolitionist in the radical sense 
 of the term. He was, of course, opposed to slavery, but 
 did not advocate any forcible interference with existing 
 institutions at the South, although he would resist their 
 extension into other parts of the country. As for himself, 
 Sherman declared that if he were a citizen of Louisiana 
 and a member of the legislature, he would earnestly strive 
 for the amelioration of the condition of the negroes ; he 
 
TROUBLESOME TIMES IMPENDIh'C. 6? 
 
 would toibld tlie sejjaration of families In the sale of slaves; 
 3.nd he would abolish the laws which forbade slaves to 
 icarn to read aud write. He talked in this strain at some 
 length and with his characteristic earnestness and vigor, 
 and supported his views by citing illustrations from his 
 own experience and observation. His remarks deeply im- 
 pressed the whole country, and when he stopped speaking 
 the Attorney-General of the State, who was present, struck 
 the table a tremendous blow with his fist and exclaimed : 
 "By , heis right!" After that there were no com- 
 plaints of Sherman's political unfitness for his place. 
 
 There was a vacation from August ist td November ist, 
 and Sherman went North, to New York, to purchase ad- 
 ditional supplies for the school, and then to Lancaster to 
 visit his family, who had remained there pending the con- 
 struction of a suitable house at Alexandria. He also went 
 to Washington and influenced the War Department to 
 grant to the school a supply of muskets and other accoutre- 
 ments for the military drill. Returning to Alexandria in 
 October he went to work with great energy to get the new 
 buildings ready for the opening of the school on November 
 1st. On the latter date about one hundred and thirty 
 cadets were present, and the work of the school was re- 
 sumed. 
 
 Sherman's house was now ready, and he moved into it. 
 He did not, however, send for his family because serious 
 storms were visible in the political skies. The presidential 
 campaign then closing had been unprecedentedly bitter, 
 and it was evident that the election of the Republican 
 candidate would immediately be followed by the most ex- 
 treme measures on the part of the South. Sherman took 
 no part in the political discussion, although his associates 
 tried to force him into it. On election day he was openly 
 
68 SHERMAN'S OPINION OF SECESSION. 
 
 told that it would be advisable for him to vote for Bell and 
 Everett, that being the Presidential ticket most in favor in 
 Louisiana. *' I openly said I would not," says Sherman, 
 "and I did not." 
 
 Lincoln was elected and the event startled the South. 
 It was recognized there at once that extension of the slave 
 power into the territories was impossible in the future, and 
 that therefore the future growth of the nation would be in 
 the direction of free soil and free men. The most incen- 
 diary and revolutionary talk was heard everywhere. Sher- 
 man kept quietly at his work, but he noticed that his cadets 
 began taking their declamations from the speeches of Cal- 
 houn, Yancey and other Southern extremists, selecting 
 especially passages in defence of slavery and in praise of 
 State rights. 
 
 No one ventured, however, to approach him upon the 
 subject, although his opinions were pretty generally under- 
 stood, namely, that secession was treason and treason meant 
 war. When President Buchanan announced in his annual 
 message to Congress, in December, i860, that the General 
 Government had no power to prevent a State from seced- 
 ing, Sherman was startled and began to fear the dissolu- 
 tion of the Union. 
 
 South Carolina soon passed acts of secession, and agents 
 came to Louisiana to persuade the Government of that 
 State to do likewise. Sherman saw that the mass of the 
 people were opposed to it, but that the politicians would 
 certainly force them into it. Such was the case. But be- 
 fore the formal act of secession was passed. Governor 
 Moore, in the name of the State, seized upon all the 
 United States forts at the mouth of the Mississippi and 
 the Federal arsenal at Baton Rouge. He was prompted to 
 do this by Benjamin and Slidell, the two Senators from 
 
THE DECISION MADE, 69 
 
 Louisiana- Sherman was strongly and bitterly impressed 
 oy the seizure of the arsenal. The arsenal was command- 
 ed by Major Haskins, an excellent and loyal officer, who, 
 however, feared to resist the State's demand, because he 
 knew that the cowardly administration at Washington 
 would not support him in such a refusal ; so he surren- 
 dered to General Bragg, 
 
 Some of the arms stored in the arsenal were sent up to 
 Alexandria, and Sherman was ordered by the Governor to 
 receipt for them and take care of them. Thus, he says, 
 he was made the receiver of stolen goods, goods that were 
 the property of the United States ; and this grated terri- 
 bly on his loyal feelings. Indeed it was this event that 
 brought affairs, with him, to a crisis, and immediately, a 
 week before the actual ordinance of secession was passed, 
 he wrote as follows : 
 
 " Louisiana State Seminary of Learning 
 "AND Military Academy, 
 
 "January i8th, 1861. 
 "Governor Thomas O. Moore, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. 
 
 "Sir: As I occupy a quasi-military position under this 
 State, I deem it proper to acquaint you that I accepted 
 such position when Louisiana was a State in the Union, 
 and when the motto of the Seminary was inserted in the 
 marble over the main door: 'By the liberality of the Gen- 
 eral Government of the United States. The Union — 
 esto perpetua.' 
 
 " Recent events foreshadow a great change, and it be- 
 comes all men to choose. If Louisiana withdraws from 
 the Federal Union, I prefer to maintain my allegiance to 
 the old Constitution as long as a fragment of it survives, 
 and my longer stay here would be wrong in every sense of 
 
70 THE CHOICE INEVITABLE. 
 
 the word. In that event, I beg you will send or appoint 
 some authorized agent to take charge of the arms and 
 munitions of war here belonging to the State or direct 
 me what disposition should be made of them. 
 
 "And, furthermore, as President of the Board of Super- 
 visors, I beg you to take immediate steps to relieve me 
 as superintendent the moment the State determines to 
 secede; for on no earthly account will I do any act, or 
 think any thought, hostile to or in defiance of the old 
 Government of the United States. With great respect, 
 etc., " W. T. Sherman." 
 
 Accompanying this, he sent a private letter to the Gov- 
 ernor, in which he said: "I take it for granted that you 
 have been expecting for some days the accompanying 
 paper from me. I have repeatedly and again made known 
 to General Graham and Dr. Smith that, in the event of a 
 severance of the relations hitherto existing between the 
 Confederated States of this Union, I would be forced to 
 choose the old Union. ... I have never been a poli- 
 tician, and therefore undervalue the excited feelings and 
 opinions of present rulers, but I do think if this people 
 cannot execute a form of Government like the present, 
 that a worse one will result. ... I entertain the 
 kindest feelings toward all, and would leave the State 
 with much regret. Only in great events we must choose 
 one way or the other." 
 
 To Dr. S. A. Smith, president of the Board of Super- 
 visors, he wrote a long letter, relating what he had written 
 to the Governor, and saying that under the circumstances 
 he felt it would be highly improper for him longer to remain 
 at the head of the school. " The more I think of it, 
 the more I think I should be away, the sooner the 
 better." 
 
BKA GG AND BEA URE GARD. 7 1 
 
 A few days later he received a reply from Governor 
 Moore, in General Bragg's hand-writing, expressing much 
 regret at the loss of his services, and assurances of respect, 
 confidence and admiration. Dr. Smith also wrote to him 
 in a similar strain on January 28th, and added in a post- 
 script : " Governor Moore desires me to express his pro- 
 found regret that the State is about to lose one who we 
 all fondly hoped had cast his destinies for weal or for woe 
 among us." The Board of Supervisors and the Academic 
 Board also adopted resolutions expressing deep regret at 
 his departure and the highest appreciation of the value of 
 his services. 
 
 In the latter part of February, 1861, Sherman turned 
 over all the Seminary property to his successor and then 
 went down to New Orleans to draw the salary due him 
 and close up all his business relations with the State. 
 During the few days he spent at New Orleans, he Hved at 
 the St. Louis Hotel, and usually sat at the same table with 
 General and Mrs. Bragg, with whom he was on most 
 friendly terms. He also met General Beauregard, two 
 of whose sons had been at the Alexandria Seminary. Beau- 
 regard was at that time sent for by Jefferson Davis to be 
 •made Brigadier-General, and this made Bragg jealous, 
 because in the United States army Bragg had been Beau- 
 regard's senior officer. Talking about this one day at the 
 hotel table, Mrs. Bragg remarked to Sherman : " You 
 know that my husband is not a favorite with the new 
 President." " Why," said Sherman, " I did not know that 
 he had ever met Mr. Lincoln." "I didn't mean your 
 President," replied Mrs. Bragg with emphasis, "but our 
 President." 
 
 Business was going on in New Orleans as usual. The 
 Louisiana State flag was flying over all the Federal build- 
 
72 FAREWELL TO THE SOUTH. 
 
 ings and elsewhere throughout the city, and along the 
 river ships displayed every flag on earth except the Stars 
 and Stripes. Everybody seemed to regard the change of 
 government as complete and final, and believed that seces- 
 sion would be quietly acquiesced in by the nation, al- 
 though men were steadily being enlisted and armed to 
 defend the State. Amid such scenes, on February 25th, 
 Sherman bade farewell to his friends, and set out for his 
 old home at Lancaster. 
 
 The Alexandria Seminary was broken up by the war. 
 All the faculty and students joined the Rebel army except- 
 ing two professors and one student. Sherman met several 
 of his former associates during the war, and for many years 
 after the war maintained a friendly acquaintance with 
 them. The Seminary was re-organized in 1865, but a few 
 years later was totally destroyed by fire. Governor Moore's 
 plantation was laid waste during the war, and Sherman 
 was afterward of great service to him in regaining posses- 
 sion of his property. 
 
HON. JOHN SHERMAN 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE OUTBREAK OF THE WAR. 
 
 The South Excited and Ready — The North Indifferent and Unpre- 
 pared — Sherman's Interview with Lincoln — His Plain Talk to his 
 Brother— Disgusted with the Politicians — A St. Louis Street 
 Railroad President — War Talk in St. Louis — A Clerkship De- 
 clined — His Loyalty Doubted — Prophesying a Great Struggle — 
 Bloodshed in St. Louis — Back to Washington — In Service at Last. 
 
 It is not easy to imagine a greater difference between 
 two sections of one nation than existed between the North 
 and South in the early months of 1861. In both, the same 
 great topic overshadowed all other interests ; and both en- 
 joyed full information concerning it. Both, indeed, were 
 deeply and equally concerned in the settlement of the great 
 controversy that was already convulsing the nation. Yet 
 the sentiment that prevailed in the one section varied as 
 widely from that in the other as though they were situated 
 upon different planets. 
 
 In Louisiana, before he left that State, and in the other 
 parts of the South through which he travelled on his way 
 to the North, Sherman found everywhere the keenest pub- 
 lic interest in the impending conflict, which was, then and 
 there, seen to be inevitable. Preparation was being 
 feverishly pushed on every hand. States were seceding. 
 7S 5 
 
76 INTER VIE W WITH I INCOLN. 
 
 Federal forts, arsenals and other property was being con- 
 fiscated. Federal officers were proving recreant to their 
 trusts, and were casting in their lot with the insurgents. 
 Politicians were preaching secession, and the public heart 
 was rapidly being fired with the same unholy flame. 
 
 But when he reached Illinois and Ohio and other North- 
 ern States, the scene was entirely changed. All was calm 
 and placid. No one seemed seriously to think of serious 
 trouble. The commercial instinct prevailed. Men were 
 too busy making money to pay attention to politics. 
 Others felt too secure in the established order of things 
 to believe that any great change was at hand. Sherman 
 was impressed with the idea that either the North had no 
 adequate realization of the true state of affairs, which was 
 scarcely credible, or, which seemed far more likely, ' it 
 would tamely submit to a dissolution of the Union. The 
 supine weakness of Buchannan had not aroused the North 
 to shame, nor had the aggressive treason of the conspira- 
 tors who surrounded him excited its righteous wrath. It 
 is related that Horace Greeley, on hearing of the manner 
 in which a long-suffering but at last indignant public had 
 overwhelmingly routed at the polls the venal ring that had 
 long plundered and oppressed it, threw up his hands in 
 exultation and exclaimed with an oath, "This is a great 
 people when it gets mad !" The North had not yet "got 
 mad," and its greatness was not yet apparent. 
 
 Soon after coming North, Sherman proceded to Wash- 
 ington, where Lincoln had just been inaugurated as Presi- 
 dent, John Sherman was now a Republican leader in the 
 Senate, having been appointed in place of Chase, who had 
 entered the Cabinet. Washington was enough of a south- 
 ern city to be filled with war talk. Sherman's old friend, 
 Anderson, had just moved his troops from Fort Moultrie 
 
A RAILROAD PRESIDENT. 77 
 
 into Fort Sumter, in Charleston Harbor, and had 
 announced his patriotic determination to hold that post 
 for the Government at all hazards. Southern members of 
 Congress and office holders in the Departments, even in 
 the War Department, were openly talking treason of the 
 rankest kind. 
 
 Sherman was one day at this time taken by his brother 
 John to the White House, where he had a long interview 
 with the President. On learning that Sherman had just 
 come from the South, Lincoln inquired of him "how they 
 were getting along down there." Said Sherman, " They 
 think they are getting along swimmingly. They are pre- 
 paring for war." " Oh, well," replied Lincoln, " I guess 
 we'll manage to keep house." This remark greatly dis- 
 appointed Sherman and he changed the subject as quickly 
 as possible. As he left the White House, however, he re- 
 lieved his mind most emphatically to his brother, "John," 
 he exclaimed fiercely, " you damned politicians have got 
 things in a hell of a fix, and you may get out of them as 
 you best can ! " 
 
 Thoroughly disgusted with Washington and the poli- 
 ticians, Sherman went back to Lancaster. His brother 
 John begged him to remain at the Capitol and to be more 
 patient with the President, but the impetuous soldier 
 would not listen to him. At Lancaster he found letters 
 from friends at St. Louis urging him to come on there and 
 assume the presidency of a street railroad, which was sure 
 to prove profitable. He quickly decided to do so, and on 
 March 27th set out for St. Louis with his family. On 
 April 1st they took possession of a house on Locust street, 
 where Charles Paving and John Hunter, law partners, 
 boarded with them. Sherman was elected president of the 
 street railroad company, which had a paying line m full 
 
yS AN OFFER DECLINED. 
 
 operation, and tried to devote himself strictly to business. 
 This, however, was impossible. The air was full of poli- 
 tics and of war. The Governor of Missouri and all the 
 leading politicians openly sympathized with the seceding 
 States. The troops at the State Camp of Instruction in 
 Lindell's Grove were commanded by a Southern sym- 
 pathizer, although he was a Northerner and a West Point 
 man. There were, however, some loyal men about, among 
 them being John M. Schofield, B. Gratz Brown, Clinton 
 B. Fisk and Frank Blair — whoss brother, Montgomery 
 Blair was in Lincoln's Cabinet, These patriotic men had 
 organized, chiefly among the German population of the 
 city, four or five regiments of loyal " Home Guards." Na- 
 thaniel Lyon, also, kept his handful of Federal troops at 
 the arsenal true to the Nation. Day by day the situation 
 grew more strained. Sherman tried to keep out of the 
 trouble, and talked freely with only a few intimate friends. 
 But day by day it became more evident that a tremendous 
 conflict was close at hand, and day by day the earnest sol- 
 dier and ardent patriot felt himself more strongly drawn 
 away from his street railroad and toward the defence of 
 the Nation. 
 
 Meantime he was not forgotten at Washington, where 
 his brother John was strongly urging his interests. On 
 April 6th he received a telegraphic dispatch from the Post- 
 master-General, Montgomery Blair, saying: "Will you ac- 
 cept the chief clerkship of the War Department } We 
 will make you Assistant Secretary of War when Congress 
 meets." Sherman promptly telegraphed back, " I cannot 
 accept," and then wrote by mail as follows : 
 
 " I received, about nine o'clock Saturday night, your 
 telegraph dispatch, which I have this moment answered, 
 ' I cannot accept.' I have quite a large family, and when 
 
SUSPECTED Of DISLOYALTY. 79 
 
 I resigned my place in Louisiana, on account of secession, 
 I had no time to lose ; and, therefore, after my hasty visit 
 to Washington, where I saw no chance of employment, I 
 came to St. Louis, have accepted a place in this company, 
 have rented a house, and incurred other obligations, so 
 that I am not at liberty to change. I thank you for the 
 compliment contained in your offer, and assure you that I 
 wish the Administration all success in its almost impossi- 
 ble task of governing this distracted and anarchical 
 people." 
 
 This letter gave great offence at Washington, and some 
 members of the Cabinet prophesied that Sherman would 
 join the secessienists. Another attempt, however, was 
 soon made to secure his services for the Government, this 
 time personally by Frank Blair. Blair asked Sherman to 
 come to his house one night, and there told him that the 
 Government had determined to relieve General Harney, 
 who then commanded the Military Department of Mis- 
 souri, and that a change would soon be made. " It is in my 
 power," said Blair, "to appoint a Brigadier-General to 
 command the Department, and if you will take the place 
 you shall have it." Sherman replied that he had already, 
 while in Washington, offered his services to the Govern- 
 ment, and that they had been declined ; he had now made 
 business engagements which he could not readily break ; 
 and that while the offer was complimentary and tempting, 
 he must decline it. Blair argued the point with him for 
 some time, but to no avail, and soon thereafter Nathaniel 
 Lyon was appointed to the place. 
 
 The attack upon Fort Sumter by the Charleston insur- 
 gents at last startled the North, although even then not 
 many seemed to realize the magnitude of the struggle that 
 had begun. Lincoln called for 7S,ooc volunteers for there 
 
8o READY FOR SERVICE. 
 
 months, thinking this force would be sufficient to suppress 
 the rebellion. But Sherman regarded this movement with 
 contempt. " You might as well attempt to put out the 
 flames of a burning house with a squirt gun," he exclaimed, 
 indignantly. And again, " You want to organize the 
 whole military power of the North at once for a desperate 
 struggle." A little later, at Washington, talking with 
 Murat Halstead, the editor of TJie Cincinnati Commercial, 
 he said : "You don't know anything about this people. 
 Why, if we should have a reverse beyond the Potomac, 
 the very women of this city would cut the throats of our 
 wounded with case knives." So while Sherman's loyalty 
 was doubted by some, others began to regard him as an 
 alarmist. 
 
 The call of patriotism presently become louder and 
 more urgent than the demands of business, and on May 8th 
 Sherman wrote as follows to Simon Cameron, Secretary 
 of War : 
 
 " I hold myself, now, as always, prepared to serve my 
 country in the capacity for which I was trained. I did 
 not and will not volunteer for three months, because I can- 
 not throw my family on the cold charity of the world. 
 But for the three years' call, made by the President, an 
 officer can prepare his command and do good service. I 
 will not volunteer as a soldier, because rightfully or wrong- 
 fully I feel unwilling to take a mere private's place, and, 
 having for many years lived in California and Louisiana, 
 the men are not well enough acquainted with me to elect 
 me to my appropriate place. Should my services be 
 needed, the records of the War Department will enable you 
 to designate the station in which I can render most service." 
 
 From this it appears that Sherman fully appreciated his 
 his own abilities, and was not willing to have thera under- 
 
THE CA MP JA CKSON A FFA IR. 8 1 
 
 rated by others. It should be added in explanation that 
 he had already declined to go Ohio and take command of 
 a three months' volunteer regiment, and that the Govern- 
 ment had now decided to add eleven regiments to the 
 regular army. It was in one of these new regiments of 
 regulars that he offered to accept and hoped to receive an 
 appointment. 
 
 On the very day after this letter was written, an incident 
 occurred at St, Louis which greatly strengthened Sher- 
 man's anxiety to get to work in the national cause. On 
 that day he took his children down to the arsenal. Inside 
 the arsenal walls they found four regiments of the " Home 
 Guards," receiving cartridges. General Lyon, who was 
 then in command, was rushing about in great excitement. 
 Evidently serious business was on hand; whether offensive 
 or defensive did not appear. 
 
 But the next morning the city was startled with the 
 news that the " Home Guards" were about to attack Camp 
 Jackson — the State camp of instruction in Lindell's 
 Grove — where, as already stated, secession influences pre- 
 vailed. Throughout the city people shut up their houses 
 and prepared for fighting. Many of Sherman's friends 
 set out for the camp to see what would happen, but Sher- 
 man, although he felt intensely interested and excited, 
 remained at home. With his son Willie, seven years old, 
 he walked up and down the sidewalk before his house, 
 listening for sounds of war. A Miss Dean, who lived 
 across the way, called out to him and asked him if he knew 
 what was going on, saying that her brother-in-law was a 
 surgeon in the camp, and she was afraid he would get 
 killed. Sherman replied that he did not think the soldiers 
 at the camp would attempt to resist General Lyon, who 
 was in lawful command. To this the fire-eating lady re- 
 
§2 BLO ODSHED IN ST. L UlS. 
 
 plied that the soldiers at the camp belonged to the first 
 families of St. Louis, and that they would certainly fight 
 to the bitter end. "Oh, pshaw," said Sherman, " the first 
 families don't like to get killed any better than common 
 folks." Just at that moment a man came running down 
 the street from the camp, shouting, "They've surren- 
 dered ! The camp has surrendered ! " And Miss Dean, 
 mortified at the cowardice of the first families, went into 
 the house and slammed the door. 
 
 Sherman now started toward the camp, his boy 
 Willie still with him. Soon he met Frank Blair's regi- 
 ment, escorting the Camp Jackson prisoners. There was 
 a great crowd in the street, some " damning the Dutch," 
 cheering the • prisoners, and hurrahing for Jeff. Davis ; 
 and others, though not so many, encouraging the loya^ 
 troops. Much confusion prevailed everywhere. Presentl)i 
 a drunken rowdy tried to pass through the ranks of the 
 troops (Regulars.) A sergeant pushed him back. The 
 fellow violently assaulted the sergeant, and then the ser- 
 geant knocked him down, and he rolled some distance 
 down a grassy bank. The man gathered himself up, and, 
 with a great deal of drunken backing and filling, climbed 
 up the bank again and drew a pistol. The Regulars had 
 by this time moved on, and a regfment of the Home 
 Guards had come up arid occupied their place. The fellow 
 fired his pistol at one of the officers and struck him in the 
 leg. Forthwith the soldiers began to fire over the heads 
 of the crowds, and there was a general stampede. Some 
 of the bullets went low, and several of the crowd were 
 wounded. Charles Ewing threw Willie Sherman on the 
 ground and covered him with his own body. Captain 
 Sherman also lay down to escape the bullets, and Huntei 
 got behind a hillock. There they lay until the firing 
 
£ACK to washing TOl^. 83 
 
 ceased, when they got up and started for home by way of 
 some of the back streets. They afterward found that two 
 or three men and a woman and a child had been killed. 
 General Lyon put a loyal guard in charge of the vacant 
 camp, and marched the prisoners down to the arsenal, 
 where sorrie were paroled, and others held for a long time 
 until they were regularly exchanged as prisoners of war. 
 
 Soon after this, on May 14th, Sherman received a letter 
 from his brother Charles, who was in Washington, telling 
 him to come on to the National Capitol at once, as he had 
 been appointed Colonel of the Thirteenth Regiment of 
 Infantry in the Regular Army. To this there could be 
 but one reply. He wound up business affairs at St. Louis 
 at once and went on to Washington ; leaving his family 
 at their St. Louis home, however, because he expected to 
 be allowed to raise his own regiment, and organize it, 
 which he intended to do at St. Louis. On reaching 
 Washington he was gratified to find that, as he expressed 
 it, "the Government was trying to rise to a level with the 
 occasion." Lincoln had taken affairs into his own hands. 
 Without any Congressional authority he had ordered the 
 raising of the new regiments of regulars, in addition to the 
 75,000 State volunteers. " Even this call," says Sherman, 
 "seemed to me utterly inadequate; still it was none of 
 my business." Sherman took the oath of office and re- 
 ceived a list of officers who had been appointed to his 
 regiment. Then he reported in person to General Scott, 
 and asked to be allowed to return to St. Louis and enlist 
 his regiment. To this the General would not agree. 
 " Your Lieutenant-Colonel can raise the regiment," he 
 said. " I want you right here." So, seeing that he would 
 have to remain on duty in Washington, Sherman sent word 
 to his famly to pack up and go home to Lancaster. He 
 
84 THE MAN AND THE HOUR. 
 
 ako resigned the presidency oi the railroad company, and 
 thus once more was wholly embarked upon a military 
 career. 
 
 " He was now," says Mr. Reid in " Ohio in the War," in 
 his forty-second year. . . . His thirteen years of army 
 life had brought no distinction, McClellan, Fremont, 
 Halleck, Hooker, Rosecrans and a score of other young 
 retired officers of the Army were remembered as brilliant 
 soldiers, according to the standard of those old army days. 
 Sherman had lett no name. The eight years of civil life 
 that followed had added little to his fortune and nothing 
 to his fame. . . . But the heart of the man was sound 
 to the core, and his impulsive abandonment of his place in 
 Louisiana did more than all his life thus far to fix him in 
 men's minds. He was soon to enter upon a wider career, 
 but the days of his success were still distant, and a severe 
 probation yet awaited him." 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 BULL RUN 
 
 "On to Richmond ! " — Sherman's Brigadk at Bull Run — Features ok 
 Battle— Sherman's Official Report — The Stampede back to the 
 PoTOJiAc — How Sherman Dealt with Mutineers — A Threat that 
 THffi President Thought he would Execute — Re-organization and 
 Promotion — General McClellan Assumes Command — Sherman's 
 Frank Criticisms and Uncomfortable Truth-Telling and Con- 
 sequent Unpopularity. 
 
 When Sherman was at last assigned to active army duty 
 at Washington, on June 20th, -1861, Lieutenant-General 
 Scott was Commander-in-Chief of the Army, Brigadier- 
 General J. K. Mansfield commanded the troops in and 
 about Washington, and Brigadier-General Irvin McDowell 
 commanded the Federal troops south of the Potomac. 
 The North had come to a realization of the fact that 
 actual war was at hand, and the cry " On to Richmond ! " 
 was being vigorously uttered. There was an idea that an 
 immediate and vigorous forward movement would crush 
 the rebellion at a blow. Sherman found that this view 
 was generally held by the army officers, among whom he 
 moved a great deal in company with his brother John, and 
 his old friend and classmate, George H. Thomas. 
 
 A considerable volunteer army under General Patterson 
 moved down from Pennsylvania and crossed the Potomac 
 85 
 
86 PLANNING THE FIRST CAMPAIGN, 
 
 at the beginning of July, and there were now plenty of 
 troops at Washington to render that city secure from at- 
 tack. The appearance of the troops in and about Wash- 
 ington was good, but they were evidently altogether unused 
 to war. Scarcely two regiments wore the same uniform, 
 and their arms were of all sorts and patterns. Sherman 
 talked much with General Scott about the plans for the 
 war, and was taken deeply into his confidence. The gal- 
 lant old General fretted much at the clamors of the news- 
 papers for an immediate advance on Richmond, and at the 
 frequent interference of the President and Secretary of 
 War with his plans. It was his idea to organize a " Grand 
 Army of Invasion," which he would lead in person, al- 
 though at that time he was very old and physically in- 
 capacitated for service in the field. 
 
 Congress met on July 4th, and Lincoln sent it a vigor- 
 ous message, announcing that war had begun, that there 
 could be no more thought of compromise, and that he 
 wanted four hundred thousand men and four hundred 
 million dollars to suppress the rebellion and save the 
 Union. The Southern members of Congress had now left 
 Washington, and the general atmosphere of that Capitol 
 was more wholesome and patriotic. Indeed, Congress 
 seemed fully in sympathy ' with the popular zeal and 
 daily re-echoed the cry " On to Richmond ! " And the 
 same cry was taken up by the three months' volunteers ; 
 who were the first to be panic-stricken, when actual fight- 
 ing was begun. 
 
 The Rebels now had two armies in front of Washing- 
 ton ; one at Manassas Junction, under General Beaure- 
 gard, and the other at Winchester, under General Joe 
 Johnston. Goaded on by the popular clamor, General 
 Scott hurried his preparations for an advance, and about 
 
SHERMAN'S REGIMENTS. %•] 
 
 the middle of July ordered his armies forward. McDowell 
 was to attack Beauregard, and Patterson was to move 
 against Johnston. Sherman was put in command of a 
 brigade of five regiments at Fort Corcoran. This was the 
 Third Brigade of the First Division of McDowell's army, 
 the division being commanded by General Tyler, who was 
 a West Point man, but had as yet seen no real fighting. 
 
 Sherman took command of these troops at the beginning 
 of July, and at once set about preparing four of the five 
 regiments for service in the field. These were the Thir- 
 teenth New York, the Sixty-ninth New York, the Seventy- 
 ninth New York, and the Second Wisconsin ; all volun- 
 teer regiments, strong and in good condition; and Sher- 
 man congratulated himself on having the best brigade in 
 the army. He had some difficulty with the New York 
 Sixty-ninth, an Irish regiment, which had volunteered 
 early in April for ninety days, but had not been mustered 
 in for a month thereafter. Many of the men wanted to 
 go home at the end of ninety days from the date of enlist- 
 ment, but Sherman referred the matter to the War De- 
 partment, and obtained an authoritative decision that the 
 men must serve for ninety days from the date of 
 mustering in. 
 
 About the middle of July the division moved forward, 
 and on July i8th had a skirmish at Centreville, in which 
 four or five of Sherman's men were killed. This enframe- 
 ment assured the Federal commanders of the fact that the 
 Rebels were in strong force just beyond Bull Run, and 
 that a serious battle was imminent. That battle occurred 
 on July 2 1 St, but there is no need here to rehearse its con- 
 fused story in detail. It was, in Sherman's judgment, 
 afterward frankly expressed, one of the best-planned battles 
 of the war, but one of the worst fought. The P'ederal 
 
88 THE FIRST FIGHTING. 
 
 army was composed of good troops, well organized ; but 
 they had no real knowledge of war and had not yet learned 
 the lesson of military obedience. Moreover, they had the 
 false idea that at their first volley and charge the enemy 
 would be routed. There have been volumes of controversy 
 about the battle in after years, mostly productive of little 
 good. Perhaps it need now only be said that the conflict 
 was little creditable to either side. 
 
 Sherman personally led his brigade in the battle. It was 
 his first serious fighting, and he was of a nervous and ex- 
 citable temperament ; yet he displayed remarkable coolness 
 and steadiness. He entered the action early in the after- 
 noon, and pursued the retreating enemy for more than a 
 mile. Then he had to assume the defensive, and, after a 
 determined struggle, his brigade was beaten, regiment by 
 regiment, and driven back in disorder. When the panic 
 set in his men joined in it, and their retreat was, in his 
 own words, "disorderly in the extreme." The total loss 
 of his brigade was 1 1 1 killed, 205 wounded and 293 miss- 
 ing. His own conduct, however, was such as to impress 
 favorably his friends at Washington, and, on the request 
 of the Ohio members of Congress, he was, on August 3d, 
 appointed Brigadier-General of Volunteers. His commis- 
 sion was dated May 17th, and was accepted on August i6th. 
 
 Following is Sherman's official report of the operations 
 of his brigade at Bull Run, made to Captain Baird, As- 
 sistant Adjutant-General of the First Division : 
 
 "The brigade was composed of the Thirteenth New 
 York Volunteers, Colonel Ouimby ; Sixty-ninth New 
 York, Colonel Corcoran ; Seventy-ninth New York, Col- 
 onel Cameron ; Second Wisconsin, Lieutenant-Colonel 
 Peck, and Company E, Third Artillery, under command of 
 Captain R. B Ayres, Fifth Artillery. We left our camp 
 
SHERMAN'S REPORT OF BULL RUN. 89 
 
 near Centreville, pursuant to orders, at 2.30 A. M., taking 
 place in your column next to the brigade of General 
 Schenck, and proceeded as far as the halt before the 
 enemy's position, near the stone bridge at Bull Run. Here 
 the brigade was deployed in line along the skirt of timber, 
 and remained quietly in position till after 10 A. M. The 
 enemy remained very quiet, but about that time we saw a 
 regiment leave its cover in our front, and proceed in 
 double quick time on the road toward Sudley Springs, by 
 which we knew the columns of Colonels Hunter and 
 Heintzelman was approaching. About the same time, we 
 observed in motion a large force of the enemy below the 
 stone bridge. I directed Captain Ayres to take position 
 with his battery near our right, and opened fire on this 
 mass, but you had previously directed the two guns be- 
 longing to this battery; and, finding the smooth bore guns 
 did not reach the enemy's position, we ceased firing, and I 
 sent a request that you should send to me the thirty- 
 pounder rifled gun attached to Captain Carlisle's Battery, 
 at the same time I shifted the New York Sixty-ninth to the 
 extreme right of the brigade. There we remained till we 
 heard the musketry fire across Bull Run, showing that the 
 head of Colonel Hunter's column was engaged. This firing 
 was brisk, and showed that Hunter was driving before him 
 the enemy, till about noon when it became certain that the 
 enemy had come to a stand, and that our force on the 
 other side of Bull Run was all engaged, artillery and 
 infantry. 
 
 " Here you sent me the order to cross over with the 
 whole brigade to the assistance of Colonel Hunter. Early 
 in the day, when reconnoitering the ground, I had seen a 
 horseman descend from a bluff to a point, cross the stream 
 and show himself in the open field. And, inferring we 
 
90 CROSSING THE STREAM. 
 
 should cross over at the same point, I sent forward a com- 
 pany as skirmishers, and followed with the whole brigade, 
 the New York Sixty-ninth leading. We found no diffi- 
 culty in crossing over, and met no opposition in ascending 
 the steep bluff opposite with our infantry, but it was im- 
 passable to the artillery ; and I sent word back to Captain 
 Ayres to follow, if possible, otherwise to use his discretion. 
 Captain Ayres did not cross Bull Run, but remained with 
 the remainder of your division. His report herewith de- 
 scribed his operations during the remainder of the day. 
 Advancing slowly and continuously with the head of the 
 column, to give time for the regiments in succession to close 
 up their ranks, we first encountered a party of the enemy re- 
 treating along a cluster of pines. Lieutenant-Colonel Hag- 
 gerty of the Sixty-ninth Regiment, without orders, rode over 
 and endeavored to intercept their retreat. One of the 
 enemy, in full view and short range, shot Haggerty, and 
 he fell dead from his horse. The Sixty-ninth opened fire 
 on this party, which was returned ; but, determined to 
 effect our junction with Hunter's Division, I ordered this 
 fire to cease, and we proceeded with caution toward the 
 field, when we then plainly saw our forces engaged. Dis- 
 playing our colors conspicuously at the head of our 
 column, we succeeded in attracting the attention of our 
 friends, and soon formed the brigade in rear of Colonel 
 Porter's. Here I learned that Colonel Hunter was dis- 
 abled by a severe wound, and that General McDowell was 
 on the field. I sought him out and received his orders to 
 join in the pursuit of the enemy, who were falling back to 
 the left of the road by which the army had approached 
 from Sudley Springs. Placing Colonel Quimby's Regi- 
 ment of Rifles in front, in column by division, I directed 
 the other regiments to follow in line of battle, in the 
 
GEN. JNO. C. FREMONT. 
 
ADVANCING AGAINST THE ENEMY. 93 
 
 order of the Wisconsin Second, New York Seventy-ninth, 
 and New York Sixty-ninth. 
 
 " Quimby's Regiment advanced steadily down the hill 
 and up the ridge, from which he opened fire upon the 
 enemy, who had made another stand on ground very favor- 
 able to him, and the regiment continued advancing as the 
 enemy gave way, till the head of the column reached the 
 point near which Rickett's Battery was so severely cut up. 
 The other regiments descended the hill in line of battle, 
 under a severe cannonading, and the ground affording 
 comparative shelter against the enemy's artillery, they 
 changed directions by the right flank and followed the road 
 before mentioned. At the point where this road crossed 
 the bridge to our left, the ground was swept by a most 
 severe fire by artillery, rifle, and musketry, and we saw in 
 succession several regiments driven from it, among them 
 the Zouaves and battalion of marines. Before reaching the 
 crest of the hill the roadway was worn deep enough to 
 afford shelter, and I kept the several regiments in it as 
 long as possible ; but when the Wisconsin Second was 
 abreast of the enemy, by order of Major Wadsworth, of 
 General McDowell's staff, I ordered it to leave the road- 
 way by the left flank and to attack the enemy, This regi- 
 ment ascended to the brow of the hill steadily, received 
 the severe fire of the enemy, returned it with spirit, and 
 advanced delivering its fire. This regiment is uniformed 
 in gray cloth, almost identical with that of the great bulk 
 of the secession army, and when the regiment fled in con- 
 fusion and retreated toward the road, there was a universal ^ 
 cry that they were being fired upon by our own men. 
 The regiment rallied again, passed the brow of the hill a 
 second time, and was again repulsed in disorder. 
 
 " By this time the New York Seventy-ninth had closed 
 up, and in like manner it was ordered to cross the brow of 
 
94 THE CRISIS OF THE FIGHT. 
 
 the hill and drive the enemy from cover. It was impos- 
 sible to get a good view of the ground. In it there was 
 one battery of artillery, which poured an incessant fire 
 upon our advancing column, and the ground was irregular, 
 with small clusters of pines, affording shelter, of which 
 the enemy took good advantage. The fire of rifles and 
 musketry was very severe. The Seventy-ninth, headed 
 by its Colonel (Cameron), charged across the hill, and for 
 a short time the contest was severe. They rallied several 
 times under fire, but finally broke and gained the cover of 
 the hill. This left the field open to the New York Sixty- 
 ninth, Colonel Corcoran, who, in his turn, led his regiment 
 over the crest, and had in full open view the ground so 
 severely contested. The firing was very severe, and the 
 roar of cannon, musketry, and rifles, incessant. It was 
 manifest the enemy was here in great force, far superior 
 to us at that point. The Sixty-ninth held the ground for 
 some time, but finally fell back in disorder. 
 
 " At this time Quimby's Regiment occupied another 
 ridge to our left, overlooking the same field of action, and 
 similarly engaged. Here (about 3.30 p. m.) began the 
 scene of disorder and confusion that characterized the 
 remainder of the day. Up to that time, all had kept their 
 places, and seemed perfectly cool, and used to the shell 
 and shot that fell comparatively harmless. Crossing Bull 
 Run, I sought it at its last position before the Brigadier 
 crossed, but it was not there ; then passing through the 
 wood, where, in the morning we had first formed line, we 
 approached the blacksmith's shop, but there found a 
 detachment of Rebel cavalry ; then made a circuit, avoid- 
 ing Cub Run bridge, into Centreville, where I found Gen- 
 eral McDowell. From him I understood that it was his 
 purpose to rally the forces and make a stand at Centreville. 
 
RETREATING TO THE POTOMAC. 95 
 
 "But about 9 o'clock at night I received from General 
 
 Tyler, in person, the order to continue the retreat to the 
 Potomac. This retreat was by night, and disorderly in the 
 extreme. The men of different regiments mingled to- 
 gether, and some reached the river at ArlingtQn, some at 
 Long Bridge, and the greater part returned to their former 
 camps at or near Fort Corcoran. I reached this point at 
 noon next day, and found a miscellaneous crowd crossing 
 over the aqueduct and ferries. Conceiving this to be 
 demoralizing, I at once commanded the guard to be in- 
 creased, and all persons attempting to pass over to be 
 stopped. This soon produced its effect. Men sought 
 their proper companies and regiments, comparative order 
 was restored, and all now posted to the best advantage. 
 
 "Our loss was heavy, all around us; but the short ex- 
 posure to an intense fire of small-arms, at close range, had 
 killed many, wounded more, and had produced disorder in 
 all the battalions that had attempted to destroy it. Men 
 fell away talking, and in great confusion. Colonel Came- 
 ron had been mortally wounded, carried to an ambulance, 
 and reported dying. Many other officers were reported 
 dead or missing, and many of the wounded were making 
 their way, with more or less assistance, to the buildings or 
 hospitals. On the ridge to the west we succeeded in 
 partially re-forming the regiments, but it was manifest they 
 would not stand, and I directed Colonel Corcoran to move 
 along- the ridge to the rear, near the position where we 
 had first formed the brigade. General McDowell was 
 there in person, and used all possible efforts to reassure 
 the men. By the active exertions of Colonel Corcoran, 
 we formed an irregular square against the cavalry, which 
 was then seen to issue from the position from which we 
 had been driven, and we began our retreat towards that 
 
96 SUPPRESSING A MUTINY. 
 
 ford of Bull Run by which we had approached the field of 
 battle. There was no possible order to retreat, although 
 for an hour it had been going on by the operations of the 
 men themselves. The ranks were thin and irregular, and 
 we found a stream of people stirring from the hospital 
 across Bull Run, and far toward Centreville. 
 
 "After putting in motion the irregular square, I pushed 
 forward to find Captain Ayres's Battery, occupied chiefly 
 at the point where Rickett's Battery was destroyed. 
 Lieutenant-Colonel Haggerty was killed about noon, before 
 we effected a junction with Colonel Hunter's Division. 
 Colonel Cam.eron was mortally wounded leading the regi- 
 ment in charge, and Colonel Corcoran has been missing 
 since the cavalry charge near the building used as a hos- 
 pital." 
 
 After the battle, Sherman made his way back to 
 Centreville, where he saw General McDowell, and reor- 
 ganized as far as possible his disordered regiments. During 
 the night they marched back to Fort Corcoran, and ex- 
 pecting the Rebels to pursue them, placed themselves in a 
 state of defence. By July 25th many of his men, especially 
 the New York Sixty-ninth Regiment, became sick of war, 
 and v/anted to go home. One captain of the Sixty-ninth 
 grew mutinous, and in the presence of a number of the 
 soldiers declared that he was going home at once, with or 
 without permission. Sherman turned upon him sharply 
 and said: "If you attempt to leave without orders I will 
 shoot you like a dog ! " The man weakened and went 
 back to his place in the fort, and no more such talk v^as 
 heard. 
 
 That same day, Lincoln and Seward came down to the 
 camp in an open' carriage. "We heard," said Lincoln, 
 " that you had got over the big scare, and we thought we 
 
LINCOLN'S FAITH IN SHERMAN. 97 
 
 would come over and see the boys." Sherman escorted 
 them about the camp, and then called out his troops on 
 parade. Lincoln stood up in the carriage and made a most 
 effective address to them. When the soldiers tried to 
 cheer him he stopped them, saying : " Don't cheer, boys. 
 I rather like it myself, but Colonel Sherman says it is not 
 military, and we had better defer to his opinion." Lincoln 
 praised the condition of the troops highly, and the effect of 
 his speech and visit was excellent. 
 
 When the President entered Fort Corcoran, Sherman in 
 the carriage with him, the mutinous captain of the Sixty-ninth 
 New York, whom Sherman had threatened to shoot, came 
 forward and said : " Mr. President, this morning I went to 
 speak to Colonel Sherman, and he threatened to shoot me." 
 " Threatened to shoot you .?" echoed Lincoln. " Yes, sir ; 
 he threatened to shoot me." Lincoln looked at the officer, 
 then at Sherman, and then, stooping over, said to the Cap- 
 tain, in a whisper loud enough to be heard by others: 
 "Well, if I were you, and he threatened to shoot, I would 
 be mighty careful, for he looks like a man who would do 
 just what he says." The officer sneaked away amid the 
 laughter of the by-standers, and the President afterward 
 remarked to Sherman : " Of course, I didn't know any- 
 thing about it, but I thought you knew your own business 
 best." 
 
 General McDowell now had his headquarters at the 
 Arlington House, and was busily reorganizing his army. 
 All the subordinate officers were in great trepidation, lest 
 they should be held responsible for the disaster of the 
 battle. General McClellan had been sent for, and changes 
 in command were occurring daily. One evening, as a 
 number of the officers were gathered in the Adjutant- 
 General's office, a list of newly-appointed Brigadiers was 
 
98 . A FRANK CRITIC. 
 
 announced. The list comprised the names of Sherman, 
 Heintzelman and several other Colonels^ all of whom had 
 shared in the panic at Bull Run. None of them could 
 believe that they had actually been promoted, and Heint- 
 zelman exclaimed, with an oath : " It's all a lie ! Every 
 mother's son of you will be cashiered." The appointments, 
 however, were actually made ; and when McClellan as- 
 sumed command, he confirmed the organization made by 
 McDowell. Sherman received several new regiments, 
 built two new forts, and organized an elaborate system of 
 drills. He was now convinced that there was a long, hard 
 war ahead, and he made up his mind to prepare for it as 
 thoroughly as possible. 
 
 During the month of August, troops kept pouring in. 
 McClellan talked about organizing an army of one hun- 
 dred thousand men, with one hundred field batteries. 
 Sherman was anxious for him to come to the south of the 
 Potomac and prepare for real work in the field, but 
 McClellan tarried at his comfortable house in Washington. 
 Sherman then thought, and frankly declared that he thought, 
 it a mistake," and this opinion he always retained. On 
 account of this and other expressions, Sherman became 
 unpopular both with McClellan and his favorites. His 
 frank truth-telling about the panic at Bull Run, both in 
 his own command and in the commands of others, gave 
 great offense. He was never at all backward in expressing 
 his opinions, and at this time he enjoyed unusual freedom 
 of utterance. His nature was nervous, outspoken and 
 arbitrary, and his experience as Principal of the Military 
 Seminary in Louisiana had enhanced his mandatory air. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 SERVICE IN KENTUCKY. 
 
 SERVIN6 Under Anderson— Critical Condition of the State- 
 Seeking Help in Other States-A Visit to Fremont— That 
 Famous Interview with Cameron— How the Story of Sherman's 
 Insanity was Started— Attacks and Insults— Sherman's Official 
 Correspondence— His Request for 200,000 Men— An Extraordin- 
 ary Newspaper Article— Sherman Transferred to Missouri— 
 Halleck's Confidence in Him— Planning the Donelson Cam- 
 paign. 
 
 The difference of military views between Sherman and 
 McClellan increased; and while Sherman was steadily 
 striving to get his raw tioops into the best possible con- 
 dition "and ready to repulse the Rebel attack that was 
 hourly expected, he felt that there was no prospect of 
 future usefulness or advancement for him m the Army of 
 the Potomac. He was therefore much pleased and re- 
 lieved, when, about the middle of August, his old friend 
 Robert Anderson, the hero of Fort Sumter, now a 
 Brigadier- General, asked him to accept a command in the 
 Army of the Cumberland, in Kentucky. The State of 
 Kentucky was claimed by the South, but the Legislature 
 was now ready, as soon as the Government offered it 
 proper support, to take sides openly with the North. 
 Anderson had been appointed to command the military 
 
 99 
 
100 THE KENTUCKY SITUATION. 
 
 department of the Cumberland, including Kentucky and 
 Tennessee, and had the privilege of selecting four of the 
 new Brigadier-Generals to assist him. He wanted Thomas, 
 Don Carlos Buell, Burnside and Sherman, It had long 
 been Sherman's desire to return to the West^ and he was 
 very glad to be associated with Anderson, under whom he 
 had served at Fort Moultrie ; so he quickly accepted the 
 proposition. A day or two later Anderson and Sherman 
 had a talk with President Lincoln about it, and secured 
 his consent to the arrangement, although Lincoln at first 
 objected to the appointment of Thomas, who was a 
 Virginian. So many Southern offlcers had gone over to 
 the enemy, that Lincoln hesitated to commission any. 
 But Sherman and Anderson convinced him that Thomas 
 was and would remain as true as steel. " I'll be respon- 
 sible for his loyalty," said Anderson, " with my life." 
 
 At this interview Sherman was careful to impress upon 
 Lincoln his earnest desire to fill a subordinate place and 
 not, under any circumstances, .to be intrusted with inde- 
 pendent command. Lincoln declared himself delighted 
 to hear this, saying that he had all along been greatly 
 troubled to find places for the many Generals who wanted 
 to be Commander-in-Chief. 
 
 The official order, No. 114, making these appointments, 
 was issued on August 24th. A few days latter Sherman 
 was relieved, and was succeeded by Fitz-John Porter, and 
 immediately he set out for Cincinnati, where he met 
 Anderson and Thomas. On September ist and 2d, these 
 officers met Messrs. Harlan, Speed, Jackson and other 
 prominent Kentuckians, and discussed with them the 
 general political and military situation. At this time the 
 Legislature was in session, ready to declare for the Union 
 as soo:"! as General Anderson was prepared to defend it 
 
A VISIT TO FREMONT. 10 1 
 
 against the Southern armies. William Nelson, a naval 
 officer, acting as Brigadier-General of Volunteers, com- 
 manded a Federal force at Camp Dick Robinson, near 
 Nicholasville, and Brigadier-General Rousseau commanded 
 another camp at Jeffersonville, opposite Louisville. 
 
 The State was threatened with invasion by two Rebel 
 armies marching from Tennessee. One came from Nash- 
 ville, under the lead of Albert Sidney Johnston and S. B. 
 Buckner, and the other from Cumberland and Gap, under 
 Crittenden and Zollicoffer. Anderson soon realized that 
 the Federal forces at hand were not able to resist these 
 two armies, and decided at once to send Sherman to the 
 Governors of Indiana and Illinois for help, and also to 
 General Fremont, who was now in command at St. Louis, 
 while Anderson himself and Thomas would go to Louis- 
 ville and organize the military forces there. 
 
 Sherman found Governor Morton, of Indiana, as busy as 
 could be raising and equipping regiments, which, however, 
 were all sent either to McClellan or to Fremont. He found 
 Governor Yates, of Illinois, equally diligent, but all 
 his troops were sent to Fremont. So ne hastened -to 
 St. Louis. There he found m.uch activity and preparation. 
 When he inquired for General Fremont he was told, " You 
 needn't suppose that he will see you!" Then he was 
 told that Fremont was assuming extraordinary dignity, 
 surrounding himself by elaborate guards and a showy 
 court, and that he delighted in showing his authority by 
 keeping State Governors and other important men wait- 
 ing for days before he would condescend to grant them 
 an interview. 
 
 "Oh, shucks!" said Sherman; "he'll see me!" So 
 early the next morning, at sunrise, he went to Fremont's 
 headquarters. A sentinel with a naked sword was on 
 
102 THE REBEL ADVANCE. 
 
 guard at the door Sherman inquired if Fremont was up 
 yet. The guard said he didn't know. 'Then find out!" 
 said Sherman in a peremptory tone. The sentry called 
 for the corporal of the <yuard, to whom Sherman addressed 
 the same inquiry ; the same answer was given, and then 
 Sherman repeated the same command. The corporal went 
 into the house, and a few minutes later the front door 
 opened and Isaiah C. Woods, an old California acquaint- 
 ance of Sherman's, came out. Sherman had a friendly 
 chat with him, and told him that he must see Fremont at 
 once. So Woods returned to the house and in a few 
 minutes Sherman was ushered into Fremont's presence. 
 Fremont was very cordial, but was unable to offer Sherman 
 any immediate assistance as, he said, he must first drive 
 the Rebel army out of Missouri. 
 
 That afternoon Sherman left St. Louis and returned to 
 Louisville. He found that city surcharged with excite- 
 ment. The Legislature had declared for the Union, and 
 the Rebel armies were rapidly advancing through the 
 State. A. S. Johnston was entrenched at Bowling Green, 
 Zollicoffer was at Somerset, Pillow and Polk occupied 
 Columbus, and Buckner was rapidly advancing on Louis- 
 ville. The Federal commanders were utterly unprepared 
 to cope with them. Grant had a strong force at Paducah, 
 but Anderson at Louisville was practically helpless. 
 Buckner's Rebel army was only thirty miles away and 
 would perhaps already have been in Louisville had not a 
 loyal citizen, named Bird, displaced a railroad rail, and thus 
 wrecked the train which was bringing Buckner's advance 
 guard. This incident caused some delay to Buckner and 
 saved the city. 
 
 Sherman set to work vigorouslv, bringing into the city 
 all available troops and getting them ready for action. 
 
INTERVIEW WITH CAMERON. IO3 
 
 His headquarters were at Muldraugh's Hill, where he 
 massed his troops. But now a new trouble arose. Worry 
 and anxiety told seriously upon Anderson and he declared 
 that he must resign his command or he would die. On 
 October 8th, he did actually resign, and Sherman, as the 
 senior Brigadier-General, succeeded him in command. 
 This was much against Sherman's own wishes, and in 
 direct violation of the agreement between him and 
 President Lincoln. He protested to the War Department 
 against being put in Anderson's place, and was assured 
 that Buell would be soon appointed to relieve him. 
 
 The work of organizing for defence went steadily on, 
 and the Rebel advance was for a season checked. The 
 Government at Washington appeared, however, to be devot- 
 ing nearly all its attention to McClellan and Fremont, and 
 to be neglecting the army in Kentucky altogether. This 
 was Sherman's feeling at the time. But about the middle 
 of October, Simon Cameron, the Secretary of War, 
 accompanied by Adjutant-General Lorenzo Thomas and 
 six or seven newspaper men, paid Sherman a flying visit 
 at Louisville. Cameron asked Sherman to talk freely 
 about the situation, assuring him that the interview was 
 entirely confidential. 
 
 Sherman accordingly spoke with his customary frank- 
 ness. He complained that the new troops, as fast as they 
 were enlisted, were sent either to McClellan or to Fremont, 
 and that he got none of them ; that his forces were utterly 
 inadequate to cope with the enemy, and that the Rebel 
 army under Johnston could take Louisville any day. 
 Cameron expressed great astonishment at this, and de- 
 clared that the Kentucky Senators and Representatives 
 had assured him that they had plenty of men in Kentucky, 
 and only needed arms. Sherman said that this was not 
 
104 SHERMANS REPORT. 
 
 true, that the young men were going over to the Rebels 
 wholesale, and that the supply of arms furnished was 
 scanty in quantity and defective in quality. 
 
 Cameron was alarmed at these statements, and promised 
 to do all in his power to help Sherman. Then Sherman 
 unrolled a big map, and pointed out the great importance 
 of resisting the Rebel advance along the Kentucky line. 
 McClellan was guarding one hundred miles with one hun- 
 dred thousand men, and Fremont one hundred miles with 
 sixty thousand men, while he had only eighteen thousand 
 men to guard over three hundred miles. He ought to have, 
 he said, sixty thousand men at once for defensive purposes, 
 and if he was to assume the aggressive he would need two 
 hundred thousand. These estimates startled Cameron, and 
 when he returned to Washington, a few days later, he spoke 
 of them as "insane." The word was quickly taken up, 
 and soon the whole country was ringing with the startling 
 intelligence that the Commander of the Army of the Cum- 
 berland was a madman. Before this, however, Sherman 
 had written as follows to Adjutant-General Thomas: 
 
 "On my arrival at Camp Dick Robinson, I found Gene- 
 ral Thomas had stationed a Kentucky regiment at Rock 
 Castle Hill, beyond a river of the same name, and had sent 
 an Ohio and an Indiana regiment forward in support. He 
 was embarrassed for transportation, and I authorized him 
 to hire teams, and to move his whole force nearer to his 
 advance-guard so as to support it, as he had information 
 ; of the approach of ZoUicoffer toward London. I have 
 just heard from him, that he had sent forward General 
 Schoepf with Colonel Wolford's Cavalry, Colonel Stead- 
 man's Ohio Regiment, and a battery of artillery, followed 
 on a succeeding day by a Tennessee brigade. He had still 
 two Kentucky regiments, the Thirty-eig:hth Ohio, and 
 
GATHERING VOLUNTEERS. 10$ 
 
 another battery of artillery, with which he was followed 
 yesterday. This force, if concentrated, should be strong 
 enough for the purpose; at all events, it is all he had or I 
 could give him. 
 
 " I explained to you fully, when here, the supposed posi- 
 tion of our adversaries, among which was a force in the 
 valley of Big Sandy, supposed to be advancing on Paris, 
 Kentucky. General Nelson, at Maysville, was instructed 
 to collect all the men he could, and Colonel Gill's Regi- 
 ment of Ohio Volunteers. Colonel Harris was already in 
 position at Olympian Springs, and a regiment lay at Lex- 
 ington, which I ordered to his support. This leaves the 
 line of Thomas's operations exposed, but I cannot help it. 
 I explained so fully to yourself and the Secretary of War 
 the condition of things, that I can add nothing new until 
 further developments. You know my views, that this great 
 centre of our field is too weak, far too weak, and I have 
 begged and implored till I dare not say more. 
 
 " Buckner still is beyond Green River. He sent a 
 detachment of his men, variously estimated at from two to 
 four thousand, toward Greensburg. General Ward, with 
 about one thousand men, retreated to Campbellsburg, 
 where he called to his assistance some partially-formed 
 regiments, to the number of about two thousand. The 
 enemy did not advance, and General Ward was, at last 
 dates, at Campbellsburg. The officers charged with rais- 
 ing regiments must, of necessity, be near their homes to 
 collect men, and for this reason are out of position ; but 
 at our headquarters near Greensburg and Lebanon, I de- 
 sire to assemble as large a force of the Kentucky Volun- 
 teers as possible. This organization is necessarily irregular, 
 but the necessity is so great that I must have them, and, 
 therefore, have issued to them arms and clothing during 
 
I06 THE INSANITY STOR V. 
 
 the process of formation. This has facilitated their enlist- 
 ment ; but, inasmuch as the Legislature has provided 
 money for organizing the Kentucky Volunteers, and in- 
 trusted its disbursement to a board of loyal gentlemen, I 
 have endeavored to co-operate with them to hasten the 
 formation of these corps. 
 
 "The great difficulty is, and has been, that, as volunteers 
 offer, we have not arms and clothing to give them. The 
 arms sent us are, as you already know, European muskets 
 of uncouth pattern, which the volunteers will not touch. 
 
 "General McCook has now three brigades — Johnson's, 
 Wood's, and Rousseau's. Negley's Brigade arrived to-day, 
 and will be sent out at once. The Minnesota Regiment 
 has also arrived, and will be sent forward. Hazzard's 
 Regiment, of Indiana troops, I have ordered to the mouth 
 of Salt Creek, an important point on the turnpike-road 
 leading to Elizabethtown. 
 
 " I again repeat that our force here is out of all propor- 
 tion to the importance of the position. Our defeat would 
 be disastrous to the nation ; and to expect of new men, 
 who never bore arms, to do miracles, is not right." 
 
 It does not appear that Secretary Cameron made any 
 effectual effort to correct the rumors of Sherman's insanity, 
 and the latter accordingly soon found himself a target for 
 much merciless criticism. "My position," says Sherman, 
 "was unbearable, and it is probable that I resented the 
 cruel insult with language of intense feeling." His resent- 
 ment added fuel to the flames, and the situation became 
 most serious when, at the beginning of November, 
 McClellan, who was probably not favorably disposed 
 toward him, was made Commander-in-Chief of all the 
 armies in the field. One of McClellan's first acts was to 
 demand by telegraph, a full report from Sherman of the 
 
REPORT TO M'CLELLAN-. 10/ 
 
 disposition of the forces in Kentucky. Sherman replied 
 as follows on November 4th, addressing himself to the 
 Adjutant-General, Lorenzo Thomas : 
 
 " In compliance with the telegraphic orders of General 
 McCIellan, received late last night, I submit this report of 
 the forces in Kentucky, and of their condition : 
 
 " The tabular statement shows the position of the sev- 
 eral regiments. The camp at Nolin is at the present 
 extremity of the Nashville Railroad. This force was 
 thrown forward to meet the advance of Buckner's army, 
 which then fell back to Green River, twenty-three miles 
 beyond. These regiments were substantially without 
 means of transportation, other than the railroad, which is 
 guarded at all dangerous points, yet is liable to interrup- 
 tion at any moment, by the tearing up of a rail by the dis- 
 affected inhabitants or a hired enemy. These regiments 
 are composed of good materials, but devoid of company 
 officers of experience, and have been put under thorough 
 drill since being in camp. They are generally well clad, 
 and provided for. Beyond Green River, the enemy has 
 masked his forces, and it is v^ery difficult to ascertain even 
 the approximate numbers. No pains have been spared to 
 ascertain them, but without success, and it is well known 
 that they far out-number us. Depending, however, on the 
 railroads to their rear for transportation, they have not 
 thus far advanced this side of Green River, except in 
 marauding parties. This is the proper line of advance, 
 but will require a very large force, certainly fifty thousand 
 men, as their railroad facilities South enable them to con- 
 centrate at Munfordsville the entire strength of the South. 
 General McCook's Command is divided into four brigades, 
 under Generals Wood, R. W. Johnson, Rousseau and 
 Negley. 
 
I O 8 S TRA GE TIC FEA TUBES. 
 
 " General Thomas's line of operations is from Lexing- 
 ton, toward Cumberland Gap and Ford, which are occupied 
 by a force of Rebel Tennesseeans, under the command of 
 Zollicoffer. Thomas occupies the position at London, in 
 front of two roads, which lead to the fertile part of Ken- 
 tucky, the one by Richmond, and the other by Crab 
 Orchard, with his reserve at Camp Dick Robinson, eight 
 miles south of the Kentucky River. His provisions and 
 stores go by railroad from Cincinnati to Nicholasville, and 
 thence in wagons to his several regiments. He is forced 
 to hire transportation. 
 
 " Brigadier-General Nelson is operating by the line from 
 Olympian Springs, east of Paris, on the Covington and Lex- 
 ington Railroad, toward Prestonburg, in the valley of the 
 Big Sandy, where is assembled a force of from twenty-five 
 to thirty-five hundred Rebel Kentuckians waiting rein- 
 forcements from Virginia. My last report from him was 
 to October 28th, at which time he had Colonel Harris's 
 Ohio Second, nine hundred strong ; Colonel Norton's 
 Twenty-first Ohio, one thousand ; and Colonel Sill's Thirty- 
 third Ohio, seven hundred and fifty strong; with two 
 irregular Kentucky regiments, Colonels Marshall and Mat- 
 calf. The troops were on the road near Hazel Green and 
 West Liberty, advancing toward Prestonburg. 
 
 " Upon an inspection of the map, you will observe these 
 are all divergent lines, but rendered necessary, from the 
 fact that our enemies choose them as places of refuge from 
 pursuit, where they can receive assistance from neighbor- 
 ing States. Our lines are all too weak, probably with the 
 exception of that of Prestonburg. To strengthen these, I 
 am thrown on the raw levies of Ohio and Indiana, who 
 arrive in detachments, perfectly fresh from the country, 
 and loaded down with baggage, also upon the Kentuckians, 
 
THE F.N^F MY S ADVANTAGE. Ill 
 
 who aic slowiy ioi;:>iiig legiiiicnts all over the State, at 
 points remote from danger, and whom it will be almost 
 impossible to assemble together. The organization of this 
 latter force is, by the laws of Kentucky, tmder the con- 
 trol of a military board of citizens, at the capital, Frank- 
 fort, and they think they will be enabled to have fifteen 
 regiments toward the middle of this month, but I doubt it, 
 and deem it unsa.fe to rely on them. There are four 
 regiments forming in the neighborhood of Owensboro', 
 near the mouth of Green River, who are doing good 
 service, also in the neighborhood of Campbellsville, but it 
 is unsafe to rely on troops So suddenly armed and equipped. 
 They are not yet clothed or uniformed. I know well you 
 will think our force too widely distributed, but we are 
 forced to it by the attitude of our enemies, whose force 
 and numbers the country never has and probably never 
 will comprehend. 
 
 " I am told that my estimate of troops needed for this 
 line, viz., two hundred thousand, has been construed to 
 my prejudice, and therefore leave it for the future. This 
 is the great centre on which our enemies can concentrate 
 whatever force is not employed elsewhere." 
 
 Two days- later Sherman wrote again : 
 
 " General McClellan telegraphs me to report to him 
 daily the situation of affairs here. The country is so large 
 that it is impossible to give clear and definite views. Our 
 enemies have a terrible advantage in the fact that in our 
 midst, in our camps, and along our avenues of travel, they 
 have active partisans, farmers and business-men, who 
 seemingly pursue their usual calling, but are in fact spies. 
 They report all our movements and strength, while we can 
 procure information only by circuitous and unreliable 
 means, I inclose you the copy of an intercepted letter, 
 
112 DOUBT AND ALARM. 
 
 which is but the type of others. Many men from every 
 part of the State are now enrolled under Buckner — 
 have gone to him — while ours have to be raised in neighbor- 
 hoods, and cannot be called together except at long notice. 
 These volunteers are being organized under the laws of 
 the State, and the lOth of November is fixed for the time 
 of consolidating them into companies and regiments. 
 Many of them are armed by the United States as home 
 guards, and many by General Anderson and myself, be- 
 cause of the necessity of being armed to guard their 
 camps against internal enemies. Should we be over- 
 whelmed, they would scatter, and their arms and clothing 
 will go to the enemy, furnishing the very material they so 
 much need. We should have here a very large force, 
 sufficient to give confidence to the Union men of the 
 ability to do what should be done — possess ourselves of all 
 the State. But all see and feel we are brought to a stand- 
 still, and this produces doubt and alarm. With our present 
 force it would be simple madness to cross Green River, 
 and yet hesitation may be as fatal. In like manner the 
 other columns are in peril, not so much in front as rear, 
 the railroads over which' our stores must pass being ex- 
 posed. I have the Nashville Railroad guarded by three 
 regiments, yet it is far from being safe ; and, the moment 
 actual hostilities commence, these roads will be interrupted, 
 and we will be in a dilemma. To meet this in part I have 
 put a cargo of provisions at the mouth of Salt River, 
 guarded by two regiments. All these detachments weaken 
 the main force, and endanger the whole. Do not conclude, 
 as before, that I exaggerate the facts. They are as stated, 
 and the future looks as dark as possible. It would be better 
 if some man of sanguine mind were here, for I am forced 
 to order according to my convictions." 
 
THAT " COMMERCIAL'' ARTICLE. II3 
 
 Distrust of Sherman increased at the War Department, 
 Whether or not he was really considered insane, the 
 Government hesitated to intrust to him the command of 
 the increased forces it was presently to place in Kentucky. 
 Accordingly, on November 12th, Sherman was relieved 
 from command and was sent to the Missouri, to drill and 
 organize volunteers. His successor in command at Louis- 
 ville was General Don Carlos Buell. The extraordinary 
 extent to which the rumors of his mental unsoundness 
 were carried, may be appreciated after perusal of the fol- 
 lowing passage, which occurred in an editorial in The 
 Cincinnati Commercial — a paper supposed to be friendly 
 to Sherman — early in December, 1861 : 
 
 " The painful intelligence reaches us in such form that 
 we are not at liberty to discredit it, that General W. T. 
 Sherman, late Commander of the Department of the Cum- 
 berland is insane ! It appears that he was at times, when 
 commanding in Kentucky, stark mad. We learn that he 
 at one time telegraphed to the War Department three 
 times in one day for permission to evacuate Kentucky and 
 retreat into Indiana. He also, on several occasions, 
 frightened the leading Union men of Louisville almost out 
 of their wits by the most astounding representations of 
 the overwhelming force of Buckner, and the assertion that 
 Louisville could not be defended. The retreat from 
 Cumberland Gap was one of his mad freaks. When re- 
 lieved from the command in Kentucky, he was sent to 
 Missouri and placed at the head of a brigade at Sedalia, 
 where the shocking fact that he was a madman was de- 
 veloped by orders that his subordinates knew to be pre- 
 posterous and refused to obey. He has, of course, been 
 relieved altogether from command. The harsh criticisms 
 which have been lavished upon this gentleman, provoked 
 
114 ffOW SHERMAN RECEIVED 11 . 
 
 by his strange conduct, will now give way to feelings of 
 the deepest sympathy for him in his great calamity. It 
 seems providential that the country has not to mourn the 
 loss of an army through the loss of the mind of a General 
 into whose hands were committed the vast responsibilities 
 of the command in Kentucky." 
 
 This article in The Commercial was based on informa- 
 tion furnished by a Washington correspondent of that 
 paper. Sherman received a copy of the paper containing 
 the editorial while he was with his family at Lancaster. 
 He read it carefully, threw down the paper, and exclaimed 
 nervously, " Well, now, I shouldn't be surprised if they 
 fastened that on me. It's the hardest thing in the world 
 for a man to prove himself.sane when many people think 
 him insane." His family and friends did not take the mat- 
 ter so calmly. They attributed the article to General 
 McClellan, and would never be persuaded that he did not 
 inspire it. As a matter of fact*, McCleilan's confidential 
 adviser. Colonel Key, had actually been sent out to see 
 Sherman and to report on his mental condition, and had 
 reported that, in his opinion, Sherman was not sufficiently 
 master of his judgment to warrant the intrusting to him 
 of an important military command. 
 
 It will be of interest to quote at this point from a letter 
 which was written some months afterward by General 
 Halleck, referring to the current reports of Sherman's 
 madness. 
 
 " The newspaper attacks are certainly shameless and 
 scandulous, but I cannot agree with you, that they have us 
 in their power ' to destroy us as they please.' I certainly 
 get my share of abuse, but it will not disturb me." 
 
 Among those who stood by Sherman firmly was Grant, 
 who had from the first unbounded faith in him ; a feeling 
 
THE DONALSON STRA TEG Y. 1 1 5 
 
 which Sherman fully reciprocated. It is told that, late in 
 the war, some one sought to win Sherman's favor by 
 speaking disparagingly of Grant. " It won't do, sir," said 
 Sherman. " It won't do at all. Grant is a great general, 
 he stood by me when they said I was crazy, and I stood 
 by him when they said he was drunk, and now, by thunder, 
 sir, we stand by each other." 
 
 Halleck treated Sherman kindly during the months of 
 his career in Missouri, but the popular clamor against him 
 continued. After camp inspection work at Sedalia and 
 service at Benton Barricks, St. Louis, Sherman was sent 
 to Paducah-5 Kentucky, to command the post there. This 
 was on February 13th, 1862. At about this time Fort 
 Henry and Fort Donelson were captured, and Bowling 
 Green was evacuated by the Rebels. It is interestingf to 
 recall that one day, just before these great events, Sher- 
 man, Halleck and other officers were discussing at St. 
 Louis the general plan of the campaign. The question 
 arose, *' Where is the Rebel line V It was indicated as 
 passing through Bowling Green, Fort Henry, Fort Donel- 
 son and Columbus. Halleck asked, " Where should it be 
 broken by our forces i*" " In the centre," replied Sher- 
 man promptly. Then Halleck pointed out that the line of 
 the Tennessee River cut the centre of the Rebel line, and 
 that there would properly be the point of attack. As 
 Grant conducted the Donelson campaign under Halleck's 
 orders, Sherman always felt that Halleck was to be cred- 
 ited with the strategy ; but certainly the execution of it 
 was due to Grant. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 N SHILOH. 
 
 The Gloomy Winter of i 86 1-2 — Exultation over Donelson — Thk 
 Advance up the Tennessee — Responsibility for the Encampment 
 AT Pittsburgh Landing — Contr®versies over the BatAe — Varying 
 Accounts— Sherman's Personal Heroism — Number of Troops* En- 
 gaged ON Both Sides — Services of the Army of the Ohio — Losses 
 OF the two Armies. 
 
 The winter of 1861-62 was a time of gloom and depres- 
 sion to the Union. Vast armies were in the field, and the 
 wealth of the Government was being poured out most 
 lavishly for their support. Yet they remained chiefly 
 inert, while the active and energetic Southern leaders 
 strengthened the position of the Rebel hosts and pro- 
 moted the claims of the Rebel cause upon the sympathetic 
 interest of the world. A few small bodies of Union troops 
 encountered the enemy here and there, with results not 
 cheering to the Nation. And there was throughout the 
 North such a feeling of discouragement and gloom as only 
 those who personally experienced it can fully realize. 
 
 The eyes of the Government and of the Nation were 
 chiefly fixed upon McClellan, the "Young Napoleon," 
 from whom great things were expected. But they were 
 to be gladdened not by the glory of his achievements, but 
 by a sunburst of victory from another quarter, from that 
 116 
 
UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER. WJ 
 
 very central western region which, according to Sherman's 
 bitter complaints, had hitherto been so much neglected. 
 The news of the triumphs of Grant and Foote at Forts 
 Donelson and Henry, m February, 1862, literally thrilled 
 the heart of the Nation, For the first time Northern 
 valor was grandly vindicated, and for the first time since 
 Bull Run, a cheerful confidence in the victory of the Union 
 cause prevailed. " Unconditional Surrender" Grant be- 
 came the hero of the hour, and his terse message to 
 Buckner, " I propose to move immediately upon your 
 works," was exultingly re-echoed from Maine to California. 
 Even the stern War Secretary, Stanton, who had suc- 
 ceeded Cameron, was moved to enthusiastic expressions of 
 joy. 
 
 This campaign on the Tennessee, for the conception 
 and direction of which Sherman should doubtless be largely 
 credited, was, however, merely the beginning of incom- 
 parably greater operations, in which Sherman himself 
 played a most important part. After the fall of Donelson, 
 Grant incurred the displeasure of Halleck and was re- 
 moved from the command of the Army of the Tennessee, 
 and General Charles F, Smith, who had distinguished 
 himself greatly at Donelson, was appointed to take his 
 place. Smith accordingly directed the forward movement 
 of the victorious army, southward, up the Tennesse River, 
 but presently fell sick, at Savannah, Tennesse, and a few 
 weeks later died. Thus Grant was restored to his com- 
 mand, and thenceforth was responsible for the conduct 
 of the campaign. 
 
 Who was responsible for the encampment of the army at 
 Pittsburgh Landing, however, has been a matter of dispute. 
 To place the army there, instead of on the other side of 
 the river, has been criticised as a serious error. Grant's 
 
Il8 SHERMAN THE ADVISER OF M'CLERNAND. 
 
 friends have sought to free him from blame by saying that 
 the choice was made by Smith, while Grant was in dis- 
 grace and practically under arrest. As Smith was dead 
 when this statement was made, he x^ould not reply to it. 
 Grant himself made no effort to exculpate himself at 
 Smith's expense. He has left it on record that when he 
 was restored to his command, on March 13th, he found 
 his army partly at Savannah, on the northeast bank, and 
 partly at Pittsburgh Landing, on the southwest bank, nine 
 miles apart. He at once moved them all to the latter 
 place, but personally remained at Savannah, awaiting the 
 arrival of Buell, who was to join him there with his Army 
 of the Ohio. Lew. Wallace was with hia division at 
 Crump's Landing, on the southwest bank, five miles below 
 Pittsburgh Landing, where he had been placed by Smith 
 and where Grant was well satified to let him remain. By 
 this acceptance of the place selected by Smith, Grant 
 practically approved it; and by remaining.there for three 
 weeks, until the battle was fought, he made himself entirely 
 responsible for the whole situation, a resposibilitv which 
 he never sought to evade. 
 
 Concerning the arrangement and management of the 
 Federal army during the three weeks before the battle, 
 there have been voluminous and bitter controversies. 
 Sherman was in a measure responsible for whatever was 
 done, or left undone, since he was at Pittsburgh Landing 
 all the lime, while Grant spent half of his time at Savan- 
 nah ; and Sherman was the adviser of McClernand, who 
 was the actual senior. The Rebels were known to be 
 massed in force at Corinth, only a score of m.iles away, 
 under their ablest and bravest Gommanders. Sherman 
 himself had been, before the rendezvous was made at 
 Pittsburgh Landing, sent out to cut the communication 
 
O VER WHELMING SURPRISE. 1 1 9 
 
 between the two points, to prevent a sudden advance of 
 the enemy. In this he had not been successful. The 
 errand was then accomplished by W. H. L. Wallace, but 
 the damage done was quickly repaired by the Rebels and 
 the line of approach restored. With such danger of 
 attack istaring them in the face, the troops made no elabor- 
 ate preparations for defence. General Buell and other 
 critics have charged them with the most astounding and 
 culpable negligence. The army, according to Buell, had no 
 line or order of battle, although it was on the enemy's ground 
 and the enemy was confronting it in force ; it had no de- 
 fensive works of any sort ; no outposts, properly speaking, 
 to gi\'e warning of or to check the advance of an enemy ; 
 and no recognized head in the absence of its Commander, 
 who spent half his time nine miles away. And so, con- 
 tinues this drastic critic, the enemy advanced upon it and 
 formed in line of battle only a mile and a half away with- 
 out being checked or even observed ; and the actual attack 
 was a complete and overwhelming surprise to the Union 
 army. In this view the Rebel commander, General 
 Beauregard, coincides, characterizing the a-ttack as " one 
 of the most surprising surprises ever achieved." 
 
 Grant made no detailed reply to these charges, merely 
 saying, as to the lack of fortifications, that at that time the 
 pick and spade were little used in the Western armies, and 
 that he considered drill and discipline of more value than 
 mere earthworks. Sherman himself thought very highly 
 of the Pittsburgh Landing site, as of great strategic im- 
 portance and as easy of defence. At a later period ot the 
 war, he says, the place might in one night have been ren- 
 dered impregnable That it v/as not fortified, he freely 
 admits; and he adds that it was probably well that it was 
 not thus fortified. It was next to impossible, to move raw 
 
1 20 SHERMAN BUSY AT PAD UCAH. 
 
 troops from fortified lines in such offensive work as that 
 contemplated by Grant and Sherman. The story of a 
 surprise, he indignantly repudiates, from first to last. 
 
 As this volume is not written for purposes of contro- 
 versy, no discussion of these points will be indulged in 
 here. The two sides of the case will be presented to the 
 reader, and he may draw his own conclusions, if he has 
 not already done so. Whatever that verdict may be, it 
 cannot seriously affect the transcendent fame of Sherman. 
 
 Grant was superseded, as we have seen, by C. F. Smith, 
 on March 4th, 1862. At this time Sherman was busy at 
 Paducah, sending out boats and organizing troops, which 
 he hoped soon to be allowed to lead in the field. The 
 movement up the river was now begun, and on March loth, 
 Sherman, to his great satisfaction, was ordered to join it. 
 He at once embarked with his four brigades, and proceeded 
 to Fort Henry, where he reported to Smith, and was or- 
 dered to wait near by for the remainder of the army. A 
 day or two later, he was sent on, escorted by two gunboats, 
 to cut the Memphis and Charleston Railroad between 
 Tuscumbia and Corinth. On his way up the river he was 
 impressed with the importance of Pittsburgh Landing, and 
 sent back word to Smith that it ought to be occupied. He 
 landed at the mouth of the Yellow River, and tried to 
 reach the railroad and destroy it. But the country was 
 flooded, and an advance was impossible ; so he returned. 
 Smith sent him back to take possession of Pittsburgh 
 Landing, along with General Hurlbut, and told him to 
 make room there for the whole army. 
 
 Sherman occupied Pittsburgh Landing on March i6th, 
 and immediately marched inland about ten miles to a 
 cross-road hamlet called Monterey, or Pea Ridge, where 
 h# learned that the enemy were gathering in force at 
 
SHIL OH CHURCH. 1 2 1 
 
 at Corinth. His idea was to take the offensive. To throw 
 up fortifications would, he thought, make the raw recruits 
 more timid. Presently other divisions came up, until the 
 bulk of the army was at the landing. 
 
 Pittsburgh Landing, then, was an insignificant settle- 
 ment of two or three cabins on the Tennessee River, near 
 the mouth of Snake Creek. The country there is rolling, 
 almost hilly. The table-land comes boldly up to the river, 
 forming abrupt bluffs along the water-edge. At that 
 time the country was well wooded and thinly populated. 
 A couple of miles back from the Landing was a little 
 log meeting-house, called Shiloh Church, and from this 
 the place has become popularly known as the battleground 
 of Shiloh. It was at such a place as this that the Union 
 army of 32,000 or 33,000 men lay, awaiting the enemy's 
 attack, although Sherman was anxious to attack the enemy 
 instead. 
 
 About the first of April, the Rebel cavalry began skir- 
 mishing and raiding along the front of the Union camp, 
 and on April 4th actually captured a number of pickets. 
 That was Friday. On Saturday nothing of importance 
 occurred, though skirmishing was continued, and the sounds 
 of battle were heard at Savannah, where Grant lay abed, 
 injured by the fall of his horse. The weather was wet, 
 the roads miry. Sunday morning there was more skir- 
 m.ishing. then the whole Rebel army came through the 
 woods with a rush, and one of the greatest battles of the 
 war had begun. 
 
 Accounts of this tremendous conflict vary greatly. In 
 the succeeding chapters will be found Sherman's own 
 ofificial report, giving his version, and also that of The Gift' 
 cinnaii Gazettes correspondent, which presents most 
 forcibly the other view — that of the surprise. But upon 
 
122 SHERMAN WAS SHOT TWICE. 
 
 one point all the numerous narratives are agreed, and that 
 is, Sherman's personal valor in the battle, and his consum- 
 mate ability in rallying and leading his men in action. 
 Grant was on the field on Sunday, going from division to 
 division, to encourage the commanders ; but he " never 
 deemed it important to stay long with Sherman." Sher- 
 man held the most critical position, and his troops had 
 never been under fire before. But his constant presence 
 inspired them with such courage that the most of them 
 stood and fought like veterans of a long campaign. Sher- 
 man was shot twice, once in the hand and once in the 
 shoulder, and a third bullet passed through his hat ; and 
 several horses were shot under him. But nothing made 
 him waver for a moment. To him, the post of danger was 
 the post of honor. 
 
 The severest critic of Sherman's management at Shiloh, 
 was General Buell. Yet he frankly says of Sherman that, 
 when he met him on that very field, he appeared a frank, 
 brave soldier, ready without affectation or bravado to do 
 anything that duty required of him. 
 
 When the battle began on Sunday morning there were 
 about 33,000 Federal troops at Pittsburgh Landing, and on 
 the evening of that day General Lew. Wallace arrived from 
 Crump's Landing with some 5,000 more. But as many 
 men fled from the field, panic-stricken, without firing a 
 shot, It is not Ukely that on that day there were at any 
 time more that 25,000 men in line. This is Grant's esti- 
 mate. The next day, Buell came up with the Army of the 
 Ohio, 20,000 strong. And then, there were the two gun- 
 boats, the Tyler and Lexington, which rendered valuable 
 service. 
 
 Reports of the strength of the Rebel force vary. Ac- 
 cording to General Beauregard, it contained more than 
 
THE UNION LOSS IN TWO DAYS. 1 23 
 
 40,000 men on the first day of the battle, although, he 
 says, he was not able to get more than 20,000 into action 
 on the morning of the second day. Official records state 
 that the effective Rebel forces, at the beginning of the 
 battle, included 35,953 infantry and artillery and 4,382 
 cavalry, a total of 40,335. From these figures it is appar- 
 ent that the two armies were, on the first day, by no means 
 equally matched, the Rebels having a preponderance of 
 about 7,000 men, while on the second day the Union army 
 was numerically by far the stronger. 
 
 The Union loss in the two days' fighting was 1,754 killed, 
 8,408 wounded and 2,885 captured or missing; total, 13,047. 
 Of these, Buell's Army of the Ohio lost 241 killed, 
 1,807 wounded and 55 captured or missing; total, 2,103. 
 The official report of Rebel losses was 1,728 killed, 8,012 
 wounded, and 959 missing; total, 10,699. This, Grant 
 says, cannot be correct, for the Union troops after the bat. 
 tie buried, by actual count, more Rebel dead than thus 
 reported in front of Sherman's and McClernand's divisions 
 alone. The estimate of the Union burial parties was that 
 fully 4,000 Rebel dead lay on the whole field. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 OFFICIAL REPORTS ON SHILOH. 
 
 Sherman's Own Story — How his Troops were Posted — The Attack. 
 — Troops in Disorder — Grant and Buell at the Bivouac — The 
 Battle Resumed in the Morning — Death of General Johnston — 
 Gallant Conduct of Individual Officers — Grant's Official Re- 
 port — Special Mention of Sherman for his Gallantry as a 
 Soldier and his Skill as a Commander. 
 
 Few battles have been more discussed, or more vigor- 
 ously discussed, than that of Shiloh, or Pittsburgh Land- 
 ing. In these often acrimonious controversies, Sherman 
 himself took a leading part. It is doubtful if an agree- 
 ment as to the facts in the case can ever be reached ; 
 certainly the flood of argument, narration and abuse that 
 has been poured forth has not materially tended toward 
 such a settlement. The chief point at issue is, whether 
 or hot the Federal officers, especially Sherman, were sur- 
 prised by the enemy. That they were, and that they were 
 not, have both been stated and restated with every pos- 
 sible accumulation of emphasis. Perhaps it will best serve 
 the present purpose to rehearse here, side by side, two 
 narratives of the battle, both written at the time and on 
 the spot, the one giving, in his own language, Sherman's 
 account of the battle, the other the account written by 
 one of the ablest newspaper correspondents in the war. 
 124 
 
SHERMAN'S REPORT. 125 
 
 The gist of Sherman's own report, addressed to Captain 
 Rawlins, Grant's Assistant Adjutant-General, was as fol- 
 lows : 
 
 "I had the honor to report that on Friday, the 4th 
 instant, the enemy's cavalry drove in our pickets, posted 
 about a mile and a half in advance of my centre, on the 
 main Corinth road, capturing one First Lieutenant and 
 seven men ; that I caused a pursuit by the cavalry of my 
 division, driving them back about five miles, and killing 
 many. On Saturday the enemy's cavalry was again very 
 bold, coming down to our front ; yet I did not believe he 
 designed anything but a strong demonstration. On Sun- 
 day morning, early, the 6th instant, the enemy drove our 
 advance guard back on the main body, when I ordered 
 under arms all my division, and sent word to General 
 McClernand, asking him to support my left; to General 
 Prentiss, giving him notice that the enemy was in our 
 front in force, and to General Hurlbut, asking him to 
 support General Prentiss. At this time, 7 A. M., my 
 division was arranged as follows : 
 
 " First Brigade, composed of the Sixth Iowa, Colonel 
 J. A. McDowell; Fortieth Illinois, Colonel Hicks; Forty- 
 sixth Ohio, Colonel Worthington ; and the Morton Bat- 
 tery, Captain Behr, on the extreme right, guarding the 
 bridge on the Purdy road, over Owl Creek. 
 
 " Second Brigade, composed of the Fifty-fifth Illinois, 
 Colonel D. Stuart ; Fifty-fourth Ohio, Colonel T. Kilby 
 Smith; and the Seventy-first Ohio, Colonel Mason, on the 
 extreme left, guarding the ford over Lick Creek. 
 
 "Third Brigade, composed of the Seventy-seventh Ohio, 
 Colonel Hildebrand ; Fifty-third Ohio, Colonel Appier; 
 and the Fifty-seventh Ohio, Colonel Mungen, on the left of 
 the Corinth road, its right resting on Shiloh meeting house. 
 
126 THE FIRST SHOTS. 
 
 " Fourth Brigade, composed of the Seventy-second Ohio, 
 Colonel Buckland ; Forty-eighth Ohio, Colonel Sullivan ; 
 and Seventieth Ohio, Colonel Cockerill, on the right of 
 the Corinth road, its left resting on Shiloh meeting-house. 
 
 " Two batteries of artillery, Taylor's and Waterhouse's, 
 were posted, the former at Shiloh, and the latter on a ridge 
 to the left, with a front fire over open ground between 
 Mungen's and Appier's Regiments. The calvary, eight 
 companies of the Fourth Illinois, under Colonel Dickey, 
 were posted in a large open field to the left and rear of 
 Shiloh meeting-house, which I regarded as the centre of my 
 position. Shortly after seven A. M., with my entire staff, 
 I rode along a portion of our front, and when in the open 
 field before Appier's Regiment, the enemy's pickets opened 
 a brisk fire on my party, killing my orderly, Thomas D. 
 Holliday, of company H, Second Illinois Cavalry. 
 
 The fire came from the bushes which line a small stream 
 which rises in the field in front of Appier's camp, and flows 
 to the north along my whole front. This valley afforded 
 the enemy cover, but our men were so posted as to have a 
 good fire at him as he crossed the valley and ascended the 
 rising ground on our side. 
 
 " About eight A. M, I saw the glistening bayonets of 
 heavy masses of infantry to our left front, in the woods be- 
 yond the small stream alluded to, and became satisfied for 
 the first time that the enemy designed a determined at- 
 tack on our whole camp. All the regiments of my division 
 were then in line of • battle, at their proper posts. I rode 
 to Colonel Appier, and ordered him to hold his ground at 
 all hazards, as he held the left flank of our first line of bat- 
 tle, and I informed him that he had a good battery on his 
 right and strong support in his rear. General McCler- 
 nand had promptly and energetically responded to my re- 
 
MAJOR GENERAL O. O. HOWARD. 
 
THE GENERAL ATTACK. I2f 
 
 quest, and had sent, me three regiments, which were posted 
 to protect Waterhouse's battery and the left flank of my 
 line. The battle began by the enemy opening a battery in 
 the woods to our front, and throwing shell into our camp. 
 
 " Taylor's and Waterhouse's batteries promptly respond- 
 ed, and I then observed heavy battalions of infantry pass- 
 ing obliquely to the left across the open field in Appier's 
 front ; also other columns advancing directly upon my 
 division. Our infantry and artillery opened along the 
 whole line, and the battle became general. Other heavy 
 masses of the enemy's forces kept passing across the field 
 to our left, and directing their course on General Prentiss. 
 I saw at once that the enemy designed to pass my left 
 flank, and fall upon Generals McClernand and Prentiss, 
 whose line of camps was almost parallel with the Tennes- 
 see River, and about two miles back from it. 
 
 Very soon the sound of musketry and artillery an- 
 nounced that General Prentiss was engaged, and about 9 A. 
 M. I judged that he was falling back. About this time 
 Appier's Regiment broke in disorder, followed by Mungen's 
 Regiment, and the enemy pressed forward on Waterhouse's 
 Battery, thereby exposed. The three Illinois regiments in 
 immediate support of this battery stood for some time, but 
 the enemy's advance was vigorous, and the fire so severe 
 that when Colonel Raith, of the Forty-third Illinois, re- 
 ceived a severe wound, and fell from his horse, his regi 
 ment and the others manifested disorder, and the enemy 
 got possession of three guns of this (Waterhouse's) bat- 
 tery. 
 
 Although our left was thus turned, and the enemy was 
 
 pressing our whole line, I deemed Shiloh so important, that 
 
 I remained by it, and renewed my orders to Colonels 
 
 McDowell and Buckland to hold their ground ; and we did 
 
 8 
 
1 30 ANO TITER LINE OF DEFENCE. 
 
 hold these positions until about lo o'clock A. M., when 
 the enemy had got his artillery to the rear of our left flank, 
 and some change became absolutely necessary. Two 
 regiments of Hildebrand's Brigade (Appier's and Mun- 
 gen's) had already disappeared to the rear, and Hilde- 
 brand's own regiment was in disorder. I therefore gave 
 orders for Taylor's Battery, still at Shiloh, to fall back as 
 far as the Purdy and Hamburgh road, and for McDowell 
 and Buckland to adopt that road as their new line. I rode 
 across the angle, and met Behr's battery at the cross-roads, 
 and ordered it immediately to come into battery, action 
 right. Captain Behr gave the order, but he was almost 
 instantly shot from his horse, when drivers and gunners 
 fled in disorder, carrying off the caissons, and abandoning 
 five out of six guns without firing a shot. 
 
 " The enemy pressed on, gaining this battery, and we 
 were again forced to choose a line of defence. Hilde- 
 brand's Brigade had substantially disappeared from the 
 field, though he himself bravely remained. McDowell's 
 and Buckland's brigades maintained their organization, and 
 were conducted by my aids so as to join on General 
 McClernand's right, thus abandoning my original camps 
 and line. This was about half-past lo A. M., at which 
 time the enemy had made a furious attack on General 
 McClernand's whole front. He struggled most determin- 
 edly, but finding him pressed, I moved McDowell's Brigade 
 directly against the left flank of the enemy, forced him 
 back some distance, and directed the men to avail them- 
 selves of every cover — trees, fallen timber, and a wooded 
 valley to our right. 
 
 " We held this position for four long hours, sometimes 
 gaining and at other times losing ground, General McCler. 
 nand and myself acting in perfect concert, and struggling 
 
RESTING FOR THE NIGHT. I3I 
 
 to maintain this line. While we were so hardly pressed, 
 two Iowa regiments approached from the rear, but could 
 not be brought up to the severe fire that was raging in our 
 front, and General Grant, who visited us on that ground, 
 will remember our situation about 3 P. M. ; but about 4 P. 
 M. it was evident that Hurlbut's line had been driven back 
 to the river, and knowing that General Wallace was com- 
 ing with re-enforcements from Crump's Landing, General 
 McClernand and I, on consultation, selected a new line of 
 defence, with its right covering a bridge by which General 
 Wallace had to approach. We fell back as well as we 
 eould, gathering in addition to our own, such scattered 
 forces as we could find, and formed the new line. During 
 this change the enemy's cavalry charged us, but were hand- 
 somely repulsed by an Illinois regiment, whose number I 
 did not learn at that time or since. 
 
 "The Fifth Ohio Cavalry, which had come up, rendered 
 good service in holding the enemy in check for some time 
 and Major Taylor also came up with a new battery, and 
 got into position just in time to get a good flank fire upon 
 the enemy's column as he pressed on General McClernand's 
 right, checking his advance, when General McClernand's 
 Division made a fine charge on the enemy, and drove him 
 back into the ravines to our front and right. I had a clear 
 field about two hundred yards wide in my immediate front, 
 and contented myself with keeping the enemy's infantry 
 at that distance during the day. In this position we rested 
 for the night. My command had become decidedly of a 
 mixed character. Buckland's Brigade was the only one that 
 retained organization. Colonel Hildebrand was personally 
 there, but his brigade was not. Colonel McDowell had been 
 severely injured by a fall of his horse, and had gone to the 
 river, and the three regiments of his brigade were not in line. 
 
132 WAITING FOR DAYLIGHT. 
 
 "The Thirteenth Missouri, Colonel Crafts J. Wright, 
 had reported to me on the field, and fought well, retaining 
 its regimental organization, and it formed a part of my 
 line during Sunday night and all Monday, Other frag- 
 ments of regiments and companies had also fallen into my 
 division, and acted with it during the remainder of the 
 battle. 
 
 " Generals Grant and Buell visited me in our bivouac 
 that evening, and from them I learned the situation of 
 affairs on other parts of the field. General Wallace arrived 
 from Crump's Landing shortly after dark, and formed his 
 line to my right and rear. It rained hard during the night, 
 but our men were in good spirits and lay on their arms, 
 being satisfied v/ith such bread and meat as could be 
 gathered at the neighboring camps, and determined to re- 
 deem on Monday the losses of Sunday. At daybreak of 
 Monday I received General Grant's orders to advance and 
 recapture our original camps. 
 
 " I despatched several members of my staff to bring up 
 all the men they could find, and especially the brigade of 
 Colonel Stuart, which had been separated from the division 
 all the day before ; at the appointed time the division, or 
 rather, what remained of it, with the Thirteenth Missouri, 
 and other fragments moved forward, and occupied the 
 ground on the extreme right of General McClernand's 
 camp, where we attracted the fire of a battery located near 
 Colonel McDowell's former headquarters. 
 
 " Here I remained patiently awaiting for the sound of 
 General Buell's advance upon the main Corinth road. 
 About lo A. M., the firing in this direction, and its steady 
 approach, satisfied me, and General Wallace being on our 
 right, flanked with his well-conducted division, I led the 
 head of my column to General McClernand's right, formed 
 
RENEWING THE BATTLE. I33 
 
 line of battle facing south, with Buckland's Brigade directly 
 across the ridge, and Stuart's Brigade on its right, in the 
 woods, and thus advanced steadily and slowly, under a 
 heavy fire of musketry and artillery. Taylor had just got 
 to me from the rear, where he had gone for ammunition, 
 and brought up three guns, which I ordered into position 
 to advance by hand-firing. These guns belonged to Com- 
 pany A, Chicago Light Artillery, commanded by Lieutenant 
 P. P. Wood, and did most excellent service, 
 
 " Under cover of their fire, we advanced till we reached 
 the point where the Corinth road crosses the lihe of 
 General McCIernand's camp ; and here I saw, for the first 
 time, the well-ordered and compact Kentucky forces of 
 General Buell, whose soldierly movement at once gave 
 confidence to our newer and less disciplined forces. Here, 
 I saw Willich's Regiment advance upon a point of water- 
 oaks and thicket, behind which I knew the enemy was in 
 great strength, and enter it in beautiful style. Then arose 
 the severest musketry-fire I ever heard, and lasted some 
 twenty minutes, when this spendid regiment had to fall 
 back. This green point of timber is about five hundred 
 yards east of Shiloh meeting-house, and it was evident 
 here was to be the struggle. The enemy could also be 
 seen forming his lines to the south. General McCl^rnand 
 sending to me for artillery, I detached to him the three 
 guns of Wood's Battery, with which he speedily drove 
 them back ; and seeing some others to the rear, I sent one 
 of my staff to bring them forward, when, by almost Provi- 
 dential decree, they proved to be two twenty-four-pounder 
 howitzers belonging to McAllister's Battery, and served as 
 well as guns ever could be. 
 
 "This was about 2 P. M. The enemy had one battery 
 close by Shiloh, and another near the Hamburgh road. 
 
134 AROUND THE MEETING-HOUSE. 
 
 both pouring grape and canister upon any volume of troops 
 that advanced from the green point of water-oaks. Wil- 
 lich's Regiment had been repulsed, but a whole Brigade of 
 McCook's Division advanced, beautifully deployed, and 
 entered this dreaded wood. I ordered my Second Brigade, 
 then commanded by Colonel T. Kilby Smith, (Colonel 
 Stuart beingwounded,) to form on its right, and my Fourth 
 Brigade, Colonel Buckland, on its right, all to advance 
 abreast with this Kentucky brigade before mentioned 
 which I afterward found to be Rousseau's Brigade of Mc- 
 Cook';5 Division. I gave personal direction to the twenty- 
 four pounder guns, whose well-directed fire first silenced 
 the enemy's guns to the left, and afterward at the Shiloh 
 meeting-house. 
 
 Rousseau's Brigade moved in splendid order steadily to the 
 front, sweeping everything before it, and at 4 P. M.,we stood 
 upon the ground of our original front line, and the enemy 
 was in full retreat. I directed my several brigades to re- 
 sume at once their original camps. I am now ordered by 
 General Grant to give personal credit where I think it is 
 due, and censure where I think it merited. I concede 
 that General McCook's splendid division from Kentucky 
 drove back the enemy along the Corinth road, which was 
 the great centre of the field of battle and where Beaure- 
 gard commanded in person, supported by Bragg's, Polk's, 
 and Beckinridge's divisions. I think Johnson was killed 
 by exposing himself in front of his troops at the time of 
 their attack on Buckland's Brigade on Sunday morning, 
 although in this I may be mistaken. 
 
 " My division was made up of regiments perfectly new 
 all having received their muskets for the first time at 
 Paducah. None of them had ever been under fire, or be- 
 held hea'v'y columns of an enemy bearing down on th«m, as 
 
COND UCT OF RAW RECR UITS. 1 3 5 
 
 this did on last Sunday. To expect of them the coolness 
 and steadiness of older troops would be wrong. They 
 knew not the value of combination and organization. 
 When individual fear seized them, the first impulse was to 
 get away. My Third Brigade did break much too soon, 
 and I am not yet advised where they' were during Sunday 
 afternoon and Monday morning. Colonel Hildebrand, its 
 Commander, was as cool as any man I ever saw, and no 
 one could have made stronger efforts to hold his men to 
 their places than he did. He kept his own regiment, with 
 individual exceptions, in hand an hour after Appier's and 
 Mungen's regiments had left their proper field of action. 
 
 " Colonel Buckland managed his brigade well. I com- 
 mend him to your notice as a cool, intelligent and 
 judicious gentleman, needing only confidence and experi- 
 ence to make a good commander. His subordinates, 
 Colonels Sulivan and Cockerill, behaved with great gal- 
 lantry, the former receiving a severe wound on Sunday, 
 and yet commanding and holding his regiment well in 
 hand all day; and on Monday, until his right arm was 
 broken by a shot, Cockerill held a larger porportion of his 
 men than any Colonel in the divsion, and was with me 
 from first to last. 
 
 " Colonel J. A, McDowell, commanding the First 
 Brigade, held his ground on Sunday till I ordered him to 
 fall back, which he did in line of battle, and when ordered 
 he conducted the attack on the enemy's left in good style. 
 In falling back to the next position he was thrown from 
 his horse and injured, and his brigade was not in position 
 on Monday morning. His subordinates, Colonel's Hicks 
 and Worthington, displayed great personal courage. 
 Colonel Hicks led his regiment in the attack on Sunday, 
 and received at wound which is feared may prove fatal. He 
 
136 SrUAUrS BRIGADE. 
 
 is a brave and gallant gentleman, and deserves well of his 
 country. Lieutenant-Colonel Walcutt, of the Ohio Forty- 
 sixth, was severely wounded on Sunday, and has been 
 disabled ever since. "My Second Brigade, Colonel 
 Stuart, was detached near two miles from my headquarters. 
 He had to fight his own battle on Sunday against superior 
 numbers, as the enemy interposed between him and 
 General Prentiss early in the day. Colonel Stuart was 
 wounded severely, and yet reported for duty on Monday 
 morning, but was compelled to leave during the day, when 
 the Command devolved on Colonel T. Kilby Smith, who 
 was always in the thickest of the fight, and led the brigade 
 handsomely. I have not yet received Colonel Stuart's 
 report of the operations of his brigade during the time he 
 was detached, and must therefore forbear to mention 
 names, Lieutenant-Colonel Kyle, of the Seventy-first, was 
 mortally wounded on Sunday, but the regiment itself I 
 did not see, as only a small fragment of it was with the 
 brigade when it joined the division on Monday morning. 
 " Several times during the battle cartridges gave out, 
 but General Grant had thoughtfully kept a supply coming 
 from the rear. When I appealed to regiments to stand 
 fast although out of cartridges, I did so because to retire a 
 regiment for any cause has a bad effect on others. I 
 commend the Fortieth Illinois and Thirteenth Missouri 
 for thus holding their ground under heavy fire, although 
 their cartridge-boxes were empty. Great credit is due the 
 fragments of men of the disordered regiments who kept in 
 the advance. I observed and noticed them, but until the 
 Brigadiers and Colonels make their reports, I cannot 
 venture to name individuals, but will in due season notice 
 all who kept in our front, as well as those who preferred 
 to keep back near the steamboat landing. 
 
GUNS TAKEN ON BOTH SIDES. 1 37 
 
 " The enemy captured seven of our guns on Sanday, 
 but on Monday we recovered seven — not the identical 
 guns we had lost, but enough in number to balance the 
 amount. At the time of recovering our camps, our men 
 were so fatigued that we could not follow the retreating 
 masses of the enemy ; but on the following day, I followed 
 up with Buckland's and Hildebrand's Brigades for six 
 miles, the result of which I have already reported. Of my 
 personal staff, I can only speak with praise and thanks. I 
 think they smelt as much gunpowder and heard as many 
 cannon-balls and bullets as must satisfy their ambition. 
 Captain Harmon, my Chief of Staff, though in feeble 
 health, was very active in rallying broken troops, encour- 
 aging the steadfast, and aiding to form the lines of defence 
 and attack. I commend him to your notice. Major San- 
 ger's intelligence, quick perception and rapid execution, 
 were of very great value to me, especially in bringing into 
 line the batteries that co-operated so efficiently in our 
 movements. Captains McCoy and Dayton, Aidsde-Camp, 
 were with me all the time, carrying orders and acting 
 with coolness, spirit and courage. 
 
 "To Surgeon Hartshorn and Doctor L'Hommedieu, 
 hundreds of wounded men are indebted for the kind and 
 excellent treatment received on the field of battle, and in 
 the various temporary hospitals created along the line of 
 our operations. They worked day and night, and did not 
 rest till all the wounded of our own troops, as well as of the 
 enemy, were in safe and comfortable shelter. To Major 
 Taylor, Chief of Artillery, I feel under deep obligations for 
 his good sense and judgment in managing the batteries on 
 which so much depended. I enclose his report and en- 
 dorse his recommendations. The cavalry of my command 
 kept to the rear and took little part in the action, but it 
 
138 GRANT'S REPORT. 
 
 would have been madness to have exposed horses to the 
 musketry fire under which we were complied to remain, 
 from Sunday at 8 A. M., till Monday at 4 P. M. Captain 
 Kossack, of the Engineers, was with me all the time, and 
 was of great assistance. I enclose his sketch of the battle- 
 field, which is the best I have seen, and which will enable 
 you to see the various positions occupied by my division, 
 as well as of the others that participated in the battle." 
 
 Said General Grant in his official report : 
 
 "It becomes my duty again to report another battle 
 fought between two great armies, one contending for the 
 maintenance of the best Government ever devised, and the 
 other for its destruction. It is pleasant to record the suc- 
 cess of the army contending for the former principle. 
 
 " On Sunday morning our pickets were attacked and 
 driven in by the enemy. Immediately the five divisions 
 stationed at this place were drawn up in line of battle to 
 meet them. The battle soon waxed warm on the left and 
 centre, varying at times to all parts of the line. There 
 was the most continuous firing of musketry and artillery 
 ever heard on this Continent, kept up until nightfall. 
 
 " The enemy having forced the centre line to fall back 
 nearly half way from their camps to the Landing, at a late 
 hour in the afternoon a desperate effort was made by the 
 enemy to turn our left and get possession of the Landing, 
 transports, etc. This point was guarded by the gunboats, 
 Tyler and Lexington, Captains Gwin and Shirk command- 
 ing, with four twenty-four-pounder Parrott guns, and a 
 battery of rifled guns. 
 
 " As there is a deep and impassable ravine for artillery 
 or cavalry, and very difficult for infantry at this point, no 
 troops were stationed here except the necessary artillerists 
 and a small infantry f»rce {•r their support. Just at this 
 
THE SECOND DAY. 1 39 
 
 moment the advance of Major-General Buell's column and 
 a part of the division of General Nelson arrived, the two 
 Generals named both being present. An advance was 
 immediately made upon the point of attack, and the enemy 
 was soon driven back. In this repulse, much is due to the 
 presence of the gunboats Tyler and Lexington, and their 
 able commanders, Captains Gwin and Shirk. 
 
 " During the night the divisions under Generals Critten- 
 den and McCook arrived. General Lew. Wallace, at Camp 
 Landing, six miles below, was ordered, at an early hour in 
 the morning, to hold his division in readiness to move in 
 any direction it might be ordered. At eleven o'clock, the 
 order was delivered to move up to Pittsburgh, but owing to 
 its being led by a circuitous route did not arrive in time to 
 take part in Sunday's action. 
 
 " During the night all was quiet, and feeling that a great 
 moral advantage would be gained by becoming the attack- 
 ing party, an advance was ordered as soon as day dawned. 
 The result was the gradual repulse of the enemy at all points 
 of the line, from nine until probably five o'clock in the after- 
 noon, when it became evident the enemy was retreating. 
 Before the close of the action the advance of General 
 T. J. Wood's Division arrived in time to take part in the 
 action. 
 
 " My force was too much fatigued, from two days' hard 
 fighting and exposure in the open air to a drenching rain 
 during the intervening night, to pursue immediately. 
 Night closed in cloudy and with a heavy rain, making the 
 roads impracticable for artillery by the next morning. 
 General Sherman, however, followed the enemy, finding 
 that the main part of the army had retreated in good order. 
 
 " I feel it a duty, to a gallant and able officer, Brigadier- 
 General W. T. Sherman, to make special mention. He 
 
140 A LETTER FROM SHERMAN. 
 
 not only was with his command during the entire two days 
 of the action, but displayed great judgment and skill in 
 the management of his men ; although severely wounded 
 in the hand on the first day, his place was never vacant. 
 He was again wounded, and had three horses killed under 
 him. In making this mention of a gallant ofBcer no dis- 
 paragement is intended to other Division Commanders or 
 Major-Generals, Jno. A. McClernand, and Lewis Wallace, 
 and Brigadier-Generals Hurlbut, Prentiss, and W. H. L. 
 Wallace, all of whom maintained their places with credit 
 to themselves and the cause." 
 
 A characteristic private letter of Sherman's will be read 
 with interest at this point. It was written many years 
 after the battle of Shiloh, and was addressed to Mr. 
 Marshall P. Wilder, who had sent to Sherman a copy of 
 a paper containing a sketch of Shiloh as seen from the 
 rear of the army by a drummer boy. This is the letter : 
 " No. 75 West Seventy-first Street, 
 
 " New York, Jan. ist, 1890. 
 
 " My Dear Friend : I thank you for sending me the 
 printed paper containing the observations and experiences 
 of our friend about the battle of Shiloh, or Pittsburgh 
 Landing, April 6th and 7th, 1862. Having leisure this 
 New Year's Day I have read every word of it, and from 
 his standpoint as a boy in the rear of where the hard 
 fighting was done his account is literally true. His father 
 (a noble gentleman) and I were fighting for time — because 
 our enemy for the moment outnumbered us, and we had 
 good reason to expect momentarily Lew. Wallace's Divi- 
 sion, only six miles off, and Buell's whole army, only 
 twenty miles away. By contesting every foot of ground 
 the enemy was checked till night. Our re-inforcements 
 came on the 7th, we swept on in front and pursued a re- 
 
THE NEWSPAPERS' ACCOUNT. I4I 
 
 treating enemy ten miles, and afterwards followed up to 
 Corinth, Memphis, Vicksburg, etc., to thie end. 
 
 " That bloody battle was fought April 6th and 7th, 
 1862. After we had actually driven our assailants back 
 to Corinth, twenty-six miles, we received the St. Louis, 
 Cincinnati and Louisville newspapers, from which we 
 learned that we were 'surprised,' bayonetted in our beds 
 (blankets on the ground), and disgracefully routed. These 
 reports were heard at the river bank and from steamboats 
 under high pressure to get well away, and such is history. 
 
 "In the rear of all battles there is a mass of fugitives. 
 We had at the time 32,000 men, of which, say, 5,000 or 
 6,000 were at the steamboat landing — but what of the 
 others.? A braver, finer set of men never existed on 
 earth. The reporters dwell on the fugitives because they 
 were of them, but who is to stand up for the brave men 
 at the front } We had no reporters with us. Like sensi- 
 ble men they preferred a steamboat bound for Paducah and 
 Cincinnati, whence they could describe the battle better 
 than we who were without pen or ink. 
 
 " This to me is straw already threshed, for we have 
 fought this battle on paper several times, a much more 
 agreeable task than to fight with bullets. When in England 
 some years ago, I was gratified to listen to veterans fight- 
 ing Waterloo and Sebastopol over again. So I infer our 
 children will continue the fight of Shiloh long after we 
 are dead and gone. Wishing you a happy New Year, I 
 am, sincerely yours, W. T. Sherman." 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 " AGATE'S " STORY OF SHILOH. 
 
 The Situation Before the Battle — The First Skirmish — Plans of 
 THB Rebel Leaders — The Scene on Sunday Morning — Troops in 
 Disorder — Analysis of the Situation — Faulty Disposition of the 
 Federal Troops — Arrangement of Sherman's Division — The Rebzl 
 Plan of Attack — Sherman's Old Friend Bragg among the Rebel 
 Leaders. 
 
 In the records of the Rebellion, written amid the actual 
 roar of the conflict or years afterward amid the calm of re- 
 established peace, no chapter is more noteworthy than the 
 story of Shiloh, written for The Cincinnati Gazette by its 
 correspondent " Agate," who has since become famous 
 throughout the world for his work as a journalist, historian 
 and statesman. No record of Sherman's campaigns would 
 be complete without it, and no other pen could write a 
 chapter worthy to replace it. So it is given here in full, 
 as it was written from the " Field of Battle, Pittsburgh 
 Landing, Tenn., April 9th :" 
 
 Fresh from the field of the great battle, with its pounding 
 and roaring of artillery, and its keener-voiced rattle of mus- 
 ketry still sounding in my wearied ears ; with all its visions of 
 horror still seeming seared upon my eyeballs, while scenes 
 of panic-stricken rout and brilliant charges, and obstinate 
 defences, and succor, and intoxicating success are burned 
 £42 
 
PRELIMINAR Y— THE FIGHT OPENS. 1 43 
 
 alike confusedly and indelibly upon the brain, I essay to 
 write what I know of the battle of Pittsburgh Landing. 
 
 Yet how bring order out of such a chaos ? How deal 
 justly, writing within twenty-four hours of the closing of 
 the fight, with kU the gallant regiments, of the hundred 
 present, that bravely won or as bravely lost, and with all 
 that ignobly fled in panic from the field ? How describe, 
 so that one man may leisurely follow, the simultaneous 
 operations of a hundred and fifty thousand antagonists, 
 fighting backward and forward for two long days, in a five 
 miles' line and over four miles' retreat and advance, under 
 eight Division Commanders on one side, and an unknown 
 number on the other ? How, in short, picture on a canvas 
 so necessarily small a panorama, so grandly great ? The 
 task is impossible. 
 
 But what one man, diligently using all his powers of 
 observation through those two days, might see, I saw, and 
 that I can faithfully set down. For the rest, after riding 
 carefully over and over the ground, asking questions fn- 
 nurnerable of those who knew, and sifting consistent truth 
 from the multiplicity of replies with whatever skill some 
 experience may have taught, I can only give the concurrent 
 testimony of the actors. 
 
 Our great Tennessee Expedition had been up the river 
 some four weeks. We had occupied Pittsburgh Landing 
 for about three ; had destroyed one railroad connection, 
 which the Rebels had restored in a day or two, and had 
 failed in a similar but more important attempt on another. 
 Beyond this we had engaged in no active operations. The 
 Rebels, alarmed by our sudden appearance, began massing 
 their troops under our eyes. Presently they had more in 
 the vicinity than we had. Then we waited for Buell, who 
 was crossing the country from Nashville by easy marches. 
 
144 5"/f^ SITUATION BEFORE THE BATTLE. 
 
 The Rebels had apparently become restive under our slow 
 concentrations, and General Grant had given out that an 
 attack from them seemed probable. Yet we had lain at 
 Pittsburgh Landing, within twenty miles of the Rebels, 
 that were likely to attack us in superior numbers, without 
 throwing up a single breastwork or preparing a single pro- 
 tection for a battery, and with the brigades of one division 
 stretched from extreme right to extreme left of our line, 
 while four other divisions had been crowded in between, 
 as they arrived. 
 
 On the evening of Friday, April 4th, there was a pre- 
 liminary skirmish with the enemy's advance. Rumors 
 came into camp that some of our officers had been taken 
 prisoners by a considerable Rebel force, near our lines, and 
 that pickets had been firing. A brigade, the Seventieth, 
 Seventy-second, and Forty-eighth Ohio, was sent out to 
 see about it. They came upon a party of Rebels, perhaps 
 a thousand strong, and after a sharp little action drove 
 them off, losing Major Crocket, of the Seventy-second 
 Ohio, and a couple of lieutenants from the Seventieth, 
 prisoners, taking in return some sixteen, and driving the 
 Rebels back to a battery they were found to have already 
 in position, at no great distance from our lines. General 
 Lew. Wallace's troops, at Crump's Landing, were ordered 
 out under arms, and they marched to Adamsville, half-way 
 between the river and Purdy, to take position there and 
 •resist any attack in that direction. The night passed in 
 dreary rain, but without further Rebel demonstration ; and 
 it was generally supposed that the affair had been an ordi- 
 nary picket-fight, presaging nothing more. Major-Gen- 
 eral Grant had indeed said there was great probability of a 
 Rebel attack, but there were no appearances of his making 
 any preparations for such an unlooked-for event, and so 
 
c 
 
 MAJOR GENERAL SLOCUM. 
 
THE REBEL DESIGNS. I47 
 
 the matter was dismissed. Yet on Saturday there wag 
 more skirmishing along our advanced lines. 
 
 There can be no doubt the plan of the Rebel leaders was 
 to attack and demolish Grant's army before Buell's re-in- 
 forcements arrived. There were rumors, indeed, that such 
 a movement had been expressly ordered from headquarters 
 at Richmond, as being absolutely necessary, as a last bold 
 stroke, to save the falling fortunes of the Confederacy in the 
 West; though of that, no one, I presume, knows anything. 
 
 But the Rebel leaders at Corinth were fully aware that 
 they largely outnumbered Grant, and that no measures had 
 been taken to strengthen the position at Pittsburgh Landing; 
 while they knew equally well that when Buell's entire Ken- 
 tucky army arrived, and was added to Grant's forces, they 
 could not possibly expect to hold their vitally important 
 position at Corinth against us. Their only hope, therefore 
 lay in attacking Grant before Buell arrived, and so defeat- 
 ing us in detail. Fortunately they timed their movements 
 a day too late. 
 
 The sun never rose on a more beautiful morning than 
 that of Sunday, April 6th. Lulled by the general security, 
 I had remained in pleasant quarters at Crump's, below 
 Pittsburgh Landing, on the river. By sunrise I was roused 
 by the cry : "They're fighting above." Volleys of musketry 
 could sure enough be distinguished, and occasionally the 
 sullen boom of artillery came echoing down the stream. 
 Momentarily the volume of sound increased, till it became 
 evident it was no skermish that was in progress, and that a 
 considerable portion of the army must be already engaged. 
 Hastily springing on the guards of a passing steamboat, I 
 hurried up. 
 
 The sweet Spring sunshine danced over the rippling 
 waters, and softly lit up the green of the banks. A few 
 9 
 
148 THE WARNING OF DANGER. 
 
 fleecy clouds alone broke the azure above. A light breeze 
 murmured among the young leaves ; the blue-birds were 
 singing their gentle treble to the stern music that still came 
 louder and deeper to us from the bluffs above, and the frogs 
 were croaking their feeble imitation from the marshy 
 islands that studded the channel. 
 
 Even this early the west bank of the river was lined 
 with the usual fugitives from action, hurriedly pushing on- 
 wards, they knew not where, except down stream away 
 from the fight. An officer on board hailed numbers of 
 them and demanded their reason for being there ; but 
 they all gave him the same response : " We're clean cut 
 to pieces, and every man must save himself." 
 
 At the landing appearances became still more ominous. 
 Our two Cincinnati wooden gunboats, Tyler and Lexing- 
 ton, were edging uneasily up and down the banks, eager 
 to put in their broadsides of heavy guns, but unable to 
 find where they could do it. The roar of battle was start- 
 lingly close, and showed that the Rebels were in earnest at- 
 tempt to carry out their threat of driving us into the river. 
 The landing and bluff above were covered with cowards, 
 who had fled from their ranks to the rear for safety, and 
 who were telling the most fearful stories of the Rebel onset 
 and the sufferings of their own particular regiments. 
 Momentarily fresh fugitives came back, often guns in 
 hand, and all giving the same accounts of thickening dis- 
 asters in front. 
 
 Hurrying out toward the scene of action, I was soon 
 convinced that there was too much foundation for the tales 
 of the runaways. Sherman's and Prentiss' entire divisions 
 were falling back in disorder, sharply pressed by the 
 Rebels in overwhelming numbers, at all points. McCler- 
 nand's had already lost part of its camps, and it, too, was 
 
POSITION OF THE NATIONAL TROOPS. 1 49 
 
 falling back. There was one consolation — only one — I 
 could see just then ; history, so the divines say, is positive 
 on the point that no attack ever made on the Sabbath was 
 eventually a success to the attacking party. Nevertheless, 
 the signs were sadly against the theologians. 
 
 Let me return — premising that I have thus brought the 
 reader into the scene near the close of the first act in our 
 Sunday's tragedy — to the preliminaries of the opening of 
 the assault. 
 
 And first, of our positions. Let the reader understand 
 that the Pittsburgh Landing is simply a narrow ravme, 
 down which a road passes to the river bank, be- 
 tween high bluffs on either side. There is no town at all 
 — two log huts comprise all the improvements visible. 
 Back from the river is a rolling country, cut up with nu- 
 merous ravines, partially under cultivation, but perhaps the 
 greater part thickly wooded with some underbrush. The 
 soil clayey, and roads on Sunday morning were good. 
 From the Landing a road leads direct to Corinth, twenty 
 miles distant. A mile or two out, this road forks, one 
 branch is the lower Corinth road, the other the ridge 
 Corinth road. A short distance out another road takes off 
 to the left, crosses Lick Creek, and leads back to the river 
 at Hamburgh, some miles further up. On the right, two 
 separate roads lead off to Purdy, and another, a new one, 
 across Snake Creek to Crump's Landing on the river be- 
 low. Besides these, the whole country inside our lines is 
 cut up with roads leading to our different camps; and be- 
 yond the lines is the most inextricable maze of cross- 
 roads, intersecting everything and leading everywhere, in 
 which it was ever my ill-fortune to become entangled. 
 
 On and between these roads, at distances of from two to 
 four or five miles from Pittsburgh Landing, lay five divi- 
 
150 SHERMAN'S POSITION. 
 
 sions of Major-General Grant's army that Sunday morning. 
 The advance Hne was formed by three divisions — Brigadier 
 General Sherman's, Brigadier-General Prentiss's and 
 Major-General McClernand's. Between these and the 
 Landing lay the two others — Brigadier-General Hulburt's 
 and Major-General Smith's, commanded, in the absence 
 (from sickness) of that admirable officer, by Brigadier- 
 General W. H. L. Wallace. 
 
 Our advance line, beginning at the extreme left, was 
 thus formed. On the Hamburgh road, just this side the 
 crossing of Lick Creek and under bluffs on the opposite 
 bank that commanded the position, lay Colonel D. Stuart's 
 Brigade of General Sherman's Division. Some three or 
 four miles distant from this Brigade, on the lower Corinth 
 road and between that and the one to Purdy, lay the re- 
 maining Brigades of Sherman's Division, McDowell's 
 forming the extreme right of our whole advance line, 
 Buckland's coming next to it, and Hildebrand's next. To 
 the left of Hildebrand's Brigade, though rather behind a 
 portion of Sherman's Hne, lay Major-General McClernand's 
 Division, and between it and Stuart's Brigade, already 
 mentioned as forming our extreme left, lay Brigadier-Gen- 
 eral Prentiss' Division, completing the front. 
 
 Back of this line, within a mile of the Landing, lay Hurl- 
 but's Division, stretching across the Corinth road, and W. 
 H. L. Wallace's to his right. 
 
 Such was the position of our troops at Pittsburgh Landing, 
 at daybreak Sunday morning. Major-General Lew. Wal- 
 lace's Division lay at Crump's Landing, some miles below, 
 and was hot ordered up till about half-past seven o'clock 
 that day. 
 
 It is idle to criticise arrangements now — it is so easy to 
 be wise after a matter is over — but the reader will hardly 
 
FAULTS OF ARRANGEMENT. 151 
 
 fail to observe the essential defects of such disposition of 
 troops for a great battle. Nearly four miles intervened be- 
 tween the different parts of Sherman's Division. Of course 
 to command the one, he must neglect the other. McCler- 
 nand's lay partially behind Sherman, and therefore, not 
 stretching far enough to the left, there was a gap between 
 him and Prentiss, which the Rebels did not fail speedily to 
 find. Our extreme left was commanded by unguarged 
 heights, easily approachable from Corinth. And the whole 
 arrangement was confused and ill-adjusted. 
 
 Confusion was not the only glaring fault. General Sher- 
 man's camps, to the right of the little log-cabin called Shi- 
 loh Church, fronted on a descending slope of a quarter to a 
 half mile in breadth, mostly covered with woods and boun- 
 ded by a ravine. A day's work of his troops would have 
 covered that slope with an impenetrable abattis, thrown a 
 line of breastworks to the front of the camps, and enabled 
 General Sherman to sweep all approaches with artillery 
 and musketry, and hold his position against any force that 
 was brought against it. But for three weeks he had lain 
 there, declaring the position dangerous, and predicting at- 
 tack ; yet absolutely without making the slightest prepara- 
 tion for the commonest means of defense. 
 
 During Friday and Saturday the Rebels had marched out 
 of Corinth, about sixty thousand strong, in three great 
 divisions. Sidney Johnston had general command of the 
 whole army. Beauregard had the centre ; Braxton Bragg 
 and Hardee the wings. Polk, Breckinridge, Cheatham and 
 others held subordinate commands. On Thursday John- 
 ston issued a proclamation to the army, announcing to 
 them in grandiloquent terms that he was about to lead them 
 against the invaders, and that they would soon celebrate 
 the great decisive victory of the war, in which they had re- 
 
152 TROOPS FIRST ATTACKED. 
 
 pelled the invading column, redeemed Tennessee, and pre- 
 served the Southern Confederacy. 
 
 Their general plan of attack is said by prisoners to have 
 been to strike our centre first, (composed, as the reader 
 will remember, of Prentiss's and McClernand's Divisions,) 
 pierce the centre, and then pour in their troops to attack 
 on each side the wings into which they would thus cut our 
 army. 
 
 To accomplish this, they should have struck the left of the 
 three brigades of Sherman's Division which lay on our right 
 and the left of McClernand's, which came to the front on 
 Sherman's left. By some mistake, however, they struck 
 Sherman's left alone, and that a few moments after a por- 
 tion of their right wing had swept up against Prentiss. 
 
 The troops thus attacked, by six o'clock, or before it, 
 were as follows : The left of Sherman's Brigades, that of 
 Colonel Hildebrand, was composed of the Fifty-ninth Ohio, 
 Colonel Pfyffe ; Seventy-seventh Ohio, Lieutenant-Colonel 
 commanding Fifty-third Ohio, Colonel Appier, and Fifty- 
 third Illinois. 
 
 To the right of this was Colonel Buckland's Brigade, 
 composed of the Seventy-second Ohio, Lieutenant-Colonel 
 Canfield ; Forty-eighth Ohio, Colonel Sullivan, and Seven- 
 tieth Ohio, Colonel Cockerell. 
 
 And on the extreme right, Colonel McDowell's Brigade, 
 Sixth Iowa, (Colonel McDowell — Lieutenant-Colonel com- 
 manding;) Fortieth Illinois, Colonel Hicks , Forty-sixth 
 Ohio, Colonel Thomas Worthington. 
 
 General Prentiss's Division was composed of the Twelfth 
 Michigan, Sixteenth Wisconsin, Eighteenth Wisconsin, 
 Eighteenth Missouri, Twenty-third Missouri, Twenty-fifth 
 Missouri, and Sixty-first Illinois. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 « AGATE'S" STORY CONTINUED. 
 
 The Battle of Sunday, April 6th — The Union Troops Surprised— 
 An Army in Disorder — Sherman's Heroic Effort to Stem the Tide 
 — McClernand's Share in the Battle — The Rebels Pressing their 
 Advantage — The Assault on Sherman's Left — Men too Brave to 
 be Killed — Desperate Position of the Union Army — Looking to 
 THE Gunboats For aid — Three Desperate Charges Repulsed— 
 Death of General Wallace. 
 
 " Agate " continues the story of the great battle of Sun- 
 day, April 6th, as follows : 
 
 Almost at dawn, Prentiss's pickets were driven in ; a 
 very little later Hildebrand's (in Sherman's Division) were; 
 and the enemy were in the camps almost as soon as were 
 the pickets themselves. 
 
 Here began scenes which, let us hope, will have no par- 
 allel in our remaining annals of the war. Some, partic- 
 ularly among our officers, were not yet out of bed. Others 
 were dressing, others washing, others cooking, a few eat- 
 ing their breakfasts. Many guns were unloaded, accou- 
 trements lying pell-mell, ammunition was ill-supplied — in 
 short, the camps were virtually surprised — disgracefully, 
 it might be added, unless some one can hereafter give some 
 yet undiscovered reason to the contrary — and were taken 
 at almost every possible disadvantage, 
 
 153 
 
154 BEGINNING WITH DISASTER 
 
 The first wild cries from the pickets rushing in, and the 
 few scattering shots that preceded their arrival, aroused 
 the regiments to a sense of their peril ; an instant after- 
 ward shells were hurling through the tents, while, before 
 there was time for thought of preparation, there came rush- 
 ing through the woods with lines of battle sweeping the 
 whole fronts of the division-camps, and bending down on 
 either flank, the fine, dashing, compact columns of the 
 enemy. 
 
 Into the just-aroused camps thronged the Rebel regi- 
 ments, firing sharp volleys as they came, and springing 
 toward our laggards with the bayonet. Some were shot 
 down as they were running, without weapons, hatless, coat- 
 less, toward the river. The searching bullets found other 
 poor unfortunates in their tents, and there, all unheeding 
 now, they still slumbered, while the unseen foe rushed on. 
 Others fell, as they were disentangling themselves from 
 the flaps that formed the doors to their tents ; others as 
 they were buckling on their accoutrements ; a few, it was 
 even said, as they were vainly trying to impress on the 
 cruelly exultant enemy their readiness to surrender. 
 
 Officers were wounded in their beds, and left for dead, 
 who, through the whole two days' fearful struggle, lay 
 there gasping in their agony, and on Monday evening were 
 found in their gore, inside their tents, and still able to tell 
 the tale. 
 
 Such were the fearful disasters that opened the Rebel 
 onset on the lines of Prentiss's Division. Similar were the 
 fates of Hildebrand's Brigade in Sherman's Division. 
 
 Meantime, what they could our shattered regiments did. 
 Falling rapidly back through the heavy woods till they 
 gained a protecting ridge, firing as they ran, and making 
 what resistance men thus situated might, Sherman's men 
 
PANIC-STRICKEN TROOPS. 1 55 
 
 succeeded in partially checking the rush of the enemy, long 
 enough to form their hasty line of battle. Meantime the 
 other two brigades of the division (to the right) sprang 
 hastily to their arms, and had barely done so when the 
 enemy's lines came sweeping up against their fronts too, 
 and the battle thus opened fiercely along Sherman's whole 
 line on the right. 
 
 Hildebrand's Brigade had been compelled to abandon 
 their camps without a struggle. Some of the regiments, 
 it is even said, ran without firing a gun. . Colonel Appier's 
 Fifty-third Ohio, is loudly complained of on this score, and 
 others are mentioned. It is certain that parts of regiments, 
 both here and in other divisions, ran disgracefully. Yet 
 they were not wholly without excuse. They were raw 
 troops, just from the usual idleness of our " camps of in- 
 struction ; " hundreds of them had never heard a gun fired 
 in anger; their officers, for the most part, were equally 
 inexperienced ; they had been reposing in fancied security 
 and were awakened, perhaps from sweet dreams of home 
 and wives and children, by the stunning roar of cannon in 
 their very midst, and the bursting of bomb-shells among 
 their tents — to see only the serried columns of the mag- 
 nificent Rebel advance, and through the bhnding, stifling 
 smoke, the hasty retreat of comrades and supports, right 
 and left. Certainly, it is sad enough, but hardly surpris- 
 ing, that under such circumstances, some should run. Half 
 as much caused the wild panic at Bull Run, for which the 
 nation, as one man, became a loud-mouthed apologist. 
 
 But they ran — here as in Prentiss's Division, of which 
 last more in a moment — and the enemy did not fail to 
 profit by the wild disorder. As Hildebrand's Brigade fell 
 back, McClernand threw forward his left to support it. 
 Meanwhile Sherman was doing his best to rally his troops. 
 
156 PRENTISS'S DIVISION. 
 
 Dashing along the lines, encouraging them everywhere by 
 his presence, and exposing his own life with the same free- 
 dom with which he demanded their offer of theirs, he did 
 much to save the division from utter destruction. Buck- 
 land and McDowell held their ground fiercely for a time. 
 At last they were compelled to retire their brigades from 
 their camps across the little ravine behind ; but here again 
 they made a gallant defence, while what was left of Hilde- 
 brand's was falling back in such order as it might, and leav- 
 ing McClernand's left to take their place, and check the 
 wave of Rebel advance. 
 
 Prentiss was faring scarcely so well. Most of his troops 
 stood their ground, to be formed into line, but strangely 
 enough, the line was drawn up in an open space, leaving to 
 the enemy the cover of the dense scrub-oak in front, from 
 which they could pour in their volleys in comparative 
 safety. 
 
 The men held their position with an obstinancy that 
 adds new laurels to the characrer of the American soldiers, 
 but it was too late. Down on either flank came the over- 
 whelming enemy. Fiercely pushed in front, with a wall of 
 bayonets closing in on either side, like the contracting iron 
 chamber of the Inquisition, what could they do but what 
 they did } Speedily their resistance became less obstinate, 
 more and more rapidly they fell back, less and less fre- 
 quent became their returning volleys. 
 
 The enemy pushed their advantage. They were already 
 within our lines ; they had driven one division from all its 
 camps, and nearly opened, as they supposed, the way to 
 the river. Just here — between 9 and 10 o'clock — Mc- 
 Arthur's Brigade of W. H. L. Wallace's Division came up 
 to give some assistance to Stuart's Brigade of Sherman's 
 Division on the extreme left, now in imminent danger of 
 
A DIVISION LOST. 157 
 
 being cut off by Prentiss's defection. McArthur mistook 
 the way, marched too far to the right, and so, instead of 
 reaching Stuart, came in on the other side of the Rebels, 
 now closely pushing Prentiss. His men at once opened 
 vigorously on the enemy, and for a time they seemed 
 likely still to save our imperilled division. But coming 
 unawares, as they seem to have done, upon the enemy, 
 their positions were not well chosen, and all had to fall 
 back together. 
 
 General Prentiss seems here to have become separated 
 from a large portion of his command. The division fell 
 into confusion ; fragments of brigades and regiments con- 
 tinued the fight, but there was no longer concert of action 
 or continuity of lines of defence. Most of the troops 
 drifted back behind the new lines that were being formed ; 
 many, as they continued an isolated struggle, were sur- 
 rounded and taken prisoners. 
 
 Practically, by lo o'clock the division was gone. Gen- 
 eral Prentiss and the few troops that surrounded him 
 maintained a detached position some hours longer, till they 
 were completely cut off and surrounded ; and the Rebels 
 signalized their success by marching three regiments, with 
 a division general, as prisoners, to their rear. 
 
 By lo o'clock, however, this entire division was virtually 
 hors du combat. A deep gap in our front line was made, 
 the Rebels had nearly pierced through, and were only 
 held back by McArthur's Brigade and the rest of W. H. 
 L. Wallace's Division, which hurried over to its assist- 
 ance. 
 
 For the present, let us leave them there. They held 
 the line from this time until four. 
 
 We left Sherman's Brigade maintaining a confused 
 fight, Hildebrand's about gone, Buckland's and McDowell's 
 
1 5 8 SHERMAN'S DIVISION— M CLERNANUS. 
 
 holding their ground more tenaciously. The firing aroused 
 McClernand's Division. At first they supposed it to be 
 a mere skirmish ; perhaps even only the irregular dis- 
 charge of muskets by guards and pickets, to clean out 
 their guns — a practice which, to the disgrace of our disci- 
 pline be it said, was well nigh universal — and rendered it 
 almost impossible at any time to know whether firing 
 meant anything at all, beyond ordinary disorder of our 
 own soldiers. But the continued rattle of musketry soon 
 undeceived them, and almost as soon the advance of the 
 Rebels, pouring after Hildebrand, was upon them. 
 
 The division, it will be remembered, lay a short distance 
 in the rear, and with one brigade stretching out to the left 
 of Sherman's line. Properly speaking, merely from the 
 location of the camp, McClernand did not belong to the 
 front line at all. Two-thirds of his division were entirely 
 behind Sherman. But as the latter fell back, McClernand 
 had to bear the shock of battle. 
 
 His division was composed as follows : First Brigade, 
 Colonel Hare commanding, Eighth and Eighteenth Illi- 
 nois, Eleventh and Thirteenth Iowa; Second Brigade, 
 Colonel C. C. Marsh commanding. Eleventh, Twentieth, 
 Forty-eighth and Forty-fifth Illinois, Colonels Ransom, 
 Marsh, Haynie and Smith (the latter is the "lead mine 
 regiment " ) ; Third Brigade, Colonel Raith commanding, 
 Seventeenth, Twenty-ninth and Forty-ninth Illinois, Lieu- 
 tenant-Colonels Wood, Farrell and Pease, and Forty-third 
 Illinois, Colonel Marsh. Besides this fine show of expe- 
 rienced troops, they had Schwartz's, Dresser's, McAllis- 
 ter's and Waterhouse's Batteries. 
 
 As already stated, McClernand was first called into 
 action shortly after the surprise of Sherman's left Brigade 
 (Hildebrand's) — about 7 in the morning — by having to 
 
^^ CI. ERNAND A T WORK. 1 5 9 
 
 move up his left brigade to support Sherman's retreat- 
 ing left, and preserve the line. Then, as Sherman's 
 other brigades fell back, McClernand's moved up and 
 engaged the enemy in support. Gradually the resistance 
 in Buckland's Brigade and what was still left to its right 
 of Hildebrand's, became more confused and irresolute. 
 The line wavered, the men fell back in squads and com- 
 panies, they failed to rally promptly at the call of their 
 officers. As they retreated, the woods behind them became 
 thinner, and there was less protection from the storm of 
 grape that swept as if on blasts of a hurricane among the 
 trees. Lieutenant-Colonel Canfield, commanding the 
 Seventy-second Ohio, was mortally wounded and borne 
 dying from the field. Colonel Sullivan, of the Forty- 
 eighth Ohio, was wounded, but continued at the head of 
 his men. Company officers fell and were carried away 
 from their men. 
 
 At one of our wavering retreats, the Rebels, by a sud- 
 den dash forward, had taken part of Waterhouse's Bat'- 
 tery, which McClernand had sent them over. Behr's 
 Battery, too, was taken, and Taylor's Chicago Light Artil- 
 lery was so terribly pounded as to be forced to retire with 
 heavy loss. As the troops gave way, they came out from 
 the open woods into old fields, completely raked by the 
 enemy's fire. For them all was lost, and away went Buck- 
 land's and Hildebrand's Brigades, Ohioans and Illinoisans 
 together, to the rear and right, in such order as they 
 might. 
 
 McDowell's Brigade had fallen back less slowly than its 
 two companions of the same division, but it was now left 
 entirely alone. It had formed our extreme right, and, of 
 course, had no support there ; its supporting brigades on 
 the left had gone ; through the space they had occupied 
 
1 60 A TTA CK ON" AT CLERNANnS RIGHT. 
 
 the Rebels were pouring ; they were in imminent danger 
 of being entirely cut off, and back they fell, too, still farther 
 to the right and rear, among the ravines that border Snake 
 Creek. 
 
 And here, so far as Sunday's fight is concerned, the 
 greater part of Sherman's Division passes out of view. 
 The General himself was indefatigable in collecting and 
 reorganizing his men, and a straggling contest was 
 doubtless kept up along portions of his new lines, but with 
 little weight in inclining the scales of battle. The General 
 bore with him one token of the danger to which he had 
 exposed himself, a musket-ball through the hand. It was 
 the common expression of all that his escape so lightly 
 was wonderful. Whatever may be his faults or neglects, 
 none can accuse him of a lack of gallantry and energy 
 when the attack was made on his raw division that mem- 
 orable Sunday morning. 
 
 To return to McClernand's Division : I have spoken of 
 his sending up first, his left, and then his centre brigade, 
 to support Sherman, shortly after the surprise. As Sher- 
 man fell back, McClernand was compelled to bring in his 
 brigades again to protect his left against the onset of the 
 Rebels, who, seeing how he had weakened himself there, 
 and inspired by their recent success over Prentiss, hurled 
 themselves against him with tremendous force. To avoid 
 bringing back these troops, a couple of new regiments, the 
 Fifteenth and Sixteenth Iowa, were brought up, but taking 
 utterly raw troops on the field, under heavy fire, was too 
 severe a trial for them, and they gave way in confusion. 
 To meet the attack, then the whole division made achange 
 of front, and faced along the Corinth road. Here the bat- 
 teries were placed in position, and till 10 o'clock the 
 Rebels were foiled in every attempt to gain the road. 
 
GOOD MANAGEMENT OF THE REBELS. l6l 
 
 But Sherman having now fallen back, there was nothing 
 to prevent the Rebels from coming in, farther out on the 
 road, and turning McClernand's right. Prompt to seize 
 the advantage, a brigade of them went dashing audaciously 
 through the division's abandoned camp, pushing up the 
 road to come in above McClernand, between him and 
 where Sherman had been. Dresser's Battery of rifled guns 
 opened on them as they passed, and with fearful slaughter — 
 not confined, alas ! to one side only — drove them back. 
 
 But the enemy's reserves were most skillfully handled, 
 and the constant advance of fresh regiments was, at last 
 too much for our inferior numbers. Major Eaton, com^ 
 manding the Eighteenth Illinois, was killed ; Colonel 
 Haynie was severely wounded ; Colonel Raith, command^ 
 ing a brigade, had his leg so shattered that amputation 
 was necessary ; Major Nevins, of the Eleventh Illinois, 
 was wounded ; Lieutenant-Colonel Ransom of the same 
 regiment was wounded; three of GeneralMcClernand's staff, 
 Major Schwartz, Major vStewart and Lieutenant Freeman, 
 were wounded and carried from the field. Line officers 
 had suffered heavily. The batteries were broken up 
 Sehwartz had lost half his guns and sixteen horses. 
 Dresser had lost several of his rifled pieces, three caissons 
 and eighteen horses. McAllister had lost half his twenty- 
 four-pound howitzers. 
 
 The soldiers fought bravely to the last — let no man 
 question that — but they were at a fearful disadvantage 
 Gradually they began falling back, more slowly than had 
 Prentiss's regiments, or part of Sherman's, making more 
 determined, because better organized, resistance, occasion- 
 ally rallying and repulsing the enemy in turn for a hun- 
 dred yards, then being beaten back again, and renewing the 
 retreat to some new position for fresh defence. 
 
l62 THE ASSA UL T OAT SHERMAN'S LEFT. 
 
 By 1 1 o'clock the division was back in a line with 
 Hurlbut's. It still did some gallant fighting; once its 
 right swept around and drove the enemy for a consider- 
 able distance, but again fell back, and at the last it brought 
 up near the position of W. H. L. Wallace's camps. 
 
 We have seen how Prentiss, Sherman, McClernand were 
 driven back ; how, fight as fiercely as they would, they 
 still lost ground ; how their camps were all in the hands 
 of the enemy ; and how this whole front line, for which 
 Hurlburt and Wallace were but the reserves, was gone. 
 
 But the fortunes of the isolated brigade of Sherman's 
 Division, on the extreme left, must not be forgotten. It 
 was doubly let alone by the Generals. General Grant did 
 not arrive on the field till after nearly all these disasters 
 had crowded upon us, and each Division General had done 
 that which was good in his own eyes, and carried on the 
 battle independent of the rest ; but this brigade was even 
 left by its Division General, who was four miles away, 
 doing his best to rally his panic-stricken regiments there. 
 
 It was Commanded by Colonel David Stuart, (of late 
 Chicago divorce-case fame, and ex-Congressman,) and was 
 composed of the Fity-fifth Illinois, Lieutenant-Colonel 
 Malmbourg, commanding ; Seventy-first Ohio, Colonel 
 Rodney Mason ; the Fifty-fourth Ohio, (Zouaves,) Colonel 
 T. K. Smith. It was posted along the circuitous road 
 from Pittsburgh Landing, up the river to Hamburgh, some 
 two miles from the Landing, and near the crossing of Lick 
 Creek, the bluffs on the opposite side of which commanded 
 the position, and stretching on down to join Prentiss's 
 Division on its right. In selecting the grounds for the 
 encampment of our army, it seems to have been forgotten 
 that from Corinth an excellent road led direct to Ham- 
 burgh, a few miles above this left wing of our -forces. 
 
LIEUTENANT GENERAL SHERIDAN. 
 
STUARTS BRIGADE. 165 
 
 Within a few days, the oversight had indeed been dis- 
 covered, and the determination had been expressed to land 
 Buell's forces at Hamburgh, when they arrived, and thus 
 make all safe. It was unfortunate, of course, that Beaure- 
 gard and Johnston did not wait for us to perfect our pleas- 
 ing arrangements. 
 
 When the Rebels marched out from Corinth, a couple 
 of brigades (rumored to be under the command of Breckin- 
 ridge) had taken this road, and thus easily, and without 
 molestation reached the bluffs of Lick Creek, commanding 
 Stuart's position. 
 
 During the attack on Prentiss, Stuart's Brigade was 
 formed along the road, the left resting near the Lick Creek 
 Ford, the right. Seventy-first Ohio, Colonel Rodney Mason, 
 (late Assistant Adjutant-General of Ohio, and Colonel 
 of the Second Ohio at Manassas,) being nearest Prentiss. 
 The first intimation they had of disaster to their right was 
 the partial cessation of firing. An instant afterward mus- 
 kets were seen glinting among the leaves, and presently a 
 Rebel column emerged from a bend in the road, with ban- 
 ners flying and moving at double-quick down the road 
 toward them. Their supports to the left were further ofi 
 than the Rebels, and it was at once seen that, with but one 
 piece of artillery a single regiment could do nothing there, 
 They accordingly fell rapidly back toward the ford, and 
 were re-formed in an orchard near the other regiments. 
 
 The Rebel column veered on further to the right, in 
 search of Prentiss's flying troops, and for a brief space, 
 though utterly isolated, they were unmolested. 
 
 Before ten, however, the brigade, which had still stood 
 listening to the surging roar of battle on the left, was star- 
 tled by the screaming of a shell that came directly over 
 their heads. In an instant the batteries of the Rebel force 
 10 
 
1 66 A GALLANT ATTACK. 
 
 that had gained the commanding bluffs opposite, by ap- 
 proaching on the Corinth and Hamburgh road, were in full 
 play, and the orchards and open fields in which they were 
 posted (looking only for attack in the opposite direction) 
 were swept with the exploding shells and hail-storm rush 
 of grape. 
 
 Under cover of this fire from the bluffs, the Rebels 
 rushed down, crossed the ford, and in a moment were seen 
 forming this side of the creek, in open fields also, and 
 within close musket range. Their color-bearers stepped 
 defiantly to the front, as the engagement opened furiously, 
 the Rebels pouring in sharp, quick volleys of musketry, 
 and their batteries above continuing to support them with 
 a destructive fire. Our sharp-shooters wanted to pick off 
 the audacious Rebel color-bearers, but Colonel Stuart in- 
 terposed : " No, no, they're too brave fellows to be 
 killed." Almost at the first fire, Lieutenant-Colonel Bar- 
 ton S. Kyle, of the Seventy first, was shot through the 
 breast. The brigade stood for scarcely ten minutes, when 
 it became evident that its position was untenable, and they 
 fell rapidly back, perhaps a quarter of a mile, to the next 
 ridge ; a few of his men, at great personal risk, carrying 
 Lieutenant-Colonel Kyle, in a dying condition, from the 
 field they were abandoning. Ohio lost no braver, truer 
 man that day. 
 
 As they reached the next woody ridge, Rebel cavalry, 
 that had crossed the creek lower down, were seen coming 
 up on their left ; and to resist this new attack the line of 
 battle was formed, fronting in that direction. For three 
 quarters of an hour the brigade stood here. The cavalry, 
 finding its purpose foiled, did not come within range. In 
 front they were hard pressed, and the Rebels, who had fol- 
 lowed Prentiss, bagan to come in on their right. Colonel 
 
DESPERATE CONDn/OiV OF NATIONAL TROOPS. 167 
 
 Stuart had sent across to Brigadier-General W. H. L. 
 Wallace, then not engaged, for support. Brigadier-Gen- 
 eral McArthur's Brigade was promptly started across, but 
 mistaking the way, and bearing too much on the right, it 
 speedily found itself in the midst of the Rebel forces, that 
 had poured in after Prentiss. General McArthur could 
 thus render Stuart's Brigade no assistance, but he vigor- 
 ously engaged the Rebels to his front and flanks, fell back 
 to a good position, and held these troops in bay till the rest 
 of his division came up to his aid. General McArthur was 
 himself disabled by a wound in the foot, but he rode into a 
 hospital, had it dressed, and retured to the brigade, which 
 meantime sturdily held its position. 
 
 But this brought Stuart's isolated brigade little help. 
 They were soon forced to fall back to another ridge, then 
 to another, and finally, about 12 o'clock, badly shattered 
 and disordered, they retreated to the right and rear, falling 
 in behind General McArthur's Brigade to reorganize. 
 Colonel Stuart was himself wounded by a ball through his 
 right shoulder, and the loss of field and company-officers 
 was sufficient to greatly discourage the troops. 
 
 This clears our entire front line of divisions. The 
 enemy has full possession of all Sherman's, Prentiss's, and 
 McClernand's camps. By 10 o'clock our whole front, 
 except Stuart's Brigade, had given way, and the burden of 
 the fight was resting on Hurlbut and W. H. L. Wallace. 
 Before 12 Stuart, too, had come back, and for the time 
 absolutely only those two divisions stood between our 
 army and destruction or surrender. 
 
 Still all was not lost. Hurlbut and Wallace began 
 making a most gallant stand ; and meantime most of the 
 troops from the three driven divisions were still to some 
 extent available. Many of them had wandered down the 
 
l68 LOOKING TO THE GUN BOATS. 
 
 river — some as far as Crump's Landing, and some even to 
 Savannah. These were brqught back again on transports. 
 Lines of guards were extended to prevent skulkers from 
 getting back to the Landing, and especially to stop the 
 shrewd dodge among the cravans of taking six or eight 
 able-bodied soldiers to assist some slightly-wounded fellow 
 into the hospital ; and between this cordon and the rear of 
 the fighting divisions the fragments of regiments were 
 reorganized after a fashion, and sent back to the field. 
 Brigades could not be got together again, much less divis- 
 ions, but the regiments pieced together from the loose 
 squads that could be gathered and officered, often by men 
 who could find scarcely a soldier of their own commands, 
 were hurried to the front, and many of them did good 
 service. 
 
 It was fortunate for us that the accidental circumstance 
 that Prentiss's portion of our lines had been completely 
 broken sooner than any of the rest, had caused the enemy's 
 onset to veer chiefly to our left. There we were tol- 
 erably safe ; and at worst, if the Rebels drove us to the 
 river on the left flank, the gun boats would come into play. 
 Our weakest point was the right, and to turning this the 
 Rebels do not seem to have paid so much attention on 
 Sunday. 
 
 According to general understanding, in the event of an 
 attack at Pittsburgh Landing, Major-General Lew. Wal- 
 lace was to come in on our right and flank the Rebels by 
 marching across from Crump's Landing below. Yet 
 strangely enough, Wallace, though with his division all 
 drawn up and ready to march anywhere at a moment's no- 
 tice, was not ordered to Pittsburgh Landing till nearly if 
 not quite 12 o'clock. Then through misdirection as to the 
 way to come in on the flank, four miles of marching were 
 
nURLBUTS DJVISJON. 169 
 
 lost, and the circuitous route made it twelve miles more, 
 before they could reach the scene of battle. Meantime 
 our right was almost wholly unprotected. Fortunately, as 
 I said, however, the Rebels do not seem to have discovered 
 the full extent of this weakness, and their heaviest fight- 
 ing was done on the centre and left, where we still pre- 
 served our line. 
 
 Hurlbut's Division, it will be remembered, stretched 
 across the Corinth road, facing rather to our left. W. H. 
 L. Wallace's other brigades had gone over to assist Mc- 
 Arthur, and the division, thus reunited, steadily closed the 
 line, where Prentiss's Division and Stuart's Brigade, in 
 their retreat, had left it open. To Hurlbut's right the 
 lines were patched out with the reorganized regiments 
 that had been resent to the field. McClernand and Sher- 
 man were both there. 
 
 Hurlbut had been encamped in the edge nearest the 
 river, of a stretch of open fields, backed with heavy tim- 
 ber. Among his troops were the Seventeenth and Twenty- 
 fifth Kentucky, Forty-fourth and Thirty-first Indiana, con- 
 stituting Lauman's Brigade ; Third Iowa, Forty-first Illinois 
 and some others, forming Colonel Williams' Brigade. 
 
 As Prentiss fell back, Hurlbut's left aided Wallace in 
 sustaining the Rebel onset, and when McClernand gave 
 way, the remainder of the division was thrown forward. 
 The position beyond the camp, however, was not a good 
 one, and the division was compelled to fall back through 
 its camp to the thick woods behind. Here, with open 
 fields before them, they could rake the Rebel approach. 
 Nobly did they now stand their ground. From 10 to half- 
 past 3 they held the enemy in check, and through nearly 
 that whole time were actively engaged. Hurlbut himself 
 displayed the most daring and brilliant gallantry, and his 
 
170 A DEATH GRAPPLE OF HEROES. 
 
 example, with that of the brave officers under him, nerved 
 the men to the sternest endurance. 
 
 Three times during those long hours the heavy Rebel 
 masses on the left charged upon the division, and three 
 times were they repulsed, with terrible slaughter. Close, 
 sharp, continuous musketry, whole lines belching fire on 
 the Rebels as the leaden storm swept the fields over which 
 they attempted to advance, were too much for Rebel dis- 
 cipline, though the bodies left scattered over the fields, even 
 on Monday evening, bore ghastly testimony to the daring 
 with which they had been precipitated toward our lines. 
 
 But there is still much in the Napoleonic theory that 
 Providence has a tendency at least to go with the heaviest 
 battalions. The battalions were against us. The Rebel 
 generals, too, handled their forces with a skill that extorted 
 admiration in the midst of our suffering. Repulse was 
 nothing to them. A rush on our lines failed ; they took 
 their disordered troops to the rear, and sent up fresh 
 troops, who, unknowing the fearful reception awaiting 
 them, were ready to try it again. The jaded division was 
 compelled to yield, and after six hours' magnificent fight- 
 ing, it fell back out of sight of its camps, and to a point 
 within half a mile of the Landing. 
 
 Let us turn to the fate of Hurlbut's companion divi- 
 sion — that of Brigadier-General W. H. L. Wallace, which 
 included the Second and Seventh Iowa, Ninth and Twenty- 
 eighth Illinois, and several of the other regiments com- 
 posing Major-General Smith's old division; with also three 
 excellent batteries. Stone's, Richardson's and Weber's (all 
 from Missouri), forming an artillery battalion, under the 
 general management of Major Cavender. 
 
 Here, too, the fight began about ten o'clock, as already 
 described. From that time until four in the afternoon 
 
DEATH OF GENERAL WALLACE. 171 
 
 they manfully bore up. The musketry fire was absolutely 
 continuous ; there was scarcely a moment that some par", 
 of the line was not pouring in it rattling volleys, and the 
 artillery was admirably served, with but little intermission 
 through the entire time. 
 
 Once or twice the infantry advanced, attempting to drive 
 the continually increasing enemy, but though they could 
 hold what they had, their numbers were not equal to the 
 task of conquering any more. 
 
 Four separate times the Rebels attempted to turn to 
 charge on them. Each time the infantry poured in its 
 quickest volleys, the artillery redoubled its exertions, and 
 the Rebels retreated with heavy slaughter. The division 
 was eager to remain, even when Hurlbut fell back, and the 
 fine fellows with the guns were particularly indignant at 
 not being permitted to pound away. But their supports 
 were gone on either side ; to have remained in isolated 
 advance would have been madness. Just as the necessity 
 for retreating was becoming apparent, General Wallace, 
 whose cool, collected bravery had commanded the admira- 
 tion of all, was mortally wounded, and borne away from 
 the field. At last the division fell back. Its soldiers 
 claim — justly, I believe — the proud distinction of being 
 the last to yield, in the general break of our Unes, that 
 gloomy Sunday afternoon, which, at half past four o'clock, 
 had left most of our army within half a mile of the Landing, 
 with the Rebels up to a thousand yards of their position. 
 
 Captain Stone could not resist the temptation of stop- 
 ping, as he passed what kad been Hurlbut's headquarters, 
 to try a few parting shots. He did fine execution, but 
 narrowly escaped losing some guns, by having his wheel 
 horses shot down. Captain Walker did lose a twenty 
 pounder through some breakage in the carriage. It was 
 recovered again on Monday. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 «• AGATE'S" STORY CONTINUED. 
 
 The Close of Sunday's Fight — What had been Lost During the Day 
 
 Five Thousand Cowards on the River Bank — Opportune Arrival 
 
 OF General Buell — The Grand Attack and its Grand Repulse — 
 Aid from the Gunboats — The Night Between Two Battles — Des- 
 perate Preparations for the Morrow — Gunboats on Guard 
 Through the Darkness. 
 
 The remainder of Sunday's desperate fighting, and the 
 grim preparations and anxieties of Sunday night, are re- 
 hearsed by " Agate " thus : 
 
 We have reached the last act in the tragedy of Sunday. 
 It is half-past 4 o'clock. Our front line of divisions has 
 been lost since half-past 10. Our reserve line is now gone, 
 too. The Rebels occupy the camps of every division save 
 that of W. H. L. Wallace. Our whole army is crowded 
 in the region of Wallace's camps, and to a circuit of one" 
 half to two-thirds of a mile around the Landing. We have 
 been falling back all day. We can do it no more. The 
 next repulse puts us into the river, and there are not trans- 
 ports enough to cross a single division till the enemy would 
 be upon iis. 
 
 Lew. Wallace's Division might turn the tide for us — it 
 
 is made of fighting men — but where is it ? Why has it not 
 
 been thundering on the right for three hours past ? We 
 
 do not know yet that it was not ordered up till noon. 
 
 172 
 
HE A VY L OSSES. I / 3 
 
 Buell is coming, but he has been doing it all day, and all 
 last week. His advance-guard is across the river now, 
 waiting ferriage; but what is an advance-guard, with sixty 
 thousand victorious foes in front of us ? 
 
 We have lost nearly all our camps and camp equipage. 
 We have lost nearly half our field artillery. We have lost 
 a division general and two or three regiments of our 
 soldiers as prisoners. We have lost — how dreadfully we 
 are afraid to think — in killed and wounded. The hospitals 
 are full to overflowing. A long ridge bluff is set apart for 
 surgical uses. It is covered with the maimed, the dead 
 and dying. And our men are discouraged by prolonged 
 defeat. Nothing but the most energetic exertion on the 
 part of the officers, prevents them from becoming demor- 
 alized. Regiments have lost their favorite field-officers ; 
 companies the captains whom they have always looked to, 
 with that implicit faith the soldier learns, to lead them to 
 battle. 
 
 Meanwhile, there is a lull in the firing. For the first 
 time since sunrise you fail to catch the angry rattle of 
 musketry or the heavy booming of the field-guns. Either 
 the enemy must be preparing for the grand, final rush that 
 is to crown the day's success and save the Southern Con- 
 federacy, or they are puzzled by our last retreat, and are 
 moving cautiously, lest we spring some trap upon them. 
 Let us embrace the opportunity, and look about the Land- 
 ing. We pass the old log-house, lately post office, now 
 full of wounded and surgeons, which constitute the "Pitts- 
 burgh " part of the landing. General Grant and staff are 
 in a group beside it. The general is confident. " We can 
 hold them off till to-morrow ; and they'll be exhausted, and 
 we'll go at them, with fresh troops." A great crowd is 
 collected around the building — all in uniforms, most of 
 
174 COWARDS. 
 
 tbem with guns. And yet we are needing troops in the 
 front so sorely ! 
 
 On the bluffs above the river is a sight that may well 
 make our cheeks tingle. There are not less than five 
 thousand skulkers lining the banks ! Ask them why they 
 don't go to their places in the line : " Oh ! our regiment 
 is all cut to pieces." " Why don't you go to where it is 
 forming again.?" "I can't find it," and the hulk looks as 
 if that would be the very last thing he would want to do. 
 
 Officers are around among them, trying to hunt up their 
 men, storming, coaxing, commanding — cursing I am afraid. 
 One strange fellow — a Major, if I remember aright — is 
 making a sort of elevated, superfine Fourth of July speech 
 to everybody that will Hsten to him. He means well, 
 certainly : " Men of Kentucky, of Illinois, of Ohio, of 
 Iowa, of Indiana, I implore you, I beg of you, come up 
 now. Help us through two hours more. By all that you 
 hold dear, by the homes you hope to defend, by the flag 
 you love, by the States you honor, by all our love of 
 country, by all your hatred of treason, I conjure you, 
 come up and do your duty, now!" And so on for 
 quantity. "That feller's a good speaker," was the only 
 response I heard, and the fellow who gave it nestled more 
 snugly behind his tree as he spoke. 
 
 I knew well enough the nature of the skulking animal 
 in an army during a battle. I had seen their performances 
 before, but never on so large a scale, never with such an 
 utter sickness of heart while I look, as now. Still, I do 
 not believe there was very much more than the average 
 percentage. It was a big army, and the runaways all 
 sought the landing. 
 
 Looking across the Tennessee we see a body of cavalry, 
 awaiting the transportation over. They are said to be 
 
ARRIVAL OF GENERAL BUELL. 1 75 
 
 Buell's advance, yet they have been there an hour or two 
 alone. But suddenly there is a rustle among the run- 
 aways. It is ! It is ! You see the gleaming of the gun- 
 barrels, you catch amid the leaves and undergrowth down 
 the opposite side of the river, glimpses of the steady, 
 swinging tramp of trained soldiers. A Division of Buell's 
 army is here ! And the men who have left their regiments 
 on the field send up three cheers for Buell. They cheer- 
 ing ! May it parch their throats, as if they had been 
 breathing the simoon ! 
 
 Here comes a boat across with a Lieutenant, and two or 
 three privates of the signal corps. Some orders are in- 
 stantly given the officer, and as instantly telegraphed to 
 the other side by the mysterious wavings and raisings and 
 droppings of the flags. A steamer comes up with pontoons 
 on board, with which a bridge could be speedily thrown 
 across. Unaccountably enough, to on-lookers, she slowly 
 reconnoiters and steams back again. Perhaps, after all 
 it is better to have no bridge there. It simplifies the 
 question, takes escape out of the count, and leaves its 
 victory or death — to the cowards, that slink behind the 
 bluffs as well as to the brave men who peril their lives to 
 do the State some service on the fields beyond. Prepar- 
 ations go rapidly forward for crossing the Division (Gene- 
 ral Nelson's, which has the advance of Buell's army) on 
 the dozen or so transports that have been tied up along 
 the bank. 
 
 We have spent but a few minutes on the bluff, but they 
 are the golden minutes that count for years. Well was 
 it for that driven, defeated, but not disgraced army of Gene- 
 ral Grant's that those minutes were improved. Colonel 
 Webster, Chief of Staff, and an artillery officer of no 
 mean ability, had arranged the guns that he could collect 
 
lyS GOLDEN MOMENTS. 
 
 of those that remained to us in a sort of semi-circle, pro- 
 tecting the Landing, and bearing chiefly on our centre and 
 left, by which the Rebels were pretty sure to advance. 
 Corps of artillerists to man them were improvised from all 
 the batteries that could be collected. Twenty-two guns 
 in all were placed in position. Two of them were heavy 
 siege-guns, long thirty-two. Where they came from I do 
 not know ; what battery they belonged to I have no idea ; 
 I only know that they were there, in the right place, half 
 a mile back from the bluff, sweeping the approaches by the 
 left, and by the ridge Corinth road ; that there was nobody 
 to work them ; that Doctor Cornyn, Surgeon of Frank 
 Blair's Old First Missouri Artillery, proffered his services, 
 that they were gladly accepted, and that he did work them 
 to such effect as to lay out ample work for scores of his 
 professional brethren on the other side of the fight. 
 
 Remember the situation. It was half past four o'clock 
 — perhaps a quarter later still. Every division of our army 
 on the field had been repulsed. The enemy were in the 
 camps of four out of five of them. We were driven to 
 within a little over half a mile of the Landing. Behind us 
 was a deep, rapid river. Before us was a victorious enemy. 
 And still there was an hour for fighting. " Oh ! that night, 
 or Blucher, would come ! " Oh ! that night, or Lew. Wal- 
 lace, would come ! Nelson's Division of General Bucll's 
 army evidently couldn't cross in time to do us much good. 
 We didn't yet know why Lew. Wallace wasn't on the 
 ground. In the justice of a righteous cause, and in that 
 semi-circle of twenty-two guns in position, lay all the hope 
 we could see. 
 
 Suddenly a broad, sulphurous flash of light leaped out 
 from the darkening woods ; and through the glare and 
 smoke came whistling the leaden hail. The Rebels were 
 
THE CRISIS OF THE DA Y. 1 77 
 
 making their crowning effort for the day, and as was expec- 
 ted when our guns were hastily placed, they came from our 
 left and centre. They had wasted their fire at one thou- 
 sand yards. Instantaneously our deep-mouthed bull-dogs 
 flung out their sonorous response. The Rebel artillery 
 opened, and shell and round-shot came tearing across the 
 open space back of the bluff. May I be forgiven for the 
 malicious thought, but I certainly did wish one or two 
 might drop behind the bluff among the crowd of skulkers 
 hovering under the hill at the river's edge. 
 
 Very handsome was the response our broken infantry 
 battalions poured in. The enemy soon had reason to re- 
 member that, if not " still in their ashes live the wonted 
 fires," at least still in the fragments lived the ancient valor 
 that had made the short-lived Rebels' successes already 
 cost so dear. 
 
 The Rebel infantry gained no ground, but the furious 
 cannonading and musketry continued. Suddenly new 
 actors entered on the stage. Our Cincinnati wooden gun- 
 boats, the A. O. Taylor and the Lexington, had been all 
 day impatiently chafing for their time to come. The 
 opportunity was theirs. The Rebels were attacking on 
 our left, lying where Stuart's Brigade had lain on Licking 
 Creek in the morning, and stretching thence in on the 
 Hamburgh Road, and across toward our old centre as far 
 as Hurlbut's camps. Steaming up to the mouth of the 
 little creek, the boats rounded to. There was the ravine, 
 cut through the bluff as if on purpose for their shells. 
 
 Eager to avenge the death of their commanding General 
 (now known to have been killed a couple of hours before) 
 and to complete the victory they believed to be within 
 their grasp, the Rebels had incautiously ventured within 
 reach of their most dreaded antagonists, as broadside after 
 
IjS THE GUN BOATS OPEN FIRE. 
 
 broadside of seven-inch shells and sixty-four-pounds shot 
 soon taught them. This was a foe they had hardly counted 
 on, and the unexpected fire in flank and rear sadly discon- 
 certed their well-laid plans. The boats fired admirably, 
 and with a rapidity that was astonishing. Our twenty- 
 two land-guns kept up their stormy thunder ; and thus, 
 amid a crash and roar and scream of shells and demon- 
 like hiss of minie-balls, the Sabbath evening wore away. 
 We held the enemy at bay ; it was enough. The prospects 
 for the morrow was foreboding ; but sufficient unto the day 
 is the evil thereof. We had plenty of evil that day — of 
 course, therefore, the text was applicable. Before dark 
 the Thirty-sixth Indiana, from Nelson's Advance Brigade, 
 had crossed, advanced into line with Grant's forces at the 
 double-quick, and had put in fourteen rounds as an earnest 
 of what should be forth-coming on the morrow. 
 
 The enemy suddenly slackened his fire. His grand 
 object had been defeated ; he had not finished his task in 
 a day ; but there is evidence that officers and men alike 
 shared the confidence that their morning assault would be 
 final. 
 
 As the sounds of battle died away, and Division Gen- 
 erals drew off their men, Buell had arrived, and Lew. 
 Wallace had been heard from. Both would be ready by 
 morning. It was decided that as soon as possible after 
 daybreak we should attack the enemy, now snugly quartered 
 in our camps. Lew. Wallace, who was coming in on the 
 new road from Crump's Landing, and crossing Snake 
 Creek just above the Illinois Wallace (W. H. L.) camps, 
 was to take the right and sweep back towards the position 
 from which Sherman had been driven on Sunday morning. 
 Nelson was to take the extreme left. Buell promised to 
 put in Tom Crittenden next to Nelson, and McCook next 
 
RESTTNG Oy THEIR ARMS. 1^9 
 
 to him by a seasonable hour in the morning. The gap be- 
 tween McCook and Lew, Wallace was to be filled with the 
 reorganized division of Grant's old army ; Hurlbut coming 
 next to McCook, then McClernand and Sherman closing 
 the gap between McClernand and Lew. Wallace. 
 
 Stealthily the troops crept to their new positions and lay 
 down in line of battle on their arms. All through the night 
 Buell's men were marching up from Savannah to the point 
 opposite Pittsburgh Landing and being ferried across, or 
 were coming up on transports. By an hour after dark Lew. 
 Wallace had his division in. Through the misdirection he 
 had received from General Grant at noon, he had started 
 on the Snake Creek road proper, which would have brought 
 him in on the enemy's rear, miles from support, and where 
 he would have been gobbled at a mouthful. Getting back 
 to the right road had delayed him. He at once ascertained 
 the position of certain Rebel batteries which lay in front 
 of him on our right, that threatened absolutely to bar his 
 advance in the morning, and selected positions for a couple 
 of his batteries, from which they could silence the one he 
 dreaded. Placing these in position, and arranging his brig- 
 ades for support, took him till one o'clock in the morning 
 Then his wearied men lay down to snatch a few hours of 
 sleep before entering into the Valley of the Shadow of 
 Death on the morrow. 
 
 By nine o'clock all was hushed near the Landing, 
 The host of combatants that three hours before had been 
 deep in the work of human destruction had all sunk silently 
 to the earth, "the wearied to sleep, the wounded to die." 
 The stars looked out upon the scene, and all breathed the 
 natural quiet and calm of a Sabbath evening. But pres- 
 ently there came a flash that spread like sheet lightning 
 over the ripples of the river-c«rrent, and the roar of a heavy 
 
l80 GUN BOATS ON GUARD. 
 
 naval gun went echoing up and down the bluffs, through 
 the unnatural stillness of the night. Others speedily fol- 
 lowed. By the flash you could just discern the black out- 
 line of the piratical-looking hull, and see how the gunboat 
 gracefully settled into the water at the recoil : the smoke 
 soon cast up a thin veil that seemed only to soften and 
 sweeten the scene, from the woods away inland you caught 
 faintly the muffled explosion of the shell, like the knell of 
 the spirit that was taking its flight. 
 
 We knew nothing then of the effect of this gunboat can- 
 nonading, which was vigorously kept up till nearly morn- 
 ing, and it only served to remind us the more vividly of 
 the day's disasters, of the fact that half a mile off lay a 
 victorious enemy, commanded by the most dashing of their 
 generals, and of the question one scarcely dared ask him- 
 self : " What to-morrow } " We were defeated, our dead 
 and dying were around us, days could hardly sum up our 
 losses. And then there came up that grand refrain of 
 Whittier's — written after Manassas, I believe, but on that 
 night, apparently far more applicable to this greater than 
 Manassas — " Under the Cloud and Through the Sea." 
 
 " Sons of the Saints who faced their Jordan flood, 
 
 In fierce Atlantic's unretreating wave — 
 Who by the Red Rea of their glorious blood 
 
 Reached to the Freedom that your blood shall save ! 
 
 O, countrymen ! God's day is not yet done ! 
 
 He leaveth not his people utterly ! 
 Count it a covenant, that he leads us on 
 
 Beneath the clouds and through the crimson sea ? 
 
MAJOR GENERAL BUTTERFIELD. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 "AGATE'S" STORY CONCLUDED. 
 
 The Work of Sunday Night — Landing of Buell's Troops — Effect of 
 THE Bombardment — Lack of System in the Union Army — Renewing 
 THE Battle — A Change of Tactics— Turning the Tide — Critten- 
 den's Advance — The Advance at the Centre — A Grand Parade on 
 THE Field of War — Redeeming the Losses of Sunday — Facing the 
 Louisiana Troops — Silencing the Battery — End of the Gre,.t 
 Struggle. 
 
 After giving the roll of the Federal troops engaged at 
 Shiloh, "Agate" concludes his remarkable narrative as 
 follows : 
 
 With the exception of the gunboat bombardment, the 
 night seemed to have passed in entire quiet, A heavy 
 thunder-storm had come up about midnight, and though 
 we were all shivering over the ducking, the surgeons 
 assured us that a better thing could not have happened. 
 The ground, they said, was covered with wounded not yet 
 found, or whom we were unable to bring from the field. 
 The moisture would to some extent cool the burning, 
 parching thirst, which is one of the chief terrors of lying 
 wounded and helpless on the battle-field, and the falling 
 water was the best dressing for the wounds. 
 
 The regiments of Buell's Divisions were still disembark- 
 ing at the Landing. Many had taken their places, the 
 11 183 
 
1 84 EFFECT OF THE BOMBARDMENT. 
 
 rest hurried out as fast as they landed, and fell in, to the 
 rear of their brigade-lines, for reserves. I stood for a few 
 moments at the Landing, curious to see how these fine fel- 
 lows would march out to the field where they knew re- 
 verses had crowded so thickly upon us the day before, and 
 where many of them must lie down to sleep his last sleep 
 ere the sun, then rising, should sink again. There was 
 little of that vulgar vanity of valor which was so conspicuous 
 in all the movements of our rawer troops eight or nine 
 months ago. There was no noisy and senseless yelling, no 
 shouting of boasts, no calling on on-lookers, to " show us 
 where the cowardly Secesh is, and we'll clean 'em out 
 double-quick." These men understood the work before 
 them ; they went to it as brave men should, determinedly, 
 hopefully, calmly. 
 
 It soon became evident that the gunboat bombardment 
 through the night had not been without a most important 
 effect in changing the conditions under which we renewed 
 the struggle. The sun had gone down with the enemy's lines 
 clasping us tightly on the centre and left, pushing us to 
 the river, and leaving us little over half a mile out of all 
 the broad space we had held in the morning. The gun- 
 boats had cut the coils, and loosened the constriction. As 
 we soon learned, their shells had made the old position on 
 our extreme left, which the Rebels had been pleasantly 
 occupying, utterly untenable. Instead of being able to 
 slip up on us through the night, as they had probably 
 intended, they were compelled to fall back from point to 
 point ; each time as they had found places, they thought, 
 out of range, a shell would come dropping in. Nowhere 
 within range could they lie, but the troublesome visitors 
 would find them out ; and to end the matter, they fell back 
 beyond our inner camps, and thus lost more than haM the 
 
WANT OF SYSTEM ON OUR SIDE. 1 85 
 
 ground they had gained by our 4 o'clock retreat the after- 
 noon before. 
 
 Less easily accounted for was a movement of theirs on 
 our right. They had held here a steep bluff covered with 
 underbrush, as their advanced line. Through the night 
 they abandoned this, which gave them the best position 
 for opposing Lew. Wallace, and had fallen back across 
 some open fields to the scrub-oak woods beyond. The 
 advantage of compelling our advance over unprotected 
 openings, while they maintained a sheltered position, was 
 obvious, but certainly not so great as holding a height 
 which artillery and infantry would make as difficult to take 
 as many a fort. Nevertheless they fell back. 
 
 The reader who is patient enough to wade through this 
 narration, will scarcely fail to observe that thus far I have said 
 little or nothing of any plan of attack or defence among our 
 commanders. It has been simply because I have failed to 
 see any evidence of such a plan. To me it seemed op 
 Sunday as if every Division General at least — not to say 
 in many cases, every individual soldier — imitated the good 
 old Israelitish plan of action, by which every man did 
 what seemed good in his own eyes. There may have been 
 an infinite amount of generalship displayed, in superintend- 
 ing our various defeats and re-formations and retreats, but 
 to me it seemed of that microscopic character that re- 
 quired the magnifying powers of a special permit for ex- 
 clusive newspaper telegraphing on government lines to 
 discover. 
 
 Sunday night there was a council of war, but if the Major- 
 General commanding developed any plans there, beyond 
 the simple arrangement of our line of battle, I am very 
 certain that some of the Division Commanders didn't find it 
 out. Stubborn fighting alone delayed our losses on Sunday ; 
 
1 86 NELSON'S ADVANCE. 
 
 Stubborn fighting alone saved us when we had reached 
 the point beyond which came the child's "jumping-off 
 place ; " and stubborn fight, v/ith such generalship as indi- 
 vidual Division Commanders displayed, regained on Monday 
 what we had lost before. 
 
 To those who had looked despairingly at the prospects 
 Sunday evening, it seemed strange that the Rebels did 
 not open out on us by daybreak again. Their retreat before 
 the bomb-shells of the gun-boats, however, explained the 
 delay. Our own divisions were put in motion almost 
 simultaneously. By seven o'clock Lew. Wallace opened 
 the ball by shelling, from the positions he had selected the 
 night before, the Rebel battery, of which mention has 
 been made. A brisk artillery duel, a rapid movement of 
 infantry across a shallow ravine, as if to storm, and the 
 Rebels enfiladed and menaced in front, limbered up and 
 made the opening of their Monday's retreating. 
 
 To the left we were slower in finding the enemy. They 
 had been compelled to travel some distance to get out of 
 gunboat range. Nelson moved his division about the 
 same time Wallace opened on the Rebel battery, forming 
 in line of battle, Ammon's Brigade on the extreme left, 
 Bruce's in the centre, and Hazen's to the left. Skirmishers 
 were thrown out, and for nearly or quite a mile the divi- 
 sion thus swept the country, pushing the outlying Rebels 
 before it, till it came upon them in force. Then a general 
 engagement broke out along the line, and again the rattle 
 of musketry and thunder of artiliery echoed over the late 
 silent fields. There was no straggling this morning. These 
 men were better drilled than many of those whose regi- 
 ments had broken to pieces on the day before, and strict 
 measures were taken, at any rate, to prevent the miscel- 
 laneous thronging back to places of safety in the rear. 
 
A CHANGE OF TACTICS. 1 8/ 
 
 They stood up to their work and did their duty manfully. 
 It soon became evident that, whether from change of 
 commanders or some other cause, the Rebels were pursuing 
 a different policy in massing their forces. On Sunday the 
 heaviest fighting had been done on the left. This morn- 
 ing they seemed to make less determined resistance here, 
 while toward the centre and right the ground was 
 more obstinately contested, and the struggle longer 
 prolonged. 
 
 Till half-past ten o'clock. Nelson advanced slowly but 
 steadily, sweeping his long lines over the ground of our 
 sore defeat on Sunday morning, and forward over scores of 
 Rebel dead, resistlessly pressing back the jaded and wear- 
 ied enemy. The Rebels had received but few reinforce- 
 ments during the night, their men were exhausted with 
 their desperate contest of the day before, and manifestly 
 dispirited by the evident fact that notwithstanding their 
 well-laid plans of destruction in detail, they were fighting 
 Grant and Buell combined. 
 
 Gradually, as Nelson pushed forward his lines under 
 heavy musketry, the enemy fell back, till about half-past 
 ten, when, under cover of the heavy timber and a furious 
 cannonading, they made a general rally. Our forces, flushed 
 with their easy victory, were scarcely prepared for the sud- 
 den onset, where retreat had been all they had been seeing 
 before. Suddenly, the Rebel masses were hurled against 
 our lines with tremendous force. Our men halted, wavered, 
 and fell back. At this juncture, Captain Terrill's regular 
 battery came dashing up. Scarcely taking time to unlim- 
 ber, he was loading and sighting his pieces before the cais- 
 sons had turned, and in an instant was tossing shell from 
 twenty-four pound howitzers into the compact and 
 advancing Rebel ranks. 
 
1 88 THE TURNING OF THE TIDE. 
 
 Here was the turning-point of the battle on the left. 
 The Rebels were only checked, not halted. On they came. 
 Horse after horse from the batteries were picked. Every 
 private at one of the howitzers fell, and the gun was Vv'orked 
 by Captain Terrill himself and a corporal. Still the Rebels 
 advanced, till, in the very nick of time, a regiment dashed 
 up from our line, and saved the disabled piece. Then for 
 two hours artillery and musketry at close range. At last 
 they began to waver. Our men pressed on, pouring in 
 deadly volleys. Just then Buell, who assumed the general 
 direction of his troops in the field, came up. At a glance 
 he saw the chance. " Forward at double-quick by brig- 
 ades!" Our men leaped forward as if they had been 
 tied, and were only too much rejoiced at suddenly finding 
 themselves able to move. For a quarter of a mile the 
 Rebels fell back. Faster and faster they ran, less and less 
 resistance was made to the advance. At last the front 
 canips on the left were reached, and by half-past two that 
 point was cleared. The Rebels had been steadily swept 
 back over the ground they had won, with heavy loss as 
 they fell into confusion ; we had retaken all our own guns 
 lost here the day before, and one or two from the Rebels 
 were left as trophies, to tell in after days how bravely that 
 great victory over treason in Tennessee was won. 
 
 I have sketched the advance of Nelson. Next to him 
 came Crittenden. He, too, swept forward over his ground 
 to the front some distance before finding the foe. Between 
 8 and 9 o'clock, however, while keeping Smith's Brigade on 
 his left up even with Nelson's flank, and joining Boyle's 
 Brigade to McCook on the right, in the grand advance, 
 they came upon the enemy with a battery in position, and 
 well supported. Smith dashed his brigade forward ; there 
 was sharp, close work witb musketry, and the Rebels fled 
 
ADVANCE OF CRITTENDEI^S DTVISTON' 1 89 
 
 leaving us thre« pieces— a twelve-pound howitzer, and two 
 brass six-pounders. But they cost the gallant Thirteenth 
 Ohio dear. Major Ben. Piatt Runkle fell, mortally 
 wounded. Softly may he sleep, and green grow the laurels 
 over his honored grave. None worthier wear them living. 
 For half an hour, perhaps, the storm raged around these 
 captured guns. Then came the reflex Rebel wave that 
 had hurled Nelson back. Crittenden, too, caught its full 
 force. The Rebels swept up to the batteries, around 
 them, and on down after our retreating column. But the 
 two brigades, like those of Nelson to their left, took a fresh 
 position, faced the foe, and held their ground. Menden- 
 hall's and Bartlett's Batteries now began shelling the in- 
 fantry that alone opposed them. Before abandoning the 
 guns so briefly held, they had spiked them with mud, and 
 the novel expedient was perfectly successful. From that 
 time till after i o'clock, while the fight raged back and 
 forth over the same ground, the Rebels did not succeed in 
 firing a shot from their mud-spiked artillery. 
 
 At last our brigades began to garn the advantage again. 
 Crittenden pushed them steadily forward. Mendenhall 
 (with his accomplished First Lieutenant Parsons, one of 
 our Western Reserve West Pointers), and Bartlett, poured 
 in their shell. A rush for the contested battery, and it is 
 ours again. The Rebels retreated toward the left. Smith 
 and Boyle, holding the infantry well in hand, Mendenhall 
 again got their range, and poured in shell on the new 
 position. The fortune of the day was against them as 
 against their comrades to Nelson's front, and they were 
 soon in full retreat. 
 
 Just then Brigadier-General Thomas J. Wood's advance 
 brigade, from his approaching division, came up. It was 
 too late for the fight, but it relieved Crittenden's weary 
 
igO M' COOK'S ADVANCE. 
 
 fellows, and pushed on after the Rebels, until they were 
 found to have left our most advanced camps. 
 
 Thus the left was saved. Meanwhile McCook, with as 
 magnificent regiments as ever came from the Army of the 
 Potomac, or from any army of volunteers in the world, 
 was doing equally well toward the centre. His division 
 was handled in such a way as to save great effusion of 
 blood, while equally important results were obtained. 
 Thus the reserves were kept as much as possible from un- 
 der fire, while those to the front were engaged. The lists 
 of killed and wounded will show that, while as heavy 
 fighting was done here as anywhere on the right or centre, 
 the casualties are fewer than could have been expected. 
 
 It would scarcely be interesting to prolong details where 
 the course of one division so nearly resembled that of the 
 others. But let me sketch the close. An Illinois battery, 
 serving in the division, was in imminent danger. The 
 Sixth Indiana was ordered to its relief. A rapid rush; 
 close musketry firing ; no need of bayonets here ; the bat- 
 tery is safe. The enemy are to the front and right. Ad- 
 vancing and firing right oblique, the Sixth pushes on. The 
 Rebel colors fall. Another volley ; they fall again. An- 
 other volley ; yet once more the colors drop. There is 
 fatality in it, so the Rebels seem to think at least, as they 
 wheel and disappear. 
 
 And then Rousseau's Brigade is drawn off in splendid 
 style, as if coming in from parade, conscious of some 
 grand master of reviews watching their movements. So 
 there was — the Rebel general. As he saw the brigade 
 filing back, he pushed his forces forward again. Kirk's 
 Brigade advanced to meet them, coming out of the woods 
 into an open field to do so. They were met by a tremen- 
 dous fire, which threw a battalion of regulars in front of 
 
PARADE ON THE FIELD OF WAR. I9I 
 
 them (under Major Oliver, I think,) into some confusion. 
 They retire to reform, and meanwhile down drops the 
 brigade, fiat on the ground. Then, as the .front is clear, 
 they spring up, charge across the open field — never mind 
 the falling — straight on, on to the woods — Under cover, 
 with the enemy driven back by the impetuous advance. 
 And now he rallies. Fierce musketry firing sweeps the 
 woods. They advance — thirty rods, perhaps — when the 
 Twenty-ninth Indiana gets into a marsh, and falls partially 
 to the rear. Heavier comes the leaden hail. Twenty- 
 ninth and Thirtieth both fall back fifteen or twenty rods ; 
 they rally and advance ; again they are hurled back ; again 
 they start forward ; and this time they come in on the 
 vulnerable points. The enemy flees. Colonel Waggoner's 
 Fifteenth Indiana comes up to the support ; the enemy 
 disappear; fresh troops take their places, and for them the 
 fight is ended. I might describe similar deeds of WOlich's 
 and Harrison's regiments, but "from one learn all." 
 
 Farther to the right, McClernand and Hurlbut were 
 gallantly coming on with their jaded men. The soldiers 
 would fight — that was the great lesson of the battle. If 
 surprised, and driven off in consequence of surprise, that 
 can hardly be wholly charged on them. Four times Mc- 
 Clernand regained and lost again the ground to the front 
 of his division. Similar were Hurlbiit's fortunes. 
 
 But I must abandon these details. Beginning at tne 
 left we have followed the wave of successes that swept us 
 forward again, from spot to spot, over the hard-lost fields of 
 Sunday — our paeans of victory, the wild cheers of our 
 successful soldiers, sounding the requiem of the fallen 
 Rebels, who hav-e atoned for their treason by the brave 
 man's death. Nelson, Crittenden, McCook, Hurlbut, Mc- 
 Cleimand have borne their divisions through the fray. It 
 
192 LEIV. WALLACE'S MOVEMENTS. 
 
 lasted longer on the right, and was as rarely interesting as 
 the chess-game of a master. Let us trace it through. 
 
 In speaking of the beginning of Monday's battle, I men- 
 tioned Major-General Lew. Wallace's opening the ball at 
 seven o'clock, by shelling with enfilading fires a Rebel 
 battery. A few shots demonstrated to the Rebels that 
 their position was untenable. The instant Sherman came 
 in to protect his left, Wallace advanced his infantry. The 
 Rebel battery at once limbered up and got out of the way. 
 The advance had withdrawn the division from Sherman. 
 Making a left half -wheel, to get back into the neighbor- 
 hood of our line, they advanced some two hundred yards, 
 which brought them to a little elevation, with a broad, open 
 stretch to the front. 
 
 As the division halted on the crest of the swell, there 
 passed before them a rare vision. Away to the front were 
 woods. Through the edge of the timber, skirting the 
 fields, the head of a Rebel column appeared, marching 
 past in splendid style on the double-quick. Banner after 
 banner appeared ; the " stars and bars " formed a long 
 line, stretching parallel with Wallace's line of battle. 
 Regiment after regimant followed on, the line lengthened, 
 and doubled and trebled ; the head of the column was out 
 of sight, and still they came. Twenty regiments were 
 counted passing through these woods. The design was 
 plain. The Rebels had abandoned the idea of forcing 
 their way through our left, and now the manifest attempt 
 was to turn our right. 
 
 Batteries were ordered up — Thompson's and Thurber's — 
 and the whole column was shelled as it passed. The Rebels 
 rapidly threw their artillery into position, and a brisk 
 cannonading began. After a time, while the fight still 
 rested with the artillery, the Rebels opened a new and de- 
 
THE LOUISIANA TROOPS. 1 93 
 
 structive battery to the right, which our men soon learned 
 to know as "Watson's Louisiana Battery," from the marks 
 on the ammunition-boxes they forced it from time to time 
 to leave behind. 
 
 Batteries, with a brigade of supporting infantry, were 
 now moved forward over open fields under heavy fire, to con- 
 tend against this new assailant. The batteries opened, the 
 sharpshooters were thrown out to the front to pick off the 
 Rebel artillerists, the brigade was ordered down on its face 
 to protect it from the flying shell and grape. For an hour 
 and a half the contest lasted, while the body of the divi- 
 sion was still delayed, waiting for Sherman. By ten o'clock 
 Sherman's right, under Colonel Marsh, came up. He 
 started to move across the fields. The storm of musketry 
 and grape were too much for him, and he fell back in good 
 order. Again he started on the double, and gained the 
 woods. The Louisiana Battery was turned ; Marsh's posi- 
 tion left it subject to fire in flank and front, and it fled. 
 The other Rebel batteries at once did the same ; and 
 Wallace's Division, up in an instant, now that a master 
 move had swept the board, pushed forward. Before them 
 were broad fallow fields, then a woody little ravine, then 
 corn-fields, then woods. 
 
 The left brigade was sent forward. It crossed the fal- 
 low fields, under ordinary fire, then gained the ravine, and 
 was rushing across the corn-fields, when the same Louisiana 
 steel rifled guns opened on them. Dashing forward they 
 reached a little ground-swell, behind which they dropped like 
 dead men, while skirmishers were sent forward to silence 
 the troublesome battery. The skirmishers crawled forward 
 till they gained a little knoll, not more than seventy-five 
 yards from the battery. Of course the battery opened on 
 them. They replied, if not so noisily, more to the pur- 
 
1 94 SIL ENCING A BA TTER Y. 
 
 pose. In a few minutes the battery was driven off, with 
 artillerists killed, horses shot down, and badly crippled 
 every way. But the affair cost us a brave man — Lieuten- 
 ant-Colonel Garber — who could not control his enthusiasm 
 at the conduct of the skirmishers, and in his excitement 
 incautiously exposed himself. All this while Rebel regi 
 ments were pouring up to attack the audacious brigade that 
 was supporting the skirmishers, and fresh regiments from 
 Wallace's Division came up in time to checkmate the game. 
 
 But the battery was silenced. " Foward," was the divi- 
 sion order. Rushing across the corn-fields under heavy 
 fire, they now met the Rebels face to face in the woods. 
 The contest was quick, decisive. Close, sharp, continuous 
 musketry for a few minutes, and the Rebels fell back. 
 
 Here, unfortunately, Sherman's right gave way. Wal- 
 lace's flank was exposed. He instantly formed Colonel 
 Wood's (Seventy-sixth Ohio ) in a new line of battle, in 
 right angles with the real one, and with orders to protect 
 the flank. The Eleventh Indiana was likewise here en- 
 gaged in a sharp engagement with the enemy attempting 
 to flank, and for a time the contest waxed fierce. But 
 Sherman soon filled the place of his broken regiments ; 
 again Wallace's Division forced forward, and again the 
 enemy gave way. 
 
 By 2 o'clock the division was into the woods again, and 
 for three-quarters of a mile it advanced under a continuous 
 storm of shot. Then another contest or two with bat- 
 teries — always met with skirmishers and sharp-shooting — 
 then, by 4 o'clock, two hours later than on the right, a 
 general Rebel retreat — then pursuit, recall and encamp- 
 ment on the old grounds of Sherman's Division, in the 
 very tents from which those regiments were driven that 
 hapless Sunday morning. 
 
THE KILLED AND WOUNDED. IQS 
 
 The camps were regained. The Rebels were repulsed. Their 
 attack had failed. We stood where we began. Rebel cav- 
 alry were within half a mile of us. The retreating columns 
 were within striking distance. But we had regained our 
 camps. And so ended the battle of Pittsburgh Landing. 
 
 I do not pretend to give more than an estimate ; but I 
 have made the estimate with some care, going to the ad- 
 jutants of different regiments that had been in as heavy 
 fighting as any — getting statements of their losses, sure 
 to be very nearly if not quite accurate, and approximating 
 thus from the loss of a dozen regiments to the probable 
 loss of all. I have ridden over the grounds, too — have 
 seen the dead and wounded lying over the field — have 
 noted the number in the hospitals and on the boats. As 
 the result of it all, I do not believe our loss in killed and 
 wounded will number over five thousand. The question of 
 prisoners is another matter. 
 
 The best opinions of the strength with which the Rebels 
 attacked us place their numbers at sixty thousand. They may 
 have been re-inforced five to ten thousand Sunday night. 
 
 Grant had scarcely forty thousand effective men on Sun- 
 day. Of these, half a dozen regiments were utterly raw — had 
 scarcely had their guns long enough to know how to handle 
 them. Some were supplied with weapons on their way up. 
 
 Buell crossed three divisions that took part in the action 
 — Nelson's, Crittenden's, and McCook's. They numbered 
 say twenty thousand — a liberal estimate. Lew. Wallace 
 came up on Monday, with say seven thousand more. That 
 gives us, counting the Sunday men as all effective again, 
 sixty-seven thousand on Monday, on one side, against 
 sixty to seventy thousand Rebels. It was not numbers 
 that gained us the day, it was fighting. All honor to our 
 Northern soldiers for it. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 CORINTH. 
 
 Halleck Takes the Field — Organization of the Army — Prooress 
 AT A Snail's Pace — Sherman's Advance — The Flight of the 
 Rebels — Sherman's Official Report — Congratulating the Troops — 
 Beauregard's Address to his Soldiers — Some Account of Corinth — 
 Abrupt Finale of a Rebel Haranghe. 
 
 The battle of Pittsburgh Landing unquestionably pre- 
 sented remarkable features. The magnitude of the strug- 
 gle, the panic that affected some of the troops on the first 
 day, the stern recovery and complete triumph of the second 
 day, all make the event notable in our military annals. 
 But far more remarkable, in an entirely different sense, 
 was the campaign that followed; a campaign that even 
 now can scarcely be contemplated with patience. It 
 seemed as though the commanding General (Halleck), 
 conceding the truth of the charges of excessive rashness 
 and lack of preparation at Shiloh, had now resolved to 
 atone therefore by going to the opposite extreme of caution 
 and deliberation. The results of this policy were not 
 disastrous ; but they were exasperating. Had the Union 
 army promptly followed up its advantage, gained at Shiloh, 
 it could and doubtless would have annihilated the opposing 
 forces and made rebellion in that region a thing of the 
 past. This probably would have been done had Sherman 
 196 
 
HALLECK IN THE FIELD. 1 97 
 
 been in command ; for, as we have seen, his voice was for an 
 aggressive campaign. But Sherman was not in command. 
 
 Immediately after the battle, Halleck came down from 
 St. Louis and took his place as commander of the army in 
 the field. Perhaps he believed the miserable slanders 
 against Grant, charging him with drunkenness at Shiloh ; 
 perhaps he merely retained his former feeling of dissatis- 
 faction with him. At any rate, he kept him under a cloud, 
 appointing him nominally second in command, but giving 
 him nothing to do. But it served his purpose to treat 
 Sherman well, and he accordingly took him into his con- 
 fidence and gave him important commissions to execute. 
 He drew troops from other parts of the country, until he 
 had an army of more tkan a hundred thousand men. To 
 Major-General Pope he gave command of the left wing, to 
 Major-General Buell the centre, to Major-General Thomas 
 the right, and to Major-General McClernand the reserves. 
 Lew. Wallace was under McClernand. Sherman was 
 under Thomas, in the right wing, and was glad to be there. 
 They were classmates and trusted friends, and, as Sherman 
 afterward said, it made no difference which of them com- 
 manded the other , they were bound to work together in 
 harmony for the good cause. 
 
 The army was thus organized for an advance on Corinth, 
 where the Rebel army lay. This place was the junction 
 of two great railroads, and was of much strategic import- 
 ance. The same Rebel army that had been defeated at 
 Pittsburgh Landing was gathered there, re-organized and 
 reinforced. Since Albert Sidney Johnston's death. General 
 Beauregard was in command, and on May 8th he issued 
 this address to his troops : 
 
 " Soldiers of Shiloh and Elkhorn ! We are about to 
 meet once more in the shock of battle the invaders of our 
 
198 BEAUREO-ARnS SPREAD-EAGLE SPEECH. 
 
 soil, the despoilers of our homes, the disturbers of our 
 family ties, face to face, hand to hand. We are to decide 
 whether we are freemen, or vile slaves of those who are 
 only free in name, and who but yesterday were vanquished, 
 although in largely superior numbers, in their own en- 
 campments, on the ever-memorable field of Shiloh. Let 
 the impending battle decide our fate, and add a more 
 illustrious page to the history of our revolution — one to 
 which our children will point with pride, saying, 'Our 
 fathers were at the battle of Corinth.' I congratulate you 
 on your timely junction. With our mingled banners for 
 the first time during the war, we shall meet our foe in 
 strength that should give us victory. Soldiers, can the 
 result be doubtful? Shall we not drive back to Tennessee 
 the presumptuous mercenaries collected for our subjuga- 
 tion .'' One more manly effort, and, trusting in God and the 
 justness of our cause, we shall recover more than we lately 
 lost. Let the sound of our victorious guns be re-echoed 
 by those of Virginia on the historic battle-field at York- 
 town." 
 
 It should be explained, concerning the first words of 
 this address, that among the reinforcements of Beaure- 
 gard's army were Van Dorn's troops, who had fought at 
 Pea Ridge, Arkansas, a battle which the Rebels called 
 Elkhorn ; and concerning the closing wordS) that on the 
 very day when this address was issued, the Rebels fled 
 from Yorktown before the advance of McClellan ! General 
 Bragg also made an address to his soldiers, saying : " You 
 will encounter the enemy in your chosen position, strong 
 by nature and improved by art, away from his main support 
 and reliance — gunboats and heavy batteries — and for the 
 first time in this war, with nearly equal numbers." This 
 remark about equal numbers was certainly untrue, since at 
 
 /' 
 
i 
 
;-.>''■ "^Pii^^r 
 
 ^ 
 
 GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN. 
 
MARCHING AT A SNAIVS PACE. 20I 
 
 Shiloh the Rebel army on the first day actually outnum- 
 bered the Union troops. And now at Corinth it is hardly 
 possible to believe that the Rebels had anything like a hun- 
 dred thousand men. Forty-seven thousand is the estimate 
 given by one careful writer, and sixty-five thousand by 
 another. There really seems to be no good reason for 
 believing that Beauregard had at most more than two- 
 thirds as many soldiers as Halleck, and there was no pros- 
 pect of his getting any more, for McClellan's huge army 
 was menacing Richmond, and all available Southern troops 
 were needed there to cope with it. Of course, Halleck's 
 men were still comparatively new to war, and it would have 
 been injudicious to hurry them forward against Beaure- 
 gard's entrenched position. But under another leader they 
 doubtless might have been conducted with certain success 
 against the foe in half the time that Halleck took, and 
 with far more satisfactory results than those achieved by 
 him. 
 
 Shiloh was fought on April 6th and 7th. For twenty 
 days thereafter Halleck was preparing to pursue the enemy. 
 His army really did need much re-organization. Sher- 
 man's Division, for example, had suffered so much that its 
 four brigades were now consolidated into three, commanded 
 respectively by Morgan L. Smith, John A. McDowell, and 
 J. W. Denver. Supplies were plentiful, being brought up 
 the river. But there was a scarcity of wagon trains for 
 the march inland to Corinth, and much confusion occurred 
 on this account. However, by April 14th Halleck decided 
 that some move must be made, so he sent Sherman to 
 break the Memphis and Charleston railroad at Bear Creek ; 
 which was done. Then Halleck began his advance 
 upon Corinth. And such an advance ! If at Shiloh the 
 
 army had lain for weeks without intrenchmenls, here it 
 12 
 
202 SHERMAN'S ADVANCE. 
 
 was not halted for a day without elaborate fortifications. 
 The troops literally burrowed their way across the country. 
 It took, said the Rebels, six weeks to move fifteen miles ; 
 and the statement is not far from truth. On May 3d, 
 General Pope's Division won a victory of some importance 
 at Farrington, five miles northwest of Corinth, and the 
 cavalry pushed on to Glendale and cut the Rebel line of 
 communication there. 
 
 The Union army on May 17th was within five miles of 
 Corinth. Sherman was on that date sent forward to take 
 the Russell house, about midway between the two armies. 
 This he did after a sharp action, in which he handled his 
 troops with credit. Recognizing the strength and im- 
 portance of the position, Sherman at once fortified it 
 strongly. And at the same time Halleck's whole army 
 settled down to besiege Corinth after the orthodox fashion 
 now growing into use, i. e., with elaborate intrenchments, 
 parallels and battery epaulements. Halleck believed that 
 Corinth was strongly fortified, and that it could only be 
 taken by siege. On May 27th he was within a mile of the 
 Rebel lines, with his heavy siege guns in position. He 
 now ordered Sherman to advance, drive in the Rebel 
 pickets, and make a strong demonstration against Corinth 
 itself. 
 
 This task Sherman accomplished with masterly skill. 
 He had under him, on this occasion, McClernand, Hurl- 
 b«t and John A. Logan, Generals Grant and Thomas 
 witnessed the engagement and expressed much admiration 
 of Sherman's ability in it. The position gained over- 
 looked at close quarters the Rebel fortifications around 
 Corinth, and not only the drum and bugle calls in the Rebel 
 camp, but the noise-s of the town itself were plainly audi- 
 ble. Sherman entrenched himself strongly and brought 
 
SHERMAN'S OFFICIAL REPORT. 203 
 
 up his artillery. Halleck was jubilant and was confident 
 of capturing the whole of Beauregard's army. But on the 
 night of May 29th there were strange sounds in Corinth. 
 The rumble and roar of railroad trains was incessant. At 
 daylight of May 30th the town and the country about 
 were shaken by an explosion, and a vast cloud of smoke 
 overshadowed Corinth. Halleck had expected a battle 
 before this, but there was no sign that the Rebels would 
 come out of their fortifications. 
 
 When the explosion occurred, on May 30th, Sherman 
 asked Halleck if he had any idea what it meant. Hal- 
 leck replied that he had not, and then ordered Sherman to 
 move forward with his division and find out. Sherman did 
 so, and lo ! The Rebel works were abandoned, and Corinth 
 itself was evacuated. On February 26th, Beauregard had 
 commenced hurrying his sick troops and stores southward, 
 on the night of the 28th he had sent the bulk of his effec- 
 tive force, and on the night of the 29th, the rear guard had 
 fled, setting fire to the town and blowing up the magazine. 
 The Rebel pickets had not been called in, nor even noti- 
 fied of the army's flight, so they fell into Sherman's hands, 
 with the ruins of the town. And thus ingloriously ended 
 the Siege of Corinth. 
 
 Following, is Sherman's official report of the capture of 
 Corinth, dated May 30th, 1862. 
 
 " On the nineteenth instant, I reported the operations of 
 this division in taking from the enemy the positions at 
 Russel's. After driving the enemy away, we found it one 
 of great natural strength, and proceeded to fortify it. Lines 
 were laid off by the engineer, Captain Kossak, and a very 
 excellent parapet was constructed by the men in a style 
 that elicited the approval of General Halleck. Men worked 
 day and night, and as soon as it was done and the dense 
 
204 ^ BLOCK HOUSE FORTRESS. 
 
 trees and undergrowth cleared away in front, to give range 
 to our batteries, I directed our pickets to drive the enemy 
 further back behind a large open field to our front and 
 right. This was handsomely executed by the regular de- 
 tail of picket-guard under the direction of the field-officer 
 of the day, Lieutenant Colonel Loudon of the Seventieth 
 Ohio. 
 
 "We remained in that intrenched camp at Russell's until 
 the night of the 27th, when I received from Major Gene- 
 ral Hal leek an order by telegraph ' to send a force the next 
 day to drive the Rebels from the house in our front on the 
 Corinth road, to drive in their pickets as far as possible, 
 and to make a strong demonstration on Corinth itself,* 
 authorizing me to call on any adjacent divisions for assist- 
 ance ; I asked General McClernand for one brigade and 
 General Hurlbut for another to co-operate with two 
 brigades of my own division. Colonel John A. Logan's 
 Brigade of General Judah's Division of McClernand's 
 Reserve Corps, and General Veatch's Brigade of Hurlbut's 
 Division, were placed subject to my orders, and took part 
 with my own division in the operations of the two follow- 
 ing days, and I now thank the officers and men of these 
 brigades for the zeal and enthusiasm they manifested, and 
 the alacrity they displayed in the execution of every order 
 given. 
 
 " The house referred to by General Halleck was a double 
 log building, standing on a high ridge on the upper or 
 southern end of the large field before referred to as the 
 one to which we had advanced our pickets. The enemy 
 had taken out the chinks and removed the roof, making it 
 an excellent block-house from which, with perfect security, 
 he could annoy our pickets. The large field was perfectly 
 overlooked by this house, as well as by the ridge along its 
 
A SILENT MARCH. 305 
 
 southern line of defence, which was covered by a dense 
 grove of heavy oaks and underbrush. The main Corinth 
 road runs along the eastern fence, whilst the field itself, 
 about three hundred yards wide by about five hundred 
 yards long, extended far to the right into 1>he low land of 
 Phillips's Creek, so densely wooded as to be impassable 
 to troops or artillery. On the eastern side of the field the 
 woods were more open. The enemy could be seen at all 
 times in and about the house and the ridge beyond, and 
 our pickets could not show themselves on our side of the 
 field without attracting a shot. 
 
 " The problem was to clear the house and ridge of the 
 enemy with as little loss as possible. To accomplish this, 
 I ordered General J. W. Denver, with his Brigade (Third), 
 and the Morton Battery of four guns, to march in perfect 
 silence from our lines at 8 A. M., keeping well under cover 
 as he approached the field ; General Morgan L. Smith's 
 Brigade (First), with Barrett's and Waterhouse's Batter- 
 ies, to move along the main road, keeping his force well 
 masked in the woods to the left ; Brigadier-General Veatch's 
 Brigade to move from General Hurlbut's lines through the 
 woods on the left of and connecting with General M. L. 
 Smith's, and General John A. Logan's Brigades to move 
 down to Bowie Hill Cut of the Mobile and Ohio Railroad, 
 and thence forward to the left, so as to connect with 
 General Denver's Brigade on the extreme right; all to 
 march at 8 A. M., with skirmishers well to the front, to 
 keep well concealed, and, at a signal, to rush quickly on 
 to the ridge, thus avoiding as much as possible the danger 
 of crossing the open field exposed to the fire of a concealed 
 enemy. It was impossible for me beforehand to ascertain 
 the force of the enemy, and nothing is more embarrassing 
 than to make dispositions against a concealed foe, occupy- 
 
206 DRIVING OUT THE ENEMY. 
 
 ing, as this was, a strong natural position. I then sup- 
 posed and still think, this position was held by a small 
 brigade of the enemy. 
 
 " My preliminary arrangements having thus been made, 
 two twenty-pound Parrot rifle-guns of Silfversparre's Bat- 
 tery, under the immediate supervision of Major Taylor, 
 Chief of Artillery, were moved silently through the forest 
 to a point behind a hill, from the top of which could be 
 seen the house and ground to be contested. The guns 
 were unlimbered, loaded with shell and moved by hand to 
 the crest. At the proper time I gave the order to Major 
 Taylor to commence firing and demoHsh the house, or ren- 
 der it decidedly uncomfortable to its occupants. About a 
 dozen shells well directed soon accomplished this ; then 
 designating a single shot of the twenty-pound Parrott gun 
 of Silfversparre as a signal for the brigades to advance, 
 I waited till all were in position, and ordered the signal, 
 when the troops dashed forward in fine style, crossed the 
 field, drove the enemy across the ridge and field beyond 
 into another dense and seemingly impenetrable forest. 
 The enemy was evidently surprised, and only killed two of 
 our men, and wounded nine. After he had reached the 
 ridge, he opened on us with a two-gun battery on the right 
 and another from the front and left, doing my brigades but 
 little harm, but killing three of General Veatch's men. 
 With our artillery we soon silenced his, and by lo A. M. 
 we were masters of the position. Generals Grant and 
 Thomas were present during the affair, and witnessed the 
 movement, which was admirably executed, all the officers 
 and men keeping their places like real soldiers. 
 
 " Immediately throwing forward a line of skirmishers in 
 front of each brigade, we found the enemy reinforcing his 
 front skirmishers ; but the woods were so dense as to 
 
THE REBELS IN CONFUSION. 20/ 
 
 completely mask his operations. An irregular piece of 
 cleared land lay immediately in front of Gen. Denver's 
 position, and extended obliquely to the left, in front of and 
 across Morgan Smith's and Veatch's brigades, which 
 were posted on the right and left of the main Corinth 
 road, leading directly south. For some time I was in 
 doubt whether the artillery fire we had sustained had come 
 from the enemy's fixed or field-batteries, and intended to 
 move forward at great hazard to ascertain the fact, when, 
 about 3 P. M., we were startled by the quick rattle of 
 musketry along our whole picket-line, followed by the 
 cheers and yells of an attacking column of the enemy. 
 
 " Our artillery and Mann's Battery of Veatch's Brigade, 
 had been judiciously posted by Major Taylor, and before 
 the yell of the enemy had died away arose our reply in the 
 cannon's mouth. The firing was very good, rapid, well- 
 directed, and the shells burst in the right place. Our 
 pickets were at first driven in a little, but soon recovered 
 their ground and held it, and the enemy retreated in utter 
 confusion. On further examination of the ground, with 
 its connection on the left with Gen. Hurlbut, and right 
 resting on the railroad near Bowie Hill Cut, it was deter- 
 mined to intrench. The lines were laid out after dark, and 
 the work substantially finished by morning. 
 
 "All this time we were within one thousand three hun- 
 dred yards of the enemy's main intrentchments, which 
 were absolutely concealed from us by the dense foilage of 
 the oak forest, and without a real battle, which at that time 
 was to be avoided, we could not push out our skirmishers 
 more than two hundred yards to the front. For our own 
 security I had to destroy two farmhouses, both of which 
 had been loop-holed and occupied by the enemy. By 9 
 A. M. of yesterday, (twenty-ninth,) our works were sub- 
 
208 LOGAN'S GOOD WORK. 
 
 stantially done, and our artillery in position, and at 4 
 P. M. the siege-train was bromght forward, and Colonel 
 McDowell's Brigade, (Second) of my division, had come 
 from our former lines at Russell's, and had relieved General 
 John A. Logan's Brigade. 
 
 " I feel under special obligations to this officer, ( General 
 Logan) who, during the two days he served under me, 
 held the critical ground on my right, extending down to 
 the railroad. All the time he had in his front a large force 
 of the enemy, but so dense was the foliage that he could 
 not reckon their strength, save from what he could see in 
 the railroad track. He wfll, doubtless, make his own 
 report, and give the names of the wounded among his 
 pickets. 
 
 " I had then my whole division in a slightly curved line 
 facing south, my ^ right resting on the Mobile and Ohio 
 Railroad, near a deep cut known as Bowie Hill Cut, and 
 left resting on the main Corinth road, at the crest of the 
 bridge,there connecting with General Hurlbut, who, in turn, 
 on his left, connected with General Davis, and so on down 
 the whole line to its extremity. So near was the enemy 
 that we could hear the sound of his drums and sometimes 
 voices in command, and the railroad cars arriving and de- 
 parting at Corinth were easily distinguished. For some 
 days and nights cars have been arriving and departing very 
 frequently, especially in the night ; but last night (twenty- 
 ninth) more so than usual, and my suspicions were aroused. 
 
 " Before daybreak I instructed the brigade commanders 
 and the field-officer of the day to feel forward as far as 
 possible, but all reported the enemy's pickets still in force 
 in the dense woods to our front. But about 6 A, M. a 
 curious explosion, sounding like a volley of large siege- 
 pieces, followed by others singly, and in twos and threes, 
 
A SUHPH/SE FOR SHERMAN. 209 
 
 arrested our attention, and soon after a large smoke arose 
 from the direction of Corinth, when I telegraphed to 
 General Halleck to ascertain the cause. He answered that 
 he could not explain it, but ordered me 'to advance my divis- 
 ion and feel the enemy, if still in my front.' I immediately 
 put in motion two regiments of each brigade by differ- 
 ent roads, and soon after followed with the whole division, 
 infantry, artillery and cavalry. 
 
 "Somewhat to our surprise, the enemy's chief redoubt 
 was found within thirteen hundred yards of our line of 
 intrenchments, but completely masked by the dense forest 
 and undergrowth. Instead of having, as we supposed, a 
 continuous line of intrenchments encircling Corinth, his 
 defences consisted of separate redoubts, connected in part 
 by a parapet and ditch, and in part by shallow rifle-pits, 
 the trees being felled so as to give a good field of fire to 
 and beyond the main road. 
 
 "General M. L Smith's Brigade moved rapidly down 
 the main road, entering the first redoubt of the enemy at 
 7 A. M. It was cormpletely evacuated, and he pushed on 
 into Corinth and beyond, to College Hill, there awaiting 
 my orders and arrival. General Denver entered the 
 enemy's lines at the same time, 7 A. M., at a point midway 
 between the wagon and railroads, and proceeded on to 
 Corinth, about three miles from our camp, and Colonel 
 McDowell kept further to the right, near the Mobile and 
 Ohio Railroad. By 8 A. M. all my division was at Corinth, 
 and beyond. 
 
 " On the whole ridge, extending from my camp into 
 Corinth and to the right and left, could be seen the remains 
 of the abandoned camps of the enemy, fiour and provisions 
 scattered about, and everything indicating a speedy and 
 confused retreat. In the town itself many houses were 
 
210 THE REBEL RETREAT. 
 
 still burning, and the ruins of warehouses and buildings 
 containing commissary and other Confederate stores were 
 still smouldering ; but there still remained piles of camion 
 balls, shells and shot, sugar, molasses, beans, rice, and 
 other property, which the enemy had failed to carry off or 
 destroy. Major Fisher, of the Fifty-fourth Ohio, was left 
 in Corinth with a provost-guard, to prevent pillage and 
 protect the public stores still left. 
 
 "From the best information picked up from the citi- 
 zens who remained in Corinth, it appeared that the enemy 
 had for some days been removing their sick and valuable 
 gitores, and had sent away on railroad-cars a part of their 
 effective force, on the night of the 28th. But, of course, 
 even the vast amount of their rolling stock could not 
 carry away an army of a hundred thousand men. 
 
 "The enemy was, therefore, compelled to march away, 
 and began the march by 10 o'clock on the night of the 
 29th — the columns filling all the roads reaching south and 
 west all night — the rear-guard firing the train which led to 
 the explosions and conflagration, which gave us the first 
 real notice that Corinth was to be evacuated. The enemy 
 did not relieve his pickets that morning, and many of them 
 have been captured, who did not have the slightest intima- 
 tion of their purpose. 
 
 "Finding Corinth abandoned by the enemy, I ordered 
 General M. L. Smith to pursue on the Ripley* road, by 
 which it appeared they had taken the bulk of their artil- 
 lery. 
 
 "Captain Hammond, my chief of staff, had been and 
 continued with General Smith's Brigade, and pushed the 
 pursuit up to the bridges and narrow causeway by which 
 the bottom of Tuscumbia Creek is passed. The enemy 
 opened with canister on the small party of cavalry, and 
 
THE WORK OP SHERMAA'S MEN". 211 
 
 burned every bridge, leaving the woods full of straggling 
 soldiers. Many of these were gathered up and sent to the 
 rear, but the main army had escaped across Tuscumbia 
 Creek, and further pursuit by a small party would have 
 been absurd, and I kept my division at College Hill until 
 I received General Thomas's orders to return and resume 
 our camps of the night before, which we did, slowly and 
 quietly, in the cool of the evening. 
 
 "The evacuation of Corinth at the time and in the 
 manner in which it was done, was a clear backdown from 
 the high and arrogant tone heretofore assumed by the 
 Rebels. The ground was of their own choice. The forti- 
 fications, though poor and indifferent, were all they sup- 
 posed necessary to our defeat, as they had had two months 
 to make them, with an immense force to work at their dis- 
 posal. 
 
 "If, with two such railroads as they possessed, they 
 could not supply their army with reinforcements and pro- 
 visions, how can they attempt it in this poor, arid and 
 exhausted part of the country .? 
 
 " I have experienced much difficulty in giving an intel- 
 ligent account of the events of the past three days, be- 
 cause of the many little events, unimportant in them- 
 selves, but which in the aggregate form material data to 
 account for results. 
 
 "My division has constructed seven distinct intrenched 
 camps since leaving Shiloh, the men working cheerfully 
 and well all the time night and day. Hardly had we fin- 
 ished one camp before we were called on to move forward 
 and build another. But I have been delighted at this 
 feature in the character of my division, and take this 
 method of making it known. Our intrenchments here 
 and at Russell's, each built substantially in one night, are 
 
212 CONGRATULATIONS. 
 
 stronger works of art than the much bsasted forts of the 
 enemy at Corinth. 
 
 " I must, also, in justice to my men, remark their great 
 improvement on the march — the absence of that straggling 
 which is too common in the volunteer service; and still 
 more, their improved character on picket and as skir- 
 mishers. Our line of march has been along a strongly 
 marked ridge, followed by the Purdy and Corinth road, 
 and ever since leaving the ' Locusts ' our pickets have 
 been fighting. Hardly an hour, night or day, for two 
 weeks, without the exchange of hostile shots. But we 
 have steadily and surely gained ground — slowly, to be 
 sure, but with that steady certainty which presaged the 
 inevitable result. In these picket skirmishes we have 
 inflicted and sustained losses, but it is impossible for me 
 to recapitulate them. 
 
 "These must be accounted for on the company muster- 
 rolls. We have taken many prisoners, which have been 
 sent to the Provost-Marshal General ; and with this report 
 I will send some forty or fifty picked up in the course of 
 the past two days. Indeed, I think if disarmed, very many 
 of these prisoners would never give trouble again ; whilst, 
 on the other hand, the real Secessionists seem more bitter 
 than ever." 
 
 Sherman also issued a congratulatory address to his 
 soldiers, in which he indulged in some expressions that 
 must now appear rather extravagant, such as his charac- 
 terization of the capture of Corinth as " a victory as bril- 
 liant and important as any recorded in history." 
 
 " But a few days ago," he said, " a large and poweful 
 Rebel army lay at Corinth, with outposts extending to our 
 very camp at Shiloh. They held twp railroads extending 
 north and south, east and west, across the whole extent of 
 
IMPORTANCE OF THE VICTORY. 213 
 
 their country, with a vast number of locomotives and cars 
 to bring to them speedily and certainly their reinforcements 
 and supplies. They called to their aid all their armies 
 from every quarter, abandoning the seacoast and the great 
 river Mississippi, that they might overwhelm us with num- 
 bers in the place of their own choosing. They had their 
 chosen leaders, men of high reputation and courage, and 
 they dared us to leave the cover of our iron-clad gun- 
 boats to come to fight them in their trenches, and still 
 more dangerous swamps and ambuscades of their Southern 
 forests. Their whole country, from Richmond to Memphis 
 and Nashville to Mobile, rung with their taunts and boast- 
 ings, as to how they would immolate the Yankees if they 
 dared to leave the Tennessee River. They boldly and 
 defiantly challenged us to meet them at Corinth. We 
 accepted the challenge, and came slowly and without at- 
 tempt at concealment to the very ground of their selection ; 
 and they have fled away. We yesterday marched unopposed 
 through the burning embers of their destroyed camps and 
 property, and pursued them to their swamps, until burning 
 bridges plainly confessed they had fled, and not marched 
 away for better ground. It is a victory as brilliatit and 
 important as any recorded in history, and every officer and 
 soldier who lent his aid has just reason to be proud of his 
 part. 
 
 " No amount of sophistry or words from the leaders of 
 the rebellion can succeed in giving the evacuation of 
 Corinth, under the circumstances, any other title than that 
 of a signal defeat, more humiliating to them and their 
 cause than if we had entered the place over the dead and 
 mangled bodies of their soldiers. We are not herg to kill 
 and slay, but to vindicate the honor and just authority of 
 that government which has been bequeathed to us by our 
 
214 APPEARANCE OF CORINTH. 
 
 honored fathers, and to whom we would be recreant if we 
 permitted their work to pass to our children marred and 
 spoiled by ambitious and wicked Rebels. 
 
 " The General commanding, while thus claiming for his 
 division their just share in this glorious result, must, at 
 the same time, remind them that much yet remains to be 
 done, and that all must still continue the same vigilance 
 and patience, and industry and obedience, till the enemy 
 lays down his arms, and publicly acknowledges for their 
 supposed grievances, they must obey the laws of their 
 country, not attempt its overthrow by threats, by cruelty, 
 and by war. They must be made to feel and acknowlege 
 the power of a just and a mighty nation. This result can 
 only be accomplished by a cheerful and ready obedience 
 to the orders and authority of our' leaders, in whom we 
 now have just reason to feel the most implicit confidence. 
 That the Fifth Division of the right wing will do this, and 
 that in due time we will go to our families and friends at 
 home, is the earnest prayer and wish of your immediate 
 commander." 
 
 A well-informed observer says of Corinth, after the 
 capture : 
 
 " Corinth is the only pleasant country village I have seen 
 in this section of the country. I was informed that it 
 usually contained two thousand two hundred inhabitants, 
 of all colors, but I am inclined seriously to doubt the as- 
 sertion. From one thousand to one thousand two hundred 
 would be far nearer a true estimate. 
 
 " The houses are built after the Southern fashion, with 
 a front door for every room looking toward the street. This 
 is an odd feature to one used to Yankee architecture, but 
 it is the universal style of the Southern States. The 
 apartments of most of the houses are large and airy, and 
 
n/^DAnV FOR THE YANKEES. 2 1 5 
 
 surrounded with immense porticoes, where the high-toned 
 chivalry enjoy their siesta in the most approved Spanish 
 manner, except that they imbibe, before sleeping, a some- 
 what different beverage from the Castilians. Instead of 
 the wines of Andalusia, they consume almost unheard-of 
 quantities of Bourbon and rifle-whiskey. 
 
 "The yards of the rich are decorated with shrubbery, 
 and what is far more in accordance with good taste, forest 
 trees are left standing and neatly trimmed — a custom 
 which has been too sadly neglected in the North. There 
 are several substantial brick and frame business-houses, 
 all of which have have been stripped and deserted. 
 
 " Not enough of the Corinthians remained to welcome us, 
 to give me any idea of what the mass of the citizens are 
 like. A few poor persons, the druggist referred to, and 
 the Mayor's clerk, and two or three wealthy females, were 
 all that were to be found. The poor were nearly starved, 
 and were disposed to welcome any change, as it might 
 bring relief, but could not add to their suffering. They 
 walked curiously around, observing the movements of the 
 soldiers, astonished at the comparatively handsome uniform 
 they wore, and gratified that the fears they had felt had 
 not been realized. The weathly females looked from the 
 windows of their mansions upon the Union troops, affect- 
 ing the greatest" scorn and disdain for the Yankees, who 
 viewed them in return rather in a spirit of pity than 
 revenge. 
 
 "One of the Rebel commanders, unaware of our presence, 
 called around him a brigade and commenced addressing 
 them in something like the following strain : 
 
 " *SoNS OF THE South : We are here to defend our 
 homes, our wives and daughters, against the horde of van- 
 dals who have come here to possess the first and violate 
 
2l6 A REBEL SPEECH CU7 SHORT. 
 
 the last. Here upon this sacred soil we have assembled 
 to drive back the Northern invaders — drive them' into the 
 Tennessee. Will you follow me .-* If we cannot hold this 
 place, we can defend no spot of our Confederacy, Shall 
 we drive the invaders back, and strike to death the men 
 who would desecrate our homes } Is there a man so base 
 among those who hear me, as to retreat from the contem- 
 tible foe before us ? I will never blanch before their 
 
 fire, nor .' 
 
 "At this interesting period the signal was given, and 
 six shell fell in the vicinity of the gallant officer and his 
 men, who suddenly forgot their fiery r«solves, and fled in 
 confusion to their breastworks." 
 
CHAPTER XVI, 
 
 MEMPHIS, VICKSBURG AND ARKANSAS POST. 
 
 Changes in Command — Restoring Order at Memphis — Sherman's 
 Views of the Situation — Grant's Critical Position — Moving 
 Against Pemberton — Meeting with Porter — The Expedition 
 against Vicksburg — Why it did not Succeed — The Surrender at 
 Holly Springs — Sherman Removed from Command — The Capture 
 OF Arkansas Post — General McClernand. 
 
 The meagre honors of the Corinth campaign belonged 
 to Sherman. This fact was recognized at the time by 
 Grant, who wrote : " His services as Division Commander 
 in the advance on Corinth, I will venture to say, were ap- 
 preciated by General Halleck beyond those of any other 
 division commander." The War Department appreciated 
 them, too, for on May 26th gave him a commission, dated 
 May I St, as Major-General of Volunteers. It has been 
 said, probably with justice, that had Halleck remained at 
 St, Louis and let Grant conduct the campaign against 
 Corinth, Beauregard and his whole army would have shared 
 the fate of Buckner and his forces at Fort Donelson. But 
 Halleck's over-cautiousness in approaching fortifications 
 that were armed chiefly with " Quaker guns," allowed his 
 prey to escape. And even after the flight of Beauregard 
 from Corinth, Halleck made no important effort to pursue 
 and capture him. Sherman was sent through the town, 
 219 13 
 
220 ARMY CHANGES. 
 
 and a few miles beyond, to see if he could find anybody to 
 fight, and then, finding none, went into camp at Chewalla, 
 where he busied himself for a time with putting railroad 
 rolling stock in order for the use of the army. 
 
 And now Halleck dispersed the great army he had 
 gathered. He sent Buell and his troops toward Chatta- 
 nooga, and Pope to Missouri ; while Grant with a fragment 
 was to remain in command in Western Tennessee and 
 Northern Mississippi. Halleck himself had intended 
 doubtless to pursue his march southward to the Gulf of 
 Mexico, hoping to free the Mississippi as he went, for Far- 
 ragut had already opened the mouth of that river. This 
 was a magnificent programme, but the energy of the Rebel 
 government had materially disarranged it. Jefferson 
 Davis became furiously angry with Beauregard for his 
 defeats at Shiloh and Corinth, and removed him from com- 
 mand, putting Bragg in his place. At the same time con- 
 scription enormously swelled the Rebel ranks. McClel- 
 lan's movements in Virginia did not seem to secure Wash- 
 ington. He, moreover, was soon removed and Halleck 
 was called from the West to take his place. This left 
 Grant in command in Tennessee. Buell as ordered, hur- 
 ried toward Chattanooga. But Bragg was there before 
 him, and fortified. Not only that, but he gathered such an 
 army as was a menace to Kentucky and Ohio. Buell re- 
 treated, and more troops had to be taken from Grant's 
 army to support him. This depletion of his forces made 
 it impossible for Grant to continue the southward march. 
 But his stern tenacity of purpose held him where he was, 
 keeping an unyielding grip, though against great odds, on 
 all that had thus far been gained. 
 
 On June 9th, Sherman set out for Grand Junction, an 
 important railroad centre and strategic point, fifty-two 
 
SHERMAN A T MEMPHIS. ' 221 
 
 miles west of Memphis. He took his own division and 
 Hurlbut's, and on the 13th occupied Grand Junction. 
 The enemy were at Tupelo, Miss., forty-nine miles below 
 Corinth. Sherman remained at or near Grand Junction 
 for some weeks, engaged in repairing and protecting the 
 railroads and in similar work. His experience there was 
 one long wrangle with the planters, who were trying to 
 cultivate the soil, and were constantly complaining of the 
 damage done by the moving armies. 
 
 Halleck reached Washington early m July, and on the 
 15th of that month Grant directed Sherman to proceed to 
 Memphis and take command of that important place. 
 Memphis was in a bad plight. Nearly all the men had 
 left the city to enter the Rebel army or to avoid the Union 
 troops, and the place had fallen into the hands of a horde 
 of speculators. Sherman undertook to establish order and 
 govern the place as a military post. His instructions were 
 few ; he was to act upon his own discretion. He assumed 
 command at Memphis on July 21st, and immediately in 
 his vigorous way set about the construction of defenses 
 and the evolution of law and order from the prevailing 
 anarchy. Wherever the head of the family had joined the 
 Rebel army, the family was compelled to go South. All 
 buildings belonging to Rebels were at once seized and 
 rented. The mayor and other civil officers were allowed 
 to continue their functions. No oath of allegiance was 
 enacted from the residents who remained in the city, 
 Sherman regarding the fact of their remaining as a profes- 
 sion of loyalty ; but if they aided the Rebel cause in any 
 way, they were treated as spies. Trade in cotton, except 
 on contracts to be paid at the end of the war, was entirely 
 prohibited. The slave question then caused not a little 
 trouble. The Government had not yot fully decided to 
 
222 VIEWS OF THE SITUATION. 
 
 free them. But Sherman kept careful account of all the 
 work done for him by negroes, so that the Government 
 might pay for their services at the end of the war, if it so 
 decided. Guerrillas he suppressed remorselessly, hunting 
 them down like so many wild beasts. And he enforced 
 the lex talionis. If a loyal family was harassed by Rebels, 
 he visited wrath upon the nearest secessionists. If the 
 property of a loyal man was destroyed, he destroyed 
 an equal amount of enemy's property. For every 
 steamboat attacked by guerrillas, he drove ten seces- 
 sionist families into exile. These stern measures, which 
 he justified by the Jaws of war, soon restored order to 
 Memphis. 
 
 A capital idea of the situation in that part of the 
 country in the summer of 1862, may be obtained from the 
 following characteristic letter, which Sherman wrote to his 
 brother John under date of Memphis, August 13th : 
 
 " My Dear Brother : — I have not written to you for 
 so long that I suppose you think I have dropped the 
 correspondence. For six weeks I was marching along the 
 road from Corinth to Memphis, mending roads, building 
 bridges and all sorts of work. At last I got here and 
 found the city contributing gold, arms, powder, salt and 
 everything the enemy wanted. It was a smart trick on 
 their part, thus to give up Memphis, that the desire of 
 gain to our Northern merchants should supply them with 
 the things needed in war. I stopped this at once, and de- 
 clared gold, silver. Treasury notes and salt as much con- 
 traband of war as powder. I have one man under sen- 
 tence of death for smuggling arms across the lines, and 
 hope Mr. Lincoln will approve it. But the mercenary 
 spirit of our people is too much, and my orders arc re- 
 versed and I am ordered to encourage the trade in cotton, 
 
**A YEAR OF BUNGLING." 223 
 
 and all orders prohibiting gold, silver and notes to be paid 
 for it are annulled by orders from Washington. 
 
 " Grant promptly ratified my order, and all military men 
 here saw at once that gold spent for cotton went to the 
 purchase of arms and munitions of war. But what are 
 the lives of our soldiers to the profits of the merchants ? 
 
 " After a whole year of bungling the country has at last 
 discovered that we want more men. All knew it last fall 
 as well as now; but it was not popular. Now 13,000,000 
 (the General evidently intended only 1,300,000) men are 
 are required when 700,000 was deemed absurd before. It 
 will take time to work up these raw recruits and they 
 will reach us in October, when we should be in Jackson, 
 Meridian and Vicksburg. Still I must not growl. I have 
 purposely put back and have no right to criticise, save 
 that I am glad the papers have at last found out we are at 
 war and have a formidable enemy to combat. 
 
 " Of course I approve the Confiscation Act, and would 
 be willing to revolutionize the Government so as to amend 
 that article of the Constitution which forbids the forfeiture 
 of land to the heirs. My full belief is we must colonize 
 the country de novo, beginning with Kentucky and Tennes- 
 see, and should remove four milHon of our people at once 
 south of the Ohio River, taking the farms and plantations 
 of the Rebels. I deplore the war as much as ever, but if 
 the thing has to be done, let the means be adequate. 
 Don't expect to overrun such a country or subdue such a 
 people in one, two or five years. It is the task of half a 
 century. 
 
 " Although our army is thus far South, it cannot stir 
 from our garrisons. Our men are killed or captured with- 
 in sight of our lines. I have two divisions here — mine 
 and Hurlbut's — about 13,000 men; am building a strong 
 
224 NEEDS OF ORGANIZATION. 
 
 fort, and think this is to be one of the depots and bases 
 of operations for future movements. 
 
 "The loss of Halleck is almost fatal. We have no one 
 to replace him. Instead of having one head, we have five 
 or six, all independent of each other. I expect our enemies 
 will mass their troops and fall upon our detachments before 
 new reinforcements come. I cannot learn that there are 
 any large bodies of men near us here. There are detach- 
 ments at Holly Springs near Senatobia, the present termini 
 of the railroads from the South ; and all the people of the 
 country are armed as guerrillas. Curtis is at Helena, 
 eighty miles south, and Grant at Corinth, Bragg's army 
 from Tripoli has moved to Chattanooga and proposes to 
 march on Nashville, Lexington and Cincinnati. They will 
 have about 75,000 men. Buell is near Huntsville with 
 about 30,000, and I suppose detachments of the new levies 
 can be put in Kentucky from Ohio and Indiana in time. 
 The weather is very hot, and Bragg cannot move his forces 
 very fast ; but I fear he will give trouble. My own opinion 
 is, we ought not to venture too much into the interior until 
 the river is safely in our possession, when we could land 
 at any point and strike inland. To attempt to hold all the 
 South would demand an army too large even to think of. 
 We must colonize and settle as we go South, for in 
 Missouri there is as much strife as ever. Enemies must 
 be killed or transported to some other country. 
 " Your affectionate brother, 
 
 * W. T. Sherman." 
 
 Near the end of August, Sherman wrote to Grant as 
 follows : 
 
 "The guerrillas have destroyed several bridges over Wolf 
 Creek ; one at Raleigh, on the road by which I had pre- 
 scribed trade and travel to and from the city. I have a 
 
A REPORT TO GRANT. 225 
 
 Strong guard at the lower bridge over Wolf River, by 
 which we can reach the country to the north of that 
 stream ; but, as the Confederates have burned their own 
 bridges, I will hold them to my order, and allow no trade 
 over any other road than the one prescribed, using the 
 lower or Randolph road for our own convenience. I am 
 still satisfied there is no large force of Rebels any- 
 where in the neighborhood. All the navy gunboats are 
 below, except the St. Louis, which lies off the city. When 
 Commodore Davis passes down from Cairo, I will try to 
 see him, and get him to exchange the St. Louis for a 
 fleeter boat, not iron-clad ; one that can move up and down 
 the river. Of course, in spite of all our efforts, smuggling 
 is carried on. We occasionally make hauls of clothing, 
 gold-lace, buttons, etc., but I am satisfied that salt and 
 arms are got to the interior somehow. I have addressed 
 the Board of Trade a letter on this point, which will en- 
 able us to control it better. 
 
 " You may have been troubled at hearing reports of 
 drunkenness here. There was some after pay-day, but 
 generally all is as quiet and orderly as possible. I traverse 
 the city every day and night, and assert that Memphis is 
 and has been as orderly a city as St. Louis, Cincinnati, or 
 New York. 
 
 "Before the city authorities undertook to license saloons 
 there was as much whisky here as now, and it would take 
 all my command as custom-house inspectors to break open 
 all the parcels and packages containing liquor. I can de- 
 stroy all groggeries and shops where soldiers get liquor, 
 just as we would in St. Louis. 
 
 "The newspapers are accusing me of cruelty to the 
 sick ; as base a charge as was ever made. I would not let 
 the Sanitary Committee carry off a boat-load of sick, 
 
226 A VICTOR Y AT CORINTH. 
 
 because I have no right to. We have good hospitals here, 
 and plenty of them. Our regimental hospitals are in the 
 camps of the men, and the sick do much better there than 
 in the general hospitals ; so say my division surgeon and 
 the regimental surgeons. The civilian doctors would, if 
 permitted, take away our entire command. General Curtis 
 sends his sick up here, but usually no nurses; and it is 
 not right that nurses should be taken from my command 
 for his sick. I think that when we are endeavoring to 
 raise soldiers and to instruct them, it is bad policy to keep 
 them at hospitals as attendants and nurses." 
 
 Early in September the Rebels, under Van Dorn, seri- 
 ously menaced the line held by Grant's depleted army, 
 and Grant had to call upon Sherman for aid. All through 
 that month Sherman held Memphis with a mere handful 
 of troops, and sent the rest of his forces out to make raids 
 and draw Van Dorn's attention away from Grant. But at 
 the opening of October the Rebels struck the blow they 
 had so long threatened. Van Dorn made a furious 
 attack upon Corinth. Rosecrans defended the place with 
 equal vigor, and the Rebels were repulsed with dreadful 
 slaughter. Unfortunately this Union victory was not fol- 
 lowed up with sufficient celerity, and Van Dorn managed 
 to retire to Holly Springs and there reorganize his shat- 
 tered forces. But the victory at Corinth changed the 
 condition of affairs throughout all that region. In Memphis 
 the Secessionists admitted that their cause was lost. The 
 Union army, so long on the defensive, resumed the offen- 
 sive. Both sides were reinforced, and preparations were 
 made for another act in the great drama. Of the Union 
 reinforcements, two brigades Were sent to Sherman, at 
 Memphis, and he began drilling them for more serious 
 work. 
 
MO VI NG A GAINST P EMBER TON. 227 
 
 At the middle of November, Grant sent for Sherman to 
 meet him at Columbus, Kentucky, bringing with him a 
 good map of the country to the southward. At that meet- 
 ing Grant explained his plans for the winter's campaign. 
 His army now occupied the line from Memphis to Corinth, 
 and he proposed to move at once against Pemberton, who 
 was with the Rebel army near Holly Springs, behind the 
 Tallahatchie River. He would personally move on Holly 
 Springs, and McPherson would meet him there with the 
 forces now at Corinth. Sherman was to leave a small gar- 
 rison at Memphis, and lead the rest of his forces to meet 
 Grant and McPherson. This movement against Pember- 
 ton was preliminary to the greater work of taking Vicks- 
 burg. The plan was carefully carried out. The three 
 forces moved simultaneously against Pemberton, and at 
 the same time General C. C. Washburne, under Sherman's 
 orders, crossed the Mississippi with live thousand cavalry, 
 from Helena, Arkansas, and marched toward Grenada, in 
 the rear of Pemberton's army. This movement alarmed 
 Pemberton, and he hastily abandoned his works and re- 
 treated to Grenada. Sherman joined Grant at Oxford, 
 Miss., early in December, and then a dispatch came from 
 Halleck, who was at Washington, urging Grant to proceed 
 with the campaign against Vicksburg, with the aid of 
 Porter's fleet and any other available assistance. 
 
 Grant and Sherman discussed the proposed move- 
 ment fully, and finally agreed upon a plan. Sherman 
 was to be heavily reinforced at Memphis, and would 
 have the co-operation of Porter's gunboats. He was 
 to make a swift movement on the Yazoo, and take 
 Vicksburg from the rear, while Grant, at Oxford, held 
 Pemberton in check. Banks was then supposed to be 
 moving up the river from New Orleans, and everything 
 
228 SHERMAN AND PORTER A T MEMPHIS. 
 
 bade fair for the opening of the whole Mississippi. 
 Sherman would have about forty thousand men, and 
 would conduct the campaign almost entirely according to 
 his own discretion, Grant's instructions to him being of 
 the most rudimentary description. So he returned to 
 Memphis and prepared for the work before him. 
 
 Sherman and Porter met at Memphis. Porter has left 
 on record his impressions of Sherman, and the latter's 
 appearance and conduct at their first interview there. 
 Porter expected to find Sherman in a full-dress uniform, and 
 accordingly arrayed himself in all the splendor of the 
 Navy. But 5herman, having heard that Porter disliked 
 fuss and feathers, and generally dressed in working clothes, 
 decided to do likewise himself. The result was that when 
 they met Porter was sumptuously arrayed in blue and gold, 
 and Sherman had on an old and much worn suit of flan- 
 nel, and each was much surprised at the appearance of the 
 other. Sherman's first words were : " Hello, Porter, I'm 
 glad to see you. You got here sooner than I expected, 
 but I guess we can get off to-night. Mighty cold, isn't it } 
 Sit down and get warm." Then he turned to a servant 
 and told him to put some shirts and underclothes in a 
 gripsack, and "don't bother me with a trunk and traps 
 enough for a regiment." 
 
 It was intended to set out on December i8th, but the 
 lack of steamboat transportation delayed them until 
 December 20th, when the start was actually made. Before 
 embarking Sherman issued the following unique orders : 
 
 "I. The expedition now fitting out is purely of a mili- 
 tary character, and the interests involved are of too impor- 
 tant a character to be mixed up with personal and private 
 business. No citizen, male or female, will be allowed to 
 accompany it, unless employed as part of a crew, or as 
 
ORDERS FOR THE VIC KS BURG EXPEDITION. 229 
 
 servants to the transports. Female chambermaids to the 
 boats, and nurses to the sick alone, will be allowed, unless 
 the wives of captains and pilots actually belonging to the 
 boats. No laundress, officer's or soldier's wife must pass 
 below Helena. 
 
 " II. No person whatever, citizen, officer, or sutler, will, 
 on any consideration, buy or deal in cotton, or other pro- 
 duce of the country. Should any cotton be brought on 
 board of any transport, going or returning, the brigade 
 quartermaster, of which the boat forms a part, will take 
 possession of it and invoice it to Captain A. R. Eddy, 
 Chief Quartermaster at Memphis. 
 
 "III. Should any cotton or other produce be brought 
 back to Memphis by any chartered boat. Captain Eddy 
 will take possession of the same, and sell it for the benefit 
 of the United States. If accompanied by its actual pro- 
 ducer, the planter or factor, the quartermaster will furnish 
 him a receipt for the same, to be settled for on proof of his 
 loyalty at the close of the war. 
 
 " IV. Boats ascending the river may take cotton from 
 the shore for bulkheads to protect their engines or crew, 
 but on the arrival at Memphis it must be turned over to 
 the quartermaster, with a statement of the time, place and 
 name of its owner. The trade in cotton must await a 
 more peaceful state of affairs. 
 
 " V. Should any citizen accompany the expedition below 
 Helena, in violation of those orders, any colonel of a regi- 
 ment, or captain of a battery, will conscript him into the 
 service of the United States for the unexpired term of his 
 command. If he shows a refractory spirit, unfitting him for 
 a soldier, the commanding officer present will turn him over 
 to the captain of the boat as a deck-hand, and compel him 
 
230 MOVING UP THE RIVER. 
 
 to work in that capacity, without wages, until the boat 
 returns to Memphis. 
 
 "VI. Any person whatever, whether in the service of 
 the United States or transports, found making reports for 
 pubHcation which might reach the enemy, giving them 
 information, aid and comfort, will be arrested and treated 
 as spies." 
 
 Sherman had full command of this expedition, which 
 was organized in three divisions. He appointed A. J. 
 Smith commander of the First Division, Morgan L. Smith 
 of the Second Division, and G. W. Morgan of the Third 
 Division. These forces comprised thirty thousand and 
 sixty-eight officers and men, and at Helena they were 
 joined byprederick Steele's Division, with twelve thousand 
 three hundred and ten more. On Christmas eve they 
 reached Milliken's Bend, and on Christmas day a portion 
 of the First Division landed and broke up the Vicksburg 
 and Texas Railroad for a long distance near the crossing 
 of the Texas. Sherman meanwhile pushed on and landed 
 the second division opposite the mouth of the Yazoo, to 
 break up the same road at another point, only eight miles 
 from Vicksburg. The next day the remainder of the army, 
 escorted by Porter's gunboats, went up the Yazoo about 
 twelve miles. At noon of December 27th, Sherman's 
 entire command was landed on the south bank of the 
 Yazoo, near the mouth of the Chikasaw Bayou. They 
 were really on an island, densely wooded, and surrounded 
 by swamps and quicksand. They drove the enemy's 
 pickets toward Vicksburg and then began to explore the 
 country, which they found to be the worst piece of land 
 they had ever been on. Nature seemed to have done her 
 utmost to prevent their further movement forward, and 
 the art of the enemy had greatly increased the difficulties 
 
A GALLANT ATTACK. 23 1 
 
 of the situation. Several futile attemps were made to 
 advance to a more advantageous position, and then, on the 
 morning of December 29th, Sherman ordered a general 
 show of attack all along the line, while an actual advance 
 across the bayou was to be made at two points. 
 
 The movement was as well planned as was possible 
 under the circumstances, and was executed with almost 
 superhuman valor. Sherman's men rushed at the bluffs 
 which were crowned with Rebel batteries, and fought their 
 way up the steep front with desperate valor. They 
 actually with their fingers scooped out hollow caves in 
 which to be sheltered from the fire of the enemy, and all 
 along the line performed prodigies of heroism. But the 
 Rebel works were impregnable, and they had at last to fall 
 back to their old position. Two other attacks were 
 planned, but were abandoned because of the inability of 
 the gunboats to co-operate. Meantime nothing was 
 heard from Grant, who was to have come up before this. 
 So, on January 2d, Sherman reluctantly re-embarked 
 his troops, and returned to Milliken's Bend where, on 
 January 4th, 1863, he relinquished his command to 
 McClernand who had been sent to relieve him. Sherman 
 took leave of his troops through the following farewell 
 order : 
 
 " Pursuant to the terms of General Order No. i, made 
 this day by General McClernand, the title of our army 
 ceases to exist, and constitutes in the future the Army of 
 the Mississippi, composed of two 'army corps,' one to be 
 commanded by General G. W. Morgan, and the other by 
 myself. In relinquishing the command of the Army of 
 the Tennessee, and restricting my authority to my own 
 ' corps,' I desire to express to all commanders, to the 
 soldiers and officers recently operating before Vicksburg, 
 
232 SHERMAN'S FAREWELL TO HIS TROOPS. 
 
 my hearty thanks for the zeal, alacrity, and courage mani- 
 fested by them on all occasions. We failed in accomplish- 
 ing one great purpose of our movement, the capturing of 
 Vicksburg, but we were part of a whole. Ours was but 
 part of a combined movement in which others were to 
 assist. We were on time. Unforeseen contingencies 
 must have delayed the others. 
 
 " We have destroyed the Shreveport road, we have 
 attacked the defences of Vicksburg, and pushed the attack 
 as far as prudence would justify ; and having found it too 
 strong for our single column, we have drawn off in good 
 order and good spirits, ready for any new move. A new 
 commander is now here to lead you. He is chosen by the 
 President of the United States, who is charged by the 
 Constitution to maintain and defend it, and he has the 
 undoubted right to select his own agents. I know that 
 all good officers and soldiers will give him the same hearty 
 support and cheerful obedience they have hitherto given 
 me. There are honors enough in reserve for all, and work 
 enough too. Let each do his appropriate part, and our 
 nation must in the end emerge from this dire conflict, puri- 
 fied and ennobled by the fires which now test its strength 
 ana purity." 
 
 It should be explained that Grant had not come up to 
 join in the demonstration against Vicksburg because, on 
 Decem.ber 20th one of his subordinates had in a most dis- 
 graceful manner surrendered Holly Springs, with its 
 immense store of supplies, to the Rebels. The failure of 
 Sherman's expedition caused a great outcry against him 
 throughout the country, and he was charged with incapa- 
 city, how unjustly the simple narrative fully demonstrates. 
 Long afterward, when Vicksburg had finally been taken, 
 Grant officially declared : " General Sherman's arrange- 
 
WHY THE EXPEDITION FAILED. 233 
 
 nient, as commander of troops in the attack on Chickasaw 
 Bluffs, was admirable. Seeing the ground from the oppo- 
 site side of the attack afterwards, I saw the impossi- 
 bility of making it successful." Sherman's losses in the 
 attack were 175 killed, 930 wounded, and 743 prisoners. 
 The Rebel losses were 63 killed, 134 wounded, and 10 
 prisoners. As a result of this miscarriage, and of the 
 miserable surrender at Holly Springs, Pemberton was left 
 free, with his powerful army, to fall back and occupy 
 Vicksburg, and thus to hold it for a long time against the 
 combined attacks of the Union Army and Navy. Sher- 
 man's own estimate of his work, in his farewell orders to 
 his troops, must be regarded as entirely just, and it is 
 amply corroborated by the testimony of Grant and 
 Porter. 
 
 "The expedition failed," says General Grant, "more 
 from want of knowledge as to what would be required to 
 open this route than from any impracticability in the navi- 
 gation of the streams and bayous through which it was 
 proposed to pass. Want of this knowledge led the expedi- 
 tion on until difficulties were encountered, and then it 
 would become necessary to send back to Young's Point 
 for the means of removing them. This gave the enemy 
 time to remove forces to effectually checkmate further 
 progress, and the expedition was withdrawn when within 
 a few hundred yards of free and open navigation to the 
 Yazoo." 
 
 Admiral Porter also, in his official report, speaks of the 
 want of means of moving the troops through the bayous, 
 as the chief difficulty ; " for," he remarks, " there were 
 never yet any two men who would labor harder than Gen- 
 erals Grant and Sherman to forward an expedition for the 
 overthrow of Vicksburg." He continues: "The army 
 
234 REORGANIZING THE ARMY. 
 
 officers worked like horses to enable them to accomplish 
 what was desired. . . . No other general could have 
 done better, or as well as Sherman, but he had not the 
 means for this peculiar kind of transportation." 
 
 Under orders brought by McClernand the Army of the 
 Tennessee was divided in four corps, known as the 
 Thirteenth, Fifteenth, Sixteenth and Seventeenth, com- 
 manded respectively by McClernand, Sherman, Hurlbut 
 and McPherson, Grant remaining commander of the 
 whole. Sherman's corps formed the right wing, and con- 
 sisted of the First Division, under General Steele, and 
 the Second Division under General David Stuart, in the 
 absence of Morgan L. Smith. Immediately upon arriving 
 at Milliken's Bend, on January 4th, the expedition was 
 sent on in the same boats, escorted by Porter's gunboats, 
 to attack Arkansas Post, or Fort Hindman, an old settle- 
 ment on the north bank of the Arkansas River, fifty miles 
 from its mouth. This Fort was a very strong work, situ- 
 ated on a high bluff at the head of a horseshoe bend in the 
 river. It was strongly armed and garrisoned by five 
 thousand men under General Churchill, who had been 
 directed to hold the place till his last man was dead. 
 Sherman himself suggested the movement against this 
 place, considering the capture of it necessary to the re- 
 duction of Vicksburg and freeing of the Mississippi. 
 
 On the^'^^ht of January 4th Sherman and McClernand 
 went into Porter's cabin on the Black Hawk, and dis- 
 cussed the expedition, asking Porter for his co-operation. 
 Porter sat up in his bed and told them that he was short 
 of coal and could not use wood for fuel. He addressed 
 McClernand with a curtness amounting almost to dis- 
 courtesy and Sherman watched his opportunity to get him 
 to go into another room, and there asked him what he 
 

 ADM1RA.L DAVID D. PUKTEK. 
 
ATTACK ON ARKANSAS POST. 237 
 
 meant by it. Porter replied that he did not like McCler- 
 nand, that he had long had a strong prejudice against him. 
 Thereupon Sherman begged him, for the sake of the Union 
 cause, to sink all personal feeling and do his best to work in 
 harmony with McClernand. Porter promised to do so, 
 and the discussion with McClernand was resumed. It 
 was finally agreed that both McClernand and Porter were 
 to go along with the expedition. 
 
 They proceeded up the White River and through the 
 cut-off to the Arkansas, and thus reached Notrib's farm, 
 three miles from Fort Hindman. There, on the evening 
 of January 9th, they disembarked, and on the next day 
 moved forward to invest the fort. Sherman's men took 
 the advance and Sherman himself during the night crept 
 forward to behind a stump so close to the Rebel lines that 
 he could hear them at work, preparing for defence. He 
 was thus listening to them at work, preparing for defence. 
 He was thus listening to them, when, early in the morning, 
 a Rebel bugler sounded "as pretty a reveille as I ever 
 heard." Early on January nth Sherman got his forces 
 into position for attack, and told McClernand that he was 
 ready for the assault as soon as the gunboats would open 
 fire. At one P. M. the gunboats began and so did the 
 field batteries. The enemy did not reply, and in about 
 fifteen minutes Sherman ordered his columns forward. 
 The infantry rushed forward with a cheer, dashed across a 
 hundred yards of open ground, and then reached a strip 
 about three hundred yards wide, covered with timber, 
 underbrush and logs, and much cut up with gulleys 
 Here they encountered a fierce fire from the enemy, and 
 their advance was checked. But by three o'clock they 
 were within a hundred yards of the enemy's intrenchment, 
 and could now see Porter's gunboats close to the fort, 
 
 14 
 
23S THE CAPTURE COMPLETED. 
 
 For an hour the fight raged furiously, and then, at fout 
 o'clock, the enemy raised white flags all along his line, 
 Sherman instantly ordered his men to stop firing, and at 
 the same time sent General Steele with a brigade down 
 the bayou at the right to prevent the enemy from retreat- 
 ing ia that direction. He then sent an officer forward to 
 the enemy's lines and followed in person with his staff. 
 He found that the fire of his troops had destroyed the 
 enemy's intrenchments and that they could resist no 
 longer. Meeting Colonel Garland, Sherman asked him 
 who commanded the fort. Garland replied that General 
 Churchill did. " Where is he } " asked Sherman. " Inside 
 the fort," said Garland. So Sherman rode into the fort, 
 which, he observed, was well built and capable of much 
 further defence. He found it, however, full of soldiers 
 and sailors from Porter's gunboats, and the boats them- 
 selves were anchored at the river bank close by. 
 
 Sherman found Churchill in conversation with Porter 
 and A. J. Smith. But he had hardly greeted them before a 
 report came in that General Deshler, who commanded a 
 brigade of Rebel forces, had refused to surrender because 
 he had received no orders from from Churchill to that 
 effect, and the fighting was therefore likely to be resumed 
 at once. Accordingly Sherman and Churchill personally 
 hurried to the scene. On their way they met Colonel 
 Garland, who had first displayed the white flag, and 
 Churchill angrily asked him why he had done so. Garland 
 replied that one of Churchill's own staff had ordered him to. 
 Churchill denied having authorized any such order, and a 
 quarrel arose between the two men, which Sherman ended 
 by curtly remarking that it made no difference whether 
 Churchill had ordered the surrender or not, for they and 
 their troops were now all his prisoners. Then they went 
 
M' CLE RN AMD'S E'XUL 7 A TION. 239 
 
 on to where Deshler and his men were still holding out. 
 Sherman rode straight up to Deshler and asked him what 
 he meant by his conduct, telling him that he ought to 
 know better. Deshler replied curtly, that he had not been 
 ordered by his superior officer to surrender. Thereupon 
 Churchill told him that he was in Sherman's power and 
 might as well give in. This ended the episode. Deshler 
 told his men to stack arms, and the capture of Arkansas 
 Post was complete. 
 
 The Union loss in this engagement was 129 killed, 831 
 wounded and 17 missing, the majority being in Sherman's 
 own corps. General Churchill reported the Rebel loss at 
 75 or 80 wounded and an unknown number killed, but 
 these figures were grossly inaccurate ; the Rebel loss was 
 much heavier than that of the Union army. By this 
 surrender there fell into the hands of the Union army 
 five thousand men, seventeen cannon, three thousand small 
 arms in good condition, and forty-six thousand rounds 
 of ammunition. The prisoners were sent to St. Louis, 
 the fortifications were destroyed, and on January 15th the 
 troops re-embarked and returned to Milliken's Bend, 
 Sherman was now anxious to move directly toward Little 
 Rock and drive the scattered Rebel forces south of the 
 river, but McClernand would not agree to this. 
 
 McClernand was greatly elated over the result of this 
 expedition, and took the credit practically all to himself. 
 " It is glorious, glorious !" he exclaimed to Sherman, "my 
 star is in the ascendant." He praised the conduct of the 
 troops highly, but almost ignored the Navy, being exceed- 
 ingly jealous of Porter. Indeed in his official report of 
 the capture, he scarcely mentioned the action of the fleet. 
 This was unjust, for the gunboats rendered highly im- 
 portant services and Porter led the attack in person. 
 
240 SffER MAN'S ACTIVITY. 
 
 McClernand, however, condescended to speak pleasantly 
 of his subordinate officers, saying : " General Sherman 
 exhibited his usual activity and enterprise ; General Mor- 
 gan proved his tactical skill and strategic talent ; while 
 Generals Steele, Smith, Osterhaus and Stuart, and the 
 several brigade commanders, displayed the fitting qualities 
 of brave and successful officers." 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 VICKSBURG. 
 
 Co-operation of Grant and Porter — Grand Gulf and Sherman's 
 
 Demonstration on the Yazoo — The Advance on Vicksburg 
 
 Capture of Jackson — Gallant Assults upon the Works at Vicks- 
 burg — The Siege — Sherman Holding Johnston at Bay — Surrender 
 OF Vicksburg — Flight of Johnston — Important Results of thb 
 Campaign — Sherman's Meed of Praise. • 
 
 The repulse of Sherman's expedition at Milliken's Bend 
 only made Grant the more determined to reduce Vicks- 
 burg, and, as he still retained his well-grounded confidence 
 in Sherman, he retained him as his chief aid in the great 
 work. His plan now was to conduct his army by land to 
 New Carthage, twenty-three miles below Milliken's Bend, 
 to run the transports thence through the canal or past the 
 batteries, and then to cross the river and attack Vicksburg 
 from the west and south. McClernand's corps commenced 
 this movement on March 29th, and on account of floods 
 and bad roads made slow progress. Porter entered into 
 the execution of Grant's plans with his customary zeal, 
 and on April i6th ran his fleet and three laden transports 
 past the batteries of Vicksburg. A few days later five 
 more transports and twelve barges were run past the bat- 
 teries, a number of the barges being badly injured by the 
 enemy's fire. 
 241 
 
242 THE ATTACK ON GRAND GULF. 
 
 Grant issued final orders for this campaign on April 20th. 
 McCIernand had the right, McPherson the centre, and 
 Sherman the left. The army moved forward slowly until 
 April 26th, when it became evident that the march must 
 be continued beyond New Carthage. Grant then directed 
 Sherman to wait until the roads were in better condition, 
 or the canals were finished. 
 
 .Two days later he told Sherman that on the next day, 
 April 29th, Grand Gulf was to be attacked, and he sug- 
 gested that Sherman would do well to make at the same 
 time a feint on the Rebel batteries on the Yazoo, near 
 Haines's Bluff. Sherman undertook to do this, making 
 as great a show of attack as possible, with the object of 
 preventing the Rebels from sending reinforcements from 
 Vicksburg to Grand Gulf. This movement succeeded 
 admirably. Sherman went up the Yazoo with a number 
 of gunboats and on April 30th, early in the morning, began 
 a vigorous fire upon the enemy's batteries. This was con- 
 tinued for four hours. Later in the day he landed his 
 troops in full view of the enemy as though about to order 
 a charge upon their works. The Rebels evidently ex- 
 pected that the charge was to be made, for they kept them- 
 selves in a state of preparation to meet it. Sherman's 
 troops, however, contented themselves with keeping up 
 appearances until night, when they returned to the 
 boats. The next day the same manoeuvres were con- 
 tinued. Then orders came from Grant to proceed at once 
 to Grand Gulf, and Sherman quietly dropped back from the 
 scene of the sham attack. His losses amounted to one 
 man wounded. 
 
 Meantime the Thirteenth Army Corps had been moved 
 down to Grand Gulf, ready to storm the Rebel work as 
 soon as Porter's gunboats had silenced the batteries. A 
 
THE GENERAL ADVANCE. 243 
 
 vigorous fire was kept up for more than five hours, but the 
 enemy's batteries proved too strong, and a change of plan 
 was necessary. Grant accordingly took his troops back 
 some distance, disembarked and marched across to the 
 plain just below Grand Gulf. That night the transports 
 and barges were conveyed past the batteries in safety, the 
 gunboats following, and early on the morning of April 
 30th the troops were taken across the river. Some days 
 of skirmishing and manceuvring followed, and on the third 
 of May it was found that the enemy had fled from Grand 
 Gulf, toward either Vicksburg or Jackson. Grant 
 accordingly halted his army to wait for Sherman's arrival, 
 and personally went back to Grand Gulf. 
 
 Sherman reached Young's Point on May ist, and the 
 next morning sent his Second Division up to Milliken's 
 Bend. Sherman himself with the other two divisions 
 marched on to join Grant. The junction was effected on 
 May 8th. The day before Grant had ordered a general 
 advance, which was now begun. McPherson at the right, 
 was to move by the way of Rocky Springs and Raymond, 
 to Jackson ; McClernand at the left, was to go through 
 Willow Springs, keeping as near the Black River as pos- 
 sible ; while Sherman was to move on Edward's Station, 
 striking the railroad between that point and Bolton. On 
 May loth Sherman destroyed the bridge over the Big 
 Black River, and on the nth he reached Auburn. The 
 :.ext day he dispersed a small force of the enemy at the 
 crossing of Fourteen Mile Creek, and that evening met 
 Grant just beyond the creek and went into camp. Word 
 now came from McPherson that he had defeated two 
 Rebel brigades at Raymond, and that the enemy had re 
 treated to Jackson, where reinforcements were arriving, 
 and where Joseph E. Johnston was to command. 
 
244 IN LINE OF BATTLE. 
 
 Grant now determined to make sure of Jackson, and to 
 leave no enemy behind him. ** So he directed Sherman 
 and McClernand to march at once to Raymond, On May 
 14th Sherman and McPherson met the enemy near Jack- 
 son, and a lively engagement ensued. Before night tht 
 Rebels were defeated, and were in full flight, and that 
 evening Grant, Sherman and McPherson met near the 
 State House. The next day Sherman set one division of 
 his army to work destroying the railroad, the arsenal, the 
 government foundry, and various other military works. A 
 valuable cotton factory was also destroyed because the 
 machinery it contained, if regained by the Rebels, could 
 be easily converted into hostile uses. The penitentiary 
 was burned by convicts, who had been released by the 
 Rebels, and some other buildings were accidentally de- 
 stroyed. 
 
 The Rebel General, Pemberton, with 25,000 men.and 10 
 batteries, now sallied out from Vicksburg to attack Grant, 
 and the latter accordingly called back all of his corps to 
 assail Pemberton's position near Edward's Depot. Sherman 
 made a forced march of 20 miles, and that night, arriving 
 at Bolton, was ordered to move on Bridgeport to the 
 right. The enemy beaten, turned back to Vicksburg. 
 At Bridgeport Sherman was joined by Blair with his div- 
 ision, and they crossed the Big Black River. Pressing 
 steadily forward, by the morning of May i8th, Sherman 
 was on the Benton Road, commanding the Yazoo, thus 
 putting himself between the enemy at Vicksburg and the 
 forts on the Yazoo. Grant soon came up and placed the 
 whole army in line of battle, Sherman being on the right. 
 When the advance was ordered, Sherman marched on the 
 Haines's Bluff Road, capturing the enemy's works and 
 camp, and taking many prisoners. On the morning of 
 
A B ESP E RATE ASSULT. 24$ 
 
 May 19th the army encompassed the enemy north of 
 Vicksburg, Sherman's command resting on the river, 
 within view of the fleet, with Vicksburg itself in plain 
 sight. There was nothing between Sherman and the 
 Rebel army but about four hundred yards of ground, much 
 cut up by almost impassable ravines and intrenchments. 
 Sherman quickly sent a regiment to secure possession of 
 Haines's Bluff, which was done. Communication was 
 thus opened with the fleet, and bridges and roads were 
 constructed, over which to bring up stores from the mouth 
 of the Chickasaw Bayou, where the supply boats were ly- 
 ing. From May nth to May i8th Sherman's men had 
 literally lived upon the country. 
 
 Vicksburg was now as completely invested as was possi- 
 ble with the forces at hand, and the enemy was considera- 
 bly demorahzed. Grant accordingly ordered a general 
 assult at 2 P. M. on May 19th, The attack was made by 
 Sherman's men with great vigor. The ground was very 
 difficult and the enemy's works strong, and at nightfall 
 Sherman had to order his men to fall back a short dis- 
 tance to shelter. The next two days were spent in placing 
 artillery and bringing up supplies to the troops, and on the 
 morning of May 22d another general assult was made all 
 along the line. No men were visible in the hostile works 
 except a few sharpshooters, who were kept pretty quiet 
 by the Union skirmishers. A volunteer storming party 
 led Sherman's column. As they neared the works they 
 had to cross a bit of open ground in full view of the 
 enemy. This they did at double quick, and reached the 
 salient of the bastion. As they approached the sally-port 
 they were met with by a withering fire. The front ranks 
 wavered. The rear pressed on valiantly, but it was im- 
 possible to face the storm of lead and iron, and they had to 
 
246 SbCCESS OF THE SIEGE. 
 
 seek cover. But the head of the column scaled the outer 
 slope of the left face of the bastion, planted their colors, 
 and then literally burrowed into the earth to gain shelter 
 from the flank fire. 
 
 Other attacks were made with great vigor by other 
 brigades, Sherman keeping up meantime a furious artillery 
 fire to occupy the attention of the enemy. At one time it 
 was announced that McClernand had captured three of the 
 Rebel forts and that his flag floated over the stronghold of 
 Vicksburg ; but this proved untrue. On the strength of 
 this report, however, Sherman ordered General Mower to 
 charge with his brigade. This was done, with results 
 similar to those at first achieved, the colors being planted 
 by the side of those of the first storming party. There 
 they remained until after nightfall, when they were with- 
 drawn by Sherman's orders. 
 
 This assault failed simply because the enemy's works 
 were too strong to be taken in that way. The Rebels 
 were able to mass at every point all the men that were 
 needed to defend it, while the nature of the ground made 
 it impossible for more than a few of the Union troops to 
 advance at once. Grant was not, however, discouraged. 
 If he could not take Vicksburg in one way, he would take 
 it in another. If the drrect assult failed, he would see 
 what could be done by a siege. At the siege operations 
 the troops worked diligently and cheerfully. The intrench- 
 ments were pushed steadily forward until the evening of 
 July 3d. At that time the saps were close to the enemy's 
 ditch and the mines were under his parapet. Everything 
 was ready for the final attack. Grant's army had been 
 strengthened by various reinforcements. Indeed it had 
 been strengthened so much that he was able to spare 
 Sherman from the immediate work of the siege. So he 
 
SHERMAN'S WORK AT VICKSBURG. 247 
 
 placed him in command of the Ninth Corps at Haines's 
 Bluff to watch J. E. Johnston. The latter had collected a 
 large army at Jackson with the intention of attacking 
 Grant's force in the rear, and thus raising the siege of 
 Vicksburg. Sherman took up a strong position and easily 
 held him at bay. Johnston, however, b»came desperate in 
 his desire to save Vicksburg from capture, and on June 
 29th moved out to try conclusions with Sherman. But be- 
 fore his preparations for battle were complete, on July 4th, 
 1863, Vicksburg surrendered. 
 
 In his official report of the operations around Vicksburg, 
 dated July 6th, Grant spoke thus of Sherman's work in hold- 
 ing the enemy at bay : " Johnston, however, not attacking, I 
 determined to attack him the moment Vicksburg was in our 
 possession, and accordingly notified Sherman thxit I should 
 again make an assult on Vicksburg at daylight on the 6th, 
 and for him to have up supplies of all descriptions ready 
 to move upon receipt of orders, if the assult should prove a 
 success. His preparations were immediately made, and 
 when the place surrendered on the 4th, two days earlier 
 than I had fixed for the attack, Sherman was found ready, 
 and moved at once with a force increased by the remain- 
 der of both the Thirteenth and Fifteenth Army Corps, 
 and is at present investing Jackston, where Johnston has 
 made a stand." 
 
 On July 9th, Sherman appeared before Jackson, having 
 nmrched through fifty miles of almost desert country. 
 Three days later the town was invested partially, and then 
 Johnston, seeing that it was impossible for him to hold his 
 ground against Sherman's determined army, evacuated the 
 place and retreated to Meridian, a hundred miles away, 
 burning the bridges behind him. Sherman left a small 
 garrison at Jackson, and then returned to the line of the 
 
248 SHERMAN'S MERITS AS A SOLDIER. 
 
 Big Black River. And thus was ended, one hundred and 
 nine days from its commencement, this great campaign. 
 The Union army had captured 37,000 prisoners, including 
 fifteen Generals. They had driven before them and parti- 
 ally dispersed another large army under the ablest of the 
 Rebel leaders. They had captured Vicksburg, the Gibral- 
 ter of the South. They had freed the Mississippi River 
 from Rebel control. And they had split the Rebel Con- 
 federacy in twain. 
 
 Of Sherman's part in the campaign General Grant re- 
 marks : " The siege of Vicksburg and last capture of 
 Jackson and dispersion of Johnston's army entitle General 
 Sherman to more credit than usually falls to the lot of one 
 man to earn. His demonstration at Haines's Bluff, in 
 April, to hold the enemy about Vicksburg, while the army 
 was securing a foothold east of the Mississippi ; his rapid 
 marches to join the army afterwards ; his management at 
 Jackson, Mississippi, in the first attack ; his almost un- 
 equalled march from Jackson to Bridgeport, and passage 
 of Black River; his securing Walnut Hills on the i8th of 
 May, may attest his great merit as a soldier." 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 SOME WAR CORRESPONDENCE. 
 
 Sherman's Characteristic Letters — Congratulations to Porter at 
 VicKSBURG — Views on the Reorganization of the Army — The 
 Conduct of the War and the Spirit of the South — Manners 
 AND Morals of the Soldiers — No Wanton Spoliation of the 
 Enemy's Property — The Heroic Cartridge Boy of Vicksburg. 
 
 Early in this volume mention was made of Sherman's 
 ability as a letter-writer. Perhaps in no other way can so 
 good an idea be gained of his mental characteristics as by 
 perusing a few of his epistles, penned amid the scenes of 
 war in which he was so important an actor. As soon as 
 Vicksburg had fallen, for example, and before any attempt 
 was made toward the next move in the bloody game, he 
 wrote thus to Admiral Porter, with whom he had formed 
 a strong and lasting friendship : 
 
 "I can appreciate the intense satisfaction you must feel 
 at lying before the very monster that has defied us with 
 such deep and malignant hate, and seeing your once dis- 
 united fleet again a unit ; and better still, the chain that 
 made an inclosed sea of a line in the great river broken 
 forever. In so magnificent a result I stop not to count 
 who did it. It is done, and the day of our nation's birth 
 is consecrated and baptized anew in a victory won by the 
 united Navy and Army of our country. God grant that 
 249 
 
250 SHERMAN'S LETTER TO PORTER. 
 
 the harmony and mutual respect that exists between our 
 respective commanders, and shared by all the true men 
 of the joint service, may continue forever and serve to 
 elevate our national character, threatened with shipwreck. 
 Thus I muse as I sit in my solitary camp out in the wood 
 far from the point for which we have justly striven so long 
 and so well, and though personal curiosity would tempt me 
 to go and and see the frowning batteries and sunken pits 
 that have defied us so long, and sent to their silent graves 
 so many of our early comrades in the enterprise, I feel 
 that other tasks lie before me, and time must not be lost. 
 Without casting anchor, and despite the heat and the dust 
 and drought, I must go again into the bowels of the land 
 to make the conquest of Vicksburg fulfil all the conditions 
 it should in the progress of this war. Whether success 
 attend my efforts or not, I know that Admiral Porter will 
 ever accord to me the exhibition of a pure and unselfish 
 zeal in the service of our country. 
 
 "Though further apart, the navy and army will 
 still act in concert, and I assure yow I shall never reach 
 the banks of the river or see a gunboat, but I will think of 
 Admiral Porter, Captain Breese, and the many elegant 
 and accomplished gentlemen it has been my good fortune 
 to meet on armed or unarmed decks of the Mississippi 
 Squadron." 
 
 In 1863 new levies were raised for the armies, by con- 
 scription. The Conscription Act was resisted by Rebel 
 sympathizers and the criminal classes generally in several 
 places, notably in New York City, wiiere the atrocious 
 " Draft riots " occurred. Elsewhere the call was responded 
 to with patriotic cheerfulness. Sherman had some decided 
 views as to the manner in which the new troops should be 
 employed. He thought it would be a waste of material to 
 
IlOiy TO USE NEW RECRUITS. 25 1 
 
 organize new regiments, while in the field there were 
 skeleton regiments enough to make, if filled up, a magni- 
 ficent army. To the Governor of Ohio he wrote on this 
 subject : 
 
 "The President of the United States is now clothed 
 with a power that should have been conferred just two 
 years ago, and I feel assured he will use it. He will call 
 for a large mass of men, and they should all be privates, 
 and sent so as to make every regiment in the field equal 
 to one thousand men. Time has convinced all reasonable 
 men that war in theory and practice are two distinct 
 things. Many an honest patriot, full of enthusiasm, zeal, 
 and thirst for glory, has in practice, found himself un- 
 equal to the actual requirements of war, and passed to one 
 side, leaving another in his place ; and, now, after two 
 years, Ohio has in the field one hundred and twenty-six 
 regiments, whose officers now are qualified, and the men 
 of which would give tone and character to the new recruits. 
 To fill these regiments will require fifty thousand recuits, 
 which are as many as the State could well raise. I there- 
 fore hope and pray that you will use your influence against 
 any more new regiments, and consolidation of old ones, 
 but fill up all the old ones to a full standard. Those who 
 talk of prompt and speedy peace know not what they say." 
 
 In the same letter he referred to the attitude of the 
 South and the probable future of the war. 
 
 "The South to-day is more formidable and arrogant 
 than she was two years ago, and we lose far more by hav- 
 ing an insufficient number of men than from any other 
 cause. We are forced to invade — we must keep the war 
 South ; they are not only ruined, exhausted, but humbled 
 in pride and spirit. Admitting that our armies to the 
 front are equal to the occasien, which I know is not the 
 
2$2 THE OUTLOOK FOR THE WAR. 
 
 case, our lines of communication are ever threatened by 
 their dashes, for which the country, the population, and 
 character of the enemy are all perfectly adapted. 
 
 " Since the first hostile shot, the people of the North 
 have had no option, they must conquer or be conquered. 
 There can be no middle course. I have never been con- 
 cerned about the copperhead squabblings ; the South 
 spurns and despises this class worse than we do, and 
 would only accept their overtures to substitute them in their 
 levies, in the cotton and corn fields, for the slaves who 
 have escaped. I do not pretend, nor have I ever pretended 
 to foresee the end of all this, but I do know that we are 
 yet far from the end of war. I repeat that it is no longer 
 an open question ; we must fight it out. The moment we 
 relax, down go all our conquests thus far. I know my 
 views on this point have ever been regarded as extreme, 
 even verging on insanity ; but for years I had associated 
 with Bragg, Beauregard and extreme Southern men, and 
 long before others could realize the fact that Americans 
 would raise their hands against our consecrated govern- 
 ment, I was forced to know it, to witness it. Two years 
 will not have been spent in vain if the North now, by 
 another magnificent upheaving of the real people, again 
 fill the ranks of your proven and tried regiments, and 
 assure them that, through good report and evil report, you 
 will stand by them. If Ohio will do this, and if the great 
 North will do this, then will our army feel that it has a 
 country and a government worth dying for. As to the 
 poltroons, who falter and cry quits, let them dig and raise 
 the food the army needs — but they should never claim a 
 voice in the councils of the nation." 
 
 Another vigorous letter was called out by an order from 
 the Adjutant General, under which all regiments which 
 
BATTLE' OF lookout:;mountain. 
 
MORALS AND MANNERS. 255 
 
 had been depleted more than one-half were to be consoli- 
 dated by reducing the number of their companies, and 
 mustering out the supernumerary officers. This would 
 have made many gallant regiments consist of only two or 
 three hundred men each, and indeed such was the actual 
 result in many cases. Against this order Sherman 
 protested strongly and with effect. 
 
 On one occasion a lady complained bitterly of some 
 alleged misconduct of the soldiers, and this prompted him 
 to write a long communication on the subject of army 
 morals and discipline. 
 
 " Mrs. Z ," he said, "has fallen into a common 
 
 error in saying it was useless to complain of a whole regi- 
 ment to Brigadier-General Smith or Major-General Sher- 
 man. We naturally demanded more specific complaint 
 against incendiary acts than a mere vague suspicion that 
 the did all inquitous things, when twenty other regi- 
 ments were camped round about Memphis, six thousand 
 vagabonds and refugees hanging about, and the city itself 
 infested by gangs of thieves and incendiaries, turned loose 
 upon the world, and sheltered in their deeds of darkness 
 by charging them upon soldiers. Neither General Morgan 
 L. Smith or myself ever failed to notice a specific com- 
 plaint against any soldier of our command, if accom- 
 panied by reasonable proofs; but we did, and rightfully 
 too, resent a mere general charge that every fire origin- 
 ating from careless chimneys, careless arrangement of 
 stove-pipes, and the designing acts of wicked incendiaries, 
 should without even an attempt at proof, be charged to 
 
 the . That regiment is one of the bravest and best 
 
 disciplined in our service, and being composed mostly of 
 young and energetic men from the city of , is some- 
 what famous for its acts of fun, frolic, mischief, and even 
 15 
 
256 CHECKING SPOLIATION. 
 
 crime, with a perfect skill in evading detection and pur- 
 suit. They are lawless and violent, and, like all other vol- 
 unteer soldiers, have for years been taught that the 
 people, the masses, the majority, are ' king,' and can do no 
 wrong. They are no worse than other volunteers, all of 
 whom come to us filled with the popular idea that they 
 must enact war, that they must clean out the Secesh, must 
 waste and not protect their property, must burn, waste and 
 destroy. Just such people as Mrs, Z. have taught this 
 creed, sung this song, and urged on our men to these dis- 
 graceful acts ; and it is such as Morgan L. Smith and W. 
 T. Sherman who have been combating this foul doctrine. 
 During my administration of affairs in Memphis I know it 
 was raised from a condition of death, gloom, and dark- 
 ness, to one of life and comparative prosperity. Its streets, 
 stores, hotels, and dwellings, were sad and deserted as I 
 entered it, and when I left it, life and business prevailed, 
 and over fourteen hundred enrolled Union men paraded its 
 streets, boldly and openly carrying the banners of our 
 country. No citizen, Union or Secesh, will deny that I acted 
 lawfully, firmly and fairly, and that substantial justice pre- 
 vailed, with even balance. I do feel their testimony bet- 
 ter than the hearsay of any would-be notoriety." 
 
 Sherman did not approve of wanton destruction of the 
 enemy's property, although he was ruthless enough when 
 the exigencies of war required it. He wrote thus to Gen- 
 eral Steele : 
 
 " I most heartily approve your purpose to return to 
 families their carriages, buggies, and farming tools, where- 
 with to make a crop. War at best is barbarism, but to 
 involve all — children, women, old and helpless — is more 
 than can be justified. Our men will become absolutely 
 lawless unless this can be checked. The destruction of 
 
"CALIBRE FIFTY-FOURr 2S7 
 
 corn or forage and provisions in the enemy's country is a 
 well-established law of war, and is as justifiable as the 
 destruction of private cotton by the Southern Confederacy. 
 Jeff. Davis, no doubt, agrees that they have a right to 
 destroy their people's cotton, but the guerrillas do not stop 
 to inquire whose cotton they burn ; and I know, as you 
 know, the Confederate Government claim the war-right to 
 burn all cotton, \vhether belonging to their adherents or to 
 Union men. We surely have a similar right as to corn, 
 cotton, fodder, etc., used to sustain armies and war. Still, 
 I always feel that the stores necessary for a family should 
 be spared, and I think it injures our men to allow them to 
 plunder indiscriminately the inhabitants of the country." 
 
 An incident at Vicksburg, which has been immortalized 
 in verse by Whittier, formed the topic of one of Sherman's 
 official dispatches to Secretary Stanton, as follows : 
 
 " I take the liberty of asking, through you, that some- 
 thing be done for a young lad named Orion P. Howe, of 
 Waukegan, Illinois, who belongs to the Fifty-fifth Illinois, 
 but is at present at his home wounded. I think he is too 
 young for West Point, but would be the very thing for a 
 midshipman. When the assault at Vicksburg was at its 
 height, on the 19th of May , and I was on foot near the 
 road which formed the line of attack, this young lad came 
 up to me wounded and bleeding, with a good healthy boy's 
 cry: 'General Sherman, send some cartridges to Colonel 
 Walmbourg, the men are all out.' ' What is the matter 
 with my boy.-'' 'They shot me in thejeg, but I can go 
 to the hospital ; send the cartridges right away.' Even 
 where we stood, the shot fell thick, and I told him to go to 
 the rear at once, I would attend to the cartridges, and off 
 he limped. Just before he disappeared over the hill, he 
 turned, and called , a« loud as he could, ' Calibre 54.' 
 
25 S A BRIGHT, INTELLIGENT BOY. 
 
 "I have not seen the boy since, and his Colonel, Walm- 
 bourg, on inquiry, gives me his address as above, and says 
 he is a bright, intelligent boy, with a fine preliminary 
 education. 
 
 "What arrested my attention then, was — and what 
 renews my memory of the fact now, is — that one so young, 
 carrying a musket-ball wound through his leg, should have 
 found his way to me on that fatal spot, and delivered his 
 message, not forgetting the very important part, even, of 
 the calibre of the musket, which you know is an unusual 
 one. 
 
 " I'll warrant that the boy has in him the elements of a 
 man, and I commend him to the Government as one 
 worthy the fostering care of some one of its national 
 institutions." 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 CHATTANOOGA. 
 
 Dark Days in 1863 — A Sunburst of Victory — Sherman Leaves Viocs. 
 BURG — Orders to his Troops — The March to Chattanooga — Thb 
 Battle above the Clouds — Sherman's Attack on Missonary 
 Ridge — The Victory Complete— Pursuit of the Enemy — A Forced 
 March to Rescue Burnside — Sherman's Report — Views Concern- 
 ing the Treatment of the Rebels. 
 
 Seldom has history recorded a more sudden and start- 
 ling change in National affairs than that of the United 
 States in the mid-summer of 1863. The closing days of 
 June were dark and ominous. Milroy was almost annihi- 
 lated at Winchester. Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville 
 were still wet with fruitless blood. Rosecrans was help- 
 less in Tennessee. Banks was idle at Port Hudson. 
 Grant had been checked at Vicksburg. Lee, on the other 
 hand, was carrying fire and sword through Pennsylvania, 
 while the Army of the Potomac, wandering no one knew 
 where, seemed given up to experimenting with new leaders. 
 This, at any rate, was the apparent situation, distressing to 
 the faint-hearted patriot, and consoling the sympathizer 
 with the South. 
 
 And so the Fourth of July came around, a day that a 
 month before bade fair to be a time of woe rather than of 
 joy. An ex-President of the United States, Franklin 
 259 
 
26o ' A Ce^MfNG STORM. 
 
 Pierce, was the orator of the day at Concord, New Hamp- 
 shire. " We have had," he said, "overwhelming sorrows, 
 but none like these which come welling up day by day 
 from the great fountain of National disaster ; nor have the 
 sorrows brought with them any recompense of National 
 pride or victorious arms." And he bitterly denounced the 
 " fearful, fruitless fatal civil war," and the " harvest of woe," 
 that it was ripening for the Republic. Other orators and 
 statesmen, of even more commanding rank than he, spoke 
 that same day in a similar strain. "Yet almost at that very 
 hour, Lee was reeling in disaster back from " a stubborn 
 Meade and a barren field " at Gettysburg, Johnston in 
 Mississippi was in full flight before Sherman's conquering 
 legions, and Grant was raising the Stars and Stripes above 
 the conquered ramparts of Vicksburg, the " Gibraltar of 
 the South." Truly, a grim and mighty transformation 
 scene ! 
 
 For a time now Sherman lay comparatively quiet on the 
 Big Black River, while other armies in other regions 
 pushed on the game of war. Baffled and routed in Penn- 
 sylvania, the Rebels fell back toward Richmond, and then 
 strengthened their forces for another rush upon the centre 
 of the Union line, in Tennessee. There, Rosecrans had 
 made a fair beginning. He had driven the foe from middle 
 Tennessee, and out-flanked Bragg and forced him to aban- 
 don Chattanooga to a position south of Lookout Mountain. 
 In Eastern Tennessee, likewise, Burnside had been suc- 
 cessful, wresting Knoxville and Cumberland Gap from the 
 enemy. So, all along the line, from the Mississippi to the 
 Potomac, the Rebels had been, when early autumn came, de- 
 feated and forced back. They now determined upon another 
 effort, viz., to assail the National forces in Tennessee with all 
 possible energy, and " drive the Yankees across the Ohio." 
 
MARCHING TO CHATTANOOGA. , 261 
 
 Reinforcements were accordingly sent %o Bragg, from 
 all quarters. Lee sent him Longstreet's corps, or all that 
 remained of it after that fearful charge at Gettysburg ; 
 Johnston sent him Loring's Division, and detachments 
 were brought in. To meet this coming storm the Union 
 leaders made full preparation. Burnside moved down to- 
 ward Loudon. The Army of the Potomac sent Hooker, 
 with Howard's and Slocum's Corps, to Stevenson and 
 Bridgport, Ala. ; and every man that could be spared by 
 Hurlbut at Memphis and by Grant and Sherman at Vicks- 
 burg, was sent toward Corinth and Tuscumbia, all to con- 
 centrate at last at Cattanooga. 
 
 That was in the middle of September. On the 23d of 
 that month Grant called Sherman to Vicksburg and bade 
 him hasten up to Memphis with his whole corps, save one 
 division, which should remain under McPherson, to guard 
 the Big Black. Low water caused slow transportation, 
 and it was October 4th when all of Sherman's men reached 
 Memphis. Then orders came from Halleck for them to 
 join Rosecrans. Sherman set out, accordingly, for Corinth 
 on October nth, and with his escort reached Co!liersville 
 at noon in time to aid in defeating Chalmers. He hurried 
 Frank P. Blair with two divisions on to luka, and followed 
 in person with the remainder of the corps reaching luka 
 on the 19th. Again he sent Blair forward, and the latter 
 presently defeated S. D. Lee, and entered Tuscumbia on 
 October 27th. 
 
 Rosecrans had not been faring well. He had, in fact, 
 been sorely stricken on the field of Chickamauga, and was 
 now at Chattanooga, almost surrounded by triumphant and 
 aggressive foes. The army was starving and the outlook 
 was grave indeed. Secretary Stanton summoned Grant to 
 Louisville, and there personally invested him with the 
 
262 SNERMAJ^'S ORDERS. 
 
 command of the Division of the Mississippi and the three 
 armies of the Ohio, the Cumberland and the Tennessee. 
 Then he, relieving Rosecrans, made Thomas Commander 
 of the Department of the Cumberland, and Sherman of 
 the Tennessee. Sherman was at luka, on October 25th, 
 when Grant sent him notice of his appointment, to succeed 
 himself, with orders to remain in the field. Thereupon 
 Sherman gave McPherson full command at Vicksburg, for 
 all Mississippi, and Hurlbut at Memphis for Western 
 Tennessee. Very soon he issued the following remarkable 
 orders, which covered all the territory brought under his 
 charge by his grand promotion : 
 
 " All officers in command ot corps and fixed military 
 posts will assume the highest military powers allowed by 
 the laws of war and Congress. They must maintain the 
 best possible discipline, and repress all disorder, alarms, 
 and dangers in their reach. Citizens who fail to support 
 the Government have no right to ask favors and protec- 
 tion, but if they actively assist us in vindicating the 
 national authority, all commanders will assist them and 
 their families in every possible way. Officers need not 
 meddle with matters of trade and commerce, which by law 
 devolve on the officer of the Treasury Department ; but 
 whenever they discover goods, contraband of war, being 
 conveyed towards the public enemy, they will seize all 
 goods tainted by such transactions, and imprison the 
 parties implicated, but care must be taken to make full 
 records and report such case. When a district is infested 
 Dy guerrillas, or held by the enemy, horses and mules, 
 wagons, forage, etc., and all means of war, can be 
 freely taken, but must be accounted for as public property. 
 If the people do not want their horses and corn taken, 
 they must organize and repress all guerrillas or hostile 
 oands in their neighborhood. 
 
NO TIME TO BUILD BRIDGES. 263 
 
 "It is represented that officers, provost-marshals, and 
 others in the military service, are engaged in business or 
 speculation on their own account, and that they charge 
 fees for permits and passes. All this is a breach of honor 
 and law. Every salaried officer of the military service 
 should devote every hour of his time, every thought of 
 his mind, to his Government, and if he makes one cent 
 profit beyond his pay, it is corrupt and criminal. All 
 officers and soldiers in this department are here- 
 by commanded to engage in no business whatever, 
 save their sworn duty to their Government. 
 In time of war and rebellion, districts occupied by 
 our troops are subject to the laws of war. The inhab- 
 itants, be they friendly or unfriendly, must submit to 
 the controlling power. If any person in an insurgent 
 district corresponds or trades with an enemy, he or she 
 becomes a spy ; and all inhabitants, moreover, must not 
 only abstain from hostile and unfriendly acts, but must 
 aid and assist the power that protects them in trade and 
 commerce." 
 
 Sherman now marched eastward, with all the men that 
 could be spared, to join in the impending struggle at 
 Chattanooga. There was no time to build bridges, so 
 rivers were forded or crossed in scows. On November 
 15th he rode into Chattanooga, and soon thereafter all 
 his troops were marshalled at that place, ready to deal 
 with Bragg. Already Hooker's two corps had entered 
 Lookout Valley, and the Army of the Cumberland was on 
 the scene. Bragg had sent Longstreet to attack Burn- 
 side in Eastern Tennessee, and Grant was anxious lest 
 Burnside should be overmatched. So, to prevent Bragg 
 from sending more troops thither, and even, if possible, to 
 force him to recall Longstreet, Grant determined upon vx 
 
264 THE SITUA TION A T CHA TTANOOGA. 
 
 immediate attack by Sherman upon Missionary Ridge ^id 
 Lookout Mountain. 
 
 The situation of the opposing forces, and the important 
 issues at stake, were well described at the time by Mr. 
 Brigham, in the New York Tribune : 
 
 '* When General Bragg followed timidly the broken army 
 of General Rosecrans on its retreat into Chattanooga, in- 
 stead of pursuing that part which did not make its escape 
 — (for not doing which he has been much blamed) — he 
 halted the main body of his army on the morning of the 
 23d of September, on Missionary Ridge, immediately in 
 front of our works, but mainly circling round from the left 
 to the centre of our line, his right resting on the river 
 about three miles above Chattanooga. The railroad to 
 Cleveland — about twenty miles — connecting there with 
 the main line from Knoxville to Atlanta, and the road to 
 Dalton, some forty miles, connecting there with the same 
 line, entered Chattanooga through Missionary Ridge, so 
 that their terminus came to be near Bragg's headquarters, 
 in sight of our works on the left. It was on the first 
 named road that Longstreet's corps departed lately for East 
 Tennessee, and over them Bragg has received most of his 
 supplies, and maintained his connection, not only with 
 East Tennessee, but with Georgia. The road to Knoxville 
 once cut, or the connection even rendered precarious, it 
 was plain that the situation of affairs in East Tennessee, 
 especially with the rebels, would all at once become 
 materially changed. Should the main line connecting 
 East Tennnssee and Georgia be broken, or seriously 
 menaced, by driving the Rebels from Missionary Ridge, or 
 by our gaining a foothold on the south side of the river on 
 the flank of the Rebel position, the principal questions in 
 the case would be, how would Longstreet get out of East 
 
THE PLAN OF CAMPAIGN/. 26$ 
 
 Tennessee, and how far would Bragg be compelled to retreat? 
 
 " To realize this, or any part of this state of- things, it 
 would be necessary to cross the river above Chattanooga 
 with a heavy force, and assail the Rebels in their flank. 
 To drive them from Missionary Ridge would be to render 
 the work complete. If, in addition to these, Lookout 
 Mountain should fall into our hands, little or nothing 
 further could be desired." 
 
 The topography of the place was also described by Mr. 
 Brigham : " Missionary Ridge is a line of hills, ranging 
 from lOO to 400 feet in hight, sweeping round from Chat- 
 tanooga Valley on our centre to our left, to less than one 
 mile of the river above Chattanooga, and sloping west- 
 wardly toward the town, thus confronting our line of de- 
 fenses at the point where the Ridge approaches the river, 
 it backs up toward the east on a general line with, and 
 from one to two miles from the river, toward which the 
 hills have another sloping but rather abrupt face. On 
 the westward slope Bragg planted his works ; on the north 
 or river slope he does not seem to have constructed per- 
 manent works. To cross the river and assail the Rebels 
 on their flank, while General Thomas opened upon them 
 in front, was the plan." 
 
 The movement was begun on the morning of November 
 23d. Sherman's troops had been joyfully greeted by the 
 Army of the Cumberland as " Grant's Gophers," in allusion 
 to their sapping and mining achievements at Vicksburg. 
 They had just completed a long and arduous march, but 
 were in splendid condition, iron-framed veterans. And 
 they had a task before them worthy of their prowess. On 
 the night of the 23d, amid fog and rain, they silently 
 crossed the Tennessee River, stealing up and capturing 
 the Rebel pickets. The morning of the 24th dawned, cold 
 
266 GETTING UN" LINE, 
 
 and rainy. The crash of musketry was heard at the centre 
 of the Union line, where Howard and his men pressed 
 close upon the foe. Next Jeff. C. Davis's fine troops 
 crossed over and joined Sherman, and with pick 
 and spade the lines of rifie pits were rapidly advanced. 
 At noon the artillery was taken across, a pontoon bridge 
 having been constructed. Howard gallantly drove Bragg's 
 right flank skirmishers before him, and forced a junction 
 with Sherman. 
 
 Now off on the other flank of Bragg came the " Battle 
 above the Clouds" along the grim slopes of Lookout 
 Mountain. On the afternoon of the 24th, Hooker moved 
 Geary's command by an extensive detour to the crest of 
 Lookout Mountain ridges, and Osterhaus's men were 
 kept waiting in Lookout Valley until Geary was seen 
 marching along the ridge toward the enemy's works, 
 when the signal was given and Osterhaus was ordered to 
 charge up the precipitous height. " The audacity of this 
 attack," said a correspondent, " was its chief merit, and 
 insured its success. No one can appreciate the thing 
 without an intimate acquaintance with the topography of the 
 country thereabout, and that it is useless forme to attempt 
 to indicate with words merely. To any casual observer 
 it would have seemed madness. Our men could and 
 would have defended the position successfully with hand 
 grenades and loose rocks alone. The Rebels, however, 
 seemed filled with dismay when they saw their foes climb- 
 ing up the rocks as nimbly as if they had been so many 
 mountain goats, and they did not make half of the 
 resistance they might. Then, too, the disaffection among 
 their conscripts, of which we have heard and read so much 
 manifested itself most palpably. They in some cases 
 threw away their arms by platoons and jumping ov^r 
 
L O OKO UT MO UNTAJN, 267 
 
 their breastworks, rushed down the mountain side ex- 
 claiming, ' Don't shoot, we are your friends ! ' These 
 men seemed transported with joy on reaching our Unes, 
 and not a few of them declared a willingness to take places 
 in the ranks of our men to fight those who had subjected 
 them to tyranny unexampled. Those who did use their 
 weapons against the advancing columns, proved them- 
 selves ver)' poor marksmen. Nearly every shot went 
 whistling down the mountain over the heads of the men. 
 And thus the chief obstacle to Osterhaus's progress was 
 from steep and hostile rocks. By dark the whole moun- 
 tain was in Hooker's hands, save a small plat of ground 
 on the summit, and that was virtually in his possession, 
 as he only needed a little more daylight to complete his 
 victory. The next morning all the Rebels who were not 
 prisoners had vanished like the air, and our men could 
 quietly enjoy the view of the territory of four States to be 
 had from this great eminence. Our prisoners here will 
 number at least 2,000, and the capture of arms was more 
 than proportionate, '"he works on the mountain are not 
 very artistic, nor are they extensive, but they were suffi- 
 cient for any purpose the Rebels seem to have had in 
 holding the position. 
 
 "The climbing of Lookout, if it were only by a pleasure 
 party, would necessarily be attended by amusing and stir- 
 ring incidents; and though Osterhaus's men believed they 
 were engaged in a hazardous and apparently foolhardy 
 movement, they joked and laughed at one another all the 
 way up. Every fall was the signal for a shout of ' grab a 
 root,' in allusion to a camp story about a certain colonel 
 who issued that novel command to his regiment just as he 
 lost his footing while making a rather inglorious retreat 
 down a hill, on an occasion not now to be mentioned. One 
 
268 ASoyE THE CLoms. 
 
 man, a Serjeant-Major in one of the Missouri regiments, 
 did 'grab a root' to swing himself round a sharp and 
 protecting ledge of rocks in the way of his ascent. The 
 root, however, proved rotten, or was not deeply imbedded 
 in the ground, and broke just at the critical moment. The 
 sergeant executed an involuntary somersault or two, and 
 alighted on his feet unhurt. His regiment witnessed the 
 acrobatic feat extraordinary, and set up such a shout of 
 applause and laughter as, I have no doubt, made the but- 
 ternuts quake in their boots. 
 
 " The Twenty-ninth and Thirty-second Missouri Regi- 
 ments have the honor of being first to plant foot on the 
 summit. They were closely followed, however, by the 
 whole of General Osterhaus's Command, and General 
 Geary's Division shares with this the honors of an achieve- 
 ment which was beyond the hopes of one party or the 
 fears of the other. So far as I could learn, there was not 
 a single regiment or even a single individual that shrank 
 for a moment from the appalling looking service. An 
 incident will serve to illustrate the common feeling. 
 When the order to charge up the mountain in the face of 
 the Rebel works was received, Colonel Peckham of the 
 Twenty-ninth Missouri, an officer who was himself 
 wounded and who lost over sixty per cent, of his regiment 
 in the memorable charge upon the enemy's works in the 
 Chickasaw Bayou fight, in December last, and who was 
 again wounded on the 19th of May following, in the abor- 
 tive charge made by his division (Blair's) upon the enemy's 
 works in the rear of Vicksburg, was fully impressed with 
 the idea that he was now in the way of another such 
 slaughter. He turned to one of his men in whose fate he 
 felt a deep personal interest, and pulling from his pocket 
 a watch presented him by another regiment in which he 
 
SHERMAN'S POSITION. 269 
 
 had at one time served, told the man to fall back to the 
 camp and take this watch and a message to his wife in 
 case he should be killed. The brave fellow demurred to 
 the order, saying he preferred staying with the regiment. 
 'I tell you,' said the Colonel, 'your going with the regi- 
 ment will be but a useless sacrifice of one more life.' * I 
 will not leave the regiment,' was the reply, 'unless you 
 make the order a peremptory one, and I beg you not to 
 disgrace me in that way.' The Colonel yielded the point. 
 His fears for the man proved groundless, but when I met 
 him the next day, he could not shake hands with me. He had 
 a severe wound in the right shoulder, received making his 
 way on foot up the mountain at the head of his command." 
 
 That night old Lookout was ablaze with the camp fires 
 of the Union army. But while Hooker was warring amid the 
 clouds, his fellow-generals were busy elsewhere. " Sherman," 
 writes the correspondent, "has, on the end of Mission 
 Ridge, got his forces in position. His Hne of battle is very 
 extended. It is grand as well as formidable. Advancing 
 a heavy line of skirmishers, he moves over the low ground 
 to the base of the ridge, where the Rebels but a very short 
 time before were massed in force. They withdrew, offer- 
 ing but comparatively slight resistance when Sherman 
 commenced moving. Indeed the firing was mainly by the 
 skirmishers. Rising the crest of the ridge, Sherman 
 takes possession of the termini of the two railroads of so 
 much importance to Bragg — that running to Knoxville 
 (over which Longstreet departed to East Tennessee), and 
 that running to Atlanta, over which Bragg receives his 
 supplies. It being near dark, Sherman halts on the 
 ground he has won. 
 
 "While these important operations are going on, Gen- 
 eral Waod's Division, Granger's Corps, advances on the 
 
270 THE ENEMY FALLS BACK. 
 
 centre of our left, to within 1,500 yards of the Rebel 
 works, near the crest of Missionary Ridge, plants Bride's 
 Battery on Orchard Knob, and opens an enfilading fire 
 on the enemy, then annoying Howard's Corps." 
 
 During the night the Rebels massed themselves in great 
 force against Sherman, but before daylight of the 25th that 
 intrepid commander was in the saddle, marshalling his 
 troops to the completion of the work so well begun. The 
 day dawned clear and frosty, and the whole vast panorama 
 of war, yesterday veiled in mist, lay open to the eye. 
 The enemy fell back before Sherman, to the tunnel, 
 but there made a desperate stand, looking and hoping in 
 vain for Longstreet's return to their relief. Large por- 
 tions of Bragg's army were there. He had been reinforced 
 by Buckner. Sherman (with Bushbeck's Brigade from the 
 Eleventh Corps added) made two attacks with only a por- 
 tion of his army, and was both times repulsed. Still, he 
 sent Grant word that he would do his work without assist- 
 ance. Afternoon came, Grant watching Sherman with an 
 anxious eye, waiting to give Thomas the command to scale 
 the mountain side. " I saw him," said an eye witness, 
 "frequently carry his eye along the ridge where the main 
 Rebel line was drawn out, and survey the steep side up 
 which the assault would be made. How many thousands 
 of others of the army that rested and waited for the com- 
 mand, contemplated the ascent and estimated the chances! 
 Taking it for granted that Bragg was prepared for the 
 assault, the records of desperate undertakings do not af- 
 ford many equalling this." 
 
 " The hill which was being attacked by Sherman," said 
 a Cincinnati Gazette writer, "is the highest peak of 
 Mission Ridge, and though not so rough and ragged as 
 Lookout Mountain, is nevertheless very difficult of ascent. 
 
MISSIONARY RIDGE. 273 
 
 The hill or hills taken by General Sherman on Tuesday 
 did not command this (Tunnel) hill, but from Sherman's 
 position a fine view could be had of the Rebel position, 
 half a mile distant. 
 
 " The fort built by the Rebels was plainly visible, the 
 guns peering over the ramparts with vicious looks. The 
 hill upon which General Sherman was posted formed a 
 semi-circle, and lapping around as if to inclose the Tunnel 
 Hill. When on Sherman's right, you were west of Tunnel 
 Hill. When you were on Sherman's left, you were east of 
 the hill. The centre was so thrown out and retired that, 
 like the wings, it remained a respectful distance from the 
 enemy, who formed the centre, while Sherman formed the 
 arc of the circle. It will be readily understood from this 
 that, making separate attacks from his right and left. Gen- 
 eral Sherman approached the Rebel position on different 
 sides of the hill. So far separated were the two columns 
 that the hill prevented them from seeing each other's 
 movements. They were hence unable to act in concert — 
 a fact which may have had something to do with the re- 
 sult of the attacks. 
 
 " The first attack was made by the brigades of General 
 John W. Corse and Colonel Jones, Fourth Virginia, from 
 the left of the line. The movement began at 1 1 o'clock 
 i the morning and the assault lasted only ten minutes. 
 No sooner had our men appeared above the top of the hill 
 than they were received with a tremendous volley of 
 musketry. But nevertheless they advanced rapidly, charg- 
 ing a rifle-pit of the enemy, and after a hand to hand con- 
 flict retired in some disorder, leaving their dead and 
 wounded inside the enemy's outer work. But it must not 
 be supposed that our men fled to the foot of the hill. No 
 
 sooner had they reached the protecting slope of the hill 
 16 
 
274 THE CRUCIAL HOUR. 
 
 which hid them from the view of the enemy than they re- 
 forn>ed in good style and laid down under the brow of the 
 hill to await an attack in return. But the enemy did not 
 dare to attack, but contented himself with the repulse he 
 had succeeded in at quite heavy cost to both parties. The 
 two brigades remained quiet for some time. At 11.30 
 o'clock General Giles Smith with his brigade, among 
 which is the Fifty-seventh Ohio Infantry, went to the 
 assistance of General Corse, and after a short delay, the 
 whole proceeded to make a second attack. 
 
 "This attack did not differ from the first in movement or 
 result, but it was more desperate and was persisted in 
 much longer, the final retirement of our men not taking 
 place until half past twelve, an hour having thus been 
 consumed in the assault. There have been few more des- 
 perate encounters in the war than was this engagement of 
 an hour, and it speaks volumes in praise of the men en- 
 gaged that at its end, though much broken, they rallied at 
 the slope of the hill and held the position gained." 
 
 Then Sherman brought up all available troops and pre- 
 pared for a third and decisive attack ; and the enemy did 
 likewise to meet him. This attack was not in itself suc- 
 cessful. But it turned the fortunes of the day. It gave 
 Grant the opportunity for which he had been watch- 
 ing through all those anxious hours. Standing on 
 Orchard Knob, he saw the Rebels massing against Sher- 
 man, and then, precisely at three o'clock, he signalled to 
 his two storming columns to make the grand assault upon 
 the works at the base of Missionary Ridge. Says the 
 Tribune correspondent from the field : 
 
 *' Hardly had the roar of the signal guns ceased, when 
 the cracking of musketry commenced and vibrated up and 
 down the line, which extended in an unbroken chain qiMte 
 
STORMING THE HEIGHTS. 275 
 
 two miles. The artillery stationed along the crest of 
 Missionary Ridge opened vigorously, raining down on our 
 men a perfect shower of shot and shell. To their fire our 
 artillery replied no less vigorously, and the attacking 
 column moved forward to the music of more than a hun- 
 dred guns. 
 
 " The distance between the rifle-pits and our skirmishers 
 was probably not to exceed three hundred yards. In less 
 then ten minutes the Rebels began to leave and climb the 
 abrupt slope of the hill, in desperate eagerness to take 
 shelter in the main line — Hardee's Corps — on the top. 
 Cheer on cheer now go up from the attacking columns 
 and a galling fire is poured into the fleeing Rebels. But 
 not to escape, for so sudden was the advance that many 
 prisoners were taken in the pits. Notwithstanding the 
 order was to halt at the rifle pits, at the foot of the 
 Ridge, in the eagerness of the pursuit it seemed to be for- 
 gotton, and the chase is kept up with eagerness. Seeing 
 this, General Grant, contrary to his original intention, 
 directs the supporting column at once to advance, and 
 along the entire line black masses in regular columns move 
 forward to the grand assault. In the^centre, where Wood's 
 Division is advancing, some of his men are already half 
 way up the rugged steep. The elevation is almost three 
 hundred feet. Glancing up and down the Ridge's slope 
 you see a score of battle flags, some further advanced than 
 others ; one or two so far ahead of the supports, save a 
 few impetuous spirits who seem determined to scale the 
 height first, that the attempt seems mere hardihood. From 
 the crest of the Ridge the Rebel artillery now belch forth 
 more furiously than ever, and rain the iron hail on the 
 masses below. And yet there is no wavering or sign of 
 it. Cheer on cheer roll in waves up and down the advanc- 
 
2^6 THE HOUR OF TRIUMPH. 
 
 ing line. The right, the centre, the left now go forward 
 in order, to the support of those who seem to have pushed 
 too daringly to the assault, in the determination to be first 
 to make the ascent where the foe was in force. 
 
 " The battle-flags are now seen everywhere, and those 
 that have been carried with so much daring almost to the 
 crest now receive salvos of cheers. In the centre, the 
 Sixth Ohio Regiment, Hazen's Brigade, Wood's Division, 
 has from the first been ahead, the object of special interest, 
 and those who have watched their progress, while they 
 have admired their bravery, have almost regretted their 
 impetuosity ; for it can scarcely be otherwise than that 
 they will be hurled back by an overwhelming opposing 
 force the moment they reach the top. To the right of this 
 regiment is the Eighth Kansas, sharp competitors in the 
 race, whose colors have been carried so defiantly ahead. 
 Volleys of musketry are poured down upon the column of 
 attack, which makes no reply but keeps right on. The pro- 
 gress is slow, for the ascent is steep. Away off to the left 
 where the intrepid Howard has during the afternoon 
 had sharp work, his troops move forward in perfect 
 order, shoulder to shoulder with the supports of Baird. 
 Howard's Corps passed over to Sherman's left — ex- 
 cept one brigade near the Tunnel. In the centre. Granger's 
 impetuosity and Wood's zeal have been communicated 
 to the men. On the right, Palmer is moving on steady, 
 the dashing Sheridan, with coat off and hat in hand, lead- 
 ing the way. 
 
 " Scarcely have we time to take this rapid survey of the 
 columns moving to the grand assault when cheer on cheer 
 comes rolling down to us from the summit of the Ridge. 
 The gallant Ohioans have made the ascent. The Rebels 
 flee before them, and they rest on the heights they have 
 
THE VICTORY COMPLETE. 27/ 
 
 gained so quickly. But the intrepid Major Irwin has 
 fallen. Now, from the right to the left of the whole line 
 cheer on cheer announce that other regiments have gained 
 the summit, and that the Rebels flee. In the next half 
 hour the crest of the Ridge from right to left is swarming 
 with our men. And now gallop we to the height that has 
 been gained. 
 
 "So precipitately had the Rebels fallen back ih2Xfrom 
 forty to fifty pieces of artilleiy and from three to five thou- 
 sand prisoners fell mto our hands. The guns were imme- 
 diately turned on the foe, for, taking up positions for which 
 the ground was favorable, the Rebels opened a vigorous 
 fire of musketry. General Grant was among the first to 
 reach the summit after it had been carried. By his direc- 
 tion our men were formed and placed so as to resist any 
 attempt that might be made to regain their ground. It 
 was not long before almost the entire force of General 
 Thomas was on the Ridge. From it they could not be 
 dislodged. Hooker had been thundering on the Rebel 
 flank coming up from the direction of Rossville. He 
 comes in good time, makes captures of men and guns, and 
 forms a junction with the main column. 
 
 "Thus the Ridge, the portion which might have been 
 made impregnable, and so important to Bragg, has been 
 carried with so little serious fighting, with loss so insig- 
 nificent, and in every respect so easily, that it is difficult 
 to comprehend the plan of the enemy. I suspect that 
 Bragg could not help it ; that undertaking to defend him- 
 self against Sherman, he lost all in another direction. In 
 fact he was circumvented, out-generaled. He was not 
 equal to the strategy with which he had to contend. The 
 assault of Missionary Ridge was an undertaking before 
 which aaother army would have quailed. To give the 
 
2/8 RESULTS OF THE BATTLE. 
 
 order required no common nerve, and it shows the manner 
 of man of General Grant. He had no right to expect the 
 enemy would flee, unless, indeed, he penetrated so far as 
 to discover, which doutless was the fact, that the im- 
 petuosity of our men, their almost foolhardy daring, con- 
 founded the enemy and struck him with awe. The assault 
 of Lookout Mountain and of Missionary Ridge will stand 
 out in the annals of this war as unequalled performances." 
 
 Of the practical results of this victory. Quartermaster 
 General Meigs said in his report, dated the day after the 
 battle, to the Secretary of War : 
 
 "Bragg's remaining troops left early in the night, and 
 the battle of Chattanooga, after days of manoeuvring and 
 fighting, was won. The strength of the rebellion in the 
 centre is broken. Burnside is relieved from danger in 
 East Tennessee. Kentucky and Tennessee are rescued. 
 Georgia and the South-East are threatened in the rear, 
 and another victory is added to the chapter of * Uncondi- 
 tional Surrender Grant.' Bragg is firing the railroad as 
 he retreats toward Dalton. Sherman is in hot pursuit. 
 
 " To-day I viewed the battle-field, which extends for six 
 miles along Mission Ridge and for several miles on Look- 
 out Mountain. Probably not so well directed, so well 
 ordered a battle has been delivered during the war. But 
 one assault was repulsed, but that assault by calling to 
 that point the Rebel reserves, prevented them repulsing 
 any of the others 
 
 " A few days since, Bragg sent to General Grant a flag 
 of truce, advising him that it would be prudent to remove 
 any non-combatants who might be still in Chattanooga. 
 No reply has been returned, but the combatants having 
 removed from this vicinity it is probable that non-com- 
 batants can remain without imprudence." 
 
RETREA7 AMD PURSUIT. 279 
 
 Bragg was now retreating, and Sherman adding other 
 troops to his own was in pursuit. Jeff. C. Davis had hur- 
 ried across the Chickamauga by the Pontoon Bridge, to the 
 depot. Howard had reported to Sherman, and was ordered 
 to repair another bridge over the Chickamauga and then 
 to go on and join Davis. It was impossible to repair the 
 bridges, however, so the crossings had to be made by pon- 
 toons. Davis reached the depot only to find it in flames, 
 with the enemy intrenched just beyond. The Rebels 
 were quickly put to flight and many valuable stores 
 rescued. 
 
 Sherman, with Davis and Howard, pressed on till 
 nightfall, engaging the rear guard of the Rebels just 
 at dark. Next day he reached Greysville, where he was 
 joined by Palmer's Corps, and where he could hear 
 Hooker's guns at Ringgold. Then he turned eastward, to 
 keep Longstreet from rejoining Bragg, leaving the pursuit 
 of Bragg to Hooker. Howard was sent to Parker's Gap, 
 to destroy the Dalton and Cleveland Railroad, a task that 
 was promptly and thoroughly performed. Word now came 
 from Hooker that he wanted Sherman to hurry forward 
 and turn the enemy's position in the mountain passes 
 near Ringgold. This was at this very moment being done 
 by Howard, and when Sherman reached Ringgold he 
 found that the Rebels had abandoned the Chickamauga 
 Valley and the State of Tennessee. Howard by Sherman's 
 request was now sent on to Cleveland, East Tennessee ; 
 and on the 30th to Charleston, where he put the enemy 
 to flight and captured valuable stores. Thus ended the 
 first part of this memorable campaign, with losses to 
 Sherman's own corps of 258 killed, 1,257 wounded and 
 211 missing, and with incalculable benefits to the Union 
 cause. 
 
28o RELIEF OF KNOXVILLE. 
 
 The pursuit of Bragg would have been continued, but 
 Grant saw that Burnside needed succor at Knoxville, 
 where he was besieged by Longstreet. Sherman and 
 Howard were accordingly sent thither with all speed. 
 Their troops were wearied with much fighting and long 
 marches. Food was scanty. They had no blankets. 
 And the weather was bitterly cold. But without a mur- 
 mur from officers or men they faced for Knoxville, eighty- 
 three miles away, with as blithe a step as though on a 
 holiday parade. Howard and Sherman were abreast. At 
 Loudon they struck the enemy, who fled before them, 
 burning the bridge and forcing them Jto turn east and 
 trust to crossing the Little Tennessee by constructing, 
 in a night, temporary bridges. It was now December 2d, 
 and they knew Burnside's supplies would only last another 
 day. So Sherman told Colonel Long to take his pick of 
 cavalrymen and dash on to Knoxville regardless of the 
 cost in life and limb. Knoxville was yet forty miles away, 
 and the roads were as bad as bad could be. The whole 
 army pressed on, however, with desperate zeal. When 
 past the Little Tennessee, a courier came from Burnside 
 with the welcome news that Long and his troopers had 
 arrived, and that all was well at Knoxville. That night 
 another courier brought them word that Longstreet was 
 retreating toward Virginia, with the Union cavalry in full 
 pursuit ! He had attacked Burnside, had been repulsed 
 with great slaughter, and had abandoned the siege at 
 Sherman's near approach. 
 
 Sherman and Howard, after a brief visit to Knoxville, 
 then marched their troops to Chattanooga, to prepare for 
 a yet greater work. Sherman made a long report 
 on this campaign. A few extracts are of interest 
 here; 
 
REVIEWING THE CAMPAIGN. 28 1 
 
 " In reviewing the facts, I must do justice to my com- 
 mand for the patience, cheerfulness, and courage which 
 officers and men have displayed throughout, in battle, on 
 the march, and in camp. For long periods, without regu- 
 lar rations or supplies of any kind, they have marched 
 through and over rocks, sometimes barefooted, without a 
 murmur, without a moment's rest. After a march of over 
 400 miles, without stop for three successive nights, we 
 crossed the Tennessee, fought our part of the battle of 
 Chattanooga, pursued the enemy out of Tennessee, and 
 then turned more than 100 miles north, and compelled 
 Longstreet to raise the siege of Knoxville, which gave so 
 much anxiety to the whole country, 
 
 "It is hard to realize the importance of these events 
 without recalling the memory of the general feeling which 
 pervaded all minds at Chattanooga prior to our arrival. I 
 cannot speak of the Fifteenth Army Corps without a 
 seeming vanity, but as I am no longer its commander, I 
 assert that there is no better body of soldiers in America 
 than it, or who have done more or better service. I wish 
 all to feel a just pride in its real honors. To General 
 Howard and his command, to General Jefferson C. Davis 
 and his, I am more than usually indebted for the intel- 
 ligence of commanders and fidelity of command. The 
 brigade of Colonel Bushbeck, belonging to the Eleventh 
 Corps, which was the first to come out of Chattanooga 
 to my flank, fought at the Tunnel Hill in connection 
 with General Ewing's Division, and displayed a courage 
 almost amounting to rashness, following the enemy al- 
 most to the tunnel gorge, it lost many valuable lives, 
 prominent among them Lieutenant-Colonel Taft, spoken 
 of as a most gallant soldier. In General Howard 
 throughout I found a polished and Christian gentleman. 
 
282 CREDIT TO WHOM IT BELONGS. 
 
 exhibiting the highest and most chivalrous traits of the 
 soldier. 
 
 " General Davis handled his division with artistic skill, 
 more especially at the moment we encountered the enemy's 
 rear guard near Graysville, at nightfall. I must award 
 to this division the credit of the best order during our 
 marches through East Tennessee, when long marches 
 and the necessity of foraging to the right and left gave 
 some reasons for disordered ranks. 
 
 "I must say that it is but justice that colonels of 
 regiments who have so long and so well commanded 
 brigades, as in the following cases, should be com- 
 missioned to the grade which they have filled with so much 
 usefulness and credit to the public service, namely, Col- 
 onels J. R. Cockerell, Seventieth Ohio Volunteers ; J. M. 
 Loomis, Twenty-sixth Illinois ; C. E. Wolcott, Forty-sixth 
 Ohio; J. A. Williamson, Fourth, Iowa; G. B. Raum, Fif- 
 ty-sixth Illinois ; J. J. Alexander, Fifty-ninth Indiana." 
 
 Early in January Sherman returned to Memphis, to at- 
 tend to the administration of affairs in that region. Both 
 civil and military matters were presented to him for dis- 
 posal. His attitude toward the South was here expressed by 
 him in a letter to one of his subordinate officers, as fol- 
 lows: 
 
 " The Southern people entered into a clear compact of 
 government, but still maintained a species of separate in- 
 terests, history, and prejudices. These latter became 
 stronger and stronger, till they have led to a war which 
 has developed fruits of the bitterest kind. 
 
 " We of the North are, beyond all question, right in our 
 lawful cause, but we are not bound to ignore the fact that the 
 people of the South have prejudices, which form a part of 
 their nature, and which they cannot throw off without an 
 
THE ENEMY'S PROPERTY. 283 
 
 effort of reason or the slower process of natural change. 
 Now, the question arises, should we treat as absolute 
 enemies all in the South who differ from us in opinion or 
 prejudice, — kill or banish them ? Or should we give them 
 time to think and gradually change their conduct, so as to 
 conform to the new order of things which is slowly and 
 gradually creeping into their country ? 
 
 " When men take arms to resist our rightful authority, 
 we are compelled to use force, because all reason and 
 argument cease when arms are resorted to. When the 
 provisions, forage, horses, mules, wagons, etc., are used by 
 our enemy, it is clearly our duty and right to take them, be- 
 cause otherwise they might be used against us. 
 
 " In like manner, all houses left vacant by an mimical 
 people, are clearly our right, or such as are needed as store- 
 houses, hospitals, and quarters. But a question arises as 
 to dwellings used by women, children, and non-combatants, 
 So long as non-combatants remain in their houses and 
 keep to their accustomed business, their opinions and pre- 
 judices can in no wise influence the war, and, therefore, 
 should not be noticed. But if any one comes out into the 
 public streets and creates disorder, he or she should be 
 punished, restrained, or banished, either to the rear or front, 
 as the officer in command adjudges. If the people, or any 
 of them, keep up a correspondence with parties in hostil- 
 ity, they are spies, and can be punished with death, or 
 minor punishment. 
 
 "These are well established principles of war, and the 
 people of the South, having appealed to war, are barred 
 from appealing to our Constitution, which they have practi- 
 cally and publicly defied. They have appealed to war, and 
 must abide its rules and laws. 
 
284 NATIONAL AUTHORITY 
 
 " The United States, as a belligerent party claiming 
 right in the soil as the ultimate sovereign, have a right to 
 change the population ; and it may be, as is, both politic 
 and just, we should do so in certain districts. When the 
 inhabitants persist too long in hostility, it may be both 
 politic and right we should banish them and appropriate 
 their lands to a more loyal and useful population. No 
 man will deny that the United States would be benefitted 
 by dispossessing a single prejudiced, hard-headed, and dis- 
 loyal planter, and substituting in his place a dozen or more 
 patient, industrious, good families, even if they be of 
 foreign birth. I think it does good to present this view 
 of the case to many Southern gentlemen, who grew rich 
 and wealthy, not by virtue alone of their industry and skill, 
 but by reason of the protection and impetus to prosperity 
 given by our hitherto moderate and magnanimous Govern- 
 ment. It is all idle nonsense for these Southern planters 
 to say that they made the South, that they own it, and that 
 they can do as they please, — even to break up our Govern- 
 ment and to shut up the natural avenues of trade, inter- 
 course, and commerce . . . Whilst I assert for our 
 Government the highest military prerogatives, I am 
 willing to bear in patience that political nonsense of 
 slave-rights, State-rights, freedom of conscience, freedom 
 of press, and such other trash, as have deluded the Southern 
 people into war, anarchy, bloodshed, and the foulest crimes 
 that have disgraced any time or any people. 
 
 " I would advise the commanding officers at Huntsville, 
 and such other towns as are occupied by our troops, to 
 assemble the inhabitants and explain to them these plain, 
 self-evident propositions, and tell them that it is for them 
 now to say whether they and their children shall inherit 
 the beautiful land which by the accident of nature 
 
ADVICE TO THE SOUTH. 285 
 
 has fallen to their share. The Government of the United 
 States has in North Alabama any and all rights which 
 they choose to enforce in war — to take their lives, their 
 homes, their lands, their everything ; because they cannot 
 deny that war does exist there ; and war is simply power, 
 unrestrained by Constitution or compact. If they want 
 eternal war, well and good ; we will accept the issue and 
 and dispossess them and put our friends in possession. I 
 know of thousands and millions of good people who, at 
 simple notice, would come to North Alabama and accept 
 the elegant houses and plantations now there. If the 
 people of Huntsville think differently, let them persist in 
 war three years longer, and then they will not be consulted. 
 Three years ago, by a little reflection and patience, they 
 could have had a hundred years of peace and prosperity, 
 but they preferred war. Very well. Last year they could 
 have saved their slaves, but now it is too late : all the 
 powers of earth cannot restore to them their slaves, any 
 more than their dead grandfathers. Next year their 
 lands will be taken — for in war we can take them, and 
 rightfully, too, — and in another year they may beg in vain 
 for their lives. A people who will presevere in war be- 
 yond a certain limit ought to know the consequences. 
 Many, many people, with less pertinacity than the South, 
 have been wiped out of national existence." 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 MERIDIAN. 
 
 FuEEiNo rat: Mississippi — A March of Destruction— Retreat of the 
 Enemy — Polk's Flight from Meridian — Failure of Smith's Expedi- 
 tion — Destroying Rebel Property — Confiscating a Chicken — 
 Results of the Raid — Scenes among the Liberated Negroes — the 
 Red River Expedition. 
 
 The Mississippi had been freed from Rebel control by 
 the capture of Vicksburg. To keep it free was the task 
 that now devolved upon Sherman, and to the execution of 
 which he addressed himself with characteristic energy. 
 His plan was to place a number of detachments of his 
 army at various points in the State of Mississippi, to ob- 
 serve the movements of the enemy and operate against 
 him, and then to send a powerful force through the heart 
 of the State, destroying roads and military supplies — a 
 raid of destruction. This campaign he planned during 
 January, 1864. The objective point of the raid was Merid- 
 ian, Mississippi. It was then the headquarters of General 
 Polk, the Rebel commander in that State, and garrisoned 
 by French's Division of the army. Of the Rebel leaders, 
 Loring was at Canton, Forrest with his cavalry was in the 
 northern counties, and several others were in the neigh- 
 borhood of the Mississippi. 
 286 
 
MARCHING THROUGH MISSISSIPPI. 287 
 
 Sherman put his cavalry under General William Sooy 
 Smith, and directed him to leave Memphis on February ist 
 for Meridian, by the way of Pontotoc, Okolona and Colum- 
 bus. The distance was two hundred and fifty miles, and 
 Smith was to reach his goal on February loth. He was 
 to strike boldly at any large force that might menace him, 
 to disregard all petty bands of the en«my, and, above all, 
 to arrive at Meridian at the exact date named. Two minor 
 expeditions were at the same time sent out, up the Yazoo 
 and to the Big Black, to keep the enemy quiet there. 
 
 Then, on February 3d, Sherman himself set out from 
 Vicksburg, with Hurlbut, McPherson, and E. F. Winslow, 
 having four divisions and a brigade, marching in two col- 
 umns. There were in all about 25,(X)0 men. Sherman 
 himself was with Hurlbut's column. After crossing the 
 Big Black River they headed for Bolton, fifteen miles away. 
 There they had a skirmish with the enemy, resulting in the 
 killing of twelve men and the wounding of thirty-five. 
 The Rebel loss was much larger, a number of their dead 
 being left on the field. McPherson's infantry forces 
 marched up rapidly, and dispersed Lee's cavalry, estimated 
 at 6,000 men, without any serious encounter. With his 
 usual energy McPherson continued to press them closely, 
 and so hotly were the retreating Rebels pursued that four 
 miles east of Bolton, Winslow succeeded in flanking them 
 with a force of 1,400 cavalry. The capture of the whole 
 force seemed inevitable at this juncture, but the main body 
 escaped, and only a few prisoners were taken. 
 
 Without much opposition the entire army marched 
 rapidly toward Jackson, Lee's cavalry fleeing in the greatest 
 disorder in the direction of Canton, a flourishing little town 
 twenty miles north of Jackson. Here Winslow's cavalry 
 closed in upon the Rebel columns, capturing a large num- 
 
28§ DESTROYING PROPERTY. 
 
 ber of prisoners and one piece of artillery, a ten-pounder 
 Parrott gun, together with a caisson stocked with ammu- 
 nition, which was subsequently used with good effect upon 
 the enemy's lines. Jackson was reached on the evening 
 of February 5th, and McPherson at once ordered the 
 Tenth Missouri Cavalry Regiment to secure the Rebel 
 pontoon bridge across Pearl River. General French, the 
 Rebel officer, had crossed this bridge but a few moments 
 in advance, and a large gang of Rebels were busily engaged 
 in destroying it, when the sudden appearance of the Mis- 
 sourians caused them to retreat. The bridge was saved, 
 and the next day the troops found it convenient for cross- 
 ing Pearl River. Sherman ordered the advance to pro- 
 ceed to Brandon, some twelve miles distant, meeting with 
 but slight resistance on their march. 
 
 At Jackson, some twenty buildings were destroyed by 
 the slaves in retaliation for the cruelties perpetrated upon 
 them by their masters. At Brandon, similar scenes were 
 witnessed, and the outraged bondmen and bondwomen re- 
 venged the brutality of those they once were compelled 
 to call masters. 
 
 "Our cavalry," wrote a correspondent who accompanied 
 the expedition, " arrived at Brandon on the afternoon of 
 Februray 7th, skirmishing all the way with a Rebel scout- 
 ing party, who fired annoying volleys at the advance guard 
 and then ran. Nearly all the citizens had left the place 
 with the retreating Confederate army. It was found that 
 the enemy had succeeded in removing nearly everything 
 with him. The work of destruction was, however, most 
 thoroughly done, and the houses of prominent Rebels (of 
 whom there was once a large number, though they have 
 now sought safety further east), were burned. Up to this 
 point every horse or mule that could be found had been 
 
H 
 
 PS 
 < 
 
 Q 
 
LOOKING FOR BATTLE. 291 
 
 gathered in, and they had become so numerous that a 
 special detail had to be made to take care of them. Of 
 hogs and beef-cattle there were but few, but such as were 
 found were taken possession of. In fact, everything of an 
 edible nature was levied upon and made an item in our 
 commissariat. Hundreds of blacks, who had been left to 
 care for themselves by their masters, came into our lines, 
 begging for something to eat, and asking Government pro- 
 tection. The railroad track had been torn up all the way 
 out, and every bridge and depot burned. We camped on 
 the night of the 7th two miles east of Brandon. 
 
 "The enemy's rear guard continued to hover over our 
 advance during the whole of the following day, and until 
 we arrived within eight miles of Morton. This was the 
 next place of importance after leaving Brandon, from which 
 it is about twenty miles distant. It was understood that a 
 large quantity of Confederate stores had been accumulated 
 at this point, and that here Polk would certainly give bat- 
 tle. The march was resumed early on the morning of the 
 9th, and by nine o'clock we were in town. Finding no 
 enemy, the advance was continued, with light skirmishing, 
 and progressed unchecked through the day. The i6th 
 Corps was now in advance. We went into camp for the 
 night a few miles west of Hillsboro. Kere, again, it was 
 thought the enemy would fight us, and preparations were 
 accordingly made. On the morning of the loth we en- 
 tered Hillsboro without opposition, the enemy having 
 retreated further east toward Meridian. During this and 
 the following day, our advance was not disturbed by a 
 single shot, but on the 15th we again came up with the 
 Rebels at Decatur. They were in force, and having de- 
 stroyed the bridge across Chunky Creek, were prepared to 
 oppose our crossing. 
 
292 THE REBELS ON THE RUN. 
 
 " Some heavy skirmishing was had here, and the enemy 
 for the first time during the campaign showed a deter- 
 mined front. The cavalry division, however, soon found a 
 crossing place, and dashing over the stream formed for ac- 
 tion on the other side. But before they were in line the 
 enemy was gone. The main body immediately crossed 
 over, and the cavalry again pushed forward. 
 
 "The Rebels seem at this time to have become thor- 
 oughly scared, and retreated precipitately, felling trees 
 across the road, and tearing up bridges to retard our ad- 
 vance. But so rapidly were the trees removed, and the 
 bridges repaired, that by four o'clock of the 13th, we were 
 so near them that these futile attempts to check us were 
 abandoned, and they resorted for safety to hard running. 
 During the day scores of prisoners were captured, all of 
 whom represented the Confederate army as being utterly 
 demoralized. The pursuit was kept up until after nine 
 o'clock, when we went into camp about seven miles from 
 Meridian." 
 
 Polk was supposed to have at least 20,000 men at Meri- 
 dian, and Sherman expected him to offer battle. But no. 
 The Rebels fled without striking a blow, carrying with them 
 a goodly portion of their stores. As the Union calvary 
 entered the town, the last train load of Rebels left it, 
 the locomotive whistle screaming a defiant farewell. Had 
 Sherman been sure that no resistance would be offered, 
 he might have occupied the town more quickly, and made 
 more important captures. Yet the taking of the town, as 
 it was done, was a splendid stroke for the national cause. 
 An eye-witness relates that when the news was brought in 
 to Sherman that the Rebels had abandoned Meridian with- 
 out a blow, and that the destruction was accomplished, 
 he is said by eye-witnesses to have walked silently to and 
 
THE SPOILS OF WAR. 293 
 
 fro for some minutes, and then burst out excitedly, "This 
 is worth fifty millions to the Government." The Rebels 
 seemed, up almost to the last moment, to have regarded 
 Mobile as the point aimed at, Farragut's bombardment of 
 Fort Powell serving to keep up the impression. "I am 
 warranted in saying that Sherman was sanguine of his 
 ability to have taken that city without difficulty, and had 
 the object of his expedition permitted, would have done 
 so. He states unhesitatingly that he felt sorely tempted to 
 do so as it was, and nothing but the fact of its possibly 
 frustrating other important movements already planned, 
 prevented his undertaking it." 
 
 The Union troops remained at Meridian seven days, de- 
 stroying the arsenal and many other buildings. "The 
 Ragsdale and Burton Hotels were destroyed after the fur- 
 niture had been removed, it being the intention of Gen- 
 eral Sherman to destroy nothing except that which might 
 be used by the Rebel Government. The State Arsenal 
 was stocked with valuable machinery for the manufacture 
 and repair of small arms and all sorts of ordnance stores, 
 the destruction of which will prove a serious blow to the 
 enemy. Twelve extensive government sheds, a large 
 building called the Soldier's Home, and a number of hos- 
 pitals and warehouses filled with miscellaneous military 
 stores, were set on fire and totally destroyed. Two large 
 grist mills were likewise burned, after our army had ground 
 a sufficient supply of corn meal. Twenty thousand bush- 
 els of corn fell into our hands, and was speedily converted 
 into corn cakes for the hungry soldiers." 
 
 General William Sooy Smith did not get to Meridian 
 with his cavalry expedition on February loth, as Sherman 
 had directed, nor did he get there at all. Sherman waited 
 in hope that he would come, and sent out parties to look 
 
294 SMITH' S FA IL URE. 
 
 for him, but to no avail. He afterward found that Smith 
 had not left Memphis until February iitb, had gone as far 
 as West Point, and had returned to Memphis on February 
 22d. During his week's stay at Meridian, however, Sher- 
 man was not idle. Beside the work of destruction there, 
 he sent out rading parties in different directions, for the 
 purpose of destroying whatever might benefit the re- 
 bellion. Among the places devastated were Enterprise, 
 Marion, Quitman, Hillsboro, Canton, Lake Station, Deca- 
 tur, Bolton and Lauderdale Springs. At Enterprise, the 
 depot, two flour mills, 15,000 bushels of corn, 2,000 bales 
 of fine cotton, branded C. S. A., two military hospitals, and 
 several new buildings connected with a parole camp, were 
 laid in ashes. 
 
 "At Marion the railroad station, wood-house, and a few 
 small buildings were burned. Quitman was visited and 
 two flour mills, a fine saw-mill, railroad depot and other 
 storage buildings, with several thousand feet of lumber, 
 fell a prey to the fire king. At Hillsboro several stores 
 were set on fire. Seventeen damaged locomotives, six 
 locomotives in fine running order, a number of cars, and 
 a repair shop, with hand-cars, quantities of sleepers, and 
 tool house, were destroyed at Canton — all belonging to 
 the Mississippi Central Railroad. No private property 
 was molested or injured at Canton, the inhabitants never 
 having fired upon our troops. Beyond the depletion of 
 a few unguarded hen-roosts, very little depredation was 
 committed. 
 
 "An ardent secession lady," continues the correspon- 
 dent, " discovered a vile Yankee surreptitiously purloin- 
 ing a pair of fat chickens. Terribly incensed at this 
 wanton robbery and gross violation of the rights of per- 
 sonal property, she make a bold onslaught, but I regret to 
 
ETHICS OF THE HEN ROOST 295 
 
 say that all her expostulatious failed to convince the de- 
 moralized and hungry ' mudsill ' that he was sinning, for he 
 replied, 'Madam! this accursed rebellion must be crushed, 
 if it takes every chicken in Mississippi.' The door was 
 slammed to with violence, and the enraged woman retired, 
 disgusted with 'Yankee' habits, to mourn over the loss of 
 her plump pair of chickens. 
 
 " Our troops raised sad havoc with the Mobile and Ohio 
 and the Southern railroad lines. The Southern road was 
 torn up, rails twisted, and sleepers burnt from Jackson to 
 twenty miles east of Meridian to Cuba Station. The 
 Mobile and Ohio road was destroyed for fifty-six miles, ex- 
 tending from Quitman to Lauderdale Springs. Five costly 
 bridges were totally destroyed ; the one spanning the 
 Chickasawhay River was 210 feet long with trestle-work 
 which required four months' hard labor of hundreds of 
 mechanics to construct it. It was a substantial, covered 
 bridge. The bridges over Octchibacah, Alligator, Talla- 
 hassee, and Chunky Rivers were also burned. The Mobile 
 and Ohio road, which was so thoroughly destroyed, was 
 considered by engineers to be the finest built road in the 
 United States, costing $50,000 per mile. It was built 
 principally by English capitalists, and George Peabody, 
 the London banker, owned several thousand shares." 
 
 After a week at Meridian, Sherman moved northward. 
 On February 26th he encamped near Canton, and the 
 great raid was practically ended. On March 3d, he was 
 back in Vicksburg, exactly a month after he had left it. 
 He left his army at Canton. It had marched about four 
 hundred and fifty miles in less than a month, and had 
 lived on the country it marched through. And it was now 
 in better health and general condition than when it started. 
 
 Its losses had been slight: 21 killed, 6Z wounded, and 
 
296 AMONG THE FREEDMEN. 
 
 81 missing. It brought in over 400 prisoners, 1,000 white 
 refugees, 5,000 negroes, and vast trains of cattle and 
 wagons ; while the carnage it had done to the Rebel cause 
 was simply incalculable. In summing up the results of 
 the expedition, and describing one of its most picturesque 
 and impressive features, a New York Tribune writer said : 
 
 "Everywhere the blacks testified unmixed delight at our 
 approacf), frequently meeting us with their wives and chil- 
 dren 'toting' their little all along with them, and ap- 
 parently fully satisfied of the advent of the 'day of ju- 
 bilo.' Repeatedly were our men advised of the hiding 
 places of hoards of bacon, pork, hams, stock, carriages, 
 etc., the movements of Rebel military and the where- 
 abouts of citizens fighting in the Rebel army. It is in 
 vain that the people have sought to inspire them with 
 aversion and terror of our Northern, especially Yankee, 
 soldiers. They know better, and in spite of the habit of 
 years to obey and believe their masters, they will not credit 
 what they say, but preferring to cut loose forever from the 
 associations of youth and all of home they know, throw 
 themselves upon the uncertain issue of their new con- 
 dition with a faith that is sublime. 
 
 "From 5,000 to 7,000 of these people accompanied the 
 triumphal return of Sherman's expedition, and I defy any 
 human being with as much feeling in his bosom as even 
 Legree in Mrs. Stowe's immortal story to look on such a 
 scene unmoved. Old men with the frosts of 90 years upon 
 their heads, men in the prime of manhood, youth, and 
 children that could barely run, women with their babies 
 at their breasts, girls with the blood of white men in their 
 veins, old women tottering feebly along, leading children 
 and grandchildren, dear to them as our own sons and 
 daughters are to us. They came, many of them, it is true, 
 
RED RIVER. 297 
 
 with shout and careless laughter, but siicnr tears coursed 
 down many a cheek — tears of thankfulness for their great 
 deliverance, and there were faces in that crowd which 
 shone with a joy which caused them to look almost in- 
 spired. Those may smile who will, but the story of the 
 coming up of the children of Israel out of the land of 
 Egypt can never call up to my mind a more profound 
 emotion than the remembrance of that scene. 
 
 "When I looked upon the long lane filing in through 
 roads along which our slaughtered brothers lie buried 
 thicker than sheaves in a harvest field, and reflected on 
 the horrors to which this race had been subjected, I felt 
 faith in a God of Justice renewed in my heart, and hope 
 in the success of our cause rekindle to a brighter flame." 
 
 From Vicksburg Sherman went to New Orleans to ar- 
 range with Banks and Porter the details of the Red River 
 expedition. Banks wanted 10,000 of Sherman's men for 
 thirty days, and Sherman promised that he should have 
 them. So, returning to Vicksburg, Sherman directed A. 
 J. Smith to take 7,500 men of Hurlbut's corps (Six- 
 teenth), and 2,500 of McPherson's (Seventeenth), and re- 
 port to Banks for thirty days and no more, at the end of 
 which time he was to return to Vicksburg. The Red 
 River expedition was not successful, and it was two and 
 a-half months before A. J. Smith returned to Vicksburg, 
 much of the delay being caused by low water in the rivers, 
 and consequent diflSculties of transportation. 
 
CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 THE BEGINNING OF THE END. 
 
 Grant made Lieutenant-General — Correspondence with Sherman — 
 Their Memorable Interview — Planning a Scientific Campaign — 
 General Howard's Pen Picture of the Two Soldiers — Schofield, 
 McPherson and Thomas — Grant's Final Orders — Sherman's Army 
 IN Line — Strength of Johnston's Army — General Howard's Ac- 
 count OF the Advance. 
 
 March 4th, 1864, marked the beginning of the end 
 of the great rebellion. A law had been made by Con- 
 gress, authorizing the appointment of a Lieutenant-Gen- 
 eral, to command all the armies of the Nation. President 
 Lincoln promptly selected Grant for the position, and 
 on the date above named telegraphed to him at Nashville 
 to come at once to Washington. Grant received this ex- 
 alted honor with his characteristic modesty, and assumed 
 the vast responsibility without hesitation. But in this 
 "crowded hour of glorious life," which to him was surely 
 "worth an age without a name," the great soldier in- 
 stinctively turned his earliest thoughts toward his comrades 
 in arms, and first and most toward Sherman. In the very 
 hour in which he received the dispatch from Washington, 
 he wrote to Sherman, telling him the news, and generously 
 attributing a large share of his success to his faithful aids. 
 
 "Dear Sherman," he said, " . . .1 want to express my 
 298 
 
SHERMAN'S ESTIMA TE OF GRANT. 299 
 
 thanks to you and McPherson, as the men to whom, above 
 all others, I feel indebted for whatever I have had of suc- 
 cess. How far your advice and assistance have been of 
 help to me, you know. How far your execution of what- 
 ever has been given you to do entitles you to the reward 
 I am receiving, you cannot know as well as I. I feel all 
 the gratitude this letter would express, giving it the most 
 flattering construction. The word you I use in the plural, 
 intending it for McPherson also. I should write to him, and 
 will some day, but starting in the morning, I do not know 
 that I will find time just now." 
 
 Equally generous and noble was Sherman's reply. After 
 referring to the transcendent importance of Grant's new 
 rank, as " Washington's legitimate successor," he said : 
 " You do McPherson and myself too much honor. At 
 Belmont you manifested your traits — neither of us being 
 near. At Donelson, also, you illustrated your whole charac- 
 ter. I was not near, and General McPherson in too sub- 
 ordinate a capacity to influence you. Until you had won 
 Donelson, I confess I was almost cowed by the terrible 
 array of anarchical elements that presented themselves at 
 every point ; but that admitted a ray of light I have fol- 
 lowed since. 
 
 " I believe you are as brave, patriotic, and just as the 
 great prototype, Washington — as unselfish, kind-hearted, 
 and honest as a man should be — but the chief characteristic 
 is the simple faith in success you have always manifested, 
 which I can liken to nothing else than the faith a Christian 
 has in the Saviour. 
 
 " This faith gave you the victory at Shiloh and Vicks- 
 burg. Also when you have completed your best prepara- 
 tions, you go into battle without hesitation, as at Chatta- 
 nooga — no doubts — no reserves ; and I tell you, it was this 
 
300 LINCOLN AND GRANT. 
 
 that made us act with confidence. I knew, wherever I was, 
 that you thought of me, and if I got in a tight place you 
 would help me out, if alive. 
 
 " My only point of doubts was, in your knowledge of 
 grand strategy, and of books of science and history ; but, 
 I confess, your common sense seems to have supplied all 
 these." 
 
 The appointment of Grant was confirmed, and on March 
 9th, 1864, in the presence of the Cabinet, Lincoln gave 
 him his commission as Lieutenant-General, saying as he 
 did so : 
 
 " General Grant : The Nation's appreciation of what 
 you have done, and its reliance upon you for what remains 
 to be done in the existing great struggle, are now present 
 with this commission constituting you Lieutenant-General 
 of the Armies of the United States. With this high 
 honor devolves upon you also a corresponding responsibility. 
 As the country herein trusts you, so, under God, it will sus- 
 tain you. I need scarcely add that with what I here speak 
 for the Nation goes my own hearty personal concurrence." 
 
 Grant's reply was brief and modest. He said : 
 
 " Mr. President : I accept the commission with grati- 
 tude for the high honor conferred. With the aid of the 
 noble armies that have fought on so many fields for our 
 common country, it will be my earnest endeavor not to 
 disappoint your expectations. I feel the full weight of the 
 responsibilities now devolving upon me, and I know that 
 if they are met it will be due to these armies, and, above 
 all, to the favor of that Providence which leads both nations 
 and men." 
 
 By the same order that put Grant in command of all the 
 armies, Sherman was made commander of the Military 
 Division of the Mississippi ; and McPherson, of the 
 
GRANT AND SHERAf AN. 3OI 
 
 Department and Army of the Tennessee. This order 
 reached Sherman at Memphis on March 14th, just as he 
 was starting for Huntsville to prepare for a campaign in 
 Georgia. Accompanying it was a dispatch from Grant, 
 asking Sherman to meet him at Nashville. Sherman 
 accordingly went to the last named place, met Grant there, 
 and travelled with him as far as Cincinnati on his way to 
 Washington. In the newspapers of March 21st appeared 
 the following inconspicuous news items : 
 
 "Louisville, Saturday, March 19th 1864. 
 
 " Lieutenant-General Grant passed through here to night 
 en route for Washington. 
 
 " Major-General Sherman also passed through here to- 
 night en route for Cincinnati. 
 
 " Cincinnati, March 20th, 1864. 
 
 "Lieutenant-General Grant and staff arrived here this 
 morning, and left to-night for Washington. 
 
 " Major-General Sherman also arrived here this morning." 
 
 On that journey to Cincinnati, the death-warrant of the 
 Southern Confederacy was made out, and it was signed 
 and sealed in the parlor of the Burnet House, Cincinnati, 
 when the two Generals bent together over a map, marked 
 out the great Richmond and Atlanta campaigns, and then, 
 with a silent hand-clasp, parted, not to meet again until 
 each had done deeds that made the world ring with his 
 fame. 
 
 Of these interviews and the illustrious men who parti- 
 cipated in them, and of the events immediately following, 
 General O. O. Howard speaks as follows: 
 
 "Now behold these men together. Grant and Sherman! 
 Grant of medium size, of short neck, square shoulders, 
 well proportioned head, and firmly knit frame. His heavy 
 brow and large eye, changeable surely, but always masked 
 
302 PICTURE OF TWO GENERALS. 
 
 by his strong self-control, accorded him quiet dignity and 
 becoming respect. His smile, which never failed him up 
 to the last sickness, lighted his face, bespoke humor and 
 good-fellowship, and to Sherman the utmost friendliness. 
 Sherman appeared tall beside him ; his forehead high, his 
 hair light and sandy, his eye keen and piercing, and his 
 frame though not so compact as Grant's, supple and ex- 
 pressive of health and energy. Grant inspired you in his 
 wholeness like a fertile prairie, Sherman like a hill-country 
 abounding in choice knolls and mountain heights. His 
 bouyant coming put one at ease. His deep pleasant voice 
 riveted attention, and his fast flowing conversation 
 rewarded your silence, 
 
 j " There at Nashville they met, and Grant turned over 
 to Sherman the Western armies. Grant hastened back to 
 Washington, Sherman went with him as far as Cincinnati. 
 In a sentence, Sherman has summed up their prolonged 
 council of war : Amidst constant interruptions of a busi- 
 ness and social nature we reached the satisfactory con- 
 clusion that as soon as the season would permit, all the 
 armies of the Union would assume the 'bold offensive' 
 by 'concentric lines' on the common enemy, and would 
 finish up the job in a single campaign if possible. The 
 main objectives were Lee's Army behind the Rapidan in 
 Virginia, and Joseph E. Johnston's Army at Dalton, 
 Georgia." 
 
 "Johnston's army was our work, in a nut-shell. Sub- 
 stantially, take a bold offensive — Beat Johnston — Get 
 into the interior — Inflict damage, and keep our enemy so 
 busy that he cannot reinforce elsewhere. 
 
 "To catch glimpses of how the work so ordered was 
 undertaken, there are other pictures. General Sherman 
 had some original ways of rapid transit. A special car 
 
SCHO FIELD, iWPHERSOiV AND THOMAS. 3O3 
 
 took him, the 25th of March, to General G. M. Dodge, a 
 Corps Commander, then at Pulaski, Tennessee. Next he 
 joined McPherson at Huntsville, Alabama. The two latter 
 were very soon with Thomas at Chattanooga; and were 
 after that speedily with Schofield a hundred miles east- 
 ward without rail-cars at Knoxville. Schofield turned 
 back with them, so that shortly after, at Chattanooga, in 
 the left hand room of a one story house, now owned by 
 Mr. J. T. Williams, took place before the end of March 
 another memorable war-meeting. 
 
 "One figure there was that of General Schofield. He 
 was to bring into the field about fourteen thousand men. 
 He was in form more like Grant than Sherman. He 
 combined intellectual vigor with marked judiciousness. 
 Another figure was McPherson. He had to furnish some 
 twenty-five thousand soldiers. He was equal to Sherman 
 in quickness of thought, but, like all engineers, more wary 
 in his execution. 
 
 "With his genial face, his large high head and fine fig- 
 ure, he stood with the noblest. The third. General George 
 H. Thomas, with his nearly seventy thousand aggregate. 
 He was tall and broad, and heavy and handsome, of good 
 judgment and sterling record. These three army com- 
 manders were thus assembled, and the hearty Sherman 
 was with them. Of this group, Sherman in his story has 
 said: 'We had nothing like a council of war, but consulted 
 freely and frankly on all matters of interest to them, then 
 in progress or impending.' At farthest the first of May 
 was to end the period of preparation, when the different 
 clans should be gathered and ready for the fray. The 
 leaders of corps and divisions, and the essential consoli- 
 dations were there fixed upon ; and the great problem of safe 
 supply was, at least to themselves, satisfactorily solved. 
 
304 PREPARING FOR BUSINESS. 
 
 "The meeting broke up, the commanders returned to 
 their places, taking Sherman for awhile to Nashville. No 
 man can tell the amount of hard work that resulted 
 from this interview. The next month was pregnant with 
 the faith and hope of the coming campaign. Behold 
 the loaded trains, following untiringly in sight of each 
 other ; but do not stop to count the broken engines by the 
 wayside, or the cars turned topsy turvey. 
 
 "Behold the duplicate and triplicate bridges, the hosts 
 of mules and horses in motion, the redoubts and block- 
 houses constructed, or building, the sugar, the coffee, and 
 the hard bread and other supplies, coming into Chattanoo- 
 ga, and the. herds of cattle lowing along the dusty roads 
 leading to the front, all the way from Louisville and Nash- 
 ville. The soldiers said, * Tecumseh is a great fellow. 
 He means business.' Thorough and confident prepara- 
 tions are always a source of encouragement and inspira- 
 tion." 
 
 The nation was now to see scientific warfare. The cam- 
 paigns of the Union armies were planned with mathemati- 
 cal accuracy. There were three grand divisions of attack 
 upon the Rebellion. At the east, moving directly against 
 the Rebel capital, was Grant with the Army of the Poto- 
 mac. West of the Mississippi River was Banks. The 
 great central region was left to Sherman, and his objec- 
 tive point was Atlanta. The Mississippi Valley was fully 
 wrested from Rebel control, and a series of brilliant victo- 
 ries marked the whole line from Vicksburg, on that river, 
 to Chattanooga, among the Appalachian Mountains. Be- 
 tween the river and the mountains the war was practically 
 ended and the Confederacy crushed. But in the rich and 
 populous country between the mountains and the Atlantic 
 coast the insurgents were still strong. There was concen- 
 
GRANT'S PLAN- OF OPERATIONS. 305 
 
 trated all the power that the Richmond Government now 
 possessed. And the people of Georgia and the Carolinas 
 actually believed themselves to be secure from "Yankee 
 invasion," guarded as they v^rere by the powerful armies of 
 Lee and Jackson, and by the mighty natural ramparts of 
 the mountain range. 
 
 But Sherman proposed to cross the mountains and 
 march through the heart of this country to Atlanta, which 
 was its industrial centre. This city was the converging 
 point of many important railroads, and here were the 
 principal machine shops and other factories of the Rebel 
 Government. To capture it would break the spirit of the 
 South and cripple its military power as no other blow, not 
 even the capture of Richmond, could do. 
 
 On April 4th, Grant outlined to Sherman his plans for 
 the campaign, as follows : 
 
 " It is my design, if the enemy keeps quiet, and allows 
 me to take the initiative in the spring campaign, to work 
 all parts of the army together, and somewhat toward a 
 common centre. For your information I now write you 
 my programme as at present determined upon. 
 
 " I have sent orders to Banks, by private messenger, to 
 finish up his present expedition against Shreveport with 
 all dispatch ; to turn over the defence of Red River to 
 General Steele and the navy, and return your troops to 
 you, and his own to New Orleans ; to abandon all Texas 
 except the Rio Grande, and to hold that with a force not ex- 
 ceeding 4,000 men ; to reduce the number of troops on the 
 Mississippi to the lowest necessary to hold it, and to col- 
 lect from his command not less than 25,000 men. To 
 this I will add 5,000 from Missouri. With this torce he is 
 to commence operations against Mobile as soon as he can. 
 It will be impossible for him to commence too early. 
 
306 WHAT SHERMAN WAS TO DO. 
 
 "Gilmore joins Butler with 10,000 men, and the two 
 operate against Richmond from the south side of James 
 River. This will give Butler 33,000 men, W. F. Smith 
 commanding the right wing of his forces, and Gilmore the 
 left wing. I will stay with the Army of the Potomac, in- 
 creased by Burnside's Corps of not less than 25,000 effec- 
 tive men, and operate directly against Lee's army wherever 
 it may be found. Sigel collects all his available force in 
 two columns — one, under Ord and Averill, to start from 
 Beverley, Virginia, and the other, under Crook, to start 
 from Charleston, on the Kanawha — to move against the 
 Virginia and Tennessee Railroad. Crook will endeavor to 
 get in about Saltville, and move east from there to join 
 Ord. His force will be all cavalry, while Ord will have 
 from 10,000 to 12,000 men of all arms. You I propose to 
 move against Johnston's army, to break it up and get into 
 the enemy's country as far as you can, inflicting all the 
 damage you can against their war resources. 
 
 " I do not propose to lay down for you a plan of cam- 
 paign, but simply to indicate the work it is desirable to 
 have done, and leave you free to execute it in your own 
 way. Submit to me, however, as soon as you can, your 
 plan of operation. 
 
 "As stated. Banks is ordered to commence operations 
 as soon as he can ; Gillmore is ordered to report at Fortress 
 Monroe by the i8th, or as soon thereafter as practicable; 
 Sigel is concentrating now. None will move from their 
 places of rendezvous until I direct, except Banks. I want 
 to be ready to move by the 25th instant, if possible; 
 but all I can now direct is that you get ready as 
 soon as you can. I know you will have difficulties to 
 encounter in getting through the mountains to where 
 supplies are abundant, but I believe you will accomplish it." 
 
MAJOR-GENERAL SCHOFIELD, U. S. A. 
 
.-/ WORD OF CAUTION. 309 
 
 And ten days later he added : 
 
 " What I now want more particularly to say is that, if 
 the two main attacks, yours and the one from here, should 
 promise great success, the enemy may, in a fit of despera- 
 tion, abandon one part of their line of defence and throw 
 their whole strength upon a single army, believing a 
 defeat with one victory to sustain them better than a 
 defeat all along their whole line, and hoping, too, at the 
 same time, that the army, meeting with no resistance, will 
 rest perfectly satisfied with its laurels, having penetrated 
 to a given point south, thereby enabling them to throw 
 their force first upon one and then on the other. 
 
 " With the majority of military commanders they might 
 do this ; but you have had too much experience in travel- 
 ling light, and subsisting upon the country, to be caught by 
 any such ruse, I hope my experience has not been thrown 
 away. My directions, then, would be, if the enemy in 
 your front shows signs of joining Lee, follow him up to the 
 extent of your ability. I will prevent the concentration 
 of Lee upon your front if it is in the power of this army to 
 do it." 
 
 Grant proposed to move against Lee on May 5th, and it 
 was arranged that Sherman should at the same time move 
 against Johnston. For this work Sherman now put for- 
 ward his preperations with all possible zeal and thorough- 
 ness. On April 27th he ordered all his troops to Chatta- 
 nooga, and the next day placed his own headquarters there. 
 On May 6th his mighty host was marshalled for the 
 advance. Three armies were under his command. The 
 Army of the Tennessee was on the bank of Chickamauga 
 Creek, near Gordon's Mill. It comprised the Fifteenth 
 and parts of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Army Corps, 
 under Generals Logan, Dodge and Blair, with the gallant 
 
3 I O SHERMAN 'S A RMY. 
 
 McPherson in general command. The Army of the Cum- 
 berland was at Ringgold. It included the Fourth, Four- 
 teenth and Twentieth Corps, under Generals Howard, 
 Palmer and Hooker, with Thomas in general command. 
 The Army of the Ohio was near Red Clay, north of 
 Dalton, Georgia. It consisted of the Ninth and Twenty- 
 third Corps, and was commanded by General Schofield. 
 The strength of these armies was as follows : Tennessee 
 — Infantry, 22,437; Artillery, 1,404; Cavalry, 624; total, 
 24,465; guns, 96. Cumberland — Infantry, 54,568; Artil- 
 lery, 2,377; Cavalry, 3,828; total, 60,773; guns, 130. 
 Ohio — Infantry, 11,193; Artillery, 679; Cavalry, 1,697: 
 total, 13,559 ; guns, 28. Sherman had planned an army of 
 100,000 men and 250 guns. He actually had, according 
 to the above statement, 98,797 men and 254 guns. 
 
 The opposing Rebel army was now commanded by 
 Joseph E. Johnston, who had succeeded Bragg, and com- 
 prised three corps, under Hardee, Hood and Polk. Ac- 
 cording to Johnston's official statement, its total strength 
 in April, 1864, was 52,992, and at the middle of May, 
 when the battle of Resaca was fought, 71,235. The num- 
 ber of guns on both sides was about equal. 
 
 The Army of the Potomac crossed the Rapidan on May 
 4th, and Grant, sitting on a log in the Virginia woods, 
 telegraphed to Sherman at Chattanooga to move forward. 
 General Howard's account of the opening of the great 
 march is as follows : 
 
 " When we were ready for the bold offensive, the left 
 of Thomas, (Howard's Corps) rested at Catoosa Springs 
 his centre, (Hooker) at Ringsfold, and his right, (Palmer) 
 at Leet's Tan Yard. McPherson was near Villanow, and 
 Schofield moving southward from Cleveland, Tennessee, 
 approached Dalton. It was the sixth of May. 
 
BEGINNING THE GREAT MARCH. 311 
 
 "Notice Catoosa Springs, a summer resort. Tiie sur- 
 rounding hills were covered with trees, light green, in 
 tender leaf ; and the mountain ranges on two sides, Look- 
 out and Taylor's Ridge, gave substantial back ground to a 
 variegated and charming landscape. The effect of war 
 had already nearly depopulated the village, so that there 
 was little use for the large hotel buildings or the smaller 
 boarding-houses — a few trembUng citizens and a few 
 dubious black people were all that remained to satisfy 
 official curiosity and supply local knowledge. 
 
 "This bright May morning I saw Thomas and Sherman 
 together. Sherman, now that things were in motion, 
 appeared happy and confident. With a map before him, 
 he gave us briefly the entire situation. Here is Dalton, — 
 there your force — on this side Schofield. Down there 
 McPherson, soon to pass the Snake Gap and strike 
 Johnston's line. Thomas in his quiet way put forth then 
 the bolder view, viz : send at once the larger force, not the 
 smaller, through the gap. Sherman shook his head, and 
 signified that he was not yet ready to exchange bases with 
 Johnston. But there was no jar, only confidence in each 
 other and strong hope in our hearts as we separated that 
 day. 
 
 " Early the next morning was another meeting, out in 
 the open field. Stanley with his strong build, fine face 
 and long beard. T. J. Wood of smaller stature, grayish 
 hair and decisive, caustic ways ; and Newton with his 
 handsome figure and keen sensitive looks, never thoroughly 
 contented till the conflict was actually joined. These 
 Division Commanders of the fourth corps stood near each 
 other intently gazing upon the crest of Tunnel Hill. Our 
 troops were already deployed and advancing in the beauti- 
 ful morning light — arms were never brighter — and the 
 
3 12 OPENING THE BALL. 
 
 Confederate cavalry, in full array, coming up from beyond 
 the ridge, with skirmish interval, added interest and 
 emotion to the parade. A battery or so, hastening to 
 place, only deepened the feeling in the breasts of our ex- 
 perienced veterans. 
 
 "At a word of command and a bugle call the outer line 
 took up the run, and soon cleared the whole front. A few 
 zip, zips of the formost rifles, a few cannon salutes, a few 
 screeches of shells, a few men wounded to the death or 
 maimed for life ! and that was all ! When I took my stand 
 by Stanley's side on the crest of the hill just gained, and 
 thence sought to reconnoitre Tailor's craggy mou'Vitain 
 range which still sheltered the bulk of Johnston's host, 
 Stanley cried out : General, the ball is opened ! And so 
 it had. It was a curious ball, a long dance, for more than 
 one hundred days. And it was a terrible dance, wilder at 
 times than comes to foresters amid the bending and 
 falling of trees in a hurricane ; it was fearfully suggestive 
 of the savage war-dance of the red men that ends in death 
 to white men and desolation to homes. 
 
 " Far off to the centre and right. Palmer with his strongly 
 marked face and Thomas-like proportions, and the hand- 
 some, ' fio-hting Joe ' Hooker, always a law unto himself, 
 bore their part in the opening ball, closing up speedily to 
 the rocky face barrier, and estopping that mouth of Georgia, 
 whence issued stranger, screeching, whizzing birds than 
 those which gave the gaping mouth its name of Buzzard's 
 Gap. One such savage bird in the shape of a minie-ball 
 flew between Howard and Thomas, wound its way through 
 their group of staff officers, grazed the limb of a tree and 
 fell upon the ground, tearing in its flight a general's coat 
 in three rents, and pecking an uncouth hole through the rim 
 of a staff hat. Mean while Newton and his brave men, 
 
THE BUZZARDS^ ROOST. 313 
 
 against bloody resistance, were dragging cannon to the very 
 hostile crest northward ; and Hooker was ascending the 
 mountain against heavy odds southward of the old Buz- 
 zard's formidable roosts." 
 
CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 ATLANTA. 
 
 The Turning of Rocky Face — Resaca — General Howard's Narra- 
 tive — Adairsville — Crossing THE Etowah — Sherman on- Familiar 
 Ground— Dealing with Breaches of Discipline — Allatoona Pass — 
 The Siege and Turning of Kenesaw — Smyrna and Peach Tree — 
 Hood succeeds Johnston — Death of McPherson — Howard in Com- 
 mand of the Army of the Tennessee — Ezra Church — Operations 
 AROUND Atlanta — The Rush to Jonesboro — Capture of Atlanta. 
 
 Sherman moved foward on May 6th toward Dalton, 
 where lay the enemy. A direct attack 6n this position, 
 however, was impossible. Dalton lay behind a precipitous 
 mountain ridge, called Rocky Face, which it was impractica- 
 ble to scale. The only passage way was through a narrow 
 gap called Buzzard's Roost, through which ran a railroad 
 and a small stream known as Mill Creek. The enemy had 
 strongly fortified the place, and Sherman quickly decided 
 that it would be folly to try to force his way through. He 
 therefore gave orders to McPherson to move rapidly south- 
 ward to Snake Creek Gap, at the southern extremity of 
 the Rocky Face Ridge, where there was an easy passage 
 through to Resaca, at the raih-oad crossing over Oostanaula 
 River, eighteen miles south of Dalton. Thomas, on May 
 7th, took up a strong position on Tunnel Hill, almost 
 directly facing the Buzzard's Roost Gap, while Schofield 
 314 
 
TURNING THE FLANK. 3IS 
 
 Steadily approached Dalton from the north. Two days 
 later, to keep Johnston occupied, Thomas made a feigned 
 attack upon the Gap, driving the enemy's cavalry and 
 skirmishers through it. The day was very stormy, but the 
 troops rushed on in high spirits and with enthusiastic de- 
 termination. A division of Howard's troops under New- 
 ton actually surrounded the narrow ridge and carried a 
 part north of the Gap, but the crest was too strait for 
 them to make much pro^iess there. South of the Roost 
 some of Hooker's men also made a rush for the summit, 
 but found the enemy's works too strong to take and hold. 
 
 The gallant McPherson had, meanwhile, reached Snake 
 Creep Gap, and surprised the Confederate cavalry brigade 
 that had been posted there. He marched practically with- 
 out opposition to within a mile of Resaca, but then found 
 that Johnston had defended that flace with fortifications 
 which he deemed too strong for direct assault ; so, he fell 
 back to Snake Creek Gap and waited for reinforcements. 
 
 Next, Sherman directed Howard to remain on guard at 
 Buzzard's Roost with the Fourth Corps and Stoneman's 
 Cavalry, and sent forward Schofield and Thomas, with 
 Cox's, Hooker's, and Palmer's Corps, to aid McPherson. 
 Nearly the whole army was thus assembled on May 12th 
 before Resaca, so that Johnston, seeing his flank turned^ 
 that night abandoned Dalton and concentrated at Resaca. 
 Howard follow'ing close with his horse and foot, pressed 
 through Buzzard's Roost Gap, entered Dalton, and pursued 
 Johnston till he joined Sherman at Resaca. 
 
 Sherman now undertook to drive Johnston out of Re- 
 saca by attacking him in front with his main army, while a 
 detachment crossed over the Oostanaula and threatened 
 his communications. The latter movement was effected 
 by the way of Lay's Ferry and Calhoun. Early m the 
 
RESACA. 317 
 
 afternoon of May r4th the grand attack upon Resaca be- 
 gan. Sherman's left centre made a gallant assault, carried 
 a work, captured some guns, but was then checked. 
 Then the famous Hood made a furious attack upon 
 Sherman's left flank and at first gained some advantage, 
 which Howard, aided by a division of Hooker's, repulsed 
 with great loss to the enemy. McPherson also gained 
 a position from which he could pour an enfilading fire 
 into Johnston's intrenchments. Johnston tried to dislodge 
 him, but in vain, though the fighting v/as continued until 
 nearly midnight. Next morning while a detachment crossed 
 the river to the south, the battle was renewed, and by one 
 o'clock the Union troops had captured a portion of the 
 Rebel lines, and were within gunshot of Johnston's com- 
 munications. That night he abandoned Resaca and fled to 
 the south, burning the railroad bridge behind him. But 
 Sherman entered the town in time to save the wagon 
 bridge over the Oostanaula. In these operations at 
 Resaca, Sherman's total losses were between 4,000 and 
 5,000. Johnston's were less, probably not over 2,500, 
 since his men fought in this roughest of country chiefly 
 from behind fortifications. A general pursuit of Johnston 
 by Sherman's entire army was immediately ordered. 
 
 Speaking of the battle of Resaca, General Howard 
 says : 
 
 " One scene at Resaca might be painted. Two rivers 
 come together, one, the Oostansula flowing west, and its 
 tributary, the Connassauga, south. Confederate Johnston, 
 after fleeing from Dalton, placed his army in the north- 
 west angle of the streams, resting Polk's Corps against 
 the Oostanaula, facing west, put Hardee's next above, run- 
 ning up a creek, and then bore Hood back in a convex 
 curve till his men touched the Connassauga. Sherman 
 
3l8 ADAIRSVILLE. 
 
 made McPherson breast Polk ; Schofield face Hardee's 
 intended lines, and Thomas take care of Hood. Thus we 
 were holding the outer or enveloping lines, all in the midst 
 of forest land exceedingly rough and wild. Thomas had 
 not men enough to fill his line and cover half of Hood's 
 front. Stanley, of Howard's Corps, held the left. He put 
 much cannon on convenient knolls and had as large reserves 
 as he could spare ; but either the indomitable Hood or the 
 wary Johnston had discovered the weakness of our left, so 
 that about 3 P. M. the masses of Hood came pouring, like 
 mountain torrents, upon Stanley and far beyond the reach 
 of his rifles and the staying force of his artillery. Word 
 came, " Stanley's left is turned." And so instantly Howard 
 rode to a group of mounted officers. Here were Hooker, 
 Thomas and Sherman together. " What is it, Howard } " 
 asked Thomas anxiously. " I want a division at once for 
 my left." " General Hooker will give you one." "Yes," 
 said Hooker, " Williams' Division is right there." Colonel 
 Morgan, of Howard's staff, in less than five minutes was 
 guiding Williams' brave men in quick time, to the threat- 
 ened flank. In less than fifteen minutes Hood's masses 
 were running back for cover to his fortified ground. This 
 was the crisis. Prompt action and fearless men saved the 
 left from impending disaster." 
 
 The Union armies pressed forward as rapidly as pos- 
 sible, along roads on which the dust lay a foot deep. The 
 heat was intense and the men suffered greatly. On the 
 afternoon of the 17th the advance guards struck the rear 
 guard of the enemy at Adairsville, and had a sharp skir- 
 mish. Here, between 4 and 5 P. M., Howard and Newton 
 with their respective staffs, all mounted, were watching 
 from elevated ground, Newton's skirmish line, as it joined 
 fire with Johnston's rearguard. " Musketry was Hvely," 
 
ON THE ETOWAH. 3 1 9 
 
 says Howard, " and a few cannon were sounding. It was 
 something like a lion's interrupted roar, or the thunder of 
 an approaching storm. Sherman and other officers rode 
 up and began to take observations. Suddenly, from a new 
 place, from the edge of a wood, a hostile four-gun battery 
 took us for a practice-target. Shell after shell cut the air 
 and burst beside and behind us, and over our heads. It 
 was probably the fourth shot which exploded high up, sky- 
 ward, but at just the point to scatter its fragments among 
 the men and animals of our company ; Colonel Morgan's 
 horse was injured ; Lieutenant-Colonel Fullerton's was 
 put hors die combat and several others of the orderlies 
 and escort lamed or slain. Captain Bliss, of Nev/ton's 
 staff, by a flying fragment lost his shoulder-strap, and he 
 himself was painfully hurt. Of course, that social crowd 
 instantly altered the shape of the practice-target and 
 changed its location." 
 
 That night the enemy hastened the flight, different 
 divisions of the army going in different directions, but on 
 the next day Sherman came up with Johnston again at 
 Kingston. The two armies faced each other in a rolling, 
 wooded region, on to and beyond Cassville, and Sherman 
 hoped to bring on a decisive battle. But Johnston again 
 retreated, and that night, across the Etowah River, "a 
 step," says Johnston, " which I have regretted ever 
 since." This step was taken, it was said, on the advice of 
 Polk and Hood, who regarded their position to be already 
 turned and untenable. By this retreat across the Etowah 
 a valuable region was given up to Sherman. 
 
 The army now rested for three days, while supplies were 
 brought forward. Rome had been captured with its im- 
 portant foundries and stores. The two bridges across the 
 Etowah were secured, and all was made ready for the next 
 
3 20 SHERMAN'S EXC YCL OPMDIC KNO WLEDGE. 
 
 Stage of the campaign. About this time a remarkable 
 thing began to be observed. Sherman displayed a knowl- 
 edge of the conntry through which they were marching 
 that was most amazing to his comrades, to whom it was 
 an unknown land. He seemed to know by intuition that 
 this road ran so and that one so, that beyond this hill was 
 a pleasant valley, and beyond that an impassable swamp. 
 The whole topography of the country was at his command. 
 But the explanation was simple. They were now in the 
 region that Sherman had travelled through on horseback 
 and afoot many years before. 
 
 And it was one of Sherman's most notable traits of in- 
 tellect to see everything that was to be seen and to remem- 
 ber everything that he saw, so that his mind became a per- 
 fect encyclopaedia of useful information. If he went 
 through a cotton mill, or a salt work, or an iron foundry, he 
 was so observant, and his memory so retentive, that al- 
 ways thereafter he appeared an expert on that industry. 
 This knowledge of the geography and topography of 
 Georgia was of incalculable service to him during the 
 march to Atlanta. 
 
 And at the same time many other interesting traits of 
 Sherman's personality began to show themselves. He was 
 at times a strict disciplinarian, and yet often so kindly and 
 sympathetic that he inclined to be lenient with offenders. 
 At Resaca for instance, he had been working all night, 
 while the army slept, and in the morning he fell asleep 
 sitting on the ground, his head and shoulders resting 
 against a fallen tree. There he sat as some of the 
 troops marched by, and awoke just in time to hear a 
 grumbhng private remark, " That's a pretty commander 
 for an army." Instead of ordering the man's arrest, 
 Sherman simply remarked, " My man, I wa^ working all 
 
A RM Y DISCI PL INE. 3 2 1 
 
 night while you were asleep. Now, don't you think I 
 have a right to take a nap while you are marching to 
 your work ? " 
 
 Again, during the rest before crossing the Etowah, 
 an incident occurred which General Howard relates. It 
 was Sunday morning, and E. P. Smith, a member of the 
 Christian Commission, mounted to the belfry floor, and 
 tried to ring the bell of the church at Kingston for ser- 
 vice. He slipped against a nail, and had his clothes 
 badly torn. The noise of the bell disturbed Sherman, 
 and, not knowing who the ringer was, he sent a guard to 
 the church, and had Smith arrested. In spite of his 
 protests, Smith was marched to headquarters and kept in 
 confinement for an hour. Then, with his rent clothing, 
 he was led into Sherman's presence. The General, scarcely 
 looking up from his writing, to see who it was, and sup- 
 posing it to be one of the army "bummers," demanded 
 abruptly, "What did you ring that bell for } " " For ser- 
 vice, General; it is Sunday," repHed Smith. "Oh, is it 
 Sunday .-' " said Sherman. " I didn't know 'twas Sunday. 
 Let him go." 
 
 Johnston was now intrenched at Allatoona Pass, and 
 Sherman knew that the position was too strong to be car- 
 ried by direct assault. He therefore determined to make 
 a circuit to the right, and marched toward Dallas, John- 
 ston detected this movement, and prepared to meet it. On 
 May 25th, the armies met again at New Hope Church, 
 just north of Dallas. Hooker led Sherman's advance, and 
 ran against one of Hood's brigades in a forest. A sharp 
 conflict followed, while a terrific thunder storm was raging. 
 Hooker's men made repeated attacks upon the enemy's 
 position, but were hurled back from the log breastworks 
 with much loss. Heavy rain continued all that night, but 
 
3-22 NEW HOPE CHURCH. 
 
 Sherman's men worked steadily constructing fortifications 
 of earthwork and logs. The next morning the engage- 
 ment was continued, and for several days thereafter there 
 was almost continual skirmishing. On the 28th the Rebels 
 made a strong attack far to the right of Hooker, upon 
 McPherson, at Dallas, but were repulsed. Then the army 
 began pushing to the left, and by June ist Allatoona Pass 
 was completely within the national lines, 
 
 "The picture of the field of New Hope Church," says 
 General Howard, "crowds memory like the painting of a 
 young artist who has put too much upon his canvas. 
 There was Hooker just at evening in an open wood — there 
 were glimpses of log breastworks beyond him, from which 
 came fierce firing against his lines stretched out — there 
 were numberless maimed and many dead among the trees 
 — and a little back was a church with many wounded, and 
 many surgeons doing bloody work. It was dreadfully 
 dark that night. Schofield's horse stumbled and disabled 
 him, and General Cox took his place. We had numerous 
 torches, weird in effect among the trees, as our men 
 bravely worked into place and intrenched the batteries, 
 and covered their front. But the torches seemed to make 
 the darkness darker, and our hopes that night beat low. 
 Johnston had stopped us rudely at New Hope Church. 
 But afterwards Dallas and McPherson, off to our right, 
 gave us the reverse side, and so hopes which had drooped 
 revived, "when Confederates, and not Yankees, were there 
 several times driven back. 
 
 " Another night scene, though not quite so gloomy as 
 that of New Hope Church, pictured itself the 27th of May 
 at Pickett's Mill. Our enemy thus describes its cause. 
 He says : ' The fighting rose above the grade of skirmish- 
 ing, especially in the afternoon, when, at half-past 5, the 
 
riCKETTS MILL. 323 
 
 Fourth Corps (Howard's) and a division of the I^ourteenth 
 (Palmer) attempted to turn our (Confederate) right, but 
 the movement, after being impeded by the cavalry, was 
 met by two regiments of our right division (Cleburn's) 
 and two brigades of his Second brought up on the first. 
 The Federal formation was so deep that its front did not 
 equal that of our two brigades ; consequently those troops 
 were greatly exposed to our musketry — all but the leading 
 troops being on a hillside facing us. They advanced until ' 
 their first line was within twenty-five or thirty paces of 
 ours and fell back only after at least seven hundred men 
 had fallen dead in their places. When the leading Federal 
 troops paused in their advance, a color bearer came on and 
 planted his colors eight or ten feet in front of his regiment, 
 but was killed in the act. A soldier who sprang forward to 
 hold up or bear off the colors was shot dead as he seized 
 the staff. Two others who followed successively fell like 
 him, but the fourth bore back the noble emblem. Some 
 time after night-fall, we (the Confederates) captured above 
 two hundred prisoners in the hollow before them.' 
 
 " It was of that sad night that this was written : ' We 
 worked our men all that weary night in fortifying. The 
 Confederate commander was ready at dayhght to take the 
 offensive against us there at Pickett's MMl, but he did not 
 do so, because he found our position too strong to warrant 
 the attempt. With a foot bruised by a fragment of a shelly 
 General Howard sat that night among the wounded in the 
 midst of a forest glade, while Major Howard of his staff 
 led regiments and brigrades into the new positions chosen 
 for them. General R. W. Johnson, (Palmer's Division 
 Commander) had been wounded and Captain Stinson ot 
 Howard's staff had been shot though the lungs, and a large 
 number lay there on a sliding slope by a faint camp fire, 
 
324 KENESAW. 
 
 with broken limbs or disfigured faces.' Actually but one 
 division, and not a corps, made that unsuccessful assault, 
 and its conduct has received a brave enemy's high praise. 
 The fighting and the night work secured the object of the 
 movement, causing Johnston to swing back his whole army 
 from Sherman's post to a new position." 
 
 Thus Johnson abandoned his lines at New Hope Church 
 and retreated to Marietta, taking up almost impregnable 
 positions on Kenesaw, Pine and Lost Mountains. Sher- 
 man marched to Ackworth, between Marietta and Allatoona 
 Pass, and fortified the Pass. He was here reinforced by 
 two divisions of the Seventeenth Corps and some other 
 bodies of troops, which nearly compensated him for the 
 losses in the battles he had fought. He had now driven 
 Johnston before him nearly one hundred miles, had forced 
 him to abandon four strong positions, had fought him six 
 times, had captured over two thousand prisoners, twelve 
 guns and three colors, had weakened the Rebel army by 
 about fifteen thousand men, and had captured or destroyed 
 many important factories, mills and other works of a public 
 character. 
 
 The line held by Johnston at Kenesaw and Pine Top 
 was a strong one. But it was twelve miles long, and he 
 had scarcely enough men to hold it at all points. To attack 
 him on the crest of Kenesaw Mountain would be a hope- 
 less task. But Sherman thought he could break through 
 his lines on the gentler southern slope. On June nth the 
 advance began. Hooker was at the right front and 
 Howard at the left front, and they pressed forward with 
 great vigor. During their canonading, on June 14th, they 
 inflicted heavy losses upon the enemy, killing General Polk. 
 Next day the Rebels abandoned Pine Mountain and retired 
 to Muddy Creek, holding the rugged range of hills between 
 
FLAXKLVC AGAIN. 32/ 
 
 Kenesaw and Lost Mountains. Again Sherman pressed 
 the centre and turning to Johnston's flank on the 17th 
 captured Lost Mountain and all the hills except Kenesaw. 
 For three weeks thereafter the Union army vainly sought 
 to dislodge Johnston from the heights of Kenesaw. It 
 seemed an impossible task. The whole mountain was a 
 fortress. There were miles of strong intrenchments. All 
 the time the rain fell in torrents and the low lands were 
 flooded. The roads were almost impassable. Sherman's 
 soldiers at times worked knee deep in mud. But Lhey kept 
 on working. 
 
 The army was not content with besieging Kenesaw, but 
 kept trying to work its way around that mountain. Dis- 
 quieted by these events, the enemy sought to check them 
 on June 22d, by a sharp attack upon Hooker at Kulp's 
 farm, which was repulsed with heavy losses. Five days 
 later, the 27th of June, Sherman ordered an attack to be 
 made just South of the mountain, by Thomas, and a sup- 
 porting movement by McPherson northward. They were 
 both repulsed with heavy losses, and Sherman then de- 
 cided to waste no more lives in direct attacks, but to turn 
 the enemy's position, as he had done several times before. 
 So on July ist, McPherson marched toward Turner's Ferry, 
 there to cross the Chattahoochee, The movement was 
 effective. Johnston immediately abandoned Kenesaw, and 
 retreated five miles, to Smyrna Camp Ground. 
 
 That Fourth of July Sherman was exultant. He did 
 not believe the enemy would make another stand that side 
 of the Chattahoochee. But Howard thought otherwise, and 
 soon proved, by sending out a double line of skirmishers, 
 that he was right. Johnston had intrenched himself 
 strongly, and threatened to dispute Sherman's further pro- 
 gress toward Atlanta. Schofield made a strong demonstra- 
 
328 IN FR ONT OF A TLANTA. 
 
 tion across a neighboring ferry, however, and Johnston 
 soon fell back to the Chattahoochee bridge, Thomas fol- 
 lowing closely. The river was deep and swift, but Sher- 
 man determined to cross it. Schofield went over first, 
 near the mouth of South Creek ; then McPherson further 
 up at Roswell ; Thomas built a bridge at Power's Ferry 
 and crossed over, nearest of all to the Rebel lines ; and 
 thus, by July 9th, they had crossed the river at three points 
 and commanded three good roads to Atlanta. And the 
 Rebel position was once more turned. Forthwith John- 
 ston hurried across the river, burning the bridges behind 
 
 him. 
 
 " At Smyrna," says General Howard, " Atlanta was in 
 plain sight. Johnston had bothered us long. He had re- 
 pelled direct assaults with success except, perhaps, at 
 Muddy Creek where Baird and Harker had ditched and 
 covered their men, in the open, at one of his angles, and 
 then had run squarely over his barricades. But Sherman, 
 by that unceasing flanking operation of his, persistently 
 undertaken and accomplished, while Hooker, Palmer, and 
 Howard were hammering away at the centre motes, which 
 had no approaches and no drawbridges, and now at last 
 pressed Johnston back, back across the Etowah and across 
 the Chattahoochee. Johnston had planned a final terrible 
 blow for him at Peach Tree, when, fortunately for Sher- 
 man and his army, Jefferson Davis, favoring, as he claimed, 
 the indications of Providence, relieved the able Johnston 
 from command, and put in charge the hardy but rash Hood. 
 He at ©nee, as was expected, took the offensive. He came 
 on, as at Gettysburg, from the close wood into the valley, 
 to welcome us in his charming way. several miles out from 
 Atlanta. His blows were so sudden and his onslaught so 
 swift, that at first it disturbed Hooker's breathing, made 
 
PANIC-STRICKEN REBELS. 329 
 
 Williams talk fast, and Geary suspend his favorite Kansas 
 stories and tales of the Mexican war. In the laneuas-e of 
 the football men, the Unions for a few hours, ' had a hard 
 tussle.' They lost heavily, but managed to keep on the 
 Atlanta side of the Peach Tree. Newton planted his big 
 cross, made of soldiers, at the east end of Thomas's line, 
 and Newton, though no doubt badly terrified, was as al- 
 ways, too obstinate to go back, Thomas's modesty put in 
 additional reserve batteries and kept pieces of iron rattling 
 among the chapparal and alders of those low-land inter- 
 vales. So Thomas and Newton preserved that weak left 
 flank from capture. Hood had put forth his tremendous 
 energy, but was baffled and turned back to his cover with- 
 in the fortified lines of Atlanta." 
 
 By this time the people of Georgia were fully roused 
 from their old feeling of false security. They had seen 
 the Union Army march triumphantly over the mountain 
 barrier at the northwest. They had seen their favorite 
 commander, Johnston, and his great army, driven from 
 point to point and forced to surrender positions which had 
 been deemed impregnable. And now Sherman's con- 
 quering hosts, flushed with success, had crossed the 
 Chattahoochee and lay only eight miles from Atlanta. 
 Consternation prevailed* throughout the State, and the 
 people of Atlanta itself were panic-stricken. Nor were 
 they allowed to gain new courage by a respite. Sherman's 
 advance upon the city suffered no delay. A strong 
 cavalry force was pushed forward from Decatur, Alabama, 
 to Opclika, and thence to Marietta, completly cutting off 
 Johnston's army from all sources of supply and reinforce- 
 ment in that direction. Sherman also brought up fresh 
 stores from Chattanooga. July 17th a general advance was 
 made. 
 
3 3 O JOHNS TON REMO VED. 
 
 On this very day the Rebel government at Richmond 
 committed an act that was worth three victories to the 
 Union Army. There had long been antagonism between 
 Joe Johnston and J. P. Benjamin, the Rebel Secretary of 
 War, and Jefferson Davis had sympathized with the latter. 
 Benjamin had now been removed from. office, but his suc- 
 cessor, Seddon, had inherited the antagonism to Johnston. 
 So now, on July 17th, a dispatch came to Johnston from 
 Richmond, saying that since he had failed to check Sher- 
 man's advance the government had no confidence in his 
 ability to do so, and ordering him immediately to surrender 
 his com.mand to General Hood. This did great injustice 
 to Johnston, but it also did greater injury to Rebel cause. 
 Hood was a brave general, but rash and not com- 
 petent to direct the operations of a great army in an im- 
 portant campaign. Indeed he himself felt most deeply 
 his unfitness to continue Johnston's work, although he of 
 course resolved to do his best. 
 
 In response to the harsh criticisms made upon him for 
 not fighting a decisive battle with Sherman, Johnston 
 said : 
 
 "Defeat would have been our ruin. Our troops, always 
 fighting under cover, had trifling losses when compared 
 with the enemy, whose numerical superiority was thus 
 reduced daily and rapidly. We could, therefore, reason- 
 ably expect to cope with him on equal terms by the time 
 that the Chattahoochee was passed. Defeat on our side 
 of that river would have been his destruction. We, if 
 beaten, had a refuge in Atlanta too strong to be assaulted, 
 too extensive to be invested. I also hoped, by breaking 
 the railroad in his rear, that he might be compelled to 
 attack us in a position of our own choosing, or to a retreat, 
 easily converted into a rout. After we crossed the Etowah, 
 
ANOTHER VIEW OF PEACH TREE CREER. 33 1 
 
 five detachments of cavalry were successively sent with 
 instructions to destroy as much as they could of the rail- 
 road between Dalton and the Etowah ; all failed, because 
 too week. We could never spare a sufficient body of 
 cavalry for this service, as its assistance was absolutely 
 necessary in the defence of every position we occupied. 
 Early in the campaign the statements of the strength of 
 cavalry in the Departments of Mississippi and East 
 Louisiana given me by Lieutenant-Gen^eral Polk, just from 
 that command, and my telegraphic correspondence with 
 his successor, led me to hope that a competent force could 
 be sent from Mississippi and Alabama to prevent the use 
 of the railroad by the United States army." 
 
 The Rebel army was now about 51,000 strong, and was 
 strongly posted at Peach Tree Creek, four miles north- 
 west of Atlanta. The place had been selected by Johnston 
 for a decisive battle, and he had expected that the Union 
 Army, in spreading out to flank him, would weaken its 
 centre so that he could make an effective attack. Exactly 
 this thing occurred, and on the afternoon of July 20th, the 
 Rebel blow was struck. Hood's troops came rushing down 
 the hillside against the Union lines with just such fury as 
 Stonewall Jackson's colums used to display. But they 
 were met by strong resistance, and after a bloody conflict, 
 were driven to their intrenchments. Thus the first of 
 Johnston's plans which Hood tried to execute, failed. The 
 second plan and effort was to withdraw the main army 
 from Peach Tree Creek far to the right, leaving Atlanta 
 almost undefended, and then fall upon Sherman's left 
 flank as his army advanced upon the city. 
 
 When Sherman came up and found the works on Peach 
 Tree Creek abandoned, he thought Atlanta also had been 
 evacuated, and he marched right up to within two miles of 
 
332 HOWARD SUCCEEDS APPHERSON. 
 
 that city. Then after an all night circuit the Rebel 
 attack was made upon his left and rear. For four hours 
 the battle raged furiously. The Union lines were broken 
 and some guns captured. Sherman watched the struggle 
 from a point between Schofield and McPherson, John A. 
 Logan and other officers performed prodigies of valor, and 
 finally the Rebels were checked and driven back, leaving 
 more than three thousand dead upon the field, together 
 with other thousands of wounded and about one thousand 
 prisoners. Their total loss must have been at least eight 
 thousand, while Sherman's entire loss, in killed, wounded 
 and prisoners, was 3,722. But in this battle almost in the 
 outset the Union Army suffered an irreparable loss in the 
 death of the gallant and accomplished McPherson, who 
 was shot by Rebel skirmishers ?.z he was hastening from 
 Dodge's Corps to Blair's through the woods, /. e., the left 
 flank of the army, to meet there the Rebel attack which 
 first struck his rear. 
 
 Who should succeed McPherson in command was a 
 question that caused some perplexity. Logan succeeding 
 to McPherson in the battle had done well, but was junior 
 to several corps comanders, and had, as Sherman thought, 
 some other disabilities, as a rivalry between him and Blair, 
 and political aspirations. At last Sherman and Thomas 
 agreed upon the appointment of General O, O. Howard, a 
 choice which was promptly approved by the Government 
 at Washington. This offended Hooker, Howard's senior 
 in rank. He had aspired to succeed McPherson, and so 
 at once asked to be relieved of the command of the Twen- 
 tieth Corps. His wish, as before Gettysburg, was granted, 
 and General Slocum came from Vicksburg to take his place. 
 
 The 26th of July Sherman's army lay before Atlanta in 
 this position : the Army of the Tennessee was at the left, 
 
EZRA CHURCH. 333 
 
 the Army of the Ohio, under Schofield, came next ; the 
 Army of the Cumberland, under Thomas, completed the 
 line at the right. This line was about five miles long, and 
 strongly fortified. The cavalry and other minor detach- 
 ments of the army were posted at the rear and at the flank. 
 
 The 27th, General Howard took command and marched 
 around beyond Thomas. At Ezra Church, due west from 
 Atlanta, the next battle was fought on July 28th. How- 
 ard, putting in his last corps, had led the way thither, be- 
 lieving that at this point the Rebel attack would be made. 
 Hood's men came on with a rush, and some of them forced 
 their v/ay for a space beyond the Union right. But How- 
 ard's troops, particularly the Fifteenth Corps, under Logan, 
 aided by detatchments from Dodge and Blair, stood like an 
 iron wall, and repulsed the enemy with a coolness and 
 steadiness that has seldom been equalled. Artillery and 
 repeating rifles threw back the enemy's flanks. Attack 
 after attack was made by the Rebels, with the same result, 
 and the engagement finally ended in an unqualified victory 
 for the Union army. "As this," says General Howard, 
 "was Hood's third attempt, anger and energy were en- 
 gendered in his heart and transfused into his charging 
 lines ; it showed itself in the scream, the yell, the run, the 
 brisk, unceasing musket-fire, and the cannon roar. We 
 who were there cannot forget them. But at last our enemy 
 was effectually repulsed and the sad field at night was 
 ours. The baffled Confederates again returned to the 
 shelter of their protecting batteries." 
 
 This was Howard's first engagement after his appoint- 
 ment to succeed McPherson, and both he and Sherman 
 were deeply gratified at its result. When the conflict was 
 at its height, a straggler of some rank hurried to Sherman 
 with the report that Howard was proving incompetent and 
 
334 FLANKING ATLANTA. 
 
 that his army was going to pieces. Sherman asked him if 
 Howard himself was at the scene of action. He replied, 
 "Yes, I suppose so." "Well," said Sherman, "I will 
 wait till I hear from him." 
 
 During the early days of August Sherman kept extend- 
 ing his lines to the right, with frequent demonstrations 
 against the enemy at all points. He brought down from 
 Chattanooga some heavy rifled guns with which to bom- 
 bard the enemy's works. Many of the shells fell beyond 
 the enemy's fortifications in the city itself, and did much 
 damage. At the middle of the month it was decided to 
 execute a grand flank movement around the city. The 
 advance was made toward the right or southward. At the 
 same time Hood sent a force of cavalry, from 6,000 
 to 10,000 strong, to pass around Sherman's rear and cut 
 off his cummunications and lines of supply. Sherman 
 was glad to learn this, for he knew that the absence of 
 these troops from the Rebel army would be a more serious 
 loss to Hood than they could possibly inflict upon the 
 Union army. He at once halted his flanking movement, 
 and sent Kilpatrick with 5,000 cavalry to break the West 
 Point Railroad near Fairburn, and then go on and break 
 the Macon Railroad, cutting off Atlanta from the Southern 
 counties. Kilpatrick was not able to accomplish this work 
 as completely as Sherman desired, and the flanking move- 
 ment was soon resumed. On the night of August 26th, 
 the Army of the Tennessee moved to the South, followed 
 by the Army of the Cumberland, while the Army of the 
 Ohio remained substantially in its position. The armies 
 thoroughly accomplished the destructive work which Kil- 
 patrick had tried to do, and then faced eastward. Howard 
 encountered the enemy's cavalry at several points, and 
 drove it before him. " From the 25th to the 30th of 
 
THE AD VA NCE TO J ONE SB ORG. 335 
 
 August," says General Howard, " Sherman's forces made a 
 curious manoeuvre. If you should face a line of cavalry, in- 
 fantry and artillery to the rear, and then make a little more 
 than a half wheel about its new left as a pivot, you would 
 get some idea of the manner in which we fell upon Hood's 
 communications. Yet the line, like an Indian rubber 
 string, was stretched out till the Army of the Tennessee, 
 rapidly marching, reached Renfro Place, twenty-five miles 
 from Atlanta. Schofield kept near the pivot, and Thomas 
 was between, 
 
 "The evening of the thirtieth, after a weary day during 
 which our cavalry and infantry had been forcing a suc- 
 cession of log barricades and repairing culverts and bridges, 
 we came to a tract of barren sand-banks, intending to 
 camp there for the night. After a short halt, I called Kil- 
 patrick to me and said: 'It is but six miles to Flint River, 
 where a bridge crosses, and but a few more miles to. Jones- 
 boro, the railway station. Can you send me an officer 
 who can take a squadron of cavalry and keep Wheeler's 
 rear guard in motion.^ ' 'Yes, here is Captain Estes. He 
 can do it if anybody can.' 'All right, go ahead, Estes ; I 
 will follow you with infanty.' Wheeler's men, thinking 
 we had stopped for the night, had already dismounted and 
 were preparing to bivouac at a respectful distance, when 
 suddenly they beheld Captain Estes with his indomitable 
 squadron charging down the road. The Confederates 
 sprang to their saddles and nobody tarried, neither pursuer 
 or pusued, till the Flint River bridge had been reached. 
 Our men extinguished the flames already kindled, saved 
 the bridge, and soon were crossing in force, just as the 
 twilight was darkening into the night. One corps, 
 Logan's, was quickly marched over and along the farther 
 bank of the river and began to ascend the wooded hill 
 
336 'JHE FALL OF ATLANTA. 
 
 beyond. Hardee's Confederate Corps, hastily brought 
 hither by rail from Atlanta, now gave in the darkness 
 only a feeble skirmish line resistance. We charged the 
 hill, cleared the way to the crest, and the men, though 
 exceedingly weary with a long march of twenty-five miles 
 or more, worked the whole night, so strong were they then 
 to cover their front with the habitual intrenchments. 
 
 "The next day, the thirty-first of August, Logan's and 
 Ransom's men supported by Blair, received Hardee's 
 renewal of the conflict. The charges were not as vigorous 
 as at Atlanta. They were, all along the line, repulsed. 
 Before the next day Thomas had closed in on my left ; 
 had a combat, and the two together made a vigorous push 
 for Jonesboro. By this movement Hardee's half of Hood's 
 army was disloged. The instant the situation was known 
 Hood, still 25 miles back at Atlanta, he abandoned the 
 city and succeeded by a wonderful night march in forming 
 a junction with Hardee below us at Lovejoy station. 
 
 "Slocum, who with the Twentieth Corps being left 
 behind, had intrenched himself in a strong fortified 
 place across Sherman's northern communications, soon 
 had positive evidence by the city fires and explosions, that 
 Hood had left. He put his columns in motion at dawn of 
 September second and marched joyously into the lately 
 beleaguered city. 
 
 " General Sherman, who was near us at Jonesboro, gives 
 a graphic picture : that night, he says, he was so restless 
 and impatient that he could not sleep. About midnight 
 there arose, toward Atlanta, sounds of shells exploding 
 and other sounds like that of musketry. He walked to 
 the house of a farmer close by his bivouac, and called him 
 out to listen. The farmer said, that these sounds were just 
 like those of a battle. An interval of quiet then ensued. 
 
" A TLANTA IS WON / " 337 
 
 when again, about 4 A, M., arose another similar explo- 
 sion. Sherman remained in doubt whether the enemy was 
 engaged in blowing up his own magazines, or whether Gene- 
 ral Slocum had not felt forward and become engaged in a 
 real battle. Finally a note from Slocum himself assured 
 the anxious General of the facts. Then, as he turned 
 back to take possession, Sherman sent Mr Lincoln that 
 memorable despatch : 'Atlanta is ours and fairly won.' 
 
 " Probably no words uttered at this date could give to 
 our children an idea of the joy and the assurance of hope 
 that penetrated all classes of society when the proclama- 
 tion was made at Washington and echoed through the North 
 and West, 'Atlanta is won.' It meant that our glorious 
 cause had prevailed. Rebelhon, it is said, cannot last 
 much longer. It spoke of the end of war, of the begin- 
 ning of peace, glimpses of which were already seen from 
 the hilltops of Georgia. It meant speedy emancipation to 
 white men as well as to black. It spoke of happy homes 
 soon to be visited, of lovely women and precious children 
 who had long waited for such good news, and whose eyes 
 were already sparkling with delight to welcome us 
 home. 
 
 " Yes, yes, 'Atlanta won ' was indeed a bow of promise 
 set in the clouds, though yet heavy ; a bow of promise to 
 America and to the world, that right and justice should 
 prevail, and God's will be done sooner or later upon the 
 earth " 
 
CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 PREPARING FOR THE MARCH. 
 
 Congratulations and Rejoicings — Sherman's Address to his Army — 
 Incidents of the Campaign — Appearance of Atlanta and its En- 
 virons — Hood's Northward March — How Corse Held the Fort — 
 Sherman's Stern Work at Atlanta — Exchange of Prisoners — 
 Organizing for the March to the Sea — Sketches of Howard 
 AND Slocum — Orders for the Campaign — Cutting off all Com- 
 munication with the North — Atlanta in Ruins — Marching toward 
 the Sea. 
 
 Sherman and his command took possession of Atlanta 
 with mingled emotions. There was much regret for the 
 long line of graves of gallant men that marked the path 
 from Chattanooga ; most of all, for that of the loved and 
 trusted McPherson. Yet there was much exultation at 
 the great victory won, which had struck the Confederacy 
 a death blow and sent rejoicing to every loyal heart in all 
 the Union. Congratulations poured in, Lincoln tele- 
 graphed to Sherman : " The National thanks are rendered 
 by the President to Major-General W. T. Sherman and the 
 gallant officers and soldiers of his command before Atlanta, - 
 for the distinguished ability and perseverance displayed in 
 the campaign in Georgia, which, under Divine favor, has 
 resulted in the capture of Atlanta, The marches, battles, 
 sieges and other military operations, that have signalized 
 the campaign, must render it famous in the annals of war, 
 and have entitled those who have participated therein to 
 338 
 
SHERMAN CONGRATULATES HIS TROOPS. 339 
 
 the applause and thanks of the Nation." And Grant 
 telegraphed from City Point : '• In honor of your great 
 victory I have ordered a salute to be fired with shotted 
 guns from every battery bearing upon the enemy. 
 The salute will be fired within an hour, amid great 
 rejoicing." 
 
 These and other similar dispatches Sherman communi- 
 cated to his army, together with the news of illuminations, 
 flag-raisings, bell-ringings, mass-meetings and other scenes 
 of rejoicing throughout the country. He also issued the 
 following congratulatory order : 
 
 "The officers and soldiers of the Armies of the Cumber- 
 land, Ohio and Tennessee, have already received the 
 thanks of the Nation through its President and Com- 
 mander-in-Chief; and it now only remains with him who 
 has been with you from the beginning, and who intends to 
 stay all the time, to thank the officers and the men for 
 their intelligence, fidelity and courage displaj^ed in the 
 campaign of Atlanta. 
 
 " On the first day of May our armies were lying in gar- 
 rison, seemingly quiet, from Knoxvilleto Huntsville, and our 
 enemy lay behind his rocky-faced barrier at Dalton, proud, 
 defiant, and exulting. He had had time since Christmas 
 to recover from his discomfiture on the Mission Ridge, 
 with his ranks filled, and a new Commander-in-Chief, 
 second to none of the Confederacy in reputation for skill, 
 sagacity and extreme popularity. 
 
 "All at once our armies assumed life and action, and 
 appeared before Dalton ; threatening Rocky Face, we 
 threw ourselves upon Resaca, and the Rebel army only 
 escaped by the rapidity of its retreat, aided by the numerous 
 roads with which he was familiar, and which were strange 
 to us. 
 
340 THE ENEMY S MISTAKE. 
 
 " Again he took post at Allatoona, but we gave him no 
 rest, and by a circuit toward Dallas, and a subsequent 
 movement to Ackworth, we gained the Allatoona Pass. 
 Then followed the eventful battles about Kenesaw, and 
 the escape of the enemy across the Chattahoochee River. 
 
 "The crossing of the Chattahoochee, and breaking of 
 the Augusta road, was most handsom.ely executed by us, 
 and will be studied as an example in the art of war. At 
 this stage of our game, our enemies became dissatisfied 
 with their old ^nd skilful commander, and selected one 
 more bold and rash. New tactics were adopted. Hood 
 first boldly and rapidly, on the 20th of July, fell on our 
 right at Peach Tree Creek, and lost. 
 
 " Again, on the 22d, he struck our extreme left, and 
 was severely punished ; and finally again, on the 28th he 
 repeated the attempt on our right, and that time must have 
 been satisfied, for since that date he has remained on the 
 defensive. We slowly and gradually drew our lines about 
 Atlanta, feeling for the railroads which supplied the Rebel 
 army and made Atlanta a place of importance. 
 
 " We must concede to our enemy that he met these 
 efforts patiently and skilfully, but at last he made the 
 mistake we had waited for so long, and sent his cavalry to 
 our rear, far beyond the reach of recall. Instantly our 
 cavalry was on his only remaining road, and we followed 
 •quickly with our principal army, and Atlanta fell into our 
 possession as the fruit of well-concerted measures, backed 
 by a brave and confident army. 
 
 " This completed the grand task which had been as- 
 signed us by our Government, and your General again 
 repeats his personal and official thanks to all the officers 
 and men composing this army, for the indomitable courage 
 and perseverance which alone could give success. 
 
A TRIBUTE TO THE FALLEN. 34 1 
 
 " We have beaten our enemy on every ground he has 
 chosen, and have wrested from him his own Gate City, 
 where were located his foundries, arsenals and work-shops, 
 deemed secure on account of their distance from our base, 
 and the seeming impregnable obstacles intervening. 
 Nothing is impossible to an army like this, determined 
 to vindicate a Government which has rights wherever our 
 flag has once floated, and is resolved to maintain them at 
 any and all cost. 
 
 "In our campaign many, yea, very many of our noble 
 and gallant comrades have preceded us to our common 
 destination, the grave ; but they have left the memory of 
 deeds, on which a Nation can build a proud history. Mc- 
 Pherson, Harker, McCook, and others, dear to us all are 
 now the binding links in our minds that should attach 
 more closely together the living, who have to complete the 
 task which still lays before us in the dim future. 
 
 " I ask all to continue as they have so well begun, the 
 cultivation of the soldierly virtues that have ennobled our 
 own and other countries. Courage, patience, obedience to 
 the laws and constituted authorities of our Government ; 
 fidelity to our trusts, and good feeling among each other; 
 each trying to excel the other in the practice of those 
 high qualities, and it will then require no prophet to foretell 
 that our country will in time emerge from this war, purified 
 by the fires of war and worthy its great founder, Washing- 
 ton." 
 
 Sherman had, on August I2tk, been made a Major- 
 General in the Regular Army. 
 
 It was pos.iible now and even after to recall many dra- 
 matic and even humorous incidents of the campaign. At 
 one point Sherman's soldiers, looking back, saw a line of 
 bridges in flames over a stream they had just crossed. 
 
342 INCIDENTS OF THE CAMPAIGN. 
 
 " Hello, Charley," exclaimed one, " Uncle Billy Sherman 
 has set the river on fire." "Well," replied Charley, "if he 
 has I reckon its all right." Their fun, even, showed their 
 confidence. 
 
 The Rebels also came to have a remarkable degree of 
 confidence in Sherman's ability. The rapidity of his 
 marches and the readiness with which his armies rebuilt 
 roads and bridges bewildered them. It was after a time a 
 current saying in the Rebel camp that there was no use 
 in burning bridges, for Sherman carried a large assortment 
 of duplicates along with him to replace them. Then, when 
 Wheeler's Cavalry was sent north to cut Sherman's com- 
 munications at the rear, a Rebel soldier remarked one day : 
 " Well, the Yanks will have to git up and git, now, for I 
 heard General Johnston himself say that General Wheeler 
 had blown up the tunnel near Dalton and the Yanks would 
 have to retreat because they could get no more rations." 
 "Oh shucks," said another, "don't you know that old 
 Sherman carries a duplicate tunnel along .? " 
 
 On September 6th, a writer in The New York Tribinie, 
 described the appearance of the captured city, at the en- 
 trance of the troops, as follows : 
 
 " The Twentieth Corps is now located in the famous 
 city, occupying the forts and earthworks so recently filled 
 by the Rebels. The city was captured by Colonel Coburn, 
 Thirty-third Indiana, on the 2d inst., who was sent by 
 General Slocum from the Chattachoochee River on a re- 
 connoisance. The same day the corps followed in. The 
 works of the enemy are of the most formidable character, 
 embracing a circuit of some twelve miles. The abattis, 
 palisades, rifle pits, ramparts, lunettes, reboubts, redans 
 and varied forms of earthworks, exhibit every variety of 
 defensive expedient used in modern warfare. Nothing in 
 
PLAN OF ATLANTA. 345 
 
 military experience has surpassed the industry of the 
 enemy, in this campaign, except that of our own. Here, 
 he had some 1,500 negro men constantly at work, and 
 marched them off, with tools on shoulder, when he left. 
 The hills at all points around the city afforded good posi- 
 tions for such works. 
 
 " This is a peculiar city, with streets diverging from the 
 centre and running out upon ridges while the intervening 
 spaces are not built upon, just as if the map were a wagon- 
 wheel and the business were near and around the hub and 
 the residences were built along the spokes to the outer 
 rim. Many of these residences are elegant and conven- 
 ient, with large lots and fine shrubbery. The native growth 
 is a mixture of small oak and pine, while the hand of cul- 
 ture has interspersed the China tree. Grape, Myrtle, Rose, 
 Laurel, Holly, Honey-suckle, Sensitive plant, and a multi- 
 tude of beautiful shrubs, full of odors and rich colors. 
 Indeed, nothing can exceed the beauty of the plants and 
 trees of this region. 
 
 "The city has contained a population of eighteen thou- 
 sand inhabitants (about six thousand are here now^, and 
 on account of the salubrity of the climate and purity of its 
 waters, it being on the dividing ridge between the Gulf 
 and the Atlantic, has become a place of residence to many 
 wealthy persons. 
 
 "Here figs are now ripe and hanging on the trees, this 
 being the second crop. Grapes grow in abundance, and 
 wine is made of a delicious flavor. 
 
 "The houses are, many of them, disfigured with marks 
 
 of our shot, splintered cornices and doorways — shattered 
 
 roofs and chimneys, perforated walls and torn fences show 
 
 the frightful look of these swift messengers whirling night 
 
 and day over the doomed place. Many a tenement has its 
 20 
 
34^ THE MARKS OF WAR. 
 
 underground retreat ; some are lined with cotton bales, 
 some with timbers, and some banked around with earth. 
 
 " When the enemy's troops were about to leave they set 
 fire to immense trains of cars and wagons, loaded with 
 army stores and ammunition. More than a hundred cars 
 were burned at the Augusta depot, shell, torpedoes, fire- 
 balls, and boxes of ammunition popping, blazing and roar- 
 ing, shook the city and were heard plainly by us at the 
 river. When Colonel Coburn entered the cit}^ they were 
 exploding in the forts, and sounded like the continual dis- 
 charge of artillery. 
 
 "What machinery had not been removed has been de- 
 stroyed. The great rolling mill has been taken to Augusta, 
 and it is said, will be taken to Deep River, North Carolina, 
 and put up. Our position here cuts the enemy off from 
 his greatest iron works in Northern Georgia. There are 
 some of considerable extent yet used by them near Selma, 
 Alabama. We see fire brick here which are made near 
 Augusta, the bed of clay having been discovered since the 
 war ; before that time they were procured in the North. 
 We see also in the ruins of the rolling mill a quantity of 
 gunboat iron five inches thick, ready rolled for plating. 
 
 "The surrounding county is hilly and poor. South of 
 this the water is not good, and the land is much lower and 
 richer. To the east, about fifteen miles, is Stone Mountain, 
 a grand elevation of more than two thousand feet, afford- 
 ing a prospect of unequalled extent and beauty. 
 
 " It is a solitary sugar-loaf, and looms up from the hori- 
 zon gray and grand. Northwest, some eight miles, is the 
 Chattahoochee River, a yellow, muddy and swift-running 
 stream, some two hundred yards wide. Chattahoochee 
 means ' blossoming rocks.' The Cherokees so named it 
 from a great ledge of beautifully-colored rock on its banks. 
 
DISPOSITION OF THE ARMY. 347 
 
 which resembles flowers. The river of ' blossoming rocks ' 
 is anything but a beautiful stream. Peach Tree Creek, 
 the now famous scene of the battle of the 20th of July, is 
 three miles north, a muddy, deep slimy stream. Its true 
 name is ' Pitch-Tree,' from a great pitch-pine tree on its 
 banks. The Indians called it 'Pitch-Tree.' 
 
 " The whole face of the earth is marked and scared for 
 many miles around with the rival fortifications." 
 
 A quarter of a century has nearly obliterated them all. 
 
 A series of military operations around Atlanta followed. 
 Further pursuit of Hood's army was for a time suspended 
 while Sherman's army rested, and its leader was planning 
 the next step in the campaign. Thus passed the month of 
 September. Many changes occurred in the composition 
 and organization of the army. The field portion of the 
 Army of the Tennessee was consolidated into two corps 
 numbered Fifteenth and Seventeenth, and commanded, 
 during the temporary absence of Logan and Blair, by P. J. 
 Osterhaus and T. E. G. Ransom, General Howard retaining 
 his place at the head of that army which now lay at East 
 Point, and the Sixteenth corps now in the Mississippi Val- 
 ley. The Army of the Cumberland, under General 
 Thomas, was in Atlanta. The Army of the Ohio was 
 at Decatur under General Cox, General Schofield having 
 returned temporarily to Knoxville. Atlanta was carefully 
 fortified, on a smaller but stronger scale than had been done 
 by Johnston, so that it might be held by a comparatively 
 small force when Sherman's main army had left. 
 
 As for the Rebel army, it changed its tactics altogether, 
 and was soon moving westward and northward. Ap- 
 parently Hood's intention was by, as he said, towing him 
 back, to cut Sherman's communications, and if possible 
 carry the war back into Tennessee. If Hood would only 
 
348 HOOD'S NOR THWARD MARCH. 
 
 march back to Tennessee, Sherman would gladly give him 
 rations and transportation for the journey. Hood did 
 march back, and the result of his doing so may be summed 
 up at this point in a few words. He tried to destroy the gar- 
 risons Sherman had left behind him here and there, but 
 Sherman turned on him all but Slocum's Corps, so that he ut- 
 terly failed to do so. French's Division of the Rebel army, 
 for example, attacked Allatoona, where Howard had placed a 
 handful of troops. General Corse hastened with help 
 from Rome. French sent in a note to Corse, summoning 
 him to surrender, and threatening that if he did not do so 
 he would be attacked, and every man of his command 
 massacred. To this monstrous message the undaunted 
 Corse defiantly replied that the Rebels were welcome to 
 come and take the place if they thought they were 
 able. French immediately assaulted the place with great 
 fury, and agam and again his overwhelming columns surged 
 against the works. But at nightfall they were compelled 
 to retire with dreadful loss. Next morning Sher- 
 man reached the top cf Kenesaw, to within signalling 
 distanceof Corse, eighteen miles away. Signal flags waved 
 from peak to peak, conveying Sherman's message to Corse, 
 which has been idealized in a popular song, " Hold the 
 fort, for I am coming." Corse's reply has become historic. 
 He had had a chip from his cheek shot away by a Rebel 
 ball, but was only the more determined to hold out. He 
 said to Sherman, " I am short part of an ear and cheek- 
 bone, but am able to whip all hell } et ! " 
 
 During October, Hood moved to the northwest, Howard 
 following him up vigorously. At last, at the end of the 
 month, as he ran toward Gaylesville, Ala , Sherman de- 
 cided to let Hood go, trusting to Schoficld and Thomas, 
 whom he sent with troops to Nashville, to deal with him, 
 
STERN ORDERS A TA TLANTA. 349 
 
 should he enter Tennessee. He did enter Tennessee, and 
 met his fate at Franklin and Nashville. 
 
 But to return to Sherman's work at Atlanta, before 
 Hood's flanking and final flight. Sherman determined to 
 march forward through Georgia to the sea, and to make At- 
 lanta, as he left it behind him, a purely military post, occu- 
 pied and controlled solely by his army. On September 
 4th he made this order : 
 
 •' 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 Govern- 
 ment. . . . 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 abo^^e that of the United States, over to the hands 
 of some provost-marshal, to be put to labor on forts or con- 
 scripted into one of the regiments or battery already in 
 service. The same military principles will apply to all mili- 
 tary 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; 
 
3 5 O THE MA YOR' S PROTEST. 
 
 "At first view, it struck us that the measure would in- 
 volve extraordinary hardship and loss, but since we have 
 seen the practical execution of it, so far as it had pro- 
 gressed, 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 heartrend- 
 ing. 
 
 " 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 man- 
 kind, 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?" 
 
 To this Sherman replied at considerable length, in ex- 
 plicit and unmistakable terms. He had, he said, read their 
 appeal carefully and he gave full credit to their statements 
 of the distress that was about to be caused to the people of 
 Atlanta. But there were greater issues involved than the 
 personal comfort and welfare of these people. He said : 
 
 " I cannot revoke my order. I have to prepare for 
 a future struggle in which millions, yea, hundreds of 
 good people outside of Atlanta have a deep interest. 
 We must have peace, not only in Atlanta, but in all 
 America. To have peace, the Rebel armies must be de- 
 feated. To defeat them, we must reach them in their 
 recesses. My military plans make it necessary for the in- 
 habitants to go away, and I can only renew my offer of 
 
THE REALITIES OF WAR. 35 I 
 
 services to make their exodus in any direction as easy and 
 comfortable as possible. 
 
 " War is cru.clty, and you cannot refine it. Those who 
 brought war on our country deserve all the curses and 
 maledictions a people can pour out. I had no hand 
 in making this war, and I will make more sacrifices 
 to-day than any of you to secure peace. But you cannot 
 have peace and a division of our country. We don't want 
 your negroes, or your houses, or your land, or anything that 
 you have, but we do want, and will have, a just obedience 
 to the laws of the United States. That we will have, and 
 if it involves the destruction of your miprovements we can- 
 not help it. 
 
 "You have heretofore read public sentiment in your 
 newspapers. They live by falsehood and excitement, and 
 the quicker you seek for truth in other quarters the better 
 for you. You began this war without one jot or tittle of 
 provocation. I myself have seen in Missouri, Kentucky, 
 Tennessee, and Mississippi hundreds and thousands of 
 women and children fleeing from your own armies and 
 desperadoes, hungry and with bleeding feet. In Memphis, 
 Vicksburg, and Mississippi we fed thousands upon thou- 
 sands of the families of Rebel soldiers, left on our hands, 
 and whom we could not see starve. Now that war conies 
 home to you, you feel very differently — you deprecate its 
 horrors. But you did not feel them when you were send- 
 ing car-loads of ^-soldiers and ammunition, and were mould- 
 ing shells and shot to carry war into Kentucky and 
 Tennessee, and desolate the homes of hundreds and 
 thousands of good people who only asked to live in peace at 
 their old homes under the government of their inheritance. 
 
 " But, when peace does come, you may call upon me for 
 anything. Then I will share with you the last cracker, 
 
352 CORRESPONDENCE WITH HOOD. 
 
 and watch with you to guard your homes and families 
 against danger from every quarter. Now you must go, and 
 take with you the old and feeble, feed and nurse them, and 
 build for them in more quiet places proper habitations to 
 shield them against the weather until the mad passions of 
 men cool down, and allow the Union and Peace once more 
 to settle on your old homes in Atlanta." 
 
 Sherman also had some correspondence with Hood on 
 the same subject, lie notified Hood of the order he had 
 issued and proposed that hostilities be suspended fur ten 
 days while the people of Atlanta were being removed. 
 Hood agreed to the truce, saying that he did not consider 
 that he had any alternative in the matter. But he took 
 occasion of this correspondence to denounce Sherman's 
 conduct in the strongest terms, concluding his letter as 
 follows : 
 
 " Permit me to say, the unprecedented measure you 
 propose transcends in studied and iniquitous cruelty all 
 acts ever before brought to my attention in this dark 
 history of the war. In the name of God and humanity, I 
 protest, believing you are expelling from homes and fire- 
 sides wives and children of a brave people." 
 
 Sherman read these words with some irritation and with 
 some contempt, and then promptly replied, saying: 
 
 " You style the measures proposed 'unprecedented,' and 
 appeal to ' the dark history of war for a parallel as an act 
 of studied and ingenious cruelty.' It is not unprecedented, 
 for General Johnston himself very wisely and properly re- 
 moved the families all the way from Dalton down, and I 
 see no reason why Atlanta should be excepted. Nor is it 
 necessary to appeal to ' the dark history of war,' when re- 
 cent and modern examples are so handy. You yourself 
 burned dwelling-houses along your parapet ; and I have 
 
ARRAIGNMENT OF THE REBELS. 353 
 
 seen, to-day, fifty nouses that you have rendered unin- 
 habitable because they stood in the way of your forts and 
 men. You defended Atlanta on a Hne so close to the 
 town that every cannon-shot, and many musket-shots from 
 our line of investment, that overshot their mark, went 
 into the habitations of women and children. General 
 Hardee did the same thing at Jonesboro' and General 
 Johnston did the same last summer at Jackson, Missis- 
 sippi. 
 
 " I have not accused you of heartless cruelty, but merely 
 instance these cases of very recent occurrence, and could 
 go on and enumerate hundreds of others, and challenge 
 any fair man to judge which of us has the heart of pity 
 for the families of 'brave people.' I say it is kindness to 
 these families of Atlanta to remove them at once from 
 scenes that women and children should not be exposed to ; 
 and the ' brave people ' should scorn to commit their wives 
 and children to the rude barbarians who thus, as you say 
 violate the rules of war as illustrated in the pages of its 
 'dark history.' 
 
 "In the name of common sense. Task you not to 'appeal 
 to a just God ' in such a sacrilegious manner — you who, in 
 the midst of peace and prosperity, have plunged a nation 
 into war, dark and cruel war; who dared and badgered us 
 into battle; insulted our flag ,• seized our arsenals and forts 
 that were left in the honorable custody of a peaceful ordi- 
 nance sergeant ; seized and made prisoners even the very 
 first garrisons sent to protect your people against negroes 
 and Indians ; long before any other act was committed by 
 the, to you 'ha'cful Lincoln Government;' tried to force 
 Missouri and Kentucky into rebellion, in spite of them- 
 selves ; falsified the vote of Louisiana ; turned loose )"our 
 privateers to plunder unarmed ships ; expelled Union 
 
354 EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS. 
 
 families by the thousands, burned their houses, and de- 
 clared by acts of your Congress the confiscation of all 
 debts due Northern men for goods had and received. Talk 
 thus to the Marines, but not to me, who have seen these 
 things, and who will this day make as much sacrifices for 
 the peace and honor of the South as the best-born South- 
 erner among you. If we must be enemies, let us be men, 
 and fight it out as we proposed to-day, and not deal in 
 such hypocritical appeals to God and humanity. 
 
 "God will judge us in due time, and he will pronounce 
 whether it will be humane to fight with a town full of 
 women and the families of ' a brave people ' at our back, or 
 to remove them in time to places of safety among their 
 own friends and people." 
 
 There was also some correspondence between the two 
 Generals on the subject of the exchange of prisoners. 
 Hood began it, and Sherman replied, consenting to such an 
 exchange, man for man, and equal for equal, and then added : 
 
 "By your laws all men eligible for service are ipso facto 
 soldiers, and a very good one it is ; and, if needed for civil 
 duty, they are simply <letailed soldiers. We found in 
 Atlanta about a thousand of these fellows, and I am satis- 
 fied they are fit subjects of exchange; and if you will 
 release an equal number of our poor fellows at Anderson- 
 ville I will gather these together and send them as 
 prisoners. They seem to have been detailed for railroad 
 and shop duty, and I do not ask for them an equal 
 number of my trained soldiers, but will take men belong- 
 ing to any part of the United States Army subject to 
 your control. 
 
 "We hold a good many of your men styled 'deserters,' 
 who are really stragglers, and would be a good offset to 
 such of our stragglers and foragers as your cavalry picked 
 
HOOD'S PROTEST. 355 
 
 up of our men; but I am constrained to give these men, 
 though sorely against the grain, the benefit of their 
 character, pretended or real." 
 
 This did not suit Hood, who replied : 
 
 " Your refusal to receive, in exchange, your soldiers 
 belonging to 'regiments whose times are out, and who have 
 been discharged,' discloses a fixed purpose on the part of 
 your Government to doom to hopeless captivity those 
 prisoners whose term of service have expired, or will soon 
 expire. 
 
 " My offer to exchange the prisoners captured during 
 the campaign precludes an intention on my part in the de- 
 livery to discriminate between your prisoners, as all would 
 have been delivered ; and even had it been intended, this 
 discrimination between your men, whose term of service 
 had and had not expired, would have been impossible, and 
 could not have been effected, as I had no reliable means 
 of ascertaining what portion of your men were entitled to 
 their discharge. 
 
 " Your avowal that this class of your soldiers will not be 
 exchanged, but will be rewarded by the sufferings and pri- 
 vations incident to military imprisonment because their 
 boldness and courage subjected them to capture, although 
 their terms of service has nearly expired, is deeply regreted 
 by me, as I have the earnest desire of my Government to 
 release from prolonged confinement the large number of 
 prisoners held by both parties." 
 
 An exchange of about two thousand prisoners was, how- 
 ever effected. During the truce, four hundred and forty- 
 six families were sent South. These comprised 705 adults, 
 860 children, and 79 servants, and each family took on the 
 average, 165 1 pounds of furniture and other personal 
 effects. 
 
356 READY FOR THE MARCH. 
 
 At the end of October, Sherman was ready to continue 
 his campaign. He had corresponded with Grant on the 
 subject and had intimated to him what he proposed to do. 
 Grant replied to him, on November 2d, "Go on, then, as 
 you propose." Thus the credit of the historic march that 
 followed must be given to Sherman himself,— the concep- 
 tion of it as well as its execution. "The honor is all 
 yours," said Lincoln afterward; "none of us went further 
 than to aquiesce." 
 
 But Sherman had not stated positively, not even to 
 Grant, what his objective point was, whether Charleston or 
 Savannah, or even Pensacoh. He proposed to march from 
 Atlanta to the sea ; that was all. What road he would 
 follow, he would decide for himself and he would keep his 
 own counsel. And in order to isolate Atlanta and render 
 it useless to the enemy and that there might be no inter- 
 ference with his plans as he proceeded, he performed the 
 unique act of destroying utterly the railways and telegraph 
 by which he had communicated with the North. When 
 everything was ready, and the final messages transmitted 
 between himself and Grant, he cut the last remaining wire, 
 and thence forward for a time, was lost to the Nation's 
 view. His conquering host became known as "the lost 
 army." This was on November 12th. On the 14th his 
 army was ready for the march, and on the 15th the drums 
 beat and they moved forward. 
 
 Acting under the grim necessities of war, Sherman sent 
 this order to Captain Poe : " You may commence the work 
 of destruction at once, but don't use fire until towards the 
 last moment." Thus much of the City of Atlanta was 
 destroyed, and it was past smoking ruins that Sherman's 
 army marched forward to the sea. 
 
GENERAL HOWARD. 357 
 
 The army was divided, for the purposes of this march, 
 into two great wings. The right, keeping its army name, 
 was commanded by General Howard, and consisted of the 
 Fifteenth Corps, under Osterhaus, and the Seventeenth 
 Corps, under Blair, The left, called Army of Georgia, 
 was commanded by General Slocum, and consisted of the 
 Fourteenth Corps, under J. C. Davis, and the Twentieth 
 Corps, under A. S. Williams. In all there were about 
 60,000 infantry and 60 cannon. In addition, there was a 
 cavalry division of 5.500 men, under General Kilpatrick. 
 
 General Howard was now 34 years old ; a native of 
 Maine, and a graduate of West Point in the class of 1854. 
 He had served in Florida against the Indians, and as an 
 instructor at West Point. He had joined the arm.y again 
 as Colonel of the first three years' regiment that came 
 from Maine ; had commanded a brigade at Bull Run and 
 served with the Army of the Potomac until the battle of 
 Fair Oaks, where he had lost his right arm while leading 
 a gallant charge. Two months later, he had returned to 
 active service in time to be at the second battle of Ball 
 Run, where he commanded the rear guard on the retreat. 
 He had rendered distinguished service at Antietam and 
 Fredericksburg, and also at Chancellorsville. He had been 
 one of the chief actors at Gettysburg, being responsible 
 for the selection of the invincible position at Cemetery 
 Ridge occupied by the Union Army. His gallantry at 
 Missionary Ridge has already been recorded in these 
 pages, and he had also marched with Sherman to the relief 
 of Burnside at Knoxville. His Christian character and 
 his intellectual attainments made him as acceptable as a 
 man as he was as a brave and skilful General. 
 
 General Slocum, a native of New York State, had been 
 graduated at West Point two years before Howard. After 
 
358 GENERAL KILPATRICK. 
 
 some military service he had become a practicing lawyer 
 and active in the politics of his State. At the outbreak 
 of the war he had returned to the army as Colonel of one 
 of the first three years' regiments sent from New York. 
 He had se^-ved with honor at Bull Run and with the Army 
 of the Potomac on the Rappahannock and at Yorktown 
 and all through the Peninsula campaign from West Point, 
 Va., to Malvern Hill, He had won great distinction at 
 South Mountain and Antietam, at Fredericksburg, Chan- 
 cellorsville and Gettysburg. He and Howard were trusted 
 lieutenants of Sherman in the great campaign that was 
 now to be undertaken. 
 
 Kilpatrick came from New Jersey, and was only 26 years 
 old. He had been graduated at West Point in 1861, just 
 in time to rush to the front with Duryeas's Zouaves, and 
 received a slight wound at Big Bethel. Then he received 
 a cavalry command and pursued a brilliant career with the 
 Army of the Potomac, until he was sent to assist Sherman 
 in Georgia. 
 
 General Thomas was now at Nashville, and Schofield 
 en route near Pulaski, Tennessee, ready to deal with Hood 
 on his northwestern march. In Sherman's army there were 
 few non-combatants and sick men. There was a goodly 
 supply of ammunition, but provisions were scanty. It was 
 the intention of the army to live off the enemy's country 
 as they marched through it. Sherman's orders for the 
 campaign were as follows : 
 
 " I. For the purpose of military operations, this army is 
 divided into two wings, viz., the right wing. Major General 
 O. O. Howard commanding, composed of the Fifteenth 
 and Seventeenth Corps ; the left wing. Major General H. 
 W. Slocum commanding, composed of the Fourteenth and 
 Twentieth Corps. 
 
ORDERS FOR THE MARCH. . 359 
 
 "II. The habitual order of march will be, whenever 
 practicable, by four roads, as nearly parallel as possible, 
 and converging at points hereafter to be indicated in orders. 
 The cavalry, Brigadier-General Kilpatrick commanding, 
 will receive special orders from the commander-in-chief. 
 
 "Ill, There will be no general trains of supplies, but 
 each corps will have its ammunition and provision trains 
 distributed habitually as follows : Behind each regiment 
 should follow one wagon and one ambulance ; behind each 
 brigade should follow a due proportion of ammunition 
 wagons, provision wagons, and ambulances. In case of 
 danger, each army corps commander should change this 
 order of march by having his advance and rear brigade 
 unencumbered by wheels. The separate columns will 
 start habitually at 7 A. M., and make about 15 miles 
 per day, unless otherwise fixed in orders. 
 
 " IV. The army will forage liberally on the country 
 during the march. To this end, each brigade commander 
 will organize a good and sufficient foraging party, under 
 the command of one or more discreet officers, who will 
 gather near the route travelled corn or forage of any kind, 
 meat of any kind, vegetables, corn-meal, or whatever is 
 needed by the command, aiming at all times to keep in the 
 wagon trains at least ten days' provisions for the command, 
 and three days' forage. Soldiers must not enter the dwell- 
 ings of the inhabitants, or commit any trespass; but dur- 
 ing the halt, or at camp, they may be permitted to gather 
 turnips, potatoes, and other vegetables, and drive in stock 
 which is in sight of their camp. To regular foraging 
 parties must be intrusted the gathering of provisions and 
 forage at any distance from the road travelled. 
 
360 APPROPRIATING GOODS. 
 
 "V. To army commanders alone is intrusted the power 
 to destroy mills, houses, cotton-gins, etc., and for thern 
 this general principle is laid down : In districts and 
 neighborhoods where the army is unmolested, no destruc- 
 tion of such property should be permitted ; but should 
 guerrillas or bushwhackers molest our march, or should 
 the inhabitants burn bridges, obstruct roads, or otherwise 
 manifest local hostility, then army corps commanders 
 should order and enforce a devastation more or less relent- 
 less, according to the measure of such hostility. 
 
 "VI. As for horses, mules, wagons, etc., belonging to 
 the inhabitants, the cavalry and artillery may appropriate 
 freely and without limit, discriminating, however, between 
 the rich, who are usually hostile, and the poor or indus- 
 trious, who are usually neutral or friendly. Foraging 
 parties may also take mules or horses to replace the jaded 
 animals of their trains, or to serve as pack-mules for the 
 regiments or brigades. In all foraging, of whatever kind, 
 the parties engaged will refrain from abusive or threaten- 
 ing languages, and may, when the officer in command 
 thinks proper, give written certificates of the facts, but no 
 receipts, and they will endeavor to leave with each family 
 a reasonable portion for their maintenance. 
 
 "VII. Negroes who are able-bodied, and can be of 
 service to the several columns, may be taken along, but 
 each army commander will bear in mind that the ques- 
 tion of supplies is a very important one, and that his 
 first duty is to see to those who bear arms. 
 
 "VIII. The organization at once of a good pioneer 
 battalion for each corps, composed, if possible, of negroes^ 
 should be attended to. This battalion should follow the 
 
SETTING OUT FOR THE SEA. 363 
 
 advance guard, should repair roads, and double them if 
 possible, so that the columns may not be delayed on 
 reaching bad places. Also, army commanders should 
 study the habit of giving the artillery and wagons the 
 road, and marching their troops on one side, and also in- 
 struct their troops to assist wagons at steep hills or bad 
 crossings of streams. 
 
 "IX. Captain O. M. Poe, chief engineer, will assign 
 to each wing of the army a pontoon train, fully equipped 
 and organized, and the commanders thereof will sec to 
 Its being properly protected at all times." 
 
 On November 12th, at Cartersville, Sherman sat on 
 the edge of a porch to rest. The telegraph wire had 
 been torn down, but the operator connected the end of 
 it with a small pocket instrument which he held in his 
 hand as he stood at Sherman's side. A dispatch was 
 received from Thomas at Nashville. Sherman answered 
 it, "All right." The wire was detached from the instru- 
 ment, and then a burning bridge fell in ruins, dragging 
 down more of the line, and Sherman was absolutely 
 isolated from the North. 
 
 As they marched away from Atlanta, Slocum's men 
 passed the very spot where McPherson fell, and at the 
 moment, doubtless with a grim satisfaction, looked back 
 at the pall of smoke that hung above Atlanta, as above 
 a fitting funeral pyre for their dead comrade and leader. 
 Then some one in the ranks, or one of the bands, struck 
 up " John Brown's Body," and a minute later the Army 
 of Georgia was singing that famous battle hymn, and 
 marching forward with quickened pace to its inspiring 
 strains. 
 
 21 
 
CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 "MARCHING THROUGH GEORGIA." 
 
 The " Lost Army " — Speculations, North and South, as to its 
 Doings — Diary of an Officer — Keeping Thanksgiving Day — 
 Howell Cobb's Plantation — The Negroes — A Quaint Philoso- 
 pher — Strategy of the March — Howard's Brilliant Advance — 
 Investment of Savannah — Capture of Fort McAllister — Fall of 
 Savannah. 
 
 Volumes might be written about the march from Atlanta 
 to the sea. It abounded in picturesque and dramatic inci- 
 dents, and in pathetic scenes as well. Of real fighting 
 there was scarcely any. There were no Rebel armies left 
 to oppose Sherman's progress. The negroes welcomed 
 the Union Army with fervent exultation, and the few loyal 
 whites hailed its advent as a time of deliverance. The 
 soldiers fared reasonably well. It was harvest time in the 
 richest State of the South, and provisions were abundant 
 on Sherman's line. There was no wanton pillaging, but 
 foraging for the actual needs of the army was conducted 
 on a generous scale. Grain, vegetables, bacon, fresh meat, 
 poultry and all other supplies were taken from barns and 
 houses. There were few conflicts between the army and the 
 people. Now and then resistance would be offered to a 
 forao-ino- party, but with no serious effect. Occasionally, 
 some soldiers would become disorderly and commit acts of 
 violence and pillage , but such breaches of* order were 
 364 
 
REBEL RUMORS, 365 
 
 Sternly repressed and punished whenever knowledge of 
 them came to the ears of the higher officers. 
 
 So they marched on through the glorious Indian summer, 
 more as if on a holiday picnic than on an errand of actual 
 war. Meantime the North was wondering where they 
 were. The only information of their movements came 
 throught Rebel sources, which were generally either ill- 
 informed or untruthful. The Rebel authorities, indeed, were 
 much mystified as to Sherman's real purpose. Their un- 
 certainty is shown by the following extract from the 
 columns of TJie Richmond Dispatch of November i8th, 
 only a few days after the start: 
 
 "The only official information received by the press 
 yesterday was that Sherman had destroyed the North- 
 western and Atlantic railroad from Atlanta to Allatoona, the 
 Chattahoochee bridge included. This movement is diffi- 
 cult to understand, except as explained by unofficial re- 
 ports that were in circulation during yesterday. If they 
 be true, the destruction of the railroad can be understood, 
 though it will still appear a superfluous labor. The reports 
 had it that Sherman, having burned Atlanta on the 15th, 
 last Tuesday, had set out for Macon with three corps, 
 amounting together to thirty-five thousand men, and that 
 he had, on yesterday, reached Jonesborough, twenty-two 
 miles south of Atlanta. If there is truth in these accounts, 
 as we believe there is, Wheeler has much to answer for. 
 It devolved upon him to watch Sherman and keep posted 
 as to his movements. Only four days ago he reported him 
 'moving toward Bridgeport.' Now it is said, he reports 
 him moving toward Macon, as above stated. We regret 
 to say this latter report is corroborated by other evidence, 
 
 " Sherman will, we think, meet with opposition he does 
 not calculate upon before he reaches the fortifications of 
 
366 SPECULATING ON THE RESULT. 
 
 Macon. These works, should he ever reach them, he will 
 find of the most formidable character, and with the troops 
 that before that time will be collected in them, they must 
 give him a vast deal more trouble than he evidently counts 
 upon. If the Georgians will battle for their trenches as 
 the Petersburg Militia did last June for theirs, or the Rich- 
 mond Militia did at Staunton River bridge later in the 
 summer, Macon will be saved. 
 
 " In undertaking this expedition, Sherman is too prudent 
 a man to rely upon subsisting his army on the country. 
 It becomes interesting and important to consider what 
 point he calculates upon making his base of supplies. 
 His destruction of the railroad northwest of Atlanta 
 proves that he has cut loose from the Chattanooga base. 
 He must, then, be looking to some point on the Atlantic or 
 the Gulf. We are disposed, for several reasons, to believe 
 that Pensacola is the selected point ; this, not because of 
 its greater proximity than any other post to his present 
 field of operations, but because it is ascertained that for 
 more than a month very large supplies have been accum- 
 ulated there. If he fail to take Macon at the first dash, 
 he will probably run for Pensacola, and make it a new 
 base of operations. It is not to be presumed that he 
 carries with him supplies sufficient to enable him to enter 
 upon a siege which shall occupy any considerable length 
 of time. 
 
 "We have ventured the opinion that Sherman had Pen- 
 sacola in view as a new base of supplies ; but it is proper 
 to say there are reasons why he might select some point 
 on the Atlantic as being nearer at hand. Savannah, for 
 instance, offers advantages, did its approach not involve 
 the certainty of a great deal of heavy fighting. 
 
REBEL HOPES. 367 
 
 "We look with intense interest to full and authentic 
 news from Georgia." 
 
 The following appeared in The Richmond Whig of the 
 same date : 
 
 " It was officially reported at the War Department last 
 night that Sherman has torn up the railroad track between 
 Atlanta and Allatoona, and has burnt the bridge over the 
 Chattahoochee. We also have unofficial information that 
 a part of Sherman's army, at last accounts, had reached 
 Jonesborough, thirty miles south of Atlanta. A more ex- 
 travagant and even more untrustworthy rumor advanced 
 him to Selma. Another rumor, which we chronicle as the 
 'latest,' was, that he was advancing on Macon. While he 
 can't possibly go to both places at the same time, we have 
 a strong hope that, in a fit of desperation, he will essay a 
 movement southward. The sequel will but develop that 
 the evil one does not always protect his own." 
 
 The right wing, the Army of the Tennesee, did march 
 on Macon, then turned to the left to fight the battle of 
 Griswoldville. 
 
 The outlook entertained at the North was expressed by 
 a wise editorial in TJie Cincinnati Gazette, as follows: 
 
 " From private advices, both by letter and telegraph, we 
 learn that Sherman is advancing from Atlanta toward 
 Savannah River in two columns. The first set out, one 
 account says, the 7th, another the 9th inst. (probably the 
 last date), on the road to Macon. On the 13th or 14th 
 inst., it was seventy miles in advance, driving everything 
 before it, and destroying everything behind that could aid 
 the enemy, and intending to pursue this policy to the end. 
 The other column, we understand, set out three or four 
 days later, and undoubtedly intended to unite with the 
 other at a suitable point. The army is stated in some ac- 
 
368 NO OPPOSITION FEARED. ' 
 
 counts at 45,000, and in others at 55,000, a large portion 
 being cavalry under Kilpatrick. The largest estimate is 
 probable, the army being composed of four corps, and 
 largely reinforced. 
 
 "Sherman took with him rations for many days, but ex- 
 pected to find ample provisions on the route. Corn and 
 sweet potatoes he will find in abundance and probably 
 hogs. 
 
 "Such is our information from several sources; but at 
 the same time it should be recollected that a general, at 
 the head of a movable army in the field, must act accord- 
 ing to circumstances, and he may have turned from the 
 course we suppose him to have taken by contingent events, 
 of which we have now no knowledge. We understand him 
 to be on his march through Georgia, to make the South 
 Atlantic Squadron, at Beaufort, his new base of supplies, 
 if he needs one, but if the country, as we suppose, is 
 sufficient to maintain his army, there is no absolute need 
 of any new base. 
 
 "Here it will be inquired. What opposition will he en- 
 counter, and what is his object } There will be no army 
 in front of him and the Georgia malitia will be utterly 
 inefficient in obstructing his progress. Hood is powerless; 
 Lee has no men to spare, and if he had, it would take a 
 large army to encounter Sherman. The field is, therefore, 
 open before him, and the main question is, what can he 
 accomplish ? In our opinion, he can accomplish the most 
 important results reached in the war. When a column 
 reaches Macon, it can destroy, effectually, the only remain- 
 ins: railroad communication between the eastern and 
 western parts of the Confederacy. When a column shall 
 reach Augusta, it destroys the largest manufactories and 
 depot of military munitions in the South. The greatest 
 
THE SOLDIERS IN THE DARK. 369 
 
 and almost only powder manufactory is there. When the 
 railroad to Augusta, and from Savannah to Charleston are 
 destroyed, there is no further practicable military commu- 
 nication between the country east of the Savannah and 
 west of it. We shall have severed the Confederacy by 
 another impassable line. 
 
 " But this is only the beginning. If Sherman can reach 
 Beaufort, after a week's rest, he can move right on through 
 North Carolina to Danville, thus making Eastern Virginia. 
 a prison and a grave for Lee's army and the Rebel Gov- 
 ernment. This, we say, is perfectly practicable with an 
 average share of luck. We do not know that General 
 Sherman has all this in his plan ; but why not } Why 
 should he not aim at the greatest results t What is to 
 prevent these results ? He has a large, well equipped dis- 
 ciplined army. What is there from the Roanoke to the 
 Tennessee to oppose him .'' Nothing that can oppose any 
 serious resistance to a disciplined army, 
 
 "But what of Hood.? Hood has no larger army than 
 Thomas has, besides all the garrisons, gunboats and militia 
 in the rear. It will be less safe for him to advance than to 
 retreat. Such is the outline of the military operations we 
 suppose to be on foot. We wait further information with 
 solicitude, but with hope that the final will be brilliant 
 and decisive." 
 
 A private letter from one of Sherman's officers, just be- 
 fore the start from Atlanta, gave this view of the case : 
 
 "We are under orders to prepare for a sixty days cam- 
 paign ; so you see that does not look much like spending 
 thT3 winter in Atlanta, as many have hoped to do. It is not 
 supposed that any below a Major-General knows what is to 
 be the programme — nor do they ; but it is generally con- 
 jectured that a large force is soon to start for Savannah, 
 
370 THE GRAND START. 
 
 via Augusta and Milledgeville. General Thomas will have 
 force, with what will be left him by Sherman, to 'do the 
 agreeable' to Hood. You may expect that 'something 
 may turn up ' before this army settles down for the winter," 
 •Among the many accounts of the march to the sea, one 
 of the most graphic and accurate was furnished by an army 
 officer to the New York Evening Post. Writing from At- 
 lanta on November 14th, he said : 
 
 "On the 1 2th instant the last train of cars whirled rap- 
 idly past the troops moving south, speeding over bridges 
 and into the woods as if they feared they might be left 
 helpless in the deserted land. At Curtfsville the last com- 
 munications with the North were served with the tele- 
 graph wire. It bore the message to General Thomas,' All 
 is well' And so we have cut adrift from our base of opera- 
 tions, from our line of communications, launching out into 
 uncertainty at the best ; on a journey whose projected end 
 only the general in command knows. 
 
 "As for the army, they do not stop to ask questions. 
 "Sherman says 'Come,' and that is the entire vocabu- 
 lary to them, A most cheerful feature of the situation is 
 the fact that the men are healthful and jolly as men can be, 
 hoping for the best, willing to dare the worst. 
 
 " Behind us we leave a track of smoke and flame. Half of 
 Marietta was burned up, not by orders, however; for the 
 command is that proper details shall be made to destroy all 
 property which can ever be of use to the Rebel armies. 
 Stragglers will get into these places, and dwelling houses 
 are leveled to the ground. In nearly all cases these are 
 the deserted habitations formerly owned by Rebels, who 
 are now refugees. 
 
 "From Kingston to Atlanta the rails have been taken 
 up on the road, fires built about them, and the iron twisted 
 
DESTRUCTION OF THE CITY. 37 1 
 
 in all sorts of curves ; thus they are left, never to be 
 straightened again. The Secesh inhabitants are in agony 
 of wonder at all this queer manoeuvring. It appears as if 
 we intended evacuating Atlanta, but our troops are taking 
 the wrong direction for the hopes and purposes of these 
 people. 
 
 "Atlanta is entirely deserted of human beings, excepting 
 a few soldiers here and there. The houses are vacant ; 
 there is no trade or traffic of any kind ; the streets are 
 empty. Beautiful roses bloom in the gardens of fine 
 houses, but a terrible stillness and solitude covers it all, 
 depressing the hearts even of those who are glad to destroy 
 it. In your peaceful homes at the North you cannot con- 
 ceive how these people have suffered for their crimes." 
 
 The next night he wrote of the burning of Atlanta: 
 
 " A grand and awful spectacle is presented to the beholder 
 in this beautiful city, now in flames. By order, the Chief 
 Engineer has destroyed by powder and fire all the store- 
 houses, depot buildings and machine shops. The heaven 
 is one expanse of lurid fire : the air is filled with flying, 
 burning cinders; buildings covering over two hundred 
 acres are in ruiub or in flames; every instant there is the 
 sharp detonation or the smothered burning sound of 
 exploding shells and powder concealed in the buildings, 
 and then the sparks and flame shooting away up into the 
 black and red roof, scattering the cinders far and wide. 
 
 "These are the machine shops where have been forged 
 and cast Rebel cannon, shot and shell, that have carriec? 
 death to many a brave defender of our nation's honor. 
 These warehouses have been the receptacle of munitions 
 of war, stored, to be used for our destruction. The city, 
 which next to Richmond, has furnished more material for 
 prosecuting the war than any other in the South, exists 
 no more as a means for the enemies of the Union." 
 
372 AT THE STATE CAPITAL. 
 
 November 24th found the army of Georgia, Slocum 
 commanding, at the State capital, Milledgeville, which 
 they captured without firing a gun. The Legislature fled 
 at their approach without waiting for the formality of 
 adjournment ; and this panic, says the correspondent 
 quoted, "spread among the citizens to such an extent as 
 to depopulate the place, except of a few old gentlemen and 
 ladies, and the negroes ; the latter welcoming our approach 
 with ecstatic exclamations of joy: 'Bless de Lord ! the 
 Yanks is come ; de day ob jubilee hab arribed ' ; and then 
 acompanied their words with rather embarrassing hugs. 
 
 " General Slocum, with the Twentieth Corps, first 
 entered the city, arriving by way of Madison, having accom- 
 plished his mission of destroying the railroads and valuable 
 bridges at Madison. The fright of the legislators, as des- 
 cribed by witnesses, must have been comical in the ex- 
 treme. They little imagined the movement of our left 
 wing, hearing first of the advance of Kilpatrick on the ex- 
 treme right toward Macon, and supposed that to be 
 another raid. What their opinion was when Howard's 
 army appeared at McDonough it could be difficult to say; 
 and their astonishment must have approached insanity 
 when the other two columns were heard from — one directed 
 toward Augusta and the other swiftly marching straight 
 upon their devoted city, 
 
 " It seemed as if they were surrounded upon all sides 
 except toward the east, and that their doom was sealed. 
 With the certain punishment for their crimes looming up 
 before them, they sought every possible means of escape. 
 Private effects, household furniture, books, pictures, every 
 thing was conveyed to the depot and loaded into the cars 
 until they were filled and heaped, and the flying people 
 could not find standing room. 
 
PRIVATE RIGHTS RESPECTED. 373 
 
 "Any and every price was obtained for a vehicle. A 
 thousand dollars was cheap for a common buggy, and men 
 rushed about the streets in agony of fear lest they should 
 'fall victims to the ferocity of the Yankees,' 
 
 "Several days of perfect quiet passed after this exodus, 
 when, on a bright, sunshiny morning a regiment entered 
 the city, with the band playing national airs, which music 
 had many a day since been hushed in the capital of 
 Georgia. 
 
 " But few of the troops were marched through the city. 
 Some two or three regiments were detailed, under the 
 orders of the engineers, to destroy certain property desig- 
 nated by the general commanding. The magazines, ar- 
 senals, depot buildings, factories of one kind and another, 
 with storehouses containing large amounts of government 
 property, and some 1,700 bales of cotton burned. Private 
 houses were respected everywhere, even those of noted 
 Rebels, and I heard of no instance of pillage or insult to 
 the inhabitants. One or two of the latter, known as hav- 
 ing been in the Rebel army, were prisoners of war, but 
 the surgeons at the hospitals, the principal of the insane 
 asylum, and others, expressed their gratitude that such 
 perfect order was maintained throughout the city. 
 
 " General Sherman is at the Executive Mansion, its for- 
 mer occupant having with extremely bad grace fled from 
 h!s distinguished visitor, taking with him the entire furni- 
 ture of the building. As General Sherman travels wdth a 
 mcnoge (a roll of blankets and haversack full of hard-tack), 
 which is as complete for a life out in the open air as in a 
 palace, this discourtesy of Governor Brown was not a seri- 
 ous inconvenience. 
 
 " General Sherman's opening move in the present cam- 
 paign has been successful in the highest degree. At first 
 
374 O^L V ONE BATTLE. 
 
 moving his Army in three columns, with a column of Cav- 
 alry on his extreme right, with eccentric lines, he diverted 
 the attention of the enemy, so that he concentrated his 
 forces at extreme points, Macon and Augusta, leaving un- 
 impeded the progress of the main body. In this campaign 
 — the end of which does not yet appear — it is not the pur- 
 pose of the General to spend his time before fortified cities, 
 nor yet to incumber his wagons with wounded men. His 
 instructions to Kilpatrick were to report to Howard and so 
 demonstrate against Macon. 
 
 " Slocum, with the Twentieth Corps, arrived at Milledge- 
 ville on the 22d instant, preceding Davis, with the Four- 
 teenth Corps, one day. On the same day Kilpatrick struck 
 the Macon and Western Road, destroying the bridge at 
 Walnut Creek. The day following Howard, with the Fif- 
 teenth and Seventeenth Corps, after a battle, arrived at Gor- 
 don, and began the destruction of the Georgia Central 
 Railroad. 
 
 " It was back of this that the most serious fight of the 
 campaign occurred tothis date, supported by General Chas. 
 R.Wood's entire division. General VVolcot in command of a 
 detachment of cavalry and a brigade of infantry, was thrown 
 forward to Griswoldville, toward Macon, for demonstra- 
 tive purposes merely. The enemy, some five thousand 
 strong, advanced upon our troops, who had thrown up 
 temporary breastworks, with a section of a battery in 
 position. The cavalry fell slowly back on either flank of 
 brigade, protecting them from attack in flank and rear. 
 The Rebels are composed of militia chiefly, although a 
 portion of Hardee's old corps was present, having been 
 brought up from Savannah. 
 
 " With that ignorance of danger common to new troops, 
 the Rebels rushed upon our veterans with the greatest 
 
THE REBELS DECEIVED. 3/5 
 
 fury. The rebels made the attack, but with most fatal 
 results and were soon in full flight, leaving more than 
 three hundred dead on the field. Our loss was some forty 
 killed and wounded, while their killed, wounded and 
 prisoners are estimated to exceed two thousand. A pretty 
 severe lesson they have received." 
 
 The whole army moved on, and three days later reached 
 Tennille Station, on the Georgia Central Railroad. Con- 
 tinuing his story, the correspondent wrote on November 
 27 : " General Sherman was with Slocum at Milledgeville. 
 The rebels seem to have understood, but too late, that 
 it was not Howard's intention to make a serious attack upon 
 Macon. They have, however, succeeded in getting Wheeler 
 across the Oconee at a point below the railroad bridge. 
 We first became aware of their presence in our front by 
 the destruction of several small bridges across Buffalo 
 Creek, on the two roads leading to Sandersville, over 
 which were advancing the 20th and 14th Corps. 
 
 " We were delayed but a few hours. The passage was 
 also contested by the rebel cavalry under Wheeler, and 
 they fought our front all the way, and into the streets of 
 Sandersville. The 20th Corps had the advance, deploying 
 a regiment as skirmishers, forming the remainder of a 
 brigade in line of battle on either side of the road. The 
 movement was executed in the handsomest manner, and 
 was so effectual as not to impede the march of the column 
 in the slightest degree, although the roll of musketry was 
 unceasing. Our loss was not serious, twenty odd killed and 
 wounded. 
 
 " As the 20th Corps entered the town they were met by 
 the 14th, whose head of column arrived at the same mo- 
 ment. While these two corps had met with the obstruc- 
 tions above mentioned, the army under General Howard 
 
376 THANKSGIVING DAY KEPT. 
 
 were attempting to throw a pontoon across the Oconee at 
 the Georgia Central Railroad bridge. Here they met a 
 force under the command of General Wayne, which was 
 composed of a portion of Wheeler's cavalry, militia, and a 
 band of convicts who had been liberated from the peniten- 
 tiary upon the condition that they would join the army. 
 
 " The most of these desperados have been taken pris- 
 oners, dressed in their State prison clothing. General Sher- 
 m.an has turned them loose, believing that Governor Brown 
 had not got the full benefits of his liberality. The rebels 
 did not make a remarkably stern defense of the bridge, for 
 Howard was able to cross his army yesterday, a,nd com- 
 menced breaking railroad again to-day. In fact, all of the 
 army, except one corps, are engaged in this same work. 
 Morgan, with his army, was hardly able to reach this point 
 when he met General Hardee, who has managed to get 
 around here from Macon. Our troops struck the railroad 
 at this station a few hous after the frightened band escaped. 
 
 " We had been told that the country was very poor east 
 of the Oconee, but our experience has been a delightful 
 gastronomic contradiction of the statement. The cattle 
 trains are getting so large that we find difficulty in driving 
 them along. Thanksgiving Day was very generally ob- 
 served in the army, the troops scorning chickens in the 
 plentitude of turkeys with which they have supplied them- 
 selves. 
 
 "Vegetables of all kinds, and in unlimited quantities, 
 were at hand, and the soldiers gave thanks as soldiers may 
 and were merry as only soldiers can be. In truth, so far as 
 the gratification of the stomach goes, the troops are pursuing 
 a continuous thanksgiving. 
 
 " In addition to fowls, vegetables, and meats, many ob- 
 tain a delicious syrup made from sorghum, which is culti- 
 
HOWELL COBB'S PLANTATION. 377 
 
 vated on all the plantations, and stored away in large 
 troutrhs and hocrsheads. The mills here and there furnish 
 fresh supplies of flour and meal, and we hear little or noth- 
 ing of ' hard tack ' — that terror to weak mastication. Over 
 the sections of country lately traversed I find very little 
 cultivation of cotton. The commands of Davis appear to 
 have been obeyed; and our large droves of cattle are turned 
 nightly into the immense fields of ungathered corn to eat 
 their fill, while the granaries are crowded to overflowing 
 with both oats and corn. 
 
 " We have also reached the sand regions, so that the 
 fall of rain has no terrors, the roads are excellent, and 
 v/ould become firmer from a liberal wetting. The rise of 
 the rivers will not bother us much, for every army corps 
 has its pontoon, and the launching of its boats is a mat- 
 ter of an hour. 
 
 "Just before his entrance into Milledgeville, General 
 Sherman camped on one of the plantations of Howell 
 Cobb. It was a coincidence that a Macon paper, contain- 
 ing Cobb's address to the Georgians as general command- 
 ing, was received the same day. This plantation was the 
 property of Cobb's wife, who was a Demar. 
 
 " We found his granaries well filled with corn and wheat, 
 part of which was distributed and eaten by our animals and 
 men. A large supply of syrup made from sorghum (which 
 we have found at nearly every plantation on our march), was 
 stored in an out-house. This was also disposed of to the 
 soldiers and to the poor, decrepit negroes, which this hu- 
 mane, liberty-loving Major-General left to die in this place 
 a few days ago. Becoming alarmed, Cobb sent to that 
 place and removed all the able-bodied mules, horses, cows, 
 and slaves. He left here some fifty old men — cripples, 
 and women and children — with clothinsr scarce coverine 
 
378 REBEL STORIES. 
 
 their nakedness, with httle or no food, and without means 
 of procuring any. We found them cowering over the fire- 
 places of their miserable huts, where the wind whirled 
 through the crevices between the logs, frightened at the 
 approach of the Yankees, who they had been told would 
 kill them. A more forlorn, neglected set of human 
 beings I never saw. 
 
 " General Sherman distributed to the negroes with his 
 own hands the provisions left here, and assured them that 
 we were their friends, and they need not be afraid. One old 
 man answered him : ' I spose dat you's true : but, massa, 
 you'll go 'way to-morrow, and anudder white man will 
 come.' 
 
 " This terrorism, which forms so striking a feature of 
 slavery, has had marked illustrations ever since we left At- 
 lanta. Many negroes were told that as soon as we got 
 them into our clutches they were put into the front of the 
 battle, and we killed them if they did not fight ; that we 
 threw the women and children into the Chattahoochie, and 
 when the buildings were burned in Atlanta, we filled them 
 with negroes to be devoured by the flames. These stories, 
 which appear so absurd to us, are not too extravagant for 
 the simple, untutored minds of the negroes. They are 
 easily fi-ightened, and full of superstition. In most any 
 other instance, such bloody tales would have frightened 
 them entirely out of our sight to the woods and other hiding 
 places; but they assert, with much earnestness and glee that 
 ' massa can't come dat over we ; we knowed a heap better. 
 What for de Yankees want to hurt black men. Massa 
 hates de Yankees, and he's no fren' ter we ; so we am de 
 Yankee's bi's fren's.' Very simple logic, that ; but it is 
 sufficient for the negroes. 
 
 " Near Covington, one Judge Harris has a large planta- 
 
NEGROES Joining the army, 381 
 
 tion ; before we arrived it was well stocked ; I can't answer 
 for its condition afterward. A jollier set of negroes I never 
 saw than his were when the blue coats came along. Stories 
 of their cruelty to the negroes were also told by their masters 
 to frighten them, but the negroes never put faith in them. 
 I asked Judge Harris's head man : ' Well, how do you like 
 the Yankees ?' ' Like him ! bully, bully, bully. I'se wanted 
 to see 'em long time ; heard a heap 'bout 'em. Say, Sally, 
 dese here be gentlemen dat's passing.' A compliment to 
 our soldiers, which they no doubt would have appreciated 
 could they have heard Mr. Lewis. 
 
 "'Yass, sar; I'se hope de Lord will prosper dem and 
 Mr. Sherman.' 
 
 " ' Why do you hope that the Lord will help the Yankee ?' 
 
 " ' Because I t'inks, and so we all t'inks, dot you'se down 
 here in our interests.' 
 
 " ' You're about right there. Did you ever hear that 
 President Lincoln freed all the slaves ?' ' No, sar ; I never 
 heard such a t'ing. De white folks nebber talk 'fore 
 black men ; dey mighty free from dat' In other parts of 
 the South the negroes I have seen seem to understand there 
 is a man named Lincoln, who had the power to free them 
 and had exercised it. We have reached here a stratum of 
 ignorance upon that subject. All knowledge of that nature 
 has not only been kept from the blacks, but only a few of 
 the w^hites are well-informed. 
 
 " General Sherman allows all able-bodied negroes (others 
 could not make the march) to join the column, and he takes 
 especial pleasure when they join the procession, on some 
 occasions telling them they are free ; that Massa Lincoln 
 has given them their liberty, and that they can go where 
 they please ; that if they earn their freedom they should 
 have it — but that Massa Lincoln had given it to them any- 
 
382 DESTRUCTION OF RAILROADS. 
 
 how. They all seem to understand that the proclamation 
 of freedom had made them free, and I have met but few in- 
 stances where they did not say they expected the Yankees 
 were coming down sometime or other, and very generally 
 they are possessed with the idea that we are fighting for 
 them and that their freedom is the object of the war. 
 
 " ' Stick in dar,' was the angry exclamation of one of a 
 party of negroes to another, who was asking too many 
 questions of the officer who had given them permission to 
 join the column. ' Stick in dar, it's all right ; we'se gwine 
 along, we'se free.' 
 
 " Another replied to a question, ' Oh, yass, massa, de 
 people hereabouts were heap frightened when dey heard 
 you'se coming ; dey dusted out yer sudden.' 
 
 " Pointing to the Atlanta & Augusta Railroad, which had 
 been destroyed, the question was asked, * It took a longer 
 time to build this railroad than it does to destroy it ?' 
 
 *"I would think it did, massa; in dat ar woods over dar 
 is buried ever so many black men who were killed a work- 
 ing on dat road.' 
 
 "'Does the man live here who worked them?' 
 
 "*Oh no, sar; he's dun gone longtime.' 
 
 " By the way, the destruction of railroads in this cam- 
 paign has been most thorough. The ordinary method of 
 destruction was to place the rails across a pile of burning 
 sleepers, their own weight bending them. 
 
 " But this do-as not injure the rail so much but that it may 
 be heated and straightened again. Instruments have been 
 made ; one is a clasp, which locks under the rail. It has a 
 ring in the top into which is inserted a long lever, and the 
 rail is thus ripped from the sleepers. When the rail has 
 become heated a wrench is applied, which fits close over the 
 ends of the rail :, by turning them in opposite directions the 
 
SUCCESSFUL PROGRESS. 383 
 
 rail is so twisted that even a rolling machine could not bring 
 it back into shape. In this manner have been destroyed 
 some thirty miles of rails which lay in the city of Atlanta, 
 and also all the rails on the Augusta & Atlanta road from 
 the last named place to Madison ; and thus far the Georgia 
 Central road, from a few miles east of Macon to Terryville 
 Station, where I am now writing." 
 
 The army reached Johnson's, on the south side of the 
 railroad, on November 29, when the writer continued : 
 
 " General Sherman's second step in this campaign will 
 have have been equally successful with the first, if he is able 
 to cross the Ogeechee to-morrow without much opposition. 
 Davis and Kilpatrick's movement has been a blind in order 
 to facilitate the passage over the Ogeechee of the main 
 body of the army, which for two days past has been 
 marching on parallel roads south of the railroad. 
 
 " Thus far, we have reas n to believe that the rebels are 
 ignorant of our principal movement, and are trembling with 
 fear that Augusta is our objective. 
 
 " Kilpatrick is doing the same work which he accom- 
 plished with such high honor when covering our right 
 flank in the early days of the campaign. His column now 
 acts as a curtain upon the extreme left, through which the 
 enemy may in vain attempt to penetrate. 
 
 " The most pathetic scenes occur upon our line of march 
 daily and hourly. Thousands of negro women join the 
 column, some carrying household truck ; others, and many 
 of them there are, who bear the heavy burden of children 
 in their arms, while older boys and girls plod by their sides. 
 These women and children are, by some commanders, 
 ordered back, heartrending though it may be to refuse them 
 liberty. One begs that she may go to see her husband and 
 children at Savannah. Long years ago she was forced 
 
384 PATHETIC SCENES. 
 
 from them and sold. Another has heard that her boy was 
 in Macon, and she is ' done gone with grief goin' on four 
 years.* 
 
 " But the majority accept the advent of the Yankees as 
 the fulfillment of the millennial prophecies. The ' day of 
 jubilee,' the hope and prayer of a lifetime, has come. They 
 cannot be made to understand that they must remain be- 
 hind, and they are satisfied only when General Sherman 
 sometimes tells them that we shall come back for them some 
 time, and that they must be patient until the proper hour of 
 deliverance comes (this because they so swarmed). 
 
 " The other day a woman with a child in her arms was 
 working her way along amongst the teams and crowds of 
 cattle and horsemen. An officer called to her kindly : 
 ' Where are you going, aunty ? ' 
 
 " She looked up into his face with a hopeful, beseeching 
 look, and replied : 
 
 " ' I'se gwine whar you'se gwine, massa.' 
 
 " At a house a few miles from Milledgeville we halted 
 for an hour. In an old hut I found a negro and his wife, 
 both of them over sixty years old. In the talk which en- 
 sued nothing was said which led me to suppose that either 
 of them was anxious to leave their mistress, who, by the 
 way, was a sullen, cruel-looking woman, when all at once 
 the old negress straightened herself up, and her face, which 
 a moment before was almost stupid in its expression, as- 
 sumed a fierce, almost devilish aspect. 
 
 " Pointing her shiningr black finder at the old man 
 crouched in the corner of the fireplace, she hissed out : 
 
 " ' What for you sit dar ; you 'spose I wait sixty years for 
 nutten? Don't yer see de door open. I'se follow my 
 child ; I not stay. Yes, nodder day I goes 'long wid dese 
 people ; yes, sar, I walks till I drop in my tracks.' A more 
 
ACHOSS THE OGEECHEE. 385 
 
 terrible sight I never beheld. I can think of nothing to 
 compare with it, except Charlotte Cushman's ' Meg Mer- 
 rilies." Rembrandt only could have painted the scene, with 
 its dramatic surroundings. 
 
 " It was near this place that several factories were 
 burned. It was odd enough to see the delight of the 
 negroes at the destruction of places known only to them as 
 task-houses." 
 
 Sherman did cross the Ogeechee River without having 
 to fight. The 20th Corps moved down the railroad, de- 
 stroying it to the bridge. The 17th Corps covered the 
 river at this point, where a light bridge was only partially 
 destroyed. It was easily repaired, so that the infantry and 
 calvary could pass over it, while the wagons and artillery 
 used the pontoons. The Ogeechee is about sixty yards in 
 width at this point. It is approached on the northern or 
 western side through swamps, which would be impassable 
 were it not for the sandy soil, which packs solid when the 
 water covers the roads, although in places there are treach- 
 erous quicksands which the army had to span with cor- 
 duroy roads. 
 
 Here they met a quaint old man who had been station 
 agent before the railroad was destroyed. The correspon- 
 dent had a long chat with him about the war, and about 
 Sherman's march, and the old man said : 
 
 " ' They say you are retreating, but it is the strangest sort 
 of a retreat I ever saw. Why, dog bite them, the news- 
 papers have been lying in this way all along. They allers 
 are whipping the Federal armies, and they allers fall back 
 after the battle is over. It was that ar' idee that first opened 
 my eyes. Our army was allers whipping the Feds, and 
 we allers fell back. I allers told 'em it was a humbug, and 
 now I know it, for here you are, right on old John Wells's 
 
386 A QUANT PHILOSOPHER. 
 
 place ; hogs, potatoes, corn, and fences all gone. I don't 
 find any fault. I expected it all.' 
 
 " ' Jeff Davis and the rest,' he continued, ' talk about 
 splitting the Union. Why, if South Carolina had gone out 
 by herself, she would have been split in four pieces by this 
 time. Splitting the Union ! Why, the State of Georgia is 
 being split right through from end to end. It is these rich 
 fellows who are making this war, and keeping their pre- 
 cious bodies out of harm's way. There's John Franklin 
 went through here the other day, running away from your 
 army. I could have played dominoes on his coat-tails. 
 There's my poor brother, sick with smallpox at Macon, 
 working for ^ii a month, and hasn't got a cent of the stuff 
 for a year. 'Leven dollars a month and ii,ooo bullets a 
 minute. I don't believe in it, sir.' 
 
 " ' My wife came from Canada, and I kind o' thought I 
 would sometime go there to live, but was allers afraid of 
 the ice and cold ; but I can tell you this country is getting 
 too cussed hot for me. Look at my fence-rails a-burning 
 there. I think I can stand the cold better.' 
 
 " ' I heard as how they cut down the trees across your 
 road up country and burn the bridges ; why (dog bite their 
 hides), one of you Yankees can take up a tree and carry it 
 off, tops and all ; and there's that bridge you put across the 
 river in less than two hours — they might as well try to stop 
 the Ogeechee as you Yankees. 
 
 " ' The blasted rascals who built this yere bridge thought 
 they did a big thing. 
 
 " * To bring back the good old times,' he said, ' it'll take 
 the help of Divine Providence, a heap of rain, and a deal of 
 elbow grease, to fix things up again.' " 
 
 The steady progress of the army was recorded at Scar- 
 borough on December 3, thus: 
 
THE REBELS STILL BLINDED, 387 
 
 " Pivoted upon Millen, the army has swung slowly round 
 from its eastern course, and is now moving in six columns 
 upon parallel roads southward. Until yesterday it was im- 
 possible for the rebels to decide whether or not it was Gen- 
 eral Sherman's intention to march upon Augusta. Kilpat- 
 rick had destroyed the bridge above Wainesborough, and 
 falling back had again advanced, supported by the 14th 
 Army Corps, under General Davis. South of this column, 
 moving eastward through Birdsville, was the 20th Corps, 
 commanded by General Slocum. Yet further south, the 
 17th Corps, General Blair in command, followed the rail- 
 road, destroying it as he advanced. West and south of the 
 Ogeechee, the 15th Corps, General Osterhaus in immediate 
 command, but under the eye of General Howard, has moved 
 in two columns. 
 
 " Until now Davis and Kilpatrick have been a cover and 
 shield to the real movements. At no time has it been pos- 
 sible for Hardee to interpose any serious obstacle to the 
 advance of the main body of our army, for our left wing 
 has always been a strong arm thrust out in advance, ready 
 to put in chancery any force which might attempt to get 
 within its guard. 
 
 " The rebel councils of war appear to have been com- 
 pletely deceived, for we hear it reported that Bragg and 
 Longstreet are at Augusta with ten thousand men, made up 
 of militia, two or three South Carolina regiments, and a 
 portion of Hampton's Legion, sent there for one month. It 
 is possible, now that the curtain has been withdrawn, and 
 as it may appear that we are marching straight for Savan- 
 nah, their generals may attempt to harass our rear. 
 
 " The work so admirably performed by our left wing, so 
 far as it obliged the rebels in our front constantly to re- 
 treat, by threatening their rear, now becomes the office of 
 
388 
 
 NO POSSIBILITY OF FAILURE. 
 
HEARING SA VANNAH. 389 
 
 the Fifteenth Corps, our right wing, on the right bank of 
 the river. Its two columns arc moving one day's march in 
 advance of the main body of the army, marching down the 
 peninsula between the Savannah and Ogeechee rivers. The 
 necessity and value of these flank movements first of the 
 right wing with Kilpatrick's calvary, then of Davis and Kil- 
 patrick on the left, and now of Howard on our right, is be- 
 cause we cannot run over and demolish any and all the 
 Rebel force in Georgia. They could not for a moment 
 stand before this army upon any ordinary battle-ground, but 
 a very small force of infantry or calvary at a river could de- 
 lay a column half a day, and perhaps longer, and as our sol- 
 diers have got tired of chickens, sweet potatoes, sorghum, 
 etc., and have been promised oysters on the half shell, oys- 
 ters roasted, stewed, etc., in short, oysters ; they don't care 
 to be delayed." 
 
 The right, Blair and Logan, found a sparse population 
 and rather meagre supplies. The lessoning do not apply 
 to them, the breadth swept by their columns varied from 
 40 to 60 miles. 
 
 That Sherman was marching on Savannah was at last 
 clear to the Rebels ; and it was equally clear to them 
 that they would not be able soon to stop him. By 
 December 6th the army was at Ogeechee Church, Logan's 
 Corps still on the west side of the river. Kilpatrick's 
 Cavalry engaged the enemy under Wheeler several times 
 near Waynesborough, with success. General Howard 
 made a bold and brilliant movement between the Little 
 Ogeechee and the Great Ogeechee. He pushed ahead of 
 the rest of the army thirteen miles, to the canal connect- 
 ing the Ogeechee and Savannah Rivers, bridged the canal, 
 crossed it and took up a strong position beyond. This 
 forced the enemy to abandon their line of works between 
 
390 STORMING FORT MCALLISTER. 
 
 the rivers and fall back to the fortifications of Savannah. 
 
 Sherman now moved forward more cautiously. The 
 country was swampy and the roads narrow causeways, and 
 the enemy had great advantages in defending the city. 
 There was a Union fleet off the coast, and Sherman sought 
 to open communications with it. By December I2th his 
 investment of the city was complete, and only Fort Mc- 
 Allister barred his way to the shore. General Howard 
 had sent three scouts down the river in a canoe past the 
 fort and they had almost reached Admiral Dahlgren, com- 
 mander of the fleet ; but did not venture to return. Next 
 day Howard, having consulted with Sherman, directed 
 General Hazen's Division to cross the Ogeechee by King's 
 Bridge and move down toward the fort. Then he went 
 with Sherman to a signal station which he had established 
 on the roof of Cheves's rice-mill, and watched the operations. 
 
 Hazen's advance, under Colonel W. S. Jones, reached a 
 point only half a mile from the fort early in the afternoon, 
 but it was five o'clock before a sufficient force could be 
 brought up and made ready for the assault. Sherman and 
 Howard watched the scene, anxious, and impatient to have 
 the fort taken before dark. A boat from the fleet ap- 
 proached and signalled the question : " Have you taken the 
 fort .? " Sherman signalled back, " No ; but we shall in a 
 minute;" for Hazen was just ordering the charge. A 
 sharp struggle followed. The works were strong and 
 torpedoes did much damage. But in fifteen minutes all 
 was over. The garrison was captured, and the Stars and 
 Stripes floated over Fort McAllister. 
 
 The army and the fleet now joined forces. Howard 
 pressed the work of building roads across the swamps and 
 draining the rice fields. On December 17th, Sherman 
 summoned Hardee, the Rebel commander, to surrender, 
 
THE NEWS OF VICTORS. 39I 
 
 but Hardee refused. Howard and Slocum brought up 
 their batteries and pressed the army forward, however, 
 and Hardee, after a detachment of Sherman had crossed 
 the Savannah, saw the situation was hopeless ; so before 
 his last road was taken he took to flight with his troops 
 and light artillery, leaving his heavy guns and stores be- 
 hind. At daybreak of December 21st the Union troops 
 occupied the city, and Sherman's official dispatch announc- 
 ing the event reached Lincoln at Washington on Christmas 
 Day. "I beg to present you," he said, "as a Christmas 
 gift, the city of Savannah, with 150 heavy guns and 
 plenty of ammunition, and also about 25,000 bales of 
 cotton." 
 
 Before this, however, the Nation had been informed of 
 the whereabouts of the " lost army" by means of this dis- 
 patch, which was received at the War Department, 
 Washington, on December 14th: 
 
 "Hilton Head, S. C, Monday, Dec. 12th, 1864, 
 
 "via Fort Monroe, Dec. 14th. 
 " To Major-Gcneral Hallcck, Chief of Staff. 
 
 " General : — Captain Duncan, of General Howard's 
 scouts, has just come, in from General Howard, having 
 descended the Ogeechee River in a small boat. They left 
 the army on the evening of the 9th. General Sherman's 
 whole army was then within ten miles of Savanah, advanc- 
 ing to attack it. The enemy's works, five miles from the 
 city, were probably attacked yesterday, as heavy firing was 
 heard in that direction. 
 
 " Captain Duncan represents the army to be in the best 
 spirits possible, and the most excellent condition. Very 
 little opposition had been met with on the march, as the 
 enemy could not tell what routes were to be taken. The 
 army has lived off the country, and has accumulated a 
 
392 SHERMAN'S REVIEW. 
 
 considerable number of horses and cattle. It was also well 
 supplied. 
 
 " The following is a copy of the dispatch brought by 
 Captain Duncan : 
 
 "'Hdqrs. Army of the Tennessee, near Savannah 
 Canal, December 9th, 1864. 
 " ' To the Cominander of the United States Naval Forces 
 
 in tJie vicinity of Savannah, Ga. 
 
 " ' Sir : — We have met with perfect success thus far. The 
 troops are in fine spirits and General Sherman near by. 
 "'Respectfully, O. O. Howard, Major-General, 
 
 " ' Commanding Right Wing of the Army.' 
 
 "Another dispatch brought by Captain Duncan, directed 
 to the Signal Officer of the fleet, from General Howard's 
 Chief Signal Officer, requests a good lookout to be kept 
 for signals. 
 
 " I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obe- 
 dient servant, J. G. Foster, 
 
 "Major-General Commanding." 
 
 Sherman afterward wrote of this great march and its 
 results as follows : 
 
 " I was left with a well-appointed army to sever the 
 enemy's only remaining railroad communications eastward 
 and westward, for over one hundred miles, namely, the 
 Georgia State railroad, which is broken up from Fairborn 
 Station to Madison and the Oconee and the Central rail- 
 road from Gordon clear to Savannah, v/ith numerous 
 breaks on the latter road from Gordon to Eatonville, and 
 from Millen to Augusta, and the Savannah and Gulf rail- 
 road. We have consumed the corn and fodder in a region 
 of country thirty miles on each side of a line from Atlanta 
 to Savannah, as also the sweet potatoes, cattle, hogs, sheep, 
 and poultry. We have carried away more than ten thou- 
 
BEHAVIOR OF THE TROOPS. 393 
 
 sand horses and mules, as well as a countless number of 
 slaves. I estimate the damage done to the State of 
 Georgia at a hundred millions of dollars, at least twenty 
 millions of which has inured to our advantage, and the 
 remainder is simply waste and destruction. This may 
 seem a hard species of warfare, but it brings the sad reali- 
 ties of war home to those who have been directly or in- 
 directly instrumental in involving us in its attendant cala- 
 mities. 
 
 "The behavior of our troops in Savannah has been so 
 manly, so quiet, so perfect, that I take it as the best evi- 
 dence of discipline and true courage. Never was a hostile 
 city filled with women and children occupied by a large 
 army with less disorder, or more system, order, and good 
 government." 
 
CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 SHERMAN'S STORY OF THE MARCH. 
 
 The Soldier's Modest Narration of his Arduous Deeds — Why the 
 March was Decided Upon — Operations around Savannah — Ma- 
 terial Results of the Campaign — Handsome Tributes to the 
 Officers and Men of his Army. 
 
 After his safe arrival at Savannah, General Sherman 
 made the following official report on the great march " from 
 Atlanta to the Sea" : 
 
 "Hdqrs, Mil. Div. of the Mississippi, 
 
 "In the Field, Savannah, Ga., Jan. ist, 1865. 
 " Major General H. IV. Halleck, Chief of Staff, Washington 
 
 City, D. D. 
 
 " General : — I have the honor to offer my report of the 
 operations of the armies under my command since the 
 occupation of Atlanta in the early part of September last, 
 up to the present date. 
 
 "As heretofore reported in the month of September the 
 Army of the Cumberland, Major-General Thomas com- 
 manding, held the city of Atlanta ; the Army of the 
 Tennessee, Major-General Howard commanding, was 
 grouped about East Point ; and the Army of the Ohio, 
 Major-General Schofield commanding, held Decatur. Many 
 changes occurred in the composition of those armies, in 
 394 
 
PREPARA TIONS AT A TLANTA. 395 
 
 consequence of expiration of the time of service of many 
 of the regiments. The opportunity was given to us to 
 consolidate the fragments, reclothe and equip the men, 
 and make preparations for the future campaign, I also 
 availed myself of the occasion to strengthen the garrisons 
 to our rear, to make our communications more secure, and 
 sent Wagner's Division of the Fourth Corps, and Morgan's 
 Division of the Fourteenth Corps back to Chattanooga, 
 and Corse's Division of the Fifteenth Corps to Rome. 
 Also a thorough reconnoissance was made of Atlanta, 
 and a new line of works begun, which required a small 
 garrison to hold. 
 
 "During this month, the enemy whom we had left at 
 Lovejoy's Station, moved westward toward the Chatta- 
 hoochee, taking position facing us and covering the West 
 Point railroad, about Palmetto Station. He also threw a 
 pontoon bridge across the Chattahoochee, and sent cavalry 
 detachments to the west, in the direction of Carrolton and 
 Powder Springs. About the same time President Davis 
 visited Macon, and his army at Palmetto, and made har- 
 angues referring to an active campaign against us. Hood 
 still remained in command of the Confederate forces, with 
 Cheatham, S. D. Lee and Stewart, commanning his three 
 corps, and Wheeler in command of his cavalry, which had 
 been largely reinforced. 
 
 " My cavalry consisted of two divisions. One was 
 stationed at Decatur, under command of Brigadier-General 
 Garrard; the other, commanded by Brigadier-Genera} 
 Kilpatrick, was posted near Sandtown, with a pontoon 
 bridge over the Chattahoochee, from which he could watch 
 any movement of the enemy toward the west. 
 
 "As soon as I became convinced that the enemy in- 
 tended to assume the offensive, namely, September 2Sth, 
 
396 THOMAS AT NASHVILLE. 
 
 I sent Major-General Thomas, second in command, to 
 Nashville, to organize the new troops expected to arrive, 
 and to make preliminary preparations to meet such an 
 event, 
 
 "About the ist of October some of the enemy's cavalry 
 made their appearance on the west of the Chattahoochee, 
 and one of his infantry corps was reported near Powder 
 Springs; and I received authentic intelligence that the 
 rest of his infantry was crossing to the west of the Chatta- 
 hoochee. I at once made my orders that Atlanta and the 
 Chattahoochee railroad bridge should be held by the 
 Twentieth Corps, Major-General Slocum, and on the 4th 
 of October put in motion the Fifteenth and Seventeenth 
 Corps, and the Fourth, Fourteenth, and Twenty-third 
 Corps, to Smyrna camp-ground, and on the 5th moved to 
 the strong position about Kenesaw. The enemy's cavalry 
 had, by a rapid movement, got upon our railroad, at Big 
 Shanty and broken the line of telegraph and railroad, and 
 with a division of infantry (French's) had moved against 
 Allatoona, where were stored about a million rations. Its 
 redoubts were garrisoned by three small regiments under 
 Colonel Tourtellotte, Fourth Minnesota. 
 
 " I had anticipated this movement, and had by signal and 
 telegraph ordered General Corse to reinforce that post from 
 from Rome. General Corse had reached Allatoona with a 
 brigade during the night of the 4th, just in time to meet 
 the attack by French's Division on the morning of the 
 5th. In person I reached Kenesaw Mountain about 10 A. M. 
 of the 5th, and could see the smoke of battle and hear the 
 faint sounds of artillery. The distance, eighteen miles, 
 was too great for me to make in time to share in the battle, 
 but I directed the Twenty-third Corps, Brigadier-General 
 Cox commanding, to move rapidly from the base of Kene- 
 
I— I 
 
 H 
 
 "A 
 H 
 
 o 
 
 &^ 
 
 H 
 
 H 
 < 
 
 o 
 
 Q 
 
 CO 
 
PUSHING FORWARD. 399 
 
 saw due west, aiming to reach the road from Allatoona to 
 Dallas, threatening the rear of the forces attacking Alla- 
 toona I succeeded in getting a signal message to General 
 Corse during the fight, notifying him of my presence. The 
 defence of Allatoona by General Corse was admirb'.y con- 
 ducted, and the enemy repulsed with heavy slaughter. His 
 description of the defence' is so graphic that it leaves 
 nothing for me to add ; and the movement of General Cox 
 had the desired effect of causing the withdrawal of French's 
 Division rapidly in the direction of Dallas. 
 
 " On the 6th and 7th I pushed my cavalry well toward 
 Burnt Hickory and Dallas, and discovered that the enemy 
 had moved westward, and inferred that he would attempt to 
 break our railroad again in the neighborhood of Kingston. 
 Accordingly, on the morning of the 8th I put the army in 
 motion through Allatoona Pass to Kingston, reaching that 
 point on the loth. There I learned that the enemy had 
 feigned on Rome, and was passing the Coosa River on a 
 pontoon bridge about eleven miles below Rome. I there- 
 fore, on the nth, moved to Rome, and pushed Garrard's 
 Cavalry and the Twenty-third Corps, under General Cox, 
 across ths Oostanaula, to threaten the .flanks of the enemy 
 passing north. Garrard's cavalry drove a cavalry brigade 
 of the enemy to and beyond the Narrows, leading into the 
 Valley of the Chattooga, capturing two field pieces. The 
 enemy had moved with great rapidity, and made his ap- 
 pearance at Resaca, and Hood had in person demanded its 
 surrender. 
 
 *' I had from Kingston reinforced Resaca by two regi- 
 ments of the Army of the Tennessee. I at first intended 
 to move the army into the Chattooga Valley, to interpose 
 between the enemy and his line of retreat down the Coosa, 
 but feared that General Hood would in that event turn 
 28 
 
40O ON THE OLD GROUND. 
 
 eastward by Spring Place, and down the Federal road, and 
 therefore moved against him at Resaca. Colonel Weaver 
 at Resaca, afterward reinforced by General Raum's brigade, 
 had repulsed the enemy from Resaca, but he had succeeded 
 in breaking the railroad from Filton to Dalton, and as far 
 north as the tunnel. Arriving at Resaca on the evening 
 of the 14th, I determined to strike Hood in flank, or force 
 him to battle ; and directed the Army of the Tennessee, 
 General Howard, to move to Snake Creek Gap which was 
 held by the enemy, while General Stanley, with the Fourth 
 and Fourteenth Corps, moved by Tilton, across the moun- 
 tains, to the rear of Snake Creek Gap in the neighborhood 
 of Villianow. 
 
 " The Army of the Tennessee found the enemy occupy- 
 ing our old lines in Snake Creek Gap, and on the 15th 
 skirmished for the purpose of holding him there until 
 Stanley could get to his rear. But the enemy gave way 
 about noon, and was followed through the gap, escaping be- 
 fore General Stanley had reached the further end of the 
 pass. The next day (the i6th) the armies moved^directly 
 toward Lafayette, with a view to cut off Hood's retreat. 
 We found him intrenched in Ship's Gap, but the leading 
 division (Wood's) of the Fifteenth Corps rapidly carried 
 the advanced posts held by two companies of a South Caro- 
 lina regiment, making them prisoners. The remaining 
 eight companies escaped to the main body near Lafayette. 
 The next morning we passed over into the Valley of the 
 Chattooga, the Army of the Tennessee moving in pursuit 
 by Lafayette and Alpine, toward Blue Pond ; the Army of 
 the Cumberland by Summerville and Melville Postoffice, 
 to Gaylesville, and the Army of the Ohio and Garrard's 
 Cavalry from Villainow, Dirttown, and Cover's Gap, to 
 Gaylesville. Hood, however, was little incumbered with 
 
TVATCHING HOOD'S MOVEMENTS. 401 
 
 trains, and marched with great rapidity, and had succeeded 
 in getting into the narrow gorge formed by the lookout 
 Range abutting against the Coosa River, in the neighbor- 
 hood of Gadsden. He evidently wanted to avoid the 
 fight. 
 
 ■ " On the 19th all the armies were grouped about Gayles- 
 ville, in the rich valley of the Chattooga, abounding m 
 corn and meat, and I determined to pause in my pursuit of 
 the enemy, to watch his movements and live on the coun- 
 try. I hoped that Hood would turn toward Guntersville 
 and Bridgeport. The Army of the Tennessee was posted 
 near Little River, with instructions to feel forward in sup- 
 port of the cavalry, which was ordered to watch Hood in 
 the neighborhood of Will's Valley, and to give me the 
 earliest notice possible of his turning northward. The 
 Army of the Ohio was posted at Cedar Bluff, with orders 
 to lay a pontoon across the Coosa, and to feel forward to 
 Center and down in the direction of Blue Mountain. The 
 Army of the Cumberland was held in reserve at Gayles- 
 ville ; and all the troops were instructed to draw heavily 
 for supplies from the surrounding country. In the mean- 
 time communications were opened to Rome, and a heavy 
 force set to work in repairing the damages done to our 
 railroads. Atlanta was abundantly supplied with provi- 
 sions, but forage was scarce, and General Slocum was in- 
 structed to send strong foraging parties out in the direc- 
 tion of South River and collect all the com and fodder pos- 
 sible, and to put his own trains in good condition for fur- 
 ther service. 
 
 *' Hood's movements and strategy had demonstrated that 
 he had an army capable of endangering at all times my com- 
 munications, but unable to meet me in open fight. To fol- 
 low him would simply amount to being decoyed away from 
 
402 RESOLVING ON THE MARCH. 
 
 Georgia, with little prospect of overtaking and overwhelm- 
 ing him. To remain on the defensive would have been bad 
 policy for an army of so great value as the one I then com- 
 manded, and I was forced to adopt a course more fruitful 
 in results than the naked one of following him to the south- 
 west. I had previously submitted to the Commander-in- 
 Chief a general plan, which amounted substantially to the 
 destruction of Atlanta and the railroad back to Chatta- 
 nooga, and sallying forth from Atlanta, through the heart 
 of Georgia, to capture one or more of the great Atlantic 
 seaports. This I renewed from Gaylesville, modified some- 
 what by the change of events. 
 
 " On the 26th of October, satisfied that Hood had moved 
 westward from Gadsden across Sand Mountain, I detached 
 the Fourth Corps, Major-General Stanley, and ordered him 
 to proceed to Chattanooga and report to Major-General 
 Thomas at Nashville. Subsequently, on the 30th of Octo- 
 ber, I also detached the Twenty-third Corps, Major-General 
 Schofield, with the same destination, and delegated to 
 Major-General Thomas full power over all the troops sub- 
 ject to my command, except the four corps with which I 
 designed to move into Georgia. This gave him the two 
 divisions under A. J. Smith, then in Missouri, but en route 
 for Tennessee, the two corps named, and all the garrisons 
 in Tennessee, as also all the cavalry of my Military Divi- 
 sion, except one division under Brigadier-General Kilpat- 
 rick, which was ordered to rendezvous at Marietta, Brevet 
 Major-General Wilson had arrived from the Army of the 
 Potomac, to assume command of the cavalry of my army, 
 and I dispatched him back to Nashville with all dismounted 
 detachments, and orders as rapidly as possible to collect the 
 cavalry serving in Kentucky and Tennessee, to mount, or- 
 gamize and equip them, and report to Major-General 
 
PRSPARATIONS, 4O3 
 
 Thomas for duty. These forces I judged would enable 
 General Thomas to defend the railroad from Chattanooga 
 back, including Nashville and Decatur, and give him an 
 army with which he could successfully cope with Hood, 
 should the latter cross the Tennessee northward. 
 
 "By the ist of November Hood's army had moved from 
 Gadsden, and made its appearance in the neighborhood of 
 Decatur, where a feint was made ; he then passed on to 
 Tuscumbia and laid a pontoon bridge opposite Florence. I 
 then began my preparations for the march through Georgia, 
 naving received the sanction of the Commander-in- 
 Chief carrying into effect my plan, the details of which 
 were explained to all my corps commanders and heads of 
 staff departments, with strict injunctions of secrecy. I had 
 also communicated full details to General Thomas, and had 
 informed him I would not leave the neighborhood of Kings- 
 ton until he felt perfectly confident ^2X he was entirely 
 prepared to cope with Hood, should he carry into effect his 
 threatened invasion of Tennessee and Kentucky. I esti- 
 mated Hood's force at 35,000 infantry and 10,000 cavalry. 
 
 " I moved the Army of the Tennessee by slow and easy 
 marches on the south of the Coosa back to the neighbor- 
 hood of Smyrna camp ground, and the Fourteenth Corps, 
 General Jeff. C. Davis, to Kingston, whither I repaired in 
 person on the 2d of November. From that point I directed 
 all surplus artillery, all baggage not needed for my con- 
 templated march, all the sick and wounded, refugees, &c., 
 to be sent back to Chattanooga ; and the four corps above- 
 mentioned, with Kilpatrick's Cavalry, were put in the most 
 efficient condition possible for a long and difficult march. 
 This operation consumed the time until the lith of No- 
 vember, when, everything being ready, I ordered General 
 Corse, who still remained at Kome, to destroy the bridges 
 
404 CUTTIN-G COMMUNICATIONS. 
 
 there, all foundries, mills, shops, warehouses, or other prop- 
 erty that could be useful to an enemy, and to move to 
 Kingston. At the same time the railroad in and about At- 
 lanta, and between the Etowah and the Chattahoochee, was 
 ordered to be utterly destroyed. 
 
 " The garrisons from Kingston northward were also or- 
 dered to draw back to Chattanooga, taking with them all 
 public property and all railroad stock, and to take up the 
 rails from Resaca back, saving them, ready to be replaced 
 whenever future interests should demand. The railroad 
 between the Etowah and the Oostanaula was left un- 
 touched, because I thought it more than probable we would 
 find it necessary to re-occupy the country as far forward as 
 the Etowah. Atlanta itself is only of strategic value as 
 long as it is a railroad centre ; and as all the railroads lead- 
 ing to it are destroyed, as well as all its foundries, machine 
 shops, warehouses^epots, &c., it is of no more value than 
 any other point in North Georgia ; whereas the line of the 
 Etowah, by reasons of its rivers and natural features, pos- 
 sesses an importance which will always continue. From 
 it all parts of Georgia and Alabama can be reached by 
 armies marching with trains down the Coosa or the Chat- 
 tahoochee Valleys. 
 
 "On the 1 2th of November, my army stood detached 
 and cut off from all communication with the rear. It was 
 composed of four corps, the Fifteenth and Seventeenth 
 constituting the right wing, under Major-General O. O. 
 Howard ; the Fourteenth and Twentieth Corps, constitut- 
 ing the left wing, under Major-General H. W. Slocum \ 
 of an aggregate strength of 60,000 infrantry ; one cavalry 
 division, in aggregate strength 5,500, under Brigadier- 
 General Judson Kilpatrick, and the artillery reduced to the 
 minimum, one gun per thousand meu. 
 
HEADING FOR THE SEA. /fi^ 
 
 " The whole force moved rapidly and grouped about 
 Atlanta on the 14th November. In the meantime Captain 
 O. M. Pee had thoroughly destroyed Atlanta, save its mere 
 dwelling houses and churches, and the right wing, with 
 General Kilpatrick's cavalry, was put in motion in the di- 
 rection of Jonesborough and McDonough, with orders to 
 make a strong feint on Macon, to cross the Ocmulgee 
 about Planters' Mills, and rendezvous in the neighborhood 
 of Gordon in seven days, exclusive of the day of march. 
 On the same day General Slocum moved with the Twen- 
 tieth corps by Decatur and Stone Mountain, with orders to 
 tear up the railroad from Social Circle to Madison, to burn 
 the large and important railroad bridge across the Oconee, 
 east of Madison, and turn south and reach Milledgeville on 
 the seventh day, exclusive of the day of march. 
 
 *' In person I left Atlanta on the i6th, in company with 
 the Fourteenth Corps, Brevet-Major-General Jeff. C. Davis, 
 by Lithonia, Covington, and Shady Dale, directly on Mil- 
 ledgeville. All the troops were provided with good 
 wagon trains, loaded with ammunition, and supplies ap- 
 proximating twenty days' bread, forty days* sugar and coffee, 
 a double allowance of salt for forty days, and beef cattle 
 equal to forty days' supplies. The wagons were also supplied 
 with about three days' forage, in grain. All were instructed 
 by a judicious system of foraging, to maintain this order 
 of things as long as possible, living chiefly, if not solely, 
 upon the country, which I knew to abound in corn, sweet 
 potatoes and meats. 
 
 " My first object was, of course, to place my army in the 
 very heart of Georgia, interposing between Macon and 
 Augusta, and obliging the enemy to divide his forces to 
 defend not only those points, but Millen, Savannah and 
 Charleston, AU my calculations were fully reaUjecL 
 
4e6 wonjc OF the generals. 
 
 During the 22d, General Kilpatrick made a good feint 
 on Macon, driving the enemy within his intrenchments, 
 and then drew back to Griswoldville, where Walcott's 
 Brigade of infantry joined him to cover that flank, while 
 Howard's trains were closing up and his men scattered, 
 breaking up railroads. The enemy came out of Macon 
 and attacked Wolcott in position, but was so roughly han- 
 dled that he never repeated the experiment. On the eighth 
 day after leaving Atlanta, namely, on the 23d, General 
 Slocum occupied Milledgeville and the important bridge 
 across the Oconee there, and Generals Howard and Kil- 
 patrick were in and about Gordon. 
 
 " General Howard was then ordered to move eastward, 
 destroying the railroad thoroughly in his progress as far 
 as Tennille Station, opposite Sandersville, and General 
 Slocum to move to Sandersville by two roads. General 
 Kilpatrick was ordered to Milledgeville, and thence move 
 rapidly eastward, to break the railroad which leads from 
 Millen to Augusta, then to turn upon Millen and rescue 
 our prisoners of war supposed to be confined at that place. 
 I accompanied the Twentieth Corps from Millegeville to 
 Sandersville, approaching which place, on the 25th, we 
 found the bridges across Buffalo Creek burned, which de- 
 layed us three hours. The next day we entered Sanders- 
 ville, skirmishing with Wheeler's Calvalry, which offered 
 little opposition to the advance of the Twentieth and 
 Fourteenth Corps, entering the place almost at the same 
 moment. 
 
 " General Slocum was then ordered to tear up and de- 
 stroy the Georgia Central Railroad, from Station No. 13 
 (Tennille) to Station No. 10, near the crossing of Ogeechee; 
 one of his Corps substantially followed the railroad, the 
 Other by way of Louisville, in support of Kilpatrick's 
 
KILPATRICK'S RAID. 407 
 
 Cavalry. In person I shifted to the right wing, and ac- 
 companied the Seventeenth Corps, General Blair, on the 
 south of the railroad.till abreast of Station No. 9 y.^, (Barton;) 
 General Howard, in person, with the Fifteenth Corps, 
 keeping further to tire right, and about one day's march 
 ahead, ready to turn against the flank of any enemy who 
 should oppose our progress. 
 
 " At Barton I learned that Kilpatrick's Cavalry had 
 reached the Augusta railroad about Waynesborough, where 
 he ascertained that our prisoners had been removed from 
 Millen and therefore the purpose of rescuing them, upon 
 which we had set our hearts, was an impossibility. But as 
 Wheeler's Cavalry had hung around him, and as he had 
 retired to Louisville t® meet our infantry, in pursuance of 
 my instructions not to risk a battle unless at great advan- 
 tage, I ordered him to leave his wagons and all incum- 
 brances with the left wing, and moving in the direction of 
 Augusta, if Wheeler gave him the opportunity, to indulge 
 him with all the fighting he wanted. General Kilpatrick, 
 supported by Baird's Division of infantry of the Fourteenth 
 Corps, again moved in the direction of Waynesborough, 
 and encountering Wheeler in the neighborhood of Thomas's 
 station, attacked him in position, driving him from three 
 successive lines of barricades hamsomely through Waynes- 
 borough and across Brier Creek, the bridges over which 
 he burned ; and then, with Baird's Division, rejoined the 
 left wing, which in the meantime had been marching by 
 easy stages of ten miles a day in the direction of Lumpkin's 
 Station and Jacksonborough. 
 
 "The Seventeenth Corps took up the destruction of the 
 railroad at the Ogeechee, near Station No. 10, and con- 
 tinued it to Millen ; the enemy offering little or no opposition, 
 althovigh preparation had seemingly been made at Millen," 
 
408 SHERMAN'S STORY OF THE MARCH. 
 
 " On the 3d of December the 17th Corps which I 
 accompanied, was at Millon; the 15th Corps, General 
 Howard, was south of the Ogeechee, opposite Station No. 
 7 (Scarboro) ; the 20th Corps, General Slocum, on the 
 Augusta Railroad, about four miles north of Millen, near 
 Buckhead Church, and the 14th Corps, General Jeff. 
 C. Davis, in the neighborhood of Lumpkin's Station, on the 
 Augusta Railroad. All were ordered to march in the di- 
 rection of Savannah — the 15th Corps to continue south 
 of the Ogeechee, the 17th to destroy the railroad as 
 far as Ogeechee Church — and four days were allowed to 
 reach the line from Ogeechee Church to the neighborhood 
 of Halley's Ferry, on the Savannah River. All the columns 
 reached their destinations in time, and continued to march 
 on their several roads — General Davis following the Savan- 
 nah River road. General Slocum the middle road by way of 
 Springfield, General Blair the railroad, and General Howard 
 still south and west of the Ogeechee, with orders to cross 
 to the east bank opposite * Eden Station,' or Station No. 2. 
 
 " As we approached Savannah the country became more 
 marshy and difficult, and more obstructions were met, in the 
 way of felled trees, where the roads crossed the creek 
 swamps or narrow causeways ; but our pioneer companies 
 were well organized, and removed the obstructions in an in- 
 credibly short time. No opposition from the enemy worth 
 speaking of was encountered until the heads of columns were 
 within 1 5 miles of Savannah, where all the roads leading to 
 the city were obstructed more or less by felled timber, with 
 earth-works, and artillery. But these were easily turned 
 and the enemy driven away, so that by the loth of Decem- 
 ber the enemy was driven within his lines at Savannah. 
 These followed substantially a swampy creek which empties 
 into the Sa^vannah River about three miles above the <jity, 
 
INVESTING THE CITY. 4O9 
 
 across to the head of a corresponding stream which empties 
 into the Little Ogeechee. These streams were singularly 
 favorable to the enemy as a cover, being very marshy, and 
 bordered by rice-fields, which were flooded either by the 
 tide-water or by inland ponds, the gates to which were con- 
 trolled and covered by his heavy artillery. 
 
 " The only approaches to the city were by five narrov/ 
 causeways, namely, the two railroads, and the Augusta, the 
 Louisville, and the Ogeechee dirt roads ; all of which were 
 commanded by heavy ordnance, too strong for us to fight 
 with our light field guns. To assault an enemy of unknown 
 strength at such a disadvantage appeared to me unwise, 
 especially as I had so successfully brought my army, almost 
 unscathed, so great a distance, and could surely attain the 
 same result by the operation of time. I therefore instructed 
 my army commanders to closely invest the city from the 
 north and west, and to reconnoitre well the ground in their 
 fronts, respectively, while I gave my personal attention to 
 opening communication with our fleet, which I knew was 
 waiting for us in Tybee, Warsaw, and Ossabaw Sounds. 
 
 "■ In approaching Savannah, General Slocum struck the 
 Charleston Railroad near the bridge, and occupied the river 
 bank as his left flank, where he had captured two of the 
 enemy's river boats, and had prevented two others (gun- 
 boats) from coming down the river to communicate with the 
 city ; while General Howard, by his right flank, had broken 
 the Gulf Railroad at Fleming's and way stations, and occu- 
 pied the railroad itself down to the Little Ogeechee, near 
 ' Station No. i ;' so that no supplies could reach Savan- 
 nah by any of its accustomed channels. We, on the con- 
 trary, possessed large herds of cattle, which we had brought 
 along or gathered in the country, and our wagons still con- 
 tained a reasonable amount of breadstuffs and other neces- 
 
410 STORMING THE FORT. 
 
 saries, and the fine rice erops of the Savannah and Ogeechee 
 Rivers furnished to our men and animals a large amount of 
 rice and rice straw. We also held the country to the south 
 and west of the Ogeechee as foraging ground. Still, com- 
 munication with the fleet was of vital importasce, and I 
 directed General Kilpatrick to cross the Ogeechee by a pon- 
 toon bridge, to reconnoitre Fort McAllister, and to proceed 
 to Catherine's Sound, in the direction of Sunbur}'- or Kil- 
 kenny Bluff, and open communication with the fleet. Gen- 
 eral Howard had previously by my direction sent one of 
 his best scouts down the Ogeechee in a canoe for alike pur- 
 pose. But more than this was necessary. We wanted the 
 vessels and their contents, and the Ogeechee River, a navi- 
 gable stream, close to the rear of our camps, was the proper 
 avenue of supply. 
 
 " The enemy had burned the road-bridge across the 
 Ogeechee, just below the mouth of the Canoochee, known 
 as ' King's bridge.' This was reconstructed in an in- 
 credibly short time, in the most substantial manner, by the 
 58th Indiana, Colonel Buel, under the direction of Captain 
 Reese, of the Engineers' Corps, and on the 13th of De- 
 cember the 2d Division of the 15th Corps, under com- 
 mand of Brigadier-General Hazen, crossed the bridge to 
 the west bank of the Ogeechee and marched down with 
 orders to carry by assault Fort McAllister, a strong inclosed 
 redoubt, manned by two companies of artillery and three 
 of infantry, in all about two hundred men, and mounting 
 23 guns en barbette, and one mortar. General Hazen 
 reached the vicinit}' of Fort McAllister about i p. m., de- 
 ployed his division about that place, with both flanks rest- 
 ing upon the rivsr, posted his skirmishers judiciously behind 
 the trunks of trees whose branches had been used for 
 abattis, and about 5 p, m., assaulted the plaec with nine regi- 
 
SEEKING AID FROM THE NAVY. 4IT 
 
 ments at three points ; all of them successful. I witnessed 
 the assault from a rice-mill on the opposite bank of the 
 river, and can bear testimony to the handsome manner in 
 which it was accomplished. 
 
 " Up to this time we had not communicated with our 
 fleet. From the signal station at the rice-mill our officers 
 had looked for two days over the rice-fields and salt marsh 
 in the direction of Ossabaw Sound, but could see nothing 
 of it. But while watching the preparations for the assault 
 on Fort McAllister, we discovered in the distance what 
 seemed to be the smoke-stack of a steamer, which became 
 more and more distinct. Until about the very moment of 
 the assault she was plainly visible below the fort, and our 
 signal was answered. As soon as I saw our colors fairly 
 planted upon the walls of McAllister, in company with 
 General Howard I went in a small boat down to the fort 
 and met General Hazen, who had not yet communicated 
 with the gunboat below, as it was shut out to him by a 
 point of timber. Determined to communicate that night, I 
 got another small boat and a crew and pulled down the 
 river till I found the tug ' Dandelion,' Captain Williamson, 
 U. S. N., who informed me that Captain Duncan, who had 
 been sent by General Howard, had succeeded in reaching 
 Admiral Dahlgren and General Foster, and that he was ex- 
 pecting them hourly in Ossabaw Sound. After making 
 communications to those officers, and a short communica- 
 tion to the War Department, I returned to Fort McAllister 
 th^ night, and before daylight was overtaken by Major 
 Strong, of General Foster's staff, advising me that General 
 Foster had arrived in the Ogeechee, near Fort McAllister, 
 and was very anxious to meet me on board his boat. I ac- 
 cordingly returned with him, and met General Foster on 
 board the steamer ' Nemeha,' and, after consultation, deter- 
 
412 PREPARING TO ATTACK THE CITY. 
 
 mined to proceed with him down the sound in hopes to 
 meet Admiral Dahlgren. But we did not meet him until 
 we reached Warsaw Sound, about noon. I there went on 
 board the Admiral's flag-ship, the ' Harvest Moon,' after 
 having arranged with General Foster to send us from Hil- 
 ton Head some siege ordnance and some boats suitable 
 for navigating the Ogeechee River. Admiral Dahlgren 
 very kindly furnished me with all the data concerning his 
 fleet and the numerous forts that guarded the inland chan- 
 nels between the sea and Savannah. I explained to him 
 how completely Savannah was invested at all points, save 
 only the plank road on the South Carolina shore known as 
 the ' Union Causeway,' which I thought I could reach from 
 my left flank across the Savannah River. I explained to 
 him that if he would simply engage the attention of the 
 forts along Wilmington Channel, at Beaulieu and Rosedew, 
 I thought I could carry the defenses of Savannah by assault 
 as soon as the heavy ordnance arrived from Hilton Head. 
 On the 15th the Admiral carried me back to Fort McAllis- 
 ter, whence I returned to our lines in the rear of Savannah. 
 
 " Having received and carefully considered all the reports 
 of division commanders, I determined to assault the lines 
 of the enemy as soon as my heavy ordnance came from 
 Port Royal, first making a formal demand for surrender. 
 On the 17th, a number of thirty-pounder Parrott guns 
 having reached King's Bridge, I proceeded in person to the 
 headquarters of Major-General Slocum, on the Augusta 
 Road, and dispatched thence into Savannah, by flag of truce, 
 a formal demand for the surrender of the place ; and on the 
 following day received an answer from General Hardee re- 
 fusing to surrender. 
 
 " In the meantime further reconnoissances from our left 
 flank had demonstrated that it was impracticable or unwise 
 
PREPARING TO ATTACK THE CITY. 413 
 
 to push any considerable force across the Savannah River, 
 for the enemy held the river opposite the city with iron-cUd 
 gunboats, and could destroy any pontoons laid down by us 
 between Hutchinson's Island and the South Carolina shore, 
 which would isolate any force sent over from that flank. I 
 therefore ordered General Slocum to get into position the 
 siege guns and make all the preparations necessary to 
 assault, and to report to me the earliest moment when he 
 could be ready, while I should proceed rapidly round by the 
 right and make arrangements to occupy the Union Cause- 
 way from the direction of Port Royal. General Foster had 
 already established a division of troops on the peninsula or 
 neck between the Coosawatchie and Tullifinney Rivers, at 
 the head of Broad River, from which position he could 
 reach the railroad with his artillery. 
 
 " I went to Port Royal in person, and made arrange- 
 ments to reinforce that command by one or more divi- 
 sions, under a proper officer, to assault and carry the 
 railroad, and thence turn toward Savannah until it occu- 
 pied the causeway in question. I went on board the 
 Admiral's flagship, the ''Harvest Moon,' which put out 
 to sea the night of the 20th. But che wind was high, 
 and increased during the night, so that the pilot judged 
 Ossabaw bar impassable, and ran into the Tybee, 
 whence we proceeded through the inland channels into 
 Warsaw Sound, and thence through Romney Marsh. But 
 the ebb tide caught the ' Harvest Moon' and she was unable 
 to make the passage. Admiral Dahlgren took me in his 
 barge, and pulling in the direction of Vernon River we met 
 the army tug ' Red Legs,' bearing a message from my Ad- 
 jutant, Captain Dayton, of that morning, the 21st, to the 
 effect that ©ur troops were in possession of the enemy's 
 lines, and were advancing without opposition into Savan- 
 
4l4 FRUnS OF THE CAPTURE, 
 
 nah, the enemy having evacuated the place during the pre- 
 vious night. 
 
 " Admiral Dahlgren proceeded up the Vernon River in 
 kis barge, while I transferred to the tug, in which I pro- 
 ceeded to Fort McAllister, and thence to the rice-mill ; and 
 on the morning of the 22d rode into the city of Savannah, 
 already occupied by our troops. 
 
 " I was very much disappointed that Hardee had es- 
 caped with his garrison, and had to content myself with the 
 material fruits of victory without the cost to life which 
 would have attended a general assault. The substantial re- 
 sults will be more clearly set forth in the tabular statements 
 of heavy ordnance and other public property acquired, and 
 it will suffice here to state that the important city of Savan- 
 nah, with its valuable harbor and river, was the chief object 
 of the campaign. With it we acquire all the forts and heavy 
 ordnance in its vicinity, with large stores of ammunition, 
 shot and shells, cotton, rice, and other valuable products of 
 the country. We also gain locomotives and cars, which, 
 though of little use to us in the present condition of the 
 railroads, are a serious loss to the enemy ; as well as four 
 steamboats gained, and the loss to the enemy of the iron- 
 clad ' Savannah,' one ram and three transports, blown up or 
 burned by them the night before. 
 
 " Formal demand having been made for the surrender, 
 and having been refused, I contend that everything within 
 the line of intrenchments belongs to the United States ; and 
 I shall not hesitate to use it, if necessary, for public pur- 
 poses. But inasmuch as the inhabitants generally have 
 manifested a friendly disposition, I shall disturb them as lit- 
 tle as possible consistently with the military rights of pres- 
 ent and future military commanders, without remitting the 
 least our just rights as captors. 
 
RESULTS OF THE MARCH. 417 
 
 "After having made the necessary orders for the disposi- 
 tion of the troops in and about Savannah, I ordered Cap- 
 tain O. M. Poe, Chief Engineer, to make a thorough 
 examination of the enemy's works in and about Savannah, 
 with a view to making it conform to our future uses. New 
 Hnes of defenses will be built, embracing the city proper, 
 Forts Jackson, Thunderbolt, and Pulaski retained, with 
 slight modifications in their armament and rear defenses. 
 All the rest of the enemy's forts will be dismantled and 
 destroyed, and their heavy ordnance transferred to Hilton 
 Head, where it can be more easily guarded. Our base of 
 supplies will be established in Savannah, as soon as the very 
 difficult obstructions placed in the river can be partially 
 removed. These obstructions at present offer a very seri- 
 ous impediment to the commerce of Savannah, consisting 
 of crib-work of logs and timber heavily bolted together, 
 and filled with the cobble-stones which formerly paved the 
 streets of Savannah. All the channels below the city were 
 found more or less filled with torpedoes, which have been 
 removed by order of Admiral Dahlgren, so that Savannah 
 already fiKfills the important part it was designed in our 
 plans for the future. 
 
 " In thus sketching the course of events connected with 
 this campaign, I have purposely passed lightly over the 
 march from Atlanta to the seashore. . because it was made 
 in four or more columns, sometimes at a distance of fifteen or 
 twenty miles from each other, and it was impossible for me 
 to attend but one. Therefore I have left it to the army and 
 corps commanders to describe in their own language the 
 events which attended the march pf their respective 
 columns. These reports are herewith submitted, and I beg 
 to refer to them for further details. I would merely sum 
 up the advantages which I conceive have accrued to us by 
 this march. 
 
4l8 DAMAGE DONE TO THE REBELS. 
 
 " Our former labors in North Georgia had demonstrated 
 the truth that no large army, carrying with it the necessary 
 stores and baggage, can overtake and capture an inferior 
 force of the enemy in his own country. Therefore, no al- 
 ternative was left me but the one I adopted, namely, to di- 
 vide my forces, and with one part act offensively against 
 the enemy's resources, while with the other I should act 
 defensively, and invite the enemy to attack, risking the 
 chances of battle. In this conclusion I have been singu- 
 larly sustained by the results. General Hood, who, as I 
 have heretofore described, had moved to the westv/ard near 
 Tuscumbia, with a view to decoy me away from Georgia, 
 finding himself mistaken, was forced to choose either to 
 pursue me or to act offensively against the other part left 
 in Tennessee. He adopted the latter course, and General 
 Thomas has wisely and well fulfilled his part in the grand 
 scheme in drawing Hood well up into Tennessee until he 
 could concentrate all his own troops, and then turn upon 
 Hood, as he has done, and destroy or fatally cripple his 
 army. That part of my army is so far removed from me 
 that I leave, with perfect confidence, its management and 
 history to General Thomas. 
 
 " I was thereby left with a well-appointed army to sever 
 the enemy's only remaining railroad communication east- 
 ward and westward for over one hundred miles, namely, the 
 Georgia State Railroad, which is broken up from Fairburn 
 Station to Madison and the Oconee, and the Central Rail- 
 road from Gordon clear to Savannah, with numerous break's 
 on the latter road from Gordon to E itonton, and from Mii- 
 len to Augusta, and the Savannah and Gulf Railroad. We 
 have also consumed the corn and fodder in the region of 
 country thirty miles on either side of a line from Atlanta 
 to Savannah, as also the sweet potatoes, cattle, hogs, sheep, 
 
TRIBUTES TO HIS OFFICERS AND MEN. 419 
 
 and poultry, and have carried away more than ten thousand 
 horses and mules, as well as a countless number of their 
 slaves. I estimate the dama^je done to the State of Georijia 
 and its military resources at $100,000,000, at least 5^0,000, 
 o>0 of which has inured to our advantage, and the remain- 
 der is simple waste and destruction. This may seem a hard 
 species of warfare, but it brings the sad realities of war 
 home to those who have been directly or indirecrly instru- 
 mental in involving us in its attendant calamities. 
 
 " This campaign has also placed this branch of my army 
 in a position from which other great military results may 
 be attempted, beside leaving in Tennessee and North Ala- 
 bama a force which is amply sufficient to meet all the 
 chances of war in that region of our country. 
 
 " Since the capture of Atlanta my staff is unchanged, save 
 that Generrl Barry, Chief of Artillery, has been absent, sick, 
 since our leaving Kingston, Surgeon Moore, United States 
 Army, is Chief Medical Director in place of Surgeon Kit- 
 toe, relieved to resume his proper duties as a Medical In- 
 spector. Major Hitchcock, A. A. G., has also been added 
 to my staff, and has been of great assistance in the field and 
 office. Captain Dayton still remains as my Adjutant-Gen- 
 eral. All have, as formerly, fulfilled their parts to my entire 
 satisfaction. 
 
 " In the body of my army I feel a just pride. Generals 
 Howard and Slocum are gentlemen of. singular capacity 
 and intelligence, thorough soldiers and patriots, working 
 day and night, not for themselves, but for their country and 
 their men. General Kilpatrick, who commanded the cav- 
 alry of this army, has handled it with spirit and dash to my 
 entire satisfaction, and kept a superior force of the enemy's 
 ca\'alry from even approaching our infantry columns or 
 wagon trains. His report is full and graphic. All the divi- 
 
420 TRIBUTES TO HIS OFFICERS AND MEN. 
 
 sion and brigade commanders merit my personal and official 
 thanks, and I shall spare no efforts to secure them commis- 
 sions equal to the rank they have exercised so well. As to 
 the rank and file, they seem so full of confidence in them- 
 selves, that I doubt if they want a compliment from me ; 
 but I must do them the justice to say that whether called 
 on to fight, to march, to wade streams, to make roads, clear 
 out obstructions, build bridges, make ' corduroy,' or tear up 
 railroads, they have done it with alacrity and a degree of 
 cheerfulness unsurpassed. A little loose in foraging, they 
 ' did some things they ought not to have done,' yet on the 
 whole they have supplied the wants of the army with as 
 little violence as could be expected, and as little loss as I 
 calculated. Some of these foraging parties had encounters 
 with the enemy which would in ordinary times rank as re- 
 spectable battles. The behavior of our troops in Savannah 
 has been so manly, so quiet, so perfect, that I take it as the 
 best evidence of discipline and true courage. Never was a 
 hostile city, filled with women and children, occupied by a 
 large army with less disorder, or more system, order, and 
 good government. The same general and generous spirit 
 of confidence and good feeling pervades the army which it 
 has ever afforded me especial pleasure to report on former 
 occasions. 
 
 "I avail myself of this occasion to express my heart- 
 felt thanks to Admiral Dahlgren and the officers and men 
 of his fleet and also to General Foster and his command, 
 for the hearty welcome given us on our arrival at the 
 coast, and for their steady and prompt co-operation in all 
 measures tending to the result accomplished. 
 
 " I send herewith a map of the country through which 
 we have passed ; reports from General Howard, General 
 Slocum, and General Kilpatrick, and their subordinates 
 
TRIBUTES TO II IS OFFICERS AND MEN. 42 1 
 
 respectively, with the usual lists of captured property 
 killed, wounded and missing, prisoners of war taken and 
 rescued, as also copies of all papers illustrating the cam- 
 paign, all of which are respectfully submitted by 
 " Your obedient servant, 
 
 ■ " W. T. Sherman, Major-General." 
 
CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 THE CAROLINA CAMPAIGN. 
 
 In the Cradle ©f Secession— The Occupation and Destruction of 
 Columbia — Reprisals against Wade Hampton; Men— Arrival at 
 Goldsbjro — Summing up the KEbULTs of ihe Nokihvvaku aiakch 
 — Work accomplisheu by the Engineers. 
 
 Sherman always contended that the war should have 
 
 closed on July 4, 1863. The fall of Vicksburg and the 
 
 battle of Gettysburg sealed the doom of the rebellion, and 
 
 the Southern leaders should have recognized that fact and 
 
 accepted the situation. But even now, with Atlanta and 
 
 Savannah captured. Hood's army destroyed, and a pathway 
 
 driven by the Union army through the heart of the South, 
 
 they were still stubborn and resolved, as they expressed it, 
 
 to hold out till the last man died in the last ditch. It was 
 
 inevitable that this attitude should be exasperating to the 
 
 National leaders. Sherman himself doubtless felt a certain 
 
 ffrim determination, since the South wanted more war, to 
 
 give it war to its heart's content, and to carry the war 
 
 through South Carolina, the cradle of the rebellion. His 
 
 army at Savannah was in good condition. In twenty-seven 
 
 days it had marched more than three hundred miles, with 
 
 losses of five officers and fifty-eight men killed, thirteen 
 
 officers and two hundred and thirty-two men wounded, and 
 
 one officer and two hundred and fifty-eight men missing. 
 
 .S^n-en thousand slaves had joined the march to the coast. 
 422 
 
I.n\COLN'S LETTER OF 1HA.\KS. ^22 
 
 Twenty thousand bales of cotton had been burned and 
 three hundred and twenty miles of raih'oad destroyed, in- 
 cluding all the stations, engine-houses, turn-tables, etc. Ten 
 million pounds of corn had been captured and an equal 
 amount of fodder; more than 1,200,000 rations of meat, 
 919,000 of bread, 483,000 of coffee, 581,000 of sugar, and 
 137,000 of salt. 
 
 Nor had the demoralization of the enemy been less than 
 the material loss inflicted upon him. Not only had the 
 army swept the pathway thirty miles wide through the 
 heart of Georgia, but it had sent out detachments in this 
 direction and that, menacing many points which it did not 
 actually strike. For four weeks, therefore, all of Georgia, 
 Alabama, Florida, and South Carolina suffered painful sus- 
 pense, not knowing whither the army would march next. 
 For this reason, also, it had been impracticable for the rebels 
 to mass any considerable force against Sherman, even had 
 such a force been at their command, for they did not know 
 where to meet him. 
 
 It is not to be wondered at that universal rejoicing was 
 caused at the North by the results of this campaign, nor 
 that those who had once distrusted Sherman as a man of 
 erratic judgment, now lavished upon him exuberant confi- 
 dence and praise. Not even Grant himself was more ap- 
 plauded. It was from the depths of an appreciative heart 
 that the President wrote to Sherman as follows : 
 
 " Executive Mansion, 
 " Washington, D. C., Dec. 26, 1864. 
 
 " My Dear General Sherman 
 
 " Many, many thanks for your Christmas gift — the cap- 
 ture of Savannah. 
 
.^. SHE Ji MAN'S TKIBU7E 70 JUS AJiMY. 
 
 " When you were about to leave Atlanta for the Atlantic 
 coast, I was anxious, if not fearful ; but feeling you were 
 the better judge, and remembering that * nothing risked 
 nothing gained,' I did not interfere. Now, the undertaking 
 being a success, the honor is all yours, for I believe none 
 of us went further than to acquiesce. And taking the work 
 of General Thomas into the count, as it should be taken, it 
 is indeed a great success. 
 
 " Not only does it afford the obvious and immediate 
 military advantages, but in showing to the world that your 
 army could be divided, putting the stronger part to an im- 
 portant new service, and yet leaving enough to vanquish the 
 old opposing forces of the whole — Hood's army — it brings 
 those who sat in darkness to see a great light. 
 
 " But what next ? I suppose it will be safe if I leave 
 General Grant and yourself to decide. 
 
 " Please make my grateful acknowledgments to your 
 whole army, officers and men. 
 
 " Yours very truly, 
 
 " A. Lincoln." 
 
 With- characteristic generosity Sherman, in his official 
 report on the campaign, gave due credit to his subordinates 
 for their work. He said : 
 
 " Generals Howard and Slocum are gentlemen of singu- 
 lar capacity and intelligence, thorough soldiers and patriots, 
 working day and night, not for themselves, but for their 
 country and their men. General Kilpatrick, who com- 
 manded the cavalry of this army, has handled it with spirit 
 and dash to my entire satisfaction, and kept a superior force 
 of the enemy's cavalry from even approaching our infantry 
 columns or wagon trains. All the division and brigade 
 commanders merit my personal and official thanks, and I 
 
THE MILITARY SITUATION. 
 
 shall spaie no efforts to secure them commissions equal to 
 the rank they have exercised so well. 
 
 " As to the rank and file, they seem so full of confidence 
 in themselves that I doubt if they want a compliment from 
 me ; but I must do them the justice to say that, whether 
 called on to fight, to march, to wade streams, to make roads, 
 clear out obstructions, build bridges, make ' corduroy,' or 
 tear up railroads, they have done it with alacrity and a de- 
 gree of cheerfulness unsurpassed. A little loose in forao-- 
 ing, they ' did some things they ought not to have done,' 
 yet, on the whole, they have supplied the wants of the army 
 with as little violence as could be expected, and as little loss 
 as I calculated. Some of these foraging parties had en- 
 counters with the enemy which would, in ordinary times, 
 rank as respectable battles." 
 
 Concerning the general situation of affairs in the South, 
 or in that part of it, Sherman wrote : 
 
 " Delegations of the people of Georgia continue to corae 
 in, and I am satisfied that, by judicious handling and by a 
 little respect shown to their prejudices, we- can create a schism 
 in Jeff Davis's dominions. All that I have conversed with 
 realized the truth that slavery as an institution is defunct, 
 and the only questions that remain are what disposition 
 shall be made of the negroes themselves. I confess myself 
 unable to offer a complete solution for these questions, and 
 prefer to leave it to the slower operations of time. We 
 have given the initiative, and can afford to await the work- 
 ing of the experiment. 
 
 " As to trade matters, I also think it is to our interest to 
 keep the Southern people somewhat dependent on the arti- 
 cles of commerce to which they have hitherto been accus- 
 tomed. General Grover is now here, and will, I think, be 
 able to handle this matter judiciously, and may gradually 
 
^26 WHAT NEXT. 
 
 relax, and invite cotton to come in in large quantities. But 
 at first we should manifest no undue anxiety on that score, 
 for the rebels would at once make use of it as a power 
 against us. We should assume a tone of perfect contempt 
 for cotton and everything else in comparisoxi with the great 
 object of the war — the restoration of the Union, with all its 
 right and power. If the rebels burn cotton as a war meas- 
 ure, they simply play into our hands by taking away the 
 only product of value they have to exchange in foreign 
 ports for war-ships and munition. By such a course, also, 
 they alienate the feelings of a large class of small farmers, 
 who look to their little parcels of cotton to exchange for 
 food and clothing for their families." », 
 
 Early in January the Secretary of War, Mr. Stanton, vis- 
 ited Sherman at Savannah and spent several days with him 
 there. They discussed together many important topics, such 
 as the disposition of the cotton, treatment of the negroes, etc. 
 The future of the war was also carefully considered, and 
 Sherman had much correspondence with Grant and Hal- 
 Icck on the same subject. Sherman's own idea was that 
 the rebels should be thoroughly whipped aud their pride 
 broken. He would march to the innermost recesses of 
 their coLintry and strike terror to every disloyal heart. 
 Toward the negroes his attitude was kindly, and he favored 
 enlisting them in the army and forming black regiments and 
 brigades. 
 
 And now the march Northward, to effect a junction with 
 the army of the Potomac and end of the war by capturing 
 both Lee and Johnston, was begun. It was Sherman him- 
 self who planned this Northward march through the Caro- 
 iinaSj and it was not without opposition that he did so. 
 Grant wanted him to come on at once to Virgin'a by sea, 
 and Sherman at first desired it. But a few days later he 
 
lilA R cniXG XOR imVA KD. 
 
 wrote to Grant that he wanted to march thither by lai..., 
 by the way of Columbia, S. C, and Raleigh, N. C. " You 
 know," he said, " how much better troops arrive by a land 
 march than when carried by transports . . . This march 
 is necessary to the war. It must be made sooner or later, 
 and I am in the proper position for it. I ask no re-enforce- 
 ment, but simply with the utmost activity at all other points, 
 so that the enemy may not concentrate too powerfully 
 against me, I expect Davis will move heaven and earth to 
 resist me, for the success of my army is fatal to his dream 
 of empire." Grant finally consented to the march, to Sher- 
 man's delight, and by January 15 the army was ready to 
 move Northward. 
 
 First, 'ioward led the right wing, all but Corse's Division, 
 by water to Beaufort and thence to Pocataligo, half way to 
 Charleston, and after a sharp engagement, established a sub- 
 depot there, with easy water connection with Bjaufort and 
 Hilton Head. Slocum, with the left wing. Corse's Division, 
 and Kilpatrick, with the cavalry, went up the Savannah 
 and via Sistus Ferry to Robertsville, S. C, some miles fur- 
 ther inland. On January 18 Sherman turned the command 
 at Savannah over to General Foster, and then went up to 
 join Howard. 
 
 Floods delayed Slocum and his army, but on February 
 I Howard moved forward. On February 3 he crossed the 
 Salkehatchie, marching for three miles in bitter cold 
 weather through water from two to three feet deep, while 
 rain was falling in torrents. The Edisto was next crossed 
 and the whole army pushed on rapidly. Kilpatrick's 
 calvary, meanwhile, made various raids and had some 
 skirmishing with Wheeler. Sherman pursued his old pol- 
 icy of directing no wilful damage to private property, but 
 the rumor got abroad that he was pillaging and burning 
 
428 BURNING COTTON 
 
 houses everywhere. So Wheeler presently wrote to him 
 saying that unless he stopped burning houses, he, Wheeler, 
 would burn all the cotton in the country. Sherman replied: 
 
 " I hope you will burn all the cotton, and save us the 
 trouble. We don't want it. It has been a curse to our 
 country. All you don't burn I will. As to private houses 
 occupied by peaceful families my orders are not to mo- 
 lest or disturb them, and I think my orders are obeyed. 
 Vacant houses, being of no use to anybody, I care little 
 about, as the owners have thought them of little use to 
 themselves ; I don't wish to have them destroyed, but do 
 not take much care to preserve them." 
 
 Sherman was as familiar with this country as he had 
 been with Northern Georgia, since he had often, years be- 
 fore, come up here on hunting excursions while he was sta- 
 tioned near Charleston. The march was made with great 
 difficulty, however, as floods prevailed in the lowlands and 
 the weather was most inclement. By the middle of Febru- 
 ary they reached Columbia, and Sherman issued the fol- 
 lowing orders for the occupation of that city : 
 
 " General Howard will cross the Saluda and Broad Rivers 
 as near their mouths as possible, occupy Columbia, destroy 
 the public buildings, railroad property, manufacturing and 
 machine shops, but will spare libraries, asylums, and private 
 dwellings. He will then move to Winnsborough, destroy- 
 ing utterly that section of the railroad. He will also cause 
 all bridges, trestles, water-tanks, and depots on the railroad 
 back to the Wateree to be burned, switches broken, and 
 such other destruction as he can find time to accomplish 
 consistent with proper celerity." 
 
 A few cannon shots were fired into Colum.bia to drive 
 away the lingering rebel troops. Before abandoning the 
 city, the rebels burned the railroad station and fired some 
 
BURNING OF THE CITY. 429 
 
 long piles of cotton bales. When Sherman and Howard 
 rode into the city they found the ruins of the buildings still 
 smouldering and the cotton still burning. Howard and his 
 troops took possession of the city, and worked vigorously 
 to put out the fires which had been started by the rebels, 
 and spread rapidly by a high wind. At night the wind be- 
 came furious, and the air was soon filled with sparks and 
 bits of burning cotton. The result was that, despite the 
 utmost efforts of the Union troops, the heart of the city was 
 burned, including several churches and schools and the old 
 State House. Sherman wss afterward accused by several 
 writers of having himself deliberately ordered the burning 
 of the city. The falsity of this charge has been abund- 
 antly demonstrated. Sherman himself, doubtless with en- 
 tire justice, threw the responsibility upon the rebel general, 
 Wade Hampton, and his cavalrymen, who were the last to 
 ev^acuate the city. Said Sherman in his official report : 
 
 " I disclaim on the part of my army any agency in this 
 fire, but, on the contrary, claim that we saved what of Col- 
 umbia remains unconsumed. And, without hesitation, I 
 charge General Wade Hampton with having burned his 
 own city of Columbia, not with a malicious intent, or as the 
 manifestation of a silly * Roman stoicism,' but from folly 
 and want of sense, in filling it with lint, cotton, and tinder. 
 Our officers and men on duty worked well to extinguish 
 the flames ; but others not on duty, including the officers 
 who had long been imprisoned there, rescued by us, may 
 have assisted in spreading the fire after it had once begun, 
 and may have indulged in unconcealed joy to see the ruin 
 of the Capital of South Carolina." 
 
 Columbia, the political capital of the foremost secession 
 State, fell on February 17, and the next day Charleston, 
 the commercial and social capital, was captured. Sherman 
 
.,_ IN NORTH CAROLINA. 
 
 then pressed on toward North Carolina. Kilpatrick re- 
 ported on February 22 that Wade Hampton's cavalry had 
 murdered some of his men, and left their bodies by the way- 
 side with labels on them threatening a like late to all for- 
 agers. Sherman promptly ordered him to retaliate upon 
 the rebels, and to Hampton he wrote as follows : 
 
 " General — It is officially reported to me that our forag- 
 ing parties are murdered after being captured, and labelled, 
 ' Death to All Foragers.' One instance is that of a lieutenant 
 and seven men near Chester, and another of twenty, near a 
 ravine eight rods from the main road, and three miles from 
 Easterville. I have ordered a similar number of prisoners 
 in our hands to be disposed of in like manner. I hold 
 about one thousand prisoners, captured in various ways, 
 and can stand it as long as you, but I hardly think these 
 murders are committed with your knowledge, and would 
 suggest that you give notice to your people at large that 
 every life taken by them simply results in the death of one 
 of your Confederates." 
 
 Chesterfield was captured on March 2 and Cheraw on 
 March 3. On the 8th Sherman crossed the line into 
 North Carolina, and now the weather became as fair as 
 it had formerly been foul. The troops entered Fay- 
 etteville in high spirits on March 1 1 and remained there 
 several days. The army now nnmbered 65,000 fighting 
 men, with 25,000 non-combatants, chiefly negro women 
 and children, 40,000 horses and cattle, and 3,000 wagons. 
 On March 15, a stormy day, Slocum was at Averysboro, 
 and encountered the enemy, infantry and artillery, in force, 
 soon driving all before him. Near Bentonville, on the i8th, 
 there was another battle, with the same result, both wings, 
 SlocMTi and Howard, being engaged. Johnston was now in 
 con-iiinJ of the rebel armies ahead of Sherman and had 
 
THE CAROLINA CAMPAIGN. 43! 
 
 gathered together all available troops from all directions for 
 a last struggle. Sherman occupied Goldsboro on March 21, 
 and effected a junction with Terry and Scofield, who had 
 after Hood's defeat been brought hither, and thus had not 
 less than 100,000 men between Goldsboro and Benton- 
 ville. This concluded the hostile part »f the march 
 through the Carolinas, In reviewing the campaign, Sher- 
 man said : 
 
 " I cannot, even with any degree of precision, reca- 
 pitulate the vast amount of injury done the enemy, or the 
 quantity of guns and materials of war captured and de- 
 stroyed. In general terms, we have traversed the country 
 from Savannah to Goldsboro, with an average breadth of 
 forty miles, consuming all the forage, cattle, hogs, sheep, 
 poultry, cured meats, corn-meal, etc. The. public enemy, 
 instead of drawing supplies from that region to feed his 
 armies, will be compelled to send provisions from other 
 quarters to feed the inhabitants. A map herewith, prepared 
 by my chief engineer, Colonel Poe, with the routes of the 
 four corps and cavalry, will show at a glance the country 
 traversed. Of course the abandonment to us by the enemy 
 
 Colonel Poe, the chief engineer of the army, said in his 
 report of the march : 
 
 " It involved an immense amount of bridging of e\'ery 
 kind known in active campaigning, and some four hundred 
 miles of corduroying. The latter was a very simple affair, 
 where there were plenty offence rails, but, in their absence, 
 involved the severest labor. It was found that a fence on 
 each side of the road furnished enough rails for corduroy- 
 ing it so as to make it passable. I estimate tlie amount of 
 corduroying at fully one hundred miles for each army corps. 
 This is a moderate estimate, and would make for the four 
 corps some four hundred miles of corduroying. The 
 
FEATS OF ENGINEERING, 
 
 cavalry did very little of this kind of work, as their trains 
 moved with the infantry columns. 
 
 " The right wing built fifteen pontoon bridges, having an 
 aggregate length of 3,720 feet ; the left wing built about 
 4,000 feet, being a total of one and one-half miles. There 
 were no measurements of the amount of trestle bridge built, 
 but it was not so great" 
 
CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 THE END OF THE WAR. 
 
 Lincoln, Grant, and Sherman at City Point — Surrender of Lee 
 — Murder of Lincoln — Negotiations with Johnston — Stanton's 
 Disapproval — An Outcry Against Sherman — The Grand Review 
 — Sherman's Refusal to Shake Hands with Stanton — Farewell 
 Address to the Army. 
 
 Soon after his arrival at Goldsboro, Sherman received a 
 long letter from Grant warmly congratulating him on the 
 successful completion of what was his third campaign since 
 leaving the Tennessee River, less than a year before. 
 
 Grant cordially gave him a brief but comprehensive ac- 
 count of the situation of the Army of the Potomac and of 
 Lee's Army, and of his own plans for the immediate future. 
 He already pointed Appomattox as the place at or near 
 which he hoped to bring affairs to a crisis. Sherman de- 
 cided thereupon to go up to City Point and have a personal 
 interview with Grant. He issued orders, leaving Schoficld 
 in command and giving general directions for the operation 
 of the army in his absence. On the evening of March 27 
 he reached City Point and was welcomed with salutes from 
 Porter's fleet. A number of officers met him at the wharf 
 and escorted him to headquarters, where he met Grant for 
 the first time since the memorable leave-taking in Cin- 
 cinnati. Their meeting was characteristic of the two men 
 and deserves to be made historic. Sherman spoke first : 
 
 4-' 
 
.-g A NOTABLE GROUP. 
 
 " How are you, Grant?" was all he said. " How are you, 
 Sherman ?" was Grant's reply. Then Sherman, looking 
 around at the other officers who were assembled remarked : 
 " I didn't expect to find all you fellows here." That was 
 all. No more time was wasted in compliments, but the two 
 generals in a few minutes were seated at a table pouring 
 over maps and planning the ending of the war just as at 
 Cincinnati they had planned Sherman's Georgia Campaign. 
 
 Sherman quickly indicated on the map what he thought 
 best to do. tie would bring his army up to Weldon, where 
 it would be within supporting distance of Grant, and where 
 he could quickly either join Grant or move westward and 
 head off Lee. Grant hesitated to have him come so near, 
 fearing that it would alarm Lee and put him to flight before 
 he could be captured. He told Sherman that he would 
 best wait awhile while the Army of the Potomac moved up 
 to Dinwiddle in the hope of forcing Lee to fight. 
 
 Then the two generals went to the steamboat, " River 
 Queen," to see Lincoln, who was on board. A notable trio 
 they made — Lincoln, the tall, round-shouldered, loose- 
 jointed, large-featured, deep-eyed, with a smiling face, and 
 dressed in black, with a fashionable silk hat on his head ; 
 Grant, shorter, stouter and more compactly built, wearing 
 a military hat with a broad brim, a cigar in his mouth, and 
 his hands in his trouser's pockets ; Sherman, almost as tall, 
 but more sineury than Lincoln, with sandy whiskers closely 
 cropped, and sharp, flashing eyes; his coat worn and 
 shabby, his hat shapeless, and his trousers tucked into his 
 boot-tops. Sherman did most of the talking, speaking 
 hurriedly and moving about, often gesticulating. Presently 
 Meade and Sheridan joined them : the former tall and thin, 
 stooping a little, with gray beard and spectacles ; the latter 
 the shortest of all the party, with bronzed face and quick, 
 energetic movements. 
 
GRANT'S FLA AS. ..y 
 
 It was several times suggested that some of Sherman's 
 men, or some troops from the West, should be added to 
 the Army of the Potomac, bat this Grant would not listen 
 to. He deemed it wisest that the Army of the Potomac 
 shrould " finish up the job." They finally decided that Sher- 
 man should come up to the Roanoke River, near Gaston, and 
 if not needed to head off Lee, make Johnston's army his ob- 
 jective point, prepared, above all, to keep Lee and Johnston 
 from joining forces. Says Grant: 
 
 " I explained to him the movement I had ordered to 
 commence on the 29th of March, that if it should not 
 prove as entirely successful as I hoped, I would cut the 
 cavalry loose to destroy the Danville and S®uthside rail- 
 roads, and thus deprive the enemy of further supplies, and 
 also prevent the rapid concentration of Lee's and John- 
 ston's armies. I had spent days of anxiety lest each 
 moment should bring the report that the enemy had re- 
 treated the night before. I was firmly convinced that Sher- 
 man's crossing the Roanoke would be the signal for Lee to 
 move. With Johnston and Lee combined, a long, tedious, 
 and expensive campaign, consuming most of the summer, 
 might become necessary." 
 
 W^ith Grant's operations against Lee, and their successful 
 termination we have not here to deal, but with Sherman's 
 movements, which were directed against Johnston. Sher- 
 man had said at City Point, " I can command my own 
 terms, and Johnston will have to yield." Lincoln had re- 
 plied to this : " Get him to surrender on any terms." Grant 
 said nothing about it, so it was inferred that he approved of 
 Lincoln's remark. On April 10 Sherman's army moved 
 toward Smithfield, reaching that place the next day and 
 finding it abandoned by Johnston. That night word came 
 from Grant that Lee had surrendered, and Sherman an- 
 
, o MURDER OF LINlOLN. 
 
 nounced the thrilling news to his army in the following 
 terms : 
 
 " The General commanding announces to the army that 
 he has official notice from General Grant that General Lee 
 surrendered to him his entire army on the 9th instant, at 
 Appomattox Court House, Virginia. 
 
 " Glory to God and our country, and all honor to our 
 comrades in arms, toward whom we are marching ! 
 
 " A little more labor, a little more toil on our part, the 
 great race is won, and our Government stands regenerated 
 after four long years of war." 
 
 It was now evident that Johnston must quickly come to 
 terms, and Sherman was not surprised to receive, on April 
 14, a letter from the rebel general requesting a truce and 
 a conference. Sherman's chief subordinates dreaded the 
 consequences of chasing Johnston's army to the West or 
 back to the South, and agreed with Sherman that his sur- 
 render should be obtained on any reasonable conditions. 
 But before this could be effected, the direadful news came of 
 the Good Friday tragedy at Washington and of the death 
 of Lincoln. This saddening event materially changed the 
 feeling of the Washington authorities toward the rebel 
 armies, and doubtless had much to do with the disagree- 
 ment between the former and Sherman that followed. 
 
 On the beautiful morning of April 17, Sherman and 
 Johnston met near Durham's Station. Sherman first con- 
 veyed to Johnston the news of the murder of Lincoln, at 
 which Johnston was deeply affected. They then discussed 
 the terms of surrender and the best means of disbanding 
 the rebel army. Sherman urged Johnston to accept the 
 same terms from him that Lee had accepted from Grant, 
 but Johnston hesitated, and asked for a few days' delay, 
 during which time he hoped to hunt up the fugitive Jeffer- 
 
FMST TERMS WITH JOHNSTON. 43^ 
 
 son Davis and get him to consent to a surrender of all the 
 remaining Southern armies. 
 
 A second interview took place the next day. Johnston 
 had not been able to find Davis, but he brought with him 
 to the meeting John C. Breckinridge, the rebel Secretary 
 of War. The conference broke up without settling the sur- 
 render, but Sherman prepared a memorandum, on which 
 there was agreement, stating the terms on which he pro- 
 posed to receive Johnston's surrender. This he forwarded 
 to Washington for approval. It read as follows : 
 
 "Memorandum or basis of Agreement, made this i8th 
 day of April, A. D. 1865, near Durham's Station, in the 
 State of North Carolina, by and between General Joseph E. 
 Johnston, commanding the Confederate Army, and Major- 
 General W. T. Sherman, commanding the Army of the 
 United States, both present. 
 
 " I. The contending armies now in the field to maintain 
 the status quo until notice is given by the commanding gen- 
 eral of either to his opponent, and reasonable time, say 
 forty-eight hours, allowed. 
 
 " II. The Confedorate armies now in existence to be dis- 
 banded, and conducted to their several State capitals, there 
 to deposit their arms and public property in the State Ar- 
 senal, and each officer and man to execute and file an agree- 
 ment to cease from acts of war, and to abide the action of 
 both State and Federal authorities. The number of arms 
 and munitions of war to be reported to the Chief of Ord- 
 nance at Washington City, subject to the future action of 
 the Congress of the United States, and in the meantime to 
 be used solely to maintain peace and order within the bor- 
 ders of the States respectively. 
 
 "III. The recognition by the E.xecutive of the United 
 States of the several State Governments on their officers 
 
440 S'HERMA.V'S LETTER TO GRANT. 
 
 self, which, if approved by the President of the United 
 States, will produce peace from the Potomac to the Rio 
 Grande. Mr. Breckinridge was present at the interview, in 
 the capacity of a major-general, and satisfied me of the 
 ability of General Johnston to carry out to the full extent 
 the terms of this agreement; and, if you will get the Presi- 
 dent to simply indorse the copy, and commission me to 
 carry out the terms, I will follow them t<& the conclusion. 
 You will observe that it is an absolute submission of the 
 enemy to the lawful authorities of the United States, and dis- 
 perses his armies absolutely ; and the point to which I 
 attach most importance is, that the disposition and dis- 
 persement of the armies is done in such a manner as to 
 prevent their breaking up into guerrilla bands. On the 
 other hand, we can retain just as much of an army as we 
 please. I agree to the mode and manner of the surrender 
 of the armies set forth, as it gives the States the means of 
 suppressing guerrillas, which we could not expect them to 
 do if we strip them of all arms. 
 
 " Both Generals Johnston and Breckinridge admitted that 
 slavery was dead, and I could not insist on embracing it in 
 such a paper, because it can be made with the States in 
 detail. I know that all the men of substance South sin- 
 cerely want peace, and I do not believe they will resort to 
 war again during this century. I have no doubt but that 
 they will, in the future, be perfectly subordinate to the laws 
 of the United States. The moment my action in this matter 
 is approved, I can spare five corps, and will ask for orders 
 to leave General Schofield here with the loth Corps, and 
 go myself with the 14th, 15th, 17th, 20th, and 23d Corps, 
 via Burkesville and Gordonsville to Frederick or Hagers- 
 town, there to be paid and mustered out. 
 
 " The question of finance is now the chief one, and every 
 
SHE K MAN'S LETTER TO GRANT. 441 
 
 and Legislatures taking the oath prescribed by the Consti- 
 tution of the United States ; and where conflicting State 
 governments have resulted from the war, the legitimacy of 
 all shall be submitted to the Supreme Court of the United 
 States. 
 
 " IV. The re-establishment of all Federal courts in the 
 several States, with powers as defined by the Constitution 
 and laws of Congress. 
 
 " V. The people and inhabitants of all States to be guar- 
 anteed, so far as the Executive can, their political rights and 
 franchise, as well their rights of person and property, as 
 defined by the Constitution of the United States and of the 
 States respectively. 
 
 *' VI. The executive authority or government of the 
 United States not to disturb any of the people by reason of 
 the late war, so long as they live in peace and quiet and 
 abstain from acts of armed hostility, and obey the laws in 
 existence at the place of their residence. 
 
 " VII. In general terms, it is announced that the war is 
 to cease ; a general amnesty, so far as the Executive of the 
 United States can command, on condition of the disband- 
 ment of the Confederate armies, the distribution of arms, 
 and the resumption of peaceful pursuits by officers and men 
 hitherto composing said armies. 
 
 " Not being fully empowered by our respective principals 
 to fulfill these terms, we individually and officially pledge 
 ourselves to promptly obtain authority, and will endeavor 
 to carry out the above programme." 
 
 This Sherman sent to Grant, inclosed with the following 
 letter : 
 
 "General: — I inclose herewith a copy of an agreement 
 made this day between General Joseph E. Johnston and ni) - 
 
442 GJRANTS REPLY. 
 
 soldier and officer not needed ought to go home at once. 
 I would like to be able to begin the march North by 
 May 1st. 
 
 " I urge, on the part of the President, speedy action, as it 
 is important to get the Confederate armies home, as well as 
 our own. I am, with great respect, your obedient servant, 
 "W. T. Sherman, Major-General Commanding." 
 
 Grant's reply to Sherman was as follows : 
 
 " General : — The basis of agreement entered into be- 
 tween yourself and General J. E. Johnston for the disband- 
 ment of the Southern army, and the extension of the au- 
 thority of the General Government over all the territory be- 
 longing to it, sent for approval of the President, is received. 
 
 " I read it carefully myself before submitting it to the 
 President and Secretary of War, and felt satisfied that it 
 could not possibly be approved. My reasons for these 
 views I will give you at another time in a more extended 
 letter. 
 
 " Your agreement touches upon questions of such vital 
 importance that^ as I read, I addressed a note to the Secre- 
 tary of War, notifying him of its receipt, and the importance 
 of immediate action by the President, and suggested, in 
 view of its importance, that the entire Cabinet be called to- 
 gether, that all might give an expression of their opinions 
 upon the matter. The result was a disapproval by the 
 President of the basis laid down ; a disapproval of the nego- 
 tiations altogether, except for the surrender of the army 
 commanded by Johnston, and directions to me to notify 
 you of the decision. I cannot do so better than by sending 
 you the inclosed copy of a dispatch penned by the late 
 President, though signed by the Secretary of War, in an- 
 swer to me on sending a letter received from General Lee 
 
FINAL TERMS WITH JOHNSTON. ^- 
 
 proposing to meet me for the purpose of submitting the 
 question of peace to a convention of officers. 
 
 " Please notify General Johnston, immediately on receipt 
 of this, of the termination of the truce, and resume hostilities 
 against his army at the earliest moment you can, acting in 
 good faith. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
 
 " U. S. Grant, Lieutenant-General." 
 
 The dispatch inclosed by Grant with this letter was 
 signed by Stanton. It stated that the agreement was totally 
 disapproved, and that hostilities should be resumed at the 
 earliest moment. " The President desires," added Stanton, 
 " that you (Grant) proceed immediately to the headquarters 
 of Major-General Sherman and direct operations against the 
 enemy." Half distracted by the trying circumstances of 
 the hour, Stanton had apparently lost faith in Sherman. 
 
 Immediately upon receipt of this, Sherman notified Johns- 
 ton that the truce would be ended in forty-eight hours, and 
 renewed his demand for a surrender on the same terms as 
 Lee's at Appomattox, Grant now proceeded to Raleigh, 
 but did not assume command, preferring to let Sherman 
 complete the work he had begun. He, however, urged 
 Sherman to have another interview with Johnston, which 
 the latter had requested, and which was accordingly held 
 on April 26. At this meeting, Johnston, realizing that he 
 was powerless to resist any longer, agreed to and signed the 
 following convention : 
 
 " Terms of militar\' Convention, entered into this Twenty- 
 sixth (26th) day of April, 1865, at Bennett's House, near 
 Durham Station, North Carolina, between General Joseph 
 E. Johnston, commanding the Confederate Army, and 
 Major-General W. T. Sherman, commanding the United 
 States Army in North Carolina 
 
... ATTACKS UPON SHERMAN. 
 
 " All acts of war on the part of the troops under Gen- 
 eral Johnston's command to cease from this date. All 
 arms and public property to be deposited at Greensboro, 
 and delivered to an ordinance officer of the United States 
 Army. Rolls of all officers and men to be made in dupli- 
 cate, one copy to be retained by the commander of the 
 troops, and the other to be given to an officer to be desit^- 
 nated by General Sherman. Each officer and man to give 
 his individual .obligation, in writing, not to take up arms 
 against the government of the United States until properly 
 released from this obligation. The side-arms of officers, 
 and their private horses and baggage, to be retained by them. 
 
 " This being done, all the officers and men will be per- 
 mitted to return to their homes, not to be disturbed by the 
 United States authorities so long as they observe their obli- 
 gations, and the laws in force where they may reside. 
 
 "W. T. Sherman, 
 " Major-General, commanding the Army of the United States 
 
 in North Carolina. 
 
 "J. E. Johnston, 
 " General commanding the Confederate State Army in North 
 
 Carolina. 
 
 " Approved. U. S. Grant, Lieutenant-General. 
 
 " Raleigh, North Carolina, April 26, 1865." 
 
 In the meantime intensely bitter attacks were made upon 
 Sherman in the Northern press, for which the Washington 
 government was largely responsible. Sherman was charged 
 with exceeding his authority, with actual disloyalty, with 
 acknowledging the validity of the rebel government, with 
 attempting to re-establish rebel authority in the Southern 
 States, and even to restore slavery. These attacks were as 
 excessive as they were bitter, and after a time a reaction set 
 
THE CRAXD REVIEW. ^^ 
 
 in. Sherman's worth was fully recognized, and he was 
 hailed with acclaim as second only to Grant in the leader- 
 ship of the National hosts. After these events Sherman, 
 his army marching northward, reached Alexandria, Vir- 
 ginia. He was so embittered against Stanton that he had 
 determined not to enter the City of Washington but to re- 
 main in camp with his arrsy. When Grant sent him word 
 that the President wanted to see him, however, he went to 
 the White House, and there learned that apart from Stan- 
 ton the members of the Government had expressed no ill- 
 will toward him. 
 
 The war was now ended and the armies of the Union 
 about to be disbanded. Grant proposed to accomplish this 
 after a grand review in the broad avenues of Washington 
 The Army of the Potomac was reviewed on May 23, and 
 Sherman's army on the following day. There was a vast 
 assemblage of the general public, as well as of all the officers 
 of the Government to witness the event. Sherman's army 
 was uniformed and equipped just as on a march in the field. 
 There was no attempt at a special display. The foragers 
 had their pack-trains loaded with provisions and forage, and 
 the pioneer corps, composed of negroes, carried axes, 
 spades, and shovels. Sherman, taking with him Howard, 
 who had just been detached, rode at the head of the col- 
 umn. He was greeted with cheers and pelted with flowers. 
 As he passed the headquarters of General Augur he halted 
 and raised his hat with profound respect to Secretary Sew- 
 ard, who stood at the window wrapped in blankets, being 
 too ill from his recent wounds to go to the reviewing stand 
 with the President. When Sherman went to the reviewing 
 stand he shook hands with President Johnson and with 
 Grant, but curtly turned away from Stanton. 
 
 Sherman's army n«vv consisted of 65,000 men in splendid 
 
,,A SHERMAN'S FAREWELL ORDERS. 
 
 440 
 
 condition. It is said he considered it the iinest army in ex- 
 istence. For six hours and a half it marched along Penn- 
 sylvania Avenue, and thus brought to a fitting conclusion 
 the triumphant campaign of more than X-sno thousand miles 
 in which it had been engaged. 
 
 On May 30 Sherman formally took leave of his com- 
 rades in the following special field orders : 
 
 " The General commanding announces to the Armies ot 
 the Tennessee and Georgia that the time has come for us to 
 part. Our work is done, and armed enemies no longer 
 defy us. Some of you will go to your homes, and others 
 will be retained in military service until further orders. 
 
 " And now that we are all about to separate to mingle 
 with the civil world, it becomes a pleasing duty to recall to 
 mind the situation of national affairs when, but little more 
 than a year ago, we were gathered about the cliffs of Look- 
 out Mountain, and all the future was wrapped in doubt and 
 uncertainty. 
 
 " Three armies had come together from distant fields, 
 with separate histories, yet bound by one common cause — 
 the union of our country and the perpetuation of the Gov- 
 ernment of our inheritance. There is no need to recall to 
 your memories Tunnel Hill, with Rocky-Face Mountain 
 and Buzzard Roost Gap, and the ugly forts of Dalton be- 
 hind. 
 
 " We were in earnest, and paused not for danger and 
 difficulty, but dashed through Snake Creek Gap and fell on 
 Resaca ; then on to Etowah, to Dallas, Kenesaw, and the 
 heats of summer found us on the banks of the Chatta- 
 hoochee, far from home, and dependent on a single road for 
 supplies. Again we were not to be held back by any ob- 
 stacle, and crossed over and fought four hard battles for the 
 possession of the citadel of Atlanta. That was the crisis of 
 
THE FINAL CAMPAIGN, 447 
 
 our history, A doubt still clouded our future, but we 
 solved the problem, destroyed Atlanta, struck boldly across 
 the State of Georgia, severed all the main arteries of life to 
 our enemy, and Christmas found us at Savannah. 
 
 " Waiting there only long enough to fill our wagons, we 
 again began a march which, for peril, labor, and results, 
 will compare with any ever made by an organized army. 
 The floods of the Savannah, the swamps of the Combahee 
 and Edisto, the ' high hills ' and rocks of the Santee, the 
 flat quagmires of the Pedee and Cape Fear Rivers, were all 
 passed in midwinter, with its floods and rains, in the face of 
 an accumulating enemy ; and, after the battles of Averys- 
 boro' and Bentonsville, we once more came .out of the wil- 
 derness, to meet our friends at Goldsboro. Even then we 
 paused only long enough to get new clothing, to reload our 
 wagons, again pushed on to Raleigh and beyond, until we 
 met our enemy suing for peace instead of war, and offering 
 to submit to the injured laws of his and our country. As 
 long as that enemy was defiant, nor mountains, nor rivers, 
 nor swamps, nor hunger, nor cold, had checked us ; but 
 when he, who had fought us hard and persistently, ofifered 
 submission, your General thought it wrong to pursue him 
 farther, and negotiations followed, which resulted, as you all 
 know, in his surrender. 
 
 " How far the operations of this army contributed to the 
 final overthrow of the Confederacy and the peace which 
 now dawns upon us must be judged by others, not by us ; 
 but that you have done all that men could do has been ad- 
 mitted by those in authority, and we have a right to join in 
 the universal joy that fills our land because the war is over, 
 and our Government stands vindicated before the world by 
 the joint action of the volunteer a-rmies and navy of the 
 United States. 
 
. .g THE^FINAL CAMPAIGN. 
 
 " To such as remain in the service, your General need 
 only remind you that success in the past was due to hard 
 work and discipline, and that the same work and discipline 
 are equally important in the future. To such as go home, 
 he will only say that our favored country is so grand, so 
 extensive, so diversified in climate, soil, and productions 
 that every man may find a home and occupation suited to 
 his taste; none should yield to the natural impatience sure 
 to result from our past life of excitement and adventure. 
 You will be invited to seek new adventures abroad ; do not 
 yield to the temptation, for it will lead only to death and 
 disappointment. 
 
 "Your General now bids you farewell, with the full be- 
 lief that, as in war you have been good soldiers, so in peace 
 you will make good citizens; and if, unfortunately, new war 
 should arise in our country, ' Sherman's Army ' will be the 
 first to buckle on its old armor, and come forth to defend 
 and maintain th.e Government of our inheritance." 
 
CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 THE DUTIES OF PEACE. 
 
 Aiding THE Pacific Railroad — A Fool's Errand to Mexico — Political 
 Intrigues at Washington — The Tenure of Office Affair — Work 
 AMONG THE Indians — A Trip to Europe — The Belknap Scandal — 
 Sherman's Speech on Military Honor — Travels in the North- 
 west — Yellowstone Park — Writing His Memoirs — Life in New 
 York — Death of Mrs. Sherman. 
 
 Soon after the " Grand Review " and his farewell to his 
 faithful followers, Sherman went with his family to Chicago, 
 to assist at a large fair held for the benefit of impoverished 
 soldiers' families ; thence to Lancaster, Louisville and Nash- 
 ville, visiting old friends. He was then, on June 27, 1865, 
 put in command of the Military Division of the Missis- 
 sippi, afterward changed to the Missouri, with headquarters 
 at St. Louis. Immediately his attention was turned to the 
 Pacific Railroad, then in course of construction. Many 
 years before, when that great enterprise was scarcely 
 dreamed of as a possibility, he had written of it to his 
 brother, urging that such a road should be built, for the 
 unification of the country, and saying that he would gladly 
 give his life to see it successfully carried through. It was 
 with much satisfaction that be witnessed the opening ot the 
 first division of sixteen and a half miles of the Union 
 Pacific, westward from Omaha. He admired the energy 
 with which the road was pushed forward, and looked upon 
 449 
 
450 LIEUTENANT GENERAL. 
 
 its completion, on July 15, 1869, as "one of the greatest 
 and most beneficent achievements " of the human race. It 
 was to facilitate the building of the road by protecting it 
 from the Indians that Sherman persuaded the President, in 
 March, 1866, to establish the new Military Department of 
 the Platte and to place strong bodies of troops at various 
 points along the line. 
 
 As the mustering out of the army proceeded, many 
 changes in organization occurred. The most notable was 
 that of July 25, 1866, when Grant was made a full General 
 and Sherman was made Lieutenant General. At the same 
 time political feeling was running high at Washington. 
 President Johnson had virtually left the Republican party, 
 and was at loggerheads with the majority of Congress. 
 Grant was looked to as the coming President, and accord- 
 ingly many of Johnson's friends manifested much jealousy 
 and hostility toward him. Sherman was in the west and so 
 kept aloof from these controversies and intrigues, for which 
 he had no love. But he maintained his old friendship with 
 Grant, and inclined toward his side of every disputed ques- 
 tion. 
 
 While travelling on duty in New Mexico, in September, 
 1866, he was summoned to Washington, in haste. Going 
 thither, he reported to Grant, who told him he did not know 
 jvhy the President had sent for him, unless in connection 
 with Mexican affairs. Maximilian, supported by French 
 troops, still held the imperial crown of that country, but 
 was steadily being driven to the wall by the Republicans, 
 who had elected Juarez President. The United States was 
 about to send the Hon. Lewis Campbell thither as Minister, 
 accredited to Juarez as the rightful head of the State, and 
 President Johnson had ordered Grant to accompany him as 
 an escort. Grant told Sherman that he would decline to 
 
THE TENURE OF OFFICE AFFAIR. 453 
 
 obey this order as an illegal one, on the ground that the 
 President had no right to send him out of the country on a 
 diplomatic errand unaccompanied by troops; he believed it 
 was a trick of Johnson's, to get rid of him. 
 
 Then Sherman went to the President, who was very glad 
 to see him. Said Johnson : " I am sending General Grant 
 to Mexico, and I want you to command the army here in 
 his absence." " But," said Sherman, " Grant will not go !" 
 That startled Johnson, and he began arguing to show the 
 need there was of Grant's going. Sherman repeated the 
 positive statement that Grant would not go, and added that 
 he did not think the President in that matter could afford 
 to quarrel with the General. The upshot of the matter 
 was, that Johnson decided to send Sherman instead of 
 Grant, and Sherman consented to go, believing that thus 
 he was preventing an open rupture between Grant and the 
 Administration. 
 
 Sherman and Campbell went to Mexico, and spent some 
 weeks in trying to find Juarez, who was said to be with 
 his army in the field. Not succeeding in their quest, they 
 returned to New Orleans, and by Christmas Sherman was 
 back at St. Louis, convinced that he had been sent as a 
 ruse, on that idle errand. The President, he believed, 
 simply wanted to send Grant somewhere to get him out of 
 the way of his own political ambition. 
 
 Now came on the famous " Tenure of Office " affair. 
 Congress enacted, in March, 1867, a law providing that no 
 civil officer appointed for a definite term, by and with the 
 advice and consent of the Senate, should be removed before 
 the expiration of that term except with the consent of the 
 Senate. On August 5, following, the President demanded 
 Stanton's resignation as Secretary of War. Stanton, under 
 the above named law, refused it. A week later the President 
 
454 
 
 INDIAN PEACE COMMISSION. 
 
 suspended him and appointed Grant to act in his stead. 
 Things remained in this state until January 13, 1868 ; when 
 the Senate disapproved the President's action. Grant 
 immediately gave up the Secretaryship, handed the key of 
 the office to Sherman, and went back to army headquarters. 
 Sherman took the key to Stanton and gave it to him. 
 
 Sherman was anxious to make peace, and strongly urged 
 the President to appoint General J. D. Cox, then Governor 
 of Ohio, to succeed Stanton, thinking he would be accepted 
 by the Senate. This the President would not do, and the 
 storm increased. At the beginning of February Sherman 
 returned to St. Louis, glad to get away from the political 
 intrigues of Washington, and steadfastly refused to return 
 unless ordered, though the President himself requested him 
 to do so. Then, determined to bring him back, the President 
 assigned him to the command of the Division of the Atlantic. 
 Sherman tried to avoid this appointment, and threatened 
 to resign rather than return East. Had the President's 
 plans been carried out there would have been at Washington 
 these officers: The President, commander in chief of the 
 Army under the Constitution ; the Secretary of War, 
 commander in chief under the recognition of Congress ; the 
 General of the Army; the Lieutenant General ofthe Army ; 
 the General commanding the Department of Washington ; 
 and the commander of the post at Washington. And the 
 garrison of Washington consisted of an infantry brigade 
 and a battery of artillery ! Sherman protested so vigorously 
 against such an arrangementthat the President finally agreed 
 to let him stay at St. Louis, and then appointed Lorenzo 
 Thomas Secretary of War ad interhn. And soon the 
 famous impeachment trial came. 
 
 Sherman was appointed, in July, 1867, a member of the 
 commission to establish peace with certain Indian tribes. 
 
A TRIP TO EUROPE. 455 
 
 In that capacity he travelled vvidely through the Indian 
 country and had many conferences with the chiefs. He 
 proposed that the great Indian reservations should be or- 
 ganized under regular territorial governments, but the plan 
 was not approved at Washington. 
 
 So the time passed until March 4, 1869, when Grant was 
 inaugurated as President. Sherman was then made Gen- 
 eral, and Sheridan Lieutenant-General. Under this ar- 
 rangement Sherman of course had to return to Washing- 
 ton, and there he renewed his old association with George 
 H. Thomas, whom, however, he presently assigned, at 
 Thomas's request, to the command at San Francisco. 
 There the hero of Chickamauga and Nashville soon died, 
 and Sherman thought his end was hastened by supposed 
 ingratitude. Congress ought, in Sherman's opinion, to 
 have made Meade, Sheridan and Thomas all Lieutenant- 
 Generals, dating their commissions respectively with 
 " Gettysburg," " Winchester," and " Nashville." 
 
 On the death of General Rawlins, in the fall of 1869, 
 Sherman was called upon to act for a time as Secretary of 
 War. The experience did not please him. There was too 
 much red tape, and too much division of authority, and he 
 was glad to be relieved by General Belknap. In August, 
 1 87 1, Rear-Admiral Alden asked him to go to Europe 
 with him, in the frigate Wabash, and Sherman joyously 
 accepted the invitation, as he had long wished to go abroad 
 but had never yet done so. They sailed on November 11, 
 and Sherman did not return until September 22 of the next 
 year. He visited almost every part of Europe and Egypt, 
 and had an opportunity of observing European methods in 
 the great German army which had just been overrunning 
 France. 
 
 Life at Washington, with Belknap's assumptions, was now 
 
45'6 THE HONOR OF THE ARMY. 
 
 increasingly distasteful to him, and he obtained permission 
 from the President to remove the army headquarters to St. 
 Louis. Thither he went in the fall of 1874, and once more 
 was contented and happy. In the spring of 1876, however, 
 he was recalled to Washington, on account of the Belknap 
 scandal. General Belknap, Secretary of War, was charged 
 with corrupt practices, and resigned, to avoid impeachment. 
 Sherman was much shocked, for he had always esteemed 
 Belknap highly. Referring to the case in a speech at a 
 public banquet at St. Louis, before returning to Washing- 
 ton, he said: 
 
 "The army of 1776 was the refuge of all who loved lib- 
 erty for liberty's sake, and who were willing to test their 
 sincerity by the fire of battle; and v/e claim that the army 
 of 1876 is the best friend of liberty, good order, and Gov- 
 ernment, and submits to any test that may be imposed. Our 
 ancestors never said the soldier was not worthy of his hire; 
 that the army was a leech on the body politic; that a stand- 
 ing army of 20,000 men endangered the liberties of 40,- 
 000,000 of people. These are modern inventions, modern 
 party-cries to scare and confuse the ignorant. We are not 
 of those who subscribe so easily to the modern doctrine of 
 evolution, that teaches that each succeeding generation is 
 necessarily better than that which went before, but each 
 tree must be tested by its own fruit, and we can point with 
 pride to our Sheridan, Hancock, Schofield, McDowell, and 
 a long array of Brigadier-Generals, Colonels, Captains and 
 Lieutenants, who, for intelligence, honor, integrity and self- 
 denial, will compare favorably with those of any former 
 epoch. We point with pride to our army, scattered through 
 the South, along oar Atlantic, Gulf and Lake forts, and in 
 the great West, and claim that in all the qualities of good 
 soldiers they are second to none. I see that some of you 
 
CAUSES OF CORRUPTION. 
 
 45; 
 
 shake your heads and whi>per Belknap. Why? What was 
 his relation to the army? He was a Cabinet Minister, a 
 civil officer, did not hold a commission in the army at all. 
 We contend that when he was an officer he was an honor- 
 able man and rendered good service, and that this entitles 
 him to charitable consideration. 'Lead us not into temp- 
 tation' is a prayer some of us seem to have forgotten, and 
 we of the army can truthfully say that this offence, be it 
 what it may, is not chargeable to the army, for he was not 
 subject to military law or jurisdiction. 
 
 "At this moment the air is full of calumny, and it is 
 sickening to observe that men usually charitable and just, 
 are made to believe that all honesty and virtue have taken 
 their flight from earth; that our National Capital is reeking 
 with corruption ; that fraud and peculation are the rule, and 
 honesty and fidelity to trust the exception. I do not be- 
 lieve it, and I think we should resist the torrent. Our 
 President has surely done enough to entitle him to absolute 
 confidence, and can have no motive to screen the wicked 
 or guilty. At no timiC in the history of the country, have 
 our courts of law, from the Supreme Court at Washington 
 down to the District Courts, been entitled to more respect 
 lor their learning and purity; and Congress is nov/, as it 
 has ever been and must be from its composition, a repre- 
 sentative body, sharing with the people its feelings and 
 thoughts, its virtues and vices. If corruption exist, it is 
 with the people at large, and they can correct the evil by 
 their own volition. If they have grown avaricious and 
 made money their God, they must not be surprised if 
 their representatives and servants share their sin. What 
 are the actual facts ? We have recently passed through a 
 long civil war, entailing on one moiety of the country deso- 
 lation and ruin, — on all a fearful debt, — States, counties, 
 
458 
 
 PATRONAGE. 
 
 and cities follow the fashion, until the whole land became 
 deeply in debt. The debts arc now due, and bear heavily 
 in the shape of taxes on our homes, on property, and busi- 
 ness. 
 
 " Again, the war called millions to arms, who dropped 
 their professions and business, and found themselves without 
 employment when the war was over. These naturally 
 turned to the National Government for help ; and the pres- 
 sure for office, at all times great became simply irresistible. 
 The power to appoint to these offices is called ' patronage,' 
 and is common to all Governments. Then, again, arose a 
 vast number of claims for damages for seizures and loss of 
 property by acts of war. These all involved large sums of 
 money, and money now is, as it always has been, the cause 
 of a life-struggle — of corruption. Yes, money is the 
 cause of corruption to-day as always. Men will toil for it, 
 murder for it, steal for it, die for it. Though officers and 
 soldiers are simply men subject to all tempations and vices 
 of men, we of the army feel, or rather think we feel, more 
 in the spirit of Burns : 
 
 " ' For gold the merchant plows the main, 
 The farmer plows the manor ; 
 But glory is the soldier's prize, 
 The soldier's wealth is honor.' " 
 
 Sherman set out in July, 1877, for a tour through the 
 Indian country and the far Northwest. He was absent 
 from home 115 days, and travelled nearly io,ocxd -miles. 
 After visiting Tongue River and the Big Horn, he went to 
 the Yellowstone National Park. In relating the story of 
 his adventures, he said : 
 
 " Descending Mount Washburn, by a trail through 
 woods, one emerges into the meadows or springs out of 
 
IN YELLOWSTONE PARK. 
 
 459 
 
 which Cascade Creek takes its water, and, following it to 
 near its mouth, you camp and walk to the great falls and 
 the head of the Yellowstone canyon. In grandeur, majesty, 
 and coloring, these, probably, equal any on earth. The 
 painting by Moran in the Capitol is good, but painting and 
 words are unequal to the subject. They must be seen to 
 be appreciated and felt. 
 
 " Gen. Poe and I found a jutting rock, about a mile below 
 the Seron Falls, from which a perfect view is had of the 
 Seron Falls can}'on. The upper falls are given at 125 feet 
 and the lower at 350. The canyon is described as 2,000 feet. 
 It is not 2,000 imniediately below the Seron Falls, but may 
 be lower down, for this canyon is thirty miles long, and 
 where it breaks through the range abreast of Washburn 
 may be 2,000 feet. Just below the Seron Falls, I think 
 1,000 feet would be nearer the exact measurement; but it 
 forms an actual canyon, the sides being almost vertical, and 
 no one venturing to attempt a descent. It is not so much 
 the form of this canyon, though fantastic in the extreme, 
 that elicited my admiration, but the coloring. The soft 
 rocks through which the waters have cut a way are of the 
 most delicate colors, — buff, gray, and red, — all so perfectly 
 blended as to make a picture of exquisite finish. The falls 
 and canyon of the Yellowstone will remain to the end of 
 time objects of natural beauty and grandeur to attract the 
 attention of the living. 
 
 "Up to this time we had seen no geysers or hot springs, 
 but the next day, eight miles up from the falls, we came to 
 Sulphur Mountain, a bare, naked, repulsive hill, not of large 
 extent, at the base of which were hot, bubbling springs, 
 with all the pond crisp with sulphur, and six miles from 
 there up, or south, close to the Yellowstone, we reached and 
 camped at Mud Springs. These also are hot, most of them 
 
460 THE HOT SPRINGS. 
 
 muddy. Water slushed around as in a boiling pot. Soma 
 were muddy water and others thick mud, puffing up just 
 like a vast pot of mush. Below the falls of the Yellowstone 
 is a rapid, bold current of water, so full of real speckled 
 trout, weighing from six ounces to four and a half pounds, 
 that, in the language of a settler, it is ' no trick at all to 
 catch them.' They will bite at an artificial fly, or, better, 
 at a live grasshopper, which abound here; but above the 
 falls the river is quiet, flowing between low, grassy banks, 
 and finally ending, or rather beginning, in the Yellowstone 
 Lake, also alive with real speckled trout. Below the falls 
 these trout are splendid eating, but above, by reason of the 
 hot water, some of the fish are wormy and generally 
 obnoxious by reason thereof, though men pretend to dis- 
 tinguish the good from the bad by the color of the spots. 
 I have no hesitation in pronouncing the Yellowstone, from 
 the Big Horn to the source, the finest trout-fishing stream 
 on earth. 
 
 " From the Mud Springs the trail is due west, and crosses 
 the mountain range which separates the Yellowstone from 
 the Madison, both tributaries to the Missouri, descends this 
 tributary to the West Fork of the Madison, and here is the 
 Lower Geyser Basin. It would require a volume to de- 
 scribe these geysers in detail. It must suffice now for me 
 to say that the Lower Geyser Basin presents a series of hot 
 springs or basins of water coming up from below hot 
 enough to scald your hand, boil a ham, eggs, or anything 
 else, clear as crystal, with basins of every conceivable shape, 
 from the size of a quill to actual lakes 100 yards across. In 
 walking among and around these one feels that in a 
 moment he may break through and be lost in a species of 
 hell. 
 
 " Six miles higher up the West Madisoa is the Upper 
 
THE SPOUTING GEYSERS. 
 
 461 
 
 Geyser Basin, the spouting geysers, the real object and aim 
 of our visit. To describe these in detail would surpass my 
 ability or the compass of a letter. They have been de- 
 scribed by Lieutenants Duane, Hayden, Strong, Lord Dun- 
 raven, and many others. The maps by Major Ludlow, of the 
 Engineers, locate several geysers accurately. We reached 
 the Upper Geyser Basin at 12 M. one day and remained 
 there till 4 P. M. of the next. During that time we saw 
 the old ' Faithful ' perform at intervals varying from sixty- 
 two minutes to eighty minutes. The intervals vary, but 
 the performance only varies with the wind and sun. The 
 cone, or hill, is of soft, decaying lime, but immediately 
 about the hole, which is irregular, about six feet across, 
 the incrustation is handsome, so that one can look in safety 
 when the geyser is at rest." 
 
 Returning to Fort Ellis, they next rode to Helena, the 
 Capital of Montana Territory, 106 miles in one day, by a 
 relay of stages. They visited old Fort Benton, established 
 long ago by the American Fur Company, also Fort Shaw, 
 and then striking over the country to Fort Missoula, and 
 then across the Bitter Root Mountains through Idaho and 
 across Washington Territory to the Pacific coast. 
 
 Sherman devoted much time in his later years to literaiy 
 work, chiefly in the form of magazine articles, about the 
 war, early days in California, and other topics of historic 
 and general public interest. In 1875 he published his 
 " Memoirs," a large volume recording his military career. 
 Its appearance caused a great sensation, as no other prom- 
 inent army officer had, at that time, done such a thing as to 
 write a history of his own career. The book was written 
 in Sherman's characteristic style, breezy, vigorous, frank, 
 fearless. Many of its statements of fact and opinion bore 
 hardly upon others and provoked contradiction. Sherman 
 
462 
 
 LITERARY PURSUITS. 
 
 took all criticisms upon it kindly, and in subsequent editions 
 printed them, together with many other messages of praise, 
 in an appendix to the book. Moreover, there were, as 
 Sherman himself acknowledged, many errors in the book, 
 originating in faults of memory and otherwise. As fast as 
 these were pointed out and proved, Sherman corrected them. 
 
 Referring one day, in conversation, to the criticisms of his 
 " Memoirs," he said : — 
 
 "They amuse me, make me laugh, and frequently, I am 
 glad to say, serve me a good purpose by calling attention to 
 real defects and errors which in time will be corrected. I 
 have here a copy of my book with each error, so far dis- 
 covered, marked and carefully annotated. When the work 
 of correcting is completely finished, they will be made 
 public, either during my lifetime or when I am gone. These 
 'Memoirs' have been the subject of much misconception 
 in the public mind. I do not intend them as history. I 
 offered them as my testimony, simply. I endeavored to 
 describe accurately the stirring events therein referred to as 
 I saw them. I do not pretend to say that everything 
 occurred as I say it does, but as it occurred to me. Other 
 men may have seen things differently. None of us see 
 things exactly alike. But the records upon which my book 
 is based are open to all. They consisted of my correspond- 
 ence and official reports, making forty volumes of manu- 
 script letters pasted in letter-books. These forty volumes 
 are in the War Department at Washington. I had a dupli- 
 cate copy. One day I sat down to glance at these letters, 
 and conceived the idea of reducing their contents to narra- 
 tive form, but not for publication. I did not intend that the 
 public should ever read them, except as my posthumous 
 papers. After I had made some progress in the work, I 
 showed the first sheets to a few friends. I was urgently 
 
ARMY PREJUDICES. 463 
 
 advised to complete the labor I had begun, and submit it to 
 the public in the shape of ' Memoirs.' I took the advice 
 and so published the book, expected severe criticism, and 
 got it. I had sense and foresight enough to know that 
 everybody would not agree with me. No writer ever gets 
 justice from his cotemporaries, and, outside of this, I knew 
 I was liable to err, and only pretended to give things as 
 they looked through my glasses. 
 
 " Now, there were a good many little prej udices among the 
 soldiers and the armies of the West which the public, at 
 this day, do not appreciate. For instance, there were three 
 grand Western armies — the Army of the Tennessee, Army 
 of the Cumberland and Army of the Ohio. There were 
 unavoidable jealousies between these armies and their com- 
 manders. Their respective triumphs and defeats were the 
 subjects of undue taunts, ridicule or criticism. My particu- 
 lar army was that of Tennessee, and it is more than pos- 
 sible, and quite probable, that I have colored things highly 
 in its favor. Doubtless I was much prejudiced in its favor, 
 just as you would be in favor of an old acquaintance as op- 
 posed to a comparative stranger. I knew every brigade and 
 regimental commander in this army, and was familiar with 
 the fighting capacity of each corps. I knew exactly what 
 division to hold in reserve, and those to storm a breastwork. 
 Besides I had this army so organized that I had only to give 
 an order and it was executed. No red tape nor circumlo- 
 cution was necessary. If I wanted one of Buell's corps I 
 had to issue a command, and that had to be repeated, per- 
 haps in writing, from corps to division, and from division to 
 brigade and regiment, and thus would take two hours to get 
 a body of troops in motion when time was precious and im- 
 petuous action was needed. IMy army was one of wild 
 fighters, never so well pleased as when driving the enemy 
 
464 ^-^^^ POLITICAL GENERALS. 
 
 before them. Buell had a splendid army, but it was slow 
 and conservative, composed of as brave and stubborn 
 fighters as any other command, and yet not accustomed to 
 brilliant and quick movements. 
 
 "The attack made on me about the 'political Generals' 
 was unfair. I never used such a term. My sole intention 
 was to mention, in a spirit of fair criticism, certain circum- 
 stances that in a measure defeated my efforts to have a 
 constantly efficient army. For instance, we would have a 
 big fight and come out victorious. We would go into camp 
 for an indefinite period, and with no prospect of an early 
 campaign. At such periods I noticed that my subordinate 
 commanders who had previously had political aspirations 
 would strike out for home to see the 'people.' They would 
 make a few speeches, and as the fighting season approached 
 they v/ould rejoin their commands. In the meantime, if I 
 wanted to find out anything about the exact condition of 
 each division, the transportation, or the commissary or 
 quartermaster affairs, I could find no responsible liead to 
 give me official information. Such things tended to destroy 
 the discipline, and consequently the efficiency of the army, 
 and it was a matter to which I had good reason to object. 
 I wanted commanders who would stay with their com- 
 mands, and not those who cherished ambitious political 
 projects, and who were continually running off to see the 
 pecple at home." 
 
 General Sherman in 1884 requested to be put on the 
 retired list of the army, in order that Sheridan might be 
 promoted to the full rank of General; and this was done 
 on February 8 of that year. A couple of years later he 
 removed to New York and for the remainder of his life made 
 his home in that city. He was one of the most conspicuous 
 figures in society there, a welcome and honored guest 
 
LIFE IN NEW YORK. '465 
 
 everywhere. After living for a couple of years in a hotel, 
 he bought a house, at No. 75 West 71st St., and there 
 gathered his family about him. In the basement he fitted 
 up a room which he called his office, and here he received 
 visitors and answered correspondence. In the hours which 
 he devoted to these duties he presented a picture which 
 strikingly impressed itself on the memories of all Vv'ho saw 
 it. His desk was in the middle of the room, and there he 
 sat, amid piles of books, records and papers, and surrounded 
 by old war maps and mementoes. He wore an easy office 
 coat or a dressing gown, and for aids to his eyesight he had 
 a huge pair of round-glassed, tortoise-shell-rimmed spec- 
 tacles. Wielding his paper knife and taking up his pen 
 occasionally, he would keep busy and at the same time 
 would sustain conversation with a caller, on whom every 
 now and then, as he addressed him, he would bend his keen, 
 direct gaze, raising his brows and looking over the tops of 
 his spectacles. The walls of this room, too, have often rung 
 with laughter, responsive to the kindly joke, the ready jest, 
 the queer reminiscence of old times, inimitably told, with 
 which he made the time pleasant for groups of his intimate 
 friends, especially his old comrades of the Army. W'hen a 
 reporter visited him he would get a cordial enough welcome 
 to the General's nook, but presently old " Tecumseh " 
 would look up and say something like this: 
 
 " Oh, what's the use of bothering with an old fellow like 
 me? Haven't I had enough publicity? Umph ! More 
 than I wanted. Now, my dear fellow, I like you and your 
 paper, but you mustn't print anything about me; you 
 really mustn't." 
 
 He soon acquired a reputation as a ready and brilliant 
 after-dinner speaker, and in that capacity figured at many 
 public banquets. His first New York speech, after he made 
 
466^ AFTER-DINNER SPEAKING. 
 
 that city his home, was delivered at the dinner of the New 
 England Society, on December 22, 1886. At this dinner 
 Henry W. Grady made his rhemorable address on " The 
 New South." General Sherman directly preceded Mr. 
 Grady in the order of speech-making, and when he arose 
 he got a tremendously enthusiastic greeting, which visibly 
 affected him. 
 
 " Many and many a time," he said, " have I been welcomed 
 among you. I came from a bloody civil war to New York 
 in years gone by — twenty or twenty-one, maybe, — and a 
 committee came to me in my room and dragged me unwil- 
 lingly before the then New England Society of New York, 
 and they received me with such hearty applause and such 
 kindly greetings that my heart goes out to you now to-night 
 as their representatives. God knows, I wish you, one and 
 all, all the blessings of life and enjoyment of the good things 
 you now possess and others yet in store for you, young 
 men." 
 
 With this introduction, he told them that he had been 
 celebrating the same event the night before in Brooklyn, 
 that about two or three o'clock in the morning he " saw 
 this hall filled with lovely ladies, waltzing," and he added, 
 " here I am to-night." 
 
 " I have no toast," he remarked, " I am a loafer. I can 
 choose to say what I may — not tied by any text or formula." 
 Then he said that they called him " Old General Sherman," 
 but that he was pretty young yet, " not all the devil out of 
 me," and that he hoped to share with them many a festive 
 occasion. 
 
 And he was with the New Englanders and with many- 
 other societies and clubs and parties on " many a festive 
 occasion." His speeches were always brisk, spicy and 
 enlivened by anecdote and reminiscence, Chauncey M. 
 
A GREAT THEATRE-GOER ^6 J 
 
 Depevv regarded him as "the readiest and most original 
 talker in the United States," and Mr. Dopcw had many- 
 opportunities to study him in this character, for the two 
 men frequently sat at the same table and divided the 
 oratorical honors of the evening. 
 
 General Sherman was a frequent patron of the drama, and 
 was usually to be seen in important " first night " audiences. 
 Among his personal friends were many of the foremost 
 actors and actresses of the day, and he did many deeds of 
 kindness to struggling but worthy members of the profes- 
 sion. He was one of the first members of the Players' 
 Club, and made a notable speech at a supper given in honor 
 of Edwin Booth. 
 
 At reunions of army men he was, of course, a most 
 popular figure, and he greatly enjoyed such gatherings, 
 where he could renew old acquaintances and refresh his 
 memories of the great campaigns of the past. Sometimes 
 he was called upon to preside at some army meeting, and 
 a rare treat it was to see him. For parliamentary law he 
 had no regard, but he " ran things " according .to his own 
 will, with charming indifference to points of order and pro- 
 cedure. A reporter has given this verbatim record of such 
 a scene, Sherman took the chair and began thus : 
 
 "The meeting will come to order. Ah, yes! (Nodding 
 to an officer about to rise.) General Hickenlooper moves the 
 appointment of a Committee on Credentials (taking a paper 
 from his left vest pocket.) The committee will consist of 
 General Hickenlooper, Colonel A. and Major B. We must 
 be speedy, gentlemen, in arranging these details. 
 
 " General Smith — Did I see General Smith rise ? " (A 
 voice : " He's gone out for a moment") " Well, never 
 mind ; it's all the same. General Smith moves the appoint- 
 ment of a committee on Resolutions, and it will consist of 
 
468 THE LAST "INTER VIE lV.r 
 
 (taking a list from his right vest pocket) General So-and-So. 
 (Looks blank.) That's not the committee, either. This 
 list I just read is another committee, and it will be moved 
 later. Here's the right one.. (Reads it.) You see, gen- 
 tlemen, we get our young staff officers who have nothing 
 else to do to fix up these things in advance." 
 
 A voice: " Move to adjourn." The Chair: " Oh, no use 
 putting that motion. We must fix these preliminaries 
 first. ^ I have three more committees prepared here." 
 
 And so on for an hour longer. But no one ever resented 
 the old warrior's genial "bossism." 
 
 Sherman's last " interview " with a newspaper reporter 
 occurred at his New York home less than a fortnight before 
 his death. 
 
 When the reporter entered the General was seated at a 
 square table in the middle of the room, and in a despairing 
 sort of way was trying to find out from a director}^ where 
 Dr. John Hall's church is situated. He wore a very extra- 
 ordinary pair of spectacles — each lens like a jeweler's mag- 
 nifying glass. When he had got the information he wanted, 
 he pushed his spectacles up on his forehead, shook hands 
 and asked what was wanted. 
 
 " By the way," he said, suddenly, " I have seen you 
 before." 
 
 " Yes ; at the Garfield memorial exercises in Cleveland." 
 
 " I remember now," General Sherman continued ; " sit 
 down. What can I do for you ? I have very little time; 
 I am going to a wedding at 12 o'clock." 
 
 He was asked to talk about Lincoln and old war-times. 
 
 " No, no," he said, shaking his head; " I have said all I 
 have to say and written all I have to write on that subject 
 and all others. I shall not write any more nor talk for 
 publication. 
 

JflJiST BEREAVEMENT. 
 
 471 
 
 Then he stood up and walked slowly about the room. 
 After a bit he pointed to a shelf of the book-case, where 
 the bulky volumes of the Nicolay-Hay memoirs stood. 
 
 " There," he remarked, "in those ten volumes you'll find 
 all the Lincoln literature you want; I have made many 
 speeches on Lincoln, but I don't remember where they are 
 now — I don't remember." 
 
 Sherman's first family bereavement was the death of his 
 son Willie, from typhoid fever, at Memphis, October 3, 
 1863. The boy had shown great fondness for military life, 
 and had been playfully adopted as a sergeant by the bat- 
 talion that formed his father's headquarters guard. He 
 always turned out at drills and guard-mountings with a zeal 
 that both amused and delighted the general, and he was a 
 great favorite with all the soldiers who knew him. When 
 he died, the battalion gave him a military funeral, and the 
 heart-broken father thereupon wrote to its commanding 
 officer, Captain C. C. Smith, as follows: 
 
 " My Dear Friend : I cannot sleep to-night till I record 
 an expression of the deep feelings of my heart to you and 
 to the officers and soldiers of the battalion for their kind 
 behavior to my poor child. I realize that you all feel for 
 my family the attachment of kindred, and I assure you of 
 full reciprocity. 
 
 " Consistent with a sense of duty to my profession and 
 office, I could not leave my post, and sent for the family to 
 come to me in this fatal climate and in that sickly period of 
 the year, and behold the result. The child that bore my 
 name and in whose future I reposed with more confidence 
 than I did in my own plan of life now lies a mere corpse, 
 seeking a grave in a distant land, with a weeping mother, 
 brother and sisters clustered about him. For myself I ask 
 no sympathy. On, on I must go to meet a soldier's fate or 
 
472 
 
 WILLIE SHERMAN. 
 
 live to see our country rise superior to all factions, till its 
 flag is adored and respected by ourselves and by all the 
 powers of the earth. 
 
 " But Willie was, or thought he was, a sergeant in the 
 Thirteenth, I have seen his eye brighten, his heart beat, as 
 he beheld the battalion under arms, and asked me if they 
 were not real soldiers. Child as he was, he had the 
 enthusiasm, the pure love of truth, honor and love of 
 country which should animate all soldiers. 
 
 " God only knows why he should die thus young. He 
 is dead, but will not be forgotten till those who knew him 
 in life have followed him to that same mysterious end. 
 
 " Please convey to the battalion my heartfelt thanks and 
 assure each and all that if in after years they call on me or 
 mine and mention that they were of the Thirteenth Regu- 
 lars when Willie was a sergeant they will have a key to the 
 affections of my family that will open all it has ; that we 
 will share with them our last blanket, our last crust." 
 
 Willie Sherman's remains were afterward removed from 
 Memphis and interred at St. Louis, in Calvary Cemetery, 
 by the side of another son, Charles, who died in infancy, 
 in 1864. In the same plot the body of M'rs. Sherman was 
 placed at her death, to be followed soon by the dust of the 
 great soldier himself 
 
 Mrs. Sherman died in New York on November 28, 1888, 
 after a long illness. After her burial at St. Louis, General 
 Sherman wrote a brief note to the editor of TJie New York 
 Tribune, saying : — 
 
 " I and family are now returned from St. Louis, having 
 deposited the coffined body of Mrs. Sherman near ' Our 
 Willie,' at the very spot chosen by ourselves in 1866, re- 
 affirmed in 1883, and often spoken of as a matter of course 
 between us. We have followed in the minutest particular 
 
DEATH OF MRS. SHERMAN. 
 
 A71 
 
 her every wish. Every member of my own family and 
 hers, the ' Ewings,' are content, for no mortal was ever 
 better prepared to ' put on immortality ' than Mrs. General 
 Sherman. Of course, being the older and subjected to 
 harder strains, I expected to precede her; but it is ordained 
 otherwise. In due time I will resume my place by her 
 side, and I want my friends, especially my old soldier 
 friends, to know that they shall not be taxed one cent, for 
 I have made, or will make, every provision. I have 
 received by telegraph, mail, card and every possible way, 
 hundreds of kind, sympathetic messages, all of which have 
 been read by myself and children. To make suitable re- 
 plies to all is simply impossible, and I offer the above as a 
 general answer." 
 
 There were left to him six children : The Rev. Thomas 
 E. Sherman, a priest of the Roman Catholic Church; P. 
 Tecumseh Sherman, a lawyer in New York ; Mrs. A. M. 
 Thackara, of Rosemont, Penn. ; Mrs. T. W. Fitch, of Pitts- 
 burg; Miss Rachel Sherman, and Miss Lizzie Sherman. 
 Messrs. Thackara and Fitch, to whom the two elder 
 daughters were married, were army officers. 
 
CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 DEATH AND BURIAL. 
 
 A Fatal Cold — Lingering Between Hope and Fear — The Last 
 Rally — The End of Life's Campaign — A Sons Sad Home-Coming 
 — Pkkparations for the Funeral — Public Tributes of Respect — 
 The Military Parade in New York — Progress of the Funeral 
 Train Across the Country — Ceremonies at St. Louis— The War- 
 rior's Last Encampment by the Side of His Loved Ones. 
 
 All roads lead to Rome, and end there. Many men who 
 have acquired greatness by their arduous achievements in 
 various parts of the country, toward the close of life have 
 gravitated to New York and ended their days there. Such 
 was the case with Sherman's great comrade and com- 
 mander, Grant, and such was the case with Sherman 
 himself When he came to New York to make his home 
 he intended that it should be his last in the earthly life. 
 And so it was. His declining years were spent in peace 
 and comfort, surrounded by the love of kin and friends, and 
 by the admiration of the great Metropolis ; and when the 
 end came, after so much marching and fighting, and so 
 many bitter controversies, it came at home and in profound 
 peace. 
 
 General Sherman's last illness was of little more than a 
 
 week's duration. Following a taste, natural and cultivated, 
 
 which he loved to gratify, he attended li.? performance of 
 
 " Poor Jonathan," at the New York Casino, en Wednesday 
 
 474 
 
THE FATAL COLD. 475 
 
 night, February 4, 1891, It was, in fact, a special perform- 
 ance. Invitations had been sent to the military officers of 
 the city, and General Sherman occupied one of the pros- 
 cenium boxes with a party of friends. He seemed to be 
 in the best of health and spirits, and gave every evidence of 
 keen enjoyment of the opera. 
 
 He returned to his home immediately after the perform- 
 ance, and, although the weather was clear and bright, in 
 some way he caught a severe cold. Its first effects were 
 noticed on the following morning. His condition, however, 
 did not prevent his attendance at the wedding of Miss 
 Shepard, daughter of Colonel Elliott F. Shepard, on that 
 afternoon. He coughed a little and complained of the cold 
 while in the church. On Friday morning his condition had 
 become more uncomfortable, but excited no alarm. His 
 throat, however, had become affected in the meantime, and 
 he was obliged to give up a dinner with Lawrence Barrett 
 that evening at the Union League Club. On Saturday 
 morning when he began to show signs of facial erysipelas, 
 accompanied by fever, he felt some anxiety, and sent for 
 Dr. C. J. Alexander, a surgeon of the army, who had been 
 his family physician for a number of years. On Sunday 
 the disease began to get a firm hold upon the old warrior. 
 His face and neck became much swollen and inflamed, and 
 conversation became difficult and painful. His condition 
 was such that Dr. Alexander sent for Dr. Janeway, for the 
 purpose of holding a consultation. The General was then 
 confined to his bed, and it was found that the ordinary 
 treatment applied in cases of erysipelas would not answer 
 the purpose, in part owing to the General's advanced age. 
 Sunday, by the way, was the seventieth anniversary of his 
 birth. 
 
 The disease had developed to such an extent on Monday 
 
476 THE FAMIL Y SUMMONED. 
 
 that it was decided to summon the members of the family. 
 Telegrams were sent at once to Senator John Sherman, his 
 brother; his daughters, Mrs. Thackara and Mrs. Fitch. 
 The other children, with the exception of the Rev. T. E. 
 Sherman, were at home. To him, however, a cable dis- 
 patch was sent. He was a student in the Jesuit Seminary 
 on the Island of Jersey. Senator Sherman arrived at his 
 brother's home on Monday night, and his daughters on the 
 following day. The arrival of Senator Sherman, with the 
 publication of the dispatch which called him, was the first 
 intimation that the people of New York City had of 
 General Sherman's illness. 
 
 Dr. Alexander remained at the sick man's bedside on 
 Tuesday night, and when Dr. Janeway came to relieve him 
 on Wednesday morning, February 1 1, he found the General 
 resting on his back in a state of semi-stupor. His condi- 
 tion at that time was recognized as critical. He was in 
 great pain when he moved, and gave evidence of growing 
 weaker, despite the fact that whiskey and milk, which were 
 used as nourishment throughout the illness, were adminis- 
 tered to him as often as possible. Intimate friends of the 
 family were then informed of his precarious condition. 
 
 The General rallied somewhat at noon, and his family 
 began to hope that the illness was only temporary. But 
 their hopes were delusive. In the afternoon, the attending 
 physicians, Drs. Alexander, Janeway and Greene, began to 
 send out hourly bulletins as an official answer to the 
 hundreds of inquiries that poured in upon them. At 2.15 
 they made their first announcement, which read as follows: 
 " General Sherman was worse this morning, and his con- 
 dition is critical. During the day his condition has 
 improved considerably." About 5 p.m. General Ewing 
 said that he had called on General Sherman, and had been 
 
BETWEEN HOPE AND FEAR. ^yy 
 
 recognized by him. As soon as he saw General Ewing 
 enter the room, the patient called out, " Hello, Ewing." 
 He did not make any attempt to sustain conversation, 
 however. His enunciation was difficult, and, besides, 
 though he could recognize his friends, he did not seem to 
 be able to have enough energy or command of his faculties 
 to talk to them. 
 
 He improved again slightly during the evening, so that 
 two of the physicians and Senator Sherman left the house. 
 The Senator, however, was recalled at two o'clock on 
 Thursday, when the veteran again grew worse. Thursday 
 passed in much the same way as Wednesday, although it 
 was deemed advisable by the family, for their comfort, to 
 have the last rites of the Catholic Church administered to 
 him, just before noon. In the afternoon the sick man sur- 
 prised his watchers by getting out of bed and walking a 
 few steps to an easy chair, where he sat for a few moments. 
 He showed the same marvellous will power again in the 
 evening. In his rallies he was able to clear his lungs a 
 little. Whiskey and milk were given to him as often as he 
 could take nourishment. Late at night it was said that if 
 the General could maintain his state till that time there 
 would be hopes of ultimate recovery. 
 
 Friday was another day of hope and disappointment. 
 Several times it was reported that the General was dying, but 
 he managed to rally despite his weakened condition. Said 
 General Ewing that evening : " Sherman is perfectly con- 
 scious, and when spoken to rouses up and makes a perfectly 
 intelligible answer to any question that may be asked. He 
 is deaf, you know, and it is necessary to address him in a 
 pretty loud voice, in order to be heard." 
 
 " Does he recognize his friends ? " 
 
 " Not until spoken to, and I doubt if he recognizes them 
 
/lyS HOPE ABANDONED. 
 
 even then, I doubt if he has recognized me in the last two 
 days." 
 
 " Yet he talks to them ? " 
 
 " He does not talk much. The tongue is much swollen 
 and the jaw is stiff, and he can speak only with difficulty." 
 
 " Does he realize the serious character of the disease ? " 
 
 " It is hard to say. He has given no evidence of uneasi- 
 ness, except when he called for 'Curnp* (P. T. Sherman, 
 his son), on Thursday. It then occurred to me that he 
 wanted to say a last word to the young man. But I may 
 have been mistaken. At any rate, when ' Cump ' went to 
 him he was unable to tell him what was on his mind." 
 
 The illustrious patient grew v/eak again at midnight, and 
 at an early hour Saturday morning, February 14, it was 
 known that his death was only a question of a few hours. 
 At four o'clock his family was all summoned to his room 
 and never left it, except for a few minutes, until the end. 
 The alarming attack which seized the patient soon after six 
 o'clock precipitated death. The doctors hurriedly held 
 another consultation, did what they could to relieve his 
 distress and then decided that hope must be abandoned. 
 
 The chloroform plasters which had been placed on 
 Sherman's chest, failed to help. The police officers then 
 cleared the sidewalk and streets of all passengers, and 
 people began to wait for the end. At 8.35 o'clock Dr. 
 Janeway left the house, to which he did not again return. 
 His face and his few words told plainly that he had no 
 hope. 
 
 About half an hour before the General's death the 
 watchers discerned signs of approaching dissolution. First 
 the old soldier's fingers began to grow cold, then the fatal 
 coldness crept slowly up his arms, and over his body. As 
 the end approached, the General's head, which had been 
 
THE END. 479 
 
 resting on a large pillow, was lowered gradually in the hope 
 that he might be enabled to breathe easier. Although he 
 died from suffocation, caused by the mucus from his in- 
 flamed throat filling his lungs, there were no longer indi- 
 cations of suffering on his part. Those who were nearest 
 his head say that they heard a gentle sigh escape his lips 
 and then all was over. It was just 1.50 o'clock when the 
 famous soldier expired. There was no clergyman of any 
 denomination in the house during the day. 
 
 Within a minute or two after General Sherman's death 
 one of his men-servants stepped outside of the front door 
 and said: "It is all over." 
 
 Kneeling at the bedside, as the soldier's spirit left its 
 earthly tenement, were the General's son, P. T. Sherman, 
 his four daughters, the Misses Rachel and Lizzie Sherman, 
 Mrs. Fitch and Mrs Thackara; his brother, Senator John 
 Sherman; his sons-in-law. Lieutenants Fitch and Thackara; 
 his brother-in-law, General Thomas Ewing; his physician. 
 Dr. Alexander, U. S. A., and his nurse. Miss Elizabeth 
 Price, of the New York Hospital. The other son, the Rev. 
 Thomas E. Sherman, was on the ocean, hastening home- 
 ward, but too late. Generals Slocum and Howard were 
 then in the room below. 
 
 General Sherman seems to have had a presentiment of 
 his fate some weeks before it actually befell him. One day 
 he said to General C. H. T. Collis, who mentioned Grant's 
 birthday — April 27: 
 
 "Oh, well, Collis, I'll be dead and buried before then." 
 
 "I tried hard to cheer him," said General Collis, "and 
 pretended to believe he was joking, but he became serious 
 and added after awhile: 'I feel it coming sometimes when 
 I get home from an entertainment or banquet, especially 
 these winter nights. I feel death reaching out for me, as it 
 
480 PREPARING FOR BURIAL. 
 
 were. I suppose I'll take cold some night and go to bed, 
 never to get up again.* The words were prophetic." 
 
 In accordance with General Sherman's often expressed 
 desire, the body did not lie in state; and the public so re- 
 spected the grief of the family as not to besiege the house 
 to gaze upon the remains of the hero. General Howard 
 sent over a guard from the army post on Governor's Island, 
 and with General Slocum, by invitation of the family, took 
 charge of the arrangements for the funeral obsequies. The 
 body of the deceased General was placed in a coffin exactly 
 like that in which Mrs. Sherman was buried. The General 
 chose her's himself, and gave express orders that his own 
 should be like it. It was of oak, lined with cream-colored 
 satin, and had silver handles. On a silver plate was the 
 following inscription : 
 
 WILLIAM TECUMSEH SHERMAN, 
 
 GENERAL, U. S. A. 
 
 Born February 8, 1820. 
 
 Died February 14, 1891. 
 
 This coffin was inclosed for the journey to St. Louis in 
 an outer coffin of chestnut wood, brass bound, with a brass 
 plate bearing the same inscription as the inner. The Gen- 
 eral's body was dressed in the full uniform of his rank. 
 
 The following " Special Order No. 5 " was issued from 
 the headquarters of the Grand Army of the Republic, at 
 Rutland, Vt. 
 
 " Grand Army of the Republic posts on the route of the 
 funeral train of General Sherman from New York to St. 
 Louis will form at their respective railroad stations and 
 salute remains as train passe-s." 
 
 The President and his Cabinet were invited by General 
 Howard to attend the funeral exercises in New York. 
 
THE LOYAL LEGION. 48 1 
 
 Committees from both Houses of Congress were appointed 
 to pay their tribute of respect. From the Senate came 
 Messrs. Evarts, Hawley, Manderson, Pierce, Cockrell and 
 Walthall. From the House Speaker Reed appointed 
 Messrs. Cutcheon, Spinola, Cogswell, Cummings, Gros- 
 venor, Kinsey, Tarsney, Henderson, of Illinois, and Outh- 
 waite. 
 
 A sorrowful meeting of the Military Order of the Loyal 
 Legion was held on Monday, February 16, at which these 
 resolutions were adopted: 
 
 " In common with the entire country we lament the loss 
 of a great military chieftain whose loyal spirit rightly 
 placed the love of country higher than all earthly obliga- 
 tions, and who was individually a distinct and glorious 
 element in the triumphant struggle of that country for its 
 own survival and for the rights of man. 
 
 "As once his fellow soldiers we morn universally for the 
 dead commander, whose great heart made us all his own 
 and made his own virtues seem to us like personal benefac- 
 tions. 
 
 "As members of this Military Order we deplore the loss 
 of a companion whose honors added to the value of those 
 ties which his fellowship helped to endear, and whose fre- 
 quent and cordial visits to the New York Commandery will 
 be cherished in our memories as so many occasions to be 
 often and affectionately recalled. 
 
 " To his children and relatives, to whom his great renown, 
 his honors and his tenderness do but enhance their loss, 
 we tender all that sympathy may, and trust that a place in 
 our regard henceforth may be accepted by them as a little 
 heritage from him." 
 
 General Howard made a brief address, in the course of 
 
482 
 
 "MY BODY WILL DIE. 
 
 which his emotion was strong and interrupted his utter- 
 ances. 
 
 " General Sherman," he said, " had more personal friends 
 and could call more men by name probably than any other 
 man in the country, 
 
 " A few days ago, Sherman and Slocum and I met in 
 Brooklyn and the conversation turned on death. Some one 
 remarked that he hoped it would not come to Sherman for 
 many years. I exclaimed, on the impulse of the moment, 
 ' General, you will never die.' He answered, sharply 
 and strongly, ' My body will die.' God bless General 
 Sherman," was the peroration of General Howard's 
 speech. 
 
 General Slocum followed with a warm panegyric on the 
 march to the sea. " Sherman was to me something more 
 than a companion," he said. " He gave me his confidence 
 in war and his friendship in peace. He opened to me what 
 is dear to every soldier, an opportunity to link my name 
 with his. 
 
 " In the coming time there will be no dispute about his 
 career. It may be in the future that some man will say 
 that he furnished the idea of the march to the sea to Sher- 
 man. That man must have been with him at the time, or 
 subsequent, when Sherman captured Atlanta, for when he 
 did so he had no idea of cutting aloof from his base of sup- 
 plies. When he got back from the battle of Jonesboro he 
 took down a map and said, ' I will make Atlanta my base 
 of supplies.' He went so far as to throw up intrenchments. 
 That was before Hood pushed up toward the Tennessee and 
 Nashville; and then he changed his mind. 
 
 "After Sherman had taken Savannah certain persons at 
 Washington urged him to take his troops to City Point by 
 
THE FUNERAL ORDERS. 483 
 
 sea. Had he been a timid man he would have been con- 
 tent to rest upon his laurels, knowing that he had already 
 won an imperishable fame, but he said: 'No; I will take 
 my chances in South Carolina,' and he did so, and every- 
 thing went like clockwork, and success again crowned his 
 efforts." 
 
 At the same time a meeting of representative citizens of 
 St. Louis was held in that city to make arrangements for 
 the final services there ; and every city and town along the 
 route prepared to salute the funeral train with demonstra- 
 tions of sympathy and honor. The orders for the proces- 
 sion in New York were issued on February 18, as follows: 
 
 Headquarters of the Atlantic, 
 
 Governor's Island, New York. 
 
 The arrangements for the funeral of the late illustrious 
 General of the Army, William Tecumseh Sherman, having 
 been entrusted by his children and other relatives to the 
 care of the undersigned, they have agreed upon the details 
 so far as they relate to the ceremony in New York, which 
 are now furnished for the information and guidance of all 
 who may participate therein : 
 
 The regulation escort, under command of Loomis L. 
 Langdon, 1st Artillery, will consist of one regiment of 
 United States marines, four companies of United States 
 engineers, and six companies foot batteries of artillery; of 
 a battalion of light artilleiy from the Army and the 
 National Guard of New York, and of two troops of cavalry 
 from the National Guard of New York. 
 
 The remains will be received by the escort at the late 
 residence of the General, No. 75 West Seventy-first street, 
 at 2 o'clock, P. M., on Thursday next, the 19th inst. ihe 
 body will be borne on a caisson, preceded by the following- 
 
484 ^-^^^ FUNERAL ORDERS. 
 
 named pall-bearers in carriages : Major-General J. M. 
 Schofield, Major-General O. O. Howard, Rear-Admiral 
 
 D. L. Braine, Rear-Admiral J. A. Greer, Professor H. L. 
 Kendrick, Major-General H. W. Slocum, General Joseph 
 
 E. Johnston, Major-General D. E. Sickles, Major-General 
 G. M. Dodge, Major-General J. M. Corse, Major-General 
 Wager Swayne, Major-General Stewart L.Woodford, Briga- 
 dier-General Jno. Moore, Brigadier-General H. G. Wright. 
 These pall-bearers will accompany the remains as far as the 
 train at Jersey City. Six sergeants will proceed to St. 
 Louis. The special escort of honor from the Grand Army, 
 Lafayette Post, will form on the right and left of the 
 caisson. 
 
 The order of column following the family and relatives 
 will be as follows : 
 
 (i) The President and Vice-President of the United 
 States. 
 
 (2) The members of the Cabinet. 
 
 (3) Ex-Presidents of the United States. 
 
 (4) Committees of the Senate and House of Representa- 
 tives. 
 
 (5) The Governor of the State and the Mayor of the 
 City of New York. 
 
 These officers will follow the family and relatives as rep- 
 resentative mourners. 
 
 (6) The Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United 
 States, and officers of the Army and Navy 
 
 (7) The Grand Army of the Republic. 
 
 (8) The Corps of Cadets, United States Military Acad- 
 emy, Lieutenant-Colonel Hawkins commanding, 
 
 (9) The National Guard, under Brigadier-General Louis 
 Fitzgerald. 
 
 Delegates and representatives from veterans, sons of 
 
THE FUNERAL ORDERS. 485 
 
 veterans and other organizations unassigned, under charge 
 of General David Morrison. 
 
 The line of march will be as follows: Eighth avenue to 
 Fifty-ninth street, to Fifth avenue, to Broadway, to Fifty- 
 seventh street, to Fifth avenue, to Washington Square: 
 there the column, excepting the regulation military escort, 
 will be dismissed. 
 
 This escort will continue its march by Waverley Place to 
 Macdougal street, to King street, to Hudson street, to 
 Watts street, at corner of Canal, through Watts street to 
 junction with West street. 
 
 Veteran organizations not moving with column will form 
 across West st. from Watts st. to the ferry landing, foot of 
 Desbrosses st. The carriages in the procession will be 
 restricted to the pall-bearers, family and relatives, and 
 invited guests. 
 
 The column will be commanded by Major-General O. O. 
 Howard, United States Army. 
 
 Major-General Daniel Butterfield is designated as senior 
 aide to the General Commanding and as marshal. 
 
 The following aides are announced : General Horace Por- 
 ter, to accompany the President of the United States ; Gen- 
 eral M. D. Leggett, to accompany the Cabinet ; the Hon. 
 Joseph H. Choate, to accompany ex-President Hayes ; the 
 Hon. Chauncey M. Depew, to accompany ex-President 
 Cleveland; General Floyd Clarkson, in charge of the Grand 
 Army; Major-General H. A. Barnum, to accompany the 
 Superintendent of the Military Academy; General Robert 
 Nugent, formerly of General Sherman's regiment, to take 
 charge of the veterans at Desbrosses st. David Morrison, 
 79th Veterans, in charge of veteran organizations in columns 
 other than the Grand Army; Mr. Kiliaen Van Rensselaer, 
 to accompany carriages of relatives. 
 
486 A SAD HOME-COMING. 
 
 Mr. Loyall Farragut. 
 
 Captain H. P, Kingsbury, 6th Cavalry. 
 
 Captain A. M. Wetherill, 6th Infantry. 
 
 First Lieutenant L. A. Craig, 6th Cavalry. 
 
 First Lieutenant Guy Howard, I2th Infantry, Aide-dc- 
 Camp. 
 
 First Lieutenant Harry C. Benson, 4th Cavalry. 
 
 First Lieutenant Charles G. Treat, 5th Artillery, Aide-de 
 Camp. 
 
 First Lieutenant W. W. Forsyth, 6th Cavalry ; Second 
 Lieutenant Samuel Rodman, ist Artillery, Aides-de-Camp. 
 
 The churches of New York City are requested to have 
 their bells tolled at half-minute intervals during the move- 
 ment of the columns, from 2 until 4 P. M. ; and the churches 
 of Jersey City are requested to toll their bells in like man- 
 ner from 5 to 6 P. M., on Thursday. 
 
 The headquarters of the General commanding the 
 column and the Marshal, will be announced to-morrow. 
 The details of the formation in line of the respective di- 
 visions will be communicated to the commander or chiefs 
 from headquarters. H. W. Slocum. 
 
 Oliver O. Howard. 
 
 Late on Wednesday night the steamship Majestic 
 arrived at New York, with the Rev. Thomas E. Sherman 
 among its passengers. When the pilot boarded her, Mr. 
 Sherman eagerly asked him about the General. 
 
 " I'm unable to say," replied the pilot, adding that he 
 . only knew of General Sherman's sickness, as he had been 
 out at sea for some days. 
 
 When the mail steamer came alongside, Mr. Sherman 
 repeated his anxious inquiry. The answer came back, 
 " General Sherman's funeral takes place to-morrow." 
 
THE PUBLIC TRIBUTE. 489 
 
 The day before the funeral the house was opened for a 
 few hours, and the public were allowed to enter and view 
 the face of the dead. Thousands availed themselves of the 
 privilege. " It was an interesting crowd of people. There 
 were white-haired veterans of the war; there were people 
 in the clothing of luxury, people clad like beggars, and 
 mothers with babies in their arms leading children by the 
 hand. There were schoolboys come to look at the man 
 about whom their histories tell them, come to see if the 
 face they had seen in the pictures was indeed the face of 
 the great General. There were young girls there, and 
 young men also. It was a crowd representative of the 
 whole American people. Hebrews came out of the depths 
 of the east side and Germans came from Hoboken. All 
 passed in review before the man who will review armies no 
 more. Their uncovered heads were bowed. Some of the 
 very old women who had given their sons to this leader 
 for their country's sake sobbed as they passed on." 
 
 It was on a glorious winter day, February 19, that the 
 dust of the great soldier was carried from his former home 
 to make the journey to its final resting place at St. Louis. 
 As the funeral procession started, bells of the City were 
 tolled; buildings everywhere displayed tokens of honor 
 and signs of mourning; the streets were thronged with 
 sympathetic spectators ; and thirty thousand men marched 
 with measured tread behind the coffin that contained the 
 earthly remains of their loved and honored leader. Con- 
 spicuous in the company were General Schofield, the head 
 of the army ; General Howard and General Slocum, Sher- 
 man's lieutenants on the march through Georgia ; General 
 Corse, of Kenesaw fame ; General Johnston, Sherman's old 
 antagonist; and Professor Kendrick, one of those who 
 taught Sherman the art of war. The President, the Vice- 
 28 
 
490 THE FUNERAL CORTEGE. 
 
 President, the two living ex-Presidents, and the members of 
 the Cabinet were also in the company. 
 
 There was a large contingent from the regular army, with 
 General Howard in command. Then came the Military 
 Order of the Loyal Legion ; long columns of the Grand 
 Army of the Republic ; West Point Cadets ; the Sons of 
 Veterans ; and delegations from various clubs, commercial 
 organizations, and the municipal government. 
 
 The long procession wound its way through the streets 
 of New York to the Jersey City ferry. There the coffin 
 and its immediate escort were taken across the river and 
 placed on the funeral train. General Sherman's horse, 
 which with empty saddle had followed the funeral caisson, 
 was led up to the train and the saddle and boots were placed 
 by the coffin in the funeral car. The train consisted of an 
 engine and eight cars. Generals Howard and Slocum, and 
 Surgeon Alexander, besides six sergeants of the regular 
 army, acted as a guard of honor. The Governor of New 
 Jersey through his staff acted as an escort through Jersey 
 City ; and the Governor of Pennsylvania and his staff in a 
 special car went through to Harrisburg. 
 
 It was early in the evening when the train left Jersey 
 City. At almost every station that it passed vast throngs 
 assembled and bands of music played solemn dirges. It 
 was midnight when it reached Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, 
 yet a multitude stood in the darkness in the open air to do 
 it honor. In the morning it passed through Pittsburg in 
 the midst of a heavy rain storm. Later in the day the sky 
 was clear and the sun shone brilliantly. At Steubenville, 
 Ohio, seventy-five veterans of the army stood on the plat- 
 form as the train went by, nearly all of them old comrades 
 of Sherman. At Columbus, Ohio, the train paused for a 
 few minutes while Grand Army veterans were allowed t» 
 
THE LAST SAD RITES. 491 
 
 gaze upon the casket. At Indianapolis another stop was 
 made while many distinguished people paid their tribute of 
 honor to the mighty dead. 
 
 It was Saturday morning when the train reached St. 
 Louis. For several days the weather there had been 
 stormy, but this morning the skies were clear and the 
 sunshine bright. Thousands of people thronged about the 
 station, waiting there for hours before the arrival of the train. 
 At last, at a little before nine o'clock, the funeral cars slowly 
 rolled into the station, the engine bell solemnly tolling. 
 
 Elaborate preparations had been made at St. Louis for a 
 military funeral befitting the great soldier whose dust was 
 to be returned to the dust from which if came. Two hours 
 after the arrival of the train the procession was formed, 
 under the lead of General Wesley Merritt, and it solemnly 
 wound its way through the city which for many years was 
 Sherman's favorite home, to Calvary Cemetery. The first 
 division consisted of detachments of the Regular Army, 
 escorting the casket, which was borne on a caisson drawn 
 by four black horses and covered with the stars and stripes. 
 Ransom Post, No. 131, Department of Missouri, G. A. R., 
 acted as the immediate guard of ' onor. Following closely 
 were the members of the President's Cabinet and the com- 
 mittees from the two houses of Congress. The second 
 division was made up of the Loyal Legion and the Society 
 of the Army of the Tennessee. In it were ex-President 
 Mayes, Judge Gresham and General Lew Wallace. The 
 third division was composed of Posts of the Grand Army 
 of the Republic and Sons of Veterans. In the fourth 
 division were militia regiments from various States and 
 many civil officials. Civic societies made up the fifth 
 division, and various city delegations and the general 
 public the sixth and last division. 
 
492 THE LAST SAD RITES. 
 
 As the long procession wound its way up the slope to 
 Calvary Cemetery it presented a view of solemn but inspir- 
 ing splendor. The arms of the troops flashed in the sun- 
 light, a multitude of flags fluttered on the breeze, and the 
 subdued strains of funeral music made the air tremulous. 
 
 At last, six miles from the railroad station, the plot was 
 reached where were the graves of the wife and two children 
 of the departed hei o. The flag covered casket was borne 
 upon the shoulders of eight sturdy soldiers to the open 
 grave. Then came the command, " Present Arms ! " And 
 every soldier stood motionless as a graven statue. Then the 
 Rev. Thomas E. Sherman, clad in slight vestments, stepped 
 forward and began the service for the dead over his father's 
 dust, standing, as he did so, in the shadow of his mother's 
 monument. He repeated the words of the Litany, translat- 
 ing prayer and scripture into English, in a clear, manly voice, 
 and offered a touching extemporaneous prayer. After the 
 last solemn words a company of troops stepped forward. 
 Three times were given the commands, " Load ! " " Ready ! " 
 "Aim!" "Fire!" and three times the rifles spoke their loud 
 farewell salute. Then the artillery posted near by thundered 
 forth their echoing responses. When the last reverberations 
 died away a solitary trumpeter stepped forward to the foot 
 of the soldier's grave and sounded " Taps." 
 
 Thus ended the last impressive scene. 
 
 In his life Sherman had left with his friends full instruc- 
 tions concerning his funeral, his grave and his monument. 
 He directed that the only inscription above his dust should 
 be his name, his rank, the date of his birth, the date of his 
 death, and the simple words, " True and Honest." A fitting 
 epitaph for one who was truly, as was written of another 
 great soldier, " In his simplicity sublime." 
 
CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 TRIBUTES. 
 
 A National Outburst ok Grief — The President's Message to Con- 
 gress — The Senate's Memorial Resolutions — Senator Hawley's 
 Eulogy — A Touching Tribute from a Souther;^ Senator — Speeches 
 BY Senators who were ai^o Soldiers— Eloquent Words from 
 Lawrence Barrett — Judge Gresham Recalls Sherman's Prophetic 
 Words — A Comparison Between Sherman and Le?, — General 
 Slocum's Reminiscences — Chauncey Depew o«n Sherman in Social 
 Life. 
 
 During General Sherman's last illness the entire nation 
 listened with anxious suspense to every word of news that 
 came from his home, and millions of hearts hourly offered 
 fervent prayers for his recovery. The announcement of his 
 death was not unexpected, for it had been known for several 
 days that recovery was impossible ; but it was none the less 
 a shock to the public. Everywhere expressions of grief 
 were heard and emblems of mourning were seen. Flags 
 were placed at half-mast and buildings draped in black ; 
 bells were tolled and memorial meetings held. Messages 
 of sympathy and condolence came to his family by mail 
 and telegraph from every part of the world. Only a few 
 irreconcilable spirits here and there in the South spoke 
 against him, and made his death an occasion for venting 
 their spleen against the patriot who had subdued the 
 rebellion. 
 
 493 
 
494 THE PRESIDENTS MESSAGE. 
 
 When the news of Sherman's death reached Washington, 
 the President, who had himself been an officer m Sherman's 
 army in Georgia, sent a message announcing the fact to 
 Congress, in which he said : 
 
 " The death of Wilham Tecumseh Sherman is an event 
 that will bring sorrow to the heart of every patriotic citizen. 
 No living American was so loved and venerated as he. To 
 look upon his face, to hear his name, was to have one's love 
 of country intensified. He served his country, not for fame, 
 not out of a sense of professional duty, but for love of the 
 flag and of the beneficent civil institutions of which it was 
 the emblem. He was an ideal soldier, and shared to the 
 fullest the esprit de corps of the army ; but he cherished 
 the civil institutions organized under the Constitution, and 
 was a soldier only that these might be perpetuated in 
 undiminished usefulness and honor. He was in nothing an 
 imitator. 
 
 "A profound student of military science and precedent, 
 he drew from them principles and suggestions, and so 
 adapted them to novel conditions that his campaigns will 
 continue to be the profitable study of the military profes- 
 sion throughout the world. His general nature made him 
 comrade to every soldier of the great Union Army. No 
 presence was so welcome and inspiring at the camp-fire or 
 commandery as his. His career was complete ; his honors 
 were full. He had received from the Government the 
 highest rank known to our military establishment, and 
 from the people unstinted gratitude and love. No word of 
 mine can add to his fame. His death has followed in start- 
 ling quickness that of the Admiral of the Navy ; and it is 
 a sad and notable incident that when the Department under 
 which he served shall have put on the usual emblems of 
 mourning, four of the eight Executive Departments will be 
 
ACTIO jY of the SEXATE. 495 
 
 simultaneously draped in black, and one other has but to- 
 day removed the crape from its walls." 
 
 Senator Hawley, of Connecticut, at once offered the fol- 
 lowing resolutions, which were unanimously adopted by the 
 Senate: 
 
 " Resolved, That the Senate receive with profound sor- 
 )w the announcement of the death of William Tecumseh 
 Sherman, late General of the armies of the United States. 
 
 "Resolved, That the Senate renews its acknowledgment 
 of the inestimable services which he rendered to his coun- 
 try in the day of its extreme peril, laments the great loss 
 which the country has sustained, and deeply sympathizes 
 with his family in its bereavement. 
 
 " Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be for- 
 warded to the family of the deceased." 
 
 Mr. Hawley said : " Mr. President, at this hour, the Sen- 
 ate, the Congress and the people of the United States are 
 one family. What we have been daily expecting has hap- 
 pened ; General Sherman has received and obeyed his last 
 order. He was a great soldier by the judgment of the 
 great soldiers of the world. In time of peace he had been 
 a great citizen, glowing and abounding with love of country 
 and of all humanity. His glorious soul appeared in every 
 look, gesture and word. The history of our country is rich 
 in soldiers who have set examples of simple soldierly 
 obedience to the civil law and of self-abnegation. Wash- 
 ington, Grant, Sheridan and Sherman lead the list. Sher- 
 man was the last of the illustrious trio who were by universal 
 consent the foremost figures in the armies of the Union in 
 the late war. Among the precious traditions to pass into 
 our history for the admiration of the old and the instruction 
 of the young was their friendship, their most harmonious 
 co-operation, without a shadow of ambition or pride. When 
 
49^ SENATOR HAWLEY'S SPEECH. 
 
 General Grant was called to Washington to take command 
 of the armies of the Union, his great heart did not forget 
 the men who stood by him." 
 
 Here Mr. Hawley read the letter from Grant to Sherman, 
 written at that time, expressing thanks to him and McPher- 
 son as the men, above all others, to whom he owed success, 
 and Sherman's letter, in reply, saying that General Grant 
 did himself injustice and them too much honor. 
 
 Mr. Hawley closed his remarks, his voice frequently giv- 
 ing way from grief and emotion, by reading the following 
 passages from Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress": "After this 
 it was noised about that Mr. Valiant-for-Truth was taken 
 with a summons. When he understood it he called for his 
 friends and told them of it. Then said he, ' I am going 
 to my fathers ; and though with great difficulty I got hither, 
 yet now I do not repent me of all the trouble I have been 
 at to arrive where I am. My sword I give to him that shall 
 succeed me in my pilgrimage, and my courage and skill to 
 him that can get them. My marks and scars I carry with 
 me, to be a witness for me that I have fought His battles 
 who will now be a rewarder.' When the day that he must 
 go hence was come many accompanied him to the river side, 
 into which as he went he said : ' Death, where is thy sting?' 
 And as he went down deeper he said : ' Grave, where is thy 
 victory?' So he passed over and all the trumpets sounded 
 for him on the other side." 
 
 Senator Morgan, of Alabama, said : " On this occasion 
 of National solemnity I would lead the thoughts and 
 sympathies of the American Senate back to those days in 
 our history when General Sherman was, by a choice greatly 
 honorable to his nature, a citizen of the State of Louisiana, 
 and presided over a college for the instructions of Southern 
 youth in the arts of war and the arts of peace. Those were 
 
A SOUTHEKN^ STATESMAN'S TRIBUTE. 497 
 
 not worse days than some we have seen during the last 
 half of this century. In those days, notwithstanding the 
 conditions of the South, in view of its institutions inherited 
 from the older States of the East, every American was as 
 welcome in Louisiana and the South as he was elsewhere 
 in the Union. We are gradually and surely returning to 
 that cordial state of feeling which was unhappily interrupted 
 by the Civil War. 
 
 " Our fathers taught us that it was the highest patriotism 
 to defend the Constitution of the country. But they had 
 left within its body guarantees of an institution that the 
 will of the majority finally determined should no longer 
 exist and which put the conscience of the people to the 
 severest test. Looking back now to the beginning of this 
 century and to the conflict of opinion and of material 
 interests engendered by those guarantees, we can see that 
 they never could have been stricken out of the organic law 
 except by a conflict of arms. The conflict came, as it was 
 bound to come, and Americans became enemies, as they 
 were bound to be, in the settlement of issues that involved 
 so much of money, such radical political results and the 
 pride of a great and illustrious race of people. The power 
 rested with the victors at the close of the conflict, but not 
 all the honors of the desperate warfare. Indeed, the 
 survivors are now winning honors, enriched with justice 
 and magnanimity, not less worthy than those who won the 
 battles in their labors to restore the country to its former 
 feeling of fraternal regard and to unity of sentiment and 
 action and to promote its welfare. The fidelity of the great 
 General who has just departed in the ripeness of age, and 
 with a history marked by devotion to his flag, was the true 
 and simple faith of an American to his convictions of duty. 
 
 " We differed with him and contested campaigns and 
 
49« '4 SOUTHERN STATESMAN'S TRIBUTE. 
 
 battlefields with hin\ ; but we welcome the history of the 
 great soldier as the proud inheritance of our country. We 
 do this as cordially and as sincerely as we gave him welcome 
 in the South, as one of our people, when our sons were 
 confided to his care, in a relation that (next to paternity) 
 had its influence upon the young men of the country. The 
 great military leaders on both sides of our Civil War are 
 rapidly marching across the border to a land where history 
 and truth and justice must decide upon every man's career. 
 When they meet there, they will be happy to find that the 
 honor of human actions is not always measured by their 
 wisdom but by the motives in which they had their origin. 
 I cherish the proud belief that the heroes of the Civil War 
 will find that, measured by this standard, none of them on 
 either side were delinquent, and they will be happy in an 
 association that will never end — and will never be disturbed 
 by an evil thought, jealousy or distrust. When a line so 
 narrow divides us from those high courts in which our 
 actions are to be judged by their motives, and when so 
 many millions now living, and increasing millions to follow, 
 are to be affected by the wisdom of our enactments, we 
 will do well to give up this day to reflection upon our duties 
 and (in sympathy with this great country) to dedicate the 
 day to his memory. In such a retrospect we shall find an 
 admonition that an American Senate should meet, on this 
 side of the fatal line of death, as the American Generals 
 meet on the other side, to render justice to each other and 
 to make our beloved country as happy, comparatively, as 
 we should wish the great beyond to be to those great 
 spirits." 
 
 Senator Manderson said that as the hours of the last two 
 or three days passed away he had not had the heart to 
 make such preparation for the event which he had feared 
 
SENATOR MANDKRSOJV'S Em.OGY. 499 
 
 and dreaded, as niij^ht seem to be meet and appropriate. 
 The death of General Sherman came (although one might 
 have been prepared for it) as the unexpected. It was a 
 day of mourning and grief Here, at the Capital of the 
 Nation, lay the body of the great Admiral, the chief of the 
 Navy; and in New York was being prepared for the last 
 sad rites the corpse of the greatest military genius which 
 the Nation had produced. General Sherman had been 
 great not only as a military leader, but he had been great 
 as a civilian. Who was there that had heard him tell of 
 the events of his wonderful career who had not been filled 
 with admiration and respect for his abilities ? It seemed to 
 him that General Sherman was perhaps the only man in 
 the North who, in the early days of the war, seemed to 
 appreciate what the terrible conflict meant. It was recol- 
 lected how it was said in 1861 that he must be insane to 
 make the suggestions which he made. These suggestions 
 were so startling to the country that he (Mr. Manderson) 
 did not wonder that men doubted General Sherman's 
 sanity. Like men of great genius, he seemed to have lived 
 in that debatable ground exifiting between the line of per- 
 fect sanity and insanity. 
 
 After a review of General Sherman's military career, 
 opening at Shiloh and closing at Atlanta, Mr. Manderson 
 read General Sherman's letter to the Mayor and Common 
 Council of Atlanta, beginning : " We must have peace, not 
 only at Atlanta, but in all America." 
 
 In conclusion, Mr. Manderson said : " General Sher- 
 man was estimable as a citizen, and as fully appreciated the 
 duties of a civilian, as he was admirable as a soldier. But 
 this strife, which we have watched for the last few days, 
 has ceased. The conflict has ended. The Nation has 
 witnessed it. Sixty millions of people have stood in 
 
500 rRinUTEs from old soldiers. 
 
 silence, watching for the supreme result. Death, ever vic- 
 torious, is again a victor. A great conqueror is himself 
 conquered. Our Captain lies dead. The pale lip sayeth 
 to the sunken eye : ' Where is thy kindly glance ? And 
 where thy winning smile?'" 
 
 Senator Davis said he could hardly trust himself to 
 speak. He had been a soldier under General Sherman, 
 and had received acts of kindness from him when he was a 
 subaltern. As the years had gone by, and the widening 
 avenues of life had opened up ways of promotion, that 
 acquaintance had ripened into friendship, and, he might 
 say, into intimacy. He had first seen General Sherman at 
 the siege of Vicksburg, twenty-eight years ago, when he 
 was the very incarnation of war; but to-day that spirit had 
 taken up its rest in the everlasting tabernacle of death. It 
 was fit that the clanging of the great city should be hushed 
 in silence, and that the functions of government should be 
 suspended while the. soul of the great commander was pass- 
 ing to Him who gives and Him who takes away. No 
 more were heard the thunders of the captains, and the 
 shouting. The soul of the great warrior had passed and 
 was standing in judgment before Him who was the God of 
 Battles, and was also the God of Love. 
 
 Senator Pierce, as one of the soldiers who had served 
 under General Sherman in the Army of the Tennessee, 
 gave some reminiscences of the war and paid a glowing 
 eulogy to his old commander. 
 
 Senator Evarts said that the afflicting intelligence of the 
 death of General Sherman had touched the Senate with 
 the deepest sensibilities ; that that grief was not a private 
 grief; nor was it limited by any narrower bounds than 
 those of the whole CQuntry. The affections of the people 
 toward its honorable and honored men did not always find 
 
THE LAST OF THE GENERALS. 501 
 
 a warm effusion, because circumstances might not have 
 brought the personal career, the personal traits, the personal 
 affectionate disposition of great men, to the close and 
 general observation of the people at large. But of General 
 Sherman no such observation could be truly made. What- 
 ever of affection and of grief Senators might feel was felt, 
 perhaps, more intensely in the hearts of the whole people. 
 To observers of his death, as they had been of his life, 
 General Sherman had been yesterday the most celebrated 
 living American. He was now added to that longer and 
 more illustrious list of celebrated men of the country for 
 the hundred years of National life. One star differed from 
 another star in glory, but yet all of those stars had a glory 
 to which nothing could be added by eulogy, and from 
 which nothing could be taken away by detraction. They 
 shone in their own effulgence, and borrowed no light from 
 honor or respect. It had been said already that General 
 Sherman was the last of the commanders. If those who 
 had passed out of life still watched over and took interest in 
 what transpired in this world (and no one doubted it), what 
 great shades must have surrounded the death-bed of Gen- 
 eral Sherman! And who could imagine a greater death- 
 bed for a great life than that which had been watched over 
 in a neighboring city during the week? It had been 
 reserved for him (Mr. Evarts) at the declining hour of the 
 day, as a Senator from the State which General Sherman 
 had honored by his late home, and in which he had died, 
 to move, out of respect to his memory, that the Senate do 
 now adjourn. 
 
 Lawrence Barrett, the eminent actor, paid this eloquent 
 tribute to his friend in the columns of The New York 
 Tribune : 
 
 " The funeral cortege has passed. The emblems of war. 
 
502 AN ACTOR'S EULOGY. 
 
 which had for many years been laid aside, have once again 
 been seen sadly embellishing the soldierly equipage where- 
 upon the lifeless body rests. Old comrades, lifelong friends, 
 statesmen and great civilians have followed the mournful 
 pageant with fruitless regrets. The instruments which in 
 battle days sounded to the charge or the retreat, which 
 sang reveille to the waking morn or gave the sternest good- 
 night, when all was well ; which through a quarter of a 
 century of peace have greeted the retired warrior at feast 
 and civic parade with harmonies upon his achievements — 
 these now beat the last mournful cadences leading to an 
 earthly camping-ground beneath whose sod the mortal 
 remains of our great soldier shall rest beside his loved ones, 
 forever dead to triumph or threnody. 
 
 "The last of the immortal trio has joined his waiting 
 comrades. Already in the fields of the blessed one may 
 believe that their spirits sadly regard our simple tributes to 
 the earthly casket which holds the dust of Sherman. The 
 mourning thousands who have lined the highway of the 
 sad procession have gone to their homes with a tenderer 
 reflection upon the meanings of existence and death. And 
 even as his valor in the written story had ^wakened a 
 stronger patriotism than had before existed, so in his death 
 and in the last tributes paid to the hero a fresher and purer 
 sense of patriotic duty springs up in our hearts to link us 
 to the inheritance he helped to gain. 
 
 " History will gather up and weave into enduring form 
 the achievements of the soldier and the statesman. In that 
 final summary sectional prejudice and personal bias may 
 bear their natural parts. Only in a remote future, when all 
 the sorrowful effects of the great Civil War have lost their 
 nearness — only when its beneficence in knitting closer the 
 bonds of friendship and National brotherhood shall be 
 
ENSHRINED IN HISTORY. 503 
 
 recognized, when no newly-made grave sends up reproach- 
 ful reminders to bereaved hearts, only then can the hero's 
 place be immutably fixed on the heroic calendar. To the 
 scholar and the sage may be left that office. The records 
 of his military life, his general orders, his plans, his deeds, 
 will guide the historian into a proper estimate of the dead 
 soldier's station in the military Valhalla. 
 
 "But how shall the innumerable civic deeds of this dead 
 man be recorded or find place for reference ? In the musty 
 archives of no war office are they registered. Upon no 
 enduring parchment are they written. They would escape 
 definition in the attempt to define them. They are engraved 
 upon hearts still living — they sweeten the lives still unsum- 
 moned — they are too sacred for utterance. Yet they are 
 the crown of Sherman's achievement. Wherever this 
 man's hand was extended it brought glad strength ; wher- 
 ever his voice was heard it aroused emotions of grateful 
 tenderness; wherever his form was seen it gladdened 
 loving eyes. He survived a civil war for a quarter of a 
 century — to show to us that the soldier's armor is less 
 becoming than the garb of civil life, that the pomp and 
 circumstance of war are loud preludes of beneficent peace. 
 
 " No intrusion of personal relation shall sully this poor 
 testament to the dead. No one can claim the inheritance 
 of such a large-hearted bounty. But in the name of the 
 drama which he loved, in the names of the actors whom 
 he respected, it \% proper that no tardy recognition should 
 follow his death. He had a scholar's love for what was 
 highest in the art — whether in the walk of tragedy or 
 comedy. He had a warm affection for those who labored 
 in this atmosphere. He had also a large sympathy for 
 those performances which afford recreation and amusement 
 to the largest class of the community. His voice was 
 
504 
 
 THE TRIBUTE OF ART. 
 
 never hushed when called to aid in the needs of the player. 
 He was no ordinary first-nighter. He had a simple and 
 affecting belief that his presence might be useful to those 
 who were seeking public suffrage across the foot-lights, 
 and he could not but know that his indorsement was 
 valuable and trustworthy. He was one of the incor- 
 porators of The Players,' upon whose muster-roll no nobler 
 name appears. His imposing character gave dignity to 
 those deliberative meetings out of which that organization 
 grew into its present useful life. 
 
 "And should contemporary history fail to do him justice 
 — should the bitterness of the Civil War make a just 
 estimate of his worth impossible in biographical annals — 
 should envy or malice deface the white shaft which should 
 symbolize his deeds — then the dramatist will lovingly bear 
 up the garments of his glory — keep them from soil within 
 that Valhalla where Caesar and Alexander, Frederick and 
 Gustavus, live imperishably enshrined. Therein shall be 
 cherished the insignia and the characteristics of the most 
 notable figure of modern or ancient soldiery. 
 
 " Again in future nights shall we see the pomp and glory 
 of Union making war — once again its gallant leader shall 
 pass before the eyes of a curious posterity in the drama's 
 immortal keeping, and the gallant spirit whose influence in 
 life so often attended the presentment of Caesar and Antony 
 and Cassius and the Roman group shall, in death, mingle 
 with their essence, tenderly restored by the dramatists 
 whom he inspired, by the actors whom he loved." 
 
 Said Walter Q. Gresham, United States Judge : " I 
 belonged to General Sherman's command when he entered 
 Kentucky, at Louisville, in the summer of '6i, since which 
 time we have maintained an unbroken friendship. 
 
 '* Besides being a man of great genius he was generoMS, 
 
JUDGE GRESHAM'S WORDS. 
 
 507 
 
 frank and confiding. No officer of high rank whom I met 
 during the war was more patient than General Sherman 
 with subordinates, so long as he believed that they were 
 trying to do their duty ; and no officer was more merciless 
 in dealing with shirks, cowards and pretenders. 
 
 " In brilliancy of conception and boldness of execution, 
 perhaps he had no equal on either side during the civil 
 war. Like other great and successful men he encountered 
 the envy and jealousy of those less gifted and magnani- 
 mous than himself 
 
 " He was intensely patriotic and always willing to endure 
 hardship and privation. His patriotism was of that intense 
 kind that he would at any time have willingly sacrificed 
 his life for the cause he served so brilliantly and well. His 
 great courage, generosity, frankness, and patriotism en- 
 deared him to all the officers and men who served under 
 him, and in every State of the Union they are now mourn- 
 ing his loss, 
 
 " I spent some time with him at his home in New York 
 three weeks ago last Sunday. He was then well, cheerful, 
 and bright. He indulged much during the afternoon in 
 reminiscence, and related a number of incidents of the war 
 which I had forgotten. He mentioned a large number of 
 mutual army friends who had died, and remarked : 
 
 " ' Gresham, we will join them soon.' " 
 
 Ex-President Hayes paid this tribute to his military 
 genius: 
 
 "The only comparison of value that I choose to offer 
 comes from abroad. We hear in regard to Sherman, from 
 the French generals nothing but praise ; from the German 
 generals the same; from the English, General Wolseley 
 speaks of him in terms that are altogether complimentary. 
 Says Wolseley, however, 'Lee was a great general, and 
 
508 SHERMAN AND LEE COMPARED. 
 
 next to him was Sherman.' I would change the order. I 
 admit for Lee a great character, accomphshments as a soldier 
 and as a man, praise in every way except his unfortunate 
 lack of wisdom. I do not now speak of motives, but of 
 the military genius who was the military genius of the war. 
 Place Lee where Sherman was. Place Sherman v/here Lee 
 was. Place Lee at Chattanooga, even witli Sherman's 
 army. Would he have found his way to Atlanta, and at 
 Atlanta cut loose from his base of supplies and entered 
 upon the wild march for the sea three hundred miles away? 
 I believe no man lacking the genius of Sherman would 
 have entered on that march to the sea. But come nearer 
 home. Lee had the same opportunity, only it was ten 
 times better than that Sherman had at Atlanta. Suppose 
 Sherman had been in command of the army of Lee. Wash-^ 
 ington at that time lay completely in the power of an 
 enterprising and daring commander, and with Washington 
 captured, intervention from abroad would have come. I 
 do not predict final defeat, for throughout all the action 
 the finger of God was present, guiding and directing. I 
 cannot believe that under any circumstances the cause of 
 liberty and union could have failed, but at Washington was 
 the chance of victory, and Lee failed to take it. More 
 than that, he went to the Potomac, crossed it, and our 
 disorganized army, without a commander, being divided 
 between Pope and McClellan, was ten days behind him, 
 and he marched on into Pennsylvania; and what did he do, 
 and what would Sherman have done ? Lee did not dare to 
 lose communication with his base of supplies, and was 
 driven back from Antietam with a divided army. Had 
 Sherman been at the head of that army, and that distance 
 between him and the pursuing forces, he would have gone 
 to Philadelphia, FittL-burg, Buffalo, Cleveland, Cinciunati, 
 
GENERAL SLOCUAP S REMINISCENCES. 509 
 
 and then cut his road back into Virginia. A little band 
 of 4000 men under Morgan went through Ohio and In 
 diana, and Lee, with his great army, with nothing before 
 him but wealth and supplies and cities able to pay tribute 
 for not being burned, is not to be compared with Sherman. " 
 General Slocum said: "I have been acquainted with 
 General Sherman since the beginning of the war. I first 
 met him at Bull Run and afterward in the West, when my 
 corps was sent there to reinforce Rosecrans. At that time 
 he was tall and angular and his general appearance was 
 much the same as it was in later life. My services with him 
 began just before the capture of Atlanta. In that campaign 
 the minutest details were attended to by General Sherman 
 himself Details as to the exact amount of ammunition to 
 be taken by each corps, the exact amount of stores of each 
 and every kind, were specified in his orders. During the 
 campaign he alternated between General Howard and myself, 
 riding with General Howard one day and with me the next. 
 He was a great and most interesting talker, and the pleas- 
 antest days that I spent during the war were those when I 
 was accompanied by General Sherman. He had been sta- 
 tioned at Charleston before the war and was familiar with 
 the topography of South Carolina. He had information 
 that no maps contained. He seldom forgot anything that 
 could ever be of any use to him to remember. Once I 
 thought I would test his knowledge by introducing the sub- 
 ect of the manufacture of salt, a subject with which I thought 
 1 was perfectly familiar, having lived at Syracuse. I found 
 that he knew more about it than I did. He said that h s 
 wife had some relatives there, and that years befo.'-e he had 
 visited them and had been taken through the salt work . 
 Not a fact connected with the manufacture of salt had es- 
 caped his memory. 
 
5IO 
 
 MR. DEPEW'S TRIBUTE. 
 
 " Sherman was greatly beloved by his soldiers, partly for 
 their success under him and partly for his kind treatment 
 of them. He rarely consulted his subordinates, however, 
 though he accepted suggestions when he thought them 
 good. Still he was intolerant of negligence or carelessness, 
 and punished it severely. He was not a bigoted man on the 
 subject of religion. I am confident that v/hile he felt deeply 
 disappointed at his son's becoming a Roman Catholic priest, 
 the disappointment was due more to his having abandoned 
 a profession which General Sherman had set his heart upon 
 his following. He wanted his oldest son to become a lawyer. 
 The son studied for that profession and the opening of his 
 career was exceedingly brilliant. 
 
 " General Sherman told me frequently that he Vv^ished to 
 have nothing to do with politics, and after General Grant had 
 been elected .President he told me that he thought Grant 
 had made a mistake, as his reputation as a soldier was worth 
 more than any office. The last time I saw him was at the 
 New England dinner in this city. We sat side by side, and 
 he referred to the subject, and spoke of the number of bright 
 men he had seen ruined by politics." 
 
 Chauncey Depew also knew Sherman well, particularly 
 in his later years, in New York. " He was," said Mr. 
 Depew, " at once the most distinguished and delightful 
 figure in our metropolitan society. He seemed to have a 
 most elastic constitution, and endured an amount of social 
 obligation which would have tired cut and used up many a 
 younger and stronger man. He loved to be in the company 
 of men and women. I think he dined out every night of 
 his life, and very often he would be found at late suppers, 
 especially theatrical suppers. 
 
 " He was, easily, at any table, at the head wherever he sat, 
 and had a wonderful faculty for entertaining conversation. 
 
SHERMAN AS AN OR A TOR. 
 
 5TI 
 
 No person ever heard liim say a disagreeable thing. With 
 the most positive, pronounced and aggressive opinions on 
 all questions, and never concealing them, he so stated them 
 as never to offend an adversary. His attention to ladies 
 was a most delightful exhibition of knightly and soldierly 
 courtesy. There was in his manner and speech something 
 of deference, respect and admiration, which conveyed a 
 more signal compliment than can be wrought in phrase or 
 flattery. At a night supper where the guests were mostly 
 theatrical people he was, in his joyous hilarity, like a boy. 
 In the speech which he invariably made there v/as much 
 of the fatherly feeling of an old man rejoicing in the artistic 
 success of his auditors, and to those who deserved it, 
 whether actors or actresses, a neatly turned compliment 
 which expressed all that a tramed dramatic critic could say, 
 and became in the recollection of the happy recipient the 
 best memory of his or her life. 
 
 " I have been with him at hundreds of public dinners, 
 and in studying closely his mental methods and habits of 
 speech, have come to regard him as the readiest and most 
 original talker in the United States. I don't believe that he 
 ever made the slightest preparation, but he absorbed appar- 
 ently while thinking and while carrying on a miscellaneous 
 conversation with those about him, the spirit of the occa- 
 sion, and his speech, when he finished, seemed to be as 
 much of a surprise to himself as it was to the audience, and 
 the work of a superior and exceedingly active intelligence 
 which included him as well as the rest among its auditors. 
 
 " Most men, and I have met several, who had this fac- 
 ulty, were cans of dynamite, whose explosion was almost 
 certain to produce most disastrous results. But General 
 Sherman rarely failed in striking out a line of thought 
 different from and more original than any other speaker, 
 
512 
 
 SHERMAN AS AN ORATOR. 
 
 and in sometimes giving utterance to the boldest thought, 
 yet always in harmony with the occasion, 
 
 " I recall the last two times that I met him as especially- 
 significant of his conversational talent and power of public 
 speech on a sudden call. I sat near him at the dinner given 
 in his honor by ex-Chief Justice Daly about a month ago. 
 General Sherman rarely talked about himself, but on this 
 :)Ccasion he became reminiscent and entertained us for more 
 than an hour with free-hand sketches of his adventures on 
 the plains in early days, and of the original people whom 
 he met among the early settlers. These recollections if 
 taken down at the moment would have proved an invalu- 
 able contribution to the history of the period covering the 
 growth of transportation on the plains, from the v/agon to 
 the railroad, and the story of the bold and adventurous 
 spirits who were the pioneers of Western civilization, many 
 of whom he knew personally. 
 
 " The last time I met him he promised, after a dinner to 
 which he was engaged, to do me the favor, though he said 
 it was asking a good deal at his time of life, to come into 
 the Yale Alumni Association dinner and say a word to the 
 guests. His appearance there, about half-past ii, was an 
 event which the alumni of Yale who were present, most 
 of whom were young men who had never seen him before, 
 will remember as long as they live. 
 
 " I have felt for many years that, in the interests of the 
 period during which he was one of the most conspicuous 
 actors, and with one exception the most conspicuous, he 
 ought always to have been accompanied by a stenographer. 
 
 " I have known most of the men who have been famous 
 in the country, in every walk of life, in the last twenty-five 
 years sufficiently well to hear them frequently talk in a free 
 and confidential way. General Sherman is one of the few 
 
SHEKiMAiV AS AN ORATOR. 
 
 513 
 
 who never bore you, whose conversation is always interest- 
 ing, and no matter how long he talks, he leaves \'ou easier 
 and hungry for more. I was with him at the time I deli- 
 vered the oration before the Army of the Potomac at Sara- 
 toga. I was with him from 10 o'clock in the morning until 
 6 in the afternoon, and he talked without cessation for the 
 whole period. It was a test that few men could have stood, 
 and the three others who were with him in the carriage 
 only regretted that day was limited by the light." 
 
CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 IN MEMORIAM. 
 
 New York's Official Tribute — The Consolidated Stock Exchange — 
 The Union League Club — The Republican County Committee — 
 The Grand Army of the Republic — The Chamber of Commerce — 
 Speech by the Hon. Carl Schurz— The Ohio Society^Brief Words 
 from Many Friends. 
 
 The official tribute of respect paid by New York City to 
 General Sherman was expressed by the Mayor in this 
 message : 
 " The Honorable the Board of Aldermen : 
 
 " It is with great sorrow that I officially announce to you 
 the death of General William T. Sherman, the great soldier, 
 the distinguished patriot, and our most beloved citizen. 
 On his retirement from the Army of the United States he 
 came to live with us. Foremost in public spirit and always 
 ready to aid in charitable and civic enterprises, his loss, 
 while a calamity to the United States, is greatest to the 
 people of the city of his home. His services as chairman 
 of the Johnstown Relief Committee and as member of the 
 World's Fair Committee and other public bodies showed 
 his value in civic life no less than in war. 
 
 " Out of respect to his memory and as a token of the love 
 and esteem in which he is held by all the citizens of this 
 metropolis, as well as of the country, I recommend that 
 514 
 
MEMORIAL RESOLUTIONS. 515 
 
 the public offices be closed on Thursday next — the day of 
 his obsequies — that all citizens be requested to close their 
 places of business from i to 5 o'clock on the afternoon of 
 that day, and that the flags be displayed at half-mast on 
 public and private buildings until Saturday next, and that 
 your honorable body take such further action as you may 
 deem proper. 
 
 " Hugh J. Grant, Mayor.'' 
 
 Appropriate resolutions were adopted by the Board of 
 Aldermen, and the city offices were closed on the day 
 of the funeral. 
 
 The Consolidated Stock Exchange voted this memo- 
 randum : — 
 
 " The death of General William Tecumseh Sherman has 
 taken from us a man dearly beloved by all citizens ; one 
 whose strong patriotism, unswei^ing loyalty and eminent 
 services to his country have given him a high place in the 
 roll of illustrious Americans. 
 
 " As a soldier his record is among the highest in the 
 world, and will live always in the history of his country. 
 As a citizen he was a type worthy of emulation. Duty 
 and patriotism were the watchwords of his life. Without 
 unworthy personal ambitions or desires he was always 
 self-sacrificing, and his blameless character, his genial and 
 kindly disposition have made him dearly beloved by his 
 countless friends throughout the country. 
 
 "By his death the nation has lost a true and loyal son, 
 one of the most honored and beloved citizens. The mem- 
 bers of this Exchange desire to testify to the sorrow which 
 they, in common with their fellow-countrymen, feel at the 
 loss which the nation has sustained by this bereavement, 
 and to add their tribute to his memory. 
 
 "They tender to the family their most heartfelt and 
 
5i6 THE UNION LEAGUE'S TRIBUTE. 
 
 sincere sympathy in the grievous affliction which they have 
 been called upon to bear." 
 
 A special memorial meeting of the Union League Club 
 was held, at which the following resolutions, read by Mr. 
 Joseph H. Choate, were adopted : 
 
 " The members of the Union League Club, of which Gen- 
 eral Sherman has been an honorary member for more than a 
 quarter of a century, desire to put on record an expression 
 of their heartfelt sorrow for his death, of their tender sym- 
 pathy for his bereaved children, and of their profound ap- 
 preciation of his matchless services to his country. A 
 great soldier whose brilliant and uniform triumphs in the 
 field attested his military genius, second only to that of his 
 mighty chief to whom his life to his last hour was a con- 
 tinual homage, he shared with Grant and Sheridan the 
 highest honors and the im)st terrible responsibilities of the 
 great struggle for liberty and union. Having by their 
 swords made these inseparable forever, their names will go 
 down to the most distant posterity as identified with the 
 flag which they saved and glorified. 
 
 " No test can measure the frightful strain which came 
 upon those who bore for us the chief burden of the war 
 which involved the existence of the Nation itself; but to- 
 day the fresh graves of Sherman and Porter, the last 
 survivors of that glorious group, reveal its fatal force and 
 result. 
 
 " Besides being a historic soldier and an ideal hero, it was 
 General Sherman's happy fortune in the twenty-five years 
 that have elapsed since the close of the war in which he bore 
 so distinguished a part, to com.e very near to the people 
 of the land and to become every year dearer and dearer 
 to them by the merits and charms of his personal character, 
 so that it may truly be said that the death of no man in 
 
THE UNION LEAGUE'S TRIBUTE. 517 
 
 America to-day could have left a void in the people's heart 
 so deep and wide as his has done. 
 
 " Retaining to the last that rugged health and buoyant 
 temperament with which nature had blessed him, he retained 
 also a keen and ever-living interest in the affairs of the 
 country which he had been so potent to save. And be- 
 lieving that he and all that he was or had been or could be 
 belonged to the people, he moved freely among them and 
 displayed a never-failing sympathy in all that affected their 
 fortunes and welfare. He was everywhere known and 
 recognized, not merely as the embodiment of victory, but 
 also as the exponent of that unconditional loyalty to country 
 which he taught and lived wherever he went. 
 
 "This fierce and uncompromising spirit of nationality 
 was the most striking feature of his character. It was this 
 that bound him to the Nation's service. It was this that 
 carried him from victory to victory. It is this that he has 
 left as an imperishable legacy to his loving countrymen. 
 
 " In every thought and feeling General Sherman was 
 intensely American. He believed in the abiding greatness 
 and glory of his country, in the form of government under 
 which we live and in the capacity of the people to maintain 
 and preserve it, and he had no sympathy with or toleration 
 for those who affect to discover in every misadventure in 
 politics or blunder of government a symptom of National 
 decline. In «very sense of the word he was a noble citizen 
 and a splendid example for all men to follow and imitate in 
 his public spirit, his reverence for law, his lofty standard of 
 civic duty and his zeal for the honor and good name of his 
 country. 
 
 "We cannot part with him without expressing our grati- 
 tude for his genial companionship which we were for so 
 many years permitted to enjoy within these walls, where 
 
5 1 8 GENERA L FOR TER 'S EULOGY. 
 
 was his frequent and favorite resort. We recall with 
 delight the personal reminiscences in which he here so 
 freely indulged, historical always because they were his 
 own, his blunt and outspoken honesty which always induced 
 him to speak as he thought, and at the same time that 
 hearty social spirit in which he welcomed us all as friends 
 and responded to every expression of good-will. 
 
 "Peace to his ashes! Honor to his memory! In the 
 day of her peril, if any such day shall ever again come to 
 her, may his country find another like him, to defend, 
 redeem and exalt her ! 
 
 "Resolved, That a copy of this minute be sent to the 
 family of General Sherman, and that a committee be ap- 
 pointed to represent this^club at his funeral." 
 
 General Horace Porter seconded the resolutions in an 
 eloquent and touching speech. He said : 
 
 " Mr. Chairman : I am very glad to lift my voice in favor 
 of these resolutions in honor of the memory of the illustri- 
 ous dead, the last of our prominent military chieftains. 
 Nearly every great war has given birth to but one great 
 general. . No other country but our own has produced 
 three such eminent commanders as Grant, Sherman and 
 Sheridan. The second in years was called from us first ; 
 the next followed next; while the senior in age has been 
 spared to us until the last. The badges of mourning which 
 were laid aside after the last sad funeral rites of his illustri- 
 ous predecessors are again brought forth to serve as 
 emblems of our sorrow in our recent loss, and the Nation 
 again finds herself standing within the shadow of a profound 
 grief 
 
 " While General Sherman was a man of great versatility 
 of talent, and had filled many important positions in the 
 various walks of life, his great reputation will always be 
 
GENERAL PORTER'S EULOGY. 
 
 519 
 
 founded upon his merits as a soldier. With him the chief 
 characteristics of a soldier seemed inborn. There was 
 somcthin'T in his very look, in the gait v/ith which he 
 mo\'cd, that of tliemselves revealed him as a typical soldier. 
 As we looked upon his well-knit brow, his deep, penetrat- 
 ing, restless hazel eye, his aquiline nose, we could see 
 easily that there was something in these outward appear- 
 ances that betokened a great man. In war he was prompt 
 in decision and unshrinking under the great responsfcilities. 
 Prompt in action, firm in purpose and untiring in effort, he 
 had an intrinsic knowledge of topography, and there was 
 found in his person much of the patience of a Fabius, with 
 the restlessness of a Hotspur. He excited confidence in 
 his troops, which made them follow him to victory with 
 all the dash of Caesar's Tenth Legion. The students of 
 military history at home and abroad have studied his cam- 
 paigns as their models and placed his works on a level with 
 the. grandest w^orks of the masters of military science. 
 
 " The first time I met Sherman was wlien, as a staff offi- 
 cer, I conveyed to him from Grant a message. As soon 
 as he had read Grant's letter and I heard what he had to 
 say, I was lost in amazement at the grasp and the com- 
 prehensiveness of that great mind. He gave me a letter 
 to take back to Grant, of- which this was a part : ' I admire 
 your tact, perseverance and courage more than ever. I 
 think if you can whip Lee and I can march to Atlanta, old 
 Uncle Abe will give us both twenty days' leave of absence 
 to go home and see the young folks.* 
 
 " General Sherman to-morrow will begin his last m.arch 
 on earth, this flme homeward from the sea." 
 
 General Charles H. T. Collis, followed in a brief speech, 
 in which he recalled many interesting reminiscences, touch- 
 ing the life of the dead soldier, and pictured him, as was the 
 
520 
 
 MR. DEPEW'S ADDRESS. 
 
 custom of General Sherman at all meetings of the club, com- 
 ing in modestly while the president would invariably beckon 
 him to a seat on the platform. 
 
 Chauncey M, Depew then said : 
 
 " I had the pleasure and honor of being present at each 
 of those famous birthday dinners that General Sherman 
 gave at his house. Every one of them was an historic 
 event and the guests historic personalities, outside of Mr. 
 Choate and myself, who were always the only civilian 
 guests. 
 
 " In connection with the great Rebellion, \\\ which Gen- 
 eral Sherman played so conspicuous a part, it may be said 
 that wars of not one-half the magnitude or disastrous re- 
 sults have left their marks.for centuries upon the histories 
 of nations ; while, although only a quarter of a century has 
 elapsed since the closeof the Rebellion, none of its sorrows 
 and few of its passions survive. The men who fought in 
 that rebellion, though not yet old men in the sense of 
 decrepitude or extreme age, are historical characters; and 
 if the bitterness and the bickerings of that struggle are 
 largely forgotten, it is because in its successful termina- 
 tion was accomplished the resurrection of the American 
 Republic. 
 
 " The best causes hav^e been lost where they have been 
 badly led. It is difficult in civil life, in statesmanship, to 
 point out the statesman to whom we can ascribe the origin 
 of a principle or a policy, because principles and policies 
 are largely the evolution of time and the creation of many 
 minds and necessities grasped by many actors. But the 
 game of war is a game which is played by its masters, and 
 the greatest master wins the game. 
 
 " But }'ou may say the world will continue to go on in 
 the same groove no matter who dies, So it will. Still, 
 
THE REPUBLICAN COUNTY COMMITTEE. 52I 
 
 there are men who will live a thousand years hence, when 
 no man of this century is remembered, save Lincoln, who 
 will hear of General Grant and General Sherman. 
 
 " Sherman had the quality which belonged to none of 
 our extremely great men of civil or military life — that 
 subtle, indefinable something which is called genius. 
 Lincoln came very near having it, but he didn't have it 
 entirely. Grant was the incarnation of war, but he was not 
 touched by the divine fire of genius. Assuredly Washing- 
 ton didn't have it, though Hamilton may possibly have 
 possessed it. But with Sherman it made him the most 
 original figure in the field, on the platform, in society. In 
 him was a touch of something which separated him from 
 his kind, and singled him out as a distinct individuality the 
 moment he spoke. In Europe, where they only judge 
 Americans by those who travel to that continent from time 
 to time from this country, even the most prejudiced among 
 them I have heard say more than once : ' The most inter- 
 esting American, and I may say the most interesting man 
 I ever met, was your General Sherman.'" 
 
 The Republican County Committee of New York ex- 
 pressed its appreciation of the great commander in these 
 terms : 
 
 " Whereas, General William T. Sherman, in the fulness 
 'of years and the ripeness of fame, has been removed from 
 our midst by the decree of Providence ; and 
 
 " Whereas, General William T. Sherman by his military 
 genius, sacrifices and achievements in behalf of the Union, 
 endeared himself to the grateful people of the United States 
 as one of its greatest generals and patriots; while his deeds 
 of courage, valor and strategy placed him in the foremost 
 rank of military commanders of the world ; his sterling 
 qualities of honesty, integrity/ and justice v/ere recognised 
 
522 WORDS OF THE G. A. R. 
 
 by all; Avhile his affable nature, kind courtesy and philan- 
 thropic disposition won for him the admiration, esteem and 
 friendship of the country which he served, and the citizens 
 of the city in which he dwelt; 
 
 "Resolved, That in the death of General William T. 
 Sherman the people of the United States suffer an irre- 
 parable loss ; the country loses a patriot, a brave, self- 
 sacrificing soldier, and a wise and sagacious leader; his^ 
 acquaintances, a generous and sympathetic friend, and his 
 family a devoted and indulgent father. 
 
 "Resolved, That the Republican County Committee of 
 the city of Nev/ York, speaking for and on behalf of the 
 Republican party represented by it, recognizing as above 
 the great service of General Sherman for the maintenance 
 and preservation of the Union, and his estimable qualities, 
 deeply mourns his death, and offers its sincere condolence 
 to the people of the United States and the afflicted family 
 of the deceased. 
 
 " Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be sent by 
 the officers of this committee to the family of the de- 
 ceased." 
 
 The Memorial Committee of the Grand Army of the 
 Republic, in New York City, added this tribute : — 
 
 "Resolved, That the Memorial Committee of the Grand 
 Army of the Republic of the city of New York, sharing the 
 grief of the American people at the National bereavement, 
 offers its sympathy to the children of General William T. 
 Sherman, and trusts that they may find consolation for the 
 loss of their illustrious father in the thought that the world 
 is better for his having lived in it. His fame has filled the 
 earth, his achievements having placed him in the front of 
 strategists, and his services in the war for the Union were 
 
WORDS OF THE G. A. R, 
 
 525 
 
 second only to those of the matchless Grant. His name 
 was a tower of strength to our cause in the supreme crisis 
 of our Nation's life. His soldiers trusted him, loved him, 
 and cheerfully followed him. He was above the tempta- 
 tions of money, or the seductions of political ambition. He 
 was kindly in his manners, cordial, open and generous. A 
 commander in the field he was in peace a comrade. He 
 was a type of the true American ; undazzled by the glitter 
 of aristocracy, and proud of the undecorated honor of 
 American citizenship. He was a comrade of the Grand 
 Army of the Republic, often the welcome guest of the posts 
 of this city, and he carried into his daily life the principles 
 of our order — fraternity, charity and loyalty. Though he 
 filled the full measure of man's span of earthly existence, 
 his life was more full of honors than of years. His death 
 was happy in this, that he passed away with his eye not 
 dimmed, nor his natural force abated, and that he left no 
 duty undone. His fame is safe with posterity. His mem- 
 ory is precious to us who knew him and were known to 
 him. When the last sad offices have been performed he 
 will not disappear from our thoughts, but dwell in them 
 cherished in recollections of his relations, at once paternal 
 and fraternal, with the Grand Army of the Republic of this 
 city." 
 
 And in a General Order the Commander of the Grand 
 Army, Department of New York, General Floyd Clarkson, 
 addressed his comrades thus : — 
 
 "The Commander of the Department has the sad duty to 
 announce to the comrades of this Department that on Sat- 
 urday, the 14th inst., at 1.50 p.m., the best beloved and 
 noblest, grandest comrade of the Order, General William T. 
 Sherman, heard, while in his home in this city, surrounded 
 
526 WORDS OF THE G. A. R. 
 
 by his children, kindred and friends; the trumpet call 
 ' Lights out,' and passed hence to the fruitions and glories 
 of the encampment across the river, 
 
 " It is not necessary to recount his services and achieve- 
 ments. They are closely interwoven with the history of 
 our land for the past fifty years ; and as that is recited the 
 name of our illustrious comrade constantly appears as one 
 of the most active workers in that marvellous narrative ; 
 but it was in the great convulsions that were upon our 
 nation in the years '6i to '65 that the magnificent abilities 
 and worth of him whom we this day deplore shone out in 
 their tenderness and brilliancy. 
 
 " He is the last of the great triumvirate who marshalled 
 the forces of the Nation, and so directed that mighty power 
 that before 'Old Glory' treason, beaten and disheartened, 
 yielded the contest and accepted for all time the fact as 
 established that this was and is a Nation 'of the people, by 
 the people and for the peopled* 
 
 " As a comrade of the Grand Army of the Republic, no one 
 emphasized more than he did ' that the distinctions of rank 
 necessary for active service were here laid aside,' and no 
 one more heartily grasped the hand and welcomed to his 
 presence and heart the man who carried the musket, or 
 swung the sabre, or pulled the lanyard, or manned the 
 yards, than did our well-beloved comrade, William T. 
 Sherman ; and no one could accept more pleasantly and 
 with deeper satisfaction the welling-up of the long-cherished 
 heart affection of the Boys in Blue. " 
 
 The memorial meeting of the New York Chamber of 
 Commerce was one of the largest ever held by that dis- 
 tinguished body. Resolutions expressing sorrow at the 
 General's death were presented by J. Edward Simmons. 
 They were as follows ; 
 
THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE. $2/ 
 
 "Whereas, The members of the Chamber of Commerce 
 but a short time since were called to assemble in the 
 presence of a severe national bereavement to pay their 
 tribute of respect to the character and noble labors of a 
 distinguished civilian and statesman, having under his care 
 the fiduciary interests of the Republic: and 
 
 " Whereas, To-day, by the dispensation of an all-wise 
 Providence, we meet to pay our tribute of affectionate 
 regard to the memory of a great soldier, whose splendid 
 services in the long struggle for the preservation of the 
 Union were as brilliant as they were sucessful, and whose 
 achievements illustrated the greatness of a soldier who in 
 conquest knew no hate, and in whose magnanimity there 
 was no revenge ; therefore 
 
 " Resolved, That the Chamber of Commerce of the State 
 of New York hereby places on record its unanimous senti- 
 ment of profound sorrow because of the irreparable loss 
 the Nation has sustained in the death of our distinguished 
 soldier-citizen. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman. 
 
 ''Resolved, That by the death of Gen. Sherman, the world 
 has lost one of its greatest military heroes. Pure in heart, 
 of spotless integrity, cool and undismayed in danger, he 
 not only won honor and renown from the soldiers of his 
 command, but he invariably inspired them with friendship, 
 affection, and confidence. He was the soldier of justice, 
 right and truth, and he has passed from our midst as a 
 brilliant star pales and vanishes from the morning sky. 
 
 ''Resolved, That the results achieved by the late war 
 were largely due to the consummate skill, adroit strategy, 
 and matchless generalship of William Tecumseh Sherman, 
 and that the people of this Republic are indebted to him 
 for his eminent services in securing to them the inestimable 
 blessings of a united and prosperous country. 
 
528 CARL SCHURZ'S EULOGY. 
 
 " Resolved, That as a public-spirited citizen he has proved 
 himself to be a capable man of affairs, with a deep interest 
 in many of our local institutions. As an honorary member 
 he has presided over the deliberations of this Chamber, and 
 his genial presence was seldom missed at our annual ban- 
 quets. Socially, he was the peer of those with whom com- 
 panionship had a charm, and illustrated in his intercourse 
 all the qualities of a nobleman in the amenities of life. His 
 home was a haven of repose, and love and gentleness were 
 the angels that ministered at his fireside. 
 
 "Resolved, That the Chamber of Commerce hereby 
 tenders to the family of Gen. Sherman the expression of 
 sincere sympathy in the hour of their bereavement." 
 
 On this memorial the Hon. Carl Schurz spoke, saying, 
 in part: 
 
 " The adoption by the Chamber of Commerce of these 
 resolutions is no mere perfunctory proceeding. We have 
 been called here by a genuine impulse of the heart. To us 
 Gen. Sherman was not a great man like other great men, 
 honored and revered at a distance. We had the proud 
 and happy privilege of calling him one of us. Only a few 
 months ago, at the annual meeting of this Chamber, we 
 saw the face of our honorary member on this platform by 
 the side of our President. Only a few weeks ago he sat .at 
 our banquet table, as he had often before, in the happiest 
 mood of conviviality, and contributed to the enjoyment of 
 the night with his always unassuming and always charm- 
 ing speech. 
 
 "And as he moved among us without the slightest pomp 
 of self-conscious historic dignity, only v/ith the warm and 
 simple geniality of his nature, it would cost us sometimes 
 an effort of the memory to recollect that he was the famous 
 Captain who had marshalled mighty armies victoriously on 
 
CARL SCHURZ'S EULOGY. 529 
 
 many a battlefield, and whose name stood, and will forever 
 stand, in the very foremost rank of the saviors of this 
 Republic and of the great soldiers of the world's history. 
 Indeed, no American could have forgotten this for a 
 moment ; but the affections of those who were so happy as 
 to come near to him would sometimes struggle to outrun 
 their veneration and gratitude. 
 
 " Death has at last conquered the hero of so many cam- 
 paigns ; our cities and towns and villages are decked with 
 flags at half-mast ; the muffled drum and the funereal boom 
 of cannon will resound over the land as his dead body 
 passes to the final resting place, and the American people 
 stand mournfully gazing into the void left by the sudden 
 disappearance of the last of the greatest men brought forth 
 by our war of regeneration — and this last also finally 
 become, save Abraham Lincoln alone, the most widely 
 beloved. 
 
 " He is gone ; but as we of the present generation re- 
 member it, history will tell all coming centuries the 
 romantic story of the great ' March to the Sea ' — how, in 
 the dark days of 1864, Sherman, having worked his bloody 
 way to Atlanta, then cast off all his lines of supply and com- 
 munication, and, like a bold diver into the dark unknown, 
 seemed to vanish, with all his hosts, from the eyes of the 
 world, until his triumphant reappearance on the shores of 
 the ocean proclaimed to the anxiously expecting millions, 
 that now the final victory was no longer doubtful, and that 
 the Republic would surely be saved, 
 
 " Nor will history fail to record that this great General 
 was, as a victorious soldier, a model of republican citizen- 
 ship. When he had done his illustrious deeds he rose step 
 by step to the highest rank in the army, and then, grown 
 old, he retired. The Republic made provision for him in 
 
530 CARL SCHURZ'S EULOGY. 
 
 modest republican style. He was satisfied. He asked for 
 no higher reward. Although the splendor of his achieve- 
 ments and the personal affection for him which every one 
 of his soldiers carried home, made him the most popular 
 American of his day, and although the most glittering 
 prizes were not seldom held up before his eyes, he remained 
 untroubled by ulterior ambition. No thought that the 
 Republic owed him more ever darkened his mind. No 
 man could have spoken to him of the ' ingratitude of Re- 
 publics * without meeting from him a stern rebuke. And 
 so, content with the consciousness of a great duty nobly 
 done, he was happy in the love of his fellow-citizens. 
 
 " Indeed, he may truly be said to have been in his old 
 age, not only the most beloved, but the happiest of Ameri- 
 cans. Many years he lived in the midst of posterity. His 
 task was finished, and this he wisely understood. His 
 deeds had been passed upon by the judgment of history, 
 and irrevocably registered among the glories of his country 
 and his age. His generous heart envied no one, and 
 wished every one well ; and ill will had long ceased to pur- 
 sue him. Beyond cavil his fame was secure, and he enjoyed 
 it as that which he had honestly earned, with a genuine and 
 ever fresh delight, openly avowed by the charming frank- 
 ness of his nature. 
 
 " He dearly loved to be esteemed and cherished by his 
 fellow-men, and what he valued most, his waning years 
 brought him in ever-increasing abundance. Thus he was 
 in truth a most happy man, and his days went down like an 
 evening sun in a cloudless Autumn sky. And when now 
 the American people, with that tenderness of affection which 
 they have long borne him, lay him in his grave, the happy 
 ending of his great life may, in their hearts, soothe the 
 pang of bereavement they feel at the loss of the old hero 
 
GENERAL PORTER'S ADbRESS. 531 
 
 who was so dear to them, and of whom they were and 
 always will be so proud. His memory will ever be bright 
 to us all, his truest monument will be the greatness of this 
 Republic he served so well, and his fame will never cease 
 to be prized by a grateful country as one of its most precious 
 possessions." 
 
 General Horace Porter also seconded the resolutions. 
 He paid a warm tribute to General Sherman's memory, and 
 continued: "By no act of ours can we expect to add one 
 laurel to his brow. The Nation raised him to the highest 
 rank in the army, universities vied with one another in con- 
 ferring upon him degrees. We can only come together to 
 express our esteem for the soldier, our respect for the man. 
 There was something characteristic of the soldier born 
 within him. In war he was bold in conception, fixed in 
 purpose, untiring in action. He knew that great danger 
 makes brave hearts most resolute. He enjoyed a personal 
 reputation free from stain. It is no wonder that the world 
 has placed him in the ranks of its great captains. 
 
 " There is one characteristic which I am sure all have 
 noticed. He never failed at all times and in all circum- 
 stances to breathe the loftiest patriotism. And now the 
 flag he has so often upheld has dropped to half-mast, the 
 booming of his guns has given way to the tolling of ca- 
 thedral bells. He has left behind him the glory of a good 
 name, the inheritance of a great example." 
 
 The memorial resolutions of the Ohio Society, of New 
 York, were as follows : 
 
 " The Ohio Society of New York recognizes in the death 
 of General Sherman not only a public calamity, which, in 
 common with the people of this great country, we deplore, 
 but a personal loss, which no words can express and no 
 sentiment measure. 
 
532 THE OHIO SOCIETY, 
 
 " Not only was he our ideal soldier and citizen, but a com- 
 plete representative Ohioan. 
 
 " True to his native State, as he was to his country and 
 his duty, he has ever been the pride of this society and the 
 comfort and delight of its members. 
 
 " Wholly removed as he was by nature from arrogance 
 and self-glorification, he has ever been our friend, our 
 kindly neighbor, our sweet companion, our most honored 
 member. 
 
 " The lustre of his life sheds glory upon his State, 
 and the mention of his name will forever cause in our 
 hearts a thrill of patriotic emotion and fraternal love. 
 
 " The Ohio Society of New York feels it to be its duty, 
 as it is its privilege, to make a record oi these thoughts, 
 and to join with the citizens of this great country, which he 
 did so much to save, in rendering honor to the great cap- 
 tain, the brave soldier, the loyal citizen and the true man, 
 who now rests from his labors. 
 
 ''Resolved, That the Ohio Society of New York extend 
 to the immediate friends and family of our deceased mem- 
 ber the sympathy and condolence of loyal and honest 
 hearts, and that a copy of these expressions be sent to the 
 family." 
 
 Here are a few of the telegraphic messages of sympathy 
 that came pouring in upon the afflicted family in a grateful 
 shower : 
 
 FROM MAYOR GRANT. 
 
 Battery Park Hotel, Asheville, N. C, 
 
 Feb. 14, 1891. 
 To Tecumseh Sherman: — 
 
 I am just informed by telegraph of the death ot your 
 distinguished father, from the press despatches of the morn- 
 ing. I was led to indulge the hope that I would, on my return 
 
MESSAGES OF SyMPATHY. 533 
 
 from this trip in search of health, again greet my old friend 
 and neighbor. No formal announcement of my condolence 
 could convey to yourself and family the sense of loss I feel 
 at this moment. There has not been a single occasion 
 since he came to live in our city when his advice and 
 broad public spirit in all that concerns our welfare have not 
 been an aid to me, I join with millions of his fellow coun- 
 trymen in recognition of a nation's loss. I am awaiting 
 information from my Secretary as to the arrangements for 
 the funeral, which I hope to attend. 
 
 Hugh J. Grant. 
 
 FROM CHIEF JUSTICE FULLER. 
 
 Chicago, Feb. 14th. 
 To Miss Rachel- Shermaji : — 
 Our sincere sympathies with you all. 
 
 "Melville W. Fuller. 
 
 FROM HENRY M. STANLEY. 
 
 Chicago, Feb. 14th. 
 To Miss Sher7iiaii : — 
 
 Deep and heartfelt sympathy for the irreparable loss 
 both to you and to America. H. M. Stanley. 
 
 JUDGE GRESHAM'S TRIBUTE. 
 
 Chicago, Feb. 14th, 1891. 
 To Mr. P. T. Sherman : — 
 
 I am shocked and distressed. When I saw your father 
 three weeks ago he was cheerful and well. During and 
 since the war he was my faithful friend. His sorrowing 
 children have my profound sympathy. 
 
 W. Q. Gresham. 
 
534 MESSAGES OF SYMPATHY. 
 
 FROM GENERAL JOE JOHNSTON. 
 
 Washington, Feb. 14th, 1891. 
 To the Misses Sherman : — 
 
 Intelligence of General Sherman's death grieves me 
 much. I sympathize deeply Avith you in your great be- 
 reavement. T, E. Johnston. 
 
 FROM SECRETARY RUSK. 
 
 Washington, Feb. 14th, 1891. 
 To Hon. John Sherman : — 
 
 Permit me to express to you and through you to the 
 family ol" General Sherman my deep sorrow at the loss of 
 my old commander, comrade and friend. No words will 
 express my grief at this irreparable loss. I can only join 
 with his family and his country in mourning one of our 
 nation's greatest leaders and strongest defenders in war 
 and in peace. J. M. Rusk. 
 
 FROM SECRETARY BLAINE. 
 
 Washington, Feb. 14th, 1891. 
 To Hon. John Sherman : — 
 
 Convey to your brother's bereaved family our tenderest 
 sympathy. A very great man has gone. 
 
 James G. Blaine, 
 
 FROM SECRETARY NOBLE, 
 
 Washington, Feb. 14th, 1891. 
 To Hon. John Sherman : — 
 
 The heartfelt sympathy of myself and Mrs. Noble goes 
 forth to the family of dear General Sherman and to you. 
 Our countrymen mourn one of our and the world's greatest 
 heroes, but yours is the deeper grief for the loss of the 
 father, brother, friend. Heaven bless you all. 
 
 John W, Noble. 
 
MESSAGES OF SYMPATHY. 535 
 
 FROM EX-SECRETARY ENDICOTT. 
 
 Salem, Feb. 14th, 1891. 
 To Miss Sherman : — 
 
 I am distressed by the sad news. Accept my heartfelt 
 
 sympathy. Mrs. Endicott and I mourn with you and for 
 
 you. We, too, have lost a dear friend. 
 
 W. C. Endicott. 
 
 FROM LAWRENCE BARRETT. 
 
 Hotel Metropole, New York, Feb. 14th, 1891. 
 To Mr. and the Misses Sherman : — 
 
 Let me express to you my profound sympathy in your 
 great sorrow, which is shared by one who recalls in a 
 quarter of a century of friendship such continued acts of 
 kindness as cannot be forgotten. I suffer with so many 
 others a deep personal loss in General Sherman's death. 
 
 Lawrence Barrett. 
 
 FROM THE MINISTER TO FRANCE. 
 
 Paris, Feb. 15th, 1891, 
 Rachel Sherman, Columbus Avenue : — 
 
 We both share your sorrow in your and Nation's loss. 
 
 Whitelaw Reid. 
 
 FROM VICE-PRESIDENT MORTON. 
 
 Washington, Feb. 14th, 1891 
 To Miss Rachel Shermati : — 
 
 The nation mourns and sympathizes with you all in your 
 great sorrow. Your illustrious father's death is, to Mrs. 
 Morton, our children and myself, the loss of a personal 
 friend to whom we were devotedly attached. 
 
 Levi P. Morton. 
 
536 MESSAGES OF SYMPATHY. 
 
 FROM JUSTICE HARLAN. 
 
 Washington, Feb. 14th, 1891. 
 To the Misses Sherman : — 
 
 The death of my old commander causes deep sorrow to 
 myself and household. Our sympathies are with his family 
 in their great affliction. John M. Harlan. 
 
 FROM GENERAL RUSSELL A. ALGER. 
 
 Detroit, Feb. 14th, 1891. 
 71? the Misses Sherman : — 
 
 Our already overburdened hearts throb with the great 
 sorrow that overwhelms and darkens your home. " Lights 
 out" on earth is "reveille" to the dear' General in heaven, 
 where so many of his old command await him. 
 
 R. A. Alger. 
 
 FROM SECRETARY TRACY. 
 
 Washington, Feb. 14th, 1891. 
 To P. T. Shennajt : — 
 
 In this hour of affliction you have my deepest sympathy. 
 The memory of General Sherman will be forever cherished 
 by the American people as one of their most valued 
 possessions. , B. F. Tracy. 
 
 FROM RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 
 
 Cleveland, Feb, 14th, 1891. 
 To the Hon. John Sherman : — 
 
 I mourn with the family and kindred of General Sherman. 
 He was beloved by me and by my family with the warmest 
 personal affection. I expect to reach the Fifth Avenue 
 Monday. Rutherford B. Hayes. 
 
MESSAGES OF SYMPATHY. 537 
 
 FROM GENERAL SHERMAN'S BIRTHPLACE. 
 
 Lancaster, Ohio, Feb. 14th, 1891. 
 To P. T. Sherman : — 
 
 Lancaster, the birthplace and home of your illustrious 
 father, is enshrouded in gloom over the sad intelligence of 
 his death. Public action is being taken by the citizens, and 
 the expression of sorrow is universal. The town is draped 
 in mourning, and a memorial meeting will be held. All 
 business will be suspended, and every mark of love and 
 respect will be shown the greatest soldier of the war who 
 first saw the light of day in the village that now greatly 
 reveres his memory. 
 
 W, J. S. Braze. John C. Tuthill. 
 
 C. D, Martin. H. C. Dimkle. 
 
 J. D. Martin. W. A. Schultz. 
 
 FROM GENERAL SCHOFIELD. 
 
 Washington, Feb. 14th, 1891. 
 To Hon. John Sherman : — 
 
 Please accept for yourself and all the members of your 
 family sympathy in the bereavement you suffer in the loss 
 of the General Commander, who was my dearest friend. 
 
 J. M. SCHOFIELD. 
 FROM CONGRESSMAN HENDERSON. 
 
 Washington, Feb. 14th, 1891. 
 To Hon. John Sherman : — 
 
 With the most profound sorrow I have heard of the 
 death of your illustrious brother and my old commander. 
 I loved and honored him for his noble character and great 
 service, and tender to you and his bereaved family my heart- 
 felt sympathy. Thomas J. Henderson. 
 
538 MESSAGES OF SYMPATHY. 
 
 FROM FRANK THOMPSON, 
 
 Washington, Feb. 14th, 1891. 
 To P. T. Sherman : — 
 
 If we can be of any service to you please command us. 
 We would esteem it an honor to do anything in our power 
 to facilitate the journey to St. Louis. You have our sin- 
 cerest sympathy. Frank Thompson, 
 
 Vice President Pennsylvania Railroad. 
 
 FROM CONGRESSMAN ROOTS. 
 
 Little Rock, Feb. 14th, 1891. 
 To the Misses Sherman : — 
 
 Full of years and honor, rich in love of patriotic country- 
 men, his passing beyond simply promotion. I extend you 
 sympathy. Logan H. Roots. 
 
 FROM ARCHBISHOP KENRICK. 
 
 St. Louis, Feb. 14th, 1891. 
 To Mr. P. T. Sherman : — 
 Accept my heartfelt sympathy with yourself and sisters. 
 
 Peter Richard Kenrick, 
 
 Archbishop of Si. Louis. 
 
CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 TRAITS AND INCIDENTS. 
 
 His Positive Refusal to be a Presidential Candidate — Remembering 
 A California Drummer — Dealing with a Newspaper at Memphis — 
 Suppressing Praise of Himself at Savannah — Confiscating Medicine 
 — The Electoral Commission — His Love of Music — Excuses for 
 Swearing — A Tribute to his Mother — An Incidei^ at Yale — Ex- 
 pressions OF Kind Feeling toward the South and toward his Foes. 
 
 The lives of few men have contained more picturesque 
 incidents than did Sherman's. His nervous, impulsive 
 nature and frank, open manner made him the hero of many- 
 episodes which are the delight of story-tellers. His con- 
 versation, also, bristled with epigrammatic sayings well 
 worth repeating and preserving. His death called forth a 
 perfect flood of reminiscences. Every one who had ever 
 known him had something to relate regarding him ; some 
 humorous or dramatic incident, some kind deed, some 
 quaint or wise remark. Many of these are doubtless 
 apocryphal ; and of those that are true even the compass of 
 a biography will give space for but few. But no biography 
 of Sherman would be complete without some of them, in 
 which the nature of the man so clearly stands revealed. 
 
 Reference has already been made to Sherman's dislike 
 of politics. He was often spoken of as a candidate for the 
 Presidency, but never with his own approval or consent. 
 As early as February, 1876, he wrote to a friend as follows : 
 
 539 
 
540 ALOOF FROM POLITICS. 
 
 " I never have been, and am not now, and never shall be, 
 a candidate for the high office of President before any con- 
 vention of the people. I shall always prefer to see that 
 office filled by one of the millions who in the Civil War 
 stood by the Union firm and unequivocally; and of these I 
 notice many names willing and capable. Prominent among 
 them is that of General Hayes, now Governor of Ohio, 
 whom we know as a fine officer and a gentleman in every 
 sense. I do not, however, wish to be understood as pre- 
 suming to advise anybody in the choice of the man. My 
 wife and family are strong Catholics, but I am not ; that, 
 however, is nobody's business. I believe in the common 
 schools, and don't stop over the little matters which seem 
 to be exaggerated by the press. In some quarters, how- 
 ever, these schools are extravagant and indulge in costly 
 buildings and expensive teachers, so as to be too heavy a 
 burden to the taxpayers. This tendency ought to be 
 checked, which may easily be done without making it a 
 political question. Self-interest will regulate this and make 
 them free schools to all and capable of imparting the 
 rudiments of a good English education." 
 
 Being asked, after the publication of this letter, — which 
 by the way, he did not expect, — whether he really meant 
 it, he said he did. 
 
 "Suppose you were nominated?" 
 
 " I would decline." 
 
 "Suppose the nomination were unanimous and enthusi- 
 astic ? " 
 
 " I would decline anyway. I cannot think of any cir- 
 cumstances that would induce me to accept the nomination. 
 There are so many men in the country better fitted for the 
 place than I am. I have no civil experience, as every 
 President should have. The country wants a change in this 
 
REMEMBERING A DRUMMER. 543 
 
 respect. Militaiy men know no way of settling troubles 
 except to fight, and our country is now so peaceful that a 
 different policy is needed. We want a civic President, and 
 not a military one." 
 
 And years after that he again declared that he was not a 
 candidate for the Presidency ; that if nominated he would 
 decline, and if elected he would refuse to serve. 
 
 An incident which occurred in Philadelphia some three 
 years before his death illustrates Sherman's remarkable 
 powers of memory. 
 
 He was visiting his daughter, and while sitting at the 
 open window smoking one midsummer night he saw the 
 policeman pass, and as the patrolman halted a moment the 
 General was noticed to give him a keen glance and utter 
 an exclamation. The next evening he told some one to 
 say to the policeman on the beat, when he passed, that the 
 General wanted to speak to him. When the officer entered 
 he straightened up and gave General Sherman the regular 
 military salute. 
 
 "Ah, ha," said the General. " I thought so. Now, 
 where was it I saw you before ? Do you know me ? " 
 
 " Oh, yes," said the bearded patrolman. " I knew you 
 when you were a lieutenant. I was your drummer in Cali- 
 fornia." 
 
 " Ha, ha, I thought so ; and wait a bit. So you were 
 that Httle drummer boy, and your name — your name's 
 Hutchinson." 
 
 Another authentic story reveals the kindly humor of the 
 man,- even amid the stern scenes of war. It is told by Mr. 
 H. L. Priddy, who, with a Mr. Brower, conducted TJu 
 Argus newspaper at Memphis when Sherman was com- 
 mander there. "The Argus" s^ys Mr. Priddy, "was the 
 only paper published at Memphis then. Brower and I had 
 
544 SUPPRESSING A NEWSPAPER. 
 
 to simulate a degree of loyalty, but whenever we got a 
 chance we cheered the Stars and Bars. General Sherman 
 gave us considerable latitude, but finally we went too far, 
 and he called us down. He did it in a gentlemanly way, 
 however, that didn't wound our feelings. He galloped up 
 to the office one day about noon, threw the bridle rein of 
 his big black stallion to an orderly and strode into the edi- 
 torial room. A crowd of citizens gathered on the other side 
 of the street mourned for the fate of the newspaper and the 
 editors. I think they had an idea that Sherman was going 
 to amputate our heads and 'pi' all the forms. But he didn't. 
 He sat down and rested his feet on the table and said : 
 
 " ' Boys ' (we were both youngsters), " I have been ordered 
 to suppress your paper, but I don't like to do that, and I 
 just dropped in to warn you not to be so free with your 
 pencils. If you don't ease up you will get into trouble." 
 
 " We promised to reform, and as the General seemed so 
 pleasant and friendly, I asked him if he couldn't do some- 
 thing to increase the circulation of currency. There was 
 no small change, and we had to use the soda water checks 
 of a confectioner named Lane. We dropped soda water 
 checks in the contribution box at the church, paid for 
 straight whiskey with them and received them for money. 
 If Lane had closed his shop the checks would have been 
 worthless. 
 
 " General Sherman comprehended the situation, and quick 
 as a flash said : ' You need a medium of exchange that has 
 an intrinsic value. Cotton is king here. Make cotton your 
 currency. It is worth ^i a pound. Make packages con- 
 taining eight ounces represent 50 cents, four ounces 25 
 cents, and so on. Cotton is the wealth of the South right 
 now. Turn it to money.' 
 
AN ENTERPRISING JOURNALIST. 545 
 
 " 'But the money drawers wouldn't hold such bulky cur- 
 rency,' said I. 
 
 '"Make 'em larger,' said the General, and with that he 
 strode off 
 
 " As he mounted his horse and galloped away he shook 
 his whip at Brower and me and shouted : ' You boys had 
 better be careful what you write, or I'll be down on you.' " 
 
 At Savannah, just after he had captured it, Sherman had 
 another controversy with a newspaper man, one " Tom " 
 Miles, from Boston. The latter, on getting into Savannah 
 with the army, went prospecting round the city, and pres- 
 ently, according to the teller of the story, in The Boston 
 Post, found himself in a vacated printing office. It pre- 
 sented a golden opportunity. There were types and presses 
 and all the paraphernalia essential to business, with a form 
 on the press, which the printer had left in his flight, and 
 Miles, taking out the editorial and other offensive matter, 
 filled its columns with healthy Union sentiment, with the 
 aid of one or two of the craft whom he had discovered in 
 the army. His leader was a rich specimen of crowing over 
 the victory, in which he extolled General Sherman as the 
 greatest hero since Alexander, and his army the finest and 
 best disciplined that the world ever saw. With this grand 
 flourish of trumpets the first number was issued, and Miles 
 lay back in his editorial chair, contemplating his work with 
 the belief that he had achieved the next triumph to Sher- 
 man's, and wondered what the conqueror would say when 
 he saw the praises he had heaped upon him. The next 
 morning as the General and his staff were about taking 
 breakfast, a paper was handed to him, and he commenced 
 to read the leader which was so lavish in his praise. 
 
 "Look here!" said he, red and furious. "What the 
 
546 PRINTER AGAINST GENERAL. 
 
 d 1 does this mean ? Who knows anything about this 
 
 paper? " 
 
 His orderly, who had known something about its prepa- 
 ration, explained to him that it was the work of the literary 
 gentleman who had followed the expedition. 
 
 " Well," said the General, " go down to the office and tell 
 him to discontinue his paper or I'll put him under guard. 
 I won't have such cursed stuff printed about me when I 
 can prevent it. Abuse is bad enough, but this is a deuced 
 sight worse." 
 
 Down Went the orderly, and the confusion of poor Miles 
 was overwhelming when he got the squelcher from the 
 General commanding. 
 
 "Why, it was all praise," said he. 
 
 " No matter for that. If it had been the other way it 
 would have been treated just the same." 
 
 So Miles moved a compromise — we hardly know what — 
 and urged the official to express his regrets and beg the 
 removal of the injunction, which was promised. The ap- 
 peal was successful, and soon the officer came back to 
 inform him that permission was granted him to run his 
 paper, on condition that he should never mention the 
 General's name again. This was agreed to, and the paper 
 appeared. After a day or two an aide came down one 
 morning with an order from General Sherman, for publica- 
 tion. Miles glanced it over and handed it back, 
 
 *'It can't go in, sir," he said. 
 
 "Why not?" asked the astonished messenger, who w"as 
 a stranger. 
 
 " Because it has Sherman's name to it," was the reply. 
 
 " That's the reason why it must go in," urged the aide. 
 
 " And that's the reason why it shan't. He stopped my 
 paper for praising him, and I promised him that his name 
 
CONFISCATING MEDICINE. 
 
 547 
 
 should never appear in my columns again, and hang me if 
 it shall." 
 
 Miles stood resolute, and the officer returned for orders, 
 expecting the ordering out of a file of men and an arrest, 
 but was astonished to see the General burst into the heartiest 
 laugh and hear him confess that the printer had the best of 
 it. The messenger was sent back with a conciliatory note, 
 and there was no more trouble. 
 
 Sherman himself once related an interesting story about 
 a prominent citizen of Savannah who came to his head- 
 quarters after he had captured that city. The gentleman 
 was in great trepidation and informed the General that he 
 had some valuable pictures in his house. The General 
 said they were entirely safe. He said he also had a col- 
 lection of family plate of great intrinsic value, and, on 
 account of its associations, very precious to him and his 
 family. The General told him he would put a guard about 
 his house if necessary. Then, in a burst of frank confidence, 
 produced by this generous response to his fears, he revealed 
 to General Sherman that he had buried in his back yard a 
 large quantity of priceless Madeira, of the oldest and rarest 
 vintages, and estimated to be worth over $40,000 before 
 the war. The General responded at once : " That is medi- 
 cine, and confiscated to the hospital." What the hospital 
 (lid not need he distributed among the troops. 
 
 General Sherman was fully informed of the movements 
 of Jefferson Davis, and in a position to put his hand upon 
 and arrest him at almost any time after Davis left Rich- 
 mond, He consulted Mr. Lincoln as to what he would 
 better do, Saying to the President that he did not know but 
 what he, the President, would be relieved by not having 
 the President of the Southern Confederacy on his hands, 
 and asking for instructions. President Lincoln's instruc- 
 
548 THE ELECTORAL COMMISSION. 
 
 tions were given in this form : " Sherman, many years ago, 
 up in IlHnois, I knew a temperance lecturer who had been 
 an habitual drunkard. He met, on an anniversary occasion, 
 a number of his old boon companions. They were urging 
 him to celebrate it with them in the usual way, and he 
 finally said: 'Boys, I must stick to my principles; but if 
 you could get some whiskey into my water unbeknownst 
 to me I might join you ! ' " 
 
 The General after that made no effort to capture Jefferson 
 Davis, and regretted that he did not reach the schooner in 
 which he was intending an escape to Cuba. 
 
 Abram S. Hewitt, in addressing the Chamber of Com- 
 merce, New York, told of an experience of his with General 
 Sherman, then in command of the army, at the time of 
 the Electoral Commission's existence. There was a good 
 deal of apprehension lest Congress might break up without 
 settling the contest for the Presidency. " If Congress failed 
 to do its duty, what will you do under the circumstances ? " 
 Mr. Hewitt asked the General. 
 
 " I have sworn to obey the Constitution of the United 
 States, " ,was the answer, " and I will do my duty. The 
 term of President Grant expires at noon on March 4. The 
 people of the United States have elected a President and 
 competent authority will decide who is elected. " 
 
 "But if Senate and House fail to agree?" 
 
 " Then, if I must, I shall obey the man selected by the 
 Senate." 
 
 " That reply, " said Mr. Hewitt. "I felt meant much for 
 the peace of the country, although the General's choice 
 was not my own. To him we owe not only much for the 
 termination of the civil war, but for the preservation of 
 peace. '^ 
 
 On one occasion, when visiting his sister, Mrs. Ewing, 
 
PROUD OF HIS MOTHER. 
 
 549 
 
 Gen. Sherman met four or five Presbyterian clergymen, and 
 his patience was ratlicr severely tried by their religious dis- 
 cussions, and what seemed to him their intolerant and one- 
 sided views. One of them challenged him to offer any 
 excuse for swearing, meeting him with the clinching state- 
 ment that there could be no redemption for blasphemers. 
 
 "Were you," inquired the young soldier, "ever at sea in 
 a heavy gale, with spars creaking and sails flapping, and 
 the crew cowardly and incompetent? " 
 
 " No." 
 
 "Did you ever," he continued gravely, " try to drive a 
 five-team ox-cart across the prairie ? 
 
 "No." 
 
 "Then," said Capt. Sherman, "you know nothing of 
 temptations to blasphemy — you know nothing about ex- 
 tenuating circumstances for blasphemers — you are not com- 
 petent to judge! " 
 
 Gen. Sherman was proud of tracing his powers of endur- 
 ance to his mother, to whom he also frequently ascribed 
 the heritage of other soldierly characteristics. 
 
 " She married very young," said the General — " her 
 husband, who was not very much older, being a lawyer 
 with hope and ambition for his patrimony and all the world 
 before him where to choose. He chose Ohio, leaving his 
 young wife in Jersey City while he made a home for her in 
 what was then a far country. 
 
 " Soon as he had made a home for her she went to him. 
 She rode on horseback, with her young baby in her arms, 
 from Jersey City to Ohio, the journey occupying twenty- 
 three days ! What would a New York bride say to such a 
 journey as that? I'm afraid she'd want to wait until her 
 husband had made money enough to have a railroad built 
 for her." 
 
550 AN INCIDENT AT YALE. 
 
 Israel Smith, of New Bedford, was Band-master of the 
 Massachusetts 33d Regiment on the march from Atlanta 
 to Savannah. In speaking of General Sherman Mr. Smith 
 said : " He was very fond of music, and the 33d gave many 
 a concert at his headquarters. One time when the regi- 
 ment had gone into camp. General Sherman sent word to 
 me to come to his headquarters and play for him. I sent 
 word back that my men were mostly sick, not enough being 
 left to give a decent concert. Whereupon Sherman sends 
 back word. ' Bring over your band and play soft music to 
 soothe my nerves.' " When the Army was drawn up around 
 Savannah, the first concert in two weeks was given. When 
 Smith was about to go away Sherman called him and said : 
 " I want you to have your band in readiness to play next 
 Thursday, in the square in Savannah. " Early on Thursday 
 morning Mr. Smith received his orders to march to the 
 square, and there, while the city was being evacuated, he 
 played the National airs. 
 
 Sherman went to Yale College in 1876, to see his son 
 graduated. He was made the guest of honor of the 
 occasion, given a seat next to President Noah Porter at all 
 the exercises, and the degree of LL.D. was conferred on 
 him. The displays of academic eloquence were long. 
 During the orations Sherman slipped out of the chapel, 
 and his absence was not noticed for some time. When it 
 was noticed a deputation of the faculty rushed off to 
 discover the whereabouts of their distinguished guest. 
 Their quest was of short duration. On a bench in front of 
 the chapel General Sherman was seated, puffing his cigar 
 and engaged in animated conversation with an old negro 
 who had just been discharged from the workhouse and 
 who was smoking one of the General's havanas. He felt 
 the need of a smoke, saw no reason wh/ he should not 
 
THE PACIFIC RAILROAD. 551 
 
 take a cigar without disturbing any one, and had fallen into 
 conversation with the only other occupant of the park 
 bench. It afterward was made evident that General 
 Sherman in his short conversation had learned more about 
 the manner in which the New Haven workhouse was con- 
 ducted than any member of the Yale faculty knew. 
 
 Sherman's interest in the Pacific Railroad was referred 
 to by General Wager Swayne, who said : — 
 
 "As long ago as 1849 General Sherman wrote a letter 
 to his brother, John Sherman, which the latter published 
 in TJie National Intelligencer, advocating the construction 
 of a railroad across the continent, and he was an untiring 
 friend of the road from that time until Its completion, in the 
 summer of 1869. 
 
 " He told me that if at the time of writing that letter to 
 his brother John he could have secured the immediate con- 
 struction of a railroad across the continent by signing a 
 contract to lay down his own life, he should have done it, 
 he thought. 
 
 " In his " Memoirs " he gives an account of carrying from 
 Sonoma, Cal., to Sacramento, to the commanding officer of 
 the United States forces there, an order to make a survey 
 ot the Feather River, so as to ascertain the feasibility of 
 constructing a railroad through the valley of that stream. 
 That was the first survey ever made with a view to the 
 construction of a transcontinental road, and while the 
 General does not say so in his " Memoirs," I have from his 
 own lips that the impulse and the conception were his own, 
 and he procured the signature to the order of the com- 
 manding general by personal solicitation. 
 
 " When, at the close of the war, General Granville M, 
 Dodge was called from the Army, being then still m ser- 
 vice, to take charge of the construction of the Union Pacific 
 
552 CREDIT FOR TAKING VICKSBURG. 
 
 road, General Sherman not only gave him leave cordially, 
 but he also spontaneously promised him all possible assist- 
 ance, and General Dodge has testified, in an elaborate paper, 
 that he does not see how he could have built the road ex- 
 cept with the countenance and support which he received 
 from General Sherman, as the Indians were then a power 
 on the plains. 
 
 "In the summer of 1869, twenty years after his first letter 
 on the subject. General Sherman stood m the War Depart- 
 ment, and heard the strokes from an electric bell, which 
 announced the successive blows of the hammer on the last 
 spike in the construction of the road, and he told me that 
 in view of his long interest m the enterprise, he felt, as he 
 himself put it, as if the Lord might come for him then." 
 
 General Cyrus Bussey, assistant Secretary of the Inte- 
 rior, was an old comrade and close friend of Sherman, and 
 he said of him : 
 
 " I first met General Sherman at Benton Barracks, Mo., 
 in November, 1861. I had reported there with a full regi- 
 ment of cavalry. General Sherman had just assumed com- 
 mand, after having been relieved in Kentucky under a 
 cloud, being charged with insanity, I spent many even- 
 ings with the General at his headquarters, and received 
 from him many valuable lessons which greatly aided me as 
 an officer of the Army during all my subsequent services. 
 During the siege of Vicksburg I was chief of cavalry, and 
 served immediately under General Sherman's command. 
 I saw much of him during the siege, and led the advance 
 of his army m the campaign to Jackson, against Joe John- 
 ston's army, immediately after the fall of Vicksburg. After 
 the enemy was routed and dnv^en out of the country my 
 command occupied the rear, and General Sherman accom- 
 panied me both on the advance and on the return to our 
 
THE BURNING OF ATLANTA. 553 
 
 camps in the rear of Vicksburg. So I had an excellent op- 
 portunity of becoming intimately acquainted with him, 
 and there I formed a great admiration for hmi as a man and 
 a general, 
 
 "One circumstance I wish to mention. While waiting at 
 Jackson after the retreat of Johnston, the Chief Justice of 
 the Supreme Court of Mississippi tendered to General 
 Sherman and his staff a banquet, at which General Frank 
 P. Blair proposed a toast to General Grant. General Sher- 
 man rose and said : ' I want to respond to that toast. I 
 see that many newspapers of the country have credited me 
 with originating the plan adopted by General Grant for the 
 capture of Vicksburg. I want to say that I am not entitled 
 to this credit. General Grant alone originated that plan 
 and carried it to successful completion without the co- 
 operation of any of his subordinate officers, and in the 
 face of my protest as well as that of many of the officers.' " 
 
 The question of the burning of Atlanta was often raised 
 in the years after the war, and to the end of his life Sher- 
 man was denounced by many Southerners for what they 
 were pleased to term his inhumanity and malice. In the 
 spring of 1 880, Captain Burke, commander of the " Gate 
 City Guard," at Atlanta, wrote to him, calling his attention 
 to a proposed memorial hall in that city, and Sherman 
 made this reply : 
 
 " J/j/ Dear Sir. — Your letter of March 6 with inclosure, 
 is received, and I assure you of my interest in the subject 
 matter and willingness to contribute to the execution of 
 your plan to erect in the city of Atlanta a memorial hall 
 to commemorate the revival of sectional unity and senti- 
 ment — but were I to do so for the reasons set forth in the 
 inclosed circular, I would be construed as indorsing the 
 expressions which are erroneous, viz: 'During the late 
 
554 SHERMAN'S TALK WITH GRADY. 
 
 unfortunate war the city of Atlanta was destroyed by the 
 forces of General Sherman/ and ' a wilderness of blackened 
 walls recorded the fratricidal strife that deluged our country 
 in misfortune,* 
 
 " Atlanta was not destroyed by the army of the United 
 States commanded by General Sherman. No private dwel- 
 Img was destroyed by the United States army, but some 
 were by that commanded by General Hood along his line 
 of defense. The Court House still stands; all the buildings 
 on that side of the railroad and all those along Peachtree 
 street, the best street in the city, still remain. Nothing was 
 destroyed by my orders but the depots, workshops, found- 
 ries, etc., close by the depots, and two blocks of mercantile 
 stores also close to the depot took fire from the burning 
 storehouse or foundry, and our troops were prevented from 
 checking the spread of the fire by reason of concealed shells 
 loaded and exploding in that old building. The railroad 
 car and machine shops on the edge of the town toward 
 Decatur street, were burned before we entered Atlanta, by 
 General Hood's orders." 
 
 To the Hon. Henry W. Grady, a few days later, Sherman 
 said personally : 
 
 " The city of Atlanta was never burned as a city. I 
 notice that the headquarters I occupied, all the houses 
 about it, and the headquarters of the other officers were all 
 standing when I revisited the place a year or two since. 
 The residence streets were not burned at all." 
 
 " It was your intention, then, to burn only the heart of 
 the city ? " 
 
 * My intention was clearly expressed in a written order 
 to General Poe. It was simply to burn the buildings in 
 which public stores had been placed or would likely be 
 placed. This included only four buildings, as I recollect j 
 
KIND FEELINGS TOWARD THE SOUTIi. 555 
 
 not over five or six. One of these was a warehouse above 
 the depot, in which or under which were a number of 
 shells. From this building a block of business houses took 
 fire and the destruction went beyond the limits intended. 
 The old Trout House was burned by some of the men, who 
 had some reason for burning it. I ordered the round house 
 burned. I wanted to destroy the railroad so that it could 
 not be used. I then wanted to destroy the public buildings, 
 so that Atlanta could not be used as a depot of .supplies. I 
 ordered, as I say, four or five houses set on nrc, but as far 
 as burning the city in the sense of wanton destruction, I 
 never thought of such a thing. I shirked no responsibility 
 that war imposed, but I never went beyond my duty." 
 
 His kindly feeling toward the city and people with whom 
 he once dealt so sternly was well shown in a letter which 
 he wrote in 1879 ^'^ Captain E. P. Howell, of the Atlanta 
 Constitution. 
 
 " My opportunities for studying the physical features of 
 Georgia," he said, "have been large. In 1843-4 I went 
 from Augusta to Marietta in a stage (when Atlanta had no 
 existence) ; thence to Bellefonte, Alabama, on horseback, 
 returning afterwards, all the way on horseback, to Augusta 
 by a different road; again, in 1864, I conducted, as all the 
 world knows, a vast army from Chattanooga to Atlanta and 
 Savannah, and just now have passed over the same district 
 in'railway cars. Considering the history of this period of 
 time (35 years), the development of the country has been 
 great, but not comparable with California, Iowa, Wisconsin, 
 or Kansas, in all which States I have had similar chances 
 for observation. The reason why Georgia has not kept 
 pace with the States I have named is beyond question that 
 emigration would not go where slavery existed. Now 
 that this cause is removed there is no longer any reason 
 
556 
 
 RESOURCES 01: THE SOUTH. 
 
 why Georgia, especially the northern part, should not 
 rapidly regain her prominence among the great States of 
 our Union. I know that no section is more favored in 
 climate, health, soil, minerals, water, and everything which 
 man needs for his material wants, and to contribute to his 
 physical and intellectual development. Your railroads now 
 finished give your people cheap supplies, and the means 
 of sending in every section their surplus products of the 
 soil or ot manufactures. You have immense beds of iron 
 and coal, besides inexhaustible quantities of timber, oak, 
 hickory, beech, poplar, pine, etc., so necessary in modern 
 factories, and which are becoming scarce in other sections 
 of our busy country. 
 
 " I have crossed this continent many times, by almost 
 every possible route, and I feel certain that at this time no 
 single region holds out as strong inducements for indus- 
 trious emigrants as that from Lynchburg, Virginia, to 
 Huntsville, Alabama, right and left, embracing the mountain 
 ranges and intervening valleys, especially East Tennessee, 
 North Georgia and Alabama. I hope I will not give 
 offence in saying that the present population has not done 
 full justice to this naturally beautiful and most favored 
 region of our country, and that two or three millions of 
 people could be diverted from the great West to this region 
 with profit and advantage to all concerned. This whole 
 region, though called 'southern,' is in fact 'northern' — 
 viz. : it is a wheat-growing country ; has a climate in no 
 sense tropical or southern, but was designed by nature for 
 small farms and not for large plantations. In the region 
 I have named North Georgia forms a most important part, 
 and your city, Atlanta, is its natural centre or capital. It 
 is admirably situated, a thousand feet above the sea, healthy, 
 with abundance of the purest water and with granite, lime- 
 
FORGETTING PAST ENMITIES. ttj 
 
 stone, sandstone and clay convenient to build a second 
 London. In 1864 my army, composed of near a hundred 
 thousand men, all accustomed to a northern climate, were 
 grouped about Atlanta from June to November without 
 tents, and were as vigorous, healthy and strong as though 
 they were in Ohio or New York. Indeed, the whole 
 country from the Tennessee to the Ocmulgee is famous for 
 health, pure water, abundant timber and with a large pro- 
 portion of good soil, especially in the valleys, and all you 
 need is more people of the right sort. 
 
 " I am satisfied, from my recent visit, that Northern pro- 
 fessional men, manufacturers, mechanics and farmers may 
 come to Atlanta, Rome and Chattanooga with a certainty 
 of fair dealing and fair encouragement. Though I was per- 
 sonally regarded the bete-noir of the late war in your region, 
 the author of all your woes, yet I admit that I have just 
 passed over the very ground desolated by the Civil War, 
 and have received everywhere nothing but kind and cour- 
 teous treatment from the highest to the lowest, and I heard 
 of no violence to others for opinions' sake. Some Union 
 men spoke to me of social ostracism, but I saw nothing of 
 it, and even if it do exist it must disappear with the present 
 generation. Our whole framework of government and 
 history is founded on the personal and political equality of 
 citizens, and philosophy teaches that social distinctions can 
 only rest on personal merit and corresponding intelligence, 
 and if any part of a community clings to distinctions 
 founded on past conditions, it will grow less and less with 
 time and finally disappear. Any attempt to build up an 
 aristocracy or a privileged class at the South, on the fact 
 that their fathers or grandfathers once owned slaves, will 
 result in a ridiculous failure and subject the authors to the 
 laughter of mankind. I refer to this subject incidentally 
 
558 
 
 GROWTH OF GEORGIA. 
 
 because others have argued the case with me, but whether 
 attempted elsewhere in the South, I am certain it will not 
 be attempted in Georgia. 
 
 " Therefore, I shall believe and maintain that north 
 Georgia is now in a condition to invite emigration from the 
 Northern States of our Union and from Europe, and all 
 parties concerned should advertise widely the great induce- 
 ments your region holds out to the industrious and frugal 
 of all lands ; agents should be appointed in New York to 
 advise, and others at Knoxville, Chattanooga, Rome, 
 Atlanta, etc., to receive emigrants and to point out to them 
 on arrival where cheap lands may be had with reasonable 
 credit, where companies may open coal and iron mines, 
 where mills may be erected to grind wheat and corn, spin 
 cotton, and to manufacture the thousand and one things 
 you now buy from abroad ; and more especially to 
 make known that you are prepared to welcome and patron- 
 ize men who will settle in your region and form a part of 
 your community. 
 
 " Your growth and development since the war have been 
 good, very good — better than I was prepared to see ; but 
 compare it with San Francisco, Denver, Portland, Oregon, 
 Leavenworth, Chicago, St. Louis, or hundreds of places I 
 could mention, less favored in climate and location than 
 Atlanta. These cities have been notoriously open to the 
 whole world, and all men felt perfectly at liberty to go there 
 with their families, with their acquired wealth and with their 
 personal energy. You must guarantee the same, not super- 
 ficially or selfishly, but with that sincerity and frankness 
 which carries conviction. 
 
 " Personally, I would not like to check the flow of emi- 
 gration westward, because of the vast natural importance 
 
V'^ 
 
 "^ mm^ 
 
 GEN. LEW. WALLACE. 
 
"CARPET-BAGGERS:* 561 
 
 of that region, but I do believe that every patriot should do 
 what he can to benefit every part of our whole country, and 
 I am sure that good will result from turning a part of this 
 great tide of human life and energy southward along the 
 valleys of the Allegheny Mountains, especially of East 
 Tennessee, northern Georgia and Alabama, and if I can aid 
 you in this good work I assure you that I will do so with 
 infinite pleasure. 
 
 " Excuse me if I ask you as an editor to let up somewhat 
 on the favorite hobby of ' carpet-baggers.' I know that you 
 personally apply the term only to political adventurers, but 
 others, your readers, construe it otherwise. I have resided 
 in San Francisco, Leavenworth and St. Louis, and of the 
 men who have built up these great cities, I assert that not 
 one in fifty was a native of the place. All, or substantially 
 all, were ' carpet-baggers,' /. e., emigrants from all parts of 
 the world, many of them from the South. Our Supreme 
 Court, Congress and our most prominent and intellectual 
 men, now hail from localities of their own adoption, not of 
 their birth. Let the emigrant to Georgia feel and realize 
 that his business and social position result from his own in- 
 dustry, his merits and his virtues, and not from the acci- 
 dental place of his birth, and soon the great advantages of 
 climate, soil, minerals, timber, etc., etc., will fill up your 
 country and make Atlanta one of the most prosperous, 
 beautiful and attractive cities, not alone of the South, but of 
 the whole continent, an end which I desire quite as much 
 as you do." 
 
 In the Spring of 1876 he talked at some length with 
 
 a newspaper writer, about the South and th- leaders of the 
 
 late rebellion, and for the latter he expressed only esteem 
 
 and friendship. "About two weeks ago," he said, "I 
 
 32 
 
562 KIND WORDS FOR FORMER FOES. 
 
 received a letter from a mutual friend in New York, asking 
 if I would recommend General Braxton Bragg for appoint- 
 ment in the Khedive's army, I promptly replied that it 
 would afford me pleasure to promote the interests of Bragg 
 in that direction. I feel very kindly to all the Southern 
 Generals. In fact, I think people everywhere throughout 
 the North and West cherish no bad feeling. Jeff Davis is 
 the only exception made. I do not know why it is that the 
 Northern people hate him so, but they do, and will never 
 get over their feeling in that respect. Davis did no worse 
 than anybody else, but I suppose the people are bound to 
 have somebody to hate. For instance, the Southern people 
 hate General Butler about as bad or worse than the North- 
 erners hate Davis. I suppose the two sections, while 
 determined to cultivate friendly feelings among the people 
 at large, require something on which to expend the hate 
 that will unavoidably show itself at intervals. So far as the 
 Northern and Southern people are concerned, they are 
 rapidly assimilating, and in a few years they will be one 
 people in fact as well as in name. Put the Southern and 
 Northern soldiers together and you have the strongest 
 element, in a military sense, that could be gotten together 
 for any national purpose. As fighters, they would be 
 invincible. The Southerners are impetuous and will fight 
 quicker and fiercer, but they give out sooner; the North- 
 erners are slower, but they stay longer; they have more 
 endurance, and fight steadier and more stubbornly. In 
 fighting qualities, the South represents France, and the 
 North England. Put the two together and the devil couldn't 
 whip them.' 
 
 " General, why don't you recommend Jeff Davis for an 
 appointment in Egypt ? " 
 
A CONDITIONAL ENDORSEMENT. 563 
 
 " Oh, I wouldn't do that ; anybody but Jeff; I would 
 
 not indorse Jeff. " 
 
 " Perhaps it would be a public benefaction to do so ? " 
 "Well, I never viewed it in that light. On second 
 
 thought, I would gladly indorse Jeff, if he would leave the 
 
 country. " 
 
CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 
 REMINISCENCES. 
 
 Life at the Fifth Avenue Hotel — Ex-President Hayes's Memories — 
 General Meigs's Tribute — Professor Howe on Sherman's School 
 Days — A Visit to the Catskills — Sherman and Joe Johnston — 
 Telling about Resaca— Thinking of the Sea— Marvellous Versa. 
 
 TILITY — (rENKRAL ROSECRANS' REMINISCENCES OF ShERMAN AT WeST 
 
 Point. 
 
 A pleasant view of General Sherman's life in New York 
 was given by Mr. Hiram Hitchcock, of the Fifth Avenue 
 Hotel, at which house Sherman lived before he purchased 
 a home. " He was," said Mr. Hitchcock, "a guest of this 
 house off and on for many years, and as such he naturally 
 became very much beloved by our whole household. After 
 General Grant's funeral was over I spent the evening with 
 General Sherman and he told me of his plans for the future; 
 that he wanted to move quietly from St. Louis and locate 
 in New York. He said that he thought he should enjoy 
 New York very much, and his youngest son was then finish- 
 ing his course at Yale, and the change would bring him 
 near to New Haven. After that the General arranged by 
 correspondence for his rooms on the parlor floor. Twenty- 
 fifth street side. He came here with Mrs. Sherman and the 
 daughters, and the youngest son used to come in frequently 
 from Yale. At his first after-dinner speech in New York 
 — that at the New England Society dinner — General Sher- 
 564 
 
ANXIOUS FOR HIS WIFE'S COMFORT. 565 
 
 man referred to having moved to New York, and said that 
 he had gone into winter quarters down at the Fifth Avenue 
 Hotel, where there was good grass and water. 
 
 "The General was very particular to have everything 
 arranged to suit Mrs. Sherman. He said that as to himself 
 it did not make very much difference. He was used to 
 roughing it and he could take anything, but he wanted 
 Mrs. Sherman to be very nicely fixed and to have things to 
 her own mind. On the other hand Mrs. Sherman said to 
 me : * It doesn't make so very much difference about me, 
 but I wish to have the General comfortable. Dear old 
 fellow, he has seen a great deal of roughing it, and I want 
 him to be entirely at ease.' They v/ere very happy and 
 comfortable here during their two years' stay, which began 
 on September i, 1886, and General Sherman's idea in having 
 a house was mainly to make it pleasanter and more agree- 
 able, if possible, for Mrs. Sherman and the daughters ; to 
 give Mrs. Sherman a little more quiet than she could have 
 at a hotel, although she lived very quietly here. 
 
 " During the General's residence here he was, of course, 
 a conspicuous figure. He was always genial and affable to 
 every one, very easily approached, and he received and 
 entertained a great many of his old army companions and 
 aided a vast number of them. In fact, no one knows ho\* 
 many army men General Sherman has, first and last, 
 assisted pecuniarily and in various ways, helping them to 
 get positions and giving them advice and encouragement. 
 He used to meet hosts of friends and acquaintances in the 
 hotel. I remember his saying once that he would have to 
 stop shaking hands, for he had lost one nail, and if he didn't 
 quit soon he would lose them all. If he went to the dining- 
 room, people from different parts of the country who knew 
 him would get up and go over to his table and talk to him. 
 
566 SCRUPULOUS ABOUT FINANCES. 
 
 " It was a sort of a reception with him all the time — one 
 continuous reception. He was very democratic in all his 
 movements, and he always dined in the public room. 
 
 " The General kept one room for a regular working-room 
 for himself. There he had his desk, a large library, scrap 
 baskets, letter files, etc., and that is where he was in the 
 habit of receiving his friends. 
 
 " As for the society side of his life here, Miss Sherman 
 and her father had regular weekly receptions during the 
 season, in the large drawing-room. 
 
 " General Sherman was exceedingly particular with 
 reference to financial affairs. There never was a more 
 honest man born than General Sherman. He was particu- 
 lar to pay his bills of every sort in full and to pay them 
 promptly. He could not bear to be in debt. It actually 
 worried him to have a matter stand over for a day. He 
 knew just exactly how his affairs stood every day, and he 
 could not bear to owe a man anything for twenty-four 
 hours. And he was just as honest and frank and faithful 
 in speech and in every other element of his character. He 
 carried his character right on the outside, and it was true 
 blue. 
 
 " When he went to his house at No. 75 West Seventy- 
 first street, we kept up our relations with him, and we 
 would occasionally send up some little thing to him. Soon 
 after he moved we sent him a couple of packages, and in 
 acknowledgment he sent us this letter : — 
 
 "*75 West Seventy-first St., Sept. 28th, 1888. 
 Messrs. Hitchcock, Darling & Co., Fifth Avenue Hotel, 
 N. Y. 
 
 Dear Sirs : — I am this moment in receipt of two boxes, 
 the contents of which will, I am sure, be most acceptable 
 to self and guests. With profound thanks for past favors, 
 
CALLINS ON AN OLD FRIEND. t^tj 
 
 many and heavy, and a hearty wish for your continued 
 prosperity, I am, and always shall be, your grateful debtor, 
 
 W. T, Sherman.' 
 
 " Whenever the old General would come to this part of 
 the city he would drop in. If he was going to the theatre 
 he would call in before or after the performance — at all 
 hours, in fact, he would come, and between his engagements. 
 He used to sit in this office and chat. He was in this office 
 just after Secretary Windom's death, and was asking about 
 that sad occurrence. The last time he was here was only 
 a night or two before he was taken sick with the fatal cold 
 which was the beginning of his last illness. I went to the 
 door with him and bade him good-night, and he turned and 
 said cheerily, ' Come up, Hitchcock, come up.' I said, 
 ' I'll be up in a few days,' and off he moved in his quick 
 way. 
 
 " The General was, as everybody knows, a splendid 
 conversationalist. He had a wonderful fund of anecdote, 
 story and reminiscence, and was a capital story-teller. He 
 was never at a loss for a ready reply. 
 
 " This was one of his comments on a story that he was 
 not quite ready to believe. * Oh, well, you can tell that to the 
 marines, but don't tell it to an old soldier like me.' 
 
 " I think there was one very striking peculiarity about 
 General Sherman. Of course we have seen it in different 
 public men, but I think it might be said of Sherman fully as 
 strongly as of any other public man, either in military or 
 civil life, that he was as brave as a lion and as gentle as a 
 woman. When anything touched him it revealed the sym- 
 pathy of his nature. He was wonderfully kind-hearted. 
 
 " If there was an uncompromising patriot anywhere in 
 the country it was General Sherman, and he manifested that 
 in every walk of life, every expression, every look. He 
 
56S GENERAL HAYES'S MEMORIES. 
 
 was a true hero. He was not only one of the great men, 
 but one of the purest men of his time," 
 
 Ex-President Hayes was much affected by the death of 
 Sherman, whom he knew well, though he had not served 
 under him in the army. He said : 
 
 " My intimate acquaintance with General Sherman dates 
 only since the war. I had been on friendly terms with him 
 for about twenty-five years. He v/as so well known to the 
 whole people, and especially to the Union soldiers, that 
 there is hardly any reason for off-hand talk about him. 
 There are prob'ably few men who ever lived in any country 
 who were known and loved as General Sherman was. He 
 was ;the idol of the soldiers of the Union Army. His 
 presence at soldiers' meetings and with soldiers' societies 
 and organizations was always hailed with the utmost de- 
 light. When the General was present the enthusiasm 
 created by his inspiring presence was such as to make him 
 the chief attraction at all important gatherings. He was 
 always cordial and very happy in his greetings to his com- 
 rades. He was full of the comrade spirit, and all, from 
 the humblest soldier to the corps commander, were equally 
 gratified by the way in which they were met and greeted 
 by General Sherman. 
 
 " He will be greatly missed and greatly mourned by the 
 whole body of men who served with and under him, and, 
 indeed, by all the soldiers of all the armies. He was gener- 
 ally regarded by them as the military genius of the war. 
 He was a voluminous writer, and a ready, prompt and capital 
 talker. Probably no man who was connected with the war 
 said as many things which will be remembered and quoted 
 hereafter as did General Sherman. 
 
 " In figure, in face and in bearing he was the ideal soldier. 
 I think that it can be said of him as he once said of another, 
 
TO MAKE ROME HOWL. 569 
 
 that 'with hhn gone, the world seems less bright and less 
 cheerful than it was before.' The soldiers in looking around 
 for consolation for his death will find much in the fact that he 
 lived so long — almost twenty-six years after the final victory. 
 There is also probably some consolation in the fact that he 
 hus gone before age and disease had impaired his wonder- 
 ful powers and attractions. He was, in short, the most 
 picturesque, magnetic and original character in the great 
 conflict. He was occasionally, in his writings and talk, 
 wonderfully pathetic. I recall nothing connected with the 
 war that was finer in that way than a letter which he wrote, 
 probably during the second year of the w^ar, when his son, 
 about ten years old, who was name<^ after the General, died 
 in camp. The boy fancied that he belonged to a regiment 
 of his father's command, and the members of the regiment 
 were very attentive to him during his sickness, and at the 
 time of his death. General Sherman wrote a letter to the 
 men of the regiment, thanking them for w^hat they had done. 
 I cannot now recall the terms of that letter, but I doubt not 
 that if it were now published many an eye would moisten 
 as it was read. 
 
 " A very noble trait in the character of General Sherman 
 was the fidelity of his friendships. His loyal support of 
 Grant under all the circumstances cannot be surpassed in 
 all the history of the relations between eminent men 
 engaged in a common cause." 
 
 " I recall a telegram received from General Sherman one 
 November day in 1864," said General W. S. Rosecrans, 
 "while I was in the Department of the Missouri. The 
 telegram read : ' I start to-day for Atlanta and will make 
 Rome howl.' 
 
 " And he did it, too," continued General Rosecrans. " I 
 had known General Sherman since 1838, although I was 
 
570 AN INTERVIEW WITH FADDY. 
 
 not thrown much with him in service. In 1850 he was 
 paying court to Miss Ewing, and after their engagement he 
 came all the way to Newport to invite me to the wedding. 
 
 " I had always been a great admirer of General Sherman. 
 His character as a man was one to command admiration. 
 Of course it is difficult to select for comment thereon any 
 particular passage of a life that was so busy and so full of 
 great deeds." 
 
 General Meigs said : " The first time I met General 
 Sherman was on the return of McDowell's army. I called 
 on him at his headquarters across the river from Bull Run. 
 Sherman at that time was in the prime of life, and the 
 measure I then took of him has been fully justified. His 
 nature was naturally genial and democratic, notwithstand- 
 ing his West Point training. 
 
 " While we were talking, an enlisted man — an Irish 
 soldier — approached, and in rich Irish brogue asked the 
 General to put his finger in the muzzle of his gun to see 
 that it was clean. Sherman tried to put him off, but the 
 Irishman insisted, when, to get rid of him, Sherman com- 
 plied and laughingly remarked : ' Now go off and mind 
 your business.' 
 
 " Previous to the war he had served on the Cherokee 
 Commission, and his experience at that time, he afterward 
 told me, was valuable, as the Cherokee reservation was 
 located in a large portion of the country through which he 
 subsequently travelled with his army. Even while in 
 Washington he was continually exploring the country, and 
 in a very short time had its topography thoroughly mapped 
 in his mind. I may say that there never was a great 
 general — and Sherman certainly ranks among the greatest — 
 who did not possess this invaluable faculty, which Marmont, 
 in his treatise on the service of war, says enables a man not 
 
SHERMAN'S SCHOOLMASTER. 
 
 571 
 
 only to see what lies directly before him but what lies far 
 beyond the scope of his vision. Another valuable trait he 
 possessed was that he reached his conclusions promptly 
 and then acted upon them. More than one general failed 
 to achieve greatness in the Union army because he hesitated 
 when he should have acted. 
 
 " General Sherman socially was one of the most charm- 
 ing of men. If he was brilliant on the field of battle, in the 
 social circle he was the prince of entertainers. His man- 
 hood was symmetrical, his talents as a general of the first 
 rank and his fame immortal." 
 
 Professor W. P. Howe, of Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, a son of 
 Sherman's old schoolmaster, wrote as follows in the Iowa 
 State Register : 
 
 " My father had the high privilege of very largely mould- 
 ing the character and the career of General Sherman, as 
 well as the destiny of many others who afterwards became 
 distinguished in the history of our beloved country. Gen- 
 eral Sherman and Senator John Sherman were both students 
 under my father's care and instruction for several years, at 
 the high school and female seminary located at Lancaster, 
 Ohio. My father, the late Professor Samuel L. Howe, was 
 for many years the principal of said academy, and here, in 
 the above quiet little village, was the family home of the 
 Shermans. Mrs. Sherman, the mother, was at the time a 
 widow, living a quiet and secluded life, but a woman of 
 great force of character, and determined that her children 
 should have the fullest opportunity for mental and moral 
 development. My father fitted young Sherman for West 
 Point, and was careful and thorough to the last degree in 
 everything pertaining to his profession. But he was espe- 
 cially devoted to the inculcation of moral principle, heart 
 
572 
 
 DISCIPLINE INCULCATED. 
 
 culture, in the minds of his pupils. He constantly instilled 
 these great essential principles into the receptive minds of 
 the young men under his care with all the power at his 
 command. And when love failed to accomplish the work, 
 then physical discipline was called in. Now the Sherman 
 boys were proud, high-spirited fellows, like most American 
 lads, and often wanted their own way, and at onp time the 
 government of the academy depended upon who should 
 rule, they or their teacher. Being duly informed, the 
 widow Sherman attended the college in person and said 
 the proper correction should be administered under her 
 own eye, — and it was thus given, but I have often heard my 
 good father say that the boys gave him a long and severe 
 struggle, and that his clothing was badly torn and disar- 
 ranged in the contest. But here was General Sherman's 
 first great and grand lesson in discipline; a lesson no 
 doubt, which proved of immense value to him during the 
 remainder of life. From this time forward the boys were 
 the models of the school, and occupied the front rank both 
 in moral and mental leadership. 
 
 " Brigadier General Stone, who commanded a brigade in 
 the Fifteenth Army Corps in 1864, submitted for publica- 
 tion some personal reminiscences of General Sherman. In 
 one of these interviews, he (Sherman) paid the following 
 just and generous tribute to his old teacher : 
 
 " ' General Stone, I consider Prof. Samuel L. Howe to be 
 one of the best teachers in the United States. I owe more 
 to him for my first start in life than to any other man in 
 America.' 
 
 "Any teacher, any family, might well be proud of a 
 tribute like the above, coming from such an exalted source, 
 and very truthfully may I add to the above that during all 
 
A SYMPATHETIC LETTER. 573 
 
 of his life General Sherman entertained the highest regard 
 for, and ever manifested a lively and affectionate interest in, 
 his venerated teacher and his family. 
 
 "In the year 1877 my revered and honored father de- 
 parted this life at Mt, Pleasant, Iowa, and perhaps the fol- 
 lowing autograph letter from General Sherman, written to 
 me in reference to that event, may still more clearly illus- 
 trate the affectionate and lovable side of that great man's 
 character : — 
 
 "'Headquarters U. S. Army, Washington, D. C., 
 
 April 26th, 1877. 
 Warrington Howe, Esq. 
 
 " 'Bear Friend: — I have received your letter, with the news- 
 paper slip containing the full and just tribute to your father, 
 the late Samuel L. Howe. I regret extremely that in my 
 perambulations over this great country of late years, I never 
 had the chance to meet your father, which I wanted to do. 
 And now, though forty long and eventful years have passed 
 since I left his school at Lancaster, Ohio, I can recall his 
 personal appearance to mind as clearly as though it were 
 yesterday. I have always borne willing testimony to his 
 skill and merits as a teacher, and am sure that the thor- 
 ough modes of instruction in arithmetic and grammar pur- 
 sued by him prepared me for easy admission to West Point, 
 and for a respectable standing in my class. I have heard 
 from time to time of the changes that attended his useful 
 career, and am glad to learn that he has left behind the flour- 
 ishing academy at Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, with children quali- 
 fied to take up his work where he left off, and carry it to 
 completion. 
 
 " * I beg you will convey to your mother the assurance of 
 my great respect and sympathy in her great affliction. I 
 recall her also to memory ; a young mother, living in the 
 
574 SHERMAN IN THE CATSKILLS. 
 
 house of" Papa" Boyle, close by the school-heuse built by 
 Mr. Howe in the old orchard, and it is hard for me to 
 realize that she is now a widow and a grandmother. I feel 
 sure, however, that Mr. Howe has left behind him hundreds 
 and thousands that revere his memory, and will perpetuate 
 it by deeds and virtues which his example and precept 
 suggested. Truly your friend, 
 
 ' W. T. Sherman.' 
 
 "The above letter has been preserved by me with 
 religious care during all these years, and will be so long as 
 life shall last. In a few brief closing words permit me to 
 say that the high privilege of having moulded and directed 
 such a character as that of General Sherman — a character 
 which has so eminently honored our country and blessed 
 the age in which we live — is a matter of honorable and just 
 pride to any man and family and a constant source of 
 inspiration to high and noble living." 
 
 Mr. Charles F. Wingate said of Sherman, as he knew 
 him near the end of his life : 
 
 "I had heard General Sherman at the famous dinner 
 given many years ago, at the St, Nicholas Hotel, where 
 General Grant, Henry Ward Beecher, Lawrence Barrett 
 and Joseph Howard, Jr., also made memorable speeches, 
 but I never came in personal contact with the hero of the 
 March to the Sea, until the summer of 1889, when he made 
 a too brief visit to Twilight Park, in the Catskills. He had 
 been staying at the Mountain House, I think, and rode over 
 with two ladies of his family to call upon some friends in 
 the Park, so that I had an opportunity of talking freely 
 with him. My previous impressions were all upset by this 
 experience. Instead of the hard-featured, grim martinet, 
 depicted in his photographs, loquacious, opinionated and 
 over-bearing, whom I expected to see, the great General 
 
GREETING A VETERAN. 575 
 
 impressed me as almost handsome, with fine, courtly, dig- 
 nified bearing, affable, unpretentious, kind-hearted and 
 without the slightest trace of vanity or egotism. I watched 
 him critically during his entire stay, and was unable to 
 detect any sign of self-consciousness. He seemed as 
 natural, as warm-hearted and as simple as a child. He 
 greeted everybody with cordiality, and made us all feel at 
 ease in his company. 
 
 " There was a group of carpenters — all native Americans 
 — working upon a new cottage near by, who were naturally 
 anxious to see the General, especially as some of them had 
 served in the war. He went over to meet them in the 
 frankest manner, and when an old veteran, some seventy 
 years of age, said to him, ' I am glad to see you. General,' 
 Sherman responded in his hearty manner, 'I know you're 
 glad to see me and I'm glad to see you, too,' and he shook 
 hands with the delighted workman in true democratic 
 fashion. 
 
 " His remarkable vigor was shown by the quietness 
 with which he mounted a steep stairway leading to a cottage 
 on a hillside. The exertion did not affect him in the least 
 and he seemed the youngest and most alert of the party. 
 When offered some refreshment on the piazza, he raised 
 his glass and, glancing around, said, ' Gentlemen, in the 
 famous words of John Phenix, I impair my own health by 
 drinking yours.' While seated there, he told many inter- 
 esting anecdotes of famous men whom he met — Lincoln, 
 Grant, Von Moltke, Bismarck and others. He did not 
 monopolize the conversation and only spoke of his ex- 
 perience in response to questions. One of the gentlemen 
 present had been connected with the United States Sanitary 
 Commission, and this fact suggested some of the topics 
 touched upon. Reference was made to the horrors of war 
 
5/6 TALKING TO BOYS. 
 
 and the difficult position of a commander who has to order 
 an assault which he knows will lead to great sacrifice of 
 life, Sherman replied that such matters become a necessity, 
 and are part of the soldier's business, however trying. 
 Personal feelings cannot be considered on such occasions. 
 
 "As we left the cottage, he turned and looked around, 
 saying, with a characteristic laugh, ' How are the points 
 of the compass here ? I am an old campaigner and like to 
 know the exact location of places where I have been enter- 
 tained, so that I can find them again.' 
 
 " I was anxious that my boy, who was off fishing, should 
 see the hero of the war, at the impressionable age of youth, 
 and he fortunately came up just then with a son of Mac« 
 Gahan, the famous war correspondent m the Balkans, 
 Sherman had known the latter intimately, having traveled 
 500 miles in his company during his Russian journey. He 
 greeted both boys in a fatherly fashion, and at my request 
 gave each of them a visiting card as a memento of the 
 meeting. Presently I ventured to say : 
 
 " ' General, these youngsters have no conception of a 
 commander doing anything but prancing around in full 
 uniform, on a fiery steed, or leading charges sword in hand, 
 and cutting down a score of fellows with his own hand. 
 Won't you tell them if you ever did any actual fighting like 
 Caesar and Alexander, and how many hundred men you 
 have killed ? ' 
 
 " Sherman laughed good-naturedly, and patting the boys 
 on the head said that he was usually away from the thick 
 of the fighting, and he only remembered once engaging 
 personally in it. He and his staff were under fire, and he 
 noticed one man on the other side who seemed to be in 
 plain view, and who was peppering them as fast as he could 
 load and fire. Acting upon a sudden impulse Sherman 
 
RUSSIAN REMINISCENCES. 579 
 
 turned to a Union soldier standing near by, and seizing his 
 rifle took a snap-shot at the Rebel, who disappeared, ' and 
 that,' said Sherman, ' was the only time I ever shot any 
 one.' 
 
 " Reference being made to his Russian visit, he related 
 an account of a grand reception which he attended in St. 
 Petersburg, where he was introduced to two charming 
 ladies who spoke English, and invited him to call at their 
 residence. To his dismay, Sherman could not find any 
 card or scrap of paper to set down the address, so he 
 gallantly wrote it on his white glove. 
 
 " ' It was one of those regular Russian names — two 
 coughs and a sneeze,' he explained, ' and I never could have 
 remembered it otherwise.' 
 
 "And so the hour passed pleasantly until the carriage 
 returned, and the hero drove off with his companions, leav- 
 ing a delightful impression upon all who had met him. 
 These may seem trifling incidents, but they picture the 
 defender of the Republic as he appeared in familiar inter- 
 course toward the close of his remarkable career. Only a 
 month before his death I received a note written in his neat 
 chirography apologizing for his failure to attend the annual 
 dinner of the Twilight Club, to which he had been espe- 
 cially invited. There is a certain quaintness in the abbre- 
 viations and a stately sweep in the signature which suggests 
 Washington's letters. It is a model of easy courtesy: 
 
 *'* Dear Sir: I thank you for your kind remembrance 
 and invitation for the 8th inst. of your Twilight Club, and 
 regret that during my two weeks' absence at Washington 
 and Phila., from which I have just returned, my factotum 
 has committed me to more engagements next week than I 
 can fulfil. With best compliments to Yr. brother, I am 
 sincerely yours, Wm. T. Sherman.' 
 
 33 
 
580 SHERMAN AT THE GRAND REVIEW. 
 
 " OCher and far less occupied men will ignore or forget 
 such matters, but General Sherman was punctilious in the 
 performance of the smallest duty." 
 
 Some interesting personal reminiscences of Sherman, 
 beginning at the end of the war, were given by a writer in 
 the New York Evening Post. " The first time I remember 
 seeing Sherman near at hand," he said, " was at the grand 
 review at Washington in May, 1865, when, dismounting 
 from his horse at the grand stand as his army marched by, 
 he ascended the steps to meet the President and Cabinet. 
 My seat was close by, so that I could almost touch him as 
 he passed up, and I can never forget his firm, vigorous 
 step, still less the nervous quivering of his lip and the 
 bristling up of his tawny moustache as he met Secretary 
 Stanton, who had treated him so roughly about Johnston's 
 capitulation. He drew back as Stanton stood ready to 
 extend his hand and, bowing slightly, took his seat. It 
 reminded me of a tiger-cat or lion meeting an enemy and 
 ready to spring at his throat. There is no question that 
 Sherman, though a generous enemy, was a good hater. 
 
 " The next occasion which brings him to mind is my 
 return from Florida in 1 870, when I met an ante-bellum 
 acquaintance. Col. Archie Cole. He had been on Lieut.- 
 Gen. Joe Johnston's staff, and told me, in grandiloquent 
 language, of the plans they had concocted for trapping and 
 destroying Sherman at Atlanta, which he said would have 
 changed the whole result of the war. These plans, he 
 boasted, were only disturbed by Jefferson Davis's appoint- 
 ment of Hood in the place of Johnston. I heard the story 
 without much accepting it, but did accept Col. Cole's 
 invitation to meet Gen. Joe Johnston at his rooms at a 
 Savannah hotel, where, accordingly, I encountered the 
 
SHERMAN AND JOHNSTON. 58 1 
 
 great rebel, and got from him a pretty strong confirmation 
 of the idea, then prevailing among Gen. McClellan's friends, 
 that he (McCIellan), having the ironclad Mci'vimac on his 
 flank at Norfolk, was fully justified by military axioms in 
 going to Yorktown instead of taking the James River base 
 before the wonderful Monitor met and repulsed the Con- 
 federate ram. 
 
 " I did not ask Johnston about his proposed capture of 
 Sherman, but on my way North met and sat by the latter 
 at Wm. H. Aspinwall's dinner party, in New York, given 
 to General Sherman, two or three days after I had seen 
 Johnston and his staff officer at Savannah. Among others, 
 there was present a rebel, from Richmond, perhaps a Major- 
 General, who was then making iron at the Tredegar Works. 
 In a pause in the conversation I said to General Sherman: 
 'I have just been South, where I saw your old opponent, 
 Joe Johnston, and had a talk with him and one of his staff 
 officers ; the latter thought you were in a very tight place 
 at Atlanta, and that Johnston's removal changed the whole 
 history of the war. I suppose when General Johnston was 
 removed by Jeff. Davis, you must have been mighty glad to 
 see him replaced by an inferior, mad-cap soldier like Hood? 
 How was it?' 'Well,' said the General, with his usual 
 frankness, ' of course I was glad to lose Johnston from my 
 front, but it really made no great difference in the long run, 
 and one da}', when Johnston (who had been at West Point 
 with me) and I were sitting under a shade tree in North 
 Carolina, waiting to hear whether his terms of capitulation 
 were ratified by Grant, I said, " Tell me, Joe, did it make any 
 difference, except a few days, more or less in time, and some 
 bloodshed ? We had beaten you then, and, with the pick 
 oi the Northern armies at my elbow, you could not long 
 
582 A CASE OF DISCIPLINE. 
 
 have stopped our march." Johnston readily acceded to 
 that,' said Sherman, * and that was the simple truth and all 
 there was to it.' 
 
 " Finding him ready, as usual, to speak out, notwithstand- 
 ing his having the rebel Major-General sitting opposite, I 
 said, ' I saw too. General, what they call down there " Sher- 
 man's monuments " — blackened chimneys and ruins — paint- 
 ing you as quite a monster of cruelty.' The General's face 
 grew grave, and he tersely said, the company all attention 
 now, 'I'll just tell you the only case when I hesitated to 
 push discipline and punish my officers for wilful destruc- 
 tion. Of course marauders and camp-followers burned, 
 robbed, and committed outrages we could not always 
 reach, but the one other case was this. One day Colonel 
 
 of the th Ohio, was brought to headquarters 
 
 under arrest for burning a plantation house. On being 
 questioned he said : 
 
 " * Well, General, I have no defence to make ; shoot me, 
 but hear my story first. (He was not a literary fellow, and 
 did not put into Latin " Strike but hear.") Escaping from 
 prison some time ago, I was caught by bloodhounds and 
 
 d d rebels, and brought to this plantation house ; while 
 
 I lay there, torn and bleeding, the owner came out and 
 kicked and cursed me, and I swore if I lived I would pay 
 him off. I have gone and done it, and am now ready for a 
 file of men and muskets to square my accounts.' 
 
 " ' What,' said Sherman, * could I do ? I had to pas^ it by 
 quietly ; but that was the only case when I forgave such a 
 breach of the orders only to burn buildings under certain 
 exigencies of war.' All this was said earnestly, but without 
 exaggeration, and I shall not soon forget his face and the 
 withering look he east at our vis-a-vis rebel, who sat and 
 
BODGING POLITICS. 583 
 
 took the medicine like a good enough fellow, as he really 
 was. 
 
 " The last time I saw General Sherman was when Porter 
 brought him, in the Tallapoosa, to Cape Cod and stood next 
 to him at a deer hunt. The General was brimming over 
 with the enjoyment of his holiday, and when at night the 
 boys and girls sang his old war songs, I thought they 
 would never get him back to the ship," 
 
 One evening, it is related, General Sherman went into a 
 club of which he was an honorary member. At that time 
 a hot Presidential campaign was going on and the subject 
 most warmly discussed at the club that evening was poli- 
 tics. When the General entered the room there was a 
 spontaneous cry for his opinion. General Sherman was not 
 a politician, and he said that he would rather not say any- 
 thing about the campaign. But he told a story, and it was 
 a good story — a military tale which described a driving 
 charge in the face of shot and shell. This story was about 
 the battle of Resaca, and when it was ended a young man 
 went up to General Sherman and asked him what the battle 
 of Resaca was. For a moment General Sherman was taken 
 back. " Resaca," he said, " don't you know about Resaca?" 
 Then, while every one was waiting to shake hands with 
 him or to get a word with him, he stood in one corner with 
 the young man and spent fifteen minutes in telling him all 
 about Resaca. Meanwhile his many friends stood about 
 waiting for him to end his conversation with the young man, 
 to whom the General had never before spoken. 
 
 Sherman once remarked, in conversation with a friend, 
 that a woman had asked him how he felt when he got ready 
 to make his great march to the sea. The General had a 
 wonderful smile, which spoke volumes. He looked afar off. 
 
584 ^ COMPREHENSIVE STRATEGIST. 
 
 and then turning quickly said : " When she asked me 
 what I thought, I said to her that I thought of the 
 sea." 
 
 Colonel L. M. Dayton, who served on Sherman's staff 
 during the war, said that what struck him most in the 
 General's character was his versatility. " I cannot help 
 believing," he said, " that as a general he was greater than 
 any other the war produced. He planned a campaign to 
 its uttermost limit before he began active operations. For 
 instance, in the Vicksburg campaign, while General Grant 
 might not have figured out his movements beyond the 
 actual capture of that city itself, General Sherman in his 
 place would have outlined clearly what he would do with 
 his men after the siege and what disposition he would 
 make of the baggage and siege guns. 
 
 " When we started out from Atlanta on the march to the 
 sea nobody knew what our objective point on the Atlantic 
 coast was except a few members of the staff and the authori- 
 ties at Washington. Everybody else simply knew that we 
 were going to march across Georgia to the coast. When 
 General Sherman reached Savannah, which of course was 
 all along known to the authorities as our objective point, he 
 was greatly surprised to find that a gunboat had been des- 
 patched down the coast to meet him there. The captain 
 of this gunboat had succeeded in ascending Ossabaw Sound 
 and the Ogeechee River, which lies just back of Savannah, 
 and made instant communication with the General. An 
 important official document which had been brought down 
 in this way was handed to General Sherman in my presence. 
 When he received it he got excited and seemed vexed 
 about something. I noticed his color rising and a look of 
 irritation in his eye as well as the nervous motion of the 
 left arm which characterized him when anything annoyed 
 
BELFkELlANT DMClSIOAr. 585 
 
 him. It seemed, for instance, as if he was pushing some- 
 thing away from him, 
 
 "'Come here, Dayton,' said he, and we went into the 
 inner room of the building where he made his headquarters. 
 As soon as we got inside he began to swear, and I could see 
 that he was greatly opposed to the suggestions that had 
 apparently been contained in the document. ' I won't do 
 it,' he would say to himself several times over ; ' I won't 
 do anything of the kind.' 
 
 "The document was an official order from Secretary 
 Stanton, approved by General Grant, for General Sherman 
 to wait with his army at Savannah for transports which had 
 been sent down the coast to convey them by sea to the 
 mouth of the James, and then to ascend that river to co- 
 operate with Grant. General Sherman had all along in- 
 tended to march his army up the coast, across country, and 
 he sat down at once and wrote a letter to General Grant 
 explaining to him why he was opposed to taking a sea 
 voyage with his men ; how he thought such an experience 
 would demoralize them with sea-sickness, confinement in 
 close quarters and lack of exercise, and how he had decided 
 to take all the responsibility and march them up by land, in 
 accordance with his original plans. He said he would be 
 at Goldsboro, N, C., on the 21st day of March, 1865, and 
 that if any other orders were sent to him there they would 
 reach him promptly. So closely did he calculate that on the 
 23d of March he was in possession of Goldsboro. 
 
 "As Sherman had at that time practically an army of a 
 hundred thousand men, which could easily annihilate any 
 opposition he might meet with on his march, the wisdom 
 of his course was at once apparent to the authorities, and 
 no attempt was made to interfere with his execution of his 
 plans. As a matter of fact he did encounter Joe Johnston 
 
5S6 SCHOOL-DAY REMINISCENCES. 
 
 on the way up the coast and defeated him at Bentonville. 
 That, I beheve, was his last battle. No other general would 
 have dared to do what Sherman did in this instance. The 
 boldness of his military genius and his keen insight into 
 the future were admirably illustrated by it." 
 
 General Rosecrans, who has already been quoted, had 
 many reminiscences of Sherman, beginning with his cadet 
 days at West Point, which school he entered two years 
 later than Sherman. To Mr. Frank G. Carpenter, the well 
 known writer, General Rosecrans said : 
 
 " Sherman was two classes above me, but he was one of 
 the most popular and brightest fellows in the academy. 
 I remember him as a bright-eyed, red-headed fellow who 
 was always prepared for a lark of any kind, and who usually 
 had grease spots on his pants. These spots came from our 
 clandestine midnight feasts, at which Sherman usually 
 made the hash. He was considered the best hash maker 
 at West Point, and this in our day was a great honor. The 
 food given the cadets then was furnished by contract. It 
 was cheap and poor, and I sometimes think that the only 
 meals we relished were our midnight hash lunches. We 
 prepared for them by slipping boiled potatoes into our 
 handkerchiefs when at the table and hiding these away 
 inside our vests. One of us would steal a lump of butter 
 during a meal, and by poking it into a glove we could 
 fasten it by means of a fork driven into the under part of 
 the table and keep it there until we got ready to leave. In 
 addition to this we, would steal a little bit of bread, and 
 some of the boys had in some way or another got hold of 
 stew-pans. After the materials were gotten, one of the 
 boys who had a retired room where there was least danger 
 of discovery would whisper invitations to the rest to meet 
 him that night for a hash feast. When we got there 
 
A NOVEL STOREHOUSE. 587 
 
 Sherman would mash the potatoes and mix them with 
 pepper, salt and butter in such a way as to make a most 
 appetizing dish. This he would cook in the stew-pan over 
 the fire. We had grates in those days, and when it was 
 done we would eat it sizzling hot on our bread, which we 
 had toasted. As we did so we would tell stories and have 
 a jolly good time, and Sherman was one of the best story- 
 tellers of the lot. He was by no means a goody-goody 
 boy, and he was one of those fellows who used to go down 
 to Benny Haven's of a dark night, at the risk of expulsion, 
 to eat oysters and drink beer. 
 
 " Not long ago, while General of the army, he went to 
 West Point, and, in company with the commandant of 
 cadets, made an inspection tour of the barracks. He was'nt 
 looking for contraband goods, but he got to talking about 
 our old school days at West Point, and he said : ' When I 
 was a cadet one of the considerations was as to what we 
 were to do with our cooking utensils and other things 
 during our summer vacations, and we used to hide our 
 things in the chimney during the summer months. I 
 wonder if the boys do so still.' This visit was made 
 during the month of June, and when Sherman said this he 
 was in one of the cadet's rooms. As he spoke he went to 
 the fire-place and stuck his cane up the chimney. As he 
 did so a frying pan, an empty bottle, a suit of citizen's 
 clothes and a board which had been stretched across 
 the chimney came flying down, and the cadets who occu- 
 pied the room were thunder-struck. General Sherman 
 laughed, and telling the commandant not to report the 
 young men, he went to another room. 
 
 " Sherman," continued Gen. Rosecrans, "^stood sixth in 
 his class at West Point, and he was very high in mathe- 
 matics. He could have taken the honors, but he did not 
 
588 CHARACTERISTIC FRANKNESS. 
 
 care for study, and he was blunt in his ways. He had no 
 policy or diplomacy about him, and if one of the profes- 
 sors asked him to do a problem he would blurt out at 
 times, ' I can't do it.' * Why ? ' the professor would ask. 
 ' Well, sir, to be frank with you, I haven't studied it.' Never- 
 theless, he stood so well as an honest, bright student that 
 he was never punished for such remarks, but his careless- 
 ness, of course, cut down his average." 
 
CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 
 Sherman's own words. 
 
 Speech At a Clover Club Dinner — A Famous New England Society 
 Dinner — Teaching Geography in Georgia — Speaking for the 
 United States — Old Times in Ohio — At a Grand Army National 
 Encampment — Why He did not March to Augusta — One of 
 His Last Letters — A Story of Grant — Congratulations to 
 President Harrison. 
 
 General Sherman displayed his marked ability as a letter- 
 writer early in life, as a lad at West Point. To the end of 
 his days he wielded the same vigorous and trenchant pen. 
 Nor was he less effective as a speaker. The graces of 
 oratory, as taught in schools, he did not aspire to display. 
 His eloquence was of a more impressive type than that; it 
 was the eloquence of a man of action. Ideas were plenty 
 in his fertile brain, and, as an omnivorous reader he had 
 acquired a vast vocabulary. When he arose to speak, 
 therefore, he had but one thing to do : to express his 
 thoughts in words with the same directness and vigor with 
 which he would, on occasion, have wrought them out in 
 deeds. He was a spirited and dramatic story-teller, and 
 his fund of anecdotes seemed inexhaustible. " Stage-fright" 
 was of course unknown to him, though the circumstances 
 of his speaking affected him much. 
 
 Some years before his death, it is related, he was a guest 
 at a Clover Club dinner, in Philadelphia. This Clover Club 
 589 
 
590 -AT THE CLOVER CLUB'S DINNER. 
 
 was composed of newspaper men, authors, artists, etc., and 
 its ruling idea was non-formality. No guest was too emi- 
 nent to be exempt from practical jokes and guying. So 
 when General Sherman rose to speak, having been called 
 upon, he was greeted by a storm of applause. This ap- 
 plause was renewed whenever he attempted to open his 
 mouth, until at last, surprised, indignant and hurt, he shut 
 his teeth together like a sprung rat-trap and sat down. A 
 moment later the Club struck up the tune " Marching 
 Through Georgia," and they all joined in the song with a 
 will. As the ringing words of that song filled the hall and 
 the compliment contained in them went into the heart of 
 the old warrior, he saw that the joking was all good-natured. 
 He grew mellow again, and as he looked about the board 
 and saw good-fellowship, good-nature and admiration in 
 every countenance, the tears came to his eyes and he rose 
 and made one of the best speeches that has ever been 
 delivered before them. He made his speech without inter- 
 ruption, and the applause which followed it at the end was 
 genuine enough and not facetious. 
 
 One of Sherman's most notable and most characteristic 
 speeches was made at the dinner of the New England 
 Society, in New York, on December 22d, 1886. It was as 
 follows : — 
 
 Mr. President and Gentlemen of the New England 
 Society of New York. — Were I to do the proper thing, I 
 would turn to my friend on the left and say amen, for he 
 has drawn a glorious picture of the War, in language 
 stronger than even I or my friend Schofield could dare to 
 use. But looking over the Society to-night, so many young 
 faces here, so many old and loved ones gone — I feel almost 
 as one of your forefathers. [Laughter and applause.] 
 Many and many a time have I been welcomed among you. 
 
THE NEW ENGLAND DINNER SPEECH. 59 1 
 
 I came from a bloody civil war to New York in years gone 
 by — twenty or twenty -one, may be — and a committee came 
 to me in my room and dragged me unwillingly before the 
 then New England Society of New York, and they received 
 me with such hearty applause and such kindly greetings 
 that my heart goes out to you now to-night as their repre- 
 sentatives. [Applause.] God knows, I wish you, one and 
 all, all the blessings of life, and enjoyment of the good 
 things you now possess and others yet in store for you, 
 young men. 
 
 " I hope not to occupy more than a few minutes of your 
 time, for last night I celebrated the same event in Brooklyn, 
 and at about two or three o'clock this morning I saw this 
 hall filled with lovely ladies waltzing [laughter,] and here I 
 am to-night. [Renewed laughter. A voice — You're a 
 rounder, General.] But I shall ever, ever recur to the early 
 meetings of the New England Society, in which I shared 
 with a pride and satisfaction which words will not express, 
 and I hope the few words I now say will be received in the 
 kindly spirit they are made in, be they what they may, for 
 the call upon me is sudden and somewhat unexpected. 
 
 " I have no toast. I am a loafer. [Laughter.] I can 
 choose to say what I may — not tied by any text or formula. 
 I know when you look upon old General Sherman, as yQu 
 seem to call him [Oh, oh !] — pretty young yet, my friends 
 — not all the devil out of me yet, and I hope still to share 
 with you many a festive occasion — whenever you may 
 assemble, wherever the sons of New England may 
 assemble, be it here under this Delmonico roof or in Brook- 
 lyn, or even in Bostcm, I will try to be there. [Applause.] 
 
 " My friends, I have had many, many experiences, and it 
 always seems to me easier to recur to some of them when 
 I am on my feet, for they come back to me like the 
 
592 AN INCIDENT OF THE WAR. 
 
 memory of a dream, pleasant to think of. And now to- 
 nifht, I know the Civil War is uppermost in your minds, 
 although I would banish it as a thing of trade, something 
 too common to my calling : yet I know it pleases the 
 audience to refer to little incidents here and there of the 
 great Civil War, in which I took an humble part. [Applause.] 
 But I remember, one day away down in Georgia, some- 
 where between, I think, Milledgeville and Milan, I was 
 riding on a good horse and had some friends along with 
 me to keep good fellowship, you know. [Laughter.] A 
 pretty humorous party, clever good fellows. [Renewed 
 laughter.] Riding along, I spied a plantation. I was 
 thirsty, rode up to the gate and dismounted. One of these 
 men with sabres by their side, called orderlies, stood by my 
 horse. I walked up on the porch, where there was an old 
 gentleman, probably sixty years of age, white-haired and 
 very gentle in his manners — evidently a planter of the 
 higher class. I asked him if he would be kind enough to 
 give me some water. He called a boy, and soon he had a 
 bucket of water with a dipper. I then asked for a chair, 
 and called one or two of my officers. Among them was, I 
 think. Dr. John Moore, who recently has been made Sur- 
 geon-General of the Army, for which I am very grateful — even 
 to Mr. Cleveland. [Laughter and applause.] He sat on 
 the porch, and the old man held the bucket up to me, and 
 I took a long drink of water and may have lighted a cigar 
 [laughter], and it is possible I may have had a little flask 
 of whiskey along. [Renewed laughter.] 
 
 " At all events, I got into a conversation ; and the troops 
 drifted along, passing down the roadway closely by fours, 
 and every regiment had its banner, regimental or national, 
 sometimes furled and sometimes afloat. The old gentleman 
 says : ' General, what troops are these passing now ? ' 
 
A LESSON' IN GEOGRAPHY. 593 
 
 As the color-bearer came by, I said : " Throw out your 
 colors. That is the 73d Iowa." 
 
 " The 73d Iowa ! 73d Iowa ! Iowa ! 73d ! What do you 
 mean by 73d? " 
 
 " Well," said I, " habitually a regiment when organized, 
 amounts to 1,000 men." 
 
 " Do you pretend to say Iowa has sent 73,000 men into 
 this cruel Civil War? " [Laughter.] 
 
 " Why, my friend, I think that may be inferred." 
 
 ** Well," says he, " Where's Iowa ? " [Laughter.] 
 
 " Iowa is a State bounded on the east by the Mississippi, 
 on the South by Missouri, on the west by unknown country, 
 and on the north by the North Pole." 
 
 " Well," says he, " 73,000 men from Iowa ? You must 
 have a million men," 
 
 Says I: " I think about that." 
 
 Presently another regiment came along. 
 
 " What may that be ? " 
 
 I called to the color-bearer : " Throw out your colors 
 and let us see," and it was the 17th or 19th — I have for- 
 gotten which — Wisconsin. 
 
 "Wisconsin! Northwest Territory! Wisconsin! Is it 
 spelled with an O or a W ? " 
 
 " Why, we spell it now with a W. It used to be spelled 
 'Ouis.'" 
 
 " The 17th ! that makes 17,000 men ? " 
 
 " Yes, I thmk there are a good many more than that. 
 Wisconsin has sent about 30,000 men into the war." 
 
 Then again came along another regiment from Minnesota. 
 
 "Minnesota! My God ! where is Minnesota? [Laugh- 
 ter] Minnesota ! " 
 
 " Minnesota is away up on the sources of the Mississippi 
 
594 
 
 APPRECIATING THE NORTH. 
 
 River, a beautiful territory, too, by the way — a beautiful 
 State." 
 
 "A State?" 
 
 " Yes, has Senators in C'"ngress, good ones, too. They're 
 very fine men — very fine troops." 
 
 " How many men has she sent to this cruel war ? " 
 
 " Well, I don't exactly know ; somewhere between 10,000 
 and 20,000 men, probably. Don't make any difference — 
 all we want." [Laughter.] 
 
 "Well," says he, "now we must have been a set of fools 
 to throw down the gage of battle to a country we didn't 
 know the geography of! [Laughter and applause.] When 
 I went to school that was the Northwest Territory, and the 
 Northwest Territory — well," says he, "we looked upon 
 that as away off, and didn't know anything about it. Fact 
 is, we didn't know anything at all about it." 
 
 Said I : " My friend, think of it a moment. Down here 
 in Georgia, one of the original thirteen States which formed 
 this great Union of this country, you have stood fast. You 
 have stood fast while the great Northwest has been grow- 
 ing with a giant's growth. Iowa to-day, my friend, con- 
 tains more railroads, more turnpikes, more acres of culti- 
 vated land, more people, more intelligence, more schools, 
 more colleges — more of everything which constitutes a 
 refined and enlightened State — than the whole State of 
 Georgia." 
 
 " My God ! " says the man, " it's awful. I didn't dream 
 of that" 
 
 " Well," says I, " look here, my friend, I was once a ban- 
 ker, and I have some knowledge of notes and indorsements, 
 and so forth. Did you ever have anything to do with in- 
 dorsements?" 
 
ONE MAN RECONSTRUCTED. 5^55 
 
 Says he : " Yes, I have had my share. I have a factor 
 down in Savannah, and I give my note and he indorses it 
 and I get the money somehow or other. I have to pay it 
 in the end, on the crop," 
 
 " Well," says I, " now look here. In 1861, the Southern 
 States had 4,000,000 slaves as property, for which the States 
 of Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and so 
 forth were indorsers. We were on the bond. Your slaves 
 were protected by the same law which protects land and 
 other property. Now, you got mad at them because they 
 didn't think exactly as you did about religion and about 
 that thing and t'other thing ; and like a set of fools you first 
 took your bond and drew your name through the indorsers'. 
 Do you know what the effect will be? You will never get 
 paid for those niggers at all. [Laughter.] They are gone. 
 They're free men now, 
 
 " Well," says he, " we were the greatest set of fools that 
 ever were in the world." [Laughter.] 
 
 " And so I saw one reconstructed man in the good State 
 of Georgia before I left it. [Laughter and applause.] 
 
 " Yes, my friends, in those days things looked gloomy to 
 us, but the decree came from a higher power. No pen, 
 no statesman, in fact, no divine could have solved the 
 riddle which bound us at that time ; nothing but the great 
 God of War. And you and your fathers, your ancestors, 
 if you please, of whom I profess to be one [applause], had 
 to resort to the great Arbiter of Battles, and call upon Jove 
 himself. And now all men in America, north and south 
 and east and west, stand free before the tribunal of the 
 Almighty, each man to work out his own destiny according 
 to his ability, and according to his virtue, and according 
 to his manhood. [Applause.] I assure you that we who 
 took part in that war were kindly men, We did not wish 
 
596 NEW ENGLAND ANCESTRY. 
 
 to kill. We did not wish to strike a blow. I know that I 
 grieved as much as any man when I saw pain and sorrow 
 and affliction among the innocent and distressed, and when 
 I saw burning and desolation. But it was an incident of 
 war, and was forced upon us — forced upon us by men 
 influenced by a bad ambition, not by the men who owned 
 those slaves, but by politicians who used that as a pretext, 
 and forced you and your fathers and me and others who 
 sit near me, to take up arms and settle the controversy 
 once and forever. [Cries of " good," and loud applause.] 
 
 "Now, my friends of New England, we all know what 
 your ancestors are recorded to have been ; mine were of a 
 kindred stock. Both my parents were from Norfolk, Conn. 
 I think and feel like you. I, too, was taught the alphabet 
 with blows, and all the knowledge I possessed before I 
 went to West Point was spanked into me by the ferule of 
 those old schoolmasters. [Laughter.] I learned my les- 
 son well, and I hope that you, sons of New England, will 
 ever stand by your country and its flag, glory in the achieve- 
 ments of your ancestors, and forever — and to a day beyond 
 forever, if necessary — giving you time to make the journey 
 to your last resting-place — honor your blood, honor your 
 forefathers, honor yourselves, and treasure the memories of 
 those who have gone before you." [Enthusiastic applause.] 
 
 At the New York Chamber of Commerce dinner, on 
 November 20, 1888, General Sherman responded to the 
 toast. " The United States — with an educated community 
 and patriotic people her success will continue to be com- 
 mensurate with her opportunities and her power coexten- 
 sive with her vast domain." He said ; 
 
 " Mr. President and Gentlemen — When I first received 
 your invitation I felt almost overwhelmed at the idea of 
 being brought into the presence of the old merchants of 
 
AT THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE. 597 
 
 New '^''ork, who guide the destinies of your city. Every 
 man who loves his country, or who professes to do so, honors 
 the merchant, the far-seeing man of affairs, who takes the 
 whole universe into his calculations, and brings here the 
 things we need and sends forth the things that v/e can spare 
 and sell, and every man who honors the merchant must 
 think with pride of New York, which exercises an influence 
 over civilization, I am inclined to think, second only 
 to London and greater than either Paris, Vienna or Berlin. 
 [Applouse.] And I believe, gentlemen, your influence will 
 continue to grow — provided always that you deserve it. 
 [Applause.] " 
 
 " When I got the toast, I was somewhat startled. I didn't 
 know whether to take it in its grand sense or in its minor 
 sense, like the motto in the copy-book that we used to pass 
 around in our school-rooms; " Be virtuous and you will be 
 happy. " [Laughter.] That is a self-evident proposition, 
 and so is the toast. Nevertheless, I turned to " Cosmos " 
 and thought of Humboldt, and then to Burghaus, and then 
 to my old friend William Gilpin. I don't knov/ whether 
 you know my old friend William Gilpin, but not to know 
 him is to be yourself unknown. [Laughter.] He lectured 
 in London, and he proved to the satisfaction of his small 
 audience that wherever he was was the centre of creation. 
 [Laughter.] I rem.ember him when he lived in St. Louis — 
 and of course that was the centre of the world [laughter], 
 and when he moved up to Independence the world went 
 with him. Finally, President Lincoln made him Governor 
 of Colorado, and the centre of the world was easily trans- 
 ferred to Colorado. [Laughter,} So it was to the Garden 
 of the Gods, when he subsequently went there. 
 
 " Well, he was a graduate of West Point and traveled once 
 with me across this continent to San Francisco. Gentlemen, 
 
593 
 
 A GROWING COUNTRY. 
 
 did it ever strike you that when you get to San Francisco 
 you are only half-way across the United States ? The 
 Aleutian Islands, which we got with Alaska, extend further 
 toward Asia than the continent of North America does to 
 the east of San Francisco ; and that was the fact that start- 
 led Gilpin. Every foot of that land, too, we have honestly 
 come by. 
 
 " As to Canada, we want no part of that, any more than 
 we do of Mexico. We have enough poor land already. 
 [Laughter.] Our present domain comprises about 3,700,000 
 square miles, and that is bigger than the civilized domain 
 of any country except Russia. In Belgium and parts of 
 France the population is forty times denser than ours at 
 present ; so we see what room we have to grow. I can 
 remember when we used to cross the San Joaquin valley, 
 twenty or thirty years ago, and thought it was a poor, mis- 
 erable place, because our cattle suffered so in the passage, 
 but now the land is worth there ;^ioo an acre, while I. 
 wouldn't have given two cents for 1,000 acres then. 
 [Laughter.] 
 
 " But the country is grov/ing in other ways. Up here 
 at Harvard, we have college youths spending ;^ 10,000 a year 
 — more than the pay of a Lieutenant-General, by the way 
 [laughter] — and if De Witt Clinton, who is entitled to the 
 credit of building the Erie Canal, the first great artery of 
 internal commerce, were to rise and look around him to-day, 
 he would see many things to surprise him. Among others, 
 he would be startled at the spectacle presented four years 
 ago in these United States, of the election of a man to the 
 Chief Magistracy and the appointment of others in his 
 cabinet, representing the opposition that confronted us 
 twenty years ago in the Civil War, when we 'ought to save 
 the country. The people submitted to that without one 
 
TALKING ABOUT OHIO. 599 
 
 single whimper. [Applause.] But they have again chosen 
 a man of our own style and stamp, and I, for one, say open- 
 ly that I am glad of it. [Renewed applause.] I am not 
 only proud of Ben Harrison as one of our soldier-boys, 
 but I am glad that in the hour of our danger he stood by 
 the American flag and was true to it." 
 
 At an Ohio Society dinner in New York, April 7, 1888, 
 he made this address, on old times in his native State : 
 
 " My young friends from Ohio, whilst you bear your 
 honored State in memory, honored memory, never reflect 
 upon others. [Laughter.] There were good men born long 
 before they were in Ohio. [Renewed laughter.] There 
 are a great many good men born in other States out of 
 Ohio. [Continued laughter.] I have encountered them 
 everywhere on this broad continent and in Europe. There 
 seems to be a pretty fair representation of Ohio in this great 
 city of New York, and I claim you have the same right 
 here as the nativ^e-born citizens [laughter], not by suffer- 
 ance but by right; and I hope you will bear in mind that 
 you are citizens of a greater country, the United States of 
 America. [Loud applause.] As your president has well 
 told you in eloquent words to-night, our friends in Marietta 
 are celebrating a past of vast importance in the history of 
 Ohio, and the United States, and of all mankind. One hun- 
 dred years ago there landed at Marietta that little body 
 whose influence was then felt and is now felt all over the 
 earth's surface; an organized body of men with discipline, 
 seeking to make homes for themselves and their families 
 and to rear up a State, free, where all men could enjoy 
 liberty and the pursuit of happiness in their own way and 
 at their own time. Ohio was the first of the States created ; 
 not the first of the thirteen, but it was the child of the 
 Revolution, although the ordinance of 1787 preceded the 
 
6oO ^^^ TIMES AT LANCASTER, 
 
 Constitution by two years. Yet it was made by the same 
 men, breathing the same spirit of freedom and nationality. 
 
 " I was born in the town of Lancaster, and I doubt if any 
 town anywhere possessed a larger measure of intelligence 
 for its numbers, about 3,000. There was General Beecher, 
 Henry Stanbury, Thomas Ewing, William Irvine, [A voice 
 — " Tom Corwin."] Yes ; he belonged in Lebanon, and I 
 knew him well. His name suggests to me something which 
 I am frequently reminded of when I go to Ohio. Li these 
 modern times I don't think they're as good as they used to 
 be in those early days. I suppose it is a common weak- 
 ness with old men to view things in that way. I could 
 recount a great many things about those early days. My 
 mem.ory goes back to 1826, I remember perfectly the 
 election of General Jackson in 1828. I remember the 
 coffin handbills put out by TJie Cincinnati Gazette to 
 stigmatize Armstrong and Arbuthnot. At that time I 
 belonged to a strict Whig family, and we all thought 
 Jackson a tyrant. I have come to the conclusion in later 
 years that old Jackson was a very clever fellow. There 
 used to be a man in Columbus named Gustavus Swain, 
 and what he didn't know about Ohio nobody did. Ohio 
 had its fun and its serious times, and always bore in mind 
 that they were the first free State northwest of the Ohio. 
 Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Minnesota followed after- 
 ward by catching the inspiration from her. [Applause.] It 
 travelled beyond. I went with McCook to Arizona and 
 found our fellows there from Yellow Creek. Everywhere 
 we stopped we met them. They didn't know they were from 
 Ohio, but he convinced them they were. [Laughter.] 
 
 " My own father was Judge of the Supreme Court in 
 Ohio when he died in Lebanon, and ' Tom ' Corwin was 
 witn him then. I remember perfectly well how we were 
 
TO HIS OLD COMRADES. 6oi 
 
 all cast down by the news of his death, sudden and unex- 
 pected, with eleven children and a salary of ^$300 to bring 
 them up on. How that task was ever accomplished I 
 don't know. [Laughter.] You see some of us are still 
 alive. [Renewed laughter.] I am one of those living who, 
 owing to the kindness of his father, stand before you to- 
 night as representative of the State of Ohio. [Applause.] 
 Vive la bagatelle. Enjoy the hour. Take the world as 
 you find it. It will grow vast enough, but I don't know 
 whether it will grow better." [Applause.] 
 
 One of his last speeches was made before his Grand 
 Army comrades, at their National Encampment at Milwau- 
 kee, August 28, 1889. "Boys," he said, "my speaking 
 days are over. I am not going to make any more speeches. 
 If you want a speech, take Senator Manderson. I think he 
 can make a good speech. I am always glad to see so many 
 soldiers looking hearty and healthy. I think we can stand 
 on our legs yet. I like to see that our old Uncle Sam takes 
 pretty good care of these old soldiers. Uncle Sam cannot 
 make old men young, but he can make young men just as 
 good as you or I ever were. I see that Milwaukee is full of 
 them, and they are coming out of the bushes everywhere. 
 If you think you are the only old soldiers, you are mis- 
 taken. There were old soldiers before you, and there will 
 be again. Such is the providence of the world. Just as 
 good men were born a thousand years ago and w^ill be born 
 a thousand years hence. All we have to do is to do our 
 parts in this short period of life honorably and honestly. 
 I think we can pass the grand tribunal and say, ' We have 
 tried to do our best,' and the sentence will be, ' Well done.' 
 
 " We have passed through one crisis of our country's his- 
 tory. I don't see any chance of another, but nobody knows 
 the future. Bring up your children to love and venerate the 
 
6o2 Pf^^y AUGUSTA WAS SPARED. 
 
 old soldiers who fought in 1861 and 1865, and make them 
 uncover their heads when they see that little banner that 
 you followed in the days which tried us to the utmost. Let 
 us venerate that flag and love our country and love each 
 other, and stand by each other, as long as we have heads 
 on our shoulders and legs on our bodies. These old soldiers 
 who marched against the enemy in those trying days, a 
 greateful country tries its best to assist, and will, I think — 
 in fact, I am sure — be good to you when you get too old, 
 all that is necessary. But keep young as long as you can, 
 and do not go into a soldiers' home if you can help it." 
 
 At about this time he wrote to the editor of The Chroftick, 
 at Augusta, Georgia, this letter, in reply to the question 
 why he did not, on his great march through Georgia, go 
 to that city instead of Savannah : 
 
 "My Dear Sir: I am just back from a visit to my 
 daughter, who resides at Rosemont, near Philadelphia, and 
 find your letter of the iSth. 
 
 " The ' March to the Sea,' from Atlanta was resolved on 
 after Hood had got well on his way to Nashville. I then 
 detached to General Thomas a force sufficient to whip 
 Hood, which he, in December, 1864, very handsomely and 
 conclusively did. Still I had left a very respectable army, 
 and resolved to join Grant at Richmond. The distance 
 was 1,000 miles, and prudence dictated a base at Savannah 
 or Port Royal. Our enemies had garrisons at Macon and 
 Augusta. I figured on both and passed between to Savan- 
 nah. Then starting northward, the same problem presented 
 itself in Augusta and Charleston. I figured on both, but 
 passed between. I did not want to drive out their garrisons 
 ahead of me at the crossings of the Santee, Catawba, Pedee, 
 Cape Fear, etc. The moment I passed Columbia the fac- 
 tories, powder mills and the old stuff accumulated at Augusta 
 
ffIS LAST CORRESPONDENCE. 603 
 
 were lost to the only two Confederate armies left — Lee's cind 
 Hood's. So if you have a military mind, you will see I 
 made a better use of Augusta than if I had captured it with 
 all its stores, for which I had no use. I used Augusta twice 
 as a buffer; its garrison was just where it helped me. If 
 the people of Augusta think I slighted them in the winter 
 of i864-'65 by reason of personal friendship formed in 1844, 
 they are mistaken; or if they think I made a mistake in 
 strategy, let them say so, and with the President's consent 
 I think I can send a detachment of 100,000 or so of * Sher- 
 man's bummers ' and their descendants, who w'ill finish up 
 the job without charging Uncle Sam a cent. The truth is, 
 these incidents come back to me in a humorous vein. Of 
 course the Civil War should have ended with Vicksburg and 
 Gettysburg. Every sensible man on earth must have then 
 seen there could be but one result. The leaders, of the 
 South took good care not to * die in the lost ditch/ and 
 left brave men like Walker, Adams, Pat Clebourne, etc., to 
 do that. Yours truly, W. T. Sherman." 
 
 One of the last letters he ever wrote was as follows : 
 
 " No. 75 West Seventy-first Street, N. Y. 
 
 Thursday February 5, 1891, 
 E. J. Atkinson, Esq., Secretary Memorial Committee, G.A.R. 
 
 " Dear Sir: — Your communication inviting me to share 
 in your memorial services of Decoration Day, May 30, 1891, 
 is received. I hereby accept and have marked my engage- 
 ment book accordingly, so that I may not fall into the error 
 of two years ago, which actually compromised me. 
 
 " The only probable interference is in the unveiling of 
 General Grant's equestrian statue in Lincoln Park, Chicago, 
 on a day not yet determined, when I must attend as Presi- 
 dent of the Society of the Army of the Tennessee. This 
 
6o4 DIGGING UP TORPEDOES. 
 
 unveiling was to have occurred in October, 1890, was post- 
 poned to this spring by reason of a failure in the casting, 
 and I believe it will not be ready till this autumn. There- 
 fore I beg you to remind me parly in May, 1891, of this, 
 my promise. Sincerely yours, W. T. Sherman." 
 
 When General Beauregard wrote a letter accusing him 
 of cruel practices, in requiring prisoners of war to dig up 
 torpedoes which the Rebel army had planted, Sherman 
 made no reply ; but some time later he said to a friend : 
 
 " I did not take any notice of Beauregard's letter. He is 
 a very clever gentleman, and I like him personally ; but 
 he is wrong in his ideas of civilized warfare. It was no new 
 thing to require prisoners to remove torpedoes which had 
 been buried by the enemy. Wellington did it in Spain, 
 and history furnishes a number of similar instances. I was 
 justified not only by the rules of war but also by the best of 
 humane principles. In the first instance where I had 
 prisoners to perform such service, we were near a little 
 town about forty miles from Savannah, The name of the 
 place escapes me just now. News was brought to me that 
 a gallant young officer had been frightfully wounded and 
 his horse killed by the explosion of a torpedo buried by the 
 rebels in the middle of the road. I filed my army to the 
 right and flanked that part of the road where the explosives 
 were supposed to be planted. The wagon trains had to 
 pass over the dangerous ground, however, and I knew that 
 the tramping of the mules and the heavy weight of the 
 loaded wagons would surely explode any torpedoes which 
 had been planted. I ordered a detail of prisoners to be sent 
 ahead of the train, and with picks and shovels to dig up all 
 explosives that could be found. It was not to protect my 
 soldiers that I did this, but to save my train. My army 
 had already obviated the danger by a right flank, and was 
 
A STORY OF GRANT. 
 
 605 
 
 safely out of harm's way. Prisoners should be protected, 
 but mercy is not a legitimate attribute of war. Men goto 
 war to kill and get killed, if necessary, and they should ex- 
 pect no tenderness. Each side protects itself as far as pos' 
 sible, and does all the harm it can to the opposing forces. 
 It was, I think, a much better show of mercy for me to have 
 the enemy do this work than to subject my own soldiers to 
 so frightful a risk. At McAllister, when I made Major 
 Anderson remove the torpedoes that had been planted 
 there, he pretended that it was not civilized war to make him 
 perform such a perilous feat. I told him he knew where 
 the torpedoes were, and could safely remove them, while 
 my men, in hunting for them, would be blown to pieces. 
 He replied that the engineer had planted them, and he did 
 not know where they were. I told him he knew better how 
 to locate them than I did, and therefore he should do it. 
 The fact that every torpedo was found and safely removed 
 showed that my reasoning was right. I am not afraid to 
 be judged either by contemporary or future historians on 
 this subject." 
 
 The following anecdote of Grant was told, and illustrated 
 with exquisite humor, by Sherman at a dinner: — 
 
 " Grant and I were at Nashville, Tenn., after the battle 
 of Chattanooga. Our quarters were in the same building. 
 
 " One day Grant came into the room that I used for an 
 office. I was very busy, surrounded svitn papers, muster- 
 rolls, plans, specifications, etc., etc. When I looked up 
 from my work I saw he seemed a good deal bothered, and, 
 after standing around awhile, with his shoulders thrown up 
 and his hands deep down in his trousers pockets, he said: 
 
 " ' Look here, there are some men here from Galena.* 
 
 " ' Well ? ' I said. 
 . " Looking more uncomfortable every minute he went on: 
 
/ 
 
 6o6 A STORY OP GRANT. 
 
 " ' They've got a sword they want to give me,' and, look- 
 ing over his shoulder and jerking his thumb in the same 
 direction, he added : 
 
 " * Will you come in ? ' 
 
 " He looked quite frightened at the idea of going to face 
 them alone, so I put some weights on my several piles of 
 papers to keep them from blowing around and went into 
 the next room, followed by Grant, who by this time looked 
 as he might if he'd been going to be court-martialed. There 
 we found the Mayor and some members of the Board of 
 Councilmen of Galena. On a table in the middle of the 
 room v/as a handsome rosewood box containing a magnifi- 
 cent gold-hilted sword, with all the appointments equally 
 splendid. 
 
 " The Mayor stepped forward and delivered what was 
 evidently a carefully prepared speech, setting forth that the 
 citizens of Galena had sent him to present to General Grant 
 the accompanying sword, not as a testimonial to his great- 
 ness as a soldier, but as a slight proof of their love and 
 esteem for him as a man, and their pride in him as a fellow- 
 citizen. 
 
 " After delivering the speech the Mayor produced a large 
 parchment scroll, to which was attached by a long blue 
 ribbon a red seal as big as a pancake, and on which was 
 inscribed a set of complimentary resolutions. These he 
 proceeded to read to us, not omitting a single ' whereas ' or 
 ' hereunto.' And after finishing the reading he rolled it up 
 and with great solemnity and ceremony handed it to Grant. 
 
 " General Grant took it, looked ruefully at it and held it 
 as if it burnt him. Mrs. Grant, who had been standing 
 beside her husband, quietly took it from him, and there was 
 dead silence for several minutes. Then Grant, sinking his 
 head lower on his chest and* hunching his shoulders up 
 
HARRISON VOUCHED FOR. 607 
 
 higher and looking thoroughly miserable, began hunting 
 in his pockets, diving first in one and then in another, and 
 at last said: 'Gentlemen, I knew you were coming here 
 to give me this sword, and so I prepared a short speech,' 
 and with a look of relief he drew from his trousers pocket 
 a crooked, crumpled piece of paper and handed it to the 
 Mayor of Galena, adding, 'and, gentlemen, here it is ! '" 
 
 When General Harrison was elected President, Sherman 
 was called on for a speech at the Union League Club, New 
 York, and responded thus: 
 
 " I am not, and never have been, and never will be, a 
 politician ; but I take a deep and lively interest in every- 
 thing which occurs in this country. [Cheers.] I see 
 yonder flag and beneath it the picture of one of my old, 
 favorite soldiers, one who learned many lessons under my 
 leadership. I know that he was true as steel then. I be- 
 lieve he will be to the end. fCheers.] As a father loves 
 to see his children advance in the scale of life, so I rejoice 
 to hear of t\.2 good fortune of my old soldiers. I remember 
 General Harrison when he was a colonel. He is not natur- 
 ally a military man. His grandfather was, and I remember 
 his grandfather when he was living down at North Bend, 
 below Cincinnati. I knew his father. I was once at the 
 old farm at North Bend, and saw little Ben in his panta- 
 lettes. [Laughter and cheers.] Now he has become 
 great. He is the impersonation of a cause. He is the 
 impersonation of the ruling spirit of America for the next 
 four years, and of its policy, according to Mr. Depew, for 
 the next twenty-five years." 
 
H' 191 79 
 
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