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- Herausgeber: Krill Press
- Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
- Sprache: Englisch
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2016
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LIFE OF WM. TECUMSEH SHERMAN.: LATE RETIRED GENERAL. U. S. A.
Willis Fletcher Johnson
DOSSIER PRESS
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Copyright © 2016 by Willis Fletcher Johnson
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION.
CHAPTER I. THE SHERMAN FAMILY.
CHAPTER II. BOYHOOD AND CADETSHIP.
CHAPTER III. EARLY MILITARY DUTIES.
CHAPTER IV. AMONG THE FORTY-NINERS.
CHAPTER V. THE CRISIS OF A CAREER.
CHAPTER VI. THE OUTBREAK OF THE WAR.
CHAPTER VII. BULL RUN
CHAPTER VIII. SERVICE IN KENTUCKY.
CHAPTER IX. SHILOH.
CHAPTER X. OFFICIAL REPORTS ON SHILOH.
CHAPTER XI. “AGATE’S” STORY OF SHILOH.
CHAPTER XII. “AGATE’S” STORY CONTINUED.
CHAPTER XIII. “AGATE’S” STORY CONTINUED.
CHAPTER XIV. “AGATE’S” STORY CONCLUDED.
CHAPTER XV. CORINTH.
CHAPTER XVI. MEMPHIS, VICKSBURG AND ARKANSAS POST.
CHAPTER XVII. VICKSBURG.
CHAPTER XVIII. SOME WAR CORRESPONDENCE.
CHAPTER XIX. CHATTANOOGA.
CHAPTER XX. MERIDIAN.
CHAPTER XXI. THE BEGINNING OF THE END.
CHAPTER XXII. ATLANTA.
CHAPTER XXIII. PREPARING FOR THE MARCH.
CHAPTER XXIV. “MARCHING THROUGH GEORGIA.”
CHAPTER XXV. SHERMAN’S STORY OF THE MARCH.
CHAPTER XXVI. THE CAROLINA CAMPAIGN.
CHAPTER XXVII. THE END OF THE WAR.
CHAPTER XXVIII. THE DUTIES OF PEACE.
CHAPTER XXIX. DEATH AND BURIAL.
CHAPTER XXX. TRIBUTES.
CHAPTER XXXI. IN MEMORIAM.
CHAPTER XXXII. TRAITS AND INCIDENTS.
CHAPTER XXXIII. REMINISCENCES.
CHAPTER XXXIV. SHERMAN’S OWN WORDS.
Life of Wm. Tecumseh Sherman.: Late Retired General. U. S. A.
By
Willis Fletcher Johnson
Life of Wm. Tecumseh Sherman.: Late Retired General. U. S. A.
Published by Dossier Press
New York City, NY
First published circa 1931
Copyright © Dossier Press, 2015
All rights reserved
Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
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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 development of his energies, the bulk of his achievements and the great consummation 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 inspiration of the exciting events amid which they were composed.
There are, furthermore, in this book, chapters which are ingeniously 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 confined myself, has been to review the work, some of it already in proof type, and the remainder in manuscript, going over each 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 admissible; 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 answer 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 faithful use of this cover that during the battle-storm of the first day near Shiloh church, they were able to hold out till reinforcements 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 campaigns of the great war, are not the men to write the history. We are like witnesses in court. Each should give his own 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 judgment 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 phenomenal 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 confessed 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 will bear most careful inspection. They, if truthfully given, will furnish to our youth something for meditation, 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 19th, 1891.
CHAPTER I. THE SHERMAN FAMILY.
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 itself as the one immutable factor in the life of the world, albeit changeful, capricious, and kaleidoscopic.
In the United States no laws of entail or descent prevail. Yet scarcely elsewhere in the world, within two centuries and a-half, have there 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 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, 1521, bears the name of Sir Henry Sherman as one of its executors. In the time of Henry VIII. 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 recorded 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 prominent part in the military operations of the infant colony, and was 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 American history as one of the chief signers of the Declaration of Independence.
MRS. GENERAL SHERMAN.
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 became famous throughout the New England colonies as the most eloquent preacher and most accomplished mathematician 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 identified 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, themselves and associates, liberty to erect a plantation at Pomperouge; 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 Woodbury 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 distinguished 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. He 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. Beginning in 1684, he was for forty-four years an Associate County Court Judge; for seventeen sessions a Representative 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 1719. 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 resolves was to have no dealing with the “foes to ye Rights of British America.” On September 19th, 1775, another mass-meeting of the people of Woodbury was held, at which a “Committee of Inspection” was appointed, consisting 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 committee, as is specified in the Resolve issued by his honor, the Governor and Committee of Safety, dated March the 18th, 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 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 session. 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 Sherman 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 sessions. This was by far the longest period of time any one has ever represented the town. He was of commanding powers of mind, of sterling integrity, and every way qualified 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 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 Downing. 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 Woodbury, Conn. The first wife of this second Anthony Stoddard 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 Presbyterians, 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 stand around,” says one of her grand-children. “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 Connecticut 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 sections of land in Ohio to pay him for his work as commissioner, 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 member of a numerous and influential family, who were among the first settlers of Norwalk. Mr. Sherman was admitted to the bar in 1810, and during the administration of President Monroe was appointed Collector of Internal Revenue. While he held this office two of his deputies defaulted for large amounts, and as he was responsible for them, almost his entire fortune was taken to make good the loss. From this financial embarrassment 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 fortunes 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 Fairfield County. Having established himself there as a lawyer, he returned to Norwalk for his wife, who meanwhile 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 perilous 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 Sherman mentioned, was a resident of the County of Lancaster, 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 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 of 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 children 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 advantages 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 Sherman, a merchant of Mount Vernon, Ohio. The last mentioned 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 that 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 Episcopal Church, and remained in its communion until her death, in 1852. She was a woman of quiet and unobtrusive, 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 great success which they have achieved in their widely differing life works.
CHAPTER II. BOYHOOD AND CADETSHIP.
WILLIAM TECUMSEH SHERMAN WAS THE sixth of the eleven children 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 exhausted 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 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 foremost 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 family, and Mrs. Sherman, with mingled grief and joy, accepted 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. Ewing,” they said; “he’s by far the smartest.” So Mr. Ewing picked up the nine-years-old urchin from where he was playing on a sand bank, and took 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 Ewings, 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 Lancaster. He ranked high in his classes and was generally regarded as a promising boy. “There was nothing specially 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. Studious 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 “Cump’s” favorite playmate and upon whom “Cump” 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 1834 he was large and strong for his age, and fond of labor and adventure. Canal construction was then being greatly pushed in Ohio, and it was planned to build one from the great Ohio Canal at Carroll, eight miles from Lancaster, and run down the Hocking Valley to Athens and thence to the Ohio River. A Mr. Carpenter, of Lancaster, had charge of the preliminary surveys, and recruited his force of assistants from among the youth of that town. Young Sherman 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 Sherman 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 I had expected. I also remember Postmaster-General Amos Kendall, Vice President Van Buren, Messrs. Calhoun, 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, Delaware, 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 discipline and instruction was fully established, very much as it has remained ever since. Colonel R. E. De Russy was the Superintendent, and Major John Fowle, Commandant of Cadets. The chief members of the faculty were: Professors Mahan, engineering; Bartlett, natural philosophy; Bailey, chemistry; 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 Ewing. More characteristic letters were never penned. Years afterward the stern War Secretary, 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 recommendation 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 reputation.” 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, probably. No doubt you admire this choice; but to speak plainly and candidly, I would rather be a blacksmith. Indeed, the nearer we come to that dreadful epoch, graduation 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 life 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 in the dances and balls given every week 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 grammar, 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 backward 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 ‘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 object of which plainly is to deceive and mislead his ignorant and prejudiced, though honest, fellow citizens; whilst his qualifications, 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, so 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 proficiency 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 inclinations. 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.... Whilst I propose and intend to go into the infantry, be stationed in the Far West, out of the reach of what is termed civilization, and there remain as long as possible.”
SHERMAN’S BIRTHPLACE, LANCASTER, OHIO.
In June, 1840, he received his diploma. The class had originally numbered more than one hundred, 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 qualifications required for office, and I suppose I was found not to excel in any of these. In studies I always held a respectable reputation with the professors, and generally ranked among the best, especially in drawing, chemistry, mathematics and natural philosophy. My average demerits, per annum, 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 of Grant, who was graduated 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 outranked both Grant and Sherman at the school, remained in after life unknown to fame.
CHAPTER III. EARLY MILITARY DUTIES.
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, visiting his relatives at Mansfield for a short time. Presently he received an appointment and commission as Second Lieutenant in the Third Artillery, and was ordered to report for duty at Governor’s Island, New York, at the end of September. On going thither 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. Augustine 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 recruits, 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 surf over the bar, and into the mouth of Indian River Inlet. There he was transferred to a smaller boat and pulled through 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 phosphoric 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 wilderness. 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 quarters, 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 Sherman 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 November, however, operations against the Indians began. This work consisted chiefly in capturing scattered fragments 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, however, 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 attentive to the wife of one of his comrades, and the injured husband, a half-witted man, appealed to Lieutenant 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. Augustine, 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, etc., upon which Sherman did not 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 succeeded 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 became 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.
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 bachelor 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 intends proposing to the next Congress to raise two rifle regiments for the Western service. As you are in Washington 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 himself 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 Christmas. 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 acquaintances 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 frequent and interesting a correspondence with Miss Ewing as he had done at West Point. In the summer of 1863 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, afterward Attorney General of the United States. At Cincinnati he spent some time with his two brothers, who were employed in the Gazette printing office. 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.
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 wonderful 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 interest 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 would 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 capable of judging, to be the basis of the common law practice. 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 making the law a profession; but as an officer of the army, it is my duty and interest to be prepared 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 and Alabama, and on this errand he travelled over the region in which, many years later, he conducted one of his greatest campaigns. Thus he acquired knowledge which was afterward of incalculable value to him and to the National Government.
In the winter of 1844–45, he was on a deer hunting expedition 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, for some time longer. Charleston was then a proud, aristocratic 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 1832–33, 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 delight, for Lancaster and Miss Ewing were only thirty-six miles away.
When news arrived of the battles of Palo Alto and Resaca 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, saying 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., applying 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 Colonel 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 Pittsburgh 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 the officers were exempted. In sixty days they reached Rio Janeiro, where they had a jolly time for a week. Sherman’s companion in his rambles about town was Lieutenant, afterward General Halleck. They saw the Emperor and his family. Their first supper in the city was a sumptuous 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 Commodore 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 hundred and ninety-eight days from New York.
CHAPTER IV. AMONG THE FORTY-NINERS.
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 compelled to drop into a life of dull routine in the Quartermaster’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 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 routine 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 they 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 improved the opportunity to buy a splendid new horse.
