Wm. T. Sherman

LIFE OF
WM. TECUMSEH SHERMAN.

Late Retired General. U. S. A.

A GRAPHIC HISTORY OF HIS CAREER IN WAR AND PEACE; HIS ROMANTIC YOUTH;
HIS STERN AND PATRIOTIC MANHOOD; HIS CALM AND BEAUTIFUL
OLD AGE; A MARVELLOUS MARCH FROM THE MOUNTAINS
OF TIME TO THE SEA OF ETERNITY.

By W. FLETCHER JOHNSON,

Author of "Stanley's Adventures in Africa," "History of the Johnstown Flood,"
"Life of 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.

EDGEWOOD PUBLISHING COMPANY.

1891.

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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 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 each4 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 own5 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.

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CONTENTS.

15

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

17

CHAPTER I.
THE SHERMAN FAMILY.

Honorable 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 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 newer18 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 the21 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. He22 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 the23 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 of24 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 us25 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 defaulted26 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 they27 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 of28 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.

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CHAPTER II.
BOYHOOD AND CADETSHIP.

Why He Was Named Tecumseh—His Adoption by Mr. Ewing—Character in Boyhood—Work as a Surveyor—Appointment to a Cadetship—From Lancaster to West Point—"Old Hickory"—Letters to His Sweetheart—A Youthful Philosopher—Character and Standing as a Cadet.

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 benign30 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 was31 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 of32 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 than33 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.34 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 participate35 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 a36 '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....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 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.

40

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 scene of His Greatest Campaign—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, 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. Augustine41 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.42 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 not43 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.

44 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 himself45 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.

46 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, and47 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 great48 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, but49 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.

50

CHAPTER IV.
AMONG THE FORTY-NINERS.

Days of Idleness at Monterey—Adam and Eve—Sunday Diversions—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—How 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 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 Dolores51 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.

News soon came of the quarrel between General Kearney, Colonel Fremont and Commodore Stockton, as to the right of supreme authority on the coast. General Mason and Commodore Shubrick also laid claim to supreme 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 "Independence," dressed in an old dragoon coat, and an army 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 at52 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 picturesque 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 hunting 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 office 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 Sutter 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 gold 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 mules. On reaching Sutter's place53 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 little 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 September 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 dismissed 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 at54 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 respect 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 witness of the great rush of prospectors to the coast in 1849, of the organization of government under a State Constitution, the election of Fremont and Gwin as Senators, and all the picturesque scenes that the rising community in those days presented.

56

SHERMAN ENTERING U. S. SENATE.

57 In the fall of 1849 his friend Warner was surveying Feather River and its source, Goose Lake. While engaged 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 went 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. Sherman'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 entertained his guests with stories of the Mexican war. Sherman felt deeply the fact that the country had passed through a foreign war and that his comrades had participated 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 the58 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 1st, 1850, he was married to his first and only love, Ellen Boyle Ewing. The ceremony occurred at the house of Mr. Ewing, on Pennsylvania Avenue, opposite the War Department building. A large and distinguished company attended, including President Taylor and all the members of his Cabinet, Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, Thomas H. Benton, and 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. Ewing resigned his office as Secretary of the Interior and became Senator. Sherman listened to many of the interesting debates that took place in the Senate at this time. He heard Webster's last speech in the Senate before he entered Fillmore's Cabinet. Learning that Webster was to59 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 Corwin, who asked him what he wanted. Sherman said he wanted him to take him to the floor of the Senate, adding that he had often seen from the gallery persons on the floor no better than he was. Corwin asked him in a quizzical 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 explained, 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 Sherman 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 estimation, 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 soon60 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 answered 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 steward invited Sherman to bring "his ladies" to the table, and they had the best seats there. The two ladies were, Sherman 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 was 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 family61 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 financial 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 office partner gained but little influence and no prominence; the citizens knew little of him. "It happened one day," says an old copy of The Leavenworth 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 amour 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.

62

CHAPTER V.
THE CRISIS OF A CAREER.

Sherman in the Prime or Manhood—Great Events Approaching—How He Came to be a Schoolmaster—Organization of the Seminary—Political Talk—His View on Slavery—The Campaign of 1860 and 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.

Sherman's real history begins with 1859. Up to that time, as we have seen, his life was one of preparation, checkered, adventurous, often picturesque, always earnest. Yet it comprised no word or act of vital import or permanent 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 banking 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 legal63 attainments nor because he had successfully passed the required examination, but simply on the score of his general intelligence. He 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, therefore, 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 necessary 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 examined?" "No," said the Judge, "we will admit you on the strength of your 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 brimming 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 life, 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 triumphantly elected Senator. The same conflict was now64 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 should 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 magnitude of the coming struggle, and the mighty part that he was destined to play therein.

He was invited, in July, 1859, to 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 Military 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 not, as has been alleged, through the personal friendship of General Bragg and General Beauregard. Indeed, the latter 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 War65 Department at Washington, applying for a place as army paymaster. Buell replied by sending him a prospectus of the Louisiana Seminary and advising him to apply for the principalship. Sherman did so, and soon after was informed 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 professor of chemistry; David F. Boyd was professor of languages, 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 to work at once to supply the deficiencies. He engaged James and three other carpenters, and set them to work making furniture out of some of the fencing of the place and a lot of boards that were piled near the house.

The Governor issued a notice on November 17th, announcing that the seminary would be open on January 1st, 1860. On the latter date some sixty students reported to the principal. Sherman organized the school as nearly as possible 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 class66 instruction. There were seventy-three students during the first term, and fifty-nine of them passed the examination on July 30th, 1860. Meantime Sherman had secured new legislation, granting the school a larger fund for its maintenance, and generally increasing its efficiency and scope.

While advocating the cause of the school before the legislature 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 Republican candidate for the Speakership of the House of Representatives 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 retaining 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 politicians. 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 Colonel Sherman to speak his own mind frankly on the subject 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; he67 would forbid the separation of families in the sale of slaves; and he would abolish the laws which forbade slaves to learn to read and 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 impressed 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 ——, he is right!" After that there were no complaints of Sherman's political unfitness for his place.

There was a vacation from August 1st to November 1st, and Sherman went North, to New York, to purchase additional supplies for the school, and then to Lancaster to visit his family, who had remained there pending the construction 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 accoutrements 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 resumed.

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 extreme 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 openly68 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 incendiary and revolutionary talk was heard everywhere. Sherman kept quietly at his work, but he noticed that his cadets began taking their declamations from the speeches of Calhoun, 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 understood, namely, that secession was treason and treason meant war. When President Buchanan announced in his annual message to Congress, in December, 1860, that the General Government had no power to prevent a State from seceding, Sherman was startled and began to fear the dissolution 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 before 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 from69 Louisiana. Sherman was strongly and bitterly impressed by the seizure of the arsenal. The arsenal was commanded 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 surrendered 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 terribly 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 18th, 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 General Government of the United States. The Union—esto perpetua.'

"Recent events foreshadow a great change, and it becomes 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 of70 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 Supervisors, 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 Governor, 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 politician, 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 Supervisors, 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."

71 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 postscript: "Governor Moore desires me to express his profound 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 lived 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. Beauregard 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 Beauregard'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 buildings72 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 secession would be quietly acquiesced in by the nation, although 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 excepting 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 possession of his property.

73

HON. JOHN SHERMAN

75

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.

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 enjoyed 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 public 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.76 Federal forts, arsenals and other property was being confiscated. 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 Northern 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 Buchanan had not aroused the North to shame, nor had the aggressive treason of the conspirators 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 proceeded to Washington, where Lincoln had just been inaugurated as President, 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 southern city to be filled with war talk. Sherman's old friend, Anderson, had just moved his troops from Fort Moultrie77 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 preparing for war." "Oh, well," replied Lincoln, "I guess we'll manage to keep house." This remark greatly disappointed Sherman and he changed the subject as quickly as possible. As he left the White House, however, he relieved 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 politicians, 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 Ewing and John Hunter, law partners, boarded with them. Sherman was elected president of the street railroad company, which had a paying line in full78 operation, and tried to devote himself strictly to business. This, however, was impossible. The air was full of politics 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 sympathizer, 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—whose 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." Nathaniel 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 soldier 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 Postmaster-General, Montgomery Blair, saying: "Will you accept 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 when79 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 impossible 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 secessionists. 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 Missouri, 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 Government, 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 insurgents at last startled the North, although even then not many seemed to realize the magnitude of the struggle that had begun. Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers for three80 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 The 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 cannot 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 wrongfully 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 own abilities, and was not willing to have them underrated81 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 Government 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 Sherman'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 prevailed. 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 Sherman, 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 replied82 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 surrendered! 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 regiment, 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 loyal troops. Much confusion prevailed everywhere. Presently 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 sergeant 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 regiment of the Home Guards had come up and 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 Hunter got behind a hillock. There they lay until the firing83 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 some 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 received 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 family to pack up and go home to Lancaster. He84 also resigned the presidency of 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 left 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."

85

CHAPTER VII.
BULL RUN

"On to Richmond!"—Sherman's Brigade at Bull Run—Features of Battle—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 Criticisms and Uncomfortable Truth-Telling and Consequent 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 Potomac86 at the beginning of July, and there were now plenty of troops at Washington to render that city secure from attack. The appearance of the troops in and about Washington 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 gallant old General fretted much at the clamors of the newspapers 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, although at that time he was very old and physically incapacitated for service in the field.

Congress met on July 4th, and Lincoln sent it a vigorous 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 fighting was begun.

The Rebels now had two armies in front of Washington; one at Manassas Junction, under General Beauregard, and the other at Winchester, under General Joe Johnston. Goaded on by the popular clamor, General Scott hurried his preparations for an advance, and about87 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 Thirteenth New York, the Sixty-ninth New York, the Seventy-ninth New York, and the Second Wisconsin; all volunteer regiments, strong and in good condition; and Sherman 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 enlistment, but Sherman referred the matter to the War Department, 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 18th had a skirmish at Centreville, in which four or five of Sherman's men were killed. This engagement 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 21st, but there is no need here to rehearse its confused 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 Federal88 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 excitable temperament; yet he displayed remarkable coolness and steadiness. He entered the action early in the afternoon, 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 111 killed, 205 wounded and 293 missing. 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 commission was dated May 17th, and was accepted on August 16th.

Following is Sherman's official report of the operations of his brigade at Bull Run, made to Captain Baird, Assistant Adjutant-General of the First Division:

"The brigade was composed of the Thirteenth New York Volunteers, Colonel Quimby; Sixty-ninth New York, Colonel Corcoran; Seventy-ninth New York, Colonel Cameron; Second Wisconsin, Lieutenant-Colonel Peck, and Company E, Third Artillery, under command of Captain R. B Ayres, Fifth Artillery. We left our camp89 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 belonging 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 we90 should cross over at the same point, I sent forward a company as skirmishers, and followed with the whole brigade, the New York Sixty-ninth leading. We found no difficulty in crossing over, and met no opposition in ascending the steep bluff opposite with our infantry, but it was impassable 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 described 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 retreating along a cluster of pines. Lieutenant-Colonel Haggerty 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. Displaying 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 disabled 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 Regiment of Rifles in front, in column by division, I directed the other regiments to follow in line of battle, in the93 order of the Wisconsin Second, New York Seventy-ninth, and New York Sixty-ninth.

GEN. JNO. C. FREMONT.

"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 favorable 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 roadway by the left flank and to attack the enemy. This regiment 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 confusion 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 of94 the hill and drive the enemy from cover. It was impossible 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, avoiding Cub Run bridge, into Centreville, where I found General McDowell. From him I understood that it was his purpose to rally the forces and make a stand at Centreville.

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 together, and some reached the river at Arlington, 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 increased, 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 exposure 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 Cameron 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 that96 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 Cameron was mortally wounded leading the regiment in charge, and Colonel Corcoran has been missing since the cavalry charge near the building used as a hospital."

After the battle, Sherman made his way back to Centreville, where he saw General McDowell, and reorganized as far as possible his disordered regiments. During the night they marched back to Fort Corcoran, and expecting 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 wanted 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 was 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 we97 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 Captain, 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 anything 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 was98 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 Heintzelman 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 assumed 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 hundred 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.

99

CHAPTER VIII.
SERVICE IN KENTUCKY.

Serving 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 Extraordinary Newspaper Article—Sherman Transferred to Missouri—Halleck's Confidence in Him—Planning the Donelson Campaign.

The difference of military views between Sherman and McClellan increased; and while Sherman was steadily striving to get his raw troops into the best possible condition 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 in the Army of the Potomac. He was therefore much pleased and relieved, 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 military100 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 officers 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 responsible 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 independent 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 later 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 1st 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 soon as General Anderson was prepared to defend it101 against the Southern armies. William Nelson, a naval officer, acting as Brigadier-General of Volunteers, commanded 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 Nashville, 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 Louisville 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 he hastened to St. Louis. There he found much 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 waiting 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 on102 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 guard, 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 acquaintance 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 excitement. 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 Louisville. 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 vigorously, bringing into the city all available troops and getting them ready for action.103 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 devoting 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 frankness. 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 declared 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 not104 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 hundred 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 Cumberland was a madman. Before this, however, Sherman had written as follows to Adjutant-General Thomas:

"On my arrival at Camp Dick Robinson, I found General 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 Zollicoffer toward London. I have just heard from him, that he had sent forward General Schoepf with Colonel Wolford's Cavalry, Colonel Steadman'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-eighth Ohio, and105 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 position 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 Regiment of Ohio Volunteers. Colonel Harris was already in position at Olympian Springs, and a regiment lay at Lexington, 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 raising 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 desire to assemble as large a force of the Kentucky Volunteers 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 during106 the process of formation. This has facilitated their enlistment; but, inasmuch as the Legislature has provided money for organizing the Kentucky Volunteers, and intrusted 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 proportion 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 resentment 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 the107 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 McClellan, 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 several 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 interruption at any moment, by the tearing up of a rail by the disaffected 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 very 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 concentrate 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.

108 "General Thomas's line of operations is from Lexington, 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 Kentucky, 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 Lexington 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 reinforcements 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 Matcalf. The troops were on the road near Hazel Green and West Liberty, advancing toward Prestonburg.

GEN. THOMAS' BIVOUAC AFTER THE FIRST DAY'S BATTLE.

"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 neighboring 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,111 who are slowly forming regiments 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, under the control of a military board of citizens, at the capital, Frankfort, and they think they will be enabled to have fifteen regiments toward the middle of this month, but I doubt it, and deem it unsafe 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 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 neighborhoods, and cannot be called together except at long notice. These volunteers are being organized under the laws of the State, and the 10th 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, because of the necessity of being armed to guard their camps against internal enemies. Should we be overwhelmed, 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 standstill, 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 exposed. 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."

113 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 Louisville 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 following 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 Cumberland 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 relieved 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 developed by orders that his subordinates knew to be preposterous and refused to obey. He has, of course, been relieved altogether from command. The harsh criticisms which have been lavished upon this gentleman, provoked114 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 information 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 matter 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, McClellan'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 scandalous, 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 feeling115 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 Barracks, St. Louis, Sherman was sent to Paducah, 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 interesting to recall that one day, just before these great events, Sherman, Halleck and other officers were discussing at St. Louis the general plan of the campaign. The question arose, "Where is the Rebel line?" It was indicated as passing through Bowling Green, Fort Henry, Fort Donelson and Columbus. Halleck asked, "Where should it be broken by our forces?" "In the centre," replied Sherman 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 credited with the strategy; but certainly the execution of it was due to Grant.

116

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—Number of Troops Engaged 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 depression 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 promoted 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 that117 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, in 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 became 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 succeeded 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 incomparably greater operations, in which Sherman himself played a most important part. After the fall of Donelson, Grant incurred the displeasure of Halleck and was removed 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 Tennessee River, but presently fell sick, at Savannah, Tennessee, and a few weeks later died. Thus Grant was restored to his command, 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's118 friends have sought to free him from blame by saying that the choice was made by Smith, while Grant was in disgrace and practically under arrest. As Smith was dead when this statement was made, he could 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 his 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 satisfied 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 responsibility 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 time, while Grant spent half of his time at Savannah; 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 miles away, under their ablest and bravest commanders. Sherman himself had been, before the rendezvous was made at Pittsburgh Landing, sent out to cut the communication119 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 staring them in the face, the troops made no elaborate 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 defensive works of any sort; no outposts, properly speaking, to give 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, continues this drastic critic, the enemy advanced upon it and formed in line of battle only a mile and a half away without 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 attack 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 importance and as easy of defence. At a later period of the war, he says, the place might in one night have been rendered impregnable. That it was 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 raw120 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 controversy, 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 10th, 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 ordered 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 16th, and immediately marched inland about ten miles to a cross-road hamlet called Monterey, or Pea Ridge, where he learned that the enemy were gathering in force at121 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 settlement 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 skirmishing 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 skirmishing, 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 official report, giving his version, and also that of The Cincinnati Gazette's correspondent, which presents most forcibly the other view—that of the surprise. But upon122 one point all the numerous narratives are agreed, and that is, Sherman's personal valor in the battle, and his consummate 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." Sherman 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. Sherman 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 likely that on that day there were at any time more that 25,000 men in line. This is Grant's estimate. The next day, Buell came up with the Army of the Ohio, 20,000 strong. And then, there were the two gunboats, the Tyler and Lexington, which rendered valuable service.

Reports of the strength of the Rebel force vary. According to General Beauregard, it contained more than123 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 apparent 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 battle 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.

124

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 Report—Special Mention of Sherman for his Gallantry as a Soldier and his Skill as a Commander.

Few battles have been more discussed, or more vigorously discussed, than that of Shiloh, or Pittsburgh Landing. In these often acrimonious controversies, Sherman himself took a leading part. It is doubtful if an agreement 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 not the Federal officers, especially Sherman, were surprised by the enemy. That they were, and that they were not, have both been stated and restated with every possible 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.

125 The gist of Sherman's own report, addressed to Captain Rawlins, Grant's Assistant Adjutant-General, was as follows:

"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 Sunday 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 Battery, 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 Appler; and the Fifty-seventh Ohio, Colonel Mungen, on the left of the Corinth road, its right resting on Shiloh meeting house.

126 "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 Appler's Regiments. The cavalry, 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 Appler'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 Appler'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 beyond the small stream alluded to, and became satisfied for the first time that the enemy designed a determined attack on our whole camp. All the regiments of my division were then in line of battle, at their proper posts. I rode to Colonel Appler, and ordered him to hold his ground at all hazards, as he held the left flank of our first line of battle, and I informed him that he had a good battery on his right and strong support in his rear. General McClernand had promptly and energetically responded to my request,129 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.

MAJOR-GENERAL O. O. HOWARD.

"Taylor's and Waterhouse's batteries promptly responded, and I then observed heavy battalions of infantry passing obliquely to the left across the open field in Appler'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 Tennessee River, and about two miles back from it.

"Very soon the sound of musketry and artillery announced that General Prentiss was engaged, and about 9 A. M. I judged that he was falling back. About this time Appler'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, received a severe wound, and fell from his horse, his regiment and the others manifested disorder, and the enemy got possession of three guns of this (Waterhouse's) battery.

"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 did130 hold these positions until about 10 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 (Appler's and Mungen's) had already disappeared to the rear, and Hildebrand'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. Hildebrand'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 10 A. M., at which time the enemy had made a furious attack on General McClernand's whole front. He struggled most determinedly, 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 themselves 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 McClernand and myself acting in perfect concert, and struggling131 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 coming 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 could, 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 handsomely 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 "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 fragments 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 with such bread and meat as could be gathered at the neighboring camps, and determined to redeem 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 10 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, formed133 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 Company 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 line of General McClernand'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 splendid 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 McClernand 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 Providential 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 both pouring grape and canister upon any volume of troops that advanced from the green point of water-oaks. Willich'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 being wounded,) 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 McCook's 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 resume 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 Beauregard 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 beheld heavy columns of an enemy bearing down on them, as135 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 Appler's and Mungen's regiments had left their proper field of action.

"Colonel Buckland managed his brigade well. I commend him to your notice as a cool, intelligent and judicious gentleman, needing only confidence and experience to make a good commander. His subordinates, Colonels Sullivan and Cockerill, behaved with great gallantry, 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 proportion men than any Colonel in the division, 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, Colonels Hicks and Worthington, displayed great personal courage. Colonel Hicks led his regiment in the attack on Sunday, and received a wound which is feared may prove fatal. He136 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.

137 "The enemy captured seven of our guns on Sunday, 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, encouraging the steadfast, and aiding to form the lines of defence and attack. I commend him to your notice. Major Sanger'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, Aids-de-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 endorse his recommendations. The cavalry of my command kept to the rear and took little part in the action, but it138 would have been madness to have exposed horses to the musketry fire under which we were compelled 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 success 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 commanding, 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 force for their support. Just at this139 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 Crittenden 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 attacking 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 afternoon, 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. He140 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 officer no disparagement 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. 1st, 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 Division, 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 reinforcements came on the 7th, we swept on in front and pursued a retreating141 enemy ten miles, and afterwards followed up to Corinth, Memphis, Vicksburg, etc., to the 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 sensible 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 fighting 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."

142

CHAPTER XI.
"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—Analysis of the Situation—Faulty Disposition of the Federal Troops—Arrangement of Sherman's Division—The Rebel 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 reestablished 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 musketry 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 burned143 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 all 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 innumerable 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 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 protection 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 preliminary 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 ordinary picket-fight, presaging nothing more. Major-General 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 so147 the matter was dismissed. Yet on Saturday there was more skirmishing along our advanced lines.

MAJOR-GENERAL SLOCUM.

There can be no doubt the plan of the Rebel leaders was to attack and demolish Grant's army before Buell's reinforcements 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 Kentucky 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 defeating 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 skirmish 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 few148 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 onwards, 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 Lexington, 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 startlingly close, and showed that the Rebels were in earnest attempt 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 disasters 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. McClernand's had already lost part of its camps, and it, too, was149 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 ravine, down which a road passes to the river bank, between 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 numerous 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 below. Besides these, the whole country inside our lines is cut up with roads leading to our different camps; and beyond the lines is the most inextricable maze of crossroads, 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 divisions150 of Major-General Grant's army that Sunday morning. The advance line 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 Hurlbut'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 remaining 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 line, lay Major-General McClernand's Division, and between it and Stuart's Brigade, already mentioned as forming our extreme left, lay Brigadier-General Prentiss' Division, completing the front.

Back of this line, within a mile of the Landing, lay Hurlbut'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. Wallace's Division lay at Crump's Landing, some miles below, and was not 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 hardly151 fail to observe the essential defects of such disposition of troops for a great battle. Nearly four miles intervened between the different parts of Sherman's Division. Of course to command the one, he must neglect the other. McClernand'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 unguarded heights, easily approachable from Corinth. And the whole arrangement was confused and ill-adjusted.

Confusion was not the only glaring fault. General Sherman's camps, to the right of the little log-cabin called Shiloh Church, fronted on a descending slope of a quarter to a half mile in breadth, mostly covered with woods and bounded 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 attack; yet absolutely without making the slightest preparation 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 Johnston 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 repelled152 the invading column, redeemed Tennessee, and preserved 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 portion 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 Appler, 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 Seventieth Ohio, Colonel Cockerell.

And on the extreme right, Colonel McDowell's Brigade, Sixth Iowa, (Colonel McDowell—Lieutenant-Colonel commanding;) 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.

153

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 Sunday, 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 parallel in our remaining annals of the war. Some, particularly among our officers, were not yet out of bed. Others were dressing, others washing, others cooking, a few eating their breakfasts. Many guns were unloaded, accoutrements lying pell-mell, ammunition was ill-supplied—in short, the camps were virtually surprised—disgracefully, it might be added, unless someone can hereafter give some yet undiscovered reason to the contrary—and were taken at almost every possible disadvantage.

154 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 afterward shells were hurling through the tents, while, before there was time for thought of preparation, there came rushing 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 regiments, 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, coatless, 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 men155 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 Appler'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 instruction;" 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 magnificent Rebel advance, and through the blinding, stifling smoke, the hasty retreat of comrades and supports, right and left. Certainly, it is sad enough, but hardly surprising, 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 Dashing along the lines, encouraging them everywhere by his presence, and exposing his own life with the same freedom with which he demanded their offer of theirs, he did much to save the division from utter destruction. Buckland 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 Hildebrand's was falling back in such order as it might, and leaving 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 obstinacy that adds new laurels to the character of the American soldiers, but it was too late. Down on either flank came the overwhelming 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 frequent 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—McArthur'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 of157 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 continued 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 surrounded and taken prisoners.

Practically, by 10 o'clock the division was gone. General 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 10 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 assistance.

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's158 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 discharge of muskets by guards and pickets, to clean out their guns—a practice which, to the disgrace of our discipline 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 Illinois, 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, Lieutenant-Colonels Wood, Farrell and Pease, and Forty-third Illinois, Colonel Marsh. Besides this fine show of experienced troops, they had Schwartz's, Dresser's, McAllister'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 to159 move up his left brigade to support Sherman's retreating 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 companies, 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 sudden dash forward, had taken part of Waterhouse's Battery, which McClernand had sent them over. Behr's Battery, too, was taken, and Taylor's Chicago Light Artillery 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 Buckland'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 occupied160 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 memorable 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 Sherman 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 a change of front, and faced along the Corinth road. Here the batteries were placed in position, and till 10 o'clock the Rebels were foiled in every attempt to gain the road.

161 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, commanding the Eighteenth Illinois, was killed; Colonel Haynie was severely wounded; Colonel Raith, commanding 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 General McClernand's staff, Major Schwartz, Major Stewart and Lieutenant Freeman, were wounded and carried from the field. Line officers had suffered heavily. The batteries were broken up. Schwartz had lost half his guns and sixteen horse. 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, occasionally rallying and repulsing the enemy in turn for a hundred yards, then being beaten back again, and renewing the retreat to some new position for fresh defence.

162 By 11 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 considerable 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 Hurlbut 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 Fifty-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 Hamburgh, a few miles above this left wing of our forces.165 Within a few days, the oversight had indeed been discovered, 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 Beauregard and Johnston did not wait for us to perfect our pleasing arrangements.

LIEUTENANT GENERAL SHERIDAN.

When the Rebels marched out from Corinth, a couple of brigades (rumored to be under the command of Breckinridge) 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 muskets were seen glinting among the leaves, and presently a Rebel column emerged from a bend in the road, with banners flying and moving at double-quick down the road toward them. Their supports to the left were further off 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 startled by the screaming of a shell that came directly over their heads. In an instant the batteries of the Rebel force166 that had gained the commanding bluffs opposite, by approaching 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 sharpshooters wanted to pick off the audacious Rebel color-bearers, but Colonel Stuart interposed: "No, no, they're too brave fellows to be killed." Almost at the first fire, Lieutenant-Colonel Barton 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 followed Prentiss, began to come in on their right. Colonel167 Stuart had sent across to Brigadier-General W. H. L. Wallace, then not engaged, for support. Brigadier-General 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 vigorously 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 returned 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 the168 river—some as far as Crump's Landing, and some even to Savannah. These were brought 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 divisions, 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 tolerably safe; and at worst, if the Rebels drove us to the river on the left flank, the gunboats 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. Wallace 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 notice, 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 were169 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 fighting was done on the centre and left, where we still preserved 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 McArthur, 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 Sherman were both there.

Hurlbut had been encamped in the edge nearest the river, of a stretch of open fields, backed with heavy timber. Among his troops were the Seventeenth and Twenty-fifth Kentucky, Forty-fourth and Thirty-first Indiana, constituting 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 his170 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 discipline, 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 fighting, 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 division—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 composing 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 afternoon171 they manfully bore up. The musketry fire was absolutely continuous; there was scarcely a moment that some part 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 admiration 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 lines, 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 stopping, as he passed what had 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.

172

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—Desperate 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 rehearsed 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 transports enough to cross a single division till the enemy would be upon us.

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.173 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 demoralized. 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 Confederacy, 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 Landing. We pass the old log-house, lately post office, now full of wounded and surgeons, which constitute the "Pittsburgh" 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 of174 them 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 listen 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 be175 Buell's advance, yet they have been there an hour or two alone. But suddenly there is a rustle among the runaways. 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 cheering! 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 instantly 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. Preparations go rapidly forward for crossing the Division (General 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 General 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 collect176 of those that remained to us in a sort of semi-circle, protecting 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. Wallace, would come! Nelson's Division of General Buell'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 were177 making their crowning effort for the day, and as was expected when our guns were hastily placed, they came from our left and centre. They had wasted their fire at one thousand 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 remember 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 gunboats, 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 after178 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 disconcerted 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 Generals 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 next179 to him by a seasonable hour in the morning. The gap between 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 brigades 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 presently there came a flash that spread like sheet lightning over the ripples of the river-current, and the roar of a heavy180 naval gun went echoing up and down the bluffs, through the unnatural stillness of the night. Others speedily followed. By the flash you could just discern the black outline 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 cannonading, which was vigorously kept up till nearly morning, 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 himself: "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."

181

MAJOR-GENERAL BUTTERFIELD.

183

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.

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 disembarking at the Landing. Many had taken their places, the184 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 fellows would march out to the field where they knew reverses 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 gunboats 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 half the185 ground they had gained by our 4 o'clock retreat the afternoon 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 on 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 superintending our various defeats and re-formations and retreats, but to me it seemed of that microscopic character that required the magnifying powers of a special permit for exclusive 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;186 stubborn fighting alone saved us when we had reached the point beyond which came the child's "jumping-off place;" and stubborn fight, with such generalship as individual 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 gunboats, 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 division 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 artillery echoed over the late silent fields. There was no straggling this morning. These men were better drilled than many of those whose regiments had broken to pieces on the day before, and strict measures were taken, at any rate, to prevent the miscellaneous thronging back to places of safety in the rear.187 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 morning 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 wearied enemy. The Rebels had received but few reinforcements 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 sudden 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 unlimber, he was loading and sighting his pieces before the caissons had turned, and in an instant was tossing shell from twenty-four pound howitzers into the compact and advancing Rebel ranks.

188 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 worked 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 brigades!" 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 camps 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 with musketry, and the Rebels fled,189 leaving us three 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. Mendenhall's and Bartlett's Batteries now began shelling the infantry 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 1 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 gain 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 weary190 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 under 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 battery is safe. The enemy are to the front and right. Advancing and firing right oblique, the Sixth pushes on. The Rebel colors fall. Another volley; they fall again. Another 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 tremendous fire, which threw a battalion of regulars in front of191 them (under Major Oliver, I think,) into some confusion. They retire to reform, and meanwhile down drops the brigade, flat 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 Willich'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 McClernand regained and lost again the ground to the front of his division. Similar were Hurlbut's fortunes.

But I must abandon these details. Beginning at the 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 have atoned for their treason by the brave man's death. Nelson, Crittenden, McCook, Hurlbut, McClernand have borne their divisions through the fray. It192 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 mentioned 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 neighborhood 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 regiment 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 destructive193 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 contend 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 division 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 position 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 fallow 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 purpose.194 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—Lieutenant-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 regiments 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. "Forward," was the division 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. Wallace'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 engaged 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 batteries—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 encampment on the old grounds of Sherman's Division, in the very tents from which those regiments were driven that hapless Sunday morning.

195 The camps were regained. The Rebels were repulsed. Their attack had failed. We stood where we began. Rebel cavalry 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 adjutants 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 reinforced five to ten thousand Sunday night.

Grant had scarcely forty thousand effective men on Sunday. 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.

196

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 Account of Corinth—Abrupt Finale of a Rebel Harangue.

The battle of Pittsburgh Landing unquestionably presented remarkable features. The magnitude of the struggle, 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 Sherman197 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 dissatisfaction 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 confidence and gave him important commissions to execute. He drew troops from other parts of the country, until he had an army of more than 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 commanded 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 importance. 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 our198 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 encampments, 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 subjugation? 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 Yorktown."

GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN.

It should be explained, concerning the first words of this address, that among the reinforcements of Beauregard'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 at201 Shiloh the Rebel army on the first day actually outnumbered the Union troops. And now at Corinth it is hardly possible to believe that the Rebels had anything like a hundred 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 prospect 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 Beauregard'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. Sherman'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 intrenchments, here it202 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 importance 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, Hurlbut and John A. Logan. Generals Grant and Thomas witnessed the engagement and expressed much admiration of Sherman's ability in it. The position gained overlooked at close quarters the Rebel fortifications around Corinth, and not only the drum and bugle calls in the Rebel camp, but the noises of the town itself were plainly audible. Sherman entrenched himself strongly and brought203 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. Halleck 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 effective 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 notified 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 dense204 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 detail 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-General Halleck 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 assistance; 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 following 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 its205 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 the 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 Batteries, 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, occupying,206 as this was, a strong natural position. I then supposed and still think, this position was held by a small brigade of the enemy.

"My preliminary arrangements having thus been made, two twenty-pound Parrott rifle-guns of Silfversparre's Battery, 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 demolish the house, or render 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 10 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 to207 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 determined 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 hundred yards of the enemy's main intrentchments, which were absolutely concealed from us by the dense foliage 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 substantially208 done, and our artillery in position, and at 4 P. M. the siege-train was brought 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 will, 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 departing 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,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 division and feel the enemy, if still in my front.' I immediately put in motion two regiments of each brigade by different 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 completely 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, flour and provisions scattered about, and everything indicating a speedy and confused retreat. In the town itself many houses were210 still burning, and the ruins of warehouses and buildings containing commissary and other Confederate stores were still smouldering; but there still remained piles of cannon 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 citizens who remained in Corinth, it appeared that the enemy had for some days been removing their sick and valuable stores, 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 intimation 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 artillery.

"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, and211 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 back-down from the high and arrogant tone heretofore assumed by the Rebels. The ground was of their own choice. The fortifications, though poor and indifferent, were all they supposed necessary to our defeat, as they had had two months to make them, with an immense force to work at their disposal.

"If, with two such railroads as they possessed, they could not supply their army with reinforcements and provisions, how can they attempt it in this poor, arid and exhausted part of the country?

"I have experienced much difficulty in giving an intelligent account of the events of the past three days, because of the many little events, unimportant in themselves, 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 finished 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, are212 stronger works of art than the much boasted 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 skirmishers. 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 characterization of the capture of Corinth as "a victory as brilliant and important as any recorded in history."

"But a few days ago," he said, "a large and powerful Rebel army lay at Corinth, with outposts extending to our very camp at Shiloh. They held two railroads extending north and south, east and west, across the whole extent of213 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 numbers 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 gunboats 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 boastings, 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 attempt 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 brilliant 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 here to kill and slay, but to vindicate the honor and just authority of that government which has been bequeathed to us by our214 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 acknowledge 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 assertion. 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, and215 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 somewhat 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 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 wealthy females looked from the windows of their mansions upon the Union troops, affecting 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 vandals who have come here to possess the first and violate216 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 contemptible 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 resolves, and fled in confusion to their breastworks."

217

GRANT'S MARCH UPON VICKSBURG.

Grant and Sherman seated on a log on East Bank.

From Painting by J. E. Taylor.

219

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 appreciated 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 1st, 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,220 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 Chattanooga, 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 Farragut 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 command, putting Bragg in his place. At the same time conscription enormously swelled the Rebel ranks. McClellan's movements in Virginia did not seem to secure Washington. 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, hurried 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 retreated, 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-two221 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 in 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 profession 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 yet fully decided to222 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 secessionist families into exile. These stern measures, which he justified by the laws 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 declared gold, silver, Treasury notes and salt as much contraband of war as powder. I have one man under sentence 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 are reversed and I am ordered to encourage the trade in cotton,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 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 Tennessee, and should remove four million 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 within sight of our lines. I have two divisions here—mine and Hurlbut's—about 13,000 men; am building a strong224 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 detachments 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 prescribed trade and travel to and from the city. I have a225 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 anywhere 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 enable 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 destroy 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 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, seriously 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 followed up with sufficient celerity, and Van Dorn managed to retire to Holly Springs and there reorganize his shattered 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 offensive. 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.

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 meeting 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 garrison at Memphis, and lead the rest of his forces to meet Grant and McPherson. This movement against Pemberton was preliminary to the greater work of taking Vicksburg. 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 five 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 retreated 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 movement 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 everything228 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 Sherman, 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 flannel, 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 18th, 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 military character, and the interests involved are of too important 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 as229 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 produce 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 producer, 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 regiment, 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 him230 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 publication 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 by Frederick 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 difficulties231 of the situation. Several futile attempts 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. 1, 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 my hearty thanks for the zeal, alacrity, and courage manifested by them on all occasions. We failed in accomplishing 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, purified and ennobled by the fires which now test its strength and purity."

It should be explained that Grant had not come up to join in the demonstration against Vicksburg because, on December 20th one of his subordinates had in a most disgraceful 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 incapacity, how unjustly the simple narrative fully demonstrates. Long afterward, when Vicksburg had finally been taken, Grant officially declared: "General Sherman's arrangement,233 as commander of troops in the attack on Chickasaw Bluffs, was admirable. Seeing the ground from the opposite side of the attack afterwards, I saw the impossibility 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. Sherman'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 navigation of the streams and bayous through which it was proposed to pass. Want of this knowledge led the expedition 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 Generals Grant and Sherman to forward an expedition for the overthrow of Vicksburg." He continues: "The army234 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, commanded respectively by McClernand, Sherman, Hurlbut and McPherson, Grant remaining commander of the whole. Sherman's corps formed the right wing, and consisted 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 settlement on the north bank of the Arkansas River, fifty miles from its mouth. This Fort was a very strong work, situated 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 reduction of Vicksburg and freeing of the Mississippi.

ADMIRAL DAVID D. PORTER.

On the night of January 4th Sherman and McClernand went into Porter's cabin on the Black Hawk, and discussed 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 discourtesy and Sherman watched his opportunity to get him to go into another room, and there asked him what he237 meant by it. Porter replied that he did not like McClernand, 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, when, early in the morning, a Rebel bugler sounded "as pretty a reveille as I ever heard." Early on January 11th 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.

238 For an hour the fight raged furiously, and then, at four 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 retreating in 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 themselves 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 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 went239 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 exceedingly 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 important services and Porter led the attack in person.240 McClernand, however, condescended to speak pleasantly of his subordinate officers, saying: "General Sherman exhibited his usual activity and enterprise; General Morgan proved his tactical skill and strategic talent; while Generals Steele, Smith, Osterhaus and Stuart, and the several brigade commanders, displayed the fitting qualities o£ brave and successful officers."

241

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 Assaults upon the Works at Vicksburg—The Siege—Sherman Holding Johnston at Bay—Surrender of Vicksburg—Flight of Johnston—Important Results of the Campaign—Sherman's Meed of Praise.

The repulse of Sherman's expedition at Milliken's Bend only made Grant the more determined to reduce Vicksburg, 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 16th 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 batteries, a number of the barges being badly injured by the enemy's fire.

242 Grant issued final orders for this campaign on April 20th. McClernand 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 suggested 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 continued 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 expected that the charge was to be made, for they kept themselves 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 manœuvres were continued. 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. A243 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 manœuvring 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 1st, 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 possible; while Sherman was to move on Edward's Station, striking the railroad between that point and Bolton. On May 10th Sherman destroyed the bridge over the Big Black River, and on the 11th he reached Auburn. The next 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 retreated to Jackson, where reinforcements were arriving, and where Joseph E. Johnston was to command.

244 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 Jackson, and a lively engagement ensued. Before night the 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 destroyed.

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 division, and they crossed the Big Black River. Pressing steadily forward, by the morning of May 18th, 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 of245 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 lying. From May 11th to May 18th Sherman's men had literally lived upon the country.

Vicksburg was now as completely invested as was possible with the forces at hand, and the enemy was considerably demoralized. 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 distance 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 impossible to face the storm of lead and iron, and they had to246 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 withdrawn 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 direct assult failed, he would see what could be done by a siege. At the siege operations the troops worked diligently and cheerfully. The intrenchments 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 he247 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, became desperate in his desire to save Vicksburg from capture, and on June 29th moved out to try conclusions with Sherman. But before 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 holding the enemy at bay: "Johnston, however, not attacking, I determined to attack him the moment Vicksburg was in our possession, and accordingly notified Sherman that 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 remainder 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 marched 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 the248 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 partially dispersed another large army under the ablest of the Rebel leaders. They had captured Vicksburg, the Gibraltar of the South. They had freed the Mississippi River from Rebel control. And they had split the Rebel Confederacy in twain.

Of Sherman's part in the campaign General Grant remarks: "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 unequalled march from Jackson to Bridgeport, and passage of Black River; his securing Walnut Hills on the 18th of May, may attest his great merit as a soldier."

249

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 disunited 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 that250 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 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 you 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 conscription. The Conscription Act was resisted by Rebel sympathizers and the criminal classes generally in several places, notably in New York City, where 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 to251 organize new regiments, while in the field there were skeleton regiments enough to make, if filled up, a magnificent 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 unequal 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 recruits, which are as many as the State could well raise. I therefore 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 having 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 occasion, which I know is not the252 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 concerned 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 government, 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."

BATTLE OF LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN.

Another vigorous letter was called out by an order from the Adjutant-General, under which all regiments which255 had been depleted more than one-half were to be consolidated 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 regiment to Brigadier-General Smith or Major-General Sherman. We naturally demanded more specific complaint against incendiary acts than a mere vague suspicion that the —— did all iniquitous things, when twenty other regiments 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 complaint against any soldier of our command, if accompanied by reasonable proofs; but we did, and rightfully too, resent a mere general charge that every fire originating 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 somewhat famous for its acts of fun, frolic, mischief, and even256 crime, with a perfect skill in evading detection and pursuit. They are lawless and violent, and, like all other volunteer 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 disgraceful 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 darkness, 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 prevailed, with even balance. I do feel their testimony better 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 General Steele:

"I most heartily approve your purpose to return to families their carriages, buggies, and farming tools, wherewith 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 of257 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, whether 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 something 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 the leg, 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, as loud as he could, 'Calibre 54.'

258 "I have not seen the boy since, and his Colonel, Walmbourg, 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."

259

CHAPTER XIX.
CHATTANOOGA.

Dark 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 Burnside—Sherman's Report—Views Concerning the Treatment of the Rebels.

Seldom has history recorded a more sudden and startling change in National affairs than that of the United States in the midsummer of 1863. The closing days of June were dark and ominous. Milroy was almost annihilated at Winchester. Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville were still wet with fruitless blood. Rosecrans was helpless 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, Franklin260 Pierce, was the orator of the day at Concord, New Hampshire. "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 Pennsylvania, 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 abandon Chattanooga to a position south of Lookout Mountain. In Eastern Tennessee, likewise, Burnside had been successful, 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, defeated 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."

261 Reinforcements were accordingly sent to 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 toward 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 Vicksburg, was sent toward Corinth and Tuscumbia, all to concentrate at last at Chattanooga.

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 11th, and with his escort reached Colliersville at noon in time to aid in defeating Chalmers. He hurried Frank P. Blair with two divisions on to Iuka, and followed in person with the remainder of the corps, reaching Iuka 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 the262 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 Iuka, 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 of 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 protection, 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 by 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 bands in their neighborhood.

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 hereby 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 inhabitants, 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 Burnside 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 an264 immediate attack by Sherman upon Missionary Ridge and 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 array of General Rosecrans on its retreat into Chattanooga, instead 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 Tennessee 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 East265 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 100 to 400 feet in height, sweeping round from Chattanooga Valley on our centre to our left, to less than one mile of the river above Chattanooga, and sloping westwardly toward the town, thus confronting our line of defenses 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 permanent 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, cold266 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 rifle 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 for me 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 climbing 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 over267 their breastworks, rushed down the mountain side exclaiming, 'Don't shoot, we are your friends!' These men seemed transported with joy on reaching our lines, 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 themselves very 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 mountain 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. The works on the mountain are not very artistic, nor are they extensive, but they were sufficient 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 stirring 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. One268 man, a Sergeant-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 butternuts quake in their boots.

"The Twenty-ninth and Thirty-second Missouri Regiments 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 achievement 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 abortive 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 he269 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 regiment 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 line 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, offering 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, General Wood's Division, Granger's Corps, advances on the270 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 portions 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 portion of his army, and was both times repulsed. Still, he sent Grant word that he would do his work without assistance. 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 command, 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 afford many equalling this."

SPRAGUE'S BRIGADE PROTECTING SHERMAN'S WAGON TRAIN AT DECATUR.

"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.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, General 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 result 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 11 o'clock in 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, charging a rifle-pit of the enemy, and after a hand to hand conflict 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 hill274 which hid them from the view of the enemy than they reformed 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 desperate encounters in the war than was this engagement of an hour, and it speaks volumes in praise of the men engaged 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 prepared for a third and decisive attack; and the enemy did likewise to meet him. This attack was not in itself successful. But it turned the fortunes of the day. It gave Grant the opportunity for which he had been watching through all those anxious hours. Standing on Orchard Knob, he saw the Rebels massing against Sherman, 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 quite275 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 hundred guns.

"The distance between the rifle-pits and our skirmishers was probably not to exceed three hundred yards. In less than 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 forgotten, 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 advancing276 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 progress 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—except 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, leading 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 have277 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 that from forty to fifty pieces of artillery and from three to five thousand prisoners fell into our hands. The guns were immediately 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 direction 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 insignificant, 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 himself 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 another army would have quailed. To give the278 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 doubtless was the fact, that the impetuosity of our men, their almost foolhardy daring, confounded 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 manœuvring 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 'Unconditional 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 Lookout 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-combatants can remain without imprudence."

279 Bragg was now retreating, and Sherman adding other troops to his own was in pursuit. Jeff. C. Davis had hurried 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 pontoons. 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.

280 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 murmur 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 to 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:

281 "In reviewing the facts, I must do justice to my command 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 regular 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 intelligence 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 almost 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 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 commissioned to the grade which they have filled with so much usefulness and credit to the public service, namely, Colonels 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, Fifty-sixth Illinois; J. J. Alexander, Fifty-ninth Indiana."

Early in January Sherman returned to Memphis, to attend to the administration of affairs in that region. Both civil and military matters were presented to him for disposal. His attitude toward the South was here expressed by him in a letter to one of his subordinate officers, as follows:

"The Southern people entered into a clear compact of government, but still maintained a species of separate interests, 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 an283 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, because otherwise they might be used against us.

"In like manner, all houses left vacant by an inimical people, are clearly our right, or such as are needed as storehouses, 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 prejudices 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 hostility, 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 practically and publicly defied. They have appealed to war, and must abide its rules and laws.

284 "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 disloyal 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 Government. 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 Government and to shut up the natural avenues of trade, intercourse, 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 nature285 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 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 persevere in war beyond a certain limit ought to know the consequences. Many, many people, with less pertinacity than the South, have been wiped out of national existence."

286

CHAPTER XX.
MERIDIAN.

Freeing the Mississippi—A March of Destruction—Retreat of the Enemy—Polk's Flight from Meridian—Failure of Smith's Expedition—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 observe 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 Meridian, 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 neighborhood of the Mississippi.

287 Sherman put his cavalry under General William Sooy Smith, and directed him to leave Memphis on February 1st for Meridian, by the way of Pontotoc, Okolona and Columbus. The distance was two hundred and fifty miles, and Smith was to reach his goal on February 10th. He was to strike boldly at any large force that might menace him, to disregard all petty bands of the enemy, 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 columns. There were in all about 25,000 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 number288 of prisoners and one piece of artillery, a ten-pounder Parrott gun, together with a caisson stocked with ammunition, 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 Missourians caused them to retreat. The bridge was saved, and the next day the troops found it convenient for crossing Pearl River. Sherman ordered the advance to proceed 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 revenged the brutality of those they once were compelled to call masters.

CAPTURING THEIR HEADQUARTERS.

"Our cavalry," wrote a correspondent who accompanied the expedition, "arrived at Brandon on the afternoon of February 7th, skirmishing all the way with a Rebel scouting 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 been291 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 protection. 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 battle. 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 16th Corps was now in advance. We went into camp for the night a few miles west of Hillsboro. Here, again, it was thought the enemy would fight us, and preparations were accordingly made. On the morning of the 10th we entered 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 destroyed the bridge across Chunky Creek, were prepared to oppose our crossing.

292 "Some heavy skirmishing was had here, and the enemy for the first time during the campaign showed a determined front. The cavalry division, however, soon found a crossing place, and dashing over the stream formed for action 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 thoroughly scared, and retreated precipitately, felling trees across the road, and tearing up bridges to retard our advance. 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 Meridian, 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 cavalry 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 without a blow, and that the destruction was accomplished, he is said by eye-witnesses to have walked silently to and293 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, destroying the arsenal and many other buildings. "The Ragsdale and Burton Hotels were destroyed after the furniture had been removed, it being the intention of General 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 hospitals 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 bushels 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 10th, as Sherman had directed, nor did he get there at all. Sherman waited in hope that he would come, and sent out parties to look294 for him, but to no avail. He afterward found that Smith had not left Memphis until February 11th, had gone as far as West Point, and had returned to Memphis on February 22d. During his week's stay at Meridian, however, Sherman was not idle. Beside the work of destruction there, he sent out raiding parties in different directions, for the purpose of destroying whatever might benefit the rebellion. Among the places devastated were Enterprise, Marion, Quitman, Hillsboro, Canton, Lake Station, Decatur, 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 correspondent, "discovered a vile Yankee surreptitiously purloining a pair of fat chickens. Terribly incensed at this wanton robbery and gross violation of the rights of personal property, she make a bold onslaught, but I regret to295 say that all her expostulations failed to convince the demoralized 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, extending 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, Tallahassee, 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, 68 wounded, and296 81 missing. It brought in over 400 prisoners, 1,000 white refugees, 5,000 negroes, and vast trains of cattle and wagons; while the damage 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 approach, frequently meeting us with their wives and children 'toting' their little all along with them, and apparently fully satisfied of the advent of the 'day of jubilo.' 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 whereabouts 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 condition 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,297 with shout and careless laughter, but silent 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 inspired. 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 arrange 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 (Sixteenth), and 2,500 of McPherson's (Seventeenth), and report 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 difficulties of transportation.

298

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 Account of the Advance.

March 4th, 1864, marked the beginning of the end of the great rebellion. A law had been made by Congress, authorizing the appointment of a Lieutenant-General, 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 exalted 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 instinctively 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. "... I want to express my299 thanks to you and McPherson, as the men to whom, above all others, I feel indebted for whatever I have had of success. How far your advice and assistance have been of help to me, you know. How far your execution of whatever 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 character. I was not near, and General McPherson in too subordinate 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 followed 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 Vicksburg. Also when you have completed your best preparations, you go into battle without hesitation, as at Chattanooga—no doubts—no reserves; and I tell you, it was this300 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 sustain 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 gratitude 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 the301 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 participated 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 masked302 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 expressive 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 buoyant coming put one at ease. His deep pleasant voice riveted attention, and his fast flowing conversation rewarded your silence.

"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 business and social nature we reached the satisfactory conclusion 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. Substantially, 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 car303 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 eastward 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 figure, 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 commanders 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 consolidations were there fixed upon; and the great problem of safe supply was, at least to themselves, satisfactorily solved.

304 "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 blockhouses constructed, or building, the sugar, the coffee, and the hard-bread and other supplies, coming into Chattanooga, and the herds of cattle lowing along the dusty roads leading to the front, all the way from Louisville and Nashville. The soldiers said, 'Tecumseh is a great fellow. He means business.' Thorough and confident preparations are always a source of encouragement and inspiration."

The nation was now to see scientific warfare. The campaigns of the Union armies were planned with mathematical 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 Potomac. West of the Mississippi River was Banks. The great central region was left to Sherman, and his objective point was Atlanta. The Mississippi Valley was fully wrested from Rebel control, and a series of brilliant victories marked the whole line from Vicksburg, on that river, to Chattanooga, among the Appalachian Mountains. Between 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 concentrated305 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 were 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 exceeding 4,000 men; to reduce the number of troops on the Mississippi to the lowest necessary to hold it, and to collect from his command not less than 25,000 men. To this I will add 5,000 from Missouri. With this force he is to commence operations against Mobile as soon as he can. It will be impossible for him to commence too early.

306 "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, increased by Burnside's Corps of not less than 25,000 effective 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 campaign, 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 18th, 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."

308

MAJOR-GENERAL SCHOFIELD, U.S.A.

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 desperation, 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 travelling 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 forward his preparations with all possible zeal and thoroughness. On April 27th he ordered all his troops to Chattanooga, 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 gallant310 McPherson in general command. The Army of the Cumberland was at Ringgold. It included the Fourth, Fourteenth 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; Artillery, 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 comprised three corps, under Hardee, Hood and Polk. According 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 number 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 Ringgold, 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.

311 "Notice Catoosa Springs, a summer resort. The surrounding hills were covered with trees, light green, in tender leaf; and the mountain ranges on two sides, Lookout 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 trembling 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 beautiful morning light—arms were never brighter—and the312 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 experienced 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 foremost 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 mountain 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 handsome, 'fighting 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,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 Buzzard's formidable roosts."

314

CHAPTER XXII.
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 Johnston—Death of McPherson—Howard in Command of the army of the Tennessee—Ezra Church—Operations around Atlanta—The Rush to Jonesboro—Capture of Atlanta.

Sherman moved forward on May 6th toward Dalton, where lay the enemy. A direct attack on this position, however, was impossible. Dalton lay behind a precipitous mountain ridge, called Rocky Face, which it was impracticable 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 southward to Snake Creek Gap, at the southern extremity of the Rocky Face Ridge, where there was an easy passage through to Resaca, at the railroad 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 Schofield315 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 determination. A division of Howard's troops under Newton actually surrounded the narrow ridge and carried a part north of the Gap, but the crest was too strait for them to make much progress 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 without opposition to within a mile of Resaca, but then found that Johnston had defended that place 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 following close with his horse and foot, pressed through Buzzard's Roost Gap, entered Dalton, and pursued Johnston till he joined Sherman at Resaca.

MAP N^o 1.

ATLANTA CAMPAIGN

Sherman now undertook to drive Johnston out of Resaca 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 in the317 afternoon of May 14th the grand attack upon Resaca began. 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 was 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 communications. 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 Oostanaula flowing west, and its tributary, the Connassauga, south. Confederate Johnston, after fleeing from Dalton, placed his army in the northwest angle of the streams, resting Polk's Corps against the Oostanaula, facing west, put Hardee's next above, running up a creek, and then bore Hood back in a convex curve till his men touched the Connassauga. Sherman318 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 threatened 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 possible, 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 skirmish. 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 rear guard. "Musketry was lively,"319 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, skyward, 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 du combat and several others of the orderlies and escort lamed or slain. Captain Bliss, of Newton'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 important foundries and stores. The two bridges across the Etowah were secured, and all was made ready for the next320 stage of the campaign. About this time a remarkable thing began to be observed. Sherman displayed a knowledge of the country 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 intellect to see everything that was to be seen and to remember everything that he saw, so that his mind became a perfect encyclopædia 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 always 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 grumbling private remark, "That's a pretty commander for an army." Instead of ordering the man's arrest, Sherman simply remarked, "My man, I was working all321 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 service. 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 supposing it to be one of the army "bummers," demanded abruptly, "What did you ring that bell for?" "For service, General; it is Sunday," replied 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 carried by direct assault. He therefore determined to make a circuit to the right, and marched toward Dallas. Johnston 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, but322 Sherman's men worked steadily constructing fortifications of earthwork and logs. The next morning the engagement 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 1st 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 skirmishing, especially in the afternoon, when, at half-past 5, the323 Fourth Corps (Howard's) and a division of the Fourteenth (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 nightfall, 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 daylight to take the offensive against us there at Pickett's Mill, 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 shell, General Howard sat that night among the wounded in the midst of a forest glade, while Major Howard of his staff led regiments and brigades into the new positions chosen for them. General R. W. Johnson, (Palmer's Division Commander) had been wounded and Captain Stinson of Howard's staff had been shot through the lungs, and a large number lay there on a sliding slope by a faint camp fire,324 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. Sherman 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.

DEATH OF GEN. J. B. McPHERSON.

JULY 22D, 1864.

From Painting by J. E. Taylor.

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 hopeless task. But Sherman thought he could break through his lines on the gentler southern slope. On June 11th the advance began. Hooker was at the right front and Howard at the left front, and they pressed forward with great vigor. During their cannonading, 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 between327 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 they kept on working.

The army was not content with besieging Kenesaw, but kept trying to work its way around that mountain. Disquieted 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 supporting movement by McPherson northward. They were both repulsed with heavy losses, and Sherman then decided 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 1st, 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 progress toward Atlanta. Schofield made a strong demonstration328 across a neighboring ferry, however, and Johnston soon fell back to the Chattahoochee bridge, Thomas following closely. The river was deep and swift, but Sherman 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 Johnston 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 repelled 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 Sherman 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 once, 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, made329 Williams talk fast, and Geary suspend his favorite Kansas stories and tales of the Mexican war. In the language 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 always, too obstinate to go back. Thomas's modesty put in additional reserve batteries and kept pieces of iron rattling among the chaparral and alders of those low-land intervales. 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 within 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 conquering 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 Opelika, and thence to Marietta, completely cutting off Johnston's army from all sources of supply and reinforcement in that direction. Sherman also brought up fresh stores from Chattanooga. July 17th a general advance was made.

330 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 successor, 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 Sherman's advance the government had no confidence in his ability to do so, and ordering him immediately to surrender his command 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 competent to direct the operations of a great army in an important 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, reasonably 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,331 five detachments of cavalry were successively sent with instructions to destroy as much as they could of the railroad between Dalton and the Etowah; all failed, because too weak. 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-General 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 northwest 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 columns 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 of332 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 as he was hastening from Dodge's Corps to Blair's through the woods, i.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 commanders, 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 Twentieth 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,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 detachments 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. Howard, putting in his last corps, had led the way thither, believing that at this point the Rebel attack would be made. Hood's men came on with a rush, and some of them forced their way for a space beyond the Union right. But Howard's troops, particularly the Fifteenth Corps, under Logan, aided by detachments 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 engendered 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 appointment 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 and334 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 extending 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 bombard 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 communications 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 movement 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 Kilpatrick 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 of335 August," says General Howard, "Sherman's forces made a curious manœuvre. If you should face a line of cavalry, infantry 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 succession 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 Kilpatrick to me and said: 'It is but six miles to Flint River, where a bridge crosses, and but a few more miles to Jonesboro, 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 infantry.' 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 pursued, 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 hill336 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 dislodged. 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,337 when again, about 4 A. M., arose another similar explosion. Sherman remained in doubt whether the enemy was engaged in blowing up his own magazines, or whether General 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 proclamation was made at Washington and echoed through the North and West, 'Atlanta is won.' It meant that our glorious cause had prevailed. Rebellion, it is said, cannot last much longer. It spoke of the end of war, of the beginning 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."

338

CHAPTER XXIII.
PREPARING FOR THE MARCH.

Congratulations and Rejoicings—Sherman's Address to his Army—Incidents 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 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 telegraphed 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 to339 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 communicated 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 Cumberland, Ohio and Tennessee, have already received the thanks of the Nation through its President and Commander-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 displayed in the campaign of Atlanta.

"On the first day of May our armies were lying in garrison, seemingly quiet, from Knoxville to 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 "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 handsomely 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 and 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 assigned 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.

341 "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. McPherson, 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, Washington."

Sherman had, on August 12th, been made a Major-General in the Regular Army.

It was possible now and even after to recall many dramatic 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 "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 communications 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 Tribune, described the appearance of the captured city, at the entrance 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 Chattahoochee River on a reconnoisance. 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, redoubts, redans and varied forms of earthworks, exhibit every variety of defensive expedient used in modern warfare. Nothing in345 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 positions for such works.

BATTLE OF ATLANTA.

From painting by J. E. Taylor.

"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 convenient, with large lots and fine shrubbery. The native growth is a mixture of small oak and pine, while the hand of culture has interspersed the China tree, Grape, Myrtle, Rose, Laurel, Holly, Honey-suckle, Sensitive plant, and a multitude 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 thousand 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 its346 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, fireballs, and boxes of ammunition popping, blazing and roaring, shook the city and were heard plainly by us at the river. When Colonel Coburn entered the city they were exploding in the forts, and sounded like the continual discharge of artillery.

"What machinery had not been removed has been destroyed. 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, affording a prospect of unequalled extent and beauty.

"It is a solitary sugar-loaf, and looms up from the horizon 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,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 Valley. 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. Apparently 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 only348 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 garrisons Sherman had left behind him here and there, but Sherman turned on him all but Slocum's Corps, so that he utterly 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 again and again his overwhelming columns surged against the works. But at nightfall they were compelled to retire with dreadful loss. Next morning Sherman reached the top of Kenesaw, to within signalling distance of 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 cheekbone, but am able to whip all hell yet!"

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 decided to let Hood go, trusting to Schofield and Thomas, whom he sent with troops to Nashville, to deal with him,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 Atlanta, as he left it behind him, a purely military post, occupied 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 Government.... At a proper time full arrangements will be made for a supply to the troops of all the articles they may need over and above clothing, provisions, etc., furnished by Government, and on no pretence whatever will traders, manufacturers, or sutlers, be allowed to settle in the limits of fortified places; and if they manage to come in spite of this notice the quartermaster will seize their stores, apply them to the use of the troops and deliver the parties, or other unauthorized citizens who thus place their individual interest above that of the United States, over to the hands of some provost-marshal, to be put to labor on forts or conscripted into one of the regiments or battery already in service. The same military principles will apply to all military posts south of Atlanta."

If the people of Atlanta had already become panic-stricken, what shall be said of their state of mind when this thunderbolt fell upon them? Consternation is far too weak a word. The Mayor and City Council made a formal and impassioned appeal to Sherman to revoke it. They said, in part:

350 "At first view, it struck us that the measure would involve extraordinary hardship and loss, but since we have seen the practical execution of it, so far as it had progressed, and the individual condition of many people, and heard their statements as to the inconveniences, loss, and suffering attending it, we are satisfied that it will involve, in the aggregate, consequences appalling and heartrending.

"We know your mind and time are constantly occupied with the duties of your command, which almost deters us from asking your attention to this matter; but thought it might be that you had not considered the subject in all its awful consequences, and that on more reflection you, we hope, would not make this people an exception to all mankind, for we know of no such instance ever having occurred; surely none such in the United States; and what has this helpless people done that they should be driven from their homes, to wander as strangers, outcasts, and exiles, and to subsist on charity?"

To this Sherman replied at considerable length, in explicit 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 defeated. To defeat them, we must reach them in their recesses. My military plans make it necessary for the inhabitants to go away, and I can only renew my offer of351 services to make their exodus in any direction as easy and comfortable as possible.

"War is cruelty, 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 improvements we cannot 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 thousands of the families of Rebel soldiers, left on our hands, and whom we could not see starve. Now that war comes home to you, you feel very differently—you deprecate its horrors. But you did not feel them when you were sending car-loads of soldiers and ammunition, and were moulding 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 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. He notified Hood of the order he had issued and proposed that hostilities be suspended for 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 firesides 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 removed 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 recent and modern examples are so handy. You yourself burned dwelling-houses along your parapet; and I have353 seen, to-day, fifty houses that you have rendered uninhabitable because they stood in the way of your forts and men. You defended Atlanta on a line 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, Mississippi.

"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, I ask 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 ordinance 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 'hateful Lincoln Government;' tried to force Missouri and Kentucky into rebellion, in spite of themselves; falsified the vote of Louisiana; turned loose your privateers to plunder unarmed ships; expelled Union354 families by the thousands, burned their houses, and declared 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 Southerner 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 detailed soldiers. We found in Atlanta about a thousand of these fellows, and I am satisfied they are fit subjects of exchange; and if you will release an equal number of our poor fellows at Andersonville 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 belonging 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 picked355 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 delivery 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 privations incident to military imprisonment because their boldness and courage subjected them to capture, although their terms of service has nearly expired, is deeply regretted 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, however 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, 1651 pounds of furniture and other personal effects.

356 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 conception of it as well as its execution. "The honor is all yours," said Lincoln afterward; "none of us went further than to acquiesce."

But Sherman had not stated positively, not even to Grant, what his objective point was, whether Charleston or Savannah, or even Pensacola. 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 interference 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.

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 army 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 Bull 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. After358 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 served 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, Chancellorsville 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.

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.

"III. 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 dwellings of the inhabitants, or commit any trespass; but during 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

"V. To army commanders alone is intrusted the power to destroy mills, houses, cotton-gins, etc., and for them this general principle is laid down: In districts and neighborhoods where the army is unmolested, no destruction 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 relentless, 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 industrious, 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 threatening 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 question 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 the363 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 instruct 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 see to its being properly protected at all times."

BATTLE OF ATLANTA—THE CONTEST ON BALD HILL.

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 instrument, 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.

364

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 Philosopher—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 incidents, 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 foraging party, but with no serious effect. Occasionally, some soldiers would become disorderly and commit acts of violence and pillage, but such breaches of order were365 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 through Rebel sources, which were generally either ill-informed or untruthful. The Rebel authorities, indeed, were much mystified as to Sherman's real purpose. Their uncertainty is shown by the following extract from the columns of The Richmond Dispatch of November 18th, only a few days after the start:

"The only official information received by the press yesterday was that Sherman had destroyed the Northwestern and Atlantic railroad from Atlanta to Allatoona, the Chattahoochee bridge included. This movement is difficult to understand, except as explained by unofficial reports 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 of366 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 Richmond 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 accumulated 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 Pensacola 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.

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 extravagant 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 Tennessee, 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 The 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 accounts368 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 expected 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 according 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 encounter, and what is his object? There will be no army in front of him and the Georgia militia 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 remaining 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 greatest369 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 communication 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 Government. 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? What is to prevent these results? He has a large, well equipped disciplined 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 before the start from Atlanta, gave this view of the case:

"We are under orders to prepare for a sixty days' campaign; so you see that does not look much like spending the 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 conjectured that a large force is soon to start for Savannah,370 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 Atlanta on November 14th, he said:

"On the 12th instant the last train of cars whirled rapidly 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 Curtisville the last communications with the North were served with the telegraph wire. It bore the message to General Thomas, 'All is well.' And so we have cut adrift from our base of operations, 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 vocabulary 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 twisted371 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 manœuvring. 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 conceive 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 ruins 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 carried 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 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 accompanied their words with rather embarrassing hugs.

"General Slocum, with the Twentieth Corps, first entered the city, arriving by way of Madison, having accomplished his mission of destroying the railroads and valuable bridges at Madison. The fright of the legislators, as described by witnesses, must have been comical in the extreme. They little imagined the movement of our left wing, hearing first of the advance of Kilpatrick on the extreme 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, everything 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.

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 designated by the general commanding. The magazines, arsenals, 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 having 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 former occupant having with extremely bad grace fled from his distinguished visitor, taking with him the entire furniture of the building. As General Sherman travels with a menage (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 serious inconvenience.

"General Sherman's opening move in the present campaign has been successful in the highest degree. At first374 moving his Army in three columns, with a column of Cavalry 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 unimpeded the progress of the main body. In this campaign—the end of which does not yet appear—it is not the purpose 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 Milledgeville on the 22d instant, preceding Davis, with the Fourteenth 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 Fifteenth and Seventeenth Corps, after a battle, arrived at Gordon, and began the destruction of the Georgia Central Railroad.

"It was back of this that the most serious fight of the campaign occurred to this date, supported by General Chas. R. Wood's entire division. General Wolcot in command of a detachment of cavalry and a brigade of infantry, was thrown forward to Griswoldville, toward Macon, for demonstrative 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 greatest375 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. Continuing 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 moment. While these two corps had met with the obstructions above mentioned, the army under General Howard376 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 penitentiary upon the condition that they would join the army.

"The most of these desperados have been taken prisoners, dressed in their State prison clothing. General Sherman 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, and commenced 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 hours 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 observed in the army, the troops scorning chickens in the plentitude of turkeys with which they have supplied themselves.

"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 obtain a delicious syrup made from sorghum, which is cultivated377 on all the plantations, and stored away in large troughs and hogsheads. The mills here and there furnish fresh supplies of flour and meal, and we hear little or nothing 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 would 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 matter 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, containing Cobb's address to the Georgians as general commanding, 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 humane, 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 clothing scarce covering378 their nakedness, with little or no food, and without means of procuring any. We found them cowering over the fireplaces 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 Atlanta. 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 Chattahoochee, 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 frightened, 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.

A BIVOUAC AMONG THE GEORGIA PINES.

"Near Covington, one Judge Harris has a large plantation;381 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 whites 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 anyhow.382 They all seem to understand that the proclamation of freedom had made them free, and I have met but few instances 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 working on dat road.'

"'Does the man live here who worked them?'

"'Oh no, sar; he's dun gone long time.'

"By the way, the destruction of railroads in this campaign 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 does 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 the383 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 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 reason 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 accomplished 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 forced384 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 behind, 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 ensued 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, assumed a fierce, almost devilish aspect.

"Pointing her shining black finger 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 more385 terrible sight I never beheld. I can think of nothing to compare with it, except Charlotte Cushman's 'Meg Merrilies.' 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, destroying 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 cavalry 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 treacherous quicksands which the army had to span with corduroy roads.

Here they met a quaint old man who had been station agent before the railroad was destroyed. The correspondent 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 newspapers 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's386 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 precious 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 $11 a month, and hasn't got a cent of the stuff for a year. 'Leven dollars a month and 11,000 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 Scarborough on December 3, thus:

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 impossible for the rebels to decide whether or not it was General Sherman's intention to march upon Augusta. Kilpatrick 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 railroad, 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 possible 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 completely 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 Savannah, their generals may attempt to harass our rear.

ATLANTA TO SAVANNAH

"The work so admirably performed by our left wing, so far as it obliged the rebels in our front constantly to retreat, by threatening their rear, now becomes the office of389 the Fifteenth Corps, our right wing, on the right bank of the river. Its two columns are 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 cavalry, then of Davis and Kilpatrick on the left, and now of Howard on our right, is because 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 cavalry at a river could delay a column half a day, and perhaps longer, and as our soldiers have got tired of chickens, sweet potatoes, sorghum, etc., and have been promised oysters on the half shell, oysters 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 connecting 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 between390 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 12th his investment of the city was complete, and only Fort McAllister 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, commander 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 approached 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,391 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 behind. At daybreak of December 21st the Union troops occupied the city, and Sherman's official dispatch announcing 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 dispatch, 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-General Halleck, 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 Savannah, advancing 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 a392 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 Commander of the United States Naval Forces
in the 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 obedient 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 railroad from Gordon clear to Savannah, with numerous breaks on the latter road from Gordon to Eatonville, and from Millen to Augusta, and the Savannah and Gulf railroad. 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 thousand393 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 realities of war home to those who have been directly or indirectly instrumental in involving us in its attendant calamities.

"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."

394

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—Material 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. 1st, 1865.

"Major-General H. W. 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 commanding, 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, in395 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 Chattahoochee, 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 harangues referring to an active campaign against us. Hood still remained in command of the Confederate forces, with Cheatham, S. D. Lee and Stewart, commanding 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-General 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 intended to assume the offensive, namely, September 28th,396 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 1st 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 Chattahoochee. 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.

SHERMAN SENDING HIS LAST TELEGRAM BEFORE CUTTING THE WIRES.

"I had anticipated this movement, and had by signal and telegraph ordered General Corse to reinforce that post 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 Kenesaw399 due west, aiming to reach the road from Allatoona to Dallas, threatening the rear of the forces attacking Allatoona 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 admirably conducted, 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 10th. 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 therefore, on the 11th, moved to Rome, and pushed Garrard's Cavalry and the Twenty-third Corps, under General Cox, across the 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 appearance at Resaca, and Hood had in person demanded its surrender.

"I had from Kingston reinforced Resaca by two regiments 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 turn400 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 Tilton 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 mountains, to the rear of Snake Creek Gap in the neighborhood of Villianow.

"The Army of the Tennessee found the enemy occupying 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 before General Stanley had reached the further end of the pass. The next day (the 16th) 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 Carolina 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 Gover's Gap, to Gaylesville. Hood, however, was little incumbered with401 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 neighborhood of Gadsden. He evidently wanted to avoid the fight.

"On the 19th all the armies were grouped about Gaylesville, in the rich valley of the Chattooga, abounding in corn and meat, and I determined to pause in my pursuit of the enemy, to watch his movements and live on the country. 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 support 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 Gaylesville; and all the troops were instructed to draw heavily for supplies from the surrounding country. In the meantime 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 provisions, but forage was scarce, and General Slocum was instructed to send strong foraging parties out in the direction of South River and collect all the corn and fodder possible, and to put his own trains in good condition for further service.

"Hood's movements and strategy had demonstrated that he had an army capable of endangering at all times my communications, but unable to meet me in open fight. To follow him would simply amount to being decoyed away from402 Georgia, with little prospect of overtaking and overwhelming him. To remain on the defensive would have been bad policy for an army of so great value as the one I then commanded, and I was forced to adopt a course more fruitful in results than the naked one of following him to the southwest. 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 Chattanooga, 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 somewhat 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 October, 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 subject 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 Division, except one division under Brigadier-General Kilpatrick, 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, organize and equip them, and report to Major-General403 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 1st 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, having 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 Kingston until he felt perfectly confident that he was entirely prepared to cope with Hood, should he carry into effect his threatened invasion of Tennessee and Kentucky. I estimated 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 neighborhood 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 contemplated 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 11th of November, when, everything being ready, I ordered General Corse, who still remained at Rome, to destroy the bridges404 there, all foundries, mills, shops, warehouses, or other property that could be useful to an enemy, and to move to Kingston. At the same time the railroad in and about Atlanta, and between the Etowah and the Chattahoochee, was ordered to be utterly destroyed.

"The garrisons from Kingston northward were also ordered 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 untouched, 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 leading to it are destroyed, as well as all its foundries, machine shops, warehouses, depots, &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, possesses 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 Chattahoochee Valleys.

"On the 12th 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, constituting the left wing, under Major-General H. W. Slocum; of an aggregate strength of 60,000 infantry; one cavalry division, in aggregate strength 5,500, under Brigadier-General Judson Kilpatrick, and the artillery reduced to the minimum, one gun per thousand men.

405 "The whole force moved rapidly and grouped about Atlanta on the 14th November. In the meantime Captain O. M. Poe 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 direction 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 Twentieth 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 16th, in company with the Fourteenth Corps, Brevet-Major-General Jeff. C. Davis, by Lithonia, Covington, and Shady Dale, directly on Milledgeville. All the troops were provided with good wagon trains, loaded with ammunition, and supplies approximating 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. All my calculations were fully realized.406 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 handled 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 Kilpatrick 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 delayed us three hours. The next day we entered Sandersville, skirmishing with Wheeler's Cavalry, 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 destroy 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's407 Cavalry. In person I shifted to the right wing, and accompanied the Seventeenth Corps, General Blair, on the south of the railroad, till abreast of Station No. 9½, (Barton;) General Howard, in person, with the Fifteenth Corps, keeping further to the 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 to meet our infantry, in pursuance of my instructions not to risk a battle unless at great advantage, I ordered him to leave his wagons and all incumbrances 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 handsomely through Waynesborough 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 continued it to Millen; the enemy offering little or no opposition, although preparation had seemingly been made at Millen."

408 "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 direction 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 Savannah 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 incredibly short time. No opposition from the enemy worth speaking of was encountered until the heads of columns were within 15 miles of Savannah, where all the roads leading to the city were obstructed more or less by felled timber, with earthworks, and artillery. But these were easily turned and the enemy driven away, so that by the 10th of December the enemy was driven within his lines at Savannah. These followed substantially a swampy creek which empties into the Savannah River about three miles above the city,409 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 controlled and covered by his heavy artillery.

"The only approaches to the city were by five narrow 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 (gunboats) 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 occupied the railroad itself down to the Little Ogeechee, near 'Station No. 1;' so that no supplies could reach Savannah by any of its accustomed channels. We, on the contrary, possessed large herds of cattle, which we had brought along or gathered in the country, and our wagons still contained a reasonable amount of breadstuffs and other necessaries,410 and the fine rice crops 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, communication with the fleet was of vital importance, and I directed General Kilpatrick to cross the Ogeechee by a pontoon bridge, to reconnoitre Fort McAllister, and to proceed to Catherine's Sound, in the direction of Sunbury or Kilkenny Bluff, and open communication with the fleet. General Howard had previously by my direction sent one of his best scouts down the Ogeechee in a canoe for a like purpose. But more than this was necessary. We wanted the vessels and their contents, and the Ogeechee River, a navigable 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 incredibly 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 December the 2d Division of the 15th Corps, under command 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 vicinity of Fort McAllister about 1 P. M., deployed his division about that place, with both flanks resting upon the river, posted his skirmishers judiciously behind the trunks of trees whose branches had been used for abattis, and about 5 P. M., assaulted the place with nine regiments411 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 expecting them hourly in Ossabaw Sound. After making communications to those officers, and a short communication to the War Department, I returned to Fort McAllister that 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 accordingly returned with him, and met General Foster on board the steamer 'Nemeha,' and, after consultation, determined412 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 Hilton 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 channels 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 McAllister, 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 refusing to surrender.

"In the meantime further reconnoissances from our left flank had demonstrated that it was impracticable or unwise413 to push any considerable force across the Savannah River, for the enemy held the river opposite the city with iron-clad 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 Causeway 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 arrangements to reinforce that command by one or more divisions, under a proper officer, to assault and carry the railroad, and thence turn toward Savannah until it occupied 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 the 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 Adjutant, Captain Dayton, of that morning, the 21st, to the effect that our troops were in possession of the enemy's lines, and were advancing without opposition into Savannah,414 the enemy having evacuated the place during the previous night.

"Admiral Dahlgren proceeded up the Vernon River in his barge, while I transferred to the tug, in which I proceeded 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 escaped 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 results 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 Savannah, 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 ironclad '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 purposes. But inasmuch as the inhabitants generally have manifested a friendly disposition, I shall disturb them as little as possible consistently with the military rights of present and future military commanders, without remitting the least our just rights as captors.

416

CAPTURING THE FLAG.

417 "After having made the necessary orders for the disposition of the troops in and about Savannah, I ordered Captain 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 lines 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 serious 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 fulfills 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 of 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.

418 "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 alternative was left me but the one I adopted, namely, to divide 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 singularly sustained by the results. General Hood, who, as I have heretofore described, had moved to the westward 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 eastward 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 Railroad from Gordon clear to Savannah, with numerous breaks on the latter road from Gordon to Eatonton, and from Millen 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,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 damage done to the State of Georgia and its military resources at $100,000,000, at least $20,000,000 of which has inured to our advantage, and the remainder 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 indirectly instrumental 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 Alabama 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 General 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 Kittoe, relieved to resume his proper duties as a Medical Inspector. 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-General. 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 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. His report is full and graphic. All the division420 and brigade commanders merit my personal and official thanks, and I shall spare 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 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 respectable 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 heartfelt 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 subordinates421 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 campaign, all of which are respectfully submitted by

"Your obedient servant,
"W. T. Sherman, Major-General."

422

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.

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 grim 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. Seven thousand slaves had joined the march to the coast.

423 Twenty thousand bales of cotton had been burned and three hundred and twenty miles of railroad destroyed, including 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 suspense, 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 confidence and praise. Not even Grant himself was more applauded. 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 capture of Savannah.

424 "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 important 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 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 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 I425 shall spare 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 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 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 come 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 working of the experiment.

"As to trade matters, I also think it is to our interest to keep the Southern people somewhat dependent on the articles of commerce to which they have hitherto been accustomed. General Grover is now here, and will, I think, be able to handle this matter judiciously, and may gradually426 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 comparison 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 measure, 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, visited 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 Halleck on the same subject. Sherman's own idea was that the rebels should be thoroughly whipped and their pride broken. He would march to the innermost recesses of their country 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 himself who planned this Northward march through the Carolinas, and it was not without opposition that he did so. Grant wanted him to come on at once to Virginia by sea, and Sherman at first desired it. But a few days later he427 wrote to Grant that he wanted to march thither by land, 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-enforcement, 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 Sherman's delight, and by January 15 the army was ready to move Northward.

First, Howard 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 Beaufort 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 further 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 1 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 cavalry, meanwhile, made various raids and had some skirmishing with Wheeler. Sherman pursued his old policy of directing no wilful damage to private property, but the rumor got abroad that he was pillaging and burning428 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 molest 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 before, come up here on hunting excursions while he was stationed 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 February they reached Columbia, and Sherman issued the following 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, destroying 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 Columbia to drive away the lingering rebel troops. Before abandoning the city, the rebels burned the railroad station and fired some429 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 became 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 was afterward accused by several writers of having himself deliberately ordered the burning of the city. The falsity of this charge has been abundantly demonstrated. Sherman himself, doubtless with entire justice, threw the responsibility upon the rebel general, Wade Hampton, and his cavalrymen, who were the last to evacuate 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 Columbia 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. Sherman430 then pressed on toward North Carolina. Kilpatrick reported on February 22 that Wade Hampton's cavalry had murdered some of his men, and left their bodies by the wayside with labels on them threatening a like fate to all foragers. 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 foraging 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 Fayetteville in high spirits on March 11 and remained there several days. The army now numbered 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 18th, there was another battle, with the same result, both wings, Slocum and Howard, being engaged. Johnston was now in command of the rebel armies ahead of Sherman and had431 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 Bentonville. This concluded the hostile part of the march through the Carolinas. In reviewing the campaign, Sherman said:

"I cannot, even with any degree of precision, recapitulate the vast amount of injury done the enemy, or the quantity of guns and materials of war captured and destroyed. 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 every kind known in active campaigning, and some four hundred miles of corduroying. The latter was a very simple affair, where there were plenty of fence 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 corduroying it so as to make it passable. I estimate the 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. The432 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."

433

CAMP OF THE SECOND MASSACHUSETTS, CITY HALL SQUARE, ATLANTA

435

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 account 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 decided thereupon to go up to City Point and have a personal interview with Grant. He issued orders, leaving Schofield 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 Cincinnati. Their meeting was characteristic of the two men and deserves to be made historic. Sherman spoke first:436 "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 poring 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. He 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 Dinwiddie 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.

437 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, but this Grant would not listen to. He deemed it wisest that the Army of the Potomac should "finish up the job." They finally decided that Sherman should come up to the Roanoke River, near Gaston, and if not needed to head off Lee, make Johnston's army his objective 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 Southside railroads, and thus deprive the enemy of further supplies, and also prevent the rapid concentration of Lee's and Johnston's armies. I had spent days of anxiety lest each moment should bring the report that the enemy had retreated the night before. I was firmly convinced that Sherman'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."

With 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. Sherman had said at City Point, "I can command my own terms, and Johnston will have to yield." Lincoln had replied 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 announced438 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 surrender should be obtained on any reasonable conditions. But before this could be effected, the dreadful 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 disagreement between the former and Sherman that followed.

On the beautiful morning of April 17, Sherman and Johnston met near Durham's Station. Sherman first conveyed 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 Jefferson439 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 surrender, but Sherman prepared a memorandum, on which there was agreement, stating the terms on which he proposed to receive Johnston's surrender. This he forwarded to Washington for approval. It read as follows:

"Memorandum or basis of Agreement, made this 18th 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 general of either to his opponent, and reasonable time, say forty-eight hours, allowed.

"II. The Confederate armies now in existence to be disbanded, and conducted to their several State capitals, there to deposit their arms and public property in the State Arsenal, and each officer and man to execute and file an agreement 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 Ordnance 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 borders of the States respectively.

"III. The recognition by the Executive of the United States of the several State Governments on their officers440 and Legislatures taking the oath prescribed by the Constitution 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 guaranteed, 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 disbandment 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 myself,441 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 President to simply indorse the copy, and commission me to carry out the terms, I will follow them to the conclusion. You will observe that it is an absolute submission of the enemy to the lawful authorities of the United States, and disperses his armies absolutely; and the point to which I attach most importance is, that the disposition and dispersement 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 sincerely 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 10th Corps, and go myself with the 14th, 15th, 17th, 20th, and 23d Corps, via Burkesville and Gordonsville to Frederick or Hagerstown, there to be paid and mustered out.

"The question of finance is now the chief one, and every442 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 between yourself and General J. E. Johnston for the disbandment of the Southern army, and the extension of the authority of the General Government over all the territory belonging 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 Secretary 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 together, 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 negotiations 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 answer to me on sending a letter received from General Lee443 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 Johnston 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 military 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.

444 "All acts of war on the part of the troops under General 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 duplicate, one copy to be retained by the commander of the troops, and the other to be given to an officer to be designated 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 permitted to return to their homes, not to be disturbed by the United States authorities so long as they observe their obligations, 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 set445 in. Sherman's worth was fully recognized, and he was hailed with acclaim as second only to Grant in the leadership of the National hosts. After these events Sherman, his army marching northward, reached Alexandria, Virginia. He was so embittered against Stanton that he had determined not to enter the City of Washington but to remain in camp with his army. 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 Stanton 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 column. 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 Seward, 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 now consisted of 65,000 men in splendid446 condition. It is said he considered it the finest army in existence. For six hours and a half it marched along Pennsylvania Avenue, and thus brought to a fitting conclusion the triumphant campaign of more than two thousand miles in which it had been engaged.

On May 30 Sherman formally took leave of his comrades in the following special field orders:

"The General commanding announces to the Armies of 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 Lookout 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 Government 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 behind.

"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 Chattahoochee, far from home, and dependent on a single road for supplies. Again we were not to be held back by any obstacle, and crossed over and fought four hard battles for the possession of the citadel of Atlanta. That was the crisis of447 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 Averysboro' and Bentonsville, we once more came out of the wilderness, 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, offered 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 admitted 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 armies and navy of the United States.

448 "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 belief 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 the Government of our inheritance."

449

CHAPTER XXVIII.
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 Northwest—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 Nashville, visiting old friends. He was then, on June 27, 1865, put in command of the Military Division of the Mississippi, 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 he witnessed the opening of 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 upon450 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 accordingly 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 question.

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 why 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 to453 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.

BATTLE OF EZRA CHURCH, JULY 28th, 1864.

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 President454 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 of the 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 arrangement that the President finally agreed to let him stay at St. Louis, and then appointed Lorenzo Thomas Secretary of War ad interim. 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.455 In that capacity he travelled widely through the Indian country and had many conferences with the chiefs. He proposed that the great Indian reservations should be organized 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 General, and Sheridan Lieutenant-General. Under this arrangement Sherman of course had to return to Washington, 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, 1871, 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 now456 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 Washington, he said:

"The army of 1776 was the refuge of all who loved liberty for liberty's sake, and who were willing to test their sincerity by the fire of battle; and we claim that the army of 1876 is the best friend of liberty, good order, and Government, 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 standing 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 our 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 you457 shake your heads and whisper 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 honorable man and rendered good service, and that this entitles him to charitable consideration. 'Lead us not into temptation' 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 believe 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 time 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 for their learning and purity; and Congress is now, as it has ever been and must be from its composition, a representative 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 desolation and ruin,—on all a fearful debt,—States, counties,458 and cities follow the fashion, until the whole land became deeply in debt. The debts are now due, and bear heavily in the shape of taxes on our homes, on property, and business.

"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 pressure 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 temptations and vices of men, we of the army feel, or rather think we feel, more in the spirit of Burns:

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 10,000 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 of459 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 canyon. 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 immediately 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 them460 muddy. Water slushed around as in a boiling pot. Some 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 distinguish 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 describe 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 Madison is the Upper461 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 described by Lieutenants Duane, Hayden, Strong, Lord Dunraven, 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 literary 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 prominent 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. Sherman462 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 discovered, 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 correspondence and official reports, making forty volumes of manuscript letters pasted in letter-books. These forty volumes are in the War Department at Washington. I had a duplicate copy. One day I sat down to glance at these letters, and conceived the idea of reducing their contents to narrative 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 urgently463 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 contemporaries, 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 prejudices 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 commanders. Their respective triumphs and defeats were the subjects of undue taunts, ridicule or criticism. My particular army was that of Tennessee, and it is more than possible, 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 opposed 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 circumlocution was necessary. If I wanted one of Buell's corps I had to issue a command, and that had to be repeated, perhaps 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 impetuous action was needed. My army was one of wild fighters, never so well pleased as when driving the enemy464 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 circumstances 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 would 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 head 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 commands, and not those who cherished ambitious political projects, and who were continually running off to see the people 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 guest465 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 who 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 spectacles. 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. When 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 made466 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 memorable 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 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 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.467 Depew regarded him as "the readiest and most original talker in the United States," and Mr. Depew 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 profession. 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 procedure. 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 appointment of a committee on Resolutions, and it will consist of468 (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, gentlemen, 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 directory where Dr. John Hall's church is situated. He wore a very extraordinary pair of spectacles—each lens like a jeweler's magnifying 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."

469

THE ROAD FROM McPHERSONVILLE—Sherman and Staff Passing Through Water and Mire.

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 battalion 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 or472 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 Regulars 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 Mrs. 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 The 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, reaffirmed in 1883, and often spoken of as a matter of course between us. We have followed in the minutest particular473 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 replies 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 Pittsburg; Miss Rachel Sherman, and Miss Lizzie Sherman. Messrs. Thackara and Fitch, to whom the two elder daughters were married, were army officers.

474

CHAPTER XXIX.
DEATH AND BURIAL.

A Fatal Cold—Lingering Between Hope and Fear—The Last Rally—The End of Life's Campaign—A Son's Sad Home-Coming—Preparations 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 Warrior'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 commander, 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 the performance of "Poor Jonathan," at the New York Casino, on Wednesday475 night, February 4, 1891. It was, in fact, a special performance. Invitations had been sent to the military officers of the city, and General Sherman occupied one of the proscenium 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 performance, 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 Monday476 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 dispatch 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 11, he found the General resting on his back in a state of semi-stupor. His condition 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 administered 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 condition 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 been477 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 surprised 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 conscious, 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 them478 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 uneasiness, except when he called for 'Cump' (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 weak 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 been479 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 inflamed throat filling his lungs, there were no longer indications 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 homeward, 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 it480 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 respected 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 General'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 passes."

The President and his Cabinet were invited by General Howard to attend the funeral exercises in New York.481 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, Grosvenor, Kinsey, Tarsney, Henderson, of Illinois, and Outhwaite.

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 obligations, 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 mourn universally for the dead commander, whose great heart made us all his own and made his own virtues seem to us like personal benefactions.

"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 frequent 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 of482 which his emotion was strong and interrupted his utterances.

"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 Sherman. 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 supplies. 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 by483 sea. Had he been a timid man he would have been content 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 everything 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 demonstrations of sympathy and honor. The orders for the procession 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 artillery 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. The body will be borne on a caisson, preceded by the following-484named 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, Brigadier-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:

(1) 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 Representatives.

(5) The Governor of the State and the Mayor of the City of New York.

These officers will follow the family and relatives as representative 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 Academy, Lieutenant-Colonel Hawkins commanding.

(9) The National Guard, under Brigadier-General Louis Fitzgerald.

Delegates and representatives from veterans, sons of485 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 Porter, to accompany the President of the United States; General 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 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, 12th Infantry, Aide-de-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, 1st Artillery, Aides-de-Camp.

The churches of New York City are requested to have their bells tolled at half-minute intervals during the movement of the columns, from 2 until 4 P. M.; and the churches of Jersey City are requested to toll their bells in like manner 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 divisions 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."

488

ARMY AND CORP COMMANDERS OF THE ARMY OF THE TENNESSEE.

Sherman. Logan. Grant. Dodge. Blair. McPherson. Howard.

From painting by J. E. Taylor.

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. Conspicuous in the company were General Schofield, the head of the army; General Howard and General Slocum, Sherman'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-490President, 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 platform 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 to491 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 it 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 honor. Following closely were the members of the President's Cabinet and the committees 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 Hayes, 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 As the long procession wound its way up the slope to Calvary Cemetery it presented a view of solemn but inspiring 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 hero. 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, translating 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 instructions 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."

493

CHAPTER XXX.
TRIBUTES.

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.

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.

494 When the news of Sherman's death reached Washington, the President, who had himself been an officer in Sherman's army in Georgia, sent a message announcing the fact to Congress, in which he said:

"The death of William 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 profession 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 startling 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 be495 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 following resolutions, which were unanimously adopted by the Senate:

"Resolved, That the Senate receive with profound sorrow 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 country 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 forwarded to the family of the deceased."

Mr. Hawley said: "Mr. President, at this hour, the Senate, the Congress and the people of the United States are one family. What we have been daily expecting has happened; 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. Washington, Grant, Sheridan and Sherman lead the list. Sherman 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. When496 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 McPherson 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 giving 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 were497 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 and498 battlefields with him; 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 feared499 and dreaded, as might 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 recollected 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 existing between the line of perfect 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 Sherman 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 in500 silence, watching for the supreme result. Death, ever victorious, 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 passing 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 country. The affections of the people toward its honorable and honored men did not always find501 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. Whatever 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 General 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 which had for many years been laid aside, have once again been seen sadly embellishing the soldierly equipage whereupon 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 awakened 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 be503 recognized, when no newly-made grave sends up reproachful 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 unsummoned—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; wherever 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 is 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 was504 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 incorporators 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 Cæsar 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 Cæsar 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."

HEAD OF PROCESSION COMING DOWN BROADWAY, NEW YORK CITY.

Said Walter Q. Gresham, United States Judge: "I belonged to General Sherman's command when he entered Kentucky, at Louisville, in the summer of '61, since which time we have maintained an unbroken friendship.

"Besides being a man of great genius he was generous,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 magnanimous 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 endeared him to all the officers and men who served under him, and in every State of the Union they are now mourning 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, and508 next to him was Sherman.' I would change the order. I admit for Lee a great character, accomplishments 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 where Lee was. Place Lee at Chattanooga, even with 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. Washington 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, Pittsburg, Buffalo, Cleveland, Cincinnati,509 and then cut his road back into Virginia. A little band of 4000 men under Morgan went through Ohio and Indiana, 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 pleasantest days that I spent during the war were those when I was accompanied by General Sherman. He had been stationed 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 subject of the manufacture of salt, a subject with which I thought I was perfectly familiar, having lived at Syracuse. I found that he knew more about it than I did. He said that his wife had some relatives there, and that years before he had visited them and had been taken through the salt works. Not a fact connected with the manufacture of salt had escaped his memory.

510 "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 while 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 wished 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 out 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.511 No person ever heard him 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 was 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 trained 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 apparently while thinking and while carrying on a miscellaneous conversation with those about him, the spirit of the occasion, 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 faculty, 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 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 occasion 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 invaluable contribution to the history of the period covering the growth of transportation on the plains, from the wagon 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 11, 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 few513 who never bore you, whose conversation is always interesting, and no matter how long he talks, he leaves you eager and hungry for more. I was with him at the time I delivered the oration before the Army of the Potomac at Saratoga. 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."

514

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 that515 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 1 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 memorandum:—

"The death of General William Tecumseh Sherman has taken from us a man dearly beloved by all citizens; one whose strong patriotism, unswerving 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 members 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 and516 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 General 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 sympathy for his bereaved children, and of their profound appreciation 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 continual homage, he shared with Grant and Sheridan the highest honors and the most 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 come 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 in517 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 believing 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 every 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 gratitude for his genial companionship which we were for so many years permitted to enjoy within these walls, where518 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 appointed 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 illustrious 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 illustrious 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 be519 founded upon his merits as a soldier. With him the chief characteristics of a soldier seemed inborn. There was something in his very look, in the gait with which he moved, that of themselves revealed him as a typical soldier. As we looked upon his well-knit brow, his deep, penetrating, restless hazel eye, his aquiline nose, we could see easily that there was something in these outward appearances that betokened a great man. In war he was prompt in decision and unshrinking under the great responsibilities. 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 Cæsar's Tenth Legion. The students of military history at home and abroad have studied his campaigns as their models and placed his works on a level with the grandest works of the masters of military science.

"The first time I met Sherman was when, as a staff officer, 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 comprehensiveness 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 march on earth, this time homeward from the sea."

General Charles H. T. Collis, followed in a brief speech, in which he recalled many interesting reminiscences, touching the life of the dead soldier, and pictured him, as was the520 custom of General Sherman at all meetings of the club, coming 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, in which General Sherman played so conspicuous a part, it may be said that wars of not one-half the magnitude or disastrous results have left their marks for centuries upon the histories of nations; while, although only a quarter of a century has elapsed since the close of 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 termination was accomplished the resurrection of the American Republic.

"The best causes have 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 you may say the world will continue to go on in the same groove no matter who dies. So it will. Still,521 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 Washington 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 interesting American, and I may say the most interesting man I ever met, was your General Sherman.'"

The Republican County Committee of New York expressed 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 were recognized522 by all; while his affable nature, kind courtesy and philanthropic 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 irreparable 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 New 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 deceased."

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 were525 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 temptations 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 memory 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."

THE CATAFALQUE PASSING FIFTY-SEVENTH STREET AND BROADWAY, NEW YORK 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 Saturday, 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, surrounded526 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 achievements. 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 '61 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 people.'

"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 distinguished body. Resolutions expressing sorrow at the General's death were presented by J. Edward Simmons. They were as follows:

527 "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 successful, 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 sentiment 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 "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 banquets. Socially, he was the peer of those with whom companionship 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 charming speech.

"And as he moved among us without the slightest pomp of self-conscious historic dignity, only with 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 on529 many a battle-field, 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 campaigns; 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 remember 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 communication, 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 citizenship. 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 in530 modest republican style. He was satisfied. He asked for no higher reward. Although the splendor of his achievements 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 Republics' 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 Americans. 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 pursue 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 frankness 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 hero531 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 conferring 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 circumstances 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 cathedral 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 "Not only was he our ideal soldier and citizen, but a complete 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 of 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 captain, 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 member 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 of your distinguished father, from the press despatches of the morning. I was led to indulge the hope that I would, on my return533 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 countrymen 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 Sherman:—

Our sincere sympathies with you all.

Melville W. Fuller.

FROM HENRY M. STANLEY.

Chicago, Feb. 14th.

To Miss Sherman:—

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

FROM GENERAL JOE JOHNSTON.

Washington, Feb. 14th, 1891.

To the Misses Sherman:—

Intelligence of General Sherman's death grieves me much. I sympathize deeply with you in your great bereavement.

J. 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 of 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.

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 Sherman:—

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

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.

To 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. Sherman:—

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.

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.
C. D. Martin.
J. D. Martin.
John C. Tuthill.
H. C. Dimkle.
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 heartfelt sympathy.

Thomas J. Henderson.

538

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 sincerest 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 countrymen, 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 St. Louis.

539

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 Incident at Yale—Expressions 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 conversation, 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:

540 "I never have been, and am not now, and never shall be, a candidate for the high office of President before any convention 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 presuming 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, however, 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 enthusiastic?"

"I would decline anyway. I cannot think of any circumstances 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 this543 respect. Military 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."

THE RIDERLESS WAR-HORSE

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 California."

"Ha, ha, I thought so; and wait a bit. So you were that little 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 The Argus newspaper at Memphis when Sherman was commander there. "The Argus" says Mr. Priddy, "was the only paper published at Memphis then. Brower and I had544 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 editorial 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 something 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 $1 a pound. Make packages containing 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.'

545 "'But the money drawers wouldn't hold such bulky currency,' 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 presently, according to the teller of the story, in The Boston Post, found himself in a vacated printing office. It presented 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 Sherman'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 the546 d—— l does this mean? Who knows anything about this paper?"

His orderly, who had known something about its preparation, 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 appeal 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 publication. Miles glanced it over and handed it back.

"It can't go in, sir," he said.

"Why not?" asked the astonished messenger, who was 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 name547 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 headquarters 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 collection 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 medicine, and confiscated to the hospital." What the hospital did 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 Richmond. 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 instructions548 were given in this form: "Sherman, many years ago, up in Illinois, 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 Commerce, 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,549 Gen. Sherman met four or five Presbyterian clergymen, and his patience was rather severely tried by their religious discussions, 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 statement 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 extenuating circumstances for blasphemers—you are not competent to judge!"

Gen. Sherman was proud of tracing his powers of endurance 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 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 regiment 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 why he should not551 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 conducted 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 The 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 construction 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 of 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 commanding general by personal solicitation.

"When, at the close of the war, General Granville M. Dodge was called from the Army, being then still in service, to take charge of the construction of the Union Pacific552 road, General Sherman not only gave him leave cordially, but he also spontaneously promised him all possible assistance, and General Dodge has testified, in an elaborate paper, that he does not see how he could have built the road except 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 in the War Department, 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 in 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 Interior, 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 regiment of cavalry. General Sherman had just assumed command, after having been relieved in Kentucky under a cloud, being charged with insanity. I spent many evenings 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 in the campaign to Jackson, against Joe Johnston's army, immediately after the fall of Vicksburg. After the enemy was routed and driven out of the country my command occupied the rear, and General Sherman accompanied me both on the advance and on the return to our553 camps in the rear of Vicksburg. So I had an excellent opportunity of becoming intimately acquainted with him, and there I formed a great admiration for him 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 Sherman 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 Sherman was denounced by many Southerners for what they were pleased to term his inhumanity and malice. In the spring of 1880, 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:

"My 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 sentiment—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 late554 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 dwelling 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, foundries, 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: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 fire, 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 to 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 reason556 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 of 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 industrious 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, limestone,557 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 proportion 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 professional men, manufacturers, mechanics and farmers may come to Atlanta, Rome and Chattanooga with a certainty of fair dealing and fair encouragement. Though I was personally 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 courteous 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 incidentally558 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 inducements 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 patronize 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 superficially or selfishly, but with that sincerity and frankness which carries conviction.

GEN. LEW. WALLACE.

"Personally, I would not like to check the flow of emigration westward, because of the vast natural importance561 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,' i.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 industry, his merits and his virtues, and not from the accidental 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 the leaders of the late rebellion, and for the latter he expressed only esteem and friendship. "About two weeks ago," he said, "I562 received a letter from a mutual friend in New York, asking if I would recommend General Braxton Bragg for appointment 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 Northerners 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 Northerners 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?"

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."

564

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 Versatility—General 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 finishing 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 Sherman565 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 were very happy and comfortable here during their two years' stay, which began on September 1, 1886, and General Sherman's idea in having a house was mainly to make it pleasanter and more agreeable, 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 how 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 "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 particular 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,567 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 sympathy 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. He568 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 was 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 probably 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 delight. 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 comrades. 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 generally 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,569 that 'with him 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 has gone before age and disease had impaired his wonderful 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 war, when his son, about ten years old, who was named 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 what 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 was570 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, notwithstanding 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 complied 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 not571 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 charming of men. If he was brilliant on the field of battle, in the social circle he was the prince of entertainers. His manhood 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 moulding 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. General 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 especially devoted to the inculcation of moral principle, heart572 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 one 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 disarranged 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 publication 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 all573 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 departed this life at Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, and perhaps the following autograph letter from General Sherman, written to me in reference to that event, may still more clearly illustrate the affectionate and lovable side of that great man's character:—

"'Headquarters U. S. Army, Washington, D. C.,
April 26th, 1877.

Warrington Howe, Esq.

"'Dear Friend:—I have received your letter, with the newspaper 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 thorough modes of instruction in arithmetic and grammar pursued 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 flourishing academy at Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, with children qualified 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 the574 house of "Papa" Boyle, close by the school-house 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 General575 impressed me as almost handsome, with fine, courtly, dignified 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 interesting 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 experience 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 war576 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 entertained, 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 MacGahan, the famous war correspondent in 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 Cæsar 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 Sherman579 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.'

SHERMAN SENTIMENTS APPROVED.

"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, leaving 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 intercourse 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 especially invited. There is a certain quaintness in the abbreviations 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.'

580 "Other 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 1870, 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 appointment 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 the581 great rebel, and got from him a pretty strong confirmation of the idea, then prevailing among Gen. McClellan's friends, that he (McClellan), having the ironclad Merrimac 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 Confederate 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 day, 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 of the Northern armies at my elbow, you could not long582 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, notwithstanding his having the rebel Major-General sitting opposite, I said, 'I saw too, General, what they call down there "Sherman's monuments"—blackened chimneys and ruins—painting 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 destruction. 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 pass 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 cast at our vis-á-vis rebel, who sat and583 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 politics. 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 anything 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 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 authorities 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 despatched 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 annoyed585 him. It seemed, for instance, as if he was pushing something 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 intended 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 Johnston586 on the way up the coast and defeated him at Bentonville. That, I believe, 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 there587 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 occupied 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 mathematics. He could have taken the honors, but he did not588 care for study, and he was blunt in his ways. He had no policy or diplomacy about him, and if one of the professors 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.' Nevertheless, he stood so well as an honest, bright student that he was never punished for such remarks, but his carelessness, of course, cut down his average."

589

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 Club590 was composed of newspaper men, authors, artists, etc., and its ruling idea was non-formality. No guest was too eminent 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 applause 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 interruption, 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.591 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 representatives. [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 you 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 Brooklyn, or even in Boston, 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 the592 memory of a dream, pleasant to think of. And now to-night, 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, somewhere 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 Surgeon-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?'

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 forgotten 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 think 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? [Laughter] Minnesota!"

"Minnesota is away up on the sources of the Mississippi594 River, a beautiful territory, too, by the way—a beautiful State."

"A State?"

"Yes, has Senators in Congress, 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 growing with a giant's growth. Iowa to-day, my friend, contains more railroads, more turnpikes, more acres of cultivated 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 banker, and I have some knowledge of notes and indorsements, and so forth. Did you ever have anything to do with indorsements?"

595 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 wish596 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 lesson well, and I hope that you, sons of New England, will ever stand by your country and its flag, glory in the achievements 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 commensurate with her opportunities and her power coextensive 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 of597 New York, 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 we 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. [Applause.] 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 know 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 remember 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 transferred 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,598 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 startled 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, miserable place, because our cattle suffered so in the passage, but now the land is worth there $100 an acre, while I wouldn't have given two cents for 1,000 acres then. [Laughter.]

"But the country is growing 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 fought to save the country. The people submitted to that without one599 single whimper. [Applause.] But they have again chosen a man of our own style and stamp, and I, for one, say openly 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 native-born citizens [laughter], not by sufferance 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 hundred 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 the600 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. In 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 weakness with old men to view things in that way. I could recount a great many things about those early days. My memory goes back to 1826. I remember perfectly the election of General Jackson in 1828. I remember the coffin handbills put out by The 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 afterward 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 with him then. I remember perfectly well how we were601 all cast down by the news of his death, sudden and unexpected, 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 Milwaukee, 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 mistaken. 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 will 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 history. I don't see any chance of another, but nobody knows the future. Bring up your children to love and venerate the602 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 grateful 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 Chronicle, 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 18th.

"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 Savannah. 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 factories, powder mills and the old stuff accumulated at Augusta603 were lost to the only two Confederate armies left—Lee's and 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 1864-'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 'Sherman's bummers' and their descendants, who will 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 engagement 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 President of the Society of the Army of the Tennessee. This604 unveiling was to have occurred in October, 1890, was postponed to this spring by reason of a failure in the casting, and I believe it will not be ready till this autumn. Therefore I beg you to remind me early 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 was605 safely out of harm's way. Prisoners should be protected, but mercy is not a legitimate attribute of war. Men go to war to kill and get killed, if necessary, and they should expect no tenderness. Each side protects itself as far as possible, 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 with 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:

606 "'They've got a sword they want to give me,' and, looking 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 was a handsome rosewood box containing a magnificent 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 greatness 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 up607 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 everything 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 believe he will be to the end. [Cheers.] As a father loves to see his children advance in the scale of life, so I rejoice to hear of the good fortune of my old soldiers. I remember General Harrison when he was a colonel. He is not naturally 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."