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[Illustration: 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.




    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 each chapter with
considerable care, and suggesting such changes as I thought the truth
of history demanded.

Where one has expressed an opinion and a quotation of that opinion
appears, of course no change was admissible; so that I am entirely
unwilling to assume that such a quoted writer gave utterance to my own
convictions.

For example: different views are given of the fearful struggle during
the first day of "Shiloh" at Pittsburgh Landing. A famous journalist
takes General Sherman to task for want of epaulements, intrenchments,
and other means of defence. He claims that Sherman and Grant were both
surprised, as they had known for a week or more that the enemy was
close by, and liable to attack.

Certainly the answer to this allegation, and it should be a very clear
and decided answer, would be found in any completed history. Our troops
had not yet, at that period of the war of the rebellion, made much use
of intrenching tools. Grant and Sherman did not design to put their new
troops into intrenched camps.

They believed, and very justly, that it was next to impossible to
handle them offensively, as we say, against the enemy. But they did
have some cover. The woods, ravines, and general contour of the ground
gave them protection, and it was in faithful use of this cover that
during the battle-storm of the first day near Shiloh church, they were
able to hold out till reinforcements came.

This example will suggest others to the reader. Still, the phases
presented by the different writers, from whom extracts are taken,
afford a kaleidoscopic variety, interesting especially to those of us
who lived at the time of the occurrences in question.

Probably none of us can do more than our noble General Sherman, years
ago, suggested. He said in substance: We who were involved in the
controversies, the battles, and campaigns of the great war, are not the
men to write the history. We are like witnesses in court. Each should
give his own testimony of what he saw and knew. Somebody else, will in
the future, after passion and prejudice shall have subsided, rise up to
make a search, a selection, a summation, and so the better evolve the
true history.

With regard to General Sherman and his career, in my judgment the more
of truthful statements that are made the better. Let eye witnesses give
all the evidence they can.

In his heart was a love of truth, a phenomenal loyalty to his country,
a fearless and prompt devotion to duty and markedly an absence of
aught that was malicious. True, he resented wrong often with a fiery
indignation, but he forgave a fault confessed with quick generosity. So
that at Lancaster, Ohio, the home of his childhood, at West Point, N.
Y., in Florida and South Carolina, where were his early army stations;
in California and Louisiana, where he made his civil record; at all
places during the war of four years, and at his headquarters, or upon
extensive tours; as Commander, after the war, of a military division
and finally of a whole army; all his acts, all his orders, and all his
writings will bear most careful inspection. They, if truthfully given,
will furnish to our youth something for meditation, for instruction,
for emulation.

To whatever extent this little volume may contribute such quota, it
will be a welcome guest to our people, North and South, East and West.

      O. O. HOWARD,
    _Major-General U. S. Army_.

  GOVERNOR'S ISLAND, N. Y. CITY,
    _March 19th, 1891_.




CONTENTS.


  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 Militant Minister--Seeking New Fortunes in
    the West--An Early Ohio Judge--The Mother of Great Men          17


  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                               29


  CHAPTER III.

  EARLY MILITARY DUTIES.

  Winding up the Seminole War--Comedy and Tragedy in the Florida
    Wilderness--The Capture of Coacoochee--Service at Fort
    Moultrie--Getting Acquainted with the 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                                             40


  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                                                         50

  CHAPTER V.

  THE CRISIS OF A CAREER.

  Sherman in the Prime of Manhood--Great Events Approaching--
    How He Came to be a Schoolmaster--Organization of the
    Seminary--Political Talk--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                                                        62


  CHAPTER VI.

  THE OUTBREAK OF THE WAR.

  The South Excited and Ready--The North Indifferent and
    Unprepared--Sherman's Interview with Lincoln--His Plain
    Talk to his Brother--Disgusted with the Politicians--A St.
    Louis Street Railroad President--War Talk in St. Louis--
    A Clerkship Declined--His Loyalty Doubted--Prophesying
    a Great Struggle--Bloodshed in St. Louis--Back to
    Washington--In Service at Last                                  75


  CHAPTER VII.

  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 Criticism and Uncomfortable Truth-Telling and
    Consequent Unpopularity                                         85


  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                                               99

  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                                 116


  CHAPTER X.

  OFFICIAL REPORTS ON SHILOH.

  Sherman's Own Story--How his Troops were Posted--The Attack--
    Troops in Disorder--Grant and Buell at the Bivouac--The
    Battle 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                           124


  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                                                  142


  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                             153


  CHAPTER XIII.

  "AGATE'S" STORY CONTINUED.

  The Close of Sunday's Fight--What had been Lost During the
    Day--Five Thousand Cowards on the River Bank--Opportune
    Arrival of General Buell--The Grand Attack and its Grand
    Repulse--Aid from the Gunboats--The Night Between Two
    Battles--Desperate Preparations for the Morrow--Gunboats on
    Guard Through the Darkness                                     172

  CHAPTER XIV.

  "AGATE'S" STORY CONCLUDED.

  The Work of Sunday Night--Landing of Buell's Troops--Effect
    of the Bombardment--Lack of System in the Union Army--
    Renewing the Battle--A Change of Tactics--Turning the
    Tide--Crittenden's Advance--The Advance at the Centre--
    A Grand Parade on the Field of War--Redeeming the Losses
    of Sunday--Facing the Louisiana Troops--Silencing the
    Battery--End of the Great Struggle                             183


  CHAPTER XV.

  CORINTH.

  Halleck Takes the Field--Organization of the Army--Progress
    at a Snail's Pace--Sherman's Advance--The Flight of the
    Rebels--Sherman's Official Report--Congratulating the
    Troops--Beauregard's Address to his Soldiers--Some Accounts
    of Corinth--Abrupt Finale of a Rebel Harangue                  196


  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                              219


  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              241


  CHAPTER XVIII.

  SOME WAR CORRESPONDENCE.

  Sherman's Characteristic Letters--Congratulations to Porter
    at Vicksburg--Views of 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                249

  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                         259


  CHAPTER XX.

  MERIDIAN.

  Freeing the Mississippi--A March of Destruction--Retreat of
    the Enemy--Polk's Flight from Meridian--Failure of Smith's
    Expedition--Destroying Rebel Property--Confiscating a
    Chicken--Results of the Raid--Scenes Among the Liberated
    Negroes--The Red River Expedition                              286


  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                                         298


  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                                  314


  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 Ruin--Marching
    Toward the Sea                                                 338

  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                                   364


  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                                   394


  CHAPTER XXVI.

  THE CAROLINA CAMPAIGN.

  In the Cradle of Secession--The Occupation and Destruction of
    Columbia--Reprisals Against Wade Hampton: Men--Arrival at
    Goldsboro--Summing up the Results of the Northward March--
    Work Accomplished by the Engineers                             422


  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                                            435


  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               449

  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                                                     474


  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                                         491


  CHAPTER XXXI.

  IN MEMORIAM.

  New York's Official Tribute--The Consolidated Stock Exchange--
    The Union League Club--The Republican County Committee--The
    Grand Army of the Republic--The Chamber of Commerce--Speech
    by the Hon. Carl Schurz--The Ohio Society--Brief Words from
    Many Friends                                                   512


  CHAPTER XXXII.

  TRAITS AND INCIDENTS.

  His Positive Refusal to be a Presidential Candidate--
    Remembering a California Drummer--Dealing with a Newspaper
    at Memphis--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                                      537

  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's
    Reminiscences of Sherman at West Point                         562


  CHAPTER XXXIV.

  SHERMAN'S OWN WORDS.

  Speech at a Clover Club Dinner--A Famous New England Society
    Dinner--Teaching Geography in Georgia--Speaking for the
    United States--Old Times in Ohio--At a Grand Army National
    Encampment--Why he did not March to Augusta--One of
    his Last Letters--A Story of Grant--Congratulations to
    President Harrison                                             587




LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.


    GENERAL WM. TECUMSEH SHERMAN (frontispiece),                 Steel

    MRS. GENERAL SHERMAN,                                           20

    SHERMAN'S BIRTHPLACE,                                           37

    SHERMAN ENTERING U. S. SENATE,                                  56

    HON. JOHN SHERMAN,                                              73

    GENERAL JOHN C. FREMONT,                                        91

    GENERAL THOMAS' BIVOUAC (after the first day's battle),        109

    MAJOR-GENERAL O. O. HOWARD,                                    128

    MAJOR-GENERAL SLOCUM,                                          145

    LIEUTENANT-GENERAL SHERIDAN,                                   164

    MAJOR-GENERAL BUTTERFIELD,                                     181

    GENERAL JOHN A. LOGAN,                                         200

    GRANT'S MARCH UPON VICKSBURG,                                  217

    ADMIRAL D. D. PORTER,                                          236

    BATTLE OF LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN,                                    253

    SPRAGUE'S BRIGADE PROTECTING SHERMAN'S WAGON TRAIN AT
        DECATUR,                                                   272

    CAPTURING THEIR HEADQUARTERS,                                  289

    MAJOR-GENERAL SCHOFIELD,                                       308

    MAP OF ATLANTA CAMPAIGN,                                       317

    DEATH OF GENERAL J. B. McPHERSON,                              325

    BATTLE OF ATLANTA,                                             344

    BATTLE OF ATLANTA--THE CONTEST OF BALD HILL,                   361

    A BIVOUAC AMONG THE GEORGIA PINES,                             380

    MAP OF ATLANTA TO SAVANNAH,                                    388

    SHERMAN SENDING HIS LAST TELEGRAM BEFORE CUTTING THE WIRES,    397

    CAPTURING THE FLAG,                                            416

    CAMP OF THE SECOND MASSACHUSETTS--CITY HALL, ATLANTA,          433

    BATTLE OF EZRA CHURCH, JULY 28TH, 1864,                        452

    THE ROAD FROM McPHERSONVILLE,                                  469

    ARMY AND CORPS COMMANDERS OF THE ARMY OF THE TENNESSEE,        488

    HEAD OF THE PROCESSION COMING DOWN BROADWAY, NEW YORK CITY,    505

    THE CATAFALQUE PASSING FIFTY-SEVENTH STREET AND BROADWAY,
        NEW YORK CITY,                                             524

    THE RIDERLESS HORSE,                                           541

    GENERAL LEW. WALLACE,                                          559

    SHERMAN'S SENTIMENTS APPROVED,                                 578




CHAPTER I.

THE SHERMAN FAMILY.

  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 newer England that has risen
beyond the Appalachian ranges. With such a name this memoir has to deal.

The name Sherman is not a common one in England, from which country
the family migrated to America, but where it occurs in that country's
annals it is mentioned with honor and respect. The will of Lord
Stanley, Earl of Derby, dated May 23d, 1521, bears the name of Sir
Henry Sherman as one of its executors. In the time of Henry VIII. one
William Sherman was invested with a knighthood. The Davy manuscripts
relating to the County of Suffolk, which are to be found in the
British Museum, contain much mention of the Shermans of Laxley, who
were the direct progenitors of the American branch of the family. The
direct line of the Laxley Shermans is recorded as follows: Thomas
Sherman, of Laxley; Thomas Sherman, 2d, of Laxley; Thomas Sherman,
3d, gentleman, of Laxley and Stutson, and afterward of Ipswich; John
Sherman, son of Thomas Sherman 2d; William Sherman, eldest son of John.
This William Sherman was born in 1588, and married Mary Lascelles, of
Nottinghamshire. Their son, John Sherman, came to America in 1634, and
settled at Watertown, Massachusetts. He took a prominent part in the
military operations of the infant colony, and was known as Captain
John Sherman; by which title he is distinguished from his cousin John
Sherman, who also lived at Watertown. This Captain John Sherman was the
grandfather of Roger Sherman, famous in American history as one of the
chief signers of the Declaration of Independence.

[Illustration: MRS. GENERAL SHERMAN.]

Two brothers, cousins of Captain Sherman, came to America at the same
time with him in 1634. One of these was the Rev. John Sherman, already
mentioned, who became famous throughout the New England colonies as
the most eloquent preacher and most accomplished mathematician and
astronomer of the day. The other was Samuel Sherman, the progenitor
of the illustrious subject of this work. These two brothers soon
removed from Watertown, Mass., to the Valley of the Connecticut, and
thenceforward for several generations the family was conspicuously
identified with that colony.

In Cothren's "History of Ancient Woodbury," much mention of Samuel
Sherman is to be found. "The Court," says Cothren, "grants Mr. Samuel
Sherman, Lieutenant Wm. Curtice, Ensign Joseph Judson, and John Minor,
themselves and associates, liberty to erect a plantation at Pomperouge;
provided it does not prejudice any former grant to any other plantation
or particular person; provided any other honest inhabitants of
Stratford have liberty to joyne with them in setleing there, and that
they enterteine so many inhabitants as the place will conveniently
enterteine, and that they setle there within the space of three years."
Again, in the same work, appears the following: "In October, 1675,
Wm. Curtiss was appointed by the General Court captain of sixty men
to be raised in Fairfield County, to serve in King Philip's war, with
power to appoint his inferior officers. In May, 1676, when the people
of Woodbury were at Stratford, on account of this war, he and Mr.
Samuel Sherman were appointed Commissioners for Stratford and Woodbury.
Intimately associated with Captain Curtiss in all that related to
the welfare of the new town, was the Hon. Samuel Sherman. He was,
at the date of its settlement, undoubtedly the most distinguished
man connected with the enterprise. He was from Dedham, Essex County,
England. He came to this country in 1634, and previous to the date
of the new plantation, had been a leading man in the colony. He had
assisted in the settlement of several other towns in the colony, and
now undertook the same for Woodbury."

Samuel Sherman died in 1682, leaving a son, John Sherman, who became
the leading man of Woodbury and one of the most conspicuous citizens
of the colony. Beginning in 1684, he was for forty-four years an
Associate County Court Judge; for seventeen sessions a Representative
in the Legislature; for two terms Speaker of the Law House; for
twenty-five years Town Clerk; and for nine years Judge of Probate for
the District of Woodbury, beginning with the organization of that
Court in 1719. A direct descendant of John Sherman was Daniel Sherman,
of whom it is recorded that on November 17th, 1774, he was Moderator
of a great town meeting at Woodbury, held to take into consideration
measures for carrying into effect the "Resolves of the late General
Congress," and of the House of Representatives of Connecticut, one of
which resolves was to have no dealing with the "foes to ye Rights of
British America." On September 19th, 1775, another mass-meeting of
the people of Woodbury was held, at which a "Committee of Inspection"
was appointed, consisting of thirty members. The heads of this
committee were Daniel Sherman and Gideon Stoddard, who held their
places during the entire War of the Revolution. Again, at a similar
meeting held on April 3d, 1777, Daniel Sherman was chosen Moderator
and it was "Voted, that the selectmen in this town, for the time
being, be a committee, as is specified in the Resolve issued by his
honor, the Governor and Committee of Safety, dated March the 18th,
1777, to take care of such soldiers' Famelys as shall Inlist into the
Continental army." This order was given by the Governor with the advice
and consent of the Council of Safety, which Council was appointed
annually by the Assembly and consisted of from nine to fourteen of
the most distinguished men in the colony, whose duty it was to assist
the Governor when the Assembly was not in session. Daniel Sherman
represented Woodbury in this Council for four years, beginning in May,
1777; and another member of the Council was his kinsman, Roger Sherman.

To quote again from Cothren's history: "Daniel Sherman was perhaps the
most distinguished man that had arisen in the town to his day. He was
a descendant of Samuel Sherman, of Stratford, was a Justice of the
Quorum for twenty-five years, and Judge of the Litchfield County Court
five years, from 1786. For sixteen years he was Probate Clerk for the
District of Woodbury, and Judge of that District thirty-seven years.
He represented his native town in the General Assembly sixty-five
sessions. This was by far the longest period of time any one has ever
represented the town. He was of commanding powers of mind, of sterling
integrity, and every way qualified for the various public trusts
confided to his care. His son, Taylor Sherman, the fifth from Samuel,
was married in 1787 to Elizabeth Stoddard, the great grand-daughter
of the parson who shot one Indian after church on Sunday and another
before breakfast the next morning. He lived and died as a lawyer and
judge in Norwalk, Connecticut. He was one of those who went West to
arrange a treaty with the Indians in 1808, and the same year came to
Ohio again to make a partition of the Fire Lands. He died in May, 1815,
and his widow came to Ohio, and died in Mansfield, in 1848."

The Stoddard family, which became closely allied with the Shermans,
demand some notice here. Their American progenitor, Anthony Stoddard,
came from the West of England to Boston in 1638 or 1639. His first
wife was Mary, daughter of the Hon. Samuel Downing, of Salem, and
sister of Sir George, afterwards Lord George Downing. Solomon Stoddard,
a son of Anthony, was graduated at Harvard College in 1662 and ten
years later was settled as minister at Northhampton, Mass. His son,
Anthony, was graduated at Harvard in 1697, and settled at Woodbury,
Conn. The first wife of this second Anthony Stoddard was Prudence
Wells, and his second, Mary Sherman. The great grand-daughter of
Anthony Stoddard and Prudence Wells, Elizabeth Stoddard has already
been mentioned as the wife of the Hon. Taylor Sherman, the grandfather
of the subject of this work.

Anthony Stoddard was for sixty years minister of the church at
Woodbury, at the same time a successful lawyer and physician, and for
forty years Clerk of Probate for the District of Woodbury. One Sabbath
evening during the French and Indian war, it is related, while walking
in his garden after the services at church, the Rev. Anthony Stoddard
discovered an Indian skulking with hostile intent among the trees
and bushes near by. Without seeming to notice the movements of the
intruder, he managed to return to his house and obtain his gun. Going
back to the garden he crept to within easy range, took careful aim and
fired and the Indian fell dead. He then gave the alarm to his neighbors
who barricaded themselves within their houses and kept guard for the
night. The next morning Mr. Stoddard observed another Indian near his
house, and shot and killed him also.

Both the Shermans and Stoddards were strict Presbyterians, and of
Mrs. Taylor Sherman (Elizabeth Stoddard) it is related that she could
never be induced to enter a church of any other denomination. "She
always made us stand around," says one of her grand-children. "Her
will was law. I could coax mother to let me do as I pleased, but never
grandmother."

Judge Taylor Sherman, as already recorded, went to Ohio as a
commissioner to survey and apportion the Fire Lands. The State of
Connecticut ceded to the National Government in 1786 her claim to a
part of the great western domain, but reserved a considerable district
in what is now northern Ohio, which is even still known as the "Western
Reserve." Half a million acres of this, known as the Fire Lands, and
comprising the present counties of Huron and Erie, were to be divided
among the people of Norwich, Norwalk, New London and other Connecticut
towns whose houses had been burned by Generals Arnold, Tryon and other
British raiders, to indemnify them for their losses. Judge Taylor
Sherman received two sections of land in Ohio to pay him for his work
as commissioner, and was much impressed by that country's prospects of
future greatness. He, however, returned to Norwalk, where he died in
1815; after which the remainder of his family migrated to Ohio. His
wife and daughter went to Mansfield, where the latter married Judge
Parker; one of his sons, Daniel, settled at Monroeville as a farmer;
and of the other son, Charles R. Sherman, some more extended notice is
necessary.

Charles R. Sherman was born in 1790, and during his early life lived
in Norwalk, Conn., of which place he was a conspicuous citizen. He was
married to Mary Hoyt, a member of a numerous and influential family,
who were among the first settlers of Norwalk. Mr. Sherman was admitted
to the bar in 1810, and during the administration of President Monroe
was appointed Collector of Internal Revenue. While he held this office
two of his deputies defaulted for large amounts, and as he was
responsible for them, almost his entire fortune was taken to make good
the loss. From this financial embarrassment he never fully recovered;
but the incident had a most important effect upon the future history
of the family, and indeed it is to this turn in affairs, apparently
so disastrous, that the subsequent prosperity and greatness of the
Shermans may be directly traced.

Charles R. Sherman, being thus apparently ruined by his rascally
subordinates, determined to seek new fortunes in the Western country
of which his father had given such a glowing account. He at first
intended to settle at Zanesville, Ohio, but finally selected Lancaster,
in Fairfield County. Having established himself there as a lawyer, he
returned to Norwalk for his wife, who meanwhile had become the mother
of their first-born, Charles Taylor Sherman. Then, in 1811, he and his
wife set out on horseback for Ohio, he carrying their infant child on
a pillow on the saddle before him. After a weary and perilous journey,
largely through a wilderness, they reached the village of Lancaster and
there made their new home. By lovers of curious co-incidences it will
be observed with interest that Sir Henry Sherman, the first English
Sherman mentioned, was a resident of the County of Lancaster, England.

Mr. Sherman rapidly rose to eminence in Ohio as a painstaking and
trustworthy counsellor at law and a most eloquent and forcible
advocate. He also maintained the reputation of his family for earnest
and practical piety. It is told that, failing one Saturday night to
reach the place where Court was to be held on Monday, he, in company
with several other eminent lawyers, resolved, out of regard to the day
of rest, to remain at the small town where they were over Sunday.
There was no minister of the Gospel in that place and so Mr. Sherman,
who was then Judge of the Supreme Court, was selected to preach a
sermon and conduct other religious exercises, which he did with great
acceptability.

At the age of thirty-five, Mr. Sherman was made by the Ohio Legislature
a Judge of the Supreme Court. It was an honorable position, and offered
prospect of a brilliant future. He did not occupy it long, however.
While on the bench at Lebanon he was stricken with sudden illness,
and died on June 24th, 1829, being then only forty-one years old. His
salary had been small and he had been able to save almost nothing. His
widow therefore, was left practically penniless, with eleven children
to care for, the oldest eighteen years of age, and the youngest six
weeks. This was a desperate situation indeed. But Mary Hoyt Sherman was
not the woman to be daunted. She addressed herself to the training and
education of her children with energy, patience and prayer, and was
remarkably successful in her arduous work. From four of her children
she was for a time partially separated in order that they might enjoy
the advantages offered to them by kind relatives and friends. Two of
them were thus taken into the family of their aunt, Mrs. Parker, one
into the family of the Hon. Thomas Ewing and one into the family of
her kinsman, John Sherman, a merchant of Mount Vernon, Ohio. The last
mentioned child was John Sherman, who has since become one of the
foremost of American statesmen, while the ward of Mr. Ewing was William
T. Sherman, whose famous career we are now about to consider.

The Hoyt family were Episcopalians, but Mrs. Charles Sherman, on
going to the West, found there no church of that denomination, and
accordingly attached herself to the Presbyterian Church, of which her
husband was a member. Later in life she had an opportunity to return to
the Episcopal Church, and remained in its communion until her death,
in 1852. She was a woman of quiet and unobtrusive, but most earnest
piety. In manner she was courtly and affable, and in temper calm and
placid. She had, however, a strong will and great energy. These latter
traits were inherited by her illustrious sons, and indeed it is to her
example, precepts and untiring labors that we must largely attribute
their sterling characters, and the great success which they have
achieved in their widely differing life works.




CHAPTER II.

BOYHOOD AND CADETSHIP.

  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 benign features than on account of
his powers in war that Judge Sherman admired him and gave his name to
the boy.

Our hero was born at Lancaster, Ohio, on February 8th, 1820, and was
consequently nine years old when his father fell a victim to Asiatic
cholera. Little is to be recorded of those early years. They were spent
in the customary manner of childhood, modified in a measure by the
breezy, vigorous life of the sparsely settled frontier community, and
cherished tenderly by a fond father and mother. When the catastrophe of
death broke the family circle, "Cump" was a merry, active, bright-eyed,
red-haired boy, fonder of play than of work or study, but truthful and
trustworthy beyond a doubt.

And what now? The members of the bar who had been associated with Judge
Sherman saw clearly that the widow could not properly care for all
those eleven children, and they felt that it would be a privilege to
aid her. The foremost of them, Thomas Ewing, a lawyer and statesman of
national reputation, was quick to act. "I will adopt one of the boys,"
he said; and forthwith he proceeded to the stricken home and laid his
offer before Mrs. Sherman. He was a distant relative as well as a warm
friend of the family, and Mrs. Sherman, with mingled grief and joy,
accepted his proposition. But which boy should he take? "I must have
the smartest of the lot," said Mr. Ewing. "Well," replied the mother,
"come and look at them and take your pick." So they went out to where
the children were at play, but Mr. Ewing was undecided. "They all look
alike to me," he said. But the mother and her eldest daughter soon
made the choice. "Take 'Cump,' Mr. Ewing," they said; "he's by far the
smartest." So Mr. Ewing picked up the nine-years-old urchin from where
he was playing on a sand bank, and took him away in his carriage to
a new home. "He ever after treated me as his own son," wrote General
Sherman of his adopted father in later years; and indeed the boy soon
won the hearts of all the Ewings, so that they loved him as much as
though he belonged to them by birth instead of by adoption.

For seven years thereafter "Cump" was a member of the Ewing household,
and attended the local school at Lancaster. He ranked high in his
classes and was generally regarded as a promising boy. "There was
nothing specially remarkable about him," Mr. Ewing wrote in later
years, "excepting that I never knew so young a boy who could do an
errand so correctly and promptly as he did. He was transparently
honest, faithful and reliable. Studious and correct in his habits, his
progress in education was steady and substantial."

One other thing, however, is to be recorded of these years. Mr. Ewing
had a pretty little daughter, named Nellie, who was "Cump's" favorite
playmate and upon whom "Cump" untiringly lavished all the chivalric
attention of his boyhood. She was his sister by adoption, but even in
these early years the boy seemed to hope that one day she would be more
than a sister to him. And when he left home, at the age of sixteen,
his adieus to her were more tender and more reluctant than to all the
others.

One incident of his boyhood life deserves to be recorded. In 1834 he
was large and strong for his age, and fond of labor and adventure.
Canal construction was then being greatly pushed in Ohio, and it was
planned to build one from the great Ohio Canal at Carroll, eight miles
from Lancaster, and run down the Hocking Valley to Athens and thence
to the Ohio River. A Mr. Carpenter, of Lancaster, had charge of the
preliminary surveys, and recruited his force of assistants from among
the youth of that town. Young Sherman was delighted at the opportunity
for serious work and adventure, and rejoiced when he was chosen
together with three other boys from his school. He was appointed a
rod-man. They worked during the fall of 1834 and spring of 1835, laying
out two experimental lines for the canal, and each boy received half a
dollar in silver for each day's work. This was the first money young
Sherman ever earned.

Mr. Ewing was now United States Senator, and had within his gift an
appointment to a cadetship at West Point. During the fall of 1835 and
spring of 1836, Sherman devoted himself chiefly to grammar, geography
and mathematics, in which studies he would have to be examined
to enter the Military Academy. In the spring of 1836 he received
his appointment. Mrs. Ewing provided him with a liberal outfit of
clothes, etc., and on May 20th he left Lancaster in a stage coach for
Zanesville. There he took passage on a coach on the Great National
Road. Three days later he reached Frederick, Maryland, whence there
was a steam railroad to Washington. But he was afraid of this strange
device, and continued his journey by coach. When he got to Washington
he put up for the night at Gadsby's Hotel, and next morning hunted up
Senator Ewing. The latter lived in a boarding house, and to that house
young Sherman removed at once, for the week which he was to spend at
the Capitol. He saw more of Washington in that week than he ever saw in
his many subsequent visits. "Old Hickory" Jackson was then President,
and at the height of his fame. Sherman spent a full hour gazing at him
with boyish awe through the picket fence that surrounded the White
House grounds. Jackson was pacing up and down the gravel walks within.
"He wore a cap," says Sherman, "and an overcoat so full that his form
seemed smaller than I had expected. I also remember Postmaster-General
Amos Kendall, Vice President Van Buren, Messrs. Calhoun, Webster, Clay,
Cass, Silas Wright," etc.

From Washington he went by rail to Baltimore, thence by boat to Havre
de Grace, by rail to Wilmington, Delaware, and by boat to Philadelphia.
Thence by boat to Bordentown, New Jersey, by rail over the old Camden
and Amboy railroad to Amboy, and by boat to New York. He spent a week
with his uncle on Brooklyn Heights, and with another relative on White
Street, New York, and then took passage on the steamboat "Cornelius
Vanderbilt," up the Hudson, to West Point, where he was duly entered
as a cadet. West Point was not as large a school then as now. But the
routine of military discipline and instruction was fully established,
very much as it has remained ever since. Colonel R. E. De Russy was the
Superintendent, and Major John Fowle, Commandant of Cadets. The chief
members of the faculty were: Professors Mahan, engineering; Bartlett,
natural philosophy; Bailey, chemistry; Church, mathematics; Weir,
drawing; and Berard, French. That was in June, 1836. In the summer of
1838 he had a vacation of two months, which he gladly spent with the
Ewings. With that exception, he was absent from Lancaster and present
at West Point continuously until his graduation in June 1840. His
scholastic career was not unlike that in the school at Lancaster. He
stood high, but not highest, in his class. There were forty-two men in
that class, Sherman ranked sixth. George H. Thomas was twelfth. Other
members were R. S. Ewell, Stewart Van Vliet, Bushrod R. Johnson, George
W. Getty, William Hays and Thomas Jordan.

By far the most interesting feature of his cadet life was the
correspondence he maintained with Miss Ellen Ewing. More
characteristic letters were never penned. Years afterward the stern
War Secretary, Stanton, perusing his vigorous letters from the front,
declared that Sherman wrote as well as he fought. These earlier
epistles were a fitting prelude to the more serious writings of after
years. They were sprightly and vivacious, touched with humor, often
eccentric, sometimes inclining to egotism, but always intensely earnest
and decidedly vigorous. He was not as much a lover of "society" then as
in his later life, for on one occasion he wrote: "We have two or three
dancing parties each week, at which the gray bobtail is a sufficient
recommendation for an introduction to any one. You can well conceive
how the cadets have always had the reputation, and have still, here in
the East, of being great gallants and ladies' men. God only knows how
I will sustain that reputation." As he got nearer and nearer to the
actual army, he was more and more impressed with the responsibilities
that would be placed upon him, and he almost shrank from them. One day
in 1839 he wrote of himself: "Bill is very much elated at the idea of
getting free of West Point next June. He does not intend remaining in
the army more than a year, then to resign and study law, probably.
No doubt you admire this choice; but to speak plainly and candidly,
I would rather be a blacksmith. Indeed, the nearer we come to that
dreadful epoch, graduation day, the higher opinion I conceive of the
duties and life of an officer of the United States Army, and the more
confirmed in the wish of spending my life in the service of my country.
Think of that!"

The commonest topics in his letters, however, related to the practical
details of life. "The last encampment," he once wrote, "taken all in
all, I think was the most pleasant one I have ever spent, even to me,
who did not participate in the dances and balls given every week
by the different classes; besides the duties were of altogether a
different nature from any previous ones, such as acting as officers
upon guard and at artillery drills, practicing at target-firing with
long twenty-fours and thirty-twos, mortars, howitzers, etc., as also
cavalry exercise, which has been introduced this year." He was not slow
in taking to the knack of command. "As to lording it over the plebs, to
which you referred, I had only one, whom I made, of course, 'tend to
a pleb's duty, such as bringing water, policing the tent, cleaning my
gun and accoutrements, and the like, and repaid in the usual and cheap
coin--advice; and since we have commenced studying, I make him 'bone,'
and explain to him the difficult parts of algebra and the French
grammar, since he is a good one and a fine fellow; but should he not
carry himself straight, I should have him 'found' in January and sent
off, that being the usual way in such cases, and then take his bed,
table and chair, to pay for the Christmas spree."

Sherman had already learned to do his own thinking, in politics and
other matters, and he was not at all backward in revealing that fact
to his fair correspondent. He gravely discussed the most important
National topics, and hesitated not to express radical and positive
opinions. His foster-father, Mr. Ewing, was a Whig, but the bumptious
cadet did not approve of that party. In the Presidential campaign of
1840, when Mr. Ewing was laboring hard for the election of William
Henry Harrison, Sherman wrote to Miss Ewing: "You, no doubt, are not
only firmly impressed, but absolutely certain, that General Harrison
will be our next President. For my part, though, of course, but a
'superficial observer,' I do not think there is the least hope of such
a change, since his friends have thought proper to envelope his name
with log-cabins, ginger-bread, hard-cider and such humbugging, the sole
object of which plainly is to deceive and mislead his ignorant and
prejudiced, though honest, fellow citizens; whilst his qualifications,
his honesty, his merits and services are merely alluded to!"

Nor was he overawed by the superior attainments of his instructors,
and of the Examining Board. Rather did he seem to regard the "Board
of Visitors" as subjects for him to examine and criticise. "There
is but little doubt," he wrote, "of the Board being nearly as well
selected as circumstances would admit of. Party seems to have had no
influence whatever, and, for my part, I am very glad of it. I hope
that our Army, Navy, and the Military Academy, may never be affected
by the party rancor which has for some time past, and does now, so
materially injure other institutions." Again he wrote: "I presume you
have seen the register of cadets for the last year, and remarked that
I still maintain a good standing in my class; and if it were not for
that column of demerits it would still be better, for they are combined
with proficiency in study to make out the standing in general merit.
In fact, this year, as well as the last, in studies alone, I have been
among the stars--" meaning among the first five in the class. "I fear
I have a difficult part to act for the next three years," he wrote, as
graduation day approached, "because I am almost confident that your
father's wishes and intentions will clash with my inclinations. In
the first place, I think he wishes me to strive and graduate in the
Engineer Corps. This I can't do. Next to resign and become a civil
engineer.... Whilst I propose and intend to go into the infantry,
be stationed in the Far West, out of the reach of what is termed
civilization, and there remain as long as possible."

[Illustration: SHERMAN'S BIRTHPLACE, LANCASTER, OHIO.]

In June, 1840, he received his diploma. The class had originally
numbered more than one hundred, but had been reduced to forty-three. In
reviewing, from the point of view of maturer years, his life at West
Point, General Sherman wrote: "At the Academy I was not considered
a good soldier, for at no time was I selected for any office, but
remained a private throughout the whole four years. Then, as now,
neatness in dress and form, with a strict conformity to the rules,
were the qualifications required for office, and I suppose I was found
not to excel in any of these. In studies I always held a respectable
reputation with the professors, and generally ranked among the best,
especially in drawing, chemistry, mathematics and natural philosophy.
My average demerits, per annum, were about one hundred and fifty, which
reduced my final class standing from number four to number six."

It is of interest to observe that Sherman's rank at West Point was
higher than that of Grant, who was graduated three years later. Grant
stood twenty-first in his class. In the details of engineering and of
deportment, especially, Sherman surpassed his illustrious comrade. But
from this fact no moral may profitably be drawn, except that of Mr.
Toots, that such "grades" are of no consequence whatever. For many of
those who far outranked both Grant and Sherman at the school, remained
in after life unknown to fame.




CHAPTER III.

EARLY MILITARY DUTIES.

  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. Augustine at the same time with the Eighth Infantry, and General
Zachary Taylor had then the chief command in Florida, with headquarters
at Tampa.

Sherman was now detached from the company of recruits, which belonged
to the Second Infantry, and sent to join his own regiment at Fort
Pierce, on the Indian River. He went thither by steamer and anchored
off the bar of Indian River. A whale boat came out and took him and
his baggage with the mails through the surf over the bar, and into the
mouth of Indian River Inlet. There he was transferred to a smaller
boat and pulled through a channel among the Mangrove Islands. It was
now night and thousands of pelicans and other birds were roused from
their roosts on the islands, while the water about them swarmed with
fish which could be seen in the phosphoric wake of the boat. The pilot
entertained Sherman with many stories of the Indian War, which was then
in progress, and of hunting and fishing in the Florida wilderness.
Thus they made their way up to Fort Pierce, which was situated on a
sand bluff. There were six or seven log houses thatched with palmetto
leaves, for the officers quarters, and large log barracks for the men.
Sherman was at once assigned to service with Company A, commanded by
Lieutenant Taylor.

No Indian fighting was at this time in progress, so Sherman spent a
part of his time hunting, and fishing with the pilot who brought him
up the river. Thus he learned the arts of shark spearing, trolling
for red fish, and taking sheep's head and mullet, which were found
there in great abundance. He also caught many green turtles in nets,
these animals being so common that the soldiers actually grew tired of
eating them and preferred salt beef. In November, however, operations
against the Indians began. This work consisted chiefly in capturing
scattered fragments of the Seminole tribe and sending them on to the
Indian Territory. The expeditions were mostly made in boats, and there
was seldom much fighting. One day, however, several Indian warriors
were killed. One of the soldiers, Sergeant Broderick, was so elated
at his skill in shooting an Indian, that on returning to the post he
got very drunk. While in this condition he became too attentive to the
wife of one of his comrades, and the injured husband, a half-witted
man, appealed to Lieutenant Taylor for protection. Taylor carelessly
replied: "Haven't you got a musket? Can't you defend your own family?"
An hour later the husband actually did shoot and kill Broderick. For
this he was arrested and sent to St. Augustine, Lieutenant Taylor and
the pilot, Ashlock, going along as witnesses.

About a month later, Ashlock re-appeared in his old boat with two
uncommonly pretty women, aged about fourteen and eighteen respectively.
They were sisters, and the elder was introduced as Mrs. Ashlock. The
pilot had met and married her during the progress of the murder trial
at St. Augustine. Soon after, Ashlock, leaving the ladies at the Fort,
started back with the whale boat across the bar. In crossing the bar
the boat was upset by the surf, and Ashlock and all his crew but one
man were drowned, Ashlock himself, strangely enough, being unable to
swim. The bereaved ladies were courteously cared for by the officers,
and presently returned to St. Augustine. Sherman afterward met these
ladies again at St. Augustine, and yet again he saw the younger one
many years later at Charleston, South Carolina. She was then happily
married to an army officer, who had a fad for inventing new guns, etc.,
upon which Sherman did not look with much favor; he was bothered with
too many would-be geniuses. And thus ended this romance of the Florida
wilderness.

One day in the summer of 1841 a number of Indians came to the post
accompanied by a negro named Joe, who spoke English. They said they
had been sent in by the famous Seminole Chief, Coacoochee, or Wild
Cat, and showed a passport signed by General Worth who had succeeded
General Taylor in supreme command at Tampa. They said that Coacoochee
himself was close by and would come to the post "if it was all right."
Major Childs said it was all right, and sent Sherman with eight or ten
mounted men to accompany Joe, and one Indian, to bring in the great
chief. Six or seven miles away they found Coacoochee, a handsome young
Indian of twenty-five years, and a dozen other warriors, and invited
them to go to the Fort. They had some little difficulty in persuading
them to do so, but finally Coacoochee dressed himself in all his finery
and went to the Fort. There he said he was tired of the war and wanted
to go with his people to the Indian Territory, but he wanted rations
for a month, which time it would take to get his people together for
the journey. This was agreed to and then the great chief got gloriously
drunk. A few days later he went away, but frequently sent back
messengers for more whiskey and provisions. At the end of the month he
was but little nearer ready to travel than before.

A council was accordingly called, at which Coacoochee became drunk
again. Then Sherman and some of his men put the whole party in irons,
and they were promptly shipped off to the Indian Territory. Among
Sherman's associates were Lieutenants Ransom, Ord, George H. Thomas,
Field, and Van Vliet, all of whom afterward attained distinction.

Writing from Fort Pierce in 1841, Sherman gave this sketch of his
existence there: "Books we have few, but it is no use--we cannot read
any but the lightest trash; and even the newspapers, which you would
suppose we would devour, require a greater effort of mind to reach
than we possess. We attribute it to the climate, and bring up these
lazy native Minorcans as examples, and are satisfied. Yet, of course,
we must do something, however little.... The Major and I have a parcel
of chickens in which we have, by competition, taken enough interest to
take up a few minutes of the day; besides I have a little fawn to play
with, and crows, a crane, etc., and if you were to enter my room you
would doubt whether it was the abode of man or beasts. In one corner is
a hen, setting; in another, some crows, roosted on bushes; the other is
a little bed of bushes for the little fawn; whilst in the fourth is my
bucket, washbasin, glass, etc. So you see it is three to one." Again:
"I have yet more pets than any bachelor in the country--innumerable
chickens, tame pigeons, white rabbits and a full-blooded Indian
pony--rather small matters for a man to deal with, you doubtless think,
but it is far better to spend time in trifles, such as these, than in
drinking or gambling."

Life in Florida did not lessen his fancy for the Western frontier.
"We hear that the new Secretary of War intends proposing to the next
Congress to raise two rifle regiments for the Western service. As you
are in Washington I presume you can learn whether it is so or not, for
I should like to go in such a regiment, if stationed in the Far West;
not that I am the least displeased with my present berth, but when the
regiment goes North, it will, in all likelihood, be stationed in the
vicinity of some city, from which, God spare me." Lieutenant Sherman
prided himself on his downright way of saying things, and in one of
his letters he wrote: "If you have any regard for my feelings, don't
say the word 'insinuation' again. You may abuse me as much as you
please; but I'd prefer, of the two, to be accused of telling a direct
falsehood than stating anything evasively or underhand; and if I have
ever been guilty of such a thing it was unintentionally."

On November 30th, 1841, Sherman was promoted to be First Lieutenant of
Company G, and was ordered on duty at St. Augustine, which place he
reached before Christmas. He had a pleasant time there, but in February
he was sent on to Fort Morgan, Mobile Bay, Alabama. There he remained
until June, when he was ordered to Charleston, South Carolina. There he
remained at Fort Moultrie for nearly five years. His life there was one
of strict garrison duty, with plenty of leisure for hunting and social
entertainment. He formed many pleasant acquaintances in Charleston,
especially among wealthy families, who spent the Summer on Sullivan's
Island.

His duties and pleasures, did not, however, alienate him from the
sweetheart of his boyhood, for he kept up as frequent and interesting
a correspondence with Miss Ewing as he had done at West Point. In the
summer of 1863 he got a leave of absence for three months and spent
that time with her at Lancaster. In November of that year he set out
to return to Charleston by way of New Orleans. Part of the way he
travelled with Henry Stanbery, afterward Attorney General of the United
States. At Cincinnati he spent some time with his two brothers, who
were employed in the _Gazette_ printing office. He spent a week at
St. Louis, visiting the arsenal and Jefferson Barracks, and was much
impressed with the future possibilities of the city, which then had
only about 40,000 inhabitants.

So he returned to Charleston, and there he was a busy student,
concerning himself chiefly with observations of the country from a
professional point of view. Says Mr. Reid in his "Ohio in the War":
"Nothing could more strikingly exhibit the foundations of that
wonderful knowledge of the topography and resources of the South which
was afterwards to prove so valuable, than this scrap of a letter to
Philemon Ewing: 'Every day I feel more and more in need of an atlas,
such as your father has at home; and as the knowledge of geography, in
its minutest details, is essential to a true military education, the
idle time necessarily spent here might be properly devoted to it. I
wish, therefore you would procure for me the best geography and atlas
(not school) extant.'" Writing from Fort Moultrie he said: "Since my
return I have not been running about in the city or the island, as
heretofore, but have endeavored to interest myself in Blackstone. I
have read all four volumes, Starkie on 'Evidence,' and other books,
semi-legal and semi-historical, and would be obliged if you would give
me a list of such books as you were required to read, not including
your local or State law. I intend to read the second and third volumes
of 'Blackstone' again; also 'Kent's Commentaries,' which seem, as far
as I am capable of judging, to be the basis of the common law practice.
This course of study I have adopted from feeling the want of it in the
duties to which I was lately assigned.... I have no idea of making the
law a profession; but as an officer of the army, it is my duty and
interest to be prepared for any situation that fortune or luck may
offer. It is for this alone that I prepare and not for professional
practice."

Soon after getting back to Charleston he was assigned to duty in the
upper part of Georgia and Alabama, and on this errand he travelled
over the region in which, many years later, he conducted one of his
greatest campaigns. Thus he acquired knowledge which was afterward of
incalculable value to him and to the National Government.

In the winter of 1844-45, he was on a deer hunting expedition on
the Carolina coast, and got his right arm thrown out of joint by an
accident. Being thus disabled he got a leave of absence and went North,
going as usual to the centre of attraction at Lancaster. In March he
returned to Fort Moultrie, just at the time when Congress provided for
the annexation of Texas and war with Mexico was expected. He remained
at Fort Moultrie, however, for some time longer. Charleston was then a
proud, aristocratic city, and considered itself a most important place
in the Union. There was already much talk about the right of secession
and there were often angry controversies over the subject, even at the
officers' own mess-tables. But Sherman at this time had no idea that
such talk would ever go further than it had already gone in 1832-33,
when "Nullification" was so promptly stamped out by President Jackson
and General Scott.

In the spring of 1846 Sherman was at Fort Moultrie, under the command
of Captain, afterward General, Robert Anderson. Among other officers
there at the time were Henry B. Judd, George B. Ayres, William Gates,
Martin Burke, E. D. Keyes, T. W. Sherman, H. B. Field and Joseph
Stewart. George H. Thomas and John F. Reynolds had already gone on to
join General Taylor's army in Texas. In April, Sherman was sent to
Governor's Island, New York, and thence to the recruiting station at
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Soon after this he received authority to open
a recruiting station at Zanesville, Ohio, to his great delight, for
Lancaster and Miss Ewing were only thirty-six miles away.

When news arrived of the battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma
he became much excited at the prospect of actual war and hurried back
to Pittsburgh. There he found a letter from his friend Ord, then at
Baltimore, saying that his company had just received orders to go to
California and urging him to go also. Sherman at once wrote to the
Adjutant-General, at Washington, D. C., applying for active service.
Then, in his impatience and without authority, he left a corporal in
charge of his office and hastened to Cincinnati. There he reported to
Colonel Fanning, a veteran officer, and asked to be sent on to the
front. But Fanning, instead of appreciating the young soldier's zeal,
gave him a hearty scoring for leaving his post without orders, and told
him to get back to Pittsburgh as quickly as he could. Sherman obeyed,
but of course stopped off at Lancaster on the way. He arrived at
Pittsburgh late in June and found there awaiting him an order relieving
him from the recruiting service and assigning him to Company F, then
under orders for California. He made up his accounts, turned over the
balance of cash to the physician, and in a few hours was on his way to
New York where his company was already aboard ship and ready to sail
for California by the way of Cape Horn.

Sherman and his fellow officers went aboard on July 14th, 1846, and set
off on their long voyage. The "Lexington" was an old ship, formerly a
sloop of war but now a store ship. Sherman and Ord roomed together.
On the voyage they drilled the men as thoroughly as possible. They
amused themselves with various games, but no gambling was allowed.
On "crossing the line" a few of the greenhorns were put through the
usual ceremonies, but the officers were exempted. In sixty days they
reached Rio Janeiro, where they had a jolly time for a week. Sherman's
companion in his rambles about town was Lieutenant, afterward General
Halleck. They saw the Emperor and his family. Their first supper in the
city was a sumptuous meal and the bill footed up to 26,000 reis. This
sum staggered them, until they found out that it meant only about $16.

From Rio they proceeded to Cape Horn, which they rounded in very rough
weather, and in sixty days reached Valparaiso, where they remained ten
days. About the middle of January they neared the California coast,
which they had to approach cautiously because no trustworthy charts
were then in existence. They made their landing at Monterey, and there
learned that the Californians had broken out into an insurrection,
that the fleet under Commodore Stockton was down the coast near San
Diego, that General Kearney had been defeated in battle, and that the
whole country was in a pretty bad plight. Accordingly they got their
weapons into shape for immediate use and expected to begin fighting the
moment they set foot on the shore. It was January 26th, 1847, when they
dropped anchor in the bay of Monterey, after a voyage of one hundred
and ninety-eight days from New York.




CHAPTER IV.

AMONG THE FORTY-NINERS.

  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 Dolores
Gomez, who, however, was dressed very unlike Eve, for she was covered
with a petticoat and spangles. Adam was personated by her brother, who
has since become somewhat famous. God Almighty was personated, and
Heaven's occupants seemed very human."

Sherman spent a month at Monterey, doing some routine work, studying
a little Spanish, and cultivating the acquaintance of the people. On
one occasion he and Ord went on an excursion inland. They stayed over
night at the house of Senor Gomez, father of the young people who had
played Adam and Eve, and then rode to the old Mission of St. John
the Baptist. It was Sunday, and they went to church, Ord's gorgeous
uniform attracting much attention. After church the priest tucked up
his robes, and betook himself to playing billiards, while the rest were
cock-fighting and horse racing. Sherman improved the opportunity to buy
a splendid new horse.

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 at 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
place 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 at 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.

[Illustration: SHERMAN ENTERING U. S. SENATE.]

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 the 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 to 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 soon 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 family 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.




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 legal 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 now 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 War
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 class
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; he 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 openly 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
from 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 of 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."

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 buildings 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.

[Illustration: HON. JOHN SHERMAN]




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. 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 Moultrie 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 full 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 when 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 three 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 underrated 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 replied 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 firing 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.
He 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."




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 Potomac 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 about 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
Federal 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 camp 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
we 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 the order of the
Wisconsin Second, New York Seventy-ninth, and New York Sixty-ninth.

[Illustration: 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 of 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.

"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 that 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 we 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 was 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.




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 military 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 it 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 on 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. 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 not 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, and 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 during
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 the 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.

"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.

[Illustration: 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, 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, 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."

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, provoked 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 feeling 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.




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 that 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's 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 communication 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 raw 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 at Corinth. His idea was to take the offensive. To throw up
fortifications would, he thought, make the raw recruits more timid.
Presently other divisions came up, until the bulk of the army was at
the landing.

Pittsburgh Landing, then, was an insignificant 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
upon 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 than 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.




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.

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.

"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, 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.

[Illustration: 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 did 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 struggling 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.

"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, formed 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, 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, as 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. He
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.

"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 it 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 this 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. He 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 retreating 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."




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 burned 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. 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 so the matter
was dismissed. Yet on Saturday there was more skirmishing along our
advanced lines.

[Illustration: 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 few 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, was
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 divisions 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 hardly 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
repelled 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.




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.

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 men 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.
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 of 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's 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 to 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 occupied 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.

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.

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. 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.

[Illustration: 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 force 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. Colonel 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
the 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 were 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 his 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 afternoon 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.




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. 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 of 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 be 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 collect 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 were 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
after 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 next 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 heavy 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."

    "Sons of the Saints who faced their Jordan flood,
      In fierce Atlantic's unretreating wave--
    Who by the Red Sea of their glorious blood
      Reached to the Freedom that your blood shall save!

    O, countrymen! God's day is not yet done!
      He leaveth not his people utterly!
    Count it a covenant, that he leads us on
      Beneath the clouds and through the crimson sea?

[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL BUTTERFIELD.]




CHAPTER XIV.

"AGATE'S" STORY CONCLUDED.

  THE WORK OF SUNDAY NIGHT--LANDING OF BUELL'S TROOPS--EFFECT OF
    THE BOMBARDMENT--LACK OF SYSTEM IN THE UNION ARMY--RENEWING THE
    BATTLE--A CHANGE OF TACTICS--TURNING THE TIDE--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, the 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 the 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; 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. 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.

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, 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 weary 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 of 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. It 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 destructive 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. 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.

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.




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 Sherman 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 our 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."

[Illustration: 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 at 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 it
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 brought
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 dense 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 its 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, 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 to 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
substantially 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, 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 were
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, and 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, are 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 of 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 our 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, and 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 violate 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."

[Illustration: GRANT'S MARCH UPON VICKSBURG.

Grant and Sherman seated on a log on East Bank.

From Painting by J. E. Taylor.]




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, 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-two 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 to 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, 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 strong 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 a 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, 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.

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 everything 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
as 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 him 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 difficulties 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, 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, 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 army officers worked
like horses to enable them to accomplish what was desired.... No other
general could have done better, or as well as Sherman, but he had not
the means for this peculiar kind of transportation."

Under orders brought by McClernand the Army of the Tennessee was
divided in four corps, known as the Thirteenth, Fifteenth, Sixteenth
and Seventeenth, 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.

[Illustration: 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 he 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.

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 went 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. 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."




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.

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 manoeuvres 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. A 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
manoeuvring 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.

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 of 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 to
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 he 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 the 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."




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 that 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 to 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 the 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."

[Illustration: BATTLE OF LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN.]

Another vigorous letter was called out by an order from the
Adjutant-General, under which all regiments which 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 even 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 of 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.'

"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."




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, Franklin 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."

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 the
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.

"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 an 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 East 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, cold
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 over 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. One 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 he 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 the 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."

[Illustration: 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. 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 hill 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 quite 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 advancing 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 have 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 the
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 manoeuvring and fighting, was won. The
strength of the rebellion in the centre is broken. Burnside is relieved
from danger in East Tennessee. Kentucky and Tennessee are rescued.
Georgia and the South-East are threatened in the rear, and another
victory is added to the chapter of '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."

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.

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:

"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,
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 an 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.

"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 nature 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."




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.

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 number 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.

[Illustration: 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 been 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.

"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 and 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 look 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 to 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, and 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,
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.




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 my 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 this 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 the 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 masked 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 car 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.

"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 concentrated 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.

"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."

[Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL SCHOFIELD, U.S.A.]

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 gallant 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.

"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
the 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, 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."




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 Schofield
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.

[Illustration: MAP No. 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 the
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. Sherman 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," 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 next 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 all 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, but 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,
the 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, 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.

[Illustration: 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 between 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 demonstration 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, made 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.

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,
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 of 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, 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 and
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 of August," says General Howard, "Sherman's forces made a
curious manoeuvre. 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 hill
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, 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."




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 to 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.

"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.

"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.

"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 in 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.

[Illustration: 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 its 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, 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 only
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, 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:

"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 of 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, 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 have 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 Union
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 picked 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.

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.

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. After 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.

  "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.

  "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 the 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."

[Illustration: 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.




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 were 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 of 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.

"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
accounts 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 greatest 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, 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 twisted in all sorts of curves;
thus they are left, never to be straightened again. The Secesh
inhabitants are in agony of wonder at all this queer manoeuvring. It
appears as if we intended evacuating Atlanta, but our troops are taking
the wrong direction for the hopes and purposes of these people.

"Atlanta is entirely deserted of human beings, excepting a few soldiers
here and there. The houses are vacant; there is no trade or traffic of
any kind; the streets are empty. Beautiful roses bloom in the gardens
of fine houses, but a terrible stillness and solitude covers it all,
depressing the hearts even of those who are glad to destroy it. In your
peaceful homes at the North you cannot 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."

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.

"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 first 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 greatest 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
Howard 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 cultivated 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
covering 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.

[Illustration: A BIVOUAC AMONG THE GEORGIA PINES.]

"Near Covington, one Judge Harris has a large plantation; 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. 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 the
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 forced 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 more 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's 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:

"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.

[Illustration: 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 of 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 between
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, 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 a 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 thousand 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."




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, in 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, 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.

[Illustration: 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
Kenesaw 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 turn 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 with 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 from 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-General 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 bridges 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.

"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. 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's 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. 9-1/2, (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."

"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, 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, 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 regiments 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, determined 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 unwise 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, 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.

[Illustration: CAPTURING THE FLAG.]

"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.

"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, 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 division 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 subordinates 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."




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.

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.

  "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 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."

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
gradually 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 he 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 burning 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 some 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. Sherman 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 had 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. The 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."

[Illustration: CAMP OF THE SECOND MASSACHUSETTS, CITY HALL SQUARE,
ATLANTA]




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: "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.

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
announced 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
Jefferson 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 officers 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, 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 every 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 Lee 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.

  "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 set 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 splendid 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 of 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.

"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."




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
upon 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 to 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.

[Illustration: 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 President 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. 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 now 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 you 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, 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:

    "'For gold the merchant plows the main,
        The farmer plows the manor;
    But glory is the soldier's prize,
        The soldier's wealth is honor.'"

Sherman set out in July, 1877, for a tour through the Indian country
and the far Northwest. He was absent from home 115 days, and travelled
nearly 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 of 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 them 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 Upper 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. Sherman 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 urgently 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
enemy 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 guest 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 made 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. 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 of (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."

[Illustration: THE ROAD FROM McPHERSONVILLE--Sherman and Staff Passing
Through Water and Mire.]

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 or 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
particular 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.




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 Wednesday 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 Monday 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 been 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 them 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
been 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 it 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. 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 of 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 by 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-named pall-bearers in
  carriages: Major-General J. M. Schofield, Major-General O. O.
  Howard, Rear-Admiral D. L. Braine, Rear-Admiral J. A. Greer,
  Professor H. L. Kendrick, Major-General H. W. Slocum, General
  Joseph E. Johnston, Major-General D. E. Sickles, Major-General G.
  M. Dodge, Major-General J. M. Corse, Major-General Wager Swayne,
  Major-General Stewart L. Woodford, 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 of 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.

  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."

[Illustration: ARMY AND CORP COMMANDERS OF THE ARMY OF THE TENNESSEE.

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

From painting by J. E. Taylor.]

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-President, the two living ex-Presidents, and the
members of the Cabinet were also in the company.

There was a large contingent from the regular army, with General
Howard in command. Then came the Military Order of the Loyal Legion;
long columns of the Grand Army of the Republic; West Point Cadets;
the Sons of Veterans; and delegations from various clubs, commercial
organizations, and the municipal government.

The long procession wound its way through the streets of New York
to the Jersey City ferry. There the coffin and its immediate escort
were taken across the river and placed on the funeral train. General
Sherman's horse, which with empty saddle had followed the funeral
caisson, was led up to the train and the saddle and boots were placed
by the coffin in the funeral car. The train consisted of an engine and
eight cars. Generals Howard and Slocum, and Surgeon Alexander, besides
six sergeants of the regular army, acted as a guard of honor. The
Governor of New Jersey through his staff acted as an escort through
Jersey City; and the Governor of Pennsylvania and his staff in a
special car went through to Harrisburg.

It was early in the evening when the train left Jersey City. At almost
every station that it passed vast throngs assembled and bands of music
played solemn dirges. It was midnight when it reached Harrisburg,
Pennsylvania, yet a multitude stood in the darkness in the open air to
do it honor. In the morning it passed through Pittsburg in the midst
of a heavy rain storm. Later in the day the sky was clear and the sun
shone brilliantly. At Steubenville, Ohio, seventy-five veterans of the
army stood on the 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 to 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.

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."




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.

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 be
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. When
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 were not worse
days than some we have seen during the last half of this century. In
those days, notwithstanding the conditions of the South, in view of
its institutions inherited from the older States of the East, every
American was as welcome in Louisiana and the South as he was elsewhere
in the Union. We are gradually and surely returning to that cordial
state of feeling which was unhappily interrupted by the Civil War.

"Our fathers taught us that it was the highest patriotism to defend
the Constitution of the country. But they had left within its body
guarantees of an institution that the will of the majority finally
determined should no longer exist and which put the conscience of the
people to the severest test. Looking back now to the beginning of
this century and to the conflict of opinion and of material interests
engendered by those guarantees, we can see that they never could have
been stricken out of the organic law except by a conflict of arms. The
conflict came, as it was bound to come, and Americans became enemies,
as they were bound to be, in the settlement of issues that involved so
much of money, such radical political results and the pride of a great
and illustrious race of people. The power rested with the victors at
the close of the conflict, but not all the honors of the desperate
warfare. Indeed, the survivors are now winning honors, enriched with
justice and magnanimity, not less worthy than those who won the battles
in their labors to restore the country to its former feeling of
fraternal regard and to unity of sentiment and action and to promote
its welfare. The fidelity of the great General who has just departed in
the ripeness of age, and with a history marked by devotion to his flag,
was the true and simple faith of an American to his convictions of duty.

"We differed with him and contested campaigns and 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 feared 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 in 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 find 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, 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 be 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 was 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."

[Illustration: 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, 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, and 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, 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.

"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. 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, 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 few 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."




CHAPTER XXXI.

IN MEMORIAM.

  NEW YORK'S OFFICIAL TRIBUTE--THE CONSOLIDATED STOCK EXCHANGE--
    THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB--THE REPUBLICAN COUNTY COMMITTEE--THE
    GRAND ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC--THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE--SPEECH BY
    THE HON. CARL SCHURZ--THE OHIO SOCIETY--BRIEF WORDS FROM MANY
    FRIENDS.


The official tribute of respect paid by New York City to General
Sherman was expressed by the Mayor in this message:

  "_The Honorable the Board of Aldermen_:

  "It is with great sorrow that I officially announce to you the
  death of General William T. Sherman, the great soldier, the
  distinguished patriot, and our most beloved citizen. On his
  retirement from the Army of the United States he came to live
  with us. Foremost in public spirit and always ready to aid in
  charitable and civic enterprises, his loss, while a calamity to
  the United States, is greatest to the people of the city of his
  home. His services as chairman of the Johnstown Relief Committee
  and as member of the World's Fair Committee and other public
  bodies showed his value in civic life no less than in war.

  "Out of respect to his memory and as a token of the love
  and esteem in which he is held by all the citizens of this
  metropolis, as well as of the country, I recommend that 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 and 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 in
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, where 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 be 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 the 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, 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 recognized 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 were 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."

[Illustration: 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,
surrounded 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:

"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.

"_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 on 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 in 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 hero 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.

"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 return 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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


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_.




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:

"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 this 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."

[Illustration: 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 had 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.'

"'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 the 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 name 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 instructions 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, 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."

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 not 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 Pacific 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 our
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 late 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: 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 reason 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, 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 incidentally 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.

[Illustration: GEN. LEW. WALLACE.]

"Personally, I would not like to check the flow of emigration westward,
because of the vast natural importance 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, "I 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?"

"Oh, I wouldn't do that; anybody but Jeff; I would not indorse Jeff."

"Perhaps it would be a public benefaction to do so?"

"Well, I never viewed it in that light. On second thought, I would
gladly indorse Jeff, if he would leave the country."




CHAPTER XXXIII.

REMINISCENCES.

  LIFE AT THE FIFTH AVENUE HOTEL--EX-PRESIDENT HAYES'S MEMORIES--
    GENERAL MEIGS'S TRIBUTE--PROFESSOR HOWE ON SHERMAN'S SCHOOL
    DAYS--A VISIT TO THE CATSKILLS--SHERMAN AND JOE JOHNSTON--
    TELLING ABOUT RESACA--THINKING OF THE SEA--MARVELLOUS
    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 Sherman 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.

"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, 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. He 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, 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 was 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 not
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, heart
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 all 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 the 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 General 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 war 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 Sherman 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.'

[Illustration: 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.'

"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 the 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 long 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
and 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, 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 annoyed 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 Johnston 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 there 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 not 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."




CHAPTER XXXIV.

SHERMAN'S OWN WORDS.

  SPEECH AT A CLOVER CLUB DINNER--A FAMOUS NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY
    DINNER--TEACHING GEOGRAPHY IN GEORGIA--SPEAKING FOR THE
    UNITED STATES--OLD TIMES IN OHIO--AT A GRAND ARMY NATIONAL
    ENCAMPMENT--WHY HE DID NOT MARCH TO AUGUSTA--ONE OF HIS LAST
    LETTERS--A STORY OF GRANT--CONGRATULATIONS TO PRESIDENT
    HARRISON.


General Sherman displayed his marked ability as a letter-writer early
in life, as a lad at West Point. To the end of his days he wielded
the same vigorous and trenchant pen. Nor was he less effective as a
speaker. The graces of oratory, as taught in schools, he did not aspire
to display. His eloquence was of a more impressive type than that; it
was the eloquence of a man of action. Ideas were plenty in his fertile
brain, and, as an omnivorous reader he had acquired a vast vocabulary.
When he arose to speak, therefore, he had but one thing to do: to
express his thoughts in words with the same directness and vigor with
which he would, on occasion, have wrought them out in deeds. He was a
spirited and dramatic story-teller, and his fund of anecdotes seemed
inexhaustible. "Stage-fright" was of course unknown to him, though the
circumstances of his speaking affected him much.

Some years before his death, it is related, he was a guest at a
Clover Club dinner, in Philadelphia. This Clover Club 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. 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 the 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?'

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 Mississippi 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?"

Says he: "Yes, I have had my share. I have a factor down in Savannah,
and I give my note and he indorses it and I get the money somehow or
other. I have to pay it in the end, on the crop."

"Well," says I, "now look here. In 1861, the Southern States had
4,000,000 slaves as property, for which the States of Pennsylvania,
New York, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and so forth were indorsers. We
were on the bond. Your slaves were protected by the same law which
protects land and other property. Now, you got mad at them because they
didn't think exactly as you did about religion and about that thing and
t'other thing; and like a set of fools you first took your bond and
drew your name through the indorsers'. Do you know what the effect will
be? You will never get paid for those niggers at all. [Laughter.] They
are gone. They're free men now.

"Well," says he, "we were the greatest set of fools that ever were in
the world." [Laughter.]

"And so I saw one reconstructed man in the good State of Georgia before
I left it. [Laughter and applause.]

"Yes, my friends, in those days things looked gloomy to us, but the
decree came from a higher power. No pen, no statesman, in fact, no
divine could have solved the riddle which bound us at that time;
nothing but the great God of War. And you and your fathers, your
ancestors, if you please, of whom I profess to be one [applause], had
to resort to the great Arbiter of Battles, and call upon Jove himself.
And now all men in America, north and south and east and west, stand
free before the tribunal of the Almighty, each man to work out his own
destiny according to his ability, and according to his virtue, and
according to his manhood. [Applause.] I assure you that we who took
part in that war were kindly men. We did not wish 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 of 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, 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 one 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 the 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 were 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 the 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 Augusta 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. This 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 was 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:

"'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 up 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."




Transcriber's Notes:


Punctuation and spelling were made consistent when a predominant
preference was found in this book.

Incorrect and missing page references in the Table of Contents have
been corrected.

Unbalanced quotation marks were repaired when the intent was clear;
otherwise they were unchanged.

Ambiguous hyphens at the ends of lines were retained.

Some misspelled words or typographical errors occurred only once
and have been corrected to the following: consummation, admissible,
phenomenal, brimming, scandalous, iniquitous, poring, chaparral.


These typographical errors were not corrected: cravans (should
be cravens), reconnoissance, reconnoisance (both should be
reconnaissance), vis-á-vis (should be vis-à-vis).

Text uses "assult" and "assault", "wasn't" and "was'nt"; none changed.

The inconsistent spacing and use of small-caps for "A. M." and "P. M."
has not been changed.

Page 180: "Red Sea" was misprinted as "Red Rea"; correction made based
on comparision with other printings of the same poem.

Page 336: "the situation was known Hood" probably should be "known to
Hood".

Page 341: "worthy its great founder" probably should be "worthy of".

Page 347: "marked and scared" probably should be "scarred".

Page 400: "Villianow" and "Villainow" both appear and are unchanged
here; current spelling is "Villanow".

Page 410: "Buel" was spelled with just one "l". All other occurrences
are spelled "Buell" but as they may refer to different people, this
was not changed.

Page 431: Text is missing after "Of course the abandonment to us by the
enemy".

Page 436: "sineury" probably should be "sinewy".

Pages 440 and 441 were printed in the wrong sequence; corrected here.