Senator John Sherman to Major General William T. Sherman, August 29, 1863

MANSFIELD, OHIO, Aug. 29, 1863.

Dear Brother:

I am very desirous to accept your invitation. The trip would be an instructive and pleasant one, and if I were not restrained by the interests of others I would surely go at once. But we are now involved in an exciting and important political contest. The canvass in Ohio is substantially between the Government and the Rebellion, and is assuming all the bitterness of such a step. If I should leave now, it would be like a General leaving before the day of battle. I have been speaking very often, and must keep it up. I propose, however, to arrange all my business so that I may leave soon after the election, say about the 20th of October, and will then go down the river and spend all the time until the meeting of Congress. I hope to be able to go via Vicksburg, New Orleans, Charleston, to Washington. If a favorable opportunity offers at Vicksburg and New Orleans, I wish to develop my ideas as to a reconstruction of the Union. I know these will suit you a good deal better than they will the administration, but I feel quite independent of the latter and am disposed to follow my own course. . . .

General Ord stopped with me last Sunday on his way East. We were all glad to see him, as he gave us many interesting details of your situation and operations. Your promotion as Brigadier in the Regular Army gave unusual satisfaction. I was in Dayton, Springfield, Marysville, and Stanton's¹ neighborhood and conversed with many about his attacks on you. I find he is terribly unpopular. Your recent success and his libels on you are the subject of general remarks. At one place I mentioned your name in connection with other Ohio Generals who have distinguished themselves, and the crowd stopped me and gave you three as hearty cheers as ever man got. . . .

Affectionately yours,

JOHN SHERMAN

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¹ Lieutenant-Governor Stanton, of Ohio.

SOURCE: Rachel Sherman Thorndike, Editor, The Sherman letters: correspondence between General and Senator Sherman from 1837 to 1891, p. 213-4