Headquarters Dept. Of The Tennessee,
Vicksburg, Aug. 26, 1863.
My Dear Mother:
I attempted some description of these people in their homes
and their luxurious mode of life. I mean the opulent of the South, generally,
without reference to individuals; and in return it strikes me, you give a
little bit of a rub, evidently fearing that I should be seduced from my Spartan
training, while treading their flowery paths of dalliance. You need not be
alarmed. I have come back to my narrow cot and canvas roof without one pang of
regret. I enjoy luxury for the brief season it is accorded me, but I know it
only tends to enervate. On many accounts, I like the South, but its influences
are baneful, its atmosphere, physical and moral, poisonous, except to those who
have been purged and purified by misfortune and the stern necessity for
exertion; whose constitutions of iron have been hammered into steel. I remember
the rockbound shores of New England perfectly. The icy crags over which, with
iron spikes to my shoes, I have toiled and clambered on my way to and from
school in midwinter. Do you quite remember, I was but six years old when I made
those journeys of two miles to Master Manley's from the “Sanderson Beach,” as I
used to call them; that was before Walter was born.
I have been brought to a most abrupt stop in my proceedings
and hardly know how to resume my thread. You must pardon my discursive
epistles. I have this moment been handed your favor of 14th inst. Mrs. Sherman
is on a visit to her husband. I went out there a day or two ago to make a call
upon her. She spoke of you all with much interest, and regretted her previous
inability to visit you; hoped to be able to do so upon her return. She is a
very charming person.
There are two brilliant examples now before the nation
standing out in bold relief, in fact before the whole civilized world; their
history is good for little boys to know. Let my sons ponder upon it. One is
General Grant and the other General Banks. Both were born of very poor parents,
both had to labor hard for a livelihood in the country in their boyhood.
General Grant's father lived in Brown County, Ohio, near Georgetown. The first
money he ever earned or that was paid to him, was for a load of rags, that with
great enterprise he gathered together in and about the town, drove to
Cincinnati, a distance of forty miles, in a two-horse wagon, by himself, sold
for fifteen dollars, and returned triumphant. He had his money in silver and he
was the richest boy in all that section of country. This was before he was
twelve years old, and as the enterprise originated with himself, and was
carried out successfully, notwithstanding the difficulties of bad roads, the
winter season, his diminutive stature, it perhaps gave as good evidence of
great generalship as anything he has done since. He went to West Point from the
village school and graduated as the best rider of the academy — the best,
because the boldest. After he had been brevetted three times for his gallantry
in Mexico, he had to resign a captaincy because he was too poor to support his
family; went to farming near St. Louis, and there was not ashamed to drive his
own team loaded with wood to the city. He came into the service again as
captain of Volunteers. He has told me himself of these things, and that his
best training was before he went to the military academy. I do not want my boys
to be afraid to work. I want them to ride and shoot and fish and to know how to
do it all well, and above all not to be afraid of anything or anybody but God,
or afraid to do anything but tell a lie, and no matter what they do, they must
not be afraid to tell of it. They must never take an insult from any boy or
man. If a girl or woman insult them laugh at or kiss her. Never quarrel; if
there has to be a word or a blow, let the blow come first. But I was going to
write a word about General Banks. His father was a woodsawyer; . . . his boyhood was of toil, privation, and
mortification, yet to-day he is one of the most courteous, gentle, kindly men
in all the world. He has done for himself what no teachers could have done for
him, however high their salary or brilliant their reputation. These are
dazzling instances, but they are exponents of a fact. This war has brought out
a latent talent, a hidden strength of character in the individual, that
astounds the world, but we almost invariably find it exhibited among those who
in their early years have been compelled to depend upon themselves for thought
and action.
In my
last to my wife, I said I should write next from Cairo or Memphis, but no
sooner had I despatched that letter than I received intelligence which caused a
change in my movements. I shall remain here till General Grant returns. The
weather has been very pleasant for some time past, nights cool enough for two
blankets. I am sitting now in a very wet tent, with my feet propped up to keep
them out of the water; it is raining very hard and is quite cold. I am most
agreeably disappointed in the summers of the South; take them, if the two
seasons I have experienced are a test, from end to end, they are more pleasant
than our own.
I received three or four days ago, a notice from the
Secretary of War that the President has appointed me brigadier-general, my rank
to date from the 11th Aug. “for gallant conduct and service in the field.” This
I suppose applied to my assaults of the 19th and 22d May, upon the enemy's fortifications
at Vicksburg. “Shiloh” and Russell's House, Corinth, Chickasas Bayou, Arkansas
Post, all I suppose went for naught, or what is more probable, the President
never saw my papers. I don't know how he could get over the petition of my
command endorsed by my commanding generals. The assault of the 19th was the
most murderous affair I was ever in, but I have led troops in battles that
lasted much longer and where I have lost more men, and in which I have been as
much exposed.
I have had congratulations and serenades and all that sort
of thing galore, for, as is not unusual, I have found in my case that a prophet
has honor save in his own country. I have some friends and pretty warm ones in
the army. My old command is encamped about eighteen miles from here near Black
River, and General Sherman is not far away from them. He got news of my
appointment by telegraph and rode over to tell them the news, whereat there was
a perfect yell. The old fellow was about as glad as the boys from all I hear,
and together they had a love feast. I suppose you have heard of the appointment
through the papers, though of course it is under a misnomer, and it will be old
news to you.
General Grant has been away the last ten days and there is hardly
anybody at headquarters but myself. I am looking for him every day, and upon
his return shall be somewhat relieved.
SOURCE: Walter George Smith, Life and letters of Thomas
Kilby Smith, p. 330-3
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