WASHINGTON, August 3,
1861.
I sent you a long letter a few days ago, telling you all
about Bull Run. The disaster was serious in its effect on the men who, whether
they ought or not to be, are discouraged beyond measure. All the volunteers
continue in a bad state, but we must do the best we can with them.
It seems regulars do not enlist, because of the preference
always given to volunteers, whose votes are counted even in the ranks. I doubt
if our democratic form of government admits of that organization and discipline
without which an army is a mob. Congress is doing all that is possible in the
way of laws and appropriations, and McClellan is determined to proceed slowly
and cautiously.
I wish we had more regulars to tie to. We must be the
assailant and our enemy is more united in feeling, and can always choose their
ground. It was not entrenchments but the natural ground and woods of which they
took good advantage, while we in pursuit had to cross open fields and cross the
crests of hills which obstructed a view of their forces.
This must continue to be the case. Beauregard must have
suffered much, else his sagacity would have forced him to take Washington,
which he well might.
I prefer you should go to housekeeping in Lancaster. Don't
come here. I would not permit you to visit my camp. I have as much as I can do
to keep my officers and men from living in Washington, and shall not set a bad
example. I never expect again to move you from Lancaster. The simple chances of
war, provided we adhere to the determination of subduing the South, will, of
course, involve the destruction of all able-bodied men of this generation and
go pretty deep into the next.
’Tis folly to underestimate the task, and you see how far
already the nation has miscalculated. The real war has not yet begun. The worst
will be down the Mississippi, and in Alabama and Mississippi, provided, of
course, we get that far. Already has the war lasted since December last, and we
are still on the border, defeated and partly discouraged. I am less so than
most people because I expected it. . . .
’Tis said I am to be Brigadier General. If so, I know it not
yet. I have closely minded my business, which is a bad sign for favor.
SOURCES: M. A. DeWolfe Howe, Editor, Home Letters of
General Sherman, p. 210-2. A full copy of this letter
can be found in the William T Sherman Family
papers (SHR), University of Notre Dame Archives (UNDA), Notre Dame, IN
46556, Folder CSHR 1/139.
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