Saturday, September 28, 2019

Brigadier-General William T. Sherman to Senator John Sherman, January 4, 1862

Head-Quarters, Camp of Instruction,
Benton Barracks, (near St. Louis, Mo.,) Jan. 4, 1862

Dear Brother,

I am so sensible now to my disgrace from having exaggerated to force of our enemy in Kentucky that I do think I should have committed suicide were it not for my children.  I do not think that I can again be entrusted with a command—Buell remarked to me in Kentucky that I should be Qr. Mr. genl.—this I do not think though I do believe myself better qualified for a Disbursing Department—Suppose you see McClellan and ask him if I could not serve the Government better in such a capacity than the one I now hold.  I do not feel confident at all in Volunteers.  Their want of organization, the necessity to flatter them &c. is such that I cannot prosper with them Telegraph me what you think and would do—

Affectionately
W. T. Sherman

SOURCES: Sherman, William T. William T. Sherman Papers: General Correspondence, -1891; 1861, Dec. 12-1862, Mar. 5. 1861. Manuscript/Mixed Material.   https://www.loc.gov/item/mss398000011/, image no. 45, Library of Congress, Washington D.C.; Brooks D. Simpson, Jean V. Berlin, Editors, Sherman's Civil War: Selected Correspondence of William T. Sherman, 1860-1865, p. 174; 

No comments: