William T. Sherman to George Mason Graham, Saturday, February 10, 1860

Saturday, Feb. 10, 1860.

DEAR GENERAL: Mr. Smith goes to visit you to-day. St. Ange is sick, and I am ordered by a higher power than our tyrannical military dictator to teach Spanish – I mean by tyrant necessity. Well I can give them the true “greaser" pronunciation which is the Spanish they will use in after life as we ride over and trample down that vestige of a once brave and noble people that stands in the way of our boasted civil progress. .

Every time I think of Mr. T—r's letter I feel inclined to laugh. The idea of T—r's being oppressed is too good. Last evening after drill I could not resist the temptation to call him to me, and ask him who had oppressed him here. He said Mr. Boyd. What had Mr. Boyd done? Why one boy tied a pig's-tail to another boy's coat, as they were marching into their recitation room, and he was so convulsed with laughter thereat that Mr. Boyd ordered him to quit the section-room.

 That was the tyranny, and that was all, the precision of time, the fine course of study spread before them, the regular and good supplies of food, clothing, lights, etc., everything that any gentleman's son could expect are nothing; but because T—r was ordered to quit the section room very properly by his professor, he must tell a cock and bull story to his father and he must undermine the authority of gentlemen whom he has never seen. There is the radical cause of the destruction of every educational establishment in Louisiana. Parents while they boast of the hardships they overcame in early life and admire the brave and noble deeds of the past, are willing to listen to and extend the whims of their boys, who have nobody to wash their faces and comb their hair in the morning. Indeed are you the rock, alone on which can be built any structure in Louisiana, with any chance of stability. I say this in no spirit of flattery, and I deeply, painfully regret that you are afflicted both in your eyes and the unceasing calls on your time and patience. I ought from this cause alone to abstain from boring you with long letters, in so rapid and illegible a hand.

I have read your letters to Mr. T—r, to Mr. Smith, and to Mr. Boyd and we could not help laughing at T—r's complaint.

[P.S.] St. Ange is in no serious danger. We have had some pretty bad dinners, but the day before yesterday it came to a crisis and brought St. Ange to death or rather his injective apparatus. The rest of us bear with patience Jarreau's prolonged absence, and the want of foresight and preparation that must not be— for the first time yesterday the report came in of a scarcity of meat on the cadet's tables which I must notice.

SOURCE: Walter L. Fleming, General W.T. Sherman as College President, p. 151-2