Saturday, March 2, 2024

General William T. Sherman to Senator John Sherman, November 17, 1875

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE UNITED STATES,
ST. LOUIS, Mo., Nov. 17, 1875.

Dear Brother: . . . Belknap has acted badly by me ever since he reached Washington. . .

General Grant promised me often to arrange and divide our functions, but he never did, but left the Secretary to do all those things of which he himself, as General, had complained to Stanton. I don't think I ever used the expression often imputed to me of saying that the Secretary of War is only a clerk to the President. It is the opinion of many lawyers that the Secretary of War himself has no right to issue a military order to officers and soldiers that his office is civil etc., etc. The President is constitutional commander-in-chief, and when the Secretary issues his order he ought to recite the fact; whereas orders are issued by the Adjutant-General by order of the Secretary of War. This is done daily, and I cannot command unless orders come through me, which they do not, but go straight to the party concerned. This is the real question at issue between us. Congress ought to clearly define the relation between the Secretary of War and a General of the army. It is not the case now, but the Secretary of War exercises all the functions of the Commander-General under a decision of the Attorney-General. . . .

Yours, etc.,
W. T. SHERMAN.

SOURCE: Rachel Sherman Thorndike, Editor, The Sherman Letters: Correspondence Between General and Senator Sherman from 1837 to 1891, p. 346

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