General William T. Sherman to Senator John Sherman, February 23, 1886

ST. LOUIS, Feb. 23, 1886.

Dear Brother: I owe you a personal explanation as to why I did not come to Washington during my last visit East. After positively refusing to attend the banquet to the Loyal Legion at Cincinnati (President Hayes the Commander), I was persuaded at the last minute that I ought to go. After I had packed my valise, I heard of General Hancock's death, made one or two despatches to General Whipple as Adjutant-General, my former Aide, asking him to communicate with me at the Burnet House.¹ On arrival, I was met by President Hayes and General Cox and others, who explained that [by] the death of General Hancock, the president of the Order of the Loyal Legion, they had been forced to modify their programme, and that I must respond to the memory of General Hancock. I was kept busy all that day by a stream of visitors, and when the company had assembled for the banquet, full four hundred in the room, without notes or memoranda, I spoke for about ten minutes. My words were taken down and sent off without a chance of revision, but I afterwards learned that Mrs. Hancock was especially pleased. At the Burnet House I got all the notices of the funeral, which compelled me to travel to New York. En route was delayed a couple of hours by the flood in Delaware. It was two o'clock at night before I could lie down, and I had to be up at six to go down to the Battery, where the funeral was to commence. We were kept busy till night, when Miles and I went to Elly's² for dinner, and it was midnight when we got to the Fifth Avenue Hotel....

Affectionately yours,

W. T. SHERMAN.

_______________

¹ Cincinnati.

² His daughter’s.

SOURCE: Rachel Sherman Thorndike, Editor, The Sherman Letters: Correspondence Between General and Senator Sherman from 1837 to 1891, p. 369-70

Major-General George B. McClellan to Abraham Lincoln, October 29, 1862 – 2 p.m.

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC,

October 29, 1862 – 2 p.m.

 His Excellency the PRESIDENT:

In reply to your dispatch of this morning,* I have the honor to state that the accounts I get of the enemy's position and movements are very conflicting. A dispatch I have just received from General Kelley, at Cumberland, says three ladies, just in at Cherry Run from Martinsburg, report that Generals Hill, Jackson, and Hampton are encamped near there, with a regiment of cavalry at Hedgesville. General Pleasonton reports from Purcellville yesterday that information from Union people places Hill's command at Upperville, and that troops have been passing there for some days; that their pickets extend as far as the Snickersville and Aldie turnpike, over which they allow no one to pass, north or south. Pleasonton reports this morning that a Union Quaker, who escaped from the rebels yesterday, says he saw Longstreet at Upperville day before yesterday; that he had 18,000 men with him. Pleasonton also states that it is reported to him that Stuart with two brigades was at Berryville; that Walker's brigade was at Upperville. A Union man told him that Longstreet was at Upperville, Bloomfield, and Middleburg. General Couch reports yesterday that a contraband who came into Harper's Ferry from beyond Charlestown says Hill's division came back from near Leetown on Sunday, and that the cavalry told him Jackson was coming with his whole force to attack Harper's Ferry. He is confident that there is infantry back of Charlestown, as he heard the drums beating last night. General Porter reports last night that, through several sources, he is under the impression that R. E. Lee is not far distant from him, and that Stuart is within an hour's march; that there are the same number of cavalry regiments opposite him as usual, and that the enemy moved from Bunker Hill toward Shannondale yesterday.  I ordered General Averell to make a reconnaissance to Martinsburg, but he has not yet reported his return. General Pleasonton has his scouts well out toward Middleburg, Upperville, and Aldie, and I will soon have more reliable information. In the meantime I am pushing forward troops and supplies as rapidly as possible. We will occupy Waterford and Wheatland to-day. There is now no further difficulty in getting supplies of clothing. Reynolds' corps and Whipple's division have been fully supplied, and are being sent forward. Couch's corps moves forward from Harper's Ferry to-day around the Loudoun Heights.

 GEO. B. McCLELLAN,

Major-General, Commanding.

[19.]

__________

* See 11.15 a.m., Vol. XIX, Part II, p. 504

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 51, Part 1 (Serial No. 107), p. 897-8

Washington News

Washington News

WASHINGTON, April 14 – The Senate to-day, in Executive session confirmed the appointment of a large number of Paymasters, Assistant Commissaries and Quartermasters of Volunteers, and also the following:

Capt. C. Graver, of the 10th Infantry and A. W. Whipple, of the Corps of Topographical Engineers, to be Brigadier Generals of Volunteers; Clark McDermunt, of Ohio, Brigade Surgeon; Major W. R. Palmer of the Corps of Topographical [Engineers], to be Colonel; Captain Franklin D. Calendar, of the ordinance Department Maj by brevet for faithful and meritorious services in his department – Capt. Rufus Ingles, Assistant Quartermaster, performing service fourteen years, to be Major. Samuel H. Ellett of Nebraska, to be Secretary of Colorado Territory, vice Weld, resigned. John Lore, Indiana for the Indians of the Upper Platte; Geo. Seward, of N.W., Consul at Shanghai.

A board appointed by the Navy Department, to examine the plans and specifications for boats for the Western waters, consisting of Com. Joseph Smith, Chief of the Bureau of Docks and Yards, John Lentel, Chief of the Bureau of Construction, B. F. Sherwood, Engineer in Chief, Edward hunt, Naval Constructor, and D. B. Martin, Engineer, U.S.N., have recommended that contracts be made with the following parties: Tomlinson & Hatcher, Pittsburg, for two iron vessels; Geo. C. Bestor, Cairo, One wooden vessel, Jno. B. Eads, St. Louis, three iron vessels.

The aggregate cost of the eight vessels with be $1, 229,500.

Commodore Dupont reports to the Department under the date of April 6th that the schooner Julia Worden and schooners Lydia and Mary were captured.

– Published in the Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Saturday, April 19, 1862, p. 4