Gayoso House, Memphis, Tennessee,
October 4, 1863 — Midnight.
Captain C. C. Smith, commanding Battalion Thirteenth United
States Regulars.
My Dear Friend: I cannot sleep to-night until I record an
expression of the deep feelings of my heart to you, and to all the officers and
soldiers of the battalion for their kind behavior to my poor child. I realize that
you all feel for my family the attachment of kindred, and I assure you of full
reciprocity.
Consistent with a sense of duty to my profession and office,
I could not leave my post, and sent for the family to come to me in that fatal
climate, and in that sickly period of the year, and behold the result; the
child that bore my name, and in whose future I reposed with more confidence
than I did in my own plan of life, now floats a mere corpse, seeking a grave in
a distant land, with a weeping mother, brother, and sisters, clustered about
him. For myself I ask no sympathy. On, on I must go to meet a soldier's fate,
or live to see our country rise superior to all factions, till its flag is
adored and respected by ourselves and by all the powers of the earth.
But Willie was, or thought he was, a sergeant in the
Thirteenth. I have seen his eye brighten, his heart beat, as he beheld the
battalion under arms, and asked me if they were not real soldiers. Child as he
was, he had the enthusiasm, the pure love of truth, honor and love of country,
which should animate all soldiers.
God only knows why he should die thus young. He is dead, but
will not be forgotten till those who knew him in life have followed him to that
same mysterious end.
Please convey to the battalion my heartfelt thanks, and
assure each and all that if in after years they call on me or mine, and mention
that they were of the Thirteenth Regulars when Willie was a sergeant, they will
have a key to the affections of my family that will open all it has; that we
will share with them our last blanket, our last crust!
Your friend,
W. T. Sherman,
Major General
SOURCES: James C. Bush, Editor, Journal of the Military Service Institution of the United States,
Volume 15, p. 1110-1; Fold3.com Civil War
Pension Index Cards for the identification of Captain Charles C. Smith, 13th
United States Infantry.
