Lieutenant-General William T. Sherman to Senator John Sherman, June 17, 1868

DENVER, June 17, 1868.

Dear Brother:

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Yesterday it rained very hard, whereby the telegraph was interrupted so that our despatches are mutilated. Yet they contain enough to show that impeachment was not made final by the vote of Saturday. I notice that some feeling is exhibited against Henderson. I believe, of course, that he has been actuated by the best and most honorable motives. He certainly carefully heard every word of testimony, and all the arguments, and if these led him to the conclusion that the case was not [made] out, he was bound to vote accordingly. If party discipline is to ride down a man's sense of honor and right,

Republican government cannot and should not last many years.

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In our Indian matters I think we are making as much progress as could be expected. The great bulk of the Sioux have agreed to move to the Missouri where they will be too far away from the railroad to be provoked to do it damage, and where the appropriations for their benefit can be more economically and faithfully applied. Some small bands will always be warlike and mischievous, but the game of war will be simplified by their separation. The same as to the Cheyennes, etc., below the Arkansas. The commission for present peace had to concede a right to hunt buffaloes as long as they last, and this may lead to collisions, but it will not be long before all the buffaloes are extinct near and between the railroads, after which the Indians will have no reason to approach either railroad. . .

Affectionately,

W. T. SHERMAN.

SOURCE: Rachel Sherman Thorndike, Editor, The Sherman Letters: Correspondence Between General and Senator Sherman from 1837 to 1891, p. 319-20

Lieutenant-General William T. Sherman to Senator John Sherman, September 23, 1868

HEADQUARTERS MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSOURI,        

Sept. 23, 1868.

Dear Brother:

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The Indian War on the plains need simply amount to this. We have now selected and provided reservations for all, off the great roads. All who cling to their old hunting grounds are hostile and will remain so till killed off. We will have a sort of predatory war for years, every now and then be shocked by the indiscriminate murder of travellers and settlers, but the country is so large, and the advantage of the Indians so great, that we cannot make a single war and end it. From the nature of things we must take chances and clean out Indians as we encounter them.

Our troops are now scattered and have daily chases and skirmishes, sometimes getting the best and sometimes the worst, but the Indians have this great advantage, they can steal fresh horses when they need them and drop the jaded ones. We must operate each man to his own horse, and cannot renew except by purchase in a distant and cheap market.

I will keep things thus, and when winter starves their ponies they will want a truce and shan't have it, unless the civil influence compels me again as it did last winter.

If Grant is elected, that old Indian system will be broken up, and then with the annuities which are ample expended in connection with and in subordination to military movements, will soon bring the whole matter within easy control. Then there are $134,000 appropriated for the Cheyennes and Arapahoes, all of whom are at war, and yet the Indian Bureau contend they are forced by law to invest it in shoes, stockings, blankets, and dry goods for these very Indians. They don't want any of these things, but if it could be put in corn, salt, and cattle, we could detach half the hostiles and get them down on the Canadian, two hundred miles south of the Kansas road.

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Grant is still at Galena, and I doubt if he will get to Washington till the November election is over. I have written to him to come down here to the Fair which begins October 5, but the Democrats are so strong and demonstrative here that I think he is a little turned against St. Louis. . . .

Yours affectionately,

W. T. SHERMAN.

SOURCE: Rachel Sherman Thorndike, Editor, The Sherman Letters: Correspondence Between General and Senator Sherman from 1837 to 1891, p. 321-2

Lieutenant-General William T. Sherman to Senator John Sherman, December 30, 1866

ST. LOUIS, Sunday, Dec. 30, 1866.

Dear Brother: I came up from New Orleans right through the country that I had been the means of raiding so thoroughly, and did not know but I should hear some things that would not be pleasant, but, on the contrary, many people met me all along the road in the most friendly spirit. I spent a whole day at Jackson, where chimney stacks and broken railroads marked the presence of Sherman's army. But all sorts of people pressed to see me, and evinced their natural curiosity, nothing more. . . .

I expect to have two Indian wars on my hands, and have no time for other things. The Sioux and Cheyennes are now so circumscribed that I suppose they must be exterminated, for they cannot and will not settle down, and our people will force us to it. It will also call for all possible prudence to keep us from war with the Mormons, for there are people that yearn for the farms and property the Mormons have created in the wilderness.

I have a despatch from Mr. Stanton, saying that my action in the delicate mission to Mexico meets the approval of the President, the Cabinet, and himself, so I got out of that scrape easily. I do not want to come to Washington, but to stay here quietly as long as possible. When Grant goes to Europe, then I shall be forced to come. The longer that is deferred the better for me. Affectionately,

W. T. SHERMAN.

SOURCE: Rachel Sherman Thorndike, Editor, The Sherman Letters: Correspondence Between General and Senator Sherman from 1837 to 1891, p. 287