William T. Sherman to Ellen Ewing Sherman, December 23, 1859

Seminary, Dec. 23,1859.

. . . I have the New Orleans papers of the 18th.  I see that the election of speaker was still the engrossing topic, John's vote being 112, 114 being necessary to a choice. Still I doubt his final success on account of his signing for that Helper book. Without that his election would be certain. I was at Alexandria yesterday and was cornered by a Dr. Smith, a member of the Board of Supervisors and at present a candidate of this Parish for a seat in the state senate, to which he will surely be elected. He referred pointedly to the deep intense feeling which now pervades the South, and the importance that all educational establishments should be in the hands of its friends. I answered in general terms that I had nothing to do with these questions, that I was employed to do certain things which I should do, that I always was a strong advocate of our present form of government, and as long as it remained I should be true to it, that if disunion was meditated in any quarter I should oppose it, but that if disunion did actually occur, an event I would not contemplate, then every man must take his own course and I would not say what I would do. I still believe somehow or other efforts will be made to draw me out on these points and I shall be as circumspect as possible.

A good many gentlemen and ladies have been here to see the Seminary which begins to attract notice. All express great pleasure at seeing the beautiful building and hope it will become a center of attraction. About the time you receive this we will begin to receive cadets and then things will be pretty lively. I will have nothing to do in the way of teaching this term, my time will be mostly taken up by supervising others, and seeing to the proper supplies and furnishment. . .

SOURCES: Walter L. Fleming, General W.T. Sherman as College President, p. 86-7

William T. Sherman to Ellen Ewing Sherman, December 16, 1859

Seminary, Alexandria, La., Dec. 16,1859.

. . . I wrote you and Minnie from New Orleans as I told you I would. I did start back in the “Telegram” Monday evening, and Red River being up, we came along without delay, reaching here Wednesday morning. I had despatched by a former boat a good deal of freight, brought some in the same boat, and all the balance will be here in a day or so. I walked out from Pineville, which is the name of a small group of houses on this side of Red River, and sent the cart in for my trunk and for the drummer I had picked up in New Orleans. I wanted also a tailor and shoemaker, but failed to get them. On getting out I was much disappointed at receiving no letters, but was assured that all the mails had failed for a week; and last night being mail night I sent in my new drummer who brought out a good budget, among them your letters. . . So, as you seem to know, this is an out of the way place without telegraphs, railroads, and almost without mails.

It so happened that General Graham came out the very day of my return, not knowing that I was here, and he brought with him Mr. Smith, the professor of chemistry, who is one of the real Virginia F. F. V.'s, a very handsome young man of twenty-two, who will doubtless be good company. He is staying with General Graham, but will move here in a few days. General Graham seemed delighted with the progress I had made, and for the first time seemed well satisfied that we would in fact be ready by January 1.

I have not yet been to Alexandria, as I landed on this side the river and came out at once, but I shall go in on Monday and see all the supervisors, who are again to meet. I know the sentiments of some about abolitionism, and am prepared if they say a word about John. I am not an abolitionist, still I do not intend to let any of them reflect on John in my presence, as the newspapers are full of angry and bitter expressions against him. All I have met have been so courteous that I have no reason to fear such a thing, unless some one of those who came, applicants to the post I fill, with hundreds of letters, should endeavor to undermine me by assertions on the infernal question of slavery, which seems to blind men to all ideas of common sense

.

Your letters convey to me the first intimation I have received that the project of ——— had not long since been abandoned. . . You remember I waited as long as I decently could before answering Governor Wickliffe's letter of appointment, in hopes of receiving a word from ——— who promised Hugh to write from London.  Not hearing from him and having little faith in the scheme, I finally accepted this place as the best thing offering. Even yet I think this is my best chance unless the question of slavery and my northern birth and associations should prejudice me, and should ——— make his appearance here I should have to be very strongly assured on the subject of pay and permanency before I would even hint at leaving. Of course if I could do better, there is no impropriety in my quitting as there are many strong applicants for the post, many of whom possess qualifications equal if not superior to me. I still do not believe that ——— is to be relied on and I don't expect he has the most remote intention of coming here. . .

These southern politicians have so long cried out wolf that many believe the wolf has come and therefore they might in some moment of anger commit an act resulting in Civil War. As long as the Union is kept I will stand by it, but if we are going to split up into sections I would prefer our children should be raised in Ohio or some northern state to the alternative of a slave state, where we never can have slave property.

*          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *

I have already described this place to you — the building being of course not at all designed for families and I shall not, as long as I control, permit a woman or child to live in it. The nearest house is an open, cold house a quarter of a mile distant occupied at present by Professor Vallas, wife and five children. During my absence at New Orleans they had here bitter cold weather, the same that killed all the orange trees at New Orleans, and Mr. Vallas tells me he and his family nearly froze, for the house was designed for summer, of the “wentilating” kind.

There are other houses between this and Alexandria of the same general kind, but they are from one and one-half to two and one-half miles distant, too far off for any person connected with the Seminary to live. The plan is and has been to build, but the Seminary is utterly unable to build, nor can it hope to get the money save by a gift from the legislature. General Graham thinks they will appropriate $30,000. Governor Moore, though in favor of doing so, has his doubts and was candid enough to say so. Without that it will be impossible for me to bring you south even next winter. The legislature meets in the latter part of next January and we cannot even get our pay until they appropriate, but they must appropriate $8,100¹ because it belongs lawfully to the Seminary. . .

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¹ Interest on the Seminary land fund. - Ed.

SOURCES: Walter L. Fleming, General W.T. Sherman as College President, p. 84-6

William T. Sherman to Ellen Ewing Sherman, Sunday, December 12, 1859

New Orleans, Sunday, Dec. 12.

. . . I am stopping at the City Hotel which is crowded and have therefore come to this my old office, now Captain Kilburn's, to do my writing. I wish I were here legitimately, but that is now past, and I must do the best in the sphere in which events have cast me. All things here look familiar, the streets, houses, levees, drays, etc., and many of the old servants are still about the office, who remember me well, and fly round at my bidding as of old.

I have watched with interest the balloting for speaker, with John as the Republican candidate. I regret he ever signed that Helper book, of which I know nothing but from the extracts bandied about in the southern papers. Had it not been for that, I think he might be elected, but as it is I do not see how he can expect any southern votes, and without them it seems that his election is impossible. His extreme position on that question will prejudice me, not among the supervisors, but in the legislature where the friends of the Seminary must look for help. Several of the papers have alluded to the impropriety of importing from the north their school teachers, and if in the progress of debate John should take extreme grounds, it will of course get out that I am his brother from Ohio, universally esteemed an abolition state, and they may attempt to catechize me, to which I shall not submit.

I will go on however in organizing the Seminary and trust to the future; but hitherto I have had such bad luck, in California and New York, that I fear I shall be overtaken here by a similar catastrophe. Of course there are many here such as Bragg, Hebert, Graham, and others that know that I am not an abolitionist. Still if the simple fact be that my nativity and relationship with Republicans should prejudice the institution, I would feel disposed to sacrifice myself to that fact, though the results would be very hard, for I know not what else to do.

If the Southern States should organize for the purpose of leaving the Union I could not go with them. If that event be brought about by the insane politicians I will ally my fate with the north, for the reason that the slave question will ever be a source of discord even in the South. As long as the abolitionists and the Republicans seem to threaten the safety of slave property so long will this excitement last, and no one can foresee its result; but all here talk as if a dissolution of the Union were not only a possibility but a probability of easy execution. If attempted we will have Civil War of the most horrible kind, and this country will become worse than Mexico.

What I apprehend is that because John has taken such strong grounds on the institution of slavery that I will first be watched and suspected, then maybe addressed officially to know my opinion, and lastly some fool in the legislature will denounce me as an abolitionist spy because there is one or more southern men applying for my place.

I am therefore very glad you are not here, and if events take this turn I will act as I think best. As long as the United States Government can be maintained in its present form I will stand by it; if it is to break up in discord, strife and Civil War, I must either return to California, Kansas or Ohio. My opinions on slavery are good enough for this country, but the fact of John being so marked a Republican may make my name so suspected that it may damage the prospects of the Seminary, or be thought to do so, which would make me very uncomfortable. . .

SOURCES: Walter L. Fleming, General W.T. Sherman as College President, p. 75-7

William T. Sherman to Ellen Ewing Sherman, December 2, 1859

Seminary Of Learning, Alexandria, La., Dec. 2,1859

. . . . Last Monday there was a meeting of the Board of Supervisors called but the governor could not come, and consequently there was no quorum and the Board had to work informally. They could not adopt the regulations, but called another meeting for December 10. I attended the meeting and found they were willing to vest me with ample powers but they will be embarrassed in their finances unless the legislature help or unless we have more students than we now expect. We shall prepare for one hundred, but sixty are as many as I expect. I will have no teaching to do this year unless I choose, but will have all the details of discipline and management.

I found that there are two distinct parties in the Board — one in favor of a real out and out military college and another who prefer a literary seminary, only consenting to the military form of government. The former party led by General Graham, want a continuous course, without vacations, as at West Point, the summer vacations to be taken up with a regular encampment. This would keep me here all the time until everything had settled down into such a fixed system that I could go away. I can hardly forsee how it will turn out but for the present believe we will have a summer vacation of two months, during which I can come to Ohio.

The legislature meets the third Monday in January, soon after which we will discover their temper and whether they will be willing to build any buildings for the professors, but I believe they will not, as I notice a hesitation to ask it and unless it be asked and urged very strongly of course they will not appropriate. All kinds of labor, building especially, costs so much that though the state as such is liberal, yet they cannot answer half the calls made on them for such purposes.

I am lonely enough out here alone in this big house, but will have plenty to divert me the next two weeks, and afterwards, the session will be so near at hand with new duties and new things. I suppose my patience will be tested to its utmost by a parcel of wayward boys.

SOURCES: The article is abstracted in Walter L. Fleming’s, General W.T. Sherman as College President, p. 72-4

William T. Sherman to Ellen Ewing Sherman, November 25, 1859

Seminary Of Learning, Alexandria, Nov. 25, 1859.

I am still out here at the Seminary, pushing on the work as fast as possible, but people don't work hard down here. The weather has been warm and springlike, but tonight the wind is piping and betokens rain. This is Friday. I have been writing all week, the regulations, and have been sending off circulars - indeed everything is backward, and it will keep us moving to be ready for cadets January 1. The Board of Supervisors are to meet on Monday, and I will submit to them the regulations and lists of articles indispensably necessary, and I suppose I will be sent to New Orleans to make the purchases.

The planters about Alexandria are rich but the town is a poor concern. Nothing like furniture can be had. Everybody orders from New Orleans. General Graham is at his plantation nine miles from Alexandria and twelve from here. I get a note from him every day urging me to assume all responsibility as he and all the supervisors are busy at their cotton or sugar.

I believe I have fully described the locality and the fact that although the building for the Seminary is in itself very fine, yet it is solitary and alone in the country and in no wise suited for families. Of course I will permit no family to live in the building. There happens to be one house about one-fourth mile to the rear, belonging to one McCoy in New Orleans, but that is rented by Mr. Vallas, the professor of mathematics, who now occupies it with his family, wife and seven children. They are Hungarians and he is an Episcopal Clergyman, but his religion don't hurt him much. He seems a pleasant enough man, fifty years old, fat, easy and comfortable. . . They have an Irishman and wife as servants and have plenty of complaints. The house is leaky and full of holes, so that they can hardly keep a candle burning when the wind is boisterous. Indeed the house was built for summer use and calculated to catch as much wind as possible. The design is to ask the legislature to appropriate for two professors' houses for Vallas and ourselves.

If they appropriate I will have the building and will of course see to their comfort, but I will make no calculations until the amount is settled on. I fear the cost of the building will deter the legislature from appropriating until the institution begins to make friends.

The new governor, Moore, lives near Alexandria and will be highly favorable to liberal appropriation. We have fine springs of pure water all round, and I doubt not the place is very healthy. Indeed there is nothing to make it otherwise unless the long hot summers create disease. I am now comparatively free of my cough and am in about usual condition - have to burn nitre paper occasionally. It is very lonely here indeed. Nobody to talk to but the carpenters and sitting here alone in this great big house away out in the pine wood is not cheerful. . .

SOURCES: The article is abstracted in Walter L. Fleming’s, General W.T. Sherman as College President, p. 60-1

William T. Sherman to Ellen Ewing Sherman, November 19, 1859

Alexandria, Seminary of Learning, Nov. 19, 1859.

Since my last I have been out to General Graham's who has a large plantation on Bayou Rapides, nine miles from Alexandria. There met Graham and Whittington,¹ and Sherman, Vallas, and St. Ange, professors, to make rules for the new institution after the model of the Virginia Military Institute. We took their regulations, omitted part, altered other and innovated to suit this case, and as a result I have it all to write over and prepare for the printer.

Yesterday I moved my things out and am now in the college building, have taken two rooms in the southwest tower and shall make the large adjoining room the office, so as to be convenient. There are five carpenters employed here and I take my meals with them.

It is only three miles to Alexandria. I walked out yesterday, and in this morning; but Captain Jarreau, who is appointed steward, lent me a horse for the keeping, so that hereafter I will have a horse to ride about the country; but for some days I will have writing enough to do, and afterwards may have to go down to New Orleans to buy furniture, of which the building is absolutely without, being brand new. The weather has been excessively dry here, but yesterday it rained hard and last night it thundered hard. Today was fine clear and bright like Charleston. . .

_______________

¹ Graham and Whittington were delegated by the supervisors to assist the committee of the faculty in drawing up rules. — Ed.

SOURCES: The article is abstracted in Walter L. Fleming’s, General W.T. Sherman as College President, p. 57-8

Braxton Bragg to William T. Sherman, November 13, 1859

Near Thibodaux, La., November 13, 1859.

My Dear Sherman: It was a great pleasure to receive your note from Baton Rouge, and I sincerely hope that we may soon meet. I should have written to you at once on seeing your election to the important position you are to fill, but did not know where to find you. The announcement gave me very great pleasure, though my influence to some extent was given against you, never dreaming you could be an aspirant. I had united with many gentlemen in New Orleans to recommend Professor Sears, with whom I have no acquaintance, but simply on the ground of his being a graduate of West Point. Indeed, my letter was general, and might have applied to any graduate. Had I known your application I should have attended personally to forward your wishes. But as it is all is well.

Since seeing your appointment I have taken pains to try and advance the institution, and several friends speak of sending their sons. Whatever is in my power will be most cheerfully done for your personal interest, and for the institution generally. We must meet, but it is impossible for me to leave home now. Until nearly Christmas I shall be overrun with business, or rather confined by it. We are in the midst of [sugar] manufacturing, and a cold spell is now on us which inflicts a heavy loss every day lost. I even work on Sunday from this time to the end.

At home I have leisure, and am most happy to see friends. Kilburn,¹⁴ who is stationed in the city, [is] coming tomorrow to spend a few days. Why can't you do so? You can take dinner with me after breakfast in the city. Kilburn can put you in the way, should you have time to come down. I heard something of your misfortunes,¹⁵ and sympathised most deeply with you, but it is not too late for a man of your energy and ability to repair such a disaster.

Your institution I hope will prove a success. It is fairly endowed and has strong and enthusiastic friends. Among them you will find the master spirit my friend, General G. Mason Graham. My acquaintance with him was very short, but very agreeable. Friendships formed under the enemy's guns ought to last.¹⁶ I knew he liked me, and I admired his gallantry and devotion. Present my regards to him. You may safely trust to his friendship. Our new governor¹⁷ will be your friend, too. He is a plain man, but of excellent character, business habits and very large fortune, placing him above temptation and demagogery. Your professor of mathematics, a foreigner,¹⁸ is very highly spoken of; the others I do not know.

Mrs. Sherman and the little ones are not with you I suppose from your not mentioning them. We should be most happy to see them when they come to join you. In the meantime, when you can see enough to form any plan, let me hear from you again, and when and where we may meet. About January 1, I expect to be in Baton Rouge.

Accept my cordial wishes for your success, and happiness.

[BRAXTON BRAGG.]

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¹⁴ An officer in the commissary department, United States Army. — Ed.

¹⁵ The failure of the banking firms with which Sherman had been connected. — Ed.

¹⁶ Bragg and Graham had served together in the Mexican War. — Ed.

¹⁷ Thomas O. Moore who was to take office in January, 1860. — Ed.

¹⁸ Dr. Anthony Vallas, an Hungarian. — Ed.

SOURCE: Walter L. Fleming, Editor, General W.T. Sherman as College President, p. 52-4

William T. Sherman to Ellen Ewing Sherman, November 12, 1859

Alexandria, La., Sunday, Nov. 12 [1859].

I wrote you a hasty letter yesterday whilst the stage was waiting. General Graham and others have been with me every moment so that I was unable to steal a moment's time to write you. I left the wharf boat at the mouth of Red River, a dirty, poor concern where I laid over one day, the stage only coming up tri-weekly, and at nine o'clock at night started with an overcrowded stage, nine in and two out with driver, four good horses, Troy coach, road dead level and very dusty, lying along the banks of bayous which cut up the country like a net work. Along these bayous lie the plantations rich in sugar and cotton such as you remember along the Mississippi at Baton Rouge.

We rode all night, a fine moonlight, and before breakfast at a plantation we were hailed by Judge Boyce who rode with us the rest of the journey. His plantation is twenty-five miles further up, but he has lived here since 1826 and knows everybody. He insisted on my stopping with him at the plantation of Mr. Moore, who is just elected governor of Louisiana for the coming four years, and who in that capacity will be President of the Board of Supervisors, who control the Seminary of Learning, and whose friendship and confidence it is important I should secure. He sent us into town in his own carriage. Alexandria isn't much of a town, and the tavern where I am, Mrs. Fellow's, a common rate concern, as all southern taverns out of large cities are. Still I have a good room opening into the parlor.

General Graham came in from his plantation nine miles west of this, and has been with me ever since. At this moment he is at church, the Episcopal. He will go out home tonight and to-morrow I go likewise, when we are to have a formal meeting to arrange some rules and regulations, also agree on the system of study. He is the person who has from the start carried on the business. He was at West Point, but did not graduate, but he has an unlimited admiration of the system of discipline and study. He is about fifty-five years, rather small, exceedingly particular and methodical, and altogether different from his brother, the general.¹

LOUISIANA STATE SEMINARY IN 1860
Sherman's office was the room to the left of the entrance.

The building is a gorgeous palace, altogether too good for its purpose, stands on a high hill three miles north of this. It has four hundred acres of poor soil, but fine pine and oak trees, a single large building. Like most bodies they have spent all their money on the naked building, trusting to the legislature for further means to provide furniture, etc. All this is to be done, and they agree to put me in charge at once, and enable me to provide before January 1 the tables, desks, chairs, blackboards, etc., the best I can in time for January 1, and as this is a mere village I must procure all things from New Orleans, and may have to go down early next month. But for the present I shall go to General Graham's tomorrow, be there some days, return here and then remove to the college, where I will establish myself and direct in person the construction of such things as may be made there.

There is no family near enough for me to board, so I will get the cook who provides for the carpenters to give me my meals.

It is the design to erect two buildings for the professors, but I doubt whether the legislature will give any more, $135,000 having already been expended. The institution, styled by law the Seminary of Learning, has an annual endowment of $8,100, but it is necessary for the legislature to appropriate this annually, and as they do not meet till the third Monday in January, I don't see how we can get any money before hand. I think when the appropriation is made, however, my salary will be allowed from November 1.

When I first got here it was hot, but yesterday it changed, and it is now very cold. I have a fire here, but several windows are broken, and the room is as cold as a barn, and the lazy negroes have to be driven to bring in wood.

I expect plenty of trouble from this source, the high wages of servants and the necessity to push them all the time to do anything. I would hire whites, but suppose it would be advisable and good policy to submit to the blacks for the present.

On arrival here I found your and Minnie's² letters, seven days in coming, which is better time than I expected. Mails come here tri-weekly by stage by the route I came. . .

­­_______________

¹ General R. B. Mason, Sherman's commanding officer in California. — Ed.

² Sherman’s eldest daughter.

SOURCE: Walter L. Fleming, Editor, General W.T. Sherman as College President, p. 47-52

William T. Sherman to Ellen Ewing Sherman, November 6, 1859

Baton Rouge, Sunday, November 6, 1859.

I wrote you from the Kennett at Cairo - but not from Memphis. I got here last night about dark, the very day I had appointed, but so late in the day that when I called at the governor's residence I found he had gone to a wedding. I have not yet seen him, and as tomorrow is the great election day of this state I hear that he is going down to New Orleans to-day. So I got up early, and as soon as I finish this letter, I will go again.

I have been to the post-office and learn that several letters have come for me, all of which were sent to the governor. Captain Ricketts of the army, commanding officer at the barracks,¹ found me last night, and has told me all the news, says that they were much pleased at my accepting the place, and that all place great reliance on me, that the place at Alexandria selected for the school is famous for salubrity, never has been visited by yellow fever and therefore is better adapted for the purpose than this place. He thinks that I will have one of the best places in the country, and that I will be treated with great consideration by the legislature and authorities of the state. I will have plenty to do between this and the time for opening of school. I have yet seen nobody connected with the school and suppose all are waiting for me at Alexandria, where I will go tomorrow. . .

_______________

¹ The United States military post at Baton Rouge. - Ed.

SOURCE: Walter L. Fleming, Editor, General W.T. Sherman as College President, p. 45-6

William T. Sherman to Ellen Ewing Sherman, October 29, 1859

Steamer L. M. Kennett [at Cairo], Saturday, Oct. 29, 1859.

. . . Should my health utterly fail me or abolition drive me and all moderate men from the South, then we can retreat down the Hocking and exist until time puts us away under ground. This is not poetically expressed but is the basis of my present plans.

I find southern men, even as well informed as ——— as big fools as the abolitionists. Though Brown's whole expedition proves clearly that [while] the northern people oppose slavery in the abstract, yet very few [will] go so far as to act. Yet the extreme southrons pretend to think that the northern people have nothing to do but to steal niggers and to preach sedition.

John's¹ position and Tom's² may force me at times to appear opposed to extreme southern views, or they may attempt to extract from me promises I will not give, and it may be that this position as the head of a military college, south may be inconsistent with decent independence. I don't much apprehend such a state of case, still feeling runs so high, where a nigger is concerned, that like religious questions, common sense is disregarded, and knowledge of the character of mankind in such cases leads me to point out a combination of events that may yet operate on our future.

I have heard men of good sense say that the union of the states any longer was impossible, and that the South was preparing for a change. If such a change be contemplated and overt acts be attempted of course I will not go with the South, because with slavery and the whole civilized world opposed to it, they in case of leaving the union will have worse wars and tumults than now distinguish Mexico. If I have to fight hereafter I prefer an open country and white enemies. I merely allude to these things now because I have heard a good deal lately about such things, and generally that the Southern States by military colleges and organizations were looking to a dissolution of the Union. If they design to protect themselves against negroes and abolitionists I will help; if they propose to leave the Union on account of a supposed fact that the northern people are all abolitionists like Giddings and Brown then I will stand by Ohio and the northwest.

I am on a common kind of boat. River low. Fare eighteen dollars. A hard set aboard; but at Cairo I suppose we take aboard the railroad passengers, a better class. I have all my traps safe aboard, will land my bed and boxes at Red River, will go on to Baton Rouge, and then be governed by circumstances.

The weather is clear and cold and I have a bad cough, asthma of course, but hope to be better tomorrow. I have a stateroom to myself, but at Cairo suppose we will have a crowd; if possible I will keep a room to myself in case I want to burn the paper³ of which I will have some left, but in case of a second person being put in I can sleep by day and sit up at night, all pretty much the same in the long run. . .

_______________

¹ John Sherman. — Ed.

² Thomas Ewing Jr., brother of Mrs. Sherman. - Ed.

³ Nitre paper burned to relieve asthma.— Ed.

SOURCE: Walter L. Fleming, Editor, General W.T. Sherman as College President, p. 43-5

George Mason Graham to William T. Sherman, September 7, 1859

Willard's Hotel, Washington, Sept. 7, 1859.

Dear SIR: On arriving here night before last I had the pleasure to receive from Mr. Richard Smith your two favors of the 15th and 20th of August, and Major Buell, with whom I have not been able to meet until this morning at breakfast, has shown me yours to him of the 4th inst. which he was in the act of opening when I joined him, and from which he has allowed me to take a memorandum of the dates of your proposed movements. The information contained in your letter to Buell has been of considerable relief to me, for whilst it would be very gratifying to me to meet with you I did not see any good commensurate with the expense, time, risk, and trouble to yourself, to result from your coming all the way here merely to confer with me when it was not in my power to specify any particular day when I would be in the city, as the business which brings me here lies down in Virginia, whither I go tomorrow morning, if the violent cold under which I am now suffering shall permit, and the consummation of it is contingent on the action of a half dozen others than myself.

I had desired very much, if it suited your convenience, that you could visit and see into the interior life of the school at Lexington, Virginia, where everything would be shown to you with the most cordial frankness by Col. Smith, who has taken the warmest and most earnest interest in our effort, and who writes to me of you, sir, in very high terms of congratulatory appreciation, and where one of your classmates, Major Gilham, is a member of the Academic Board.

In the event that this will not be practicable to you, as I infer from the programme laid down in your note to Major Buell it will not be, I shall write to Col. Smith asking him to give us all necessary information of details not contained in the “Rules and Regulations” the preparation of the code of which for our school is confined to the joint action of “the faculty” and “A Committee consisting of Messrs. Manning, Graham, and Whittington.” I would rather have had the Board adopt for the present the code of the Virginia school, because under the Governor's resolution, about which he did not confer with me beforehand, it cannot well be done until on or about the 1st of January, when it ought to be done in advance. I do not see therefore that we can do otherwise than adopt, at first, the code of that school. I have no apprehension but that whatever you, Mr. Manning and myself may agree upon, will be acceptable to all the rest.

In regard to “furnishing” the building there will not be much trouble. My idea will be for each cadet to furnish his own requisites in the way of room furniture, as at West Point. There will then be nothing to furnish but the class-rooms, the kitchen and mess hall as I believe I mentioned to you before, the statement in the Governor's advertisement that “furnished apartments would be provided in the building for the professors,” was an error of our not very clear-headed secretary. The intention of the Board was simply to apprize all interested that there were no separate dwellings for the professors. . .

I met with Mr. F. W. Smith¹ in Richmond and travelled with him to this place. He is about sailing for Europe to be back the 1st of December. All my anticipations of him fully realized. I cannot close without mentioning that in a visit to the convent in Georgetown yesterday my sister (Mary Bernard) poured out her joy on learning (to do which she enquired with great eagerness) that the superintendent of our school was the husband of that “one of all the girls who have passed through our hands here that I believed I loved best and was the most deeply interested in.”²

In regard to “authority and control,” although it is not yet exactly so, I hope the next session of the legislature will place our school on precisely the same footing as the Virginia school, making the superintendent the commanding officer of the corps of cadets, giving to him and the other members of the Academic Board, rank in the State's military organization.

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¹ The newly elected commandant of cadets and professor of chemistry. — Ed.

² Mrs. Sherman was educated in a Georgetown, D.C., convent in which General Graham's sister was a teacher and later Mother Superior. — Ed.

SOURCE: Walter L. Fleming, Editor, General W.T. Sherman as College President, p. 34-7

Brigadier-General Thomas Kilby Smith to Eliza Walter Smith, August 26, 1863

Headquarters Dept. Of The Tennessee,

Vicksburg, Aug. 26, 1863.

My Dear Mother:

I attempted some description of these people in their homes and their luxurious mode of life. I mean the opulent of the South, generally, without reference to individuals; and in return it strikes me, you give a little bit of a rub, evidently fearing that I should be seduced from my Spartan training, while treading their flowery paths of dalliance. You need not be alarmed. I have come back to my narrow cot and canvas roof without one pang of regret. I enjoy luxury for the brief season it is accorded me, but I know it only tends to enervate. On many accounts, I like the South, but its influences are baneful, its atmosphere, physical and moral, poisonous, except to those who have been purged and purified by misfortune and the stern necessity for exertion; whose constitutions of iron have been hammered into steel. I remember the rockbound shores of New England perfectly. The icy crags over which, with iron spikes to my shoes, I have toiled and clambered on my way to and from school in midwinter. Do you quite remember, I was but six years old when I made those journeys of two miles to Master Manley's from the “Sanderson Beach,” as I used to call them; that was before Walter was born.

I have been brought to a most abrupt stop in my proceedings and hardly know how to resume my thread. You must pardon my discursive epistles. I have this moment been handed your favor of 14th inst. Mrs. Sherman is on a visit to her husband. I went out there a day or two ago to make a call upon her. She spoke of you all with much interest, and regretted her previous inability to visit you; hoped to be able to do so upon her return. She is a very charming person.

There are two brilliant examples now before the nation standing out in bold relief, in fact before the whole civilized world; their history is good for little boys to know. Let my sons ponder upon it. One is General Grant and the other General Banks. Both were born of very poor parents, both had to labor hard for a livelihood in the country in their boyhood. General Grant's father lived in Brown County, Ohio, near Georgetown. The first money he ever earned or that was paid to him, was for a load of rags, that with great enterprise he gathered together in and about the town, drove to Cincinnati, a distance of forty miles, in a two-horse wagon, by himself, sold for fifteen dollars, and returned triumphant. He had his money in silver and he was the richest boy in all that section of country. This was before he was twelve years old, and as the enterprise originated with himself, and was carried out successfully, notwithstanding the difficulties of bad roads, the winter season, his diminutive stature, it perhaps gave as good evidence of great generalship as anything he has done since. He went to West Point from the village school and graduated as the best rider of the academy — the best, because the boldest. After he had been brevetted three times for his gallantry in Mexico, he had to resign a captaincy because he was too poor to support his family; went to farming near St. Louis, and there was not ashamed to drive his own team loaded with wood to the city. He came into the service again as captain of Volunteers. He has told me himself of these things, and that his best training was before he went to the military academy. I do not want my boys to be afraid to work. I want them to ride and shoot and fish and to know how to do it all well, and above all not to be afraid of anything or anybody but God, or afraid to do anything but tell a lie, and no matter what they do, they must not be afraid to tell of it. They must never take an insult from any boy or man. If a girl or woman insult them laugh at or kiss her. Never quarrel; if there has to be a word or a blow, let the blow come first. But I was going to write a word about General Banks. His father was a woodsawyer;  . . . his boyhood was of toil, privation, and mortification, yet to-day he is one of the most courteous, gentle, kindly men in all the world. He has done for himself what no teachers could have done for him, however high their salary or brilliant their reputation. These are dazzling instances, but they are exponents of a fact. This war has brought out a latent talent, a hidden strength of character in the individual, that astounds the world, but we almost invariably find it exhibited among those who in their early years have been compelled to depend upon themselves for thought and action.

In my last to my wife, I said I should write next from Cairo or Memphis, but no sooner had I despatched that letter than I received intelligence which caused a change in my movements. I shall remain here till General Grant returns. The weather has been very pleasant for some time past, nights cool enough for two blankets. I am sitting now in a very wet tent, with my feet propped up to keep them out of the water; it is raining very hard and is quite cold. I am most agreeably disappointed in the summers of the South; take them, if the two seasons I have experienced are a test, from end to end, they are more pleasant than our own.

I received three or four days ago, a notice from the Secretary of War that the President has appointed me brigadier-general, my rank to date from the 11th Aug. “for gallant conduct and service in the field.” This I suppose applied to my assaults of the 19th and 22d May, upon the enemy's fortifications at Vicksburg. “Shiloh” and Russell's House, Corinth, Chickasas Bayou, Arkansas Post, all I suppose went for naught, or what is more probable, the President never saw my papers. I don't know how he could get over the petition of my command endorsed by my commanding generals. The assault of the 19th was the most murderous affair I was ever in, but I have led troops in battles that lasted much longer and where I have lost more men, and in which I have been as much exposed.

I have had congratulations and serenades and all that sort of thing galore, for, as is not unusual, I have found in my case that a prophet has honor save in his own country. I have some friends and pretty warm ones in the army. My old command is encamped about eighteen miles from here near Black River, and General Sherman is not far away from them. He got news of my appointment by telegraph and rode over to tell them the news, whereat there was a perfect yell. The old fellow was about as glad as the boys from all I hear, and together they had a love feast. I suppose you have heard of the appointment through the papers, though of course it is under a misnomer, and it will be old news to you.

General Grant has been away the last ten days and there is hardly anybody at headquarters but myself. I am looking for him every day, and upon his return shall be somewhat relieved.

SOURCE: Walter George Smith, Life and letters of Thomas Kilby Smith, p. 330-3

Colonel Thomas Kilby Smith to Eliza Walter Smith, January 7, 1863

Headquarters Second Brigade,

Second Division, Second Army Corps, Army Of Miss.,

On Board Steamer "Sunny South," Jan. 7,1863.

My Dear Mother:

We are on the broad bosom of the Father of Waters, the shimmering moonlight streaming bright on the glittering waves that dazzle in reflection. I am surrounded by gay officers, the jest and the laugh and the song go round, but I get a little apart and look out into the night, and alone, with no commune for my thoughts save sweet memories of my mother. Two natures, two distinct beings seem blended in mine. Blood, carnage, and exposure to the elements, the dull and dripping rain at night, sapping the creeping marrow in my bones, the swamp, the forest, the noontide heat, prolonged endurance of fatigue, and wakeful watching, intimate converse with gladiatorial soldiers, the harsh reproof and bitter curse (alas, too familiar to my own lips,) the forcing of fierce and maddened spirits to my own will, at times as fierce and maddened as theirs, the groan, the imprecation, oftener than the prayer of the dying; the contorted limbs and fixed stare of the dead, who have gone to their death at my bidding — all this, and more, more than I dare to think or to write, makes me feel as he must have felt who fell from heaven. When plunged in the abyss of reflection, I look for my pure, bright angel, with white and fleecy wings, hovering above me, her outstretched arms, her beckoning hand, her mild and lovely eyes entreating, the mother of my early days. I change, even in thought with her. I become a child again, like the little child I used to see in some of the editions of the '”Common Prayer,” with the leopard, and the lion, and the lamb, that I used to ponder over instead of listening to the service long years ago, when I sat in the quaint old church. The Bible pictures all come back to me, the clouds that I used to watch through the open windows, when the Sunday was pleasant, shaping themselves into queer and fanciful forms, when I used to wonder if God really sat among them, as upon His throne, and if the little cherubims and seraphims, all head and wings as they were lined above the pulpit, were really all about him crying aloud, and if he ever spanked them for so doing, and from these child dreams I passed to others; soft and pleasant fancies flit through my mind; music and the bright fireside, whispering voices, pure, sweet, holy love, the greeting and the parting, the hopes and fears. My spirit changes; I lean over the top-rail and gaze into the deep and flowing river, to wonder if the scene about me is real, if I may not go to you within the hour and lay my head upon your breast and cry myself to sleep, with your dear hands clasped in mine. You are curious to know where I am and what I have been doing, and I can only give you commonplace descriptions of fleets and the great broad river, martial music, startling the wild fowl from the well-nigh deserted shores, the debarkation of the army, the bivouac, the attack at night, the fiercer conflict that raged for two days, the storming of the “imminent and deadly breach,” the heroism, the slaughter of the soldiers, the withdrawal to the transports — all this you will hear about in any penny paper, told with all the variations far better than my pen can portray, and your heart will sicken that such things can be. You will hear that my own band acquitted themselves nobly, that nineteen of them bit the dust. Stancher followers no man ever had. They say I did my devoirs. I don't know. The blood gets into my head in the hour of battle and I rage, though men say I am cool. The Generals have given me the command of a brigade. . . .  If I live, I shall hope to gather laurels; you shall not be ashamed of your son. I have a splendid command, five fine regiments of infantry, two full batteries of artillery (one of which is the famous Taylor battery of Chicago, and the best of the service), and a squadron of horse, nearly five thousand men, and the very flower of the army. The treason of these Southerners is almost atoned for by their dauntless courage; but if the political generals don't succeed in taking my command from me, they shall meet a “foeman worthy of their steel” the next time we are in battle array. Remember I am writing to my mother, and if an indirect trail of egotism or vanity is suffered to creep into my plain letters, forgive me.

De Quincey, in his confessions of opium eating, says, speaking of his reveries, “Often I used to see after painting upon the blank darkness, a sort of rehearsal whilst waking, a crowd of ladies, and perhaps a festival and dances. And I heard it said, or I said it myself, these are English ladies, from the unhappy times of Charles I. These are the wives and daughters of those who met in peace, and sat at the same tables, and were allied by marriage or by blood; and yet, after a certain day in August, 1642, never smiled upon each other again, nor met but in the field of battle; and at Marston Moor, Newberry, or at Naseby cut asunder all ties of blood by the cruel sabre, and washed away in blood the memory of ancient friendships.”  One of my lady friends in Memphis gave me a copy, and in casually turning its leaves to-day, the quotations seemed strangely apt to the unhappy condition of our own bleeding land.

I have said if the political generals do not take my command away, — a batch of them have come down with McClernand, who, you will perceive by one of the accompanying copies, has divided the command with General Sherman; two or three of them are educated military men, and have great reputation as soldiers; an effort was made to place one of them over my command; it may yet be successful, though they tell me my popularity with officers and men is very great, especially since the last battle; that some of them declare they won't fight under another leader, especially under an importation. The advent of McClernand is deprecated. What the result may be I do not know. General Sherman is pretty firm about the matter, now, and I do not think will go behind his order. The Administration is treating me badly, but “Time at last sets all things even, and if we do but watch the hour,” etc. Meanwhile, in my little authority, you must imagine me as I really am, surrounded by very considerable state. My staff consists of an adjutant, two aide-de-camps, four clerks, six mounted orderlies, and as many of a detachment of cavalry as I may choose to detail for personal escort; this, with my body servants, makes up a very considerable menage, and as I retain my own old regiment as a body guard, I move with very considerable personal force. My colors float very proudly. You know I was always given to the taking on of airs, and thereby exciting envy, malice, hatred, and all uncharitableness, which with evil speaking, lying, and slandering, are always rife in the army. Therefore, there will be many attempts at assassination (figuratively speaking, I mean), and these political pets will be after me. Whatever I've got has been literally dug and hewed out with the point and edge of the sabre, and the devil of it now is that I have to fight front and rear. I had a bitter enemy in . . .  who is now hors de combat, having been badly shot in the late engagement. I think he’ll die; he won't sit on horseback for a year anyhow. I had disposed of him pretty effectually before he went under.

I know of none other now of any consequence, but the higher one gets up the more he makes of them. It's damned hard they won't back me at Washington.

I received a day or two since a very beautiful letter from Mrs. Sherman, in which she spoke of “having had the pleasure of seeing my very elegant and charming wife and mother.”

I enclose General Stuart's official report, which you may show to as many friends as you please, though it should not be published. Also the order assigning me to command. It is not difficult for some people to get the rank of brigadier, but the same find it devilish hard to get the command to follow the rank, and are proud enough of two meagre regiments. Mine is a young army; I am immensely proud of it.

I won't write myself to ask for promotion. I don't want it unless it comes regularly and through my commanding general, but inasmuch as I have been clothed with the command, and that against the claims of rank; inasmuch as I must assume immense responsibility, expense, and exposure without commensurate reward, therefore, I think, I am right to urge through my friends for what is only my due.

SOURCE: Walter George Smith, Life and letters of Thomas Kilby Smith, p. 254-7

Colonel Thomas Kilby Smith to Elizabeth Budd Smith, November 15, 1862

Camp Near Memphis, Nov. 15, 1862.

I have abundance of good food, but only take one meal a day, and that a very light one. This morning one of my lady friends in the neighborhood sent me in a most luxurious breakfast, a roasted rabbit with jelly sauces, and all that sort of thing, flanked by four quails with three or four different preparations of bread and other little matters, and after the whole thing had been elaborately spread upon a nice white cloth, I had it all bundled up and sent off as a present to Mrs. Sherman.

I have a great many compliments of this kind and beautiful flowers sent to me, and all sorts of pleasant messages. Last night I passed the evening in company with General Sherman at Bishop Otie's, the Episcopal bishop of this diocese. He has lovely daughters. One of them entertained me with charming songs and harp accompaniment — a most beautiful girl and very accomplished.

SOURCE: Walter George Smith, Life and letters of Thomas Kilby Smith, p. 249

Colonel Thomas Kilby Smith to Elizabeth Budd Smith, November 11, 1862

CAMP NEAR MEMPHIS, Nov. 11, 1862.

My Dear Wife:

My life is now in comparison to what it has been somewhat monotonous, though full of daily incidents that a year ago would have been excitement enough for any one, a circumstance then that would have caused comment for a month, is now passed over without a second thought. Last night one of my pickets shot a soldier of the 6th Missouri who was attempting to escape from guard. He was a splendidly formed man, and as I looked at him this morning, stripped for washing before burial, shot directly through the body with one of our large Minie-balls, and saw the little unconcern of all about him — even he who shot him — I began to realize better than ever before how valueless human life has become; within an hour the man was buried out of sight and the thing quite forgotten.

It is Indian summer weather, and were it not for the dust, different from anything in my experience in the way of dust, would be delightful; I am in the saddle the greater part of the time and keep three horses pretty well tired down. I never thought I could ride so much without fatigue. Last Friday I was Officer of the Day and rode all day until eleven o'clock at night, came back to camp, changed horses, made the grand round and did not dismount till half-past five o'clock in the morning. That day I rode twenty-two and a half hours out of the twenty-four, and then taking only an hour's nap, reported for duty. I know I rest better in the saddle than in the chair, and almost as well as lying down.

I think I shall be in good trim for a winter campaign. We shall take the field probably in about three weeks. The other day the field officers of our brigade surprised General Sherman by calling in a body and presenting him with sword, sash, belt, etc. — presentation and acceptance very affecting. We were all together at the plains of Shiloh. After presentation invited him to wine supper at hotel; speeches, talk, etc., and a good time generally. Mrs. Sherman, with the General, called upon me this morning, and indeed just left as I sit down to write. She is a very pleasant woman; the more I see of her the better I like her. She often comes to my camp and both she and the general are very hospitable to me; indeed, I believe I eat at their table oftener than at my own. There are several ladies residing not far from my camp, and one in Memphis, with whom I have become acquainted, and at whose house I often visit. It is agreeable to me, as I mess quite alone.

There was a grand Union demonstration in the city yesterday — a procession and the theatre thrown open, and girls dressed in white and mounted on a car to be dragged through the streets and one representing a goddess of liberty, who ought to be chained to a rock and kept there the balance of her days, and a grand band and flags fluttering, and speeches made from the stage by distinguished citizens and military men, and a hurrah, and the General with his staff and me on his right hand, caprioling and cavorting through the streets and standing on balconies, with waving hats and dancing plumes and brass buttons glittering in the sun, and new uniforms covered with dust and other free soil, and many little ragged boys and small girls with unkempt hair and the backs of their gowns gaping wide, and “the Union, it must be preserved,” and General Washington, looking like a superannuated ass with his ears cropped close, and “Esto Perpetua” and “flag of the free heart's hope and home,” and divers other strange devices, all done up in white cotton and carried about on sticks by sundry patriots at the remarkably low price of two dollars a day and whiskey thrown in, and a major and invited guests and the presentation of a Star Spangled Banner, long may it wave, by patriotic ladies of Memphis to Union Club, and all the rest of it done up in a rag after the approved style of Plymouth Rock, and the 4th of July and the 8th of January, and Washington's birthday. Vox populi, vox Dei.

SOURCE: Walter George Smith, Life and letters of Thomas Kilby Smith, p. 247-8

Major General William T. Sherman to Ellen Ewing Sherman, May 10, 1865

CAMP OPPOSITE RICHMOND, May 10, 1865.

I wrote you on arrival from Savannah at Old Point. I got here yesterday and found my Army all in. Have seen Charley,¹ who is very well. We march tomorrow for Alexandria, whither I have sent my office papers. We will march slowly and leisurely and should reach Alexandria in ten or twelve days. I may have chance to write you meantime. I want you to go and attend your Fair, and say little of me, save that I regard my presence with my Army so important that I will not leave it till it is discharged or sent on new duties. I shall surely spend the summer with you, preferably at Lancaster, but will come to Chicago or wherever you may be when I can leave with propriety. This Army has stood by me in public and private dangers, and I must maintain my hold on it till it ceases to exist. All the officers and men have been to see me in camp to-day and they received with shouts my public denial of a review for Halleck.²  He had ordered Slocum's wing to pass him in review to-day. I forbade it. Tomorrow I march through Richmond with colors flying and drums beating as a matter of right and not by Halleck's favor, and no notice will be taken of him personally or officially. I dare him to oppose my march. He will think twice before he again undertakes to stand between me and my subordinates. Unless Grant interposes from his yielding and good nature I shall get some equally good opportunity to insult Stanton. . . .

Stanton wants to kill me because I do not favor the scheme of declaring the negroes of the South, now free, to be loyal voters, whereby politicians may manufacture just so much more pliable electioneering material. The Negroes don't want to vote. They want to work and enjoy property, and they are no friends of the Negro who seek to complicate him with new prejudices. As to the people of the South they are subjugated, but of course do not love us any more than the Irish or Scotch love the English, but that is no reason why we should assume all the expenses of their state governments. Our power is now so firmly established that we need not fear again their internal disturbances. I have papers and statistics which I will show your father in time. I showed some to Charley to-day and he perfectly agreed with me; so do all my officers. . . .

We cannot kill disarmed men. All this clamor after Jeff Davis, Thompson and others is all bosh. Any young man with a musket is now a more dangerous object than Jeff Davis. He is old, infirm, a fugitive hunted by his own people, and none so poor as do him reverence. It will be well in June before I can expect to leave my army. Don't attempt to come to Alexandria for I will be in a common tent, and overwhelmed with papers and business. Ord, Merritt, Crook, and all the big men of Halleck's army have been to see me, and share with me the disgust occasioned by their base betrayal of my confidence. . . .

__________

¹ General Charles Ewing.

² See Memoirs, II, 374. Sherman's refusal to accept Halleck's hospitality in Richmond is recorded on the same page

SOURCES: M. A. DeWolfe Howe, Editor, Home Letters of General Sherman, p. 352-4.  A full copy of this letter can be found in the William T Sherman Family papers (SHR), University of Notre Dame Archives (UNDA), Notre Dame, IN 46556, Folder CSHR 2/24

Major General William T. Sherman to Ellen Ewing Sherman, May 8, 1865

AT SEA, STEAMER Russia,

Monday, May 8, 1865.

We are now approaching Cape Henry and by nine o'clock to-night will be at Old Point, where I expect to stop an hour or so to communicate with Grant and then go on up to City Point and Petersburg to meet my Army. I have been to Savannah, Charleston, and Wilmington on business connected with past affairs, and now I am free to join my army proper. I have seen the New York papers of April 24 and 28, but don't mind them much, for it is manifest that some deviltry is on foot. The telegram of Halleck endorsed by Stanton is the worst,¹ but its falsity and baseness puts them at my mercy, and in a few days look out for breakers. This cause may delay me east a few days and I will likely accompany my Army up to Washington. At all events from this time forth I can hear from you and write to you. My latest letter is April 11, received at Raleigh. I want you to go right along, attend the Fair, and I will join you wherever you may be as soon as I can leave. We will probably all spend the summer together at Lancaster. At Savannah, Charleston, Wilmington, and Morehead City, officers, soldiers, sailors, and citizens paid me every sort of honor and respect, especially my old soldiers, more especially when they heard they were down on me at Washington. Now that the war is over, how brave and fierce have become the men that thousand-dollar bounties, patriotism, the appeal of generals and others would not bring out! How terribly energetic all at once Halleck became, to break my truce, cut off “Johnston's Retreat” when he knew Johnston was halted anxious to surrender and was only making excuses to keep his own men from scattering, a thing I did not want, and a reason I reported to Halleck and Stanton before my “Memorandum” went to Washington. Worst of all, his advice that my subordinates, Thomas, Wilson, and Stoneman, should not obey my orders. Under my orders, those Generals have done all they ever did in their lives, and it sounds funny to us to have Halleck better my plans and orders. But of all this hereafter. Go along as comfortably as you can. I am not dead yet, by a long sight, and those matters give me new life, for I see the cause. A breach must be made between Grant and Sherman, or certain cliques in Washington, who have a nice thing, are gone up. I am glad Grant came to Raleigh, for he saw at a glance the whole thing and went away more than satisfied. But heaven and earth will be moved to kill us. . . . Washington is as corrupt as Hell, made so by the looseness and extravagance of war. I will avoid it as a pest house. . .

The Gates of the Press can't prevail with my old army against me, and in them I put my faith.

__________

¹ This telegram, sent out at the height of the dissatisfaction with the terms between Sherman and Johnston, directed generals, subordinate to Sherman, to disregard his orders.

SOURCES: M. A. DeWolfe Howe, Editor, Home Letters of General Sherman, p. 350-2.  A full copy of this letter can be found in the William T Sherman Family papers (SHR), University of Notre Dame Archives (UNDA), Notre Dame, IN 46556, Folder CSHR 2/24

Major General William T. Sherman to Ellen Ewing Sherman, April 28, 1865

IN THE FIELD, RALEIGH, April 28, 1865.

The capitulation of Johnston's army at Greensboro completes my Campaign. I leave Schofield to do the work, and have ordered the 15th and 17th, 14th and 20th corps to march to Richmond. I will go to-night to Wilmington and Charleston and Savannah to make some orders and instructions, when I will go by sea to Richmond to meet my Army. Thence it will march to Alexandria (and Washington) where I will move my headquarters to, in anticipation of mustering out the Army. It may be that while the Army is on the march from Richmond to Alexandria I can run out to Lancaster to see you all. This will be about the 15th and 20th of May, and if I could take all the family to Alexandria to witness the final scenes attending Sherman's Army it would be a [prize] in the memory to our children that would somewhat compensate for the expense and loss of time. I may be a little ahead, but think that the present volunteer army must be mustered out and a new regular army made, and the quicker the better before new complications arise.

The mass of the people south will never trouble us again. They have suffered terrifically, and I now feel disposed to befriend them — of course not the leaders and lawyers, but the armies who have fought and manifested their sincerity though misled by risking their persons. But the rascals who by falsehood and misrepresentation kept up the war, they are infamous. It will be difficult for anyone to tread a straight path amid these new complications, but I will do my best.

I perceive the politicians are determined to drive the confederates into guerilla bands, a thing more to be feared than open organized war. They may fight it out. I won't. We could settle the war in three weeks by giving shape to the present disordered elements, but they may play out their game.

SOURCES: M. A. DeWolfe Howe, Editor, Home Letters of General Sherman, p. 349-50.  A full copy of this letter can be found in the William T Sherman Family papers (SHR), University of Notre Dame Archives (UNDA), Notre Dame, IN 46556, Folder CSHR 2/23 

Major General William T. Sherman to Ellen Ewing Sherman, April 22, 1865

RALEIGH, N. C., April 22, 1865.

I wrote you a hasty letter by Major Hitchcock and promised to write more at length as soon as matters settled away somewhat. I am now living in the Palace¹ and the Army lies around about the city on beautiful rolling hills of clear ground with plenty of water, and a budding spring. We await a reply from Washington which finishes all the war by one process or forces us to push the fragments of the Confederate Army to the wall.

Hitchcock should be back the day after to-morrow and then I will know. I can start in pursuit of Johnston — who is about Greensboro, on short notice; but I would prefer not to follow him back to Georgia. A pursuing army cannot travel as fast as a fleeing one in its own country. Your letters have come to me in driblets and mine will miss you, as all from Goldsboro were directed to South Bend.

I also sent you then the Columbia flag and a Revolutionary seal for your fair. I have the circulars and have sent them out to parties to collect trophies for you, but it is embarrasing for me to engage in the business, as trophies of all lands belong to Government, and I ought not to be privy to their conversion. Others do it, I know, but it shows the rapid decline in honesty of our people. Pillow, in the Mexican War, tried to send home as trophies a brass gun and other things such as swords and lances, and it was paraded all over the land as evidence of his dishonesty. . . .

The present armies should all be mustered out and the Regular Army increased to 100,000 men and these would suffice to maintain and enforce order at the South. There is great danger of the Confederate armies breaking up into guerillas, and that is what I most fear. Such men as Wade Hampton, Forrest, Wirt Adams, etc., never will work and nothing is left for them but death or highway robbery. They will not work and their negroes are all gone, their plantations destroyed, etc. I will be glad if I can open a way for them abroad. Davis, Breckenridge, etc., will go abroad or get killed in pursuit. My terms do not embrace them but apply solely to the Confederate armies. All not in regular muster rolls will be outlaws. The people of Raleigh are quiet and submissive enough, and also the North Carolinians are subjugated, but the young men, after they get over the effects of recent disasters and wake up to the realization that nothing is left them but to work, will be sure to stir up trouble, but I hope we can soon fix them off. Raleigh is a very old city with a large stone Capitol and governor's mansion called the Palace, now occupied by me and staff. They are distant about half a mile apart with a street connecting, somewhat in the nature of Washington. This street is the business street and some very handsome houses and gardens make up the town. It is full of fine people who were secesh but now are willing to encourage the visits of handsome young men. I find here the family of Mr. Badger who was with your father in Taylor's Cabinet.² He is paralyzed so as to be hardly able to walk and sits all day. He has his mind and is glad to have visitors. I have called twice. Though a moderate man he voted to go out and actually drafted one of the resolutions of Secession. His wife must be much younger than he and is a lively, interesting lady, chuck full of Washington. She was dying for some news, and Harper's Magazine. I could tell you much that might interest you, but will now merely say that if Mr. Johnson will ratify the terms I will leave Schofield here to complete the business, will start five corps for the Potomac, to march, and in person will go to Charleston and Savannah to give some necessary orders, and then go to the Potomac to receive the troops as they arrive. I may bring you and the children there to see the last final Grand Review of my Army before disbanding it. That is the dream and is possible. It will take all May to march and June to muster out and pay so that the 4th of July may witness a perfect peace. My new sphere will I suppose be down the Mississippi. How would Memphis suit you as a home? The Mississippi valley is my hobby, and if I remain in the Army there is the place Grant will put me; Memphis or Nashville. But I am counting the chickens before they are hatched and must wait to see this thing out. When the war ends our labors begin, for we must organize the permanent army for the future. . . .

__________

¹ Sherman occupied the Governor's mansion at Raleigh.

² Thomas Ewing was a member both of Harrison's and of Taylor's Cabinet. It was in Harrison's Cabinet that George E. Badger was at the same time Secretary of the Navy.

SOURCES: M. A. DeWolfe Howe, Editor, Home Letters of General Sherman, p. 345-8.  A full copy of this letter can be found in the William T Sherman Family papers (SHR), University of Notre Dame Archives (UNDA), Notre Dame, IN 46556, Folder CSHR 2/23 

Major General William T. Sherman to Ellen Ewing Sherman, April 18, 1865

IN THE FIELD, RALEIGH, N. C.

April 18, 1865.

I have just got back from a long interview with General Johnston and Breckenridge, Secretary of War to the Confederacy, in which we arranged terms for the disbandment of all the Confederate armies from this to the Rio Grande, the submission to the national authority, etc., which I send at once to Washington for ratification, when this cruel war will be over. I can hardly realize it, but I can see no slip. The terms are all on our side. If approved I can soon complete the details, leave Schofield here and march my army for the Potomac, there to be mustered out and paid. If I accomplish this I surely think I will be entitled to a month's leave to come and see you. The assassination of Mr. Lincoln is most unfortunate, but we ride a whirlwind and must take events as they arise. I have notice that I was embraced in the programme, but the fellow who was to do the job did not appear, and if he is not in a hurry he will be too late. I don't fear an assassin, though I would prefer, for the name of the thing, to get my quietus in a more honest way, in open manly fight. . . .

SOURCES: M. A. DeWolfe Howe, Editor, Home Letters of General Sherman, p. 344-5.  A full copy of this letter can be found in the William T Sherman Family papers (SHR), University of Notre Dame Archives (UNDA), Notre Dame, IN 46556, Folder CSHR 2/23