General William T. Sherman to Senator John Sherman, March 18, 1875

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE UNITED STATES,        

ST. LOUIS, Mo., March 18, 1875.

Dear Brother:

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To-morrow Generals Sheridan and Pope will meet here to discuss the Indian troubles. We could settle them in an hour, but Congress wants the patronage of the Indian bureau, and the bureau wants the appropriations without any of the trouble of the Indians themselves. I don't suppose in the history of the world there is such a palpable waste of money as that bestowed on the Kioways, and no wonder our government is sinking deeper and deeper into debt. We have spent in the past seven months, at least half a million dollars in bringing down these Indians, and this is the fourth time since I have personal knowledge of the fact. . .

Yours affectionately,

W. T. SHERMAN.

SOURCE: Rachel Sherman Thorndike, Editor, The Sherman Letters: Correspondence Between General and Senator Sherman from 1837 to 1891, p. 344

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