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

Senator John Sherman to Lieutenant-General William T. Sherman, July 15, 1867

UNITED STATES SENATE, July 15, 1867.

Dear Brother: . . . I have no time to write you more as to my trip, except to convey the earnest personal message sent by Emperor Louis Napoleon to you. He asked me to say to you, in his name, that he considered you the genius of our war, and that he had for you as a military man the highest regard. He and his Court treated me with unusual attention, no doubt partly on your account. You would have been received with much heartiness. While I am glad you abandoned that excursion, yet I hope you will arrange to go this winter to Paris and London.

The Indian War is an inglorious one. We shall probably pass a bill to authorize you and others to make a treaty with the Indians, with a view to gather them into reservations. I have many things to write about, but must defer them for the present.

SOURCE: Rachel Sherman Thorndike, Editor, The Sherman Letters: Correspondence Between General and Senator Sherman from 1837 to 1891, p. 290

Lieutenant-General William T. Sherman to Senator John Sherman, July 16, 1867

[July 16, 1867.]

I have good Department Commanders, but the country is so large, and the Indians so scattered, that we cannot foresee where they will turn up. Not only real depredations are committed, but every fear, or apprehension, on whatever it may be founded, is published, and protection claimed and demanded. . .

You have doubtless heard much of the war. The fact is, this contact of the two races has caused universal hostility, and the Indians operate in small, scattered bands, avoiding the posts and well-guarded trains, and hitting little parties who are off their guard. I have a much heavier force on the plains, but they are so large that it is impossible to guard at all points, and the clamor for protection everywhere has prevented our being able to collect a large force to go into the country where we believe the Indians have hid their families; viz., up on the Yellowstone, and down on the Red River. I see it stated the Indian War is costing a million a week. This cannot be; for I have not employed anything but the regular troops or the regular appropriations, except from companies of Kansas volunteers, who know they can't get any pay at all till Congress appropriates.

I have sent full reports to Washington, and hope Congress now will act in one way or the other. A commission going out can meet only little squads of Indians. They are scattered from Minnesota to Texas, and if they make treaties they won't last twenty-four hours.

We must fight the Indians, and force them to collect in agreed-on limits far away from the continental roads. I do think this subject as important as Reconstruction.

Affectionately yours,

W. T. SHERMAN.

SOURCE: Rachel Sherman Thorndike, Editor, The Sherman Letters: Correspondence Between General and Senator Sherman from 1837 to 1891, p. 290-1