Major-General William T. Sherman to Captain Charles C. Smith, October 4, 1863

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.

Diary of Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes: November 5, 1863

A warm fall evening. How I am moved as I read the letter below. My own dear boys, and my feelings towards the soldiers who are kind to them; Willie too — the name of sister Fanny's lost boy. Oh, and my dear sister too. How many will love General Sherman for that letter who would never care for any laurels he might earn in battle.

[Pasted in the Diary is a copy of General Sherman's famous letter to Captain C. C. Smith of the Thirteenth Regulars, thanking the regiment — in which his little son Willie had fancied himself a sergeant — for the “kind behavior” of its officers and soldiers to his “poor child.” “Please convey to the battalion,” the letter says in conclusion, “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 poor Willy 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.”]

SOURCE: Charles Richard Williams, editor, Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Volume 2, p. 444

Diary of 5th Sergeant Alexander G. Downing: Wednesday, January 25, 1865

It has cleared off now and is quite cool. It does not take long in this sandy region for the roads to dry off, and in three or four days they will be in good condition. We expect to leave here soon. The men are becoming very restless, being at one place so long. General Sherman and General Howard left for the front today.

Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B., Clark, Downing’s Civil War Diary, p. 248

General Joseph E. Johnston to Louis T. Wigfall

Genl. M. Cook, U. S. A., told several of our officers made prisoners by him, but rescued by Wheeler, that Genl. Sherman said, on learning of the change of Commanders of our army, that heretofore we had fought as Johnston pleased, but hereafter 'twould be as he pleased!

SOURCE: Louise Wigfall Wright, A Southern Girl in ’61, p. 229-30

Brigadier-General Thomas Kilby Smith to Eliza Walter Smith, October 20, 1863

Headquarters Second Brigade,

First Div., Seventeenth Army Corps,

Vicksburg, Miss., Oct. 20, 1863.

My Dear Mother:

General Grant received your letter and of this I have written before. He is now gone, I don't know whither — flitted with his staff and surroundings before I had come back, as the swallows flit in the fall. I do not think you have got a right estimate of Sherman. You call him “slow, cautious, almost to a fault.” On the contrary, he is as quick as lightning, the most rapid thinker, actor, writer, I ever came in contact with — proud and high-spirited as an Arab horse. Grant is slow and cautious, and sure and lucky. They are both good men. Men you would admire if you knew them, and men who upon first blush you would be marvellously deceived in.

You ask about the tribute from the old “54th.” I understand the boys have made arrangements to fit me out; but haven’t received the articles. Somebody said that they were sumptuous. I suppose they would get the best that money could buy, for they think a heap of “old Kilby” — the only name by which I am known in the Fifteenth Army Corps. Strangers used to come and ask for Kilby, and for a long time I rarely heard the name of Smith as applied to myself. I don't know but what their presents have been burnt up or sunk in the river. There has been a great deal of loss lately. When they come, I will let you know and tell you all about them.

Enclosed herewith find copy of a letter written by General Sherman to the 13th Regulars on the occasion of the death of his son at Memphis. I saw a copy by accident to-day, and together with the brief notice that his son had died, is the only intelligence I have. He had his boy with him, a bright, active little fellow, who rode with him wherever he went, and who was a great pet with his own old regiment, the 13th Regulars. You know General Sherman came into the service as colonel of this regiment at the outset of the war. The death must have been sudden, and you perceive by the tenor of the letter how deeply he feels it. I do assure you that we find every day in the service, that “the bravest are the tenderest, the loving are the daring.” I will forward your letter to him, and perhaps you had better address him again on the occasion of his bereavement. I am sure he is a dear friend of mine, and in the chances of this war, calculating upon his position and mine, it is hardly probable we shall meet again. Like him, “on, on, I must go, till I meet a soldier's fate, or see my country rise superior to all factions, till its flag is adored and respected by ourselves and all the powers on earth,''¹ and now our paths are slightly divergent. Can you imagine it, even as I write, the enclosed order is handed me, and received without one pang of regret. I copy verbatim. You may understand the chances and changes of a soldier's life. The darky says, “here to-morrow and gone to-day.”

Special Orders

No. 236.

headquarters Seventeenth Army Corps,

Dept. Of The Tennessee,

vicksburg, Miss., Oct. 20, 1863.

Brig.-Genl. E. S. Dennis, U. S. Vols., will report forthwith to Genl. McArthur, to be assigned to command of Second Brigade, First Division, and will relieve Brig.-Genl. T. K. Smith.

Brig.-Genl. T. K. Smith, on being relieved from command of Second Brigade, First Division, will proceed forthwith to Natchez, Miss., and report to Brig.-Genl. M. M. Crocker, commanding Fourth Division, for assignment to command of Brigade in Fourth Division.

By order of Maj.-Genl. Mcpherson,

W. T. Clark,

A. A. General.

Brig.-Genl. T. K. Smith,

Com'g Second Brigade, First Division.

Thus you perceive, having licked the Second Brigade into shape, I am assigned elsewhere. Meanwhile, pray for me, and thank God that everything has transpired to take me out of the filthy God-forsaken hole on a hill. My next will be from Natchez and will contain full directions how to address me. Keep writing, and enclose my letters with request to forward to Major-Genl. James B. McPherson, commanding Seventeenth Army Corps, Department of the Tennessee, Vicksburg, Miss. He is my warm, intimate, personal friend, and will see that all come safe to hand. I enclose you his carte. He is very handsome, a thorough soldier, brave as Caesar, young, a bachelor, and — engaged to be married.

Genl. M. M. Crocker, to whom I am about to report, is a most excellent gentleman and eke a soldier, thank God! graduate of the Military Academy of West Point, also an intimate of mine and friend. Somehow or other, the West Pointers all take to me, and by the grace of God I find my way among soldiers. You can't understand all this, but it is most delightful to have a soldier, a real soldier, for a commander and associate. Natchez, by this time is a second home to me. I know a heap of people and have some good friends even among the '”Secesh.” I may be there a day, a month, a year, nobody knows and nobody cares. I can pack, and “get up and dust” as quickly as any of them.

_______________

¹ General Sherman's letter to Capt. C. C. Smith 13th Regulars.

SOURCE: Walter George Smith, Life and letters of Thomas Kilby Smith, p. 340-2

Major General William T. Sherman to Ellen Ewing Sherman, April 5, 1865

IN THE FIELD, GOLDSBORO, N. C.,

April 5, 1865.

I have now finished my Report and answered all letters that called for my personal action. These are being copied and sent by a courier to-morrow and then “What next” as old Lincoln says.¹ That next is also thought over and it again takes me into danger and trouble, but you must now be so used to it that you can hardly care. I have no late letters from you, none since you went to Chicago, but you too are becoming a public character and the busy newspapers follow you. I see that the public authorities and citizens of Chicago paid you a public visit with speeches and music and that Bishop Duggan responded for you. If these give you pleasure I am glad of it for I would rather that you and the children should be benefitted by any fame I may achieve than that it should ensue to me personally. Of course as a General my case will be scrutinized very closely by men abroad as well as here, and my reputation will rather depend on their judgment than on any mere temporary applause. I have been trying to get some pay to send you, for I suppose you are “short,” but the paymasters cannot catch up, and in a few days I will be off again. I have pay due since January 1, and yet was unable the other day to buy a pair of shoes which I need. I have those big boots you sent me from Cincinnati, but the weather is getting warm and they are too close and heavy. They stood me a good turn however on the last march when for weeks we were up to our eyes in mud and water. When we got here the army was ragged and hard up, but already our new clothing is issued, and I will challenge the world to exhibit a finer looking set of men, brawny, strong, swarthy, a contrast to the weak and sickly fellows that came to me in Kentucky three years ago. It is a general truth that men exposed to the elements don't “catch cold,” and I have not heard a man cough or sneeze for three months, but were these same men to go into houses in a month the doctor would have half of them. Now the doctors have no employment. I myself am very well, though in a house for the time being, and too have the convenience of a table and chair to write, also to prevent the flaring of the candle which makes writing in a tent almost impossible. I write as usual very fast and can keep half a dozen clerks busy in copying. Hitchcock, nephew of the General, writes private letters not needing my personal attention, such as autographs and locks of hair; Dayton the military orders, but I must of course keep up correspondence with War Department, General Grant, my army commanders, governors of states, etc., and you should be satisfied even if my letters are hasty and ill digested. You can almost trace my progress through the world by the newspapers. . . .

I got a long letter from Bowman² last night. He is resolved to write up my campaigns, and is anxious for the most authentic records. These are contained in my Letter and Order Books. You have some up to the time of my leaving Atlanta. Webster has those from Atlanta to Savannah, and I have here the balance. I would much prefer he would wait the end of the war, but he wants to make money out of the job, and I do not object, for he says that others less capable will do the thing, and make a botch of it. He can get access to my official Reports at Washington as also those of my subordinate Reports, but the letters I daily write give the gradual unfolding of plans and events better than Reports made with more formality after the events are past. The last March from Savannah to Goldsboro, with its legitimate fruits, the capture of Charleston, Georgetown and Wilmington, is by far the most important in conception and execution of any act of my life. . . .

I continue to receive the highest compliments from all quarters, and have been singularly fortunate in escaping the envy and jealousy of rivals. Indeed officers from every quarter want to join my “Great Army.” Grant is the same enthusiastic friend. Mr. Lincoln at City Point was lavish in his good wishes, and since Mr. Stanton visited me at Savannah he too has become the warmest possible friend. Of course I could not venture north, and it accords both with my pleasure and interest to keep close with my army proper. Officers and soldiers have in my foresight and knowledge a childlike confidence that is really most agreeable. Whilst wading through mud and water, and heaving at mired wagons the soldiers did not indulge a single growl, but always said and felt that the Old Man would bring them out all right; and no sooner had we reached the Cape Fear River at Fayetteville than a little squeaking tug came puffing up the river with news, and we had hardly spread out in the camps about Goldsboro than the locomotive and train came thundering along from the sea ninety-six miles distant, loaded with shoes and pants and clothing, as well as food. So remarkable and happy a coincidence, which of course I had arranged from Savannah, made the woods resound with a yell that must have reached Raleigh. Some of our officers who escaped from the enemy say that these two coincidences made the Rebel officers swear that I was the Devil himself, a compliment that you can appreciate. But enough of this vanity, save and except always when it redounds to your advantage and pleasure. My wants are few and easily gained, but if this fame which fills the world contributes to your happiness and pleasure, enjoy it as much as possible. Oh, that Willy could hear and see! His proud heart would swell to overflowing, and it may be that 'tis better he should not be agitated with such thoughts. . . .

The army is now well clad and fed. Our wagons are loading and on the 10th I will haul out towards Raleigh. I need not tell you my plans, but they are good, and I do not see but the next move and one more will determine the fate of this war, not conclude it, but assure the fact that the United States has not ceased to be a nation. If we can force Lee to let go Richmond, and can whip him in open fight, I think I can come home and rest and leave others to follow up the fragments. . . .

__________

¹ When Sherman took Savannah, Lincoln wrote to him, Dec. 26, 1864: “It brings those who sat in darkness to see a great light. But what next? I suppose it would be safer if I leave Gen. Grant and yourself to decide.”

² S. M. Bowman, with R. B. Irwin, published in 1865 his volume, Sherman and His Campaigns.

__________

SOURCES: M. A. DeWolfe Howe, Editor, Home Letters of General Sherman, p. 338-42.  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 2/22

Major General William T. Sherman to Ellen Ewing Sherman, January 5, 1865

SAVANNAH, January 5, 1865

I have written several times to you and to the children. Yesterday I got your letter of December 23, and realize the despair and anguish through which you have passed in the pain and sickness of the little baby I never saw. All spoke of him as so bright and fair that I had hoped he would be spared to us to fill the great void in our hearts left by Willy, but it is otherwise decreed and we must submit. I have seen death in such quantity and in such forms that it no longer startles me, but with you it is different, and 'tis well that like the Spaniards you realize the fact that our little baby has passed from the troubles of life to a better existence. I sent Charley off a few days ago to carry to General Grant and to Washington some important despatches, but told him he must not go farther than Washington as by the time he returns I will be off again on another raid. It is pretty hard on me that I am compelled to make these blows which are necessarily trying to me, but it seems devolved on me and cannot be avoided. If the honors proffered and tendered me from all quarters are of any value they will accrue to you and the children. John writes that I am in everybody's mouth and that even he is known as my brother, and that all the Shermans are now feted as relatives of me. Surely you and the children will not be overlooked by those who profess to honor me. I do think that in the several grand epochs of this war, my name will have a prominent part, and not least among them will be the determination I took at Atlanta to destroy that place, and march on this city, whilst Thomas, my lieutenant, should dispose of Hood. The idea, the execution and strategy are all good, and will in time be understood. I don't know that you comprehend the magnitude of the thing, but you can see the importance attached to it in England where the critics stand ready to turn against any American general who makes a mistake or fails in its execution. In my case they had time to commit themselves to the conclusion that if I succeeded I would be a great general, but if I failed I would be set down a fool. My success is already assured, so that I will be found to sustain the title. I am told that were I to go north I would be feted and petted, but as I have no intention of going, you must sustain the honors of the family. I know exactly what amount of merit attaches to my own conduct, and what will survive the clamor of time. The quiet preparation I made before the Atlanta Campaign, the rapid movement on Resaca, the crossing the Chattahoochee without loss in the face of a skilful general with a good army, the movement on Jonesboro, whereby Atlanta fell, and the resolution I made to divide my army, with one part to take Savannah and the other to meet Hood in Tennessee, are all clearly mine, and will survive us both in history. I don't know that you can understand the merit of the latter, but it will stamp me in years to come, and will be more appreciated in Europe than in America. I warrant your father will find parallel in the history of the Greeks and Persians, but none on our continent. For his sake I am glad of the success that has attended me, and I know he will feel more pride in my success than you or I do. Oh that Willy were living! how his eyes would brighten and his bosom swell with honest pride if he could hear and understand these things. . . .

You will doubtless read all the details of our march and stay in Savannah in the papers, whose spies infest our camps, spite of all I can do, but I could tell you thousands of little incidents which would more interest you. The women here are, as at Memphis, disposed to usurp my time more from curiosity than business. They had been told of my burning and killing until they expected the veriest monster, but their eyes were opened when Hardee, G. W. Smith and McLaws, the three chief officers of the Rebel army, fled across the Savannah river consigning their families to my special care. There are some very elegant people here, whom I knew in better days and who do not seem ashamed to call on the “vandal chief.” They regard us just as the Romans did the Goths and the parallel is not unjust. Many of my stalwart men with red beards and huge frames look like giants, and it is wonderful how smoothly all things move, for they all seem to feel implicit faith in me not because I am strong or bold, but because they think I know everything. It seems impossible for us to go anywhere without being where I have been before. My former life from 1840 to 1846 seems providential and every bit of knowledge then acquired is returned, tenfold. Should it so happen that I should approach Charleston on that very ground where I used to hunt with Jim Poyas, and Mr. Quash, and ride by moonlight to save daytime, it would be even more strange than here where I was only a visitor. Col. Kilburn arrived here from Louisville yesterday, and begged me to remember him to you. I continue to receive letters, most flattering, from all my old friends and enclose you two, one from General Hitchcock and one from Professor Mahan. Such men do not flatter and are judges of what they write. . . .

SOURCES: M. A. DeWolfe Howe, Editor, Home Letters of General Sherman, p. 324-7.  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 2/20

Major General William T. Sherman to Ellen Ewing Sherman, March 10, 1864

STEAMBOAT Westmoreland,

APPROACHING MEMPHIS, March 10, 1864.

Again I am approaching you. I have done all I undertook, and am now en route for Huntsville, but must stop it may be a week at Memphis to complete certain matters made necessary by General Grant's orders received yesterday, when I expect to come to Cairo and Louisville and Huntsville. I do not think I can come to Cincinnati, for too much rests with me now, and however disposed, I must go on for the spring campaign which I judge will be the most sanguinary of all. . . .

I have just received from General Grant a letter in which he gives me and McPherson credit for having won for him his present high position. . . .

I have no doubt you were amused at the thousand and one stories about my Meridian trip. It certainly baffled the sharp ones of the press and stampeded all Alabama, but in fact was a pleasant excursion. Weather was beautiful, roads good and plenty to eat, what fighting we had was all on one side. Our aggregate loss is 21 killed, 68 wounded, and 81 missing, 170 all told. But in a day or two I will send you my report which will be clear and explicit. I have sent 10,000 men up Red River under General A. J. Smith with Admiral Porter to co-operate with General Banks. They are to be gone only thirty days when they come around to me at Huntsville. I want to make up my army there to 40,000 men. So when we cross the Tennessee look out. Grant in command, Thomas the Centre, Schofield the Left and Sherman Right—if we can't whip Joe Johnston, we will know the reason why; Banks in the meantime to come out of Red River and swing against Mobile. If he had been smart he could have walked into Mobile when I was in Meridian. I am down on Wm. Sooy Smith. He could have come to me, I know it, and had he, I would have captured Polk's army; but the enemy had too much cavalry for me to attempt it with men afoot. As it was I scared the Bishop out of his senses. He made a clean run and I could not get within a day's march of him. He had railroads to help him, but these are now gone. Had I tolerated a corps of newspaper men how could I have made that march a success? Am I not right? And does not the world now see it? ...

On my way down I picked up at Natchez a prisoner of war, Professor Boyd, my favorite among the officers of the academy at Alexandria. I never saw a man evince more gratitude. He clung to me till I came away. Stone promised to be kind to him and to exchange him the first opportunity. He told me all about the people up river and said they talked about me a great deal, some with marked respect and others with bitter hatred. . . .

Many of the negroes are gone and the present trip up Red River will clean out the balance. Boyd tells me the motto over the door of the Seminary is chiselled out. You remember it in my letter of resignation: 'By the liberality of the General Government of the United States. The Union, Esto perpetua.' The fools! Though obliterated it lives in the memory of thousands and it may be restored in a few days. I wanted to go up Red River, but as Banks was to command in person I thought best not to go. Grant wanted me to command, but I reported my reason as before stated. Banks ranks Grant and myself. But now Grant will be Lieutenant-General and will command all he pleases. Of course I can get anything I want, but as soon as the spring campaign is over I want to come here and look after the Mississippi. Like the story of Gil Blas, Here lies my soul.' Though Willy died here his pure and holy spirit will hover over this the grand artery of America. I want to live out here and die here also, and don't care if my grave be like De Soto's in its muddy waters.¹ . . .

__________

¹ It was at General Sherman's own request that he was buried, in 1891, at St. Louis by the side of his son.

SOURCES: M. A. DeWolfe Howe, Editor, Home Letters of General Sherman, p. 284-6.  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 2/12

Major General William T. Sherman to Ellen Ewing Sherman, January 28, 1864

ON BOARD GUN-BOAT JULIET,

MOUTH OF WHITE RIVER, January 28, 1864.

. . . I sent you a paper about the banquet² which was really a fine affair. The hall of the Gayoso was crammed and the utmost harmony prevailed. Everything passed off well. My remarks as reported by the Argus were about right. The Bulletin got mere incoherent points. I cannot speak consecutively, but it seems that what I do say is vehemently applauded. The point which may be wrongly conceived was this. As the South resorted to war, we accepted it, and as they fought for Slaves and States' Rights they could not blame us if they lost both as the result of the war; and again, that they, the South, prided themselves on high grounds of honor. I am willing to take issue then adopting their own rules, as those of the most fashionable clubs of London, New Orleans, and Paris. If a member goes into an election he must abide the result or be blackballed or put in Coventry. Now as the Southern people went into the presidential election they, as honorable men, were bound to abide the result. I also described the mode and manner of seizure of the garrison and arsenal at Baton Rouge and pronounced that a breach of soldierly honor, and the firing on boats from behind a cottonwood tree. People at the North may not feel the weight of these points, but I know the South so well that I know what I said will be gall and wormwood to some, but it will make others think. I was at Memphis Tuesday and part of Wednesday. The festival was on Monday and several real old Southerners met me and confessed their cause would be recorded in history as I put it. I was not aware of the hold I had on the people till I was there this time. Hurlbut did not mingle with them and was difficult of access, and every time I went into a theatre or public assemblage there was a storm of applause.  I endeavored to avoid it as much as possible, but it was always so good-natured that I could not repel it. If I succeed in my present blow I would not be surprised if Mississippi would be as Tennessee, but I do not allow myself to be deceived. The Old Regime is not yet dead, and they will fight for their old privileges; yet so many of our old regiments are going on furlough that we will be short-handed. If we had our ranks full I know we could take Mobile and the Alabama River in thirty days and before summer could secure all of Red River also, leaving the Grand Battle to come off in East Tennessee or Georgia in June. We could hold fast all we have and let the South wriggle, but our best plan is activity. . . .

As I am about to march two hundred miles straight into danger with a comparatively small force and that composed of troops in a manner strange to me; but my calculations are all right, and now for the execution. I expect to leave Vicksburg in a very few days, and will cut loose all communications, so you will not hear from me save through the Southern papers till I am back to the Mississippi. You, of course, will be patient and will appreciate my motives in case of accident, for surely I could ask rest and an opportunity for some one else, say McPherson, but there are double reasons: I will never order my command where I am not willing to go, and besides it was politic to break up the force at Memphis which was too large to lie idle, and Hurlbut would not reduce it. I had to bring him away and make a radical change. He ranks McPherson, and we have not confidence enough in his steadiness to put him on this expedition. He is too easily stampeded by rumors. I have a better sense of chances. I run two chances, first, in case the enemy has learned my plans or has guessed them, he may send to Meridian a superior force. A bad road may prevent my moving with the celerity which will command success. Would that I had the Fifteenth corps that would march in sunshine or storm to fulfil my plans without asking what they were. I almost wish I had been left with that specific command, but confess I prefer service near the old Mississippi which enables us to supply ourselves so bountifully. I hear but little from Huntsville, but suppose all our folks are comfortable there. I sent Maj. Taylor, Fitch and McFeely back to Huntsville from Memphis, and have with me only my aids and quarter-master. I don't want any non-combatant mouths along to feed, and am determined this time not to have a tribe of leeches along to consume our food. Not a tent shall be carried or any baggage save on our horses. The wagons and packs shall carry ammunition and food alone. I will set the example myself. Experience has taught me if one tent is carried any quantity of trash will load down the wagons. If I had ten more regiments I would be tempted to try Mobile, but as it is if I break at Meridian and Memphis, I will cut off one of the most fruitful corn supplies of the enemy, and will give Mississippi a chance to rest. The State is now full of conscript gangs carrying to their armies the unwilling, the old and young. We will take all provisions, and God help the starving families! I warned them last year against this last visitation, and now it is at hand. . .

I feel the full load of care and anxiety you bear, mourning for Willy, fearing for the future, and oppressed with intense anxiety for parents. I believe you can bear all, and that you will for our sakes. Just think of me with fifty thousand lives in my hand, with all the anxiety of their families. This load is heavier than even you imagine. . . .

__________

² In a letter written on the same day to his brother John, Sherman said: "I could not well decline an offer of a public dinner in Memphis, but I dreaded it more than I did the assault on Vicksburg.” See Sherman Letters, p. 221.

SOURCES: M. A. DeWolfe Howe, Editor, Home Letters of General Sherman, p. 280-4.  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 2/10.

Diary of Alexander G. Downing: Thursday, January 22, 1863

Today we enjoyed the first warm, clear day for more than two weeks, the snow having entirely disappeared. Our fleet continued all day without a stop. We met the White river expedition returning to Memphis from Napoleon, Arkansas. We tied up for the night about one hundred miles above Vicksburg.

Source: Alexander G. Downing, Edited by Olynthus B., Clark, Downing’s Civil War Diary, p. 96

Major General William T. Sherman to Ellen Ewing Sherman, October 24, 1863

IUKA, Miss., October 24, 1863.

. . . I have had a pretty bad cold for the past two days and am delayed here by bad breaks on the Railroad ahead. The Tennessee is also swollen, and I expect all sorts of trouble in getting over, unless boats are sent up the Tennessee. We have had some fighting ahead with the enemy's cavalry, a pretty formidable body sent ahead from Mississippi, the same division that was in my front at Big Black and all of Wheeler's cavalry that escaped from Tennessee; but I can engage their attention and then divert their minds from the road which supplies Rosecrans' army. Grant I suppose now is at Nashville, and will by his presence unite the army more in feeling than it seems hitherto to have been. He is so unpretending and honest that a man must be base who will not yield to him. The only possible danger is that some may claim his successes hitherto have been the result of accident, but there too I hope they will find themselves mistaken. I have telegraphic notice from Memphis that he has assumed command of the Armies of the Cumberland, Ohio and Tennessee, and that I am to command the latter. My desire has always been to have a distinct compact command, as a Corps, but spite of my efforts I am pushed into complicated places that others aspire to and which I wish they had. But with Grant I will undertake anything in reason. . . .

I see your thoughts as mine dwell with poor Willy in his grave. I do not, and you should not, reproach yourself a moment for any neglect of him. He knew and felt every moment of his life our deep, earnest love for him. The day he came on board the Atlantic¹ I think I observed that usual suppressed feeling of pride at having secured that gun. I know I joked him about it and think he received it in his usual manner, and yet at that moment he must have felt the seed of that disorder which proved so fatal. He did not know it then, and we could not so quickly detect the symptoms. . . . God knows and he knows that either of us, and hundreds of others, would have died to save him. . . .

__________

¹ The boat from Vicksburg to Memphis. See Memoirs, I, 376.

SOURCES: M. A. DeWolfe Howe, Editor, Home Letters of General Sherman, p. 279-80.  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 2/07.

Major General William T. Sherman to Ellen Ewing Sherman, October 14, 1863

CORINTH, MISS., October 14, 1863.

I was much relieved at the receipt of your two letters from Cairo and Cincinnati, both of which came out last night. I shew your message to Dr. Roler, who was affected to tears. Poor Doctor, although I have poured out my feelings of gratitude to him, he seems to fear we may have a lingering thought that he failed somehow in saving poor Willy. Your loving message may have dispelled the thought, and I shall never fail to manifest to him my heartfelt thanks for the unsleeping care he took of the boy. I believe hundreds would have freely died could they have saved his life. I know I would, and occasionally indulged the wish that some of those bullets that searched for my life at Vicksburg had been successful, that it might have removed the necessity for that fatal visit. . . .

Everybody in Memphis manifested for me a respect and affection that I never experienced North. I am told that when the report went into Memphis that my train was surely captured at Collierville, the utmost excitement prevailed at Memphis, and a manifest joy displayed when they heard the truth, that we were not only safe, but that we had saved Collierville and the railroad. At Lagrange, east of Collierville, Gen. Sweeny, the one-armed officer you may remember at St. Louis Arsenal, hearing that I was captured started south with his whole force, determined to rescue Gen. Sherman. As soon as I learned the fact I sent a courier to overtake him, advising him of my safety, but advising him to push on and drive Chalmers far to the south. He is still out. I have this moment received a despatch from Gen. Grant at Memphis. He is en route to Cairo to communicate by telegraph with Washington. I know there is a project to give him command of the Great Centre, the same idea I foreshadowed in my days of depression and insult. I advise him by all means to assent, to go to Nashville and command Burnside on the Right, Rosecrans Centre, and Sherman Left. That will be an Army, and if our ranks were full I would have hopes of great and decisive results. I have stood by Grant in his days of sorrow. Not six miles from here¹ he sat in his tent almost weeping at the accumulated charges against him by such villains as Stanton of Ohio, Wade and others. He had made up his mind to leave for good. I begged him, and he yielded. I could see his good points and his weak points better than I could my own, and he now feels that I stood by him in his days of dejection and he is my sworn friend. Corinth brings back to me the memory of those events and bids me heed my own counsels to others. Oh! that poor Willy could live to reap the fruits of whatever is good in me, and avoid the evil. If it so be that he can see our hearts from above he will read in mine a love for him such as would not taint the purest heaven that you ever dreamed of. God spare us the children that are left, and if I am pardoned for exposing them wrongfully I will never again. . . .

__________

¹ See p. 228

SOURCES: M. A. DeWolfe Howe, Editor, Home Letters of General Sherman, p. 277-9.  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 2/07.

Major General William T. Sherman to Ellen Ewing Sherman, October 10, 1863

Memphis, October 10, 1863

I still feel out of heart to write. The moment I begin to think of you and the children, poor Willy appears before me as plain as life. I can see him now stumbling over the sand hills on Harrison Street, San Francisco, at the table in Leavenworth, running to meet me with open arms at Black River, and last, moaning in death at this hotel. . . . I see ladies and children playing in the room where Willy died, and it seems sacrilege. I know you are now at home, and I pray that Minnie¹ has gradually recovered her health and strength, and I hope all our children will regain their full health. Why should I ever have taken them to that dread climate! It nearly kills me when I think of it. Why was I not killed at Vicksburg, and left Willy to grow up to care for you? God knows I exhausted human foresight and human love for that boy, and will pardon any error of judgment that carried him to death.

__________

¹ Sherman’s oldest daughter.

SOURCES: M. A. DeWolfe Howe, Editor, Home Letters of General Sherman, p. 275-6.  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 2/07.

Major General William T. Sherman to Ellen Ewing Sherman, October 8, 1863

Memphis, October 8, 1863.

Oh! that poor Willy could have lived to take all that was good of me in name, character and standing, and learn to avoid all that is captious, eccentric or wrong. But I do not forget that we have other children worthy of my deepest love. I would not have one different from what they are.

SOURCES: M. A. DeWolfe Howe, Editor, Home Letters of General Sherman, p. 275-6.  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 2/07.

William T. Sherman, Jr.

WILLIAM T.

SON OF

WILLIAM T. AND ELLEN E.

SHERMAN

Born In San Francisco, Cal.

June 8, 1854

Died In Memphis, Tenn.

October 3, 1863

OUR LITTLE SERGEANT

WILLIE

FROM 1ST BATTALION 13TH U. S. INFANTRY

Calvary Cemetery & Mausoleum

St. Louis, Missouri

Major General William T. Sherman to Ellen Ewing Sherman, October 6, 1863

Gayoso Hotel, Memphis, Tennessee

7 a.m., October 6, 1863

I have got up early this morning to steal a short period in which to write to you, but I can hardly trust myself. Sleeping, waking, everywhere I see poor little Willy. His face and form are as deeply imprinted on my memory as were deep-seated the hopes I had in his future. Why, oh why, should that child be taken from us, leaving us full of trembling and reproaches? Though I know we did all human beings could do to arrest the ebbing tide of life, still I will always deplore my want of judgment in taking my family to so fatal a climate at so critical a period of the year. . . . To it must be traced the loss of that child on whose future I had based all the ambition I ever had. . . . I follow you in my mind and almost estimated the hour when all Lancaster would be shrouded in gloom to think that Willy Sherman was coming back a corpse. Dear as may be to you the Valley of Hocking,¹ no purer, nobler boy ever will again gladden it. . . . My command will be much smaller than the world thinks, but I do not even name the fact to those about me. Our country should blush to allow our thinned regiments to go on till nothing is left. But I will go on to the end, but feel the chief stay to my faltering heart is now gone.

But I must not dwell so much on it. I will try and make poor Willy's memory the cure for the defects which have sullied my character.

__________

¹ Lancaster, Ohio, is on the Hocking, a tributary of the Ohio. 

SOURCES: M. A. DeWolfe Howe, Editor, Home Letters of General Sherman, p. 275.  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 2/07.

Colonel William T. Sherman to Ellen Ewing Sherman, July 16, 1861

July 16, 1861

I still regard this as but the beginning of a long war, but I hope my judgment therein is wrong, and that the people of the South may yet see the folly of their unjust rebellion against the most mild and paternal government ever designed for men. John will in Washington be better able to judge of my whereabouts and you had better send letters to him. As I read them I will tear them up, for every ounce on a march tells.

Tell Willy¹ I have another war sword which he can add to his present armory. When I come home again I will gratify his ambition on that score, though truly I do not choose for him or Tommy² the military profession. It is too full of blind chances to be worthy of a first rank among callings.

__________

¹ Sherman’s oldest son.

² A younger son.

SOURCE: M. A. DeWolfe Howe, Editor, Home Letters of General Sherman,  p. 200-1.  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 1/138.