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General Sherman's Memoirs
MEMOIRS OF GENERAL W. T. SHERMAN
By
William T. Sherman
MISSOURI—APRIL AND MAY, 1861
CONTENTS
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FROM 1820 TO THE MEXICAN
WAR, 1846
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EARLY
RECOLLECTIONS OF CALIFORNIA—1846-1848
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EARLY
RECOLLECTIONS OF CALIFORNIA—(Continued)—1849-1850
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MISSOURI, LOUISIANA, AND CALIFORNIA—1850-1855
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CALIFORNIA—1855-1857
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CALIFORNIA, NEW YORK, AND KANSAS—1857-1859
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LOUISIANA—1859-1861
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MISSOURI—APRIL AND MAY, 1861
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FROM
THE BATTLE OF BULL RUN TO PADUCAH—1861-1862
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BATTLE OF SHILOH—MARCH AND APRIL, 1862
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SHILOH TO MEMPHIS-APRIL TO JULY, 1862
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MEMPHIS To ARKANSAS POST—JULY, 1862, TO JANUARY, 1863
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VICKSBURG—JANUARY TO JULY, 1863
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CHATTANOOGA AND KNOXVILLE—JULY TO DECEMBER, 1863
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MERIDIAN CAMPAIGN—JANUARY AND FEBRUARY, 1864
APPENDIX TO VOLUME ONE
CHAPTER
VIII.
MISSOURI
APRIL AND
MAY, 1861.
During the time of these
events in Louisiana, I was in constant correspondence with my brother,
John Sherman, at Washington; Mr. Ewing, at Lancaster, Ohio; and Major H.
S. Turner, at St. Louis. I had managed to maintain my family comfortably
at Lancaster, but was extremely anxious about the future. It looked like
the end of my career, for I did not suppose that "civil war" could give
me an employment that would provide for the family. I thought, and may
have said, that the national crisis had been brought about by the
politicians, and, as it was upon us, they "might fight it out"
Therefore, when I turned North from New Orleans, I felt more disposed to
look to St. Louis for a home, and to Major. Turner to find me
employment, than to the public service.
I left New Orleans about the 1st of March, 1861, by rail to Jackson and
Clinton, Mississippi, Jackson, Tennessee, and Columbus, Kentucky, where
we took a boat to Cairo, and thence, by rail, to Cincinnati and
Lancaster. All the way, I heard, in the cars and boats, warm discussions
about polities; to the effect that, if Mr. Lincoln should attempt
coercion of the seceded States, the other slave or border States would
make common cause, when, it was believed, it would be madness to attempt
to reduce them to subjection. In the South, the people were earnest,
fierce and angry, and were evidently organizing for action; whereas, in
Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio, I saw not the least sign of preparation. It
certainly looked to me as though the people of the North would tamely
submit to a disruption of the Union, and the orators of the South used,
openly and constantly, the expressions that there would be no war, and
that a lady's thimble would hold all the blood to be shed. On reaching
Lancaster, I found letters from my brother John, inviting me to come to
Washington, as he wanted to see me; and from Major Tamer, at St. Louis,
that he was trying to secure for me the office of president of the Fifth
Street Railroad, with a salary of twenty-five hundred dollars; that Mr.
Lucas and D. A. January held a controlling interest of stock, would vote
for me, and the election would occur in March. This suited me exactly,
and I answered Turner that I would accept, with thanks. But I also
thought it right and proper that I should first go to Washington, to
talk with my brother, Senator Sherman.
Mr. Lincoln had just been installed, and the newspapers were filled with
rumors of every kind indicative of war; the chief act of interest was
that Major Robert Anderson had taken by night into Fort Sumter all the
troops garrisoning Charleston Harbor, and that he was determined to
defend it against the demands of the State of South Carolina and of the
Confederate States. I must have reached Washington about the 10th of
March. I found my brother there, just appointed Senator, in place of Mr.
Chase, who was in the cabinet, and I have no doubt my opinions,
thoughts, and feelings, wrought up by the events in
Louisiana; seemed to
him gloomy and extravagant. About Washington I saw but few signs of
preparation, though the Southern Senators and Representatives were daily
sounding their threats on the floors of Congress, and were publicly
withdrawing to join the Confederate Congress at Montgomery. Even in the
War Department and about the public offices there was open, unconcealed
talk, amounting to high-treason.
One day, John Sherman took me with him to see Mr. Lincoln. He walked
into the room where the secretary to the President now sits, we found
the room full of people, and Mr. Lincoln sat at the end of the table,
talking with three or four gentlemen, who soon left. John walked up,
shook hands, and took a chair near him, holding in his hand some papers
referring to, minor appointments in the State of Ohio, which formed the
subject of conversation. Mr. Lincoln took the papers, said he would
refer them to the proper heads of departments, and would be glad to make
the appointments asked for, if not already promised. John then turned to
me, and said, "Mr. President, this is my brother, Colonel Sherman, who
is just up from Louisiana, he may give you some information you want."
"Ah!" said Mr. Lincoln, "how are they getting along down there?" I said,
"They think they are getting along swimmingly—they are preparing for
war." "Oh, well!" said he, "I guess we'll manage to keep house." I was
silenced, said no more to him, and we soon left. I was sadly
disappointed, and remember that I broke out on John, d—ning the
politicians generally, saying, "You have got things in a hell of a fig,
and you may get them out as you best can," adding that the country was
sleeping on a volcano that might burst forth at any minute, but that I
was going to St. Louis to take care of my family, and would have no more
to do with it. John begged me to be more patient, but I said I would
not; that I had no time to wait, that I was off for St. Louis; and off I
went. At Lancaster I found letters from Major Turner, inviting me to St.
Louis, as the place in the Fifth Street Railroad was a sure thing, and
that Mr. Lucas would rent me a good house on Locust Street, suitable for
my family, for six hundred dollars a year.
Mrs. Sherman and I gathered our family and effects together, started for
St. Louis March 27th, where we rented of Mr. Lucas the house on Locust
Street, between Tenth and Eleventh, and occupied it on the 1st of April.
Charles Ewing and John Hunter had formed a law-partnership in St. Louis,
and agreed to board with us, taking rooms on the third floor In the
latter part of March, I was duly elected president of the Fifth Street
Railroad, and entered on the discharge of my duties April 1, 1861. We
had a central office on the corner of Fifth and Locust, and also another
up at the stables in Bremen. The road was well stocked and in full
operation, and all I had to do was to watch the economical
administration of existing affairs, which I endeavored to do with
fidelity and zeal. But the whole air was full of wars and rumors of
wars. The struggle was going on politically for the border States. Even
in Missouri, which was a slave State, it was manifest that the Governor
of the State, Claiborne Jackson, and all the leading politicians, were
for the South in case of a war. The house on the northwest corner of
Fifth and Pine was the rebel headquarters, where the rebel flag was hung
publicly, and the crowds about the Planters' House were all more or less
rebel. There was also a camp in Lindell's Grove, at the end of Olive,
Street, under command of General D. M. Frost, a Northern man, a graduate
of West Point, in open sympathy with the Southern leaders. This camp was
nominally a State camp of instruction, but, beyond doubt, was in the
interest of the Southern cause, designed to be used against the national
authority in the event of the General Government's attempting to coerce
the Southern Confederacy. General William S. Harvey was in command of
the Department of Missouri, and resided in his own house, on Fourth
Street, below Market; and there were five or six companies of United
States troops in the arsenal, commanded by Captain N. Lyon; throughout
the city, there had been organized, almost exclusively out of the German
part of the population, four or five regiments of "Home Guards," with
which movement Frank Blair, B. Gratz Brown, John M. Schofield, Clinton
B. Fisk, and others, were most active on the part of the national
authorities. Frank Blair's brother Montgomery was in the cabinet of Mr.
Lincoln at Washington, and to him seemed committed the general
management of affairs in Missouri.
The newspapers fanned the public excitement to the highest pitch, and
threats of attacking the arsenal on the one hand, and the mob of d—d
rebels in Camp Jackson on the other, were bandied about. I tried my best
to keep out of the current, and only talked freely with a few men; among
them Colonel John O'Fallon, a wealthy gentleman who resided above St.
Louis. He daily came down to my office in Bremen, and we walked up and
down the pavement by the hour, deploring the sad condition of our
country, and the seeming drift toward dissolution and anarchy. I used
also to go down to the arsenal occasionally to see Lyon, Totten, and
other of my army acquaintance, and was glad to see them making
preparations to defend their post, if not to assume the offensive.
The bombardment of Fort Sumter, which was announced by telegraph, began
April 12th, and ended on the 14th. We then knew that the war was
actually begun, and though the South was openly, manifestly the
aggressor, yet her friends and apologists insisted that she was simply
acting on a justifiable defensive, and that in the forcible seizure of,
the public forts within her limits the people were acting with
reasonable prudence and foresight. Yet neither party seemed willing to
invade, or cross the border. Davis, who ordered the bombardment of
Sumter, knew the temper of his people well, and foresaw that it would
precipitate the action of the border States; for almost immediately
Virginia, North Carolina, Arkansas, and Tennessee, followed the lead of
the cotton States, and conventions were deliberating in Kentucky and
Missouri.
On the night of Saturday, April 6th, I received the following, dispatch:
Washington, April 6,1861.
Major W. T. Sherman:
Will you accept the chief
clerkship of the War Department? We will make you assistant Secretary of
War when Congress meets.
M. Blair, Postmaster-General.
To which I replied by telegraph, Monday morning; "I cannot accept;" and
by mail as follows:
Monday, April 8, 1861.
Office of the St. Louis Railroad Company.
Hon. M. Blair, Washington, D. C.
I received, about nine
o'clock Saturday night, your telegraph dispatch, which I have this
moment answered, "I cannot accept."
I have quite a large family, and when I resigned my place in Louisiana,
on account of secession, I had no time to lose; and, therefore, after my
hasty visit to Washington, where I saw no chance of employment, I came
to St. Louis, have accepted a place in this company, have rented a
house, and incurred other obligations, so that I am not at liberty to
change.
I thank you for the compliment contained in your offer, and assure you
that I wish the Administration all success in its almost impossible task
of governing this distracted and anarchical people.
Yours truly,
W. T. SHERMAN
I was afterward told that this letter gave offense, and that some of Mr.
Lincoln's cabinet concluded that I too would prove false to the country.
Later in that month, after the capture of Fort Sumter by the Confederate
authorities, a Dr. Cornyn came to our house on Locust Street, one night
after I had gone to bed, and told me he had been sent by Frank Blair,
who was not well, and wanted to see me that night at his house. I
dressed and walked over to his house on Washington Avenue, near
Fourteenth, and found there, in the front-room, several gentlemen, among
whom I recall Henry T. Blow. Blair was in the back-room, closeted with
some gentleman, who soon left, and I was called in. He there told me
that the Government was mistrustful of General Harvey, that a change in
the command of the department was to be made; that he held it in his
power to appoint a brigadier-general, and put him in command of the
department, and he offered me the place. I told him I had once offered
my services, and they were declined; that I had made business
engagements in St. Louis, which I could not throw off at pleasure; that
I had long deliberated on my course of action, and must decline his
offer, however tempting and complimentary. He reasoned with me, but I
persisted. He told me, in that event, he should appoint Lyon, and he did
so.
Finding that even my best friends were uneasy as to my political status,
on the 8th of May I addressed the following official letter to the
Secretary of War:
Office of the St. Louis Railroad Company,
May 8,1881.
Hon. S. Cameron, Secretary of War, Washington, D. C.
Dear Sir: I hold myself
now, as always, prepared to serve my country in the capacity for which I
was trained. I did not and will not volunteer for three months, because
I cannot throw my family on the cold charity of the world. But for the
three-years call, made by the President, an officer can prepare his
command and do good service.
I will not volunteer as a soldier, because rightfully or wrongfully I
feel unwilling to take a mere private's place, and, having for many
years lived in California and Louisiana, the men are not well enough
acquainted with me to elect me to my appropriate place.
Should my services be needed, the records of the War Department will
enable you to designate the station in which I can render most service.
Yours truly, W. T. SHERMAN.
To this I do not think I received a direct answer; but, on the 10th of
the same month, I was appointed colonel of the Thirteenth Regular
Infantry.
I remember going to the arsenal on the 9th of May, taking my children
with me in the street-cars. Within the arsenal wall were drawn up in
parallel lines four regiments of the "Home Guards," and I saw men
distributing cartridges to the boxes. I also saw General Lyon running
about with his hair in the wind, his pockets full of papers, wild and
irregular, but I knew him to be a man of vehement purpose and of
determined action. I saw of course that it meant business, but whether
for defense or offense I did not know. The next morning I went up to the
railroad-office in Bremen, as usual, and heard at every corner of the
streets that the "Dutch" were moving on Camp Jackson. People were
barricading their houses, and men were running in that direction. I
hurried through my business as quickly as I could, and got back to my
house on Locust Street by twelve o'clock. Charles Ewing and Hunter were
there, and insisted on going out to the camp to see "the fun." I tried
to dissuade them, saying that in case of conflict the bystanders were
more likely to be killed than the men engaged, but they would go. I felt
as much interest as anybody else, but staid at home, took my little son
Willie, who was about seven years old, and walked up and down the
pavement in front of our house, listening for the sound of musketry or
cannon in the direction of Camp Jackson. While so engaged Miss Eliza
Dean, who lived opposite us, called me across the street, told me that
her brother-in-law, Dr. Scott, was a surgeon in Frost's camp, and she
was dreadfully afraid he would be killed. I reasoned with her that
General Lyon was a regular officer; that if he had gone out, as
reported, to Camp Jackson, he would take with him such a force as would
make resistance impossible; but she would not be comforted, saying that
the camp was made up of the young men from the first and best families
of St. Louis, and that they were proud, and would fight. I explained
that young men of the best families did not like to be killed better
than ordinary people. Edging gradually up the street, I was in Olive
Street just about Twelfth, when I saw a man running from the direction
of Camp Jackson at full speed, calling, as he went, "They've
surrendered, they've surrendered!" So I turned back and rang the bell at
Mrs. Dean's. Eliza came to the door, and I explained what I had heard;
but she angrily slammed the door in my face! Evidently she was
disappointed to find she was mistaken in her estimate of the rash
courage of the best families.
I again turned in the direction of Camp Jackson, my boy Willie with me
still. At the head of Olive Street, abreast of Lindell's Grove, I found
Frank Blair's regiment in the street, with ranks opened, and the Camp
Jackson prisoners inside. A crowd of people was gathered around, calling
to the prisoners by name, some hurrahing for Jeff Davis, and others
encouraging the troops. Men, women, and children, were in the crowd. I
passed along till I found myself inside the grove, where I met Charles
Ewing and John Hunter, and we stood looking at the troops on the road,
heading toward the city. A band of music was playing at the head, and
the column made one or two ineffectual starts, but for some reason was
halted. The battalion of regulars was abreast of me, of which Major
Rufus Saxton was in command, and I gave him an evening paper, which I
had bought of the newsboy on my way out. He was reading from it some
piece of news, sitting on his horse, when the column again began to move
forward, and he resumed his place at the head of his command. At that
part of the road, or street, was an embankment about eight feet high,
and a drunken fellow tried to pass over it to the people opposite.
One of the regular sergeant file-closers ordered him back, but he
attempted to pass through the ranks, when the sergeant barred his
progress with his musket "a-port." The drunken man seized his musket,
when the sergeant threw him off with violence, and he rolled over and
over down the bank. By the time this man had picked himself up and got
his hat, which had fallen off, and had again mounted the embankment, the
regulars had passed, and the head of Osterhaus's regiment of Home Guards
had come up. The man had in his hand a small pistol, which he fired off,
and I heard that the ball had struck the leg of one of Osterhaus's
staff; the regiment stopped; there was a moment of confusion, when the
soldiers of that regiment began to fire over our heads in the grove. I
heard the balls cutting the leaves above our heads, and saw several men
and women running in all directions, some of whom were wounded. Of
course there was a general stampede. Charles Ewing threw Willie on the
ground and covered him with his body. Hunter ran behind the hill, and I
also threw myself on the ground. The fire ran back from the head of the
regiment toward its rear, and as I saw the men reloading their pieces, I
jerked Willie up, ran back with him into a gully which covered us, lay
there until I saw that the fire had ceased, and that the column was
again moving on, when I took up Willie and started back for home round
by way of Market Street. A woman and child were killed outright; two or
three men were also killed, and several others were wounded. The great
mass of the people on that occasion were simply curious spectators,
though men were sprinkled through the crowd calling out, "Hurrah for
Jeff Davis!" and others were particularly abusive of the "damned Dutch"
Lyon posted a guard in charge of the vacant camp, and marched his
prisoners down to the arsenal; some were paroled, and others held, till
afterward they were regularly exchanged.
A very few days after this event, May 14th, I received a dispatch from
my brother Charles in Washington, telling me to come on at once; that I
had been appointed a colonel of the Thirteenth Regular Infantry, and
that I was wanted at Washington immediately.
Of course I could no longer defer action. I saw Mr. Lucas, Major Turner,
and other friends and parties connected with the road, who agreed that I
should go on. I left my family, because I was under the impression that
I would be allowed to enlist my own regiment, which would take some
time, and I expected to raise the regiment and organize it at Jefferson
Barracks. I repaired to Washington, and there found that the Government
was trying to rise to a level with the occasion. Mr. Lincoln had,
without the sanction of law, authorized the raising of ten new regiments
of regulars, each infantry regiment to be composed of three battalions
of eight companies each; and had called for seventy-five thousand State
volunteers. Even this call seemed to me utterly inadequate; still it was
none of my business. I took the oath of office, and was furnished with a
list of officers, appointed to my regiment, which was still, incomplete.
I reported in person to General Scott, at his office on Seventeenth
Street, opposite the War Department, and applied for authority to return
West, and raise my regiment at Jefferson Barracks, but the general said
my lieutenant-colonel, Burbank, was fully qualified to superintend the
enlistment, and that he wanted me there; and he at once dictated an
order for me to report to him in person for inspection duty.
Satisfied that I would not be permitted to return to St. Louis, I
instructed Mrs. Sherman to pack up, return to Lancaster, and trust to
the fate of war.
I also resigned my place as president of the Fifth Street Railroad, to
take effect at the end of May, so that in fact I received pay from that
road for only two months' service, and then began my new army career. |
