THE RIDERLESS WAR-HORSE
THE RIDERLESS WAR-HORSE
And years after that he again declared that he was not a candidate for the Presidency; that if nominated he would decline, and if elected he would refuse to serve.
An incident which occurred in Philadelphia some three years before his death illustrates Sherman's remarkable powers of memory.
He was visiting his daughter, and while sitting at the open window smoking one midsummer night he saw the policeman pass, and as the patrolman halted a moment the General was noticed to give him a keen glance and utter an exclamation. The next evening he told some one to say to the policeman on the beat, when he passed, that the General wanted to speak to him. When the officer entered he straightened up and gave General Sherman the regular military salute.
"Ah, ha," said the General. "I thought so. Now, where was it I saw you before? Do you know me?"
"Oh, yes," said the bearded patrolman. "I knew you when you were a lieutenant. I was your drummer in California."
"Ha, ha, I thought so; and wait a bit. So you were that little drummer boy, and your name—your name's Hutchinson."
Another authentic story reveals the kindly humor of the man, even amid the stern scenes of war. It is told by Mr. H. L. Priddy, who, with a Mr. Brower, conductedThe Argusnewspaper at Memphis when Sherman was commander there. "The Argus" says Mr. Priddy, "was the only paper published at Memphis then. Brower and I hadto simulate a degree of loyalty, but whenever we got a chance we cheered the Stars and Bars. General Sherman gave us considerable latitude, but finally we went too far, and he called us down. He did it in a gentlemanly way, however, that didn't wound our feelings. He galloped up to the office one day about noon, threw the bridle rein of his big black stallion to an orderly and strode into the editorial room. A crowd of citizens gathered on the other side of the street mourned for the fate of the newspaper and the editors. I think they had an idea that Sherman was going to amputate our heads and 'pi' all the forms. But he didn't. He sat down and rested his feet on the table and said:
"'Boys' (we were both youngsters), "I have been ordered to suppress your paper, but I don't like to do that, and I just dropped in to warn you not to be so free with your pencils. If you don't ease up you will get into trouble."
"We promised to reform, and as the General seemed so pleasant and friendly, I asked him if he couldn't do something to increase the circulation of currency. There was no small change, and we had to use the soda water checks of a confectioner named Lane. We dropped soda water checks in the contribution box at the church, paid for straight whiskey with them and received them for money. If Lane had closed his shop the checks would have been worthless.
"General Sherman comprehended the situation, and quick as a flash said: 'You need a medium of exchange that has an intrinsic value. Cotton is king here. Make cotton your currency. It is worth $1 a pound. Make packages containing eight ounces represent 50 cents, four ounces 25 cents, and so on. Cotton is the wealth of the South right now. Turn it to money.'
"'But the money drawers wouldn't hold such bulky currency,' said I.
"'Make 'em larger,' said the General, and with that he strode off.
"As he mounted his horse and galloped away he shook his whip at Brower and me and shouted: 'You boys had better be careful what you write, or I'll be down on you.'"
At Savannah, just after he had captured it, Sherman had another controversy with a newspaper man, one "Tom" Miles, from Boston. The latter, on getting into Savannah with the army, went prospecting round the city, and presently, according to the teller of the story, inThe Boston Post, found himself in a vacated printing office. It presented a golden opportunity. There were types and presses and all the paraphernalia essential to business, with a form on the press, which the printer had left in his flight, and Miles, taking out the editorial and other offensive matter, filled its columns with healthy Union sentiment, with the aid of one or two of the craft whom he had discovered in the army. His leader was a rich specimen of crowing over the victory, in which he extolled General Sherman as the greatest hero since Alexander, and his army the finest and best disciplined that the world ever saw. With this grand flourish of trumpets the first number was issued, and Miles lay back in his editorial chair, contemplating his work with the belief that he had achieved the next triumph to Sherman's, and wondered what the conqueror would say when he saw the praises he had heaped upon him. The next morning as the General and his staff were about taking breakfast, a paper was handed to him, and he commenced to read the leader which was so lavish in his praise.
"Look here!" said he, red and furious. "What thed—— l does this mean? Who knows anything about this paper?"
His orderly, who had known something about its preparation, explained to him that it was the work of the literary gentleman who had followed the expedition.
"Well," said the General, "go down to the office and tell him to discontinue his paper or I'll put him under guard. I won't have such cursed stuff printed about me when I can prevent it. Abuse is bad enough, but this is a deuced sight worse."
Down went the orderly, and the confusion of poor Miles was overwhelming when he got the squelcher from the General commanding.
"Why, it was all praise," said he.
"No matter for that. If it had been the other way it would have been treated just the same."
So Miles moved a compromise—we hardly know what—and urged the official to express his regrets and beg the removal of the injunction, which was promised. The appeal was successful, and soon the officer came back to inform him that permission was granted him to run his paper, on condition that he should never mention the General's name again. This was agreed to, and the paper appeared. After a day or two an aide came down one morning with an order from General Sherman, for publication. Miles glanced it over and handed it back.
"It can't go in, sir," he said.
"Why not?" asked the astonished messenger, who was a stranger.
"Because it has Sherman's name to it," was the reply.
"That's the reason why itmustgo in," urged the aide.
"And that's the reason why itshan't. He stopped my paper for praising him, and I promised him that his nameshould never appear in my columns again, and hang me if it shall."
Miles stood resolute, and the officer returned for orders, expecting the ordering out of a file of men and an arrest, but was astonished to see the General burst into the heartiest laugh and hear him confess that the printer had the best of it. The messenger was sent back with a conciliatory note, and there was no more trouble.
Sherman himself once related an interesting story about a prominent citizen of Savannah who came to his headquarters after he had captured that city. The gentleman was in great trepidation and informed the General that he had some valuable pictures in his house. The General said they were entirely safe. He said he also had a collection of family plate of great intrinsic value, and, on account of its associations, very precious to him and his family. The General told him he would put a guard about his house if necessary. Then, in a burst of frank confidence, produced by this generous response to his fears, he revealed to General Sherman that he had buried in his back yard a large quantity of priceless Madeira, of the oldest and rarest vintages, and estimated to be worth over $40,000 before the war. The General responded at once: "That is medicine, and confiscated to the hospital." What the hospital did not need he distributed among the troops.
General Sherman was fully informed of the movements of Jefferson Davis, and in a position to put his hand upon and arrest him at almost any time after Davis left Richmond. He consulted Mr. Lincoln as to what he would better do, saying to the President that he did not know but what he, the President, would be relieved by not having the President of the Southern Confederacy on his hands, and asking for instructions. President Lincoln's instructionswere given in this form: "Sherman, many years ago, up in Illinois, I knew a temperance lecturer who had been an habitual drunkard. He met, on an anniversary occasion, a number of his old boon companions. They were urging him to celebrate it with them in the usual way, and he finally said: 'Boys, I must stick to my principles; but if you could get some whiskey into my water unbeknownst to me I might join you!'"
The General after that made no effort to capture Jefferson Davis, and regretted that he did not reach the schooner in which he was intending an escape to Cuba.
Abram S. Hewitt, in addressing the Chamber of Commerce, New York, told of an experience of his with General Sherman, then in command of the army, at the time of the Electoral Commission's existence. There was a good deal of apprehension lest Congress might break up without settling the contest for the Presidency. "If Congress failed to do its duty, what will you do under the circumstances?" Mr. Hewitt asked the General.
"I have sworn to obey the Constitution of the United States," was the answer, "and I will do my duty. The term of President Grant expires at noon on March 4. The people of the United States have elected a President and competent authority will decide who is elected."
"But if Senate and House fail to agree?"
"Then, if I must, I shall obey the man selected by the Senate."
"That reply," said Mr. Hewitt. "I felt meant much for the peace of the country, although the General's choice was not my own. To him we owe not only much for the termination of the civil war, but for the preservation of peace."
On one occasion, when visiting his sister, Mrs. Ewing,Gen. Sherman met four or five Presbyterian clergymen, and his patience was rather severely tried by their religious discussions, and what seemed to him their intolerant and one-sided views. One of them challenged him to offer any excuse for swearing, meeting him with the clinching statement that there could be no redemption for blasphemers.
"Were you," inquired the young soldier, "ever at sea in a heavy gale, with spars creaking and sails flapping, and the crew cowardly and incompetent?"
"No."
"Did you ever," he continued gravely, "try to drive a five-team ox-cart across the prairie?"
"No."
"Then," said Capt. Sherman, "you know nothing of temptations to blasphemy—you know nothing about extenuating circumstances for blasphemers—you are not competent to judge!"
Gen. Sherman was proud of tracing his powers of endurance to his mother, to whom he also frequently ascribed the heritage of other soldierly characteristics.
"She married very young," said the General—"her husband, who was not very much older, being a lawyer with hope and ambition for his patrimony and all the world before him where to choose. He chose Ohio, leaving his young wife in Jersey City while he made a home for her in what was then a far country.
"Soon as he had made a home for her she went to him. She rode on horseback, with her young baby in her arms, from Jersey City to Ohio, the journey occupying twenty-three days! What would a New York bride say to such a journey as that? I'm afraid she'd want to wait until her husband had made money enough to have a railroad built for her."
Israel Smith, of New Bedford, was Band-master of the Massachusetts 33d Regiment on the march from Atlanta to Savannah. In speaking of General Sherman Mr. Smith said: "He was very fond of music, and the 33d gave many a concert at his headquarters. One time when the regiment had gone into camp, General Sherman sent word to me to come to his headquarters and play for him. I sent word back that my men were mostly sick, not enough being left to give a decent concert. Whereupon Sherman sends back word. 'Bring over your band and play soft music to soothe my nerves.'" When the Army was drawn up around Savannah, the first concert in two weeks was given. When Smith was about to go away Sherman called him and said: "I want you to have your band in readiness to play next Thursday, in the square in Savannah." Early on Thursday morning Mr. Smith received his orders to march to the square, and there, while the city was being evacuated, he played the National airs.
Sherman went to Yale College in 1876, to see his son graduated. He was made the guest of honor of the occasion, given a seat next to President Noah Porter at all the exercises, and the degree of LL.D. was conferred on him. The displays of academic eloquence were long. During the orations Sherman slipped out of the chapel, and his absence was not noticed for some time. When it was noticed a deputation of the faculty rushed off to discover the whereabouts of their distinguished guest. Their quest was of short duration. On a bench in front of the chapel General Sherman was seated, puffing his cigar and engaged in animated conversation with an old negro who had just been discharged from the workhouse and who was smoking one of the General's havanas. He felt the need of a smoke, saw no reason why he should nottake a cigar without disturbing any one, and had fallen into conversation with the only other occupant of the park bench. It afterward was made evident that General Sherman in his short conversation had learned more about the manner in which the New Haven workhouse was conducted than any member of the Yale faculty knew.
Sherman's interest in the Pacific Railroad was referred to by General Wager Swayne, whosaid:—
"As long ago as 1849 General Sherman wrote a letter to his brother, John Sherman, which the latter published inThe National Intelligencer, advocating the construction of a railroad across the continent, and he was an untiring friend of the road from that time until its completion, in the summer of 1869.
"He told me that if at the time of writing that letter to his brother John he could have secured the immediate construction of a railroad across the continent by signing a contract to lay down his own life, he should have done it, he thought.
"In his "Memoirs" he gives an account of carrying from Sonoma, Cal., to Sacramento, to the commanding officer of the United States forces there, an order to make a survey of the Feather River, so as to ascertain the feasibility of constructing a railroad through the valley of that stream. That was the first survey ever made with a view to the construction of a transcontinental road, and while the General does not say so in his "Memoirs," I have from his own lips that the impulse and the conception were his own, and he procured the signature to the order of the commanding general by personal solicitation.
"When, at the close of the war, General Granville M. Dodge was called from the Army, being then still in service, to take charge of the construction of the Union Pacificroad, General Sherman not only gave him leave cordially, but he also spontaneously promised him all possible assistance, and General Dodge has testified, in an elaborate paper, that he does not see how he could have built the road except with the countenance and support which he received from General Sherman, as the Indians were then a power on the plains.
"In the summer of 1869, twenty years after his first letter on the subject, General Sherman stood in the War Department, and heard the strokes from an electric bell, which announced the successive blows of the hammer on the last spike in the construction of the road, and he told me that in view of his long interest in the enterprise, he felt, as he himself put it, as if the Lord might come for him then."
General Cyrus Bussey, assistant Secretary of the Interior, was an old comrade and close friend of Sherman, and he said of him:
"I first met General Sherman at Benton Barracks, Mo., in November, 1861. I had reported there with a full regiment of cavalry. General Sherman had just assumed command, after having been relieved in Kentucky under a cloud, being charged with insanity. I spent many evenings with the General at his headquarters, and received from him many valuable lessons which greatly aided me as an officer of the Army during all my subsequent services. During the siege of Vicksburg I was chief of cavalry, and served immediately under General Sherman's command. I saw much of him during the siege, and led the advance of his army in the campaign to Jackson, against Joe Johnston's army, immediately after the fall of Vicksburg. After the enemy was routed and driven out of the country my command occupied the rear, and General Sherman accompanied me both on the advance and on the return to ourcamps in the rear of Vicksburg. So I had an excellent opportunity of becoming intimately acquainted with him, and there I formed a great admiration for him as a man and a general.
"One circumstance I wish to mention. While waiting at Jackson after the retreat of Johnston, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Mississippi tendered to General Sherman and his staff a banquet, at which General Frank P. Blair proposed a toast to General Grant. General Sherman rose and said: 'I want to respond to that toast. I see that many newspapers of the country have credited me with originating the plan adopted by General Grant for the capture of Vicksburg. I want to say that I am not entitled to this credit. General Grant alone originated that plan and carried it to successful completion without the co-operation of any of his subordinate officers, and in the face of my protest as well as that of many of the officers.'"
The question of the burning of Atlanta was often raised in the years after the war, and to the end of his life Sherman was denounced by many Southerners for what they were pleased to term his inhumanity and malice. In the spring of 1880, Captain Burke, commander of the "Gate City Guard," at Atlanta, wrote to him, calling his attention to a proposed memorial hall in that city, and Sherman made this reply:
"My Dear Sir.—Your letter of March 6 with inclosure, is received, and I assure you of my interest in the subject matter and willingness to contribute to the execution of your plan to erect in the city of Atlanta a memorial hall to commemorate the revival of sectional unity and sentiment—but were I to do so for the reasons set forth in the inclosed circular, I would be construed as indorsing the expressions which are erroneous, viz: 'During the lateunfortunate war the city of Atlanta was destroyed by the forces of General Sherman,' and 'a wilderness of blackened walls recorded the fratricidal strife that deluged our country in misfortune,'
"Atlanta was not destroyed by the army of the United States commanded by General Sherman. No private dwelling was destroyed by the United States army, but some were by that commanded by General Hood along his line of defense. The Court House still stands; all the buildings on that side of the railroad and all those along Peachtree street, the best street in the city, still remain. Nothing was destroyed by my orders but the depots, workshops, foundries, etc., close by the depots, and two blocks of mercantile stores also close to the depot took fire from the burning storehouse or foundry, and our troops were prevented from checking the spread of the fire by reason of concealed shells loaded and exploding in that old building. The railroad car and machine shops on the edge of the town toward Decatur street, were burned before we entered Atlanta, by General Hood's orders."
To the Hon. Henry W. Grady, a few days later, Sherman said personally:
"The city of Atlanta was never burned as a city. I notice that the headquarters I occupied, all the houses about it, and the headquarters of the other officers were all standing when I revisited the place a year or two since. The residence streets were not burned at all."
"It was your intention, then, to burn only the heart of the city?"
"My intention was clearly expressed in a written order to General Poe. It was simply to burn the buildings in which public stores had been placed or would likely be placed. This included only four buildings, as I recollect:not over five or six. One of these was a warehouse above the depot, in which or under which were a number of shells. From this building a block of business houses took fire and the destruction went beyond the limits intended. The old Trout House was burned by some of the men, who had some reason for burning it. I ordered the round house burned. I wanted to destroy the railroad so that it could not be used. I then wanted to destroy the public buildings, so that Atlanta could not be used as a depot of supplies. I ordered, as I say, four or five houses set on fire, but as far as burning the city in the sense of wanton destruction, I never thought of such a thing. I shirked no responsibility that war imposed, but I never went beyond my duty."
His kindly feeling toward the city and people with whom he once dealt so sternly was well shown in a letter which he wrote in 1879 to Captain E. P. Howell, of theAtlanta Constitution.
"My opportunities for studying the physical features of Georgia," he said, "have been large. In 1843–4 I went from Augusta to Marietta in a stage (when Atlanta had no existence); thence to Bellefonte, Alabama, on horseback, returning afterwards, all the way on horseback, to Augusta by a different road; again, in 1864, I conducted, as all the world knows, a vast army from Chattanooga to Atlanta and Savannah, and just now have passed over the same district in railway cars. Considering the history of this period of time (35 years), the development of the country has been great, but not comparable with California, Iowa, Wisconsin, or Kansas, in all which States I have had similar chances for observation. The reason why Georgia has not kept pace with the States I have named is beyond question that emigration would not go where slavery existed. Now that this cause is removed there is no longer any reasonwhy Georgia, especially the northern part, should not rapidly regain her prominence among the great States of our Union. I know that no section is more favored in climate, health, soil, minerals, water, and everything which man needs for his material wants, and to contribute to his physical and intellectual development. Your railroads now finished give your people cheap supplies, and the means of sending in every section their surplus products of the soil or of manufactures. You have immense beds of iron and coal, besides inexhaustible quantities of timber, oak, hickory, beech, poplar, pine, etc., so necessary in modern factories, and which are becoming scarce in other sections of our busy country.
"I have crossed this continent many times, by almost every possible route, and I feel certain that at this time no single region holds out as strong inducements for industrious emigrants as that from Lynchburg, Virginia, to Huntsville, Alabama, right and left, embracing the mountain ranges and intervening valleys, especially East Tennessee, North Georgia and Alabama. I hope I will not give offence in saying that the present population has not done full justice to this naturally beautiful and most favored region of our country, and that two or three millions of people could be diverted from the great West to this region with profit and advantage to all concerned. This whole region, though called 'southern,' is in fact 'northern'—viz.: it is a wheat-growing country; has a climate in no sense tropical or southern, but was designed by nature for small farms and not for large plantations. In the region I have named North Georgia forms a most important part, and your city, Atlanta, is its natural centre or capital. It is admirably situated, a thousand feet above the sea, healthy, with abundance of the purest water and with granite, limestone,sandstone and clay convenient to build a second London. In 1864 my army, composed of near a hundred thousand men, all accustomed to a northern climate, were grouped about Atlanta from June to November without tents, and were as vigorous, healthy and strong as though they were in Ohio or New York. Indeed, the whole country from the Tennessee to the Ocmulgee is famous for health, pure water, abundant timber and with a large proportion of good soil, especially in the valleys, and all you need is more people of the right sort.
"I am satisfied, from my recent visit, that Northern professional men, manufacturers, mechanics and farmers may come to Atlanta, Rome and Chattanooga with a certainty of fair dealing and fair encouragement. Though I was personally regarded the bete-noir of the late war in your region, the author of all your woes, yet I admit that I have just passed over the very ground desolated by the Civil War, and have received everywhere nothing but kind and courteous treatment from the highest to the lowest, and I heard of no violence to others for opinions' sake. Some Union men spoke to me of social ostracism, but I saw nothing of it, and even if it do exist it must disappear with the present generation. Our whole framework of government and history is founded on the personal and political equality of citizens, and philosophy teaches that social distinctions can only rest on personal merit and corresponding intelligence, and if any part of a community clings to distinctions founded on past conditions, it will grow less and less with time and finally disappear. Any attempt to build up an aristocracy or a privileged class at the South, on the fact that their fathers or grandfathers once owned slaves, will result in a ridiculous failure and subject the authors to the laughter of mankind. I refer to this subject incidentallybecause others have argued the case with me, but whether attempted elsewhere in the South, I am certain it will not be attempted in Georgia.
"Therefore, I shall believe and maintain that north Georgia is now in a condition to invite emigration from the Northern States of our Union and from Europe, and all parties concerned should advertise widely the great inducements your region holds out to the industrious and frugal of all lands; agents should be appointed in New York to advise, and others at Knoxville, Chattanooga, Rome, Atlanta, etc., to receive emigrants and to point out to them on arrival where cheap lands may be had with reasonable credit, where companies may open coal and iron mines, where mills may be erected to grind wheat and corn, spin cotton, and to manufacture the thousand and one things you now buy from abroad; and more especially to make known that you are prepared to welcome and patronize men who will settle in your region and form a part of your community.
"Your growth and development since the war have been good, very good—better than I was prepared to see; but compare it with San Francisco, Denver, Portland, Oregon, Leavenworth, Chicago, St. Louis, or hundreds of places I could mention, less favored in climate and location than Atlanta. These cities have been notoriously open to the whole world, and all men felt perfectly at liberty to go there with their families, with their acquired wealth and with their personal energy. You must guarantee the same, not superficially or selfishly, but with that sincerity and frankness which carries conviction.
GEN. LEW. WALLACE.
GEN. LEW. WALLACE.
"Personally, I would not like to check the flow of emigration westward, because of the vast natural importanceof that region, but I do believe that every patriot should do what he can to benefit every part of our whole country, and I am sure that good will result from turning a part of this great tide of human life and energy southward along the valleys of the Allegheny Mountains, especially of East Tennessee, northern Georgia and Alabama, and if I can aid you in this good work I assure you that I will do so with infinite pleasure.
"Excuse me if I ask you as an editor to let up somewhat on the favorite hobby of 'carpet-baggers.' I know that you personally apply the term only to political adventurers, but others, your readers, construe it otherwise. I have resided in San Francisco, Leavenworth and St. Louis, and of the men who have built up these great cities, I assert that not one in fifty was a native of the place. All, or substantially all, were 'carpet-baggers,'i.e., emigrants from all parts of the world, many of them from the South. Our Supreme Court, Congress and our most prominent and intellectual men, now hail from localities of their own adoption, not of their birth. Let the emigrant to Georgia feel and realize that his business and social position result from his own industry, his merits and his virtues, and not from the accidental place of his birth, and soon the great advantages of climate, soil, minerals, timber, etc., etc., will fill up your country and make Atlanta one of the most prosperous, beautiful and attractive cities, not alone of the South, but of the whole continent, an end which I desire quite as much as you do."
In the Spring of 1876 he talked at some length with a newspaper writer, about the South and the leaders of the late rebellion, and for the latter he expressed only esteem and friendship. "About two weeks ago," he said, "Ireceived a letter from a mutual friend in New York, asking if I would recommend General Braxton Bragg for appointment in the Khedive's army. I promptly replied that it would afford me pleasure to promote the interests of Bragg in that direction. I feel very kindly to all the Southern Generals. In fact, I think people everywhere throughout the North and West cherish no bad feeling. Jeff Davis is the only exception made. I do not know why it is that the Northern people hate him so, but they do, and will never get over their feeling in that respect. Davis did no worse than anybody else, but I suppose the people are bound to have somebody to hate. For instance, the Southern people hate General Butler about as bad or worse than the Northerners hate Davis. I suppose the two sections, while determined to cultivate friendly feelings among the people at large, require something on which to expend the hate that will unavoidably show itself at intervals. So far as the Northern and Southern people are concerned, they are rapidly assimilating, and in a few years they will be one people in fact as well as in name. Put the Southern and Northern soldiers together and you have the strongest element, in a military sense, that could be gotten together for any national purpose. As fighters, they would be invincible. The Southerners are impetuous and will fight quicker and fiercer, but they give out sooner; the Northerners are slower, but they stay longer; they have more endurance, and fight steadier and more stubbornly. In fighting qualities, the South represents France, and the North England. Put the two together and the devil couldn't whip them."
"General, why don't you recommend Jeff Davis for an appointment in Egypt?"
"Oh, I wouldn't do that; anybody but Jeff; I would not indorse Jeff."
"Perhaps it would be a public benefaction to do so?"
"Well, I never viewed it in that light. On second thought, I would gladly indorse Jeff, if he would leave the country."
Life at the Fifth Avenue Hotel—Ex-President Hayes's Memories—General Meigs's Tribute—Professor Howe on Sherman's School Days—A Visit to the Catskills—Sherman and Joe Johnston—Telling about Resaca—Thinking of the Sea—Marvellous Versatility—General Rosecrans' Reminiscences of Sherman at West Point.
Life at the Fifth Avenue Hotel—Ex-President Hayes's Memories—General Meigs's Tribute—Professor Howe on Sherman's School Days—A Visit to the Catskills—Sherman and Joe Johnston—Telling about Resaca—Thinking of the Sea—Marvellous Versatility—General Rosecrans' Reminiscences of Sherman at West Point.
A pleasant view of General Sherman's life in New York was given by Mr. Hiram Hitchcock, of the Fifth Avenue Hotel, at which house Sherman lived before he purchased a home. "He was," said Mr. Hitchcock, "a guest of this house off and on for many years, and as such he naturally became very much beloved by our whole household. After General Grant's funeral was over I spent the evening with General Sherman and he told me of his plans for the future; that he wanted to move quietly from St. Louis and locate in New York. He said that he thought he should enjoy New York very much, and his youngest son was then finishing his course at Yale, and the change would bring him near to New Haven. After that the General arranged by correspondence for his rooms on the parlor floor, Twenty-fifth street side. He came here with Mrs. Sherman and the daughters, and the youngest son used to come in frequently from Yale. At his first after-dinner speech in New York—that at the New England Society dinner—General Shermanreferred to having moved to New York, and said that he had gone into winter quarters down at the Fifth Avenue Hotel, where there was good grass and water.
"The General was very particular to have everything arranged to suit Mrs. Sherman. He said that as to himself it did not make very much difference. He was used to roughing it and he could take anything, but he wanted Mrs. Sherman to be very nicely fixed and to have things to her own mind. On the other hand Mrs. Sherman said to me: 'It doesn't make so very much difference about me, but I wish to have the General comfortable. Dear old fellow, he has seen a great deal of roughing it, and I want him to be entirely at ease.' They were very happy and comfortable here during their two years' stay, which began on September 1, 1886, and General Sherman's idea in having a house was mainly to make it pleasanter and more agreeable, if possible, for Mrs. Sherman and the daughters; to give Mrs. Sherman a little more quiet than she could have at a hotel, although she lived very quietly here.
"During the General's residence here he was, of course, a conspicuous figure. He was always genial and affable to every one, very easily approached, and he received and entertained a great many of his old army companions and aided a vast number of them. In fact, no one knows how many army men General Sherman has, first and last, assisted pecuniarily and in various ways, helping them to get positions and giving them advice and encouragement. He used to meet hosts of friends and acquaintances in the hotel. I remember his saying once that he would have to stop shaking hands, for he had lost one nail, and if he didn't quit soon he would lose them all. If he went to the dining-room, people from different parts of the country who knew him would get up and go over to his table and talk to him.
"It was a sort of a reception with him all the time—one continuous reception. He was very democratic in all his movements, and he always dined in the public room.
"The General kept one room for a regular working-room for himself. There he had his desk, a large library, scrap baskets, letter files, etc., and that is where he was in the habit of receiving his friends.
"As for the society side of his life here, Miss Sherman and her father had regular weekly receptions during the season, in the large drawing-room.
"General Sherman was exceedingly particular with reference to financial affairs. There never was a more honest man born than General Sherman. He was particular to pay his bills of every sort in full and to pay them promptly. He could not bear to be in debt. It actually worried him to have a matter stand over for a day. He knew just exactly how his affairs stood every day, and he could not bear to owe a man anything for twenty-four hours. And he was just as honest and frank and faithful in speech and in every other element of his character. He carried his character right on the outside, and it was true blue.
"When he went to his house at No. 75 West Seventy-first street, we kept up our relations with him, and we would occasionally send up some little thing to him. Soon after he moved we sent him a couple of packages, and in acknowledgment he sent us thisletter:—
"'75West Seventy-first St., Sept. 28th, 1888.Messrs. Hitchcock, Darling & Co., Fifth Avenue Hotel, N. Y.Dear Sirs:—I am this moment in receipt of two boxes, the contents of which will, I am sure, be most acceptable to self and guests. With profound thanks for past favors,many and heavy, and a hearty wish for your continued prosperity, I am, and always shall be, your grateful debtor,W. T. Sherman.'
"'75West Seventy-first St., Sept. 28th, 1888.
Messrs. Hitchcock, Darling & Co., Fifth Avenue Hotel, N. Y.
Dear Sirs:—I am this moment in receipt of two boxes, the contents of which will, I am sure, be most acceptable to self and guests. With profound thanks for past favors,many and heavy, and a hearty wish for your continued prosperity, I am, and always shall be, your grateful debtor,
W. T. Sherman.'
"Whenever the old General would come to this part of the city he would drop in. If he was going to the theatre he would call in before or after the performance—at all hours, in fact, he would come, and between his engagements. He used to sit in this office and chat. He was in this office just after Secretary Windom's death, and was asking about that sad occurrence. The last time he was here was only a night or two before he was taken sick with the fatal cold which was the beginning of his last illness. I went to the door with him and bade him good-night, and he turned and said cheerily, 'Come up, Hitchcock, come up.' I said, 'I'll be up in a few days,' and off he moved in his quick way.
"The General was, as everybody knows, a splendid conversationalist. He had a wonderful fund of anecdote, story and reminiscence, and was a capital story-teller. He was never at a loss for a ready reply.
"This was one of his comments on a story that he was not quite ready to believe. 'Oh, well, you can tell that to the marines, but don't tell it to an old soldier like me.'
"I think there was one very striking peculiarity about General Sherman. Of course we have seen it in different public men, but I think it might be said of Sherman fully as strongly as of any other public man, either in military or civil life, that he was as brave as a lion and as gentle as a woman. When anything touched him it revealed the sympathy of his nature. He was wonderfully kind-hearted.
"If there was an uncompromising patriot anywhere in the country it was General Sherman, and he manifested that in every walk of life, every expression, every look. Hewas a true hero. He was not only one of the great men, but one of the purest men of his time."
Ex-President Hayes was much affected by the death of Sherman, whom he knew well, though he had not served under him in the army. He said:
"My intimate acquaintance with General Sherman dates only since the war. I had been on friendly terms with him for about twenty-five years. He was so well known to the whole people, and especially to the Union soldiers, that there is hardly any reason for off-hand talk about him. There are probably few men who ever lived in any country who were known and loved as General Sherman was. He was the idol of the soldiers of the Union Army. His presence at soldiers' meetings and with soldiers' societies and organizations was always hailed with the utmost delight. When the General was present the enthusiasm created by his inspiring presence was such as to make him the chief attraction at all important gatherings. He was always cordial and very happy in his greetings to his comrades. He was full of the comrade spirit, and all, from the humblest soldier to the corps commander, were equally gratified by the way in which they were met and greeted by General Sherman.
"He will be greatly missed and greatly mourned by the whole body of men who served with and under him, and, indeed, by all the soldiers of all the armies. He was generally regarded by them as the military genius of the war. He was a voluminous writer, and a ready, prompt and capital talker. Probably no man who was connected with the war said as many things which will be remembered and quoted hereafter as did General Sherman.
"In figure, in face and in bearing he was the ideal soldier. I think that it can be said of him as he once said of another,that 'with him gone, the world seems less bright and less cheerful than it was before.' The soldiers in looking around for consolation for his death will find much in the fact that he lived so long—almost twenty-six years after the final victory. There is also probably some consolation in the fact that he has gone before age and disease had impaired his wonderful powers and attractions. He was, in short, the most picturesque, magnetic and original character in the great conflict. He was occasionally, in his writings and talk, wonderfully pathetic. I recall nothing connected with the war that was finer in that way than a letter which he wrote, probably during the second year of the war, when his son, about ten years old, who was named after the General, died in camp. The boy fancied that he belonged to a regiment of his father's command, and the members of the regiment were very attentive to him during his sickness, and at the time of his death. General Sherman wrote a letter to the men of the regiment, thanking them for what they had done. I cannot now recall the terms of that letter, but I doubt not that if it were now published many an eye would moisten as it was read.
"A very noble trait in the character of General Sherman was the fidelity of his friendships. His loyal support of Grant under all the circumstances cannot be surpassed in all the history of the relations between eminent men engaged in a common cause."
"I recall a telegram received from General Sherman one November day in 1864," said General W. S. Rosecrans, "while I was in the Department of the Missouri. The telegram read: 'I start to-day for Atlanta and will make Rome howl.'
"And he did it, too," continued General Rosecrans. "I had known General Sherman since 1838, although I wasnot thrown much with him in service. In 1850 he was paying court to Miss Ewing, and after their engagement he came all the way to Newport to invite me to the wedding.
"I had always been a great admirer of General Sherman. His character as a man was one to command admiration. Of course it is difficult to select for comment thereon any particular passage of a life that was so busy and so full of great deeds."
General Meigs said: "The first time I met General Sherman was on the return of McDowell's army. I called on him at his headquarters across the river from Bull Run. Sherman at that time was in the prime of life, and the measure I then took of him has been fully justified. His nature was naturally genial and democratic, notwithstanding his West Point training.
"While we were talking, an enlisted man—an Irish soldier—approached, and in rich Irish brogue asked the General to put his finger in the muzzle of his gun to see that it was clean. Sherman tried to put him off, but the Irishman insisted, when, to get rid of him, Sherman complied and laughingly remarked: 'Now go off and mind your business.'
"Previous to the war he had served on the Cherokee Commission, and his experience at that time, he afterward told me, was valuable, as the Cherokee reservation was located in a large portion of the country through which he subsequently travelled with his army. Even while in Washington he was continually exploring the country, and in a very short time had its topography thoroughly mapped in his mind. I may say that there never was a great general—and Sherman certainly ranks among the greatest—who did not possess this invaluable faculty, which Marmont, in his treatise on the service of war, says enables a man notonly to see what lies directly before him but what lies far beyond the scope of his vision. Another valuable trait he possessed was that he reached his conclusions promptly and then acted upon them. More than one general failed to achieve greatness in the Union army because he hesitated when he should have acted.
"General Sherman socially was one of the most charming of men. If he was brilliant on the field of battle, in the social circle he was the prince of entertainers. His manhood was symmetrical, his talents as a general of the first rank and his fame immortal."
Professor W. P. Howe, of Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, a son of Sherman's old schoolmaster, wrote as follows in the IowaState Register:
"My father had the high privilege of very largely moulding the character and the career of General Sherman, as well as the destiny of many others who afterwards became distinguished in the history of our beloved country. General Sherman and Senator John Sherman were both students under my father's care and instruction for several years, at the high school and female seminary located at Lancaster, Ohio. My father, the late Professor Samuel L. Howe, was for many years the principal of said academy, and here, in the above quiet little village, was the family home of the Shermans. Mrs. Sherman, the mother, was at the time a widow, living a quiet and secluded life, but a woman of great force of character, and determined that her children should have the fullest opportunity for mental and moral development. My father fitted young Sherman for West Point, and was careful and thorough to the last degree in everything pertaining to his profession. But he was especially devoted to the inculcation of moral principle, heartculture, in the minds of his pupils. He constantly instilled these great essential principles into the receptive minds of the young men under his care with all the power at his command. And when love failed to accomplish the work, then physical discipline was called in. Now the Sherman boys were proud, high-spirited fellows, like most American lads, and often wanted their own way, and at one time the government of the academy depended upon who should rule, they or their teacher. Being duly informed, the widow Sherman attended the college in person and said the proper correction should be administered under her own eye,—and it was thus given, but I have often heard my good father say that the boys gave him a long and severe struggle, and that his clothing was badly torn and disarranged in the contest. But here was General Sherman's first great and grand lesson in discipline; a lesson no doubt, which proved of immense value to him during the remainder of life. From this time forward the boys were the models of the school, and occupied the front rank both in moral and mental leadership.
"Brigadier-General Stone, who commanded a brigade in the Fifteenth Army Corps in 1864, submitted for publication some personal reminiscences of General Sherman. In one of these interviews, he (Sherman) paid the following just and generous tribute to his old teacher:
"'General Stone, I consider Prof. Samuel L. Howe to be one of the best teachers in the United States. I owe more to him for my first start in life than to any other man in America.'
"Any teacher, any family, might well be proud of a tribute like the above, coming from such an exalted source, and very truthfully may I add to the above that during allof his life General Sherman entertained the highest regard for, and ever manifested a lively and affectionate interest in, his venerated teacher and his family.
"In the year 1877 my revered and honored father departed this life at Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, and perhaps the following autograph letter from General Sherman, written to me in reference to that event, may still more clearly illustrate the affectionate and lovable side of that great man'scharacter:—
"'HeadquartersU. S.Army, Washington, D. C.,April 26th, 1877.Warrington Howe, Esq."'Dear Friend:—I have received your letter, with the newspaper slip containing the full and just tribute to your father, the late Samuel L. Howe. I regret extremely that in my perambulations over this great country of late years, I never had the chance to meet your father, which I wanted to do. And now, though forty long and eventful years have passed since I left his school at Lancaster, Ohio, I can recall his personal appearance to mind as clearly as though it were yesterday. I have always borne willing testimony to his skill and merits as a teacher, and am sure that the thorough modes of instruction in arithmetic and grammar pursued by him prepared me for easy admission to West Point, and for a respectable standing in my class. I have heard from time to time of the changes that attended his useful career, and am glad to learn that he has left behind the flourishing academy at Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, with children qualified to take up his work where he left off, and carry it to completion."'I beg you will convey to your mother the assurance of my great respect and sympathy in her great affliction. I recall her also to memory; a young mother, living in thehouse of "Papa" Boyle, close by the school-house built by Mr. Howe in the old orchard, and it is hard for me to realize that she is now a widow and a grandmother. I feel sure, however, that Mr. Howe has left behind him hundreds and thousands that revere his memory, and will perpetuate it by deeds and virtues which his example and precept suggested. Truly your friend,'W. T. Sherman.'
"'HeadquartersU. S.Army, Washington, D. C.,April 26th, 1877.
Warrington Howe, Esq.
"'Dear Friend:—I have received your letter, with the newspaper slip containing the full and just tribute to your father, the late Samuel L. Howe. I regret extremely that in my perambulations over this great country of late years, I never had the chance to meet your father, which I wanted to do. And now, though forty long and eventful years have passed since I left his school at Lancaster, Ohio, I can recall his personal appearance to mind as clearly as though it were yesterday. I have always borne willing testimony to his skill and merits as a teacher, and am sure that the thorough modes of instruction in arithmetic and grammar pursued by him prepared me for easy admission to West Point, and for a respectable standing in my class. I have heard from time to time of the changes that attended his useful career, and am glad to learn that he has left behind the flourishing academy at Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, with children qualified to take up his work where he left off, and carry it to completion.
"'I beg you will convey to your mother the assurance of my great respect and sympathy in her great affliction. I recall her also to memory; a young mother, living in thehouse of "Papa" Boyle, close by the school-house built by Mr. Howe in the old orchard, and it is hard for me to realize that she is now a widow and a grandmother. I feel sure, however, that Mr. Howe has left behind him hundreds and thousands that revere his memory, and will perpetuate it by deeds and virtues which his example and precept suggested. Truly your friend,
'W. T. Sherman.'
"The above letter has been preserved by me with religious care during all these years, and will be so long as life shall last. In a few brief closing words permit me to say that the high privilege of having moulded and directed such a character as that of General Sherman—a character which has so eminently honored our country and blessed the age in which we live—is a matter of honorable and just pride to any man and family and a constant source of inspiration to high and noble living."
Mr. Charles F. Wingate said of Sherman, as he knew him near the end of his life:
"I had heard General Sherman at the famous dinner given many years ago, at the St. Nicholas Hotel, where General Grant, Henry Ward Beecher, Lawrence Barrett and Joseph Howard, Jr., also made memorable speeches, but I never came in personal contact with the hero of the March to the Sea, until the summer of 1889, when he made a too brief visit to Twilight Park, in the Catskills. He had been staying at the Mountain House, I think, and rode over with two ladies of his family to call upon some friends in the Park, so that I had an opportunity of talking freely with him. My previous impressions were all upset by this experience. Instead of the hard-featured, grim martinet, depicted in his photographs, loquacious, opinionated and over-bearing, whom I expected to see, the great Generalimpressed me as almost handsome, with fine, courtly, dignified bearing, affable, unpretentious, kind-hearted and without the slightest trace of vanity or egotism. I watched him critically during his entire stay, and was unable to detect any sign of self-consciousness. He seemed as natural, as warm-hearted and as simple as a child. He greeted everybody with cordiality, and made us all feel at ease in his company.
"There was a group of carpenters—all native Americans—working upon a new cottage near by, who were naturally anxious to see the General, especially as some of them had served in the war. He went over to meet them in the frankest manner, and when an old veteran, some seventy years of age, said to him, 'I am glad to see you, General,' Sherman responded in his hearty manner, I know you're glad to see me and I'm glad to see you, too,' and he shook hands with the delighted workman in true democratic fashion.
"His remarkable vigor was shown by the quietness with which he mounted a steep stairway leading to a cottage on a hillside. The exertion did not affect him in the least and he seemed the youngest and most alert of the party. When offered some refreshment on the piazza, he raised his glass and, glancing around, said, 'Gentlemen, in the famous words of John Phenix, I impair my own health by drinking yours.' While seated there, he told many interesting anecdotes of famous men whom he met—Lincoln, Grant, Von Moltke, Bismarck and others. He did not monopolize the conversation and only spoke of his experience in response to questions. One of the gentlemen present had been connected with the United States Sanitary Commission, and this fact suggested some of the topics touched upon. Reference was made to the horrors of warand the difficult position of a commander who has to order an assault which he knows will lead to great sacrifice of life. Sherman replied that such matters become a necessity, and are part of the soldier's business, however trying. Personal feelings cannot be considered on such occasions.
"As we left the cottage, he turned and looked around, saying, with a characteristic laugh, 'How are the points of the compass here? I am an old campaigner and like to know the exact location of places where I have been entertained, so that I can find them again.'
"I was anxious that my boy, who was off fishing, should see the hero of the war, at the impressionable age of youth, and he fortunately came up just then with a son of MacGahan, the famous war correspondent in the Balkans. Sherman had known the latter intimately, having traveled 500 miles in his company during his Russian journey. He greeted both boys in a fatherly fashion, and at my request gave each of them a visiting card as a memento of the meeting. Presently I ventured to say:
"'General, these youngsters have no conception of a commander doing anything but prancing around in full uniform, on a fiery steed, or leading charges sword in hand, and cutting down a score of fellows with his own hand. Won't you tell them if you ever did any actual fighting like Cæsar and Alexander, and how many hundred men you have killed?'
"Sherman laughed good-naturedly, and patting the boys on the head said that he was usually away from the thick of the fighting, and he only remembered once engaging personally in it. He and his staff were under fire, and he noticed one man on the other side who seemed to be in plain view, and who was peppering them as fast as he could load and fire. Acting upon a sudden impulse Shermanturned to a Union soldier standing near by, and seizing his rifle took a snap-shot at the Rebel, who disappeared, 'and that,' said Sherman, 'was the only time I ever shot any one.'