*****
April 22.--Went to a party at Shakespeare Wood’s the other night. He is correspondent of the LondonTimes, and is an important man among foreigners in Rome. They say his salary is as good as a Minister’s. I fear that is a mistake. Saw many noted people at his house--Lord Houghton, the poet and critic, the Trollopes and others.
Heard much talk against Gladstone. One English gentleman said, with apparent approval of a little group of English listeners, “The man ought to be shot for the good of England.” It seemed inexplicable, impossible--so much hatred of the world’s best Christian statesman.
Lord Houghton is a good, gray, old man, full of vivacity and with opinions of his own. He has renown in Italy, for he has been a great friend in the country’s struggle for liberty, and his life of literature has had great reward.
Shakespeare Wood knows more about Rome and Italy than half the Italians themselves, and is besides an artist and an antiquarian.
Last evening I was invited to dine at the home of the celebrated Professor Moleschott. He is a distinguished author and a Roman Senator, though a born German. Myinvitation came as a result of a letter to him from my friend Johannes Scherr, the German author. Moleschott had once lived in Zurich.
This was an “evening” for certain delegates to a World’s Congress of scientific and medical men. Dr. Sternberg, of Washington, was there. Few of the guests understood Italian. Moleschott seemed able to speak with each in his own tongue. Scherr’s letter caused him to pay me no little attention, and he chatted with me considerably. He is the most remarkable looking man I ever saw. Has a head like a lion. He is short, stout, broad faced, and has big eyes, and low side whiskers. I asked him how on earth he could learn so many languages in addition to his enormous duties as a scientific writer, a constant lecturer, and an Italian Senator. “I don’t learn them,” he said; “I must absorb them. I have no time to learn them.” “But you must have studiedEnglish,” I replied. “You are too much of a master there, to be merely an absorber.” “Well, yes, a little bit,” he answered. “That is, I laid your English grammar on my dressing case mornings for a few weeks, and while I walked up and down the room putting on my clothes I got hold of your language.”
He was one of the rare men we meet who seem to know everything. Observation great, memory powerful. What would the world be, if all men had Moleschott’s intellect. Like Goethe, he has universal knowledge.
He passes our door daily in an open cab, and is always sitting with an open volume in his lap, and yet he sees and greets people and goes on with his reading.
House of Gold, Venice.
House of Gold, Venice.
May 1, 1885.--I have this entry in my diary: “This day I resigned my post as Consul General of Italy and will soon leave the service, after many years of constant and faithful duty. These last weeks I have also had charge of the diplomatic affairs of our country here, and it is gratifying to receive, by the same mail that brings a letter asking myresignation, another letter expressing appreciation of some of my recent services.”
On my arrival home in America, I found the following letter waiting me from General Sherman:
“St. Louis, Mo., June 29, 1885.“Dear Byers:--I have your letter written at sea, in which you give me the first information I had received that you had been displaced at Rome. I knew, of course, it was bound to come, for party allegiance with us is stronger than patriotism, and the pendulum of time was bound to swing against us, and we will be lucky if we are not indicted for horse stealing and for the murder of men who resorted to arms to destroy the very Government of which now they are the main supporters. Of course, in due time the pendulum will swing back, but meantime, we must lie low, else history will record Jeff Davis the patriot, and Mr. Lincoln the usurper.“I am glad to know that you propose to settle at Des Moines. It is a beautiful and seemingly prosperous place, and if you can engage in any business there, you will soon have reason to feel a sense of security in not being the slave of the State Department.“We are all here now, but in a short time Mrs. Sherman and all the family will go to Lake Minnetonka for the summer. I have some business which will detain me here a while, when I will follow, but I have a positive engagement at Mansfield, Ohio, August 15; New York, August 20, and Chicago, September 9 and 10. So you see I am kept busy. I have long experience and declare that it is harder for me to maintain a modern family with fifty dependents and a thousand old soldiers claiming of right all I possess, than to command a hundred thousand men in battle. Still I expect to worry along a few years, till summoned to a final rest. I now merely write to welcome you back to your native land, and to express the hope that Mrs. Byers willsoon regain her wonted health, and that you, too, will settle down with as much contentment as you can command, after your long sojourn abroad. Hoping you will notify me of your arrival at Oskaloosa and Des Moines, I venture to send you this to New Wilmington, Pa.“Sincerely your friend,W. T. Sherman.”
“St. Louis, Mo., June 29, 1885.
“Dear Byers:--I have your letter written at sea, in which you give me the first information I had received that you had been displaced at Rome. I knew, of course, it was bound to come, for party allegiance with us is stronger than patriotism, and the pendulum of time was bound to swing against us, and we will be lucky if we are not indicted for horse stealing and for the murder of men who resorted to arms to destroy the very Government of which now they are the main supporters. Of course, in due time the pendulum will swing back, but meantime, we must lie low, else history will record Jeff Davis the patriot, and Mr. Lincoln the usurper.
“I am glad to know that you propose to settle at Des Moines. It is a beautiful and seemingly prosperous place, and if you can engage in any business there, you will soon have reason to feel a sense of security in not being the slave of the State Department.
“We are all here now, but in a short time Mrs. Sherman and all the family will go to Lake Minnetonka for the summer. I have some business which will detain me here a while, when I will follow, but I have a positive engagement at Mansfield, Ohio, August 15; New York, August 20, and Chicago, September 9 and 10. So you see I am kept busy. I have long experience and declare that it is harder for me to maintain a modern family with fifty dependents and a thousand old soldiers claiming of right all I possess, than to command a hundred thousand men in battle. Still I expect to worry along a few years, till summoned to a final rest. I now merely write to welcome you back to your native land, and to express the hope that Mrs. Byers willsoon regain her wonted health, and that you, too, will settle down with as much contentment as you can command, after your long sojourn abroad. Hoping you will notify me of your arrival at Oskaloosa and Des Moines, I venture to send you this to New Wilmington, Pa.
“Sincerely your friend,W. T. Sherman.”
Another letter of interest came from him:
“St. Louis, Mo., Sept. 30, 1885.“Dear Byers:--Now I shall know where to find you. You are fully competent to manage your own interests, and I shall not commit the foolish mistake of proffering advice where it is not asked. I remember when money was worth 3 per cent a month (in California). It broke both lender and borrower, for the borrower simply gave up the houses and land mortgaged, and the lenders themselves became borrowers for the taxes. To-day money in the United States is worth 3 per cent per annum, and all over that rate is ‘risk,’notinterest. If I had money to lend, which I have not, I would not lend it on an Iowa farm at 8 per cent, but on a Government bond at 3 per cent, because I would conclude sooner or later I would have to take the Iowa farm, which would be an elephant. A farm is a good thing for a farmer, but a bad thing for an owner. Still I have good faith in the ultimate value of good farm land, because it yields annual crops, whereas mines and manufactories play out. My heavy expenses still go on. In St. Louis, we pay as taxes, full rent, and have to pay the objects of taxation direct. Thus our taxes are $2.50 on a full valuation, and we must in addition pay for watering the streets, for street-paving and improvements, for special police, for the militia and for schools. I can manage to make ends meet, but I wonder how a man can, in business, make profit enough to cover his family expenses. These economic questions will become the questions of the future.“Mrs. Sherman is absent at the East, to visit Elly and Minnie. The rest of us are here. Love to all.“Your friend,W. T. Sherman.”
“St. Louis, Mo., Sept. 30, 1885.
“Dear Byers:--Now I shall know where to find you. You are fully competent to manage your own interests, and I shall not commit the foolish mistake of proffering advice where it is not asked. I remember when money was worth 3 per cent a month (in California). It broke both lender and borrower, for the borrower simply gave up the houses and land mortgaged, and the lenders themselves became borrowers for the taxes. To-day money in the United States is worth 3 per cent per annum, and all over that rate is ‘risk,’notinterest. If I had money to lend, which I have not, I would not lend it on an Iowa farm at 8 per cent, but on a Government bond at 3 per cent, because I would conclude sooner or later I would have to take the Iowa farm, which would be an elephant. A farm is a good thing for a farmer, but a bad thing for an owner. Still I have good faith in the ultimate value of good farm land, because it yields annual crops, whereas mines and manufactories play out. My heavy expenses still go on. In St. Louis, we pay as taxes, full rent, and have to pay the objects of taxation direct. Thus our taxes are $2.50 on a full valuation, and we must in addition pay for watering the streets, for street-paving and improvements, for special police, for the militia and for schools. I can manage to make ends meet, but I wonder how a man can, in business, make profit enough to cover his family expenses. These economic questions will become the questions of the future.
“Mrs. Sherman is absent at the East, to visit Elly and Minnie. The rest of us are here. Love to all.
“Your friend,W. T. Sherman.”
In October he writes again:
“St. Louis, Mo., Oct 23, 1885.“Dear Byers:--I feel easier on your account, since you tell me that you find the business in which you were about to embark, overdone. Nearly all the calamities which have overtaken families in America, can be traced to the credit system, which necessarily prevails. I had enough experience in it to put me on my guard, and I am firm in my faith in Shakespeare’s ‘Neither a borrower nor a lender be.’ And the consequence is that to-day I owe no man a cent, and have no incidental obligations as indorser or bondsman. All my children know this, and while I give them liberally of what I have, they never dream of asking me to borrow or indorse.“There is a great deal of wisdom in Dickens’ character of Micawber. ‘Income, £100; expenses, £99.19.6--result, happiness. Income, £100; expenses, £101.4.3--result, misery.’ I quote from memory.“If you and Mrs. Byers will be content with what you have, and live within your income, whether $1,800 or $6,000, your days will be long in the land of the living. Now, surely, even in Des Moines, you can supplement your income by the sale of occasional articles from your pen, which will add to your frugal fund most of the luxuries of life.“In any and every event, I beg you will keep me advised of your progress, so long as I travel in this world of woe and mystery.“Mrs. Sherman is now back from her visit to our married children at the East and I think we shall remain unchanged all winter. I have numerous calls, but generally answer that I am entitled to rest and mean to claim it.“My best compliments to your good wife and son.“Your friend,W. T. Sherman.”
“St. Louis, Mo., Oct 23, 1885.
“Dear Byers:--I feel easier on your account, since you tell me that you find the business in which you were about to embark, overdone. Nearly all the calamities which have overtaken families in America, can be traced to the credit system, which necessarily prevails. I had enough experience in it to put me on my guard, and I am firm in my faith in Shakespeare’s ‘Neither a borrower nor a lender be.’ And the consequence is that to-day I owe no man a cent, and have no incidental obligations as indorser or bondsman. All my children know this, and while I give them liberally of what I have, they never dream of asking me to borrow or indorse.
“There is a great deal of wisdom in Dickens’ character of Micawber. ‘Income, £100; expenses, £99.19.6--result, happiness. Income, £100; expenses, £101.4.3--result, misery.’ I quote from memory.
“If you and Mrs. Byers will be content with what you have, and live within your income, whether $1,800 or $6,000, your days will be long in the land of the living. Now, surely, even in Des Moines, you can supplement your income by the sale of occasional articles from your pen, which will add to your frugal fund most of the luxuries of life.
“In any and every event, I beg you will keep me advised of your progress, so long as I travel in this world of woe and mystery.
“Mrs. Sherman is now back from her visit to our married children at the East and I think we shall remain unchanged all winter. I have numerous calls, but generally answer that I am entitled to rest and mean to claim it.
“My best compliments to your good wife and son.
“Your friend,W. T. Sherman.”
THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW ENGAGES ME TO EDIT SEVERAL CHAPTERS OF THE SHERMAN CORRESPONDENCE--SHERMAN WRITES AS TO MAGAZINES AND HIS BOOK--THE GENERAL INVITES ME TO COME AND STAY AT HIS HOME IN ST. LOUIS--HE OFFERS ME THE USE OF ALL HIS PAPERS--I PUBLISH ALSO IN THE REVIEW A PROSE NARRATIVE OF THE MARCH TO THE SEA--MRS. SHERMAN READS IT TO THE GENERAL--BUFFALO BILL--GENERAL GIVES ME HIS ARMY BADGE--NIGHTS IN SHERMAN’S OFFICE--CONVERSATIONS WITH HIM--LIFE IN THE SHERMAN HOME--THE GENERAL’S COMPLETE RECONCILIATION WITH HIS SON “TOM”--INTERESTING LETTERS FROM SHERMAN AS TO MAGAZINES--HIS FORTHCOMING BOOK--FARMS AND TAXES--WAR HISTORIES--GRANT’S BOOK--NEWSPAPERS--CHRISTMAS LETTER.
THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW ENGAGES ME TO EDIT SEVERAL CHAPTERS OF THE SHERMAN CORRESPONDENCE--SHERMAN WRITES AS TO MAGAZINES AND HIS BOOK--THE GENERAL INVITES ME TO COME AND STAY AT HIS HOME IN ST. LOUIS--HE OFFERS ME THE USE OF ALL HIS PAPERS--I PUBLISH ALSO IN THE REVIEW A PROSE NARRATIVE OF THE MARCH TO THE SEA--MRS. SHERMAN READS IT TO THE GENERAL--BUFFALO BILL--GENERAL GIVES ME HIS ARMY BADGE--NIGHTS IN SHERMAN’S OFFICE--CONVERSATIONS WITH HIM--LIFE IN THE SHERMAN HOME--THE GENERAL’S COMPLETE RECONCILIATION WITH HIS SON “TOM”--INTERESTING LETTERS FROM SHERMAN AS TO MAGAZINES--HIS FORTHCOMING BOOK--FARMS AND TAXES--WAR HISTORIES--GRANT’S BOOK--NEWSPAPERS--CHRISTMAS LETTER.
The interval between my resignation at Rome and my reappointment as Consul General for Switzerland was spent in my home in Iowa.
Early in 1886, the North American Review asked me to prepare and edit a series of General Sherman’s letters for the magazine.
I received an interesting letter from the General about the tempting offers made to him by the magazines. They make offers of that kind to one man in a million, and only one man in a million could decline them. He mentions his forthcoming book.
“Washington, D. C., Feb. 3, 1886.“Dear Byers:--I was glad to receive your letter of the 1st inst. It indicates a purpose to join in the throng now publishing articles about the war. Last year Rice, of the N. A.Review, offered me $1,000 for an article on Grant, which I declined and he obtained that of March for nothing. I hate controversy, but could not escape this with F----, who is an army officer, retired, and usually very accurate, but his denial to furnish me the source of his extract from one of my private letters led up to my reply in the March number. If you have read from the magazine itself, all right, but if you have only seen the newspaper extracts, I would like to have you get the Review itself and read the whole. The Century Magazine is also a very respectable vehicle for war stories and has tempted me with high offers in money, but I have resolved to keep out of the newspapers and magazines as far as they will let me, confining myself to the memoirs revised, which will be issued by the Appletons by May next. I have gone over all the proof and will now stand by it. The first and last chapters are new--as well as the index, maps and illustrations.“We are all very well here and I shall regret to give up my own home here for a hotel in New York, but I shall never consent to housekeeping in New York.“My best love to Mrs. Byers and the children.“Truly your friend,W. T. Sherman.”
“Washington, D. C., Feb. 3, 1886.
“Dear Byers:--I was glad to receive your letter of the 1st inst. It indicates a purpose to join in the throng now publishing articles about the war. Last year Rice, of the N. A.Review, offered me $1,000 for an article on Grant, which I declined and he obtained that of March for nothing. I hate controversy, but could not escape this with F----, who is an army officer, retired, and usually very accurate, but his denial to furnish me the source of his extract from one of my private letters led up to my reply in the March number. If you have read from the magazine itself, all right, but if you have only seen the newspaper extracts, I would like to have you get the Review itself and read the whole. The Century Magazine is also a very respectable vehicle for war stories and has tempted me with high offers in money, but I have resolved to keep out of the newspapers and magazines as far as they will let me, confining myself to the memoirs revised, which will be issued by the Appletons by May next. I have gone over all the proof and will now stand by it. The first and last chapters are new--as well as the index, maps and illustrations.
“We are all very well here and I shall regret to give up my own home here for a hotel in New York, but I shall never consent to housekeeping in New York.
“My best love to Mrs. Byers and the children.
“Truly your friend,W. T. Sherman.”
At the General’s invitation I went to St. Louis, and for a time was a guest in his home as I had been before in Washington.
A few notes of the great commander’s life at this time may not be amiss here.
General Sherman was now a retired officer. After a great life on the military stage, he had himself rung down the curtain. He was living in a comfortable, brown, two-story brick house, at 912 Garrison Avenue.
His simple little office, where he spent most of his time, was down in the basement, just as it had been in Washington. The same little sign bearing the simple words:
“Office of General Sherman”
was on one of the basement windows. In this room, on shelves and in cases, were all the records of his life--his memoranda of the war, military maps, correspondence. There were letters on file in that little room from eminent men all over the country. A magazine editor once offered $40,000 for permission to go down into that basement and pick out the letters he would like to print in his magazine. The editor even offered a thousand dollars for one certain, single letter there. It was never printed till its importance was gone.
One evening he came down into the basement where I was sitting, and taking his keys out of his pocket threw them on the table beside me, saying: “There, I trust you with everything; unlock everything; use what you want.” The complete confidence thus placed in me, I recall with pride and affection. I recall, too, the responsibility I felt.
Night after night, day after day, I read among the letters, picking out only those that seemed of interest to the public, and to be perfectly proper to print.
At that time I edited for the North American Review six chapters of them. Nothing went without General Sherman’s approval. He allowed his clerk, Mr. Barrett, to copy for me. Hundreds of the most entertaining letters I regarded it indiscreet to print at that time, and they have never been printed yet.
The General and myself sat there in the basement by the little open fire many a time till twelve or one o’clock at night; I looking through the almost thousands of letters and papers, he smoking a cigar and reading. The poems of Burns lay there on his desk all the time, because Burns was his favorite poet. Dickens and Scott, he read time and again; some of the stories once a year, he said.
When I would find something of especial interest among the letters, I would speak of it. He would stop reading and, for an hour, tell me all about it, and add interesting things concerning the writer. What would I not now givecould my memory recall faithfully his talks to me in the silence of those nights. He suffered some with asthma, and it was always easier for him to sit up far into the night and talk, than to go to bed. Sometimes a wee drop from a black bottle in the back room refreshed us both, without harming either.
About this time, a few over-zealous friends of Grant, not satisfied with the world’s recognition of his genius, were claiming for him the impossible merit of everything that happened in the war, even the origin of the March to the Sea. The claim was ridiculous, and I do not believe that General Grant personally had anything to do with it. But I am sure that Sherman felt that Grant ought to have spoken at this juncture.
One evening I came across an autograph letter from Grant to Sherman, congratulating him on the achievement of the March to the Sea, “a campaign,” in Grant’s words, “the like of which has not been read of in past history.” There was not a thought of claiming any of the glory for himself. Right beside it lay a letter from Robert E. Lee, telling how this movement of Sherman’s resulted eventually in the fall of Richmond. Reading these, determined me, while with General Sherman in his home, to write, myself, an account of the March to the Sea, for the North American Review. My article was printed in the Review, September, 1887.
When it was finished I asked the General to listen to it. He sent upstairs one morning for Mrs. Sherman to come down and hear it also. “Let me read it aloud,” said Mrs. Sherman. It was one of the delightful hours of my life, to sit there and hear the wife of the great soldier read to him my story of his March to the Sea. I watched his face while she read, and could see that his mind was again afire with the thought of the campaign. He made no important changes, and a note to the editor of the Review showed that he approved my paper fully.
Life went on in the General’s family very much as atWashington. It was a happy, hospitable home. “Tom,” the father now being reconciled to the idea of his being a priest, came up often from the college down town, and many were the interesting conversations I heard between the great soldier and his intellectual son. It seemed to me the same fire of intellect was in each, only it was all different in flame and purpose. Mrs. Sherman had a little office of her own upstairs, just as at her Washington home, where she devoted her energy to planning for the poor. She was a noble, unselfish woman, and her charities, unheralded to the world, did much to soften the hard lines of the unfortunate.
The General’s health was not the very best. He was often taking such severe colds as even threatened his life. The doctors were uneasy, and Mrs. Sherman was on one or two occasions much alarmed. “Should such a misfortune occur,” she said to me one morning after the breakfast, “should I survive him, I want you to undertake the publication of all my husband’s papers and correspondence. He has told me of his affection for you many times, and you know my own.” I was greatly touched by this new proof of confidence in me, but I could not but think that General Sherman had many years to live.
The General, simple in public life, was still simpler in his home. He came to breakfast mornings in his comfortable old slippers and wearing a shiny little morning coat that was more comfortable than decorative. After lunch at noon, he usually took an hour’s nap and then went down in the basement to his work of answering letters. He answered everybody, and gave himself as much labor in this imposed letter writing as if he were well paid for it. Hundreds and hundreds of people asked him to help them get office, and hundreds asked him for money. He gave a great deal, and the giving helped to keep him a comparatively poor man. Mrs. Sherman told me how he kept accounts at certain Washington stores, and sent needy menthere almost daily with orders for hats, coats, etc. His daughter Lizzie was one of the kindest and sweetest spirits I ever knew. She was almost a constant companion of her father in his many travels.
We had pleasant chats every morning at the breakfast table, though it was nearly impossible to get the General away from the basement and his newspaper, till Mrs. S. had the papers put on the table with the coffee. Then the General would read and comment. He regarded the press almost as a necessary evil. Few of his comments were complimentary to it. He had a horror of reporters.
A great railroad strike was going on. Some sensational newspapers in St. Louis were helping to keep it up by encouraging the strikers. A month before, the same journals had been obsequious to the railroads. “Some day,” said the General one morning, throwing down the newspaper, “these pusillanimous scoundrels of editors will be for calling on me and on the country to save them from the very ruin they are now encouraging. They are pulling the house down on their own heads. If it could fall on them, only! But little newspapers care for the sorrow they carry to human breasts, if they can only start a sensation.”
He hated professional politicians even as much as such editors, but he discriminated between a man going to Congress for bread and butter, and a man who tried to labor for his country. Even Blaine, whom he so cordially honored, he thought a spoilsman at times, not always a statesman.
In the home here, Mrs. Sherman called him “Cump,” and that was the title he liked to hear. The name conveyed something dearer and better to him than titles and rank. He had no love for any of these empty sounding baubles, anyway, and never sought a promotion in his life.
One evening he was to address the Ransom Grand Army Post at St. Louis, and in the name of some patriotic man present a flag. He asked me to go along. After supper I came down and found him dressed and waiting for me inthe drawing-room. “Where is your Grand Army badge?” he asked, observing I had none. I explained that mine was at home in Iowa. “You must have one,” he said, “I’ll give you this,” and taking the emblem from his breast he fastened it on my coat. I treasure it still. It is an heirloom for my son.
He took me to see Buffalo Bill, the Indian fighter, one day. It was at the Fair Ground. The scout came to the General’s box with all the fair manner of a high-born gentleman, saluted, bowed, advanced, took the extended hand and met a genuine soldier’s greeting. Sherman had known him on the plains, and respected him as a man of worth. “That man’s a genius,” he said, when Cody went down to the ring, “and he believes in himself. That’s half the battle of life.” Sherman, like Buffalo Bill, believed in himself. He knew what he could do, and did it, and asked neither praise nor pay.
That evening, one of Sherman’s daughters and a girl friend visiting in the family, danced with Buffalo Bill at a great ball. “He was the best dancer of them all,” said one of the girls on coming home. “Just too lovely for anything,” added the other. And this was the man of the prairies, the hunter, the scout. Environment doesn’t count for anything, after all.
One day while at the Shermans, a friend, Mr. Haydock, asked me to go with him to see Grant’s log house. It is on the old Dent farm in the woods, seven miles southwest of the city. This now neglected land was given to Mrs. Grant by her father, at her marriage. When Grant was thirty-two, he saw no prospects ahead of him in the army; so he resigned and went out here in the woods to live. “I had no means to stock the farm,” he wrote later, “and a house had to be built. I worked very hard, never losing a day because of bad weather. If nothing else could be done, I would put a load of wood on the wagon and take it to the city for sale.” For four years, Grant and his familylived this obscure life here in a little log cabin he built with his own hands.
The cabin is now hard to find. The road is deserted, the yard is overgrown with tall grass, straggling rose bushes bloom in what was once a garden; the windows of the cabin are gone, the doors stand open.
Grant cut the trees, prepared and hauled the logs for the cabin himself, and a hired hand helped him to put them up. It is a typical Southern log house, one and a half stories high, two rooms below, separated by an open hall, two rooms above. There is no history of Grant’s life, during the years he struggled to make a living on this lonesome backwoods farm. Grant seldom alluded to it himself.
While walking over the deserted cabin and yard, I saw in my mind its whilom owner, the guest of peoples and potentates.
Sherman had an extravagant opinion of General Grant’s abilities. “Grant was the one level-headed man among us all,” he said to me one night, down in the basement of his home. Sherman went to the opera because he was fond of music, though he could not sing a note. If he kissed the pretty women behind the scenes sometimes, or more likely in front of the scenes, it was because the pretty women kissed him. I never saw a man so run after by womankind in my life. It was a great honor to have him touch their hands, their lips. Once in Switzerland, when he was leaving Bern on a train, the whole crowd of American women at the depot, old and young, pretty and ugly, children and all, kissed him.
When I was leaving his home at St. Louis, Miss Lizzie said I should have something to remember my visit by. “Then I want something from the little basement,” I said, “there is where I have spent most of my time.” “Papa, why not give him your paper weight.” It was a little bronze bust of General Grant that he had used on his desk for many years. It has been mine since that evening, though Ineeded nothing to remind me forever of the hours spent far into the night down in the basement of the Sherman home.
In April, I received an interesting letter from him on taxation:
“St. Louis, Mo., April 25, 1886.“Dear Byers:--I have your letter of the 18th, and though I have nothing to tell you, will answer. I understand that your article on the March to the Sea will be in the North American Review for May, and I will look for it. It might have been better had you applied to the Century Magazine, which seems to invite contributions illustrative of the war, though it seems partial to our adversaries. The absence of Mr. Rice in Europe, too, may be one cause of a relaxed interest in such articles as you could supply. J. R. is rather the workman than the editor, and is governed chiefly by the notoriety of the contribution rather than by the merit of the article.“Hold on to your farm. This removal to the cheaper land of Dakota will not last long, as that is devoid of wood, and cold in the extreme. As soon as the few inviting places west are filled up, the tide will set back to Iowa. But I really do fear now an internal cause of the diminished value of land. Instead of supporting one government as in Europe, we have to support five--National, State, County, Township and Municipal--each of which expects for its support enough taxes for the whole. We are merely the nominal owners. The aggregate taxes here and with you, I infer, are equal to rent, and the question is: Who owns the farm? I infer the State does, and the nominal owner is merely the tenant at will. This fact, with the labor organizations, may bring about conflicts such as desolated Asia, hundreds, if not thousands of years ago.“I will be in Chicago Decoration Day, Indianapolis June 2d, San Francisco Aug. 3–6, in Washington Territory and British Columbia till September, when I must come to RockIsland for the annual meeting of the Army of the Tennessee, Sept. 15–16, then for New York.“Mrs. Sherman will go East about July 1st, and we will all meet in New York about Sept. 20th. I shall expect to see you at Rock Island.“With best compliments to Mrs. Byers, and best wishes for your health and success.“Truly your friend,W. T. Sherman.”
“St. Louis, Mo., April 25, 1886.
“Dear Byers:--I have your letter of the 18th, and though I have nothing to tell you, will answer. I understand that your article on the March to the Sea will be in the North American Review for May, and I will look for it. It might have been better had you applied to the Century Magazine, which seems to invite contributions illustrative of the war, though it seems partial to our adversaries. The absence of Mr. Rice in Europe, too, may be one cause of a relaxed interest in such articles as you could supply. J. R. is rather the workman than the editor, and is governed chiefly by the notoriety of the contribution rather than by the merit of the article.
“Hold on to your farm. This removal to the cheaper land of Dakota will not last long, as that is devoid of wood, and cold in the extreme. As soon as the few inviting places west are filled up, the tide will set back to Iowa. But I really do fear now an internal cause of the diminished value of land. Instead of supporting one government as in Europe, we have to support five--National, State, County, Township and Municipal--each of which expects for its support enough taxes for the whole. We are merely the nominal owners. The aggregate taxes here and with you, I infer, are equal to rent, and the question is: Who owns the farm? I infer the State does, and the nominal owner is merely the tenant at will. This fact, with the labor organizations, may bring about conflicts such as desolated Asia, hundreds, if not thousands of years ago.
“I will be in Chicago Decoration Day, Indianapolis June 2d, San Francisco Aug. 3–6, in Washington Territory and British Columbia till September, when I must come to RockIsland for the annual meeting of the Army of the Tennessee, Sept. 15–16, then for New York.
“Mrs. Sherman will go East about July 1st, and we will all meet in New York about Sept. 20th. I shall expect to see you at Rock Island.
“With best compliments to Mrs. Byers, and best wishes for your health and success.
“Truly your friend,W. T. Sherman.”
Later, he wrote me his views on newspapers and war books:
“St. Louis, Mo., June 11, 1886.“Dear Byers:--I have your letter of the 8th, and note that you are now in correspondence with two of the best monthlies of the country. I feel assured that you will get along, though the speculation of buying young cattle and feeding them on your own land is a better business. The newspapers of our country have been as the morning mist, absolutely lost or dissipated by the noonday sun. The monthlies may hang on a little longer. And only printed volumes with indexes, collected in libraries, will be accepted as approximate truth.“Grant’s book will of course survive all time. Mine, Sheridan’s and a few others will be auxiliary, but the great mass of books purporting to give the history of especial corps, regiments and even individuals, will be swept aside, because the world now demands condensation, and probably in fifty years, one hundred pages will be all that the world will allow for the history of the Civil War. Meantime, you can interest and entertain your readers, for which the journals can pay you what you need, money.“But I would not advise you to attempt any material change of the public judgment, as recorded by Grant. I prefer, when you use any letter of mine, or any of Grant’s to me, that you insist on their being used with your text, not theirs. If you consent to their expurgating any specialletter, the editor will use it with his own introduction, to justify himself in some conclusion heretofore published. I have experienced this and could not find fault, as it was explained by the usual motives for human action. I would insist on the publication of your articles as you made them, with literal or immaterial corrections, when convinced of their necessity.“We are now pretty well packed up, and no doubt we will be ready for breaking up here July 1st, after which my address will be Palace Hotel, San Francisco. Present us all kindly to Mrs. Byers and the boy, and believe me that I shall always feel a personal interest in your welfare.“Your friend,W. T. Sherman.”
“St. Louis, Mo., June 11, 1886.
“Dear Byers:--I have your letter of the 8th, and note that you are now in correspondence with two of the best monthlies of the country. I feel assured that you will get along, though the speculation of buying young cattle and feeding them on your own land is a better business. The newspapers of our country have been as the morning mist, absolutely lost or dissipated by the noonday sun. The monthlies may hang on a little longer. And only printed volumes with indexes, collected in libraries, will be accepted as approximate truth.
“Grant’s book will of course survive all time. Mine, Sheridan’s and a few others will be auxiliary, but the great mass of books purporting to give the history of especial corps, regiments and even individuals, will be swept aside, because the world now demands condensation, and probably in fifty years, one hundred pages will be all that the world will allow for the history of the Civil War. Meantime, you can interest and entertain your readers, for which the journals can pay you what you need, money.
“But I would not advise you to attempt any material change of the public judgment, as recorded by Grant. I prefer, when you use any letter of mine, or any of Grant’s to me, that you insist on their being used with your text, not theirs. If you consent to their expurgating any specialletter, the editor will use it with his own introduction, to justify himself in some conclusion heretofore published. I have experienced this and could not find fault, as it was explained by the usual motives for human action. I would insist on the publication of your articles as you made them, with literal or immaterial corrections, when convinced of their necessity.
“We are now pretty well packed up, and no doubt we will be ready for breaking up here July 1st, after which my address will be Palace Hotel, San Francisco. Present us all kindly to Mrs. Byers and the boy, and believe me that I shall always feel a personal interest in your welfare.
“Your friend,W. T. Sherman.”
On Christmas, he sent me this kindly note:
“New York, Dec. 24, 1886.“Dear Byers:--I was very glad to receive your kind letter of the 20th, and assure you of my continued interest and affection, wishing you and yours all earthly happiness.“The task on which you have entered, ‘Iowa in War Times,’ will afford you full employment for a year and more, and I trust with reasonable profit. Remember that ‘brevity is the soul of wit,’ and condensation is now the true aim of history. Each regiment will expect you to include a diary of its life, but I know you have industry and patience enough to generalize.“I shall look out for your article in the North American. I was tempted only yesterday by the Century Magazine to furnish an article on that very subject, which I declined in a letter at some length, claiming that my Memoirs were as full as I can reproduce, and preferring that others like yourself should present the facts in a more agreeable form. To ward off other applicants I have consented to the publication of that letter.“Truly your friend,W. T. Sherman.”
“New York, Dec. 24, 1886.
“Dear Byers:--I was very glad to receive your kind letter of the 20th, and assure you of my continued interest and affection, wishing you and yours all earthly happiness.
“The task on which you have entered, ‘Iowa in War Times,’ will afford you full employment for a year and more, and I trust with reasonable profit. Remember that ‘brevity is the soul of wit,’ and condensation is now the true aim of history. Each regiment will expect you to include a diary of its life, but I know you have industry and patience enough to generalize.
“I shall look out for your article in the North American. I was tempted only yesterday by the Century Magazine to furnish an article on that very subject, which I declined in a letter at some length, claiming that my Memoirs were as full as I can reproduce, and preferring that others like yourself should present the facts in a more agreeable form. To ward off other applicants I have consented to the publication of that letter.
“Truly your friend,W. T. Sherman.”
The General had now given up his beautiful home in St. Louis, and was about to move to New York. It turned out to be, as he hoped it would, his last change of residence. Again he wrote me. It was his last letter to me from St. Louis, and again he touched on the troubles he had had with American newspapers. In fact his experiences with newspaper correspondents during the war had been such as to make him hate the entire fraternity. There were times when he had unceremoniously driven them away from his army, as mischief makers and traitors.
“St. Louis, Mo., June 29, 1886.“Dear Byers:--I have your letter of the 22d, with copy of yours to R. * * *“I am willing to risk B.’s preface to any of your articles. He has been always most friendly to me, and I should always fear hisoverpraise, rather than his adverse criticisms. Nevertheless, you are right in claiming that your ‘articles’ should be published as written by you. The editor has the privilege of calling attention to the subject-matter of his special ‘articles,’ but the article itself should not be ‘coupled’ with matter written by any outsider before publication and after preparation.“The chief trouble of my life has been in dealing with newspapers and periodicals. They want something ‘sensational,’ which will sell as an article of commerce, and their self-interest blinds them to the personal consequences of the publications. To sell 50, 500 or 5,000 of this paper or magazine, is their business. If they make sad a hundred or a million of hearts, it is to them of no consequence. Lizzie and I will be off for California July 1st. Mrs. Sherman and Cump for Marietta, Lancaster Co., Pa., July 2d. You may not hear of or from me till I reach Rock Island, Sept. 15–16. On my arrival at San Francisco, I can buy the North American Review, so you need not send me a copy. We are all now at the Lindell Hotel, and will scatteras I have indicated, in two more days. An excellent family has taken our home for three years, with the privilege of three more--in fact beyond our lives, at $1,500 a year, enough to pay taxes and repairs. I think we have made a fatal mistake, but if our youngest son can thereby be made a real lawyer and man, I will be content. My career is ended.“Wishing you and yours all the happiness possible,“I am sincerely your friend,W. T. Sherman.”
“St. Louis, Mo., June 29, 1886.
“Dear Byers:--I have your letter of the 22d, with copy of yours to R. * * *
“I am willing to risk B.’s preface to any of your articles. He has been always most friendly to me, and I should always fear hisoverpraise, rather than his adverse criticisms. Nevertheless, you are right in claiming that your ‘articles’ should be published as written by you. The editor has the privilege of calling attention to the subject-matter of his special ‘articles,’ but the article itself should not be ‘coupled’ with matter written by any outsider before publication and after preparation.
“The chief trouble of my life has been in dealing with newspapers and periodicals. They want something ‘sensational,’ which will sell as an article of commerce, and their self-interest blinds them to the personal consequences of the publications. To sell 50, 500 or 5,000 of this paper or magazine, is their business. If they make sad a hundred or a million of hearts, it is to them of no consequence. Lizzie and I will be off for California July 1st. Mrs. Sherman and Cump for Marietta, Lancaster Co., Pa., July 2d. You may not hear of or from me till I reach Rock Island, Sept. 15–16. On my arrival at San Francisco, I can buy the North American Review, so you need not send me a copy. We are all now at the Lindell Hotel, and will scatteras I have indicated, in two more days. An excellent family has taken our home for three years, with the privilege of three more--in fact beyond our lives, at $1,500 a year, enough to pay taxes and repairs. I think we have made a fatal mistake, but if our youngest son can thereby be made a real lawyer and man, I will be content. My career is ended.
“Wishing you and yours all the happiness possible,
“I am sincerely your friend,W. T. Sherman.”
AN INTERESTING LETTER FROM GENERAL GRANT--SHERMAN LIVING IN NEW YORK--HIS IMMENSE POPULARITY WITH ALL AMERICANS--LETTERS FROM HIM--EXHIBITED LIKE A CIRCUS--NO UNION MAN LEFT IN FOREIGN SERVICE BY CLEVELAND--HE WRITES FOR THE MAGAZINES--MAGAZINES AGAIN--APPROVES MY ARTICLE IN THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW ON THE MARCH TO THE SEA--HUMBLEST UNION MAN BETTER PATRIOT THAN THE PROUDEST SOUTH CAROLINA REBEL--SHERIDAN DYING--CONGRESS SHOULD MAKE RANK OF LIEUTENANT GENERAL PERMANENT--HIS RECEPTION AT COLUMBUS--DEATH OF MRS. SHERMAN--ABOUT HIS MEMOIRS--NO PROFIT--THE ARMY OF THE TENNESSEE AT CINCINNATI--MY POEM THERE--AN ODD INTERVIEW AT THE WHITE HOUSE--CONVERSATIONS WITH SECRETARY BLAINE--DEATH OF THE GREAT GENERAL--SPEECHES ABOUT HIM IN THE SENATE--I AM AGAIN APPOINTED TO SWITZERLAND.
AN INTERESTING LETTER FROM GENERAL GRANT--SHERMAN LIVING IN NEW YORK--HIS IMMENSE POPULARITY WITH ALL AMERICANS--LETTERS FROM HIM--EXHIBITED LIKE A CIRCUS--NO UNION MAN LEFT IN FOREIGN SERVICE BY CLEVELAND--HE WRITES FOR THE MAGAZINES--MAGAZINES AGAIN--APPROVES MY ARTICLE IN THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW ON THE MARCH TO THE SEA--HUMBLEST UNION MAN BETTER PATRIOT THAN THE PROUDEST SOUTH CAROLINA REBEL--SHERIDAN DYING--CONGRESS SHOULD MAKE RANK OF LIEUTENANT GENERAL PERMANENT--HIS RECEPTION AT COLUMBUS--DEATH OF MRS. SHERMAN--ABOUT HIS MEMOIRS--NO PROFIT--THE ARMY OF THE TENNESSEE AT CINCINNATI--MY POEM THERE--AN ODD INTERVIEW AT THE WHITE HOUSE--CONVERSATIONS WITH SECRETARY BLAINE--DEATH OF THE GREAT GENERAL--SPEECHES ABOUT HIM IN THE SENATE--I AM AGAIN APPOINTED TO SWITZERLAND.
I was now in the West working on my “Iowa in War Times” and sometimes writing an article for the magazines.
Many documents and important autograph letters were put in my hands from all over the country. One of the most interesting of these was from General Grant. It has never been printed and I give it here because it was possibly the only letter he ever wrote during a battle. It was at Black River bridge, Grant was sitting on his horse, Lawler’s brigade had just made a successful charge on the intrenchments. An officer from the Headquartersat Washington rides up to the General with an important order. It is for him to abandon his Vicksburg campaign, and join Banks with his army. “Do you see that charge?” said the General. “You are too late.” He wrote this letter sitting there on his saddle, and the Vicksburg battles and successes followed. Had Grant gone to Banks, the latter would have been chief in command. Grant’s great career would not have had even a beginning. This very minute was the great crisis in General Grant’s life!
May 17th, 10:30A. M.Dear Gen.:Lawler’s brigade stormed the enemy’s works a few minutes since, carried it, capturing from 2,000 to 3,000 prisoners, 10 guns so far as heard from, and probably more will be found. The enemy have fired both bridges.A. J. Smith captured 10 guns this morning, with teams, men and ammunition.I send you a note from Col. Wright.Yours,U. S. Grant,Maj. Gen.Maj. Gen. Sherman,Com’d’g 17th Army Corps.
May 17th, 10:30A. M.
Dear Gen.:
Lawler’s brigade stormed the enemy’s works a few minutes since, carried it, capturing from 2,000 to 3,000 prisoners, 10 guns so far as heard from, and probably more will be found. The enemy have fired both bridges.
A. J. Smith captured 10 guns this morning, with teams, men and ammunition.
I send you a note from Col. Wright.
Yours,U. S. Grant,Maj. Gen.
Maj. Gen. Sherman,Com’d’g 17th Army Corps.
I still received an occasional letter from General Sherman. As these were often strong, characteristic and interesting, I copy a number.
He was now living in the Fifth Avenue Hotel, New York, so far as it could be said that he was living anywhere, for his presence was in such demand at public occasions, all over the country, as to make any lengthy stay at home an impossibility. He was beyond all doubt the most loved man at this time in the United States. No American knew so many people by face, and by name. No face was so familiar to almost everybody as was the face of “Uncle Billy Sherman.” The soldiers of the Civil War, of whom a million were still alive, absolutely adored their leader.There was no place so high, no post so honored, that his people would not have pressed it upon him, had he been willing to accept it. To no other living American was the Presidency ever offered without the seeking. No other American was ever great enough to turn aside from the proffered gift.
With all this great place in the hearts of a whole people, he went about his daily life with a simplicity that astonished all; a simplicity of which only true greatness is capable. In the great army processions at the reunions, where he might have led the van, borne on the shoulders of his victorious veterans, he marched afoot in the dust, along with the boys he had led from Atlanta to the sea.
Political glory had no charm for him, and the huzzahs of the multitude he measured for what they were worth. It was my good fortune to know him in his real heart, his inside life, and a man less moved by hopes of applause it seemed to me could not be imagined. He constantly saw before him the vanity of human greatness. To him, a modest life of simple things, well done, was as great as a life glowing with renown. The glory that comes from achievement counted as little. The good that follows doing right for right’s sake, to him was everything. Everything he ever did, or said, or wrote, confirmed this.
He was an American, too, all over, and a loyal one. When an English General attempted to belittle the North, and to foist Lee onto the top of the victor’s column, Sherman answered him.
The following letters refer to this and to his article on “The Grand Strategy of the War:”
“New York, May 1, 1887.“Dear Byers:--I received your letter of April 24th some days ago, and kept it for Sunday’s answering. Of course I could not go to Dubuque on the occasion of the meeting of the G. A. R. and of the remnant of the 13th Infantry.To them, it may seem a neglect, but were I to accept one invitation in the hundred, I would have to abandon family, friends and all peace, to become a vagrant. I am now advertised like Barnum’s circus, at Cincinnati, May 4; at Philadelphiasame day, and at Washington May 11–12, for the dedication of the Garfield statue, alla laPickwick, at my own expense. As soon as I had become domiciled in New York, I was assailed by all the magazines and newspapers to become a regular contributor, at a compensation represented by the algebraic expression x/2, but of course I declined with thanks. Yet when General Lord Wolseley’s article in Macmillan’s March number was published, claiming for Lee the maximum honors, to tower high above every man of this country, I could not resist the temptation to reply, and this is in the May number of the North American. I suppose you are a subscriber, or can obtain a copy. I would like to have your judgment. Also the Century Magazine wanted an article on ‘The Grand Strategy of the War,’ which I prepared with some care, and they may publish in the June number, or may withhold as a kind of preface to their intended publication of all the military publications of the past four years. In the multitude of counsels there may be wisdom, at all events we had better put forth all we have, lest the Rebels succeed in their claims to have been the simon pure patriots and ‘Union Men’ of our day and generation. They have partially succeeded, and may completely succeed, for to-day not a single Union man represents the United States in foreign lands, and the logical conclusion is that we were wrong, and our opponents right. So Lord Wolseley is not to be blamed for assuming Lee as the great hero of the Civil War in America. The war of muskets long since subsided, now the war of the pen must begin, else the remnant of the Union Army must pass down to history as barbarians.“Your friend,W. T. Sherman.”
“New York, May 1, 1887.
“Dear Byers:--I received your letter of April 24th some days ago, and kept it for Sunday’s answering. Of course I could not go to Dubuque on the occasion of the meeting of the G. A. R. and of the remnant of the 13th Infantry.To them, it may seem a neglect, but were I to accept one invitation in the hundred, I would have to abandon family, friends and all peace, to become a vagrant. I am now advertised like Barnum’s circus, at Cincinnati, May 4; at Philadelphiasame day, and at Washington May 11–12, for the dedication of the Garfield statue, alla laPickwick, at my own expense. As soon as I had become domiciled in New York, I was assailed by all the magazines and newspapers to become a regular contributor, at a compensation represented by the algebraic expression x/2, but of course I declined with thanks. Yet when General Lord Wolseley’s article in Macmillan’s March number was published, claiming for Lee the maximum honors, to tower high above every man of this country, I could not resist the temptation to reply, and this is in the May number of the North American. I suppose you are a subscriber, or can obtain a copy. I would like to have your judgment. Also the Century Magazine wanted an article on ‘The Grand Strategy of the War,’ which I prepared with some care, and they may publish in the June number, or may withhold as a kind of preface to their intended publication of all the military publications of the past four years. In the multitude of counsels there may be wisdom, at all events we had better put forth all we have, lest the Rebels succeed in their claims to have been the simon pure patriots and ‘Union Men’ of our day and generation. They have partially succeeded, and may completely succeed, for to-day not a single Union man represents the United States in foreign lands, and the logical conclusion is that we were wrong, and our opponents right. So Lord Wolseley is not to be blamed for assuming Lee as the great hero of the Civil War in America. The war of muskets long since subsided, now the war of the pen must begin, else the remnant of the Union Army must pass down to history as barbarians.
“Your friend,W. T. Sherman.”
*****
“Army Building, New York, May 21, 1887.“Dear Byers:--I have received your letter of May 5th, and have seen Thorndike Rice about your articles, but did not tell him all you wrote. I think Rice is too much engrossed with social life to give much of his personal attention to the North American. All that I could extricate out of him was that your article would appear as early as possible. I sometimes pity these magazine men who have to read cords of manuscript, and out of the mass choose that which will pay. The great mass of work devolves on subordinates, and the editor finally indicates what shall be ‘set up.’ Even after that, articles are kept hanging fire. You had better let what you have done stand, and in future watch the current of the public thought, prepare your papers, and deal with that magazine which you consider fairest.“Now as to my May number, it was suggested by Thorndike Rice in a telegram from Washington. I at first positively declined, but when I got the full text of Wolseley’s article in Macmillan’s Magazine, I saw somebody must answer, and all turned to me. I wrote it one Sunday, and gave it to Rice for $500. If I had charged a thousand, he would have paid it. In like manner my article on the Grand Strategy of the War is longer, better, and I charged the Century Magazine $1,000 for it. It was designed to comprehend the whole series of War Articles to be bound in avolume.10It may appear in the August number of the Century.“I am besieged by the magazines, but shall reserve myself for chance shots like this of Wolseley’s. I am not willing to rake among old embers for new fire.“Mrs. Sherman and Rachel are now at Detroit, on a visit to Tom. Lizzie and I are at the Fifth Avenue Hotel. Allgo to Lake Hotel, Lake George, N. Y., early in June. I will retain my room, and circulate generally. I ordered the Appletons to send you my second edition, in the theory that Mrs. S. had not done so. Please inscribe it to your son, on the blank page. You can substitute therefor at some time one of my letters, which will answer for an autograph. It is a good deal of trouble to go to the Appletons to do this in person.“Love to all“Yours truly,W. T. Sherman.”
“Army Building, New York, May 21, 1887.
“Dear Byers:--I have received your letter of May 5th, and have seen Thorndike Rice about your articles, but did not tell him all you wrote. I think Rice is too much engrossed with social life to give much of his personal attention to the North American. All that I could extricate out of him was that your article would appear as early as possible. I sometimes pity these magazine men who have to read cords of manuscript, and out of the mass choose that which will pay. The great mass of work devolves on subordinates, and the editor finally indicates what shall be ‘set up.’ Even after that, articles are kept hanging fire. You had better let what you have done stand, and in future watch the current of the public thought, prepare your papers, and deal with that magazine which you consider fairest.
“Now as to my May number, it was suggested by Thorndike Rice in a telegram from Washington. I at first positively declined, but when I got the full text of Wolseley’s article in Macmillan’s Magazine, I saw somebody must answer, and all turned to me. I wrote it one Sunday, and gave it to Rice for $500. If I had charged a thousand, he would have paid it. In like manner my article on the Grand Strategy of the War is longer, better, and I charged the Century Magazine $1,000 for it. It was designed to comprehend the whole series of War Articles to be bound in avolume.10It may appear in the August number of the Century.
“I am besieged by the magazines, but shall reserve myself for chance shots like this of Wolseley’s. I am not willing to rake among old embers for new fire.
“Mrs. Sherman and Rachel are now at Detroit, on a visit to Tom. Lizzie and I are at the Fifth Avenue Hotel. Allgo to Lake Hotel, Lake George, N. Y., early in June. I will retain my room, and circulate generally. I ordered the Appletons to send you my second edition, in the theory that Mrs. S. had not done so. Please inscribe it to your son, on the blank page. You can substitute therefor at some time one of my letters, which will answer for an autograph. It is a good deal of trouble to go to the Appletons to do this in person.
“Love to all
“Yours truly,W. T. Sherman.”
Shortly, I was gratified to receive from him a letter complimentary to my article in the North American Review, describing his great campaign.
“New York, Aug. 26, 1887.“Dear Byers:--In coming from my office in the Army Building, I stopped at the office of the North American Review, to see Thorndike Rice, but he was away at Newport, and his partner, Redpath, gave me an advance copy of the September number, which contains your article, ‘March to the Sea.’ It reads to me very well, condensed, strong and well sustained by proofs. I think it will command large attention, and I trust it will lead to profitable employment for your pen. The leading events of the war are now accepted, are crystallizing into pages, and even paragraphs. The public is tired of minute details, especially to bolster up this or that man. You have, in the compress of six or eight pages, given all that the memory of the ordinary reader can retain. I have already put it in a sealed envelope, addressed to my daughter Lizzie, who reads and appreciates everything from you. She, with her mamma, Rachel and Cump, has been up at Lake George since June. I have been up three times. Spent last week there, but am now here preparing for the Detroit meeting, Sept. 14–15, as also the G. A. R. Encampment at St. Louis,Sept. 25–28. If you come to St. Louis then, you will find me at Henry Hitchcock’s, corner of Fifteenth and Lucas Place.“As always your friend,W. T. Sherman.”
“New York, Aug. 26, 1887.
“Dear Byers:--In coming from my office in the Army Building, I stopped at the office of the North American Review, to see Thorndike Rice, but he was away at Newport, and his partner, Redpath, gave me an advance copy of the September number, which contains your article, ‘March to the Sea.’ It reads to me very well, condensed, strong and well sustained by proofs. I think it will command large attention, and I trust it will lead to profitable employment for your pen. The leading events of the war are now accepted, are crystallizing into pages, and even paragraphs. The public is tired of minute details, especially to bolster up this or that man. You have, in the compress of six or eight pages, given all that the memory of the ordinary reader can retain. I have already put it in a sealed envelope, addressed to my daughter Lizzie, who reads and appreciates everything from you. She, with her mamma, Rachel and Cump, has been up at Lake George since June. I have been up three times. Spent last week there, but am now here preparing for the Detroit meeting, Sept. 14–15, as also the G. A. R. Encampment at St. Louis,Sept. 25–28. If you come to St. Louis then, you will find me at Henry Hitchcock’s, corner of Fifteenth and Lucas Place.
“As always your friend,W. T. Sherman.”
In February of 1888, General Sherman wrote me some very decided views he had, as to the difference between loyal men and disloyal men.
“New York, Feb. 10, 1888.“Dear Byers:--I have your letter of the 5th, and as I have staid indoors to-day for the express purpose of answering a batch of kind messages sent me on my sixty-eighth birthday, I answer yours in its turn.“Of course I am pleased to know that you approve my Century article. It would have seemed more opportune had it been printed a year in advance, as it was written at the same time as my Wolseley article. But the editors paid me for it, and could use it for their interests, and at their own time. It looks to me as if the Southern men will succeed, not only in controlling the history of the war, but in achieving the government of this country, notwithstanding we won the battles. Our Northern people split up on questions of minor interest, whereas they have skilled leaders who control ‘their people,’ and by throwing their vote into one or other of the Northern factions, actually govern both. This is none of my business, and I cannot help it. So long as I live, I will hold the most humble Union man as a better patriot than the proudest Carolinian of South Carolina. Wade Hampton is out in another blast against me for cruelty and inhumanity during the ‘March.’ The people of Georgia bore their affliction with some manliness, but in South Carolina from the Savannah River to the State line, the people whined like Curs, and Wade Hampton’s resistance was so feeble as to excite our contempt. I shall not notice his paper, meant for home consumption,but if he attempt to enlarge his sphere, I will give him a blast of the truth, as you and hundreds know it.“I shall be glad if you come East, and it may be you can secure a better audience here than from Iowa. The time will come when the Mississippi Valley States will assert their supremacy in literature, as now in the products of the soil, but the time is not yet, and may not be in my day.“We are all reasonably well except Mrs. Sherman. Wishing you and yours all the happiness possible, I am truly“Your friend,W. T. Sherman.”
“New York, Feb. 10, 1888.
“Dear Byers:--I have your letter of the 5th, and as I have staid indoors to-day for the express purpose of answering a batch of kind messages sent me on my sixty-eighth birthday, I answer yours in its turn.
“Of course I am pleased to know that you approve my Century article. It would have seemed more opportune had it been printed a year in advance, as it was written at the same time as my Wolseley article. But the editors paid me for it, and could use it for their interests, and at their own time. It looks to me as if the Southern men will succeed, not only in controlling the history of the war, but in achieving the government of this country, notwithstanding we won the battles. Our Northern people split up on questions of minor interest, whereas they have skilled leaders who control ‘their people,’ and by throwing their vote into one or other of the Northern factions, actually govern both. This is none of my business, and I cannot help it. So long as I live, I will hold the most humble Union man as a better patriot than the proudest Carolinian of South Carolina. Wade Hampton is out in another blast against me for cruelty and inhumanity during the ‘March.’ The people of Georgia bore their affliction with some manliness, but in South Carolina from the Savannah River to the State line, the people whined like Curs, and Wade Hampton’s resistance was so feeble as to excite our contempt. I shall not notice his paper, meant for home consumption,but if he attempt to enlarge his sphere, I will give him a blast of the truth, as you and hundreds know it.
“I shall be glad if you come East, and it may be you can secure a better audience here than from Iowa. The time will come when the Mississippi Valley States will assert their supremacy in literature, as now in the products of the soil, but the time is not yet, and may not be in my day.
“We are all reasonably well except Mrs. Sherman. Wishing you and yours all the happiness possible, I am truly
“Your friend,W. T. Sherman.”
In June, General Sheridan was dying, and his great comrade in arms sent me this little note. My book, “Iowa in War Times,” had just appeared, and a copy was sent to him.
“New York, June 2, 1888.“Dear Byers:--I received by due course of mail your letter of May 27th and yesterday came to me at the Fifth Avenue Hotel the volume, ‘Iowa in War Times.’ I have cast my eye over it, and recognize most of the illustrations. The print, paper, etc., all seem good, and I know the text will be even better. It is hardly possible that I can read this volume in the whole, but I will have occasion to refer to parts, to compare with other accounts of the same general events.“General Sheridan’s extreme illness has caused universal grief. I hear daily by telegraph from his brother, Colonel Sheridan, and have just sent a message of congratulations at his promotion to the full rank of ‘General.’ But honestly I feel that it was too late to carry with it much compliment. All hope of his recovery seems to be abandoned, and every morning I wake, expecting to find the papers in mourning.“Congress ought to make the rank of Lieutenant General permanent. It is simply dishonest for the country to compel a Major General to do the work of a Lieutenant General,just as in the war hundreds of Colonels had to command brigades and divisions.“Mrs. Sherman is not so well, but went yesterday to make a month’s visit to our daughter Elly near Philadelphia. Rachel and Lizzie are with me at the Fifth Avenue Hotel.“Give my best love to Mrs. Byers and the family.“Always your friend,W. T. Sherman.”
“New York, June 2, 1888.
“Dear Byers:--I received by due course of mail your letter of May 27th and yesterday came to me at the Fifth Avenue Hotel the volume, ‘Iowa in War Times.’ I have cast my eye over it, and recognize most of the illustrations. The print, paper, etc., all seem good, and I know the text will be even better. It is hardly possible that I can read this volume in the whole, but I will have occasion to refer to parts, to compare with other accounts of the same general events.
“General Sheridan’s extreme illness has caused universal grief. I hear daily by telegraph from his brother, Colonel Sheridan, and have just sent a message of congratulations at his promotion to the full rank of ‘General.’ But honestly I feel that it was too late to carry with it much compliment. All hope of his recovery seems to be abandoned, and every morning I wake, expecting to find the papers in mourning.
“Congress ought to make the rank of Lieutenant General permanent. It is simply dishonest for the country to compel a Major General to do the work of a Lieutenant General,just as in the war hundreds of Colonels had to command brigades and divisions.
“Mrs. Sherman is not so well, but went yesterday to make a month’s visit to our daughter Elly near Philadelphia. Rachel and Lizzie are with me at the Fifth Avenue Hotel.
“Give my best love to Mrs. Byers and the family.
“Always your friend,W. T. Sherman.”
By September the Shermans were in their new home in New York, at Seventy-first Street. After all, they were keeping house again. The General had had enough of expensive and fashionable hotels. He had been homeless longer than he cared to be. He describes this house in his letter of the 16th. I was also glad to have his approval of my “Iowa in War Times.”
“No. 75 West 71st St.“New York, Sept. 16, 1888.“Dear Byers:--When at Columbus, your letter of Sept. 1st was handed me by Maj. Loring, at a time when I was chased from corner to corner as though I had just escaped the penitentiary. I fear the Major thought me neglectful of him and his letter. Let him put himself in my place. Forty thousand ex-soldiers and sixty thousand strangers were added to the resident population, all bent on seeing the sights, of which I was one. Instead of dying out, the interest in the war and its actors seems to grow with time. I was not allowed time to eat or sleep, much less read and write letters, but I escaped alive and should be grateful.“I am now in our new house, not as large as that in St. Louis, but better located, near Central Park and near the Sixth Avenue Elevated R.R. Four full stories and basement, in which I have my office with all my books and papers. Not divided as they were when I was at the Fifth Avenue Hotel.“The interior arrangements are not yet complete, so the family is away, but by the middle of next week it will be all ready and the family will come. I hope this is my last change on earth.“I have at intervals found time to read your volume, ‘Iowa in War Times,’ and congratulate you in having succeeded in giving to each regiment and organization a fair measure of space, and yet preserved the general authenticity of events. I hope the book pays you proportionately to your labor and expense. As now established with Mr. Barrett I can always supply you dates, facts and figures, should you still pursue your literary labors.“With love to the family, I am, etc.,W. T. Sherman.”
“No. 75 West 71st St.“New York, Sept. 16, 1888.
“Dear Byers:--When at Columbus, your letter of Sept. 1st was handed me by Maj. Loring, at a time when I was chased from corner to corner as though I had just escaped the penitentiary. I fear the Major thought me neglectful of him and his letter. Let him put himself in my place. Forty thousand ex-soldiers and sixty thousand strangers were added to the resident population, all bent on seeing the sights, of which I was one. Instead of dying out, the interest in the war and its actors seems to grow with time. I was not allowed time to eat or sleep, much less read and write letters, but I escaped alive and should be grateful.
“I am now in our new house, not as large as that in St. Louis, but better located, near Central Park and near the Sixth Avenue Elevated R.R. Four full stories and basement, in which I have my office with all my books and papers. Not divided as they were when I was at the Fifth Avenue Hotel.
“The interior arrangements are not yet complete, so the family is away, but by the middle of next week it will be all ready and the family will come. I hope this is my last change on earth.
“I have at intervals found time to read your volume, ‘Iowa in War Times,’ and congratulate you in having succeeded in giving to each regiment and organization a fair measure of space, and yet preserved the general authenticity of events. I hope the book pays you proportionately to your labor and expense. As now established with Mr. Barrett I can always supply you dates, facts and figures, should you still pursue your literary labors.
“With love to the family, I am, etc.,
W. T. Sherman.”
Mrs. Sherman’s health had been failing somewhat for months, but nothing absolutely serious was anticipated till, unexpectedly, she was worse in the mid-winter. Then the end came so suddenly that some of her children could not reach New York in time to see her passing away.
I was in California, and shortly received this reply to my letter of sympathy:
“New York, Dec. 19, 1888.“My Dear Byers:--Your letter of sympathy is here. Mrs. Sherman had long been ailing from heart trouble and general disability, and everything that could be done for her relief was willingly offered by me and the children. I did not realize any danger until the day before her death, when she began to fail very perceptibly, and I at once telegraphed to the absent members of the family to join us at once. Neither Mrs. Fitch, Mrs. Thackera, or Tom reached home in time to see their mother alive. The remainder of us were at the death-bed, and were witnesses of a painless and peaceful end. We had learned that there was no possibility of her ever fully recovering, and as she therefore must have contended with much pain and suffering, our anguish at her demise was somewhat assuaged.“Every courtesy was extended the funeral party on its sorrowful journey to and from St. Louis, Mr. Roberts, President of the Penn. R. R., excelling in his kind and accepted offer of his private car. At St. Louis, all preliminaries had been carefully attended to by Messrs. Jas. Yeatman and Geo. D. Capen, so that we were enabled to start on the return trip the same evening.“I well know the respect and honor with which Mrs. Sherman held you at all times, and in which we all shared, and I beg you now to be assured of our continued affection and deep interest in all that concerns you and yours.“Sincerely your friend,W. T. Sherman.”
“New York, Dec. 19, 1888.
“My Dear Byers:--Your letter of sympathy is here. Mrs. Sherman had long been ailing from heart trouble and general disability, and everything that could be done for her relief was willingly offered by me and the children. I did not realize any danger until the day before her death, when she began to fail very perceptibly, and I at once telegraphed to the absent members of the family to join us at once. Neither Mrs. Fitch, Mrs. Thackera, or Tom reached home in time to see their mother alive. The remainder of us were at the death-bed, and were witnesses of a painless and peaceful end. We had learned that there was no possibility of her ever fully recovering, and as she therefore must have contended with much pain and suffering, our anguish at her demise was somewhat assuaged.
“Every courtesy was extended the funeral party on its sorrowful journey to and from St. Louis, Mr. Roberts, President of the Penn. R. R., excelling in his kind and accepted offer of his private car. At St. Louis, all preliminaries had been carefully attended to by Messrs. Jas. Yeatman and Geo. D. Capen, so that we were enabled to start on the return trip the same evening.
“I well know the respect and honor with which Mrs. Sherman held you at all times, and in which we all shared, and I beg you now to be assured of our continued affection and deep interest in all that concerns you and yours.
“Sincerely your friend,W. T. Sherman.”
In September of 1889 the Army of the Tennessee was to hold its reunion and banquet at Cincinnati. I was elected to deliver an original poem for the occasion. As General Sherman was president of the Association, I sent a copy of my poem to him in advance. It was called “The Tramp of Sherman’s Army.” I was greatly interested to receive the copy back from him, with marginal notes and suggestions for changes written over it, and even a couple of new lines of hisown composition. Possibly, it was the only time General Sherman ever indulged inwriting poetry.
When the reunion took place, many great characters sat upon the stage--Cox, Logan, Dodge, Howard, Sherman and many others of the great war heroes. At the tables sat hundreds whose names had been known in the Civil War.
The toasts consisted of stanzas from “Sherman’s March to the Sea.” They were elegantly painted by hand on white satin, on which also was traced in gold the route of that famous March. Each toast was responded to by the particular General who had commanded at the point described in the verse. General Sherman, as president, made the first speech.
He then introduced me to the audience, and I recited my poem, “The Tramp of Sherman’s Army,” with bugle strainaccompaniment. Its reception showed that the enthusiasm for war ballads had not died out. Each morning of the reunion the officers of the Army of the Tennessee, preceded by a drum corps or a band, walked in line from the Burnett House over to the hall where they held their meetings. Though Sherman was there, and many other distinguished men, it was almost a sad and pathetic sight as they walked together in the middle of the street, death had so thinned the line and reduced the number! Some of the onlookers did not realize what men were marching there, what names for history, or that among that peaceful looking little band were veterans who had led great armies to battle.