OHIO STATEWIDE FILES OH-FOOTSTEPS Mailing List Issue 52 *********************************************************************** USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. http://www.usgwarchives.net/ *********************************************************************** OH-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest Volume 00 : Issue 52 Today's Topics: #1 Fw: Chapter 44 - Part A - Abbott's ["Maggie Stewart" To: OH-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <0bb601bf75d3$54bbb440$0300a8c0@local.net> Subject: Fw: Chapter 44 - Part A - Abbott's History of Ohio Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit ----- Original Message ----- From: Kay L. Mason Chapter 44 Miscellaneous Biographies Hon. John Sherman The ancestors of Mr. John Sherman were among the earliest settlers of Massachusetts. In 1665, but about thirty-five years after the little shivering band of pilgrims landed upon Plymouth Rock, Samuel Sherman, then the head of the family, moved from the settlements scattered through the forests which darkened the shores of Massachusetts, far back into the almost unexplored regions of the West, where the silent and solitary waters of the Connecticut flowed. The journey then occupied a fortnight, as the little band of emigrants toiled through the tangled and pathless wilderness. Mr. Sherman took up his residence near the spot where the Housatonic River empties its waters into Long Island Sound. The region then belonged to the Indians, and the place now called Stratford was then known as Capheag. Here, amidst the sublime gloom of the wilderness, he passed the remainer of his days. The family in England was one of note. The following is a heraldic description of its coat-of-arms: Sherman, or a lion rampant; sa. betw. three oak leaves vert,; on the shoulder, an amulet, for diff. Crest - a sea lion sejeant, per pale or an arguettee de poix, finned of the first; on the shoulder, a crescent for diff. Motto - "Conquer death by virtue." Mr. Samuel Sherman took a deep interest in the settlement of the town of Woodbury, Connecticut. He is represented as the most distinguished man connected with the enterprise. He owned a large tract of land there, which at his death was divided between his sons, Matthew and John. The latter attained much distinction, and became one of the most influential men in this state. General William Tecumseh Sherman, who conducted the army of the Union through the most brilliant campaign of the great war of the rebellion, and whose name will ever be pronounced with veneration by the citizens of the United States, is a brother of John Sherman, a brief history of whose life we are now giving. While William was so effectually serving his country amidst all the perils of the field of battle, John was rendering not less efficient service in the Senate of the United States. General William T. Sherman, at a New England dinner, gave the following playful account of his ancestry: "I learned from books alone that in 1634, fourteen years after the Pilgrim fathers landed at Plymouth Rock, three person by the name of Sherman reached the Boston coast - the Rev. John Sherman, his cousin John Sherman, who was styled the captain, and his brother Samuel Sherman. The Rev. John Sherman and the other cousin settled at Watertown, Massachusetts, and it is related of the Rev. John Sherman that he preached a sermon under a tree there. "Samuel Sherman, a young man, about fourteen years of age and adventurous, emigrated to Connecticut. Samuel was the ancestor of my branch of the family, and settled at Stratford, Conn.; and lived there fifty years after reaching his home. He married and had children, and his second son, John Sherman, adopted the legal profession. That John Sherman had another son John, who had a son Daniel Sherman, a man of note in his day, a contemporary of Roger Sherman, and a member of the Council of Safety and the Legislature Assembly. His youngest child Taylor Sherman, settled at Norwalk, Connecticut, was Judge of the Probate Court, and was one of those who lost property by Arnold's descent upon the coast of Connecticut. "He also was one of those who inherited part of the land which the State of Connecticut donated in the Western Reserve, and was one of those who went to the West to arrange a treaty with the Indians. In 1808 he returned to Connecticut. He went out again in 1808 and made a partition of the Fire lands. His son, my father, then a young man of twenty years, married Mary Hoyt, at Norwalk, Connecticut, in 1810, and their families still live there. My father went to Lancaster, Ohio, followed by my mother and her child on horseback. That child was my brother Judge Charles Sherman, of Ohio. I was the sixth child. "Our father died and left us all very bare. But friends came up and assisted us, and we all reached maturity, and we all married, and the number of children we had I really cannot keep on counting. The Shermans are a numerous family. And I may safely assert that they all obeyed the Divine commandment, - and they went forth, increased and multiplied, and I hope they have done their share towards replenishing the earth." John Sherman was born at Lancaster, the 10th of May, 1823. Upon the death of his father, eleven orphan children were left to be reared and educated by the grief-stricken mother. Until John was fourteen years of age he enjoyed the advantages of common school and the academy at Lancaster. He then, at that early age, commenced the duties of an active life as junior rodman in an engineer corps, surveying lands on the Muskingum Improvement, under Colonel Curtis. In this employment he continued, with ever-increasing developments of manhood and native strength of mind, for about two years. In the year 1840, he commenced the study of law in the office of his elder brother, Judge Sherman, of Mansfield. In the Autumn of 1844 he was admitted to the bar, and entered into partnership with his brother Charles, who was then engaged in an extensive and lucrative practice. Here, in Mansfield, for ten years he devoted himself with untiring diligence to the labors of his profession. During this time he was continually rising in public esteem as a man of integrity and ability. Unambitious of political distinction he devoted but little attention to politics, though quite earnestly attached to the principles of the Whig party. The position of the state in which Mr. Sherman resided was strongly Democratic. But, notwithstanding this, he had so secured the confidence of the community that he was elected to represent his district in the United States Congress. Regardless of popularity, he had persistanly avowed his abhorrence of slavery and his opposition to the perfidious repeal of the Missouri Compromise. The course which many of the leaders of the Democratic party, seemed in favor of pursuing, by yielding to the claims of the slaveholders, alienated many from the party, and secured quite a political revolution. Mr. Sherman was the candidate of those who desired that Freedom should be inscribed upon our National banner. The majority of the intelligent men who peopled his district, regardless of the shackles of party, rallied around Freedom's banner, and thus Mr. Sherman was elected. Both of the old parties melted away before the indignant opposition of the people to the proposition to make slavery the corner-stone of our Republic. This event opened to Mr. Sherman a new career, and changed the whole current of his life. The next year, 1855, he was President of the first Republican State Convention, which nominated Salmon P. Chase, one of the most devoted sons of freedom, as Governor of Ohio. When Congress met in December, of that year, there was a protracted and intensely exciting conflict between the friends of freedom and the partisans of slavery, in the choice of a Speaker for the House of Representatives. Mr. Sherman ardently supported General Banks, freedom's candidate. Outrages had been perpetrated, in Kansas and Nebraska, which roused the indignation of the North. Mr. Sherman was appointed a member of a committee formed to investigate those outrages. Three months were employed in Kansas in taking testimony, amidst all the fierce forays, burnings and murders of what proved to be but the incipient stage of our civil war. He wrote the report presented by the Committee. It was so admirably composed in its boldness, its candor, its enlarged patriotism, that it at once conferred upon Mr. Sherman national reputation. During three successive Congresses, those of 1856, 1858 and 1860, Mr. Sherman was re-elected almost without opposition. He actively participated in the debates, and served faithfully on many important committees. In the Thirty-sixth Congress, whose session commenced in December, 1858, there was a very fierce controversy over the election of a Speaker. There were three parties in the House, the Republican, the Democratic, and the so-called American. The Democrats had a large majority. The Americans, about thirty in number, held the balance of power. For nine weeks this almost unprecedented struggle continued. During this time Congress presented a scene of the most intense excitement, with occasional disgraceful outbreaks of violence. Mr. Sherman was the candidate of the Republican party. Mr. Helper, of North Carolina, had written a book commending the substitution of freedom for slavery in the state. Mr. Sherman had recommended this book. This excited the ire of the pro-slavery party. He was nominated for Speaker by the friends of freedom. The only charge brought against him by the pro-slavery party was that he had recommended Helper's book. None of those who affiliated with the pro-slavery party dared vote for him. On many successive ballots Mr. Sherman was within three votes of an election. The lines were so distinctly drawn that it at length became manifest that he could not be elected. Thre was also imminent danger that a coalition would be formed between the Democratic and the American parties, which would place an advocate of national slavery in the chair. This, at the time, would have been regarded by all the friends of freedom as a great disaster. Mr. Sherman ascertained that three members, who would not vote for him, were willing to vote for Mr. Pennington, of New Jersey. He, therefore, urged that Mr. Pennington should be nominated in his stead. This was done, and Mr. Pennington was elected. During this Congress, Mr. Sherman acted as Chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means. This introduced him to the financial branch of legislature. To this most important and difficult department of political economy Mr. Sherman has since devoted his untiring energies. It has become the chief employment of his official life. In March, 1861, upon the appointment of Governor Chase as Secretary of the Treasury, and his consequence resignation of his seat in the United States Senate, Mr. Sherman was elected to represent Ohio for the full term of six years. He took his seat at the extra session in March. It then became evident that the Southern States would carry out their threats to attempt the dissolution of the Union. There was a lingering hesitatin, even in the Republican party, to submit the question to the awful arbitrament of war. But Mr. Sherman, from the first, held firmly to the sentiment that the Union must be preserved, peaceably if we could, forcibly if we must. He urged immediate preparation for war. He supported every measure to give the army strength and security. He was placed on the Committee of Finance, with Senator Fessenden, of Maine, as Chairman. He took a leading part in all the financial legislation during the war, and has so continued to act until the present time. 1874. In the year 1864 Mr. Fessenden was Secretary of the Treasury, and Mr. Sherman, Chairman of the Committee. Since the year 1866 he has continuously occupied that post. In this most important office, which very few in our nation are qualified to fill, he has largely participated in forming and passing every measure of finance, banking and currency that has become law. On the slavery question he ever occupied what may be called a conservative position. He regarded the abolition of slavery and its inevitable results, the full citizenship of the emancipated, as a necessary incident and consequence of the war, to be asserted and maintained as rapidly as public policy would allow, but not to be pressed so as to jeopard the main issue - the preservation of the Union. In that respect he was in cordial sympathy with President Lincoln. Mr. Sherman was re-elected to the Senate in 1866 and in 1872. His present term expires in 1879. If he survives his term, this will make a period of consecutive service in Congress of twenty-four years. There is not a legislative body on this globe which contains a larger proportion of truly noble men, - men of the present character and the most exalted attainments, - than the Senate of the United States. But among them all there is no name which is now pronounced, or probably ever will be pronounced, with more veneration than that of John Sherman. Chief Justice Waite. Morrison Remick Waite wsa born in Lyme, Connecticut, on the 29th of Nov., 1816. His father, Henry Matson Waite, occupied the distinguished post of Chief Justice of Connecticut. With such parentage, his early advantages of education were of a high order. In the year 1837 he graduated at Yale College. He commended the study of law in his father's office. Intending to make the West his home, he closed his studies in Maumee City, in the extreme northwestern portion of Ohio. Here he entered upon the practice of law in partnership with Mr. Samuel M. Young. In 1850 the firm removed to the flourishing City of Toledo, where soon after Mr. Waite entered into partnership with a younger brother, which has continued to the present time, 1874. The following discriminating sketch of his character is abbreviated from an article in Zion's Herald, written by one who had taken great pains to obtan accurate information respecting his character and career: Mr. Waite has quietly and unostentatiously pursued his professional labors, growing in influence and power both as a lawyer and as a citizen. He has been generally regarded in the law circles of Ohio for some years as the leading counselor and advocate in the northwestern part of that state, and as one of the ablest lawyers in that section of the Union. His practice has been very large and lucrative, and has brought with it an ample and honestly-acquired fortune. He has steadily refused to embark in any of the numerous speculative enterprises of recent years, no matter how alluring they might be, which have generally resulted in enriching a few men at the expense of the many. He is a man of kind heart and genial manner, of fine social qualities and reasonably free in the dispensation of his bounties. He has not only kept himself free from personal and social vices, but he is also a man of religious principles and associations. It is conceded by all who know him that he is a man of strict probity and integrity of character, of decided convictions, and of courteous and conciliatory manners. It is also conceded that he is a man of strong and solid abilities, and of more than average acquirements as compared with other members of the legal profession in the class to which he belongs. It it, moreover, claimed by branches of the law, and that he is a constant and thorough student. It is also stated by one who has opportunities of ascertaining the facts of the case, that Judge Waite is well informed in history, literature, philosophy, and the sciences, and that he is a close student of the social, political, and financial questions of the day. In politics he was a Whig until the formation of the present Republican party, with which he was uniformly voted. At the same time he is quite free from mere partisan feelings. He has never held any political office, excepting as a member of the State Legislature in the years 1849 and 1850, although often urged to permit the use of his name as a candidate for the Federal Legislature and for other offices. In 1862 he consented, at the request of a large and influential portion of his party, to run for Congress against James M. Ashley, the regular nominee of his party in his district. The votes cast were nearly equally divided between the two Republican and the one Democratic candidates - Mr. Waite receiving in Toledo 2,500 votes, which was 1,500 in excess of the usual vote of his party in that city. It has always been claimed that he was defeated by dishonorable means on the part of Ashley's friends. Mr. Waite has several times received the tender of a seat on the bench of the Supreme Court of Ohio, but he has preferred hitherto to remain at the bar. His popularity, gained by the qualities of mind and habits of life which he has illustrated among his acquaintances, is shown not only by the number of votes he received in his canvass for Congress, but in his election by the unanimous votes of the electors of Toledo as a member of the late Constitutional Convention of Ohio, and of which he was the President. As is generally known, Mr. Waite was appointed in 1871 one of the counsel to prepare the case of the United States and present the same before the Court of Arbitration at Geneva, as provided for in the Treaty of Washington. It is undoubtedly true that the chief burden of the case, on the part of the United States, fell upon Mr. Cushing; but if any one will take pains to examine the reports of the case, and of the arguments as recently published by the Appletons, as well as those arguments submitted orally as those submitted in writing, and make inquiries of persons qualified to give an opinion, he will be satisfied that Mr. Waite contributed very materially to the success of the case of the United States, and to the peaceful settlement of long outstanding and bitterly contested questions of the greatest moment. Among his associates Judge Waite has the reputation of possessing a vigorous intellect, which readily grasps the facts and law of a case. He has a sound and well-balanced judgment, and a large share of practical common sense. He is blessed with robust health, is industrious in his habits, and possesses an equable temper. These qualities will find ample scope and play in his new sphere. There is additional ground for satisfaction in believing that as his appointment to the Chief Justiceship was not prompted by motives of the party, or political policy, he entered his office untrammeled by close political alliances, and free from the biases and prejudices engendered and fostered by party split and party contests. Judge Waite was married to Miss Amelia C. Warner, of Lyme, Conn., September 21, 1840, and they have a family of four children living, one having died in infancy. It is a trite saying that no man is responsible for his ancestors. Is it not quite as true that to a great extent a man's ancestors are responsible for him? It is true that, save in exceptional instances, we estimate men by the rank, age, wealth, or influence of their families; by what may be called the incidents of their birth and condition in life. The only true tests of character and merit are, however, to be found in the man himself - in what he does and says and is. Nevertheless, the inquiry in regard to any one who comes to the front, and assumes the discharge of important public trusts - what are the traits and qualities which he may be justly said to have inherited from his fathers - is not an unworthy or unprofitable one. Let us briefly interrogate the records in regard to Judge Waite's ancestors. Thus it may be seen that our new Chief Justice comes of good stock. "Blood is thicker than water," and good blook is better than bad. It will be seen, also, that he has inherited an instinct for the profession of the law, and for judicial and administrative functions. This is certain, that he has never failed in any position he has taken, and it may reasonably be expected that with experience he will fill the office of Chief Justice with credit to himself and to the satisfaction of the people. General William Tecumseh Sherman Our deplorable civil war developed no higher military ability, in any officer, than that displayed by General William Tecumseh Sherman. It is probably that it will be the decision of military critics, capable of forming an intelligent opinion, that the most brillian campaign of the war, that which exhibited the highest qualities of intellectual power, of statesmanship and of strategy was the wonderful march from Atlanta to the sea. Phycical courage is a very common-place quality. There was never a more gallant soldier to head a charge then the unintellectual Murat. But in General Sherman's campaign there were developed truly Napoleonic powers, qualities which would adore the highest positions in civil as well as military life. A sketch of his life ought not therefore to be omitted in the historical annals of Ohio. William Tecumseh Sherman was an elder brother of Ohio's illustrious senator, John Sherman. He was born at Lancaster, Ohio, on the 8th of February, 1820. When but nine years of age his father, a man of much distinction, and one of the Judges of the Supreme Court, died. The widowed mother was left with eleven young children, and with but little property. The father justly admired the character of the renowned Indian Chieftain Tecumseh and attached his name to the new-born infant. The Shermans were held in highest respect. The members of the bar knowing how light must be the purse left with Mrs. Sherman decided to educate some of the children of their beloved and reveled brother in the legal profession. Hon. Thomas Ewing, then in the prime of his powers, after some inquiries selected William as the child of his adoption. For seven years the bright and energetic boy was kept in school at Lancaster. His frank, generous, amiable disposition won the love of all who knew him. When seventeen years of age Mr. Ewing secured a cadetship at West Point for his young protege'. In June 1836, William entered that renowned military school, and remained there, with but one furlough of two months, until his graduation in 1840. He stood as sixth as his class, and entered the artillery corps. A strong attachment had very naturally arisen between William T. Sherman and Miss Ellen, a daughter of Mr. Ewing. A lively correspondence was kept up between the two, during their years of separation. Many portions of this correspondence have been published. His tastes inclined him very strongly to a military life. Just before his graduation he wrote to Miss Ewing: "The nearer we come to graduation day, the higher opinion I conceive of the duties and life of an officer of the United States army, and the more confirmed is the wish of spending my life in the service of my country." In some respect the campaign, which resulted in the election of General Harrison, digusted his friends and must have disgusted the general himself. The intelligent voters of the United States were called upon to place in the presidential chair a man, really of high merit and noble qualifications for the office, upon the ground that the leather string of his door-latch was always out and that he could give his guests a drink of hard cider. The innate good sense of young Sherman led him to despise such arguments. He wrote to Miss Ewing: "You no doubt are certain that General Harrison will be our next president. I do not think that there is the least hope of such a change, since his friends have thought proper to envelope his name with log cabins, gingerbread, hard cider and such humbugging, the sole object of which is plainly to deceive and mislead his ignorant and prejudiced through honest fellow citizens, whilst his qualifications, his honesty, his merit and services are merely alluded to." He had at that age the usual qualities of a frank, impetuous, and very decided young man. He was at the farthest remove from what was called a "lady's man." The frivolities of fashionable life had no charms for him. He loved solitude, books, and earnest employments, which would task his energies. Most of the young graduates at West Point dreaded exceedingly banishment to a military post, far away in the wilderness, where wolves and panthers roamed, and Indians still more wild. But the poetic nature of young Sherman craved adventures in the midst of those solitudes. Just before graduating, he wrote a friend: "I propose and intend to go into the infantry, be stationed in the Far West, out of the reach of what is termed civilization, and there remain as long as possible." He was appointed first lieutenant, and was sent to Florida, mostly on garrison duty, though he participated in several expeditions against the Indians. It was a weary life one was compelled to lead in that frontier post, where every fiber of the body seemed enervated by the sultry clime. There were but few books to be had, and they were soon exhausted. Vigorous study seemed impossible. Lieutenant Sherman endeavored to beguile the hours by surrounding himself with pets. A soldier who can find joy in "tending innumerable chickens, tame pigeons, white rabbits, a little fawn, crows, a crane, and a full blooded Indian pony," must have a warm heart. In 1842 Lietenant Sherman was removed, with his company, to Fort Morgan, at the entrance to Mobile Bay, and soon after was transferred to Fort Mouldrie, in Charleston harbor. Here he could not resist the hospitality of the Charlestonians; and though his choice amusements were hunting and fishing, he passed many agreeable hours in cultivated social circles, which his presence ever adorned. He was next appointed on a board of officers to examine the claims of Georgia and Alabama, for horses furnished the army in the Seminole war. He availed himself of this opportunity to study, with the utmost diligence, the face of the country in a military point of view. Little did he then imagine that he was to lend an army through those wide-spread territories, and that the information he was then so carefully storing up, of the topography and resources of the South, would prove of inestimable practical advantage to him in the course of a few years. We see this same remarkable development of character upon his return to Fort Moultrie. There is, in this respect, much in General Sherman's career which reminds the student of history of the intellectual activity of Napolean I. He wrote from Fort Moultrie: "Since my return I have not been running about in the city or the island as heretofore, but have endeavored to interest myself in Blackstone. I have read all four volumes; Starkie on Evidence, and other books, semi-legal and semi-historical. I would be obliged if you would give me a list of such books as you were required to read, not including your local or state law. I intend to read the second and third volumes of Blackstone again; also Kent's Commentaries, which seems, as far as I am capable of judging, to be the basis of the common law practice. "This course of study I have adopted from feeling the want of it in the duties to which I was lately assigned. I have no idea of making the law a profession. But as an officer of the army, it is my duty and interest to be prepared for any situation that fortune or luck may offer. It is for this alone I prepare, and not for professsional practice." After serving a short time at the Augusta arsenal, and attending a court-martial at Wilmington, when the Mexican war broke out he was sent to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on recruiting service. Soon we find him on ship-board, sailing around Cape Horn, for California. There he became aid-de-camp to General Persifer F. Smith, and assistant adjutant-general to Stephen W. Kearney. These duties he discharged so faithfully as to secure the warm commendation of his superior officers. In the year 1850 he returned to the States, and was married to Miss Ewing, at the residence of her father. These happy nuptual were graced by the presence of Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, and Zachary Taylor. Soon after his marriage he was breveted captain for meritorious services, and was sent first to Missouri and then to New Orleans. There can be hardly any employment more wearisome to an energetic young man than garrison duty in time of peace. The pay is small, and the daily routine exceedingly irksome. Promotion was very slow. Captain Sherman had now been thirteen years in the army. Acting for a time as commisary, he had been thrown among business men. The practical abilities he had displayed induced some wealthy gentlemen of St. Louis, who wished to establish a banking house at San Francisco, to offer him the position of manager. He resigned his commission in the army, and at the close of the year 1853, repaired to the Pacific coast, doubtless intending to make that his residence for the remainder of his life. But man proposes; God disposes. In this new sphere of business he gained the respect of the whole community, and established a character of unswerving integrity. For five years he devoted himself to his banking duties, and in 1857 removed to New York, where he again established himself as a banker. His family connections were numerous and influential. Some of the brothers-in-law had established themselves in Kansas. Captain Sherman yielding to their solicitations, repaired to this new and thriving realm, where he opened a law office, for which duties his previous studies had well prepared him. His brother Ewings were his law partners, and they divided the labors of the office between them. The firm attained much eminence, and exerted a powerful influence in moulding the destinies of the state. The practice of law in a frontier town, with all its petty and painful details, was not congenial labor for so impetuous and enterprising a spirit as General Sherman possessed. Louisiana was then establishing a military academy. Captain Sherman had spent many years in the South. He was well known, and his superior abilities were recognized. He was offered the position of superintendent, with an annual salary of five thousand dollars. A better choice probably could not have been made. In 1859 he entered upon these new duties. The spirit of rebellion was beginning to manifest itself with ever-increasing strength. Captain Sherman was found to be so very efficient and successful in conducting the affairs of the new institution, that the utmost efforts were made to win his adhesion to the cause of secession. His invariable reply was: "It is the duty of the soldier to fight for, never against, the flag to which he has sworn allegiance." Events moved rapidly. Treason and secession grew rampant. When it became manifest that Louisiana would join in the atrocious rebellion, Captain Sherman wrote the following noble letter to the governor: "Sir:-As I occupy a quasi military position under this state, I deem it proper to acquaint you that I accepted such a position when Louisiana was a state in the Union, and when the motto of the seminary, inserted in marble over the door, was: "'By the liberality of the General Government of the United States. The Union; Esto Perpetua, let it be perpetual.' "Recent events foreshadow a great change, and it becomes all men to choose. If Louisiana withdraws from the Federal Union, I prefer to maintain my allegiance to the old Constitution as long as a fragment of it survives; and my longer stay here would be wrong in every sense of the word. I beg you to take immediate steps to relieve me as superintendent the moment the state determines to secede; for on no earthly account will I do any act, or think any thought, hostile to or in defiance of the old Government of the United States." Captain Sherman returned to St. Louis. Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated President. Hon. John Sherman, the younger brother of Captain Sherman, was in the Senate of the United States. Captain Sherman hastened to Washington. He knew the South and its resources. He knew the maniacal fury with which the southerners had drawn the sword, and that they would not sheathe it until they were compelled to do so by the most direful of war's energies. He did everything in his power to rouse the Government to a conviction of the terrible struggle upon which it had entered. His warnings, then deemed extravagant, have since proved to be dictated by sober judgment. The North and the South were alike deceived. The southerners thought the northerners all cowards, became they despised street brawls and eschewed the duel. They imagined that a few chivalric southrons would chase northern armies as lions pursued the sheep. The northerners supposed that the South could make but a feeble fight; that, alarmed by the menaces of a servile insurrection, they would soon throw down their arms and cry for mercy. This was almost the invariable opinion of intelligent men in the North. Captain Sherman happened to know better. As he was urging upon President Lincoln the necessity for the most prompt and vigorous measures, that sagacious man replied: "We shall not need many men like you, Captain Sherman, to bring this conflict to an end. The affair will soon blow over." A call was issued for seventy-five thousand volunteers to serve for three months. The announcement of this measure to the Secession Congress at Montgomery created roars of laughter. Captain Sherman exclaimed, in sober sadness: "What folly! You are sleeping on a volcano. You need to organize the whole military power of the North for this desparate struggle. You do not understand this people. Why, if we should have a reverse beyond the Potomac, the very women of Washington would cut the throats of our wounded soldiers with their case-knives." He was deemed insane. The fact was that he was almost the only sane man in the nation. We were the insane ones, who imagined that seventy-five thousand volunteers would close the war in a three months' campaign. Though not a little disheartened by the languid movements, he accepted a commission as Colonel of the Thirteenth Regular Infantry. Well instructed military officers were then greatly needed to organize the shapeless masses of the infantry. Colonel Sherman reported to General Scott, and was intrusted with the command of a fort near Washington. His regiment was called into action in the disastrous defeat at Bull Run. In this dreadful panic his regiment, notwithstanding the coolness and efforts of its commander, was swept away in extreme confusion by the surging billows of the fugitives. General Robert Anderson was placed in command of the Department of Kentucky. He knew Colonel Sherman, and, appreciating his high military abilities, asked that he might serve under him. As General Anderson in consequence of ill health retired, Colonel Sherman by seniority was placed in supreme sacrificed by an injudicious movement. Modestly the young general remonstrated against assuming responsibilities so immense. He entreated General Anderson and the President not to place him in so conspicuous a position. At the same time he expressed his readiness to enter upon any perils and any severity of labor. It was then generally supposed that an army of ten or twelve thousand men was amply sufficient to hold Kentucky in check. The state contained a population of over a million. Two hundred thousand were able-bodied men. They were mostly violent secessionists, and skilled in the use of a rifle. The adjoining Confederate States of Virginia, Tennessee and Arkansas could pour in many thousands at a few days' warning, to aid their rebel brethren in Kentucky. General Sherman saw all this with clear vision. The Secretary of War visited Louisville. "How many men," he inquired, "does your department need?" "Sixty thousand," was the prompt reply, "to drive the enemy out of Kentucky, and two hundred thousand to finish the war in this section." Again he was deemed insane. But when a few months afterward a million and a half of men marshaled under the stars and stripes, all candid men were ready to admit that there was at least some method in General Sherman's madness. It must indeed have been distressing to General Sherman to accept a command with the full assurance that he had by no means the requisite force to meet its responsibilities. The War Department, surprised at the large demand of the general, relieved him of his command and sent him to Benton Barracks, in Missouri, to drill recruits. But such ability and energy as General Sherman possessed could not be repressed. When General Grant moved upon Fort Donelson, General Sherman was stationed at Paducah to forward supplies. When the expedition was sent up the Tennesse, General Sherman was placed in command of one of the divisions. Here his military abilities shone with great luster and gave him daily increasing reputation. When General Grant assumed the command in the place of General Smith, he found General Sherman, his former companion at West Point, in the advance at the unaccountable and fatal encampment at Pittsburgh Landing. We have no space here to describe this sanguinary and awful conduct. Whoever was accountable for the faults displayed on that occasion, it is generally admitted that his coolness and courage did much to check the panic and retrieve the distress of that melancholy day. He had three horses shot under him, and was wounded in the hand. General Halleck, who was by no means accustomed to use the language of unmerited panegyric, wrote: "General Sherman saved the fortures of the day on the 6th, and contributed largely to the glorious victory of the 7th." General Halleck now assumed the command, exercising caution even exceeding the rashness which had previously been displayed. General Sherman was assigned to the most important positions. Twice he met the enemy with an admirable disposition of his forces, and his victory was complete. After the evacuation of Corinth, General Sherman was ordered westward to Memphis. Irritated by the conduct of the secessionists in that region, who were perpetuating nameless guerilla outrages, firing murderously upon passing steamboats, and as spies keeping the enemy informed of every movement, he issued orders, as he set out on his march towards Vicksburg, which have been denounced as unnecessarily severe. Perhaps they were so. Perhaps a more thorough acquaintance with the annoyances the general had encountered in the very heart of the rebellion, from both men and women, whose malignaty knew no bounds, would be in some degree modify that opinion. General Sherman reached Vicksburg on Christmas eve, at the head of forty-two thousand men. The record of this eventful siege would require a volume instead of a few paragraphs which can be alloted to it here. It is enough to say that the measures won the cordial approval of General Grant. In the herculean attempt to burst into the Yazoo through the entanglement of the bayous. Admiral Porter testified that "no other general could have done better, or as well as Sherman." I would not detract one iota from General Grant's well-earned fame when we state General Sherman suggested the plan of running the batteries and marching up from the south, so as to attack the works at Vicksburg in the rear. As an honest biographer, I am bound to say that General Sherman did not, at that time, enjoy the confidence of the intelligent people of the North. Many stories were told, greatly to his disadvantage, representing him as expressing himself with very undue emphasis as friendly to slavery and hostile to emancipation. I have no heart to repeat those stories, to the injury of one who merits a nation's gratitude. But historical verity compels me to allude to them. To conceal Grant's movement, it was necessary to make a feint against Haines' Bluff, which of course could not be a successful attack. The magnanamous General Grant said to his friend Sherman: "I hate to ask you to do it; because the ferver of the North will accuse you of being rebellious again." The measure was skillfully performed, and the end accomplished. And now almost every day brought its battle; and General Sherman was continually in the hottest of the fight. General Grant, in his official report, bore the most emphatic testimony to the military ability displayed by General Sherman in his demonstration upon Haines' Bluff, in his subsequent rapid march to join the arrey, in his management at Jackson, and in "his almost unequaled march from Jackson to Bridgeport, and passage of the Black River." General Sherman's commanding powers as a soldier secured for him immediate promotion as brigadier-general in the regular army. Ohio had then one hundred and twenty-six regiments in the field, which was nominally a force of one hundred and twenty-six thousand men. But the ravages of the war had been such that fifty thousand new recruits were wanted to full up those regiments. On the 11th of October General Sherman left Memphis to march as rapidly as possible to Chattanooga, to the relief of General Rosecrans. The march through the heart of the enemy's country was very difficult. It was not till the middle of October that Sherman reached Chattanooga. The great battle was soon fought. To the victory General Sherman contributed an essential part. Soon after this General Garnt, in reward for his signal services, was raised to the high dignity of the lieutenant-generalship. Magnanimously he wrote to his beloved companion in arms: "Dear Sherman - I want to express my thanks to you and McPherson as the men to whom, above all others, I feel indebted for whatever I have had of success. How far your advice and assistance have been of help to me, you know. How far your execution of whatever has been given you to do entitles you to the reward I am receiving you cannot know as well as I." In Sherman's reply he said, in words which do alike honor to his intelligence, his modesty, and his high patriotic principles. "You do yourself injustice and us too much honor, in assigning to us too large a share of the merits which have led to your high advancement. You are now Washington's successor, and occupy a position of almost dangerous elevation. But if you can continue, as heretofore, to be yourself, simple, honest, and unpretending, you will enjoy through life the respect and love of friends and the homage of millions of human beings who will award you a large share in securing to them and their descendants a government of law and stability." Sherman received the appointment of chief commander of the department between the Alleghenies and the Mississippi River. He met Grant at Nashville, where, quietly seated at a table with a map before them, in long consultations they planned the ensuing campaigns. He was now intrusted with independent command, having a vast force at his disposal. Plans were decided upon which would task the energies of the highest military genius. The following sketch of remarks made by Sherman will give the reader some idea of the grandeur of the plans in contemplation. "At a signal given by you Schofield will drop down to Hiawassee and march on Johnson's right. Thomas, with forty-five thousand men, will move straight on Johnson wherever he may be, and fight him to the best advantage. McPherson, with thirty thousand of the best men in America, will cress the Tennessee at Decatur and feel for Thomas. Should Johnson fall behind the Chattahoochie I would feign to the right, but pass to the left, and act on Atlanta. This is about as far ahead as I feel disposed to look." The three armies which General Sherman had under his command numbered one hundred thousand men. General Johnson was, perhaps with the exception of General Lee, the ablest commander of the Confederacy. Early in April the renowned campaign of General Sherman to Atlanta, Savannah and Raleigh was commenced. With sixty thousand men he made a march of over a thousand miles, through the heart of Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina, until his victorious columns were blended with the trimumphal army of General Grant in the possession of Richmond, and the hideous rebellion was quelled. This wonderful campaign of Sherman was, beyond all question, the most brilliant achievement of the war. It was brilliant, but it was awful. No tongue can tell the woes which resulted from that dreadful march. The rebels always fought from behind carefully prepared ramparts. These formidable works, bristling with artillery and musketry, the patriot troops were compelled to storm. Though the rebels were ever beaten, and driven to other intrenchments in the rear, the Union victories were purchased at a fearful sacrifice of life. Each death sent a wail of grief to some distant home. In these dreadful battles the patriots lost on the first forty miles of their march, nearly five thousand men. The rebels lost perhaps half as many more. Thus the groans, which rose from the mangled and the dying on these fields of blood, were echoed back from between eight and nine thousand woe-stricken families. Many children were made orphans; many maidens lost their lovers; many mothers were widowed and doomed to life-long want. But onward advanced the impetuous columns of Sherman, sweeping all opposition before them. In one short battle on the 27th of May, three thousand patriot soldiers were torn to pieces by the terrible enginery of war, while the rebels, behind good breastworks, lost but four hundred and fifty. At length, through a long series of bloody battles. Atlanta was reached and captured. Seventy-two days had been occupied in advancing one hundred miles. In one of the battles before that strongly intrenched city General Sherman struck down five thousand rebel soldiers while his own loss was but six hundred. But these five thousand men were our fellow-countrymen, with parents, and many with wives and children, whose tears have not yet ceased to flow. General Sherman's care of his soldiers and tender regard for the feelings of his officers won for him the warmest affection of his whole army. He intended to make Atlanta the base of his infinitely important future operations, which were kept a profound secret even from his subordinate officers. He deemed it needful that the whole of Atlanta should be converted into a military fortress, and that no rebel families should be left there to consume his provisions, spy out his plans and communicate them to the enemy. He therefore issued an order that all the inhabitants should leave the place. Those who professed to adhere to the Union, were to be carefully transported to the North, within the Union lines, there to be tenderly fed and housed at the expense of the government. Those who adhered to the rebellion were ordered to go to the south, within the rebel lines, where the Confederate Government was bound to take care of them. The Mayor of Atlanta, remonstrating against this order, addressed the following pathetic appeal to General Sherman: "It involves in the aggregate consequences appalling and heart-rendering. Many poor women are in the advance state of pregnancy. Others have young children, and their husbands are either in the army, prisoner or dead. Some say, 'I have such an one sick at home. Who will wait on them when I am gone?' Others say, 'What are we to do? We have no houses to go to, and no means to buy, build or rent any. No parents, relatives or friends to go to.' "The country, south of this, is already crowded with refugees, and without houses to accommodate the people. Many are now starving in churches and other out buildings. This being so, how is it possible for the people here, mostly women and children, to find any shelter? How can they live through the Winter in the woods?" -------------------------------- End of OH-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest V00 Issue #52 ******************************************