Читать книгу Life of Wm. Tecumseh Sherman - Willis Fletcher Johnson - Страница 10

Table of Contents

The South Excited and Ready—The North Indifferent and Unprepared—Sherman's Interview with Lincoln—His Plain Talk to his Brother—Disgusted with the Politicians—A St. Louis Street Railroad President—War Talk in St. Louis—A Clerkship Declined—His Loyalty Doubted—Prophesying a Great Struggle—Bloodshed in St. Louis—Back to Washington—In Service at Last.

It is not easy to imagine a greater difference between two sections of one nation than existed between the North and South in the early months of 1861. In both, the same great topic overshadowed all other interests; and both enjoyed full information concerning it. Both, indeed, were deeply and equally concerned in the settlement of the great controversy that was already convulsing the nation. Yet the sentiment that prevailed in the one section varied as widely from that in the other as though they were situated upon different planets.

In Louisiana, before he left that State, and in the other parts of the South through which he travelled on his way to the North, Sherman found everywhere the keenest public interest in the impending conflict, which was, then and there, seen to be inevitable. Preparation was being feverishly pushed on every hand. States were seceding. Federal forts, arsenals and other property was being confiscated. Federal officers were proving recreant to their trusts, and were casting in their lot with the insurgents. Politicians were preaching secession, and the public heart was rapidly being fired with the same unholy flame.

But when he reached Illinois and Ohio and other Northern States, the scene was entirely changed. All was calm and placid. No one seemed seriously to think of serious trouble. The commercial instinct prevailed. Men were too busy making money to pay attention to politics. Others felt too secure in the established order of things to believe that any great change was at hand. Sherman was impressed with the idea that either the North had no adequate realization of the true state of affairs, which was scarcely credible, or, which seemed far more likely, it would tamely submit to a dissolution of the Union. The supine weakness of Buchanan had not aroused the North to shame, nor had the aggressive treason of the conspirators who surrounded him excited its righteous wrath. It is related that Horace Greeley, on hearing of the manner in which a long-suffering but at last indignant public had overwhelmingly routed at the polls the venal ring that had long plundered and oppressed it, threw up his hands in exultation and exclaimed with an oath, "This is a great people when it gets mad!" The North had not yet "got mad," and its greatness was not yet apparent.

Soon after coming North, Sherman proceeded to Washington, where Lincoln had just been inaugurated as President, John Sherman was now a Republican leader in the Senate, having been appointed in place of Chase, who had entered the Cabinet. Washington was enough of a southern city to be filled with war talk. Sherman's old friend, Anderson, had just moved his troops from Fort Moultrie into Fort Sumter, in Charleston Harbor, and had announced his patriotic determination to hold that post for the Government at all hazards. Southern members of Congress and office holders in the Departments, even in the War Department, were openly talking treason of the rankest kind.

Sherman was one day at this time taken by his brother John to the White House, where he had a long interview with the President. On learning that Sherman had just come from the South, Lincoln inquired of him "how they were getting along down there." Said Sherman, "They think they are getting along swimmingly. They are preparing for war." "Oh, well," replied Lincoln, "I guess we'll manage to keep house." This remark greatly disappointed Sherman and he changed the subject as quickly as possible. As he left the White House, however, he relieved his mind most emphatically to his brother. "John," he exclaimed fiercely, "you damned politicians have got things in a hell of a fix, and you may get out of them as you best can!"

Thoroughly disgusted with Washington and the politicians, Sherman went back to Lancaster. His brother John begged him to remain at the Capitol and to be more patient with the President, but the impetuous soldier would not listen to him. At Lancaster he found letters from friends at St. Louis urging him to come on there and assume the presidency of a street railroad, which was sure to prove profitable. He quickly decided to do so, and on March 27th set out for St. Louis with his family. On April 1st they took possession of a house on Locust street, where Charles Ewing and John Hunter, law partners, boarded with them. Sherman was elected president of the street railroad company, which had a paying line in full operation, and tried to devote himself strictly to business. This, however, was impossible. The air was full of politics and of war. The Governor of Missouri and all the leading politicians openly sympathized with the seceding States. The troops at the State Camp of Instruction in Lindell's Grove were commanded by a Southern sympathizer, although he was a Northerner and a West Point man. There were, however, some loyal men about, among them being John M. Schofield, B. Gratz Brown, Clinton B. Fisk and Frank Blair—whose brother, Montgomery Blair was in Lincoln's Cabinet. These patriotic men had organized, chiefly among the German population of the city, four or five regiments of loyal "Home Guards." Nathaniel Lyon, also, kept his handful of Federal troops at the arsenal true to the Nation. Day by day the situation grew more strained. Sherman tried to keep out of the trouble, and talked freely with only a few intimate friends. But day by day it became more evident that a tremendous conflict was close at hand, and day by day the earnest soldier and ardent patriot felt himself more strongly drawn away from his street railroad and toward the defence of the Nation.

Meantime he was not forgotten at Washington, where his brother John was strongly urging his interests. On April 6th he received a telegraphic dispatch from the Postmaster-General, Montgomery Blair, saying: "Will you accept the chief clerkship of the War Department? We will make you Assistant Secretary of War when Congress meets." Sherman promptly telegraphed back, "I cannot accept," and then wrote by mail as follows:

"I received, about nine o'clock Saturday night, your telegraph dispatch, which I have this moment answered, 'I cannot accept.' I have quite a large family, and when I resigned my place in Louisiana, on account of secession, I had no time to lose; and, therefore, after my hasty visit to Washington, where I saw no chance of employment, I came to St. Louis, have accepted a place in this company, have rented a house, and incurred other obligations, so that I am not at liberty to change. I thank you for the compliment contained in your offer, and assure you that I wish the Administration all success in its almost impossible task of governing this distracted and anarchical people."

This letter gave great offence at Washington, and some members of the Cabinet prophesied that Sherman would join the secessionists. Another attempt, however, was soon made to secure his services for the Government, this time personally by Frank Blair. Blair asked Sherman to come to his house one night, and there told him that the Government had determined to relieve General Harney, who then commanded the Military Department of Missouri, and that a change would soon be made. "It is in my power," said Blair, "to appoint a Brigadier-General to command the Department, and if you will take the place you shall have it." Sherman replied that he had already, while in Washington, offered his services to the Government, and that they had been declined; he had now made business engagements which he could not readily break; and that while the offer was complimentary and tempting, he must decline it. Blair argued the point with him for some time, but to no avail, and soon thereafter Nathaniel Lyon was appointed to the place.

The attack upon Fort Sumter by the Charleston insurgents at last startled the North, although even then not many seemed to realize the magnitude of the struggle that had begun. Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers for three months, thinking this force would be sufficient to suppress the rebellion. But Sherman regarded this movement with contempt. "You might as well attempt to put out the flames of a burning house with a squirt gun," he exclaimed, indignantly. And again, "You want to organize the whole military power of the North at once for a desperate struggle." A little later, at Washington, talking with Murat Halstead, the editor of The Cincinnati Commercial, he said: "You don't know anything about this people. Why, if we should have a reverse beyond the Potomac, the very women of this city would cut the throats of our wounded with case knives." So while Sherman's loyalty was doubted by some, others began to regard him as an alarmist.

The call of patriotism presently become louder and more urgent than the demands of business, and on May 8th Sherman wrote as follows to Simon Cameron, Secretary of War:

"I hold myself, now, as always, prepared to serve my country in the capacity for which I was trained. I did not and will not volunteer for three months, because I cannot throw my family on the cold charity of the world. But for the three years' call, made by the President, an officer can prepare his command and do good service. I will not volunteer as a soldier, because rightfully or wrongfully I feel unwilling to take a mere private's place, and, having for many years lived in California and Louisiana, the men are not well enough acquainted with me to elect me to my appropriate place. Should my services be needed, the records of the War Department will enable you to designate the station in which I can render most service."

From this it appears that Sherman fully appreciated his own abilities, and was not willing to have them underrated by others. It should be added in explanation that he had already declined to go Ohio and take command of a three months' volunteer regiment, and that the Government had now decided to add eleven regiments to the regular army. It was in one of these new regiments of regulars that he offered to accept and hoped to receive an appointment.

On the very day after this letter was written, an incident occurred at St. Louis which greatly strengthened Sherman's anxiety to get to work in the national cause. On that day he took his children down to the arsenal. Inside the arsenal walls they found four regiments of the "Home Guards," receiving cartridges. General Lyon, who was then in command, was rushing about in great excitement. Evidently serious business was on hand; whether offensive or defensive did not appear.

But the next morning the city was startled with the news that the "Home Guards" were about to attack Camp Jackson—the State camp of instruction in Lindell's Grove—where, as already stated, secession influences prevailed. Throughout the city people shut up their houses and prepared for fighting. Many of Sherman's friends set out for the camp to see what would happen, but Sherman, although he felt intensely interested and excited, remained at home. With his son Willie, seven years old, he walked up and down the sidewalk before his house, listening for sounds of war. A Miss Dean, who lived across the way, called out to him and asked him if he knew what was going on, saying that her brother-in-law was a surgeon in the camp, and she was afraid he would get killed. Sherman replied that he did not think the soldiers at the camp would attempt to resist General Lyon, who was in lawful command. To this the fire-eating lady replied that the soldiers at the camp belonged to the first families of St. Louis, and that they would certainly fight to the bitter end. "Oh, pshaw," said Sherman, "the first families don't like to get killed any better than common folks." Just at that moment a man came running down the street from the camp, shouting, "They've surrendered! The camp has surrendered!" And Miss Dean, mortified at the cowardice of the first families, went into the house and slammed the door.

Sherman now started toward the camp, his boy Willie still with him. Soon he met Frank Blair's regiment, escorting the Camp Jackson prisoners. There was a great crowd in the street, some "damning the Dutch," cheering the prisoners, and hurrahing for Jeff. Davis; and others, though not so many, encouraging the loyal troops. Much confusion prevailed everywhere. Presently a drunken rowdy tried to pass through the ranks of the troops (Regulars). A sergeant pushed him back. The fellow violently assaulted the sergeant, and then the sergeant knocked him down, and he rolled some distance down a grassy bank. The man gathered himself up, and, with a great deal of drunken backing and filling, climbed up the bank again and drew a pistol. The Regulars had by this time moved on, and a regiment of the Home Guards had come up and occupied their place. The fellow fired his pistol at one of the officers and struck him in the leg. Forthwith the soldiers began to fire over the heads of the crowds, and there was a general stampede. Some of the bullets went low, and several of the crowd were wounded. Charles Ewing threw Willie Sherman on the ground and covered him with his own body. Captain Sherman also lay down to escape the bullets, and Hunter got behind a hillock. There they lay until the firing ceased, when they got up and started for home by way of some of the back streets. They afterward found that two or three men and a woman and a child had been killed. General Lyon put a loyal guard in charge of the vacant camp, and marched the prisoners down to the arsenal, where some were paroled, and others held for a long time until they were regularly exchanged as prisoners of war.

Soon after this, on May 14th, Sherman received a letter from his brother Charles, who was in Washington, telling him to come on to the National Capitol at once, as he had been appointed Colonel of the Thirteenth Regiment of Infantry in the Regular Army. To this there could be but one reply. He wound up business affairs at St. Louis at once and went on to Washington; leaving his family at their St. Louis home, however, because he expected to be allowed to raise his own regiment, and organize it, which he intended to do at St. Louis. On reaching Washington he was gratified to find that, as he expressed it, "the Government was trying to rise to a level with the occasion." Lincoln had taken affairs into his own hands. Without any Congressional authority he had ordered the raising of the new regiments of regulars, in addition to the 75,000 State volunteers. "Even this call," says Sherman, "seemed to me utterly inadequate; still it was none of my business." Sherman took the oath of office and received a list of officers who had been appointed to his regiment. Then he reported in person to General Scott, and asked to be allowed to return to St. Louis and enlist his regiment. To this the General would not agree. "Your Lieutenant-Colonel can raise the regiment," he said. "I want you right here." So, seeing that he would have to remain on duty in Washington, Sherman sent word to his family to pack up and go home to Lancaster. He also resigned the presidency of the railroad company, and thus once more was wholly embarked upon a military career.

"He was now," says Mr. Reid in "Ohio in the War," "in his forty-second year.... His thirteen years of army life had brought no distinction. McClellan, Fremont, Halleck, Hooker, Rosecrans and a score of other young retired officers of the Army were remembered as brilliant soldiers, according to the standard of those old army days. Sherman had left no name. The eight years of civil life that followed had added little to his fortune and nothing to his fame.... But the heart of the man was sound to the core, and his impulsive abandonment of his place in Louisiana did more than all his life thus far to fix him in men's minds. He was soon to enter upon a wider career, but the days of his success were still distant, and a severe probation yet awaited him."