Читать книгу Life of Wm. Tecumseh Sherman - Willis Fletcher Johnson - Страница 3
ОглавлениеINTRODUCTION.
The title of this work is hardly a fair index to the contents.
The "Life of General Sherman," written with any reasonable detail so as to depict his formative period, the gradual development of his energies, the bulk of his achievements and the great consummation of his genius, could not be contained in any three volumes of this size.
The work, so far as the labor of the author, Mr. Johnson, is concerned, is eclectic,—mainly a compendium.
There are beautiful sketches, choice pictorial presentations of Sherman and his environments from childhood to age. But, I do not think that the work, valuable as it undoubtedly is, could in any degree take the place of Sherman's Personal Memoirs.
There are some chapters which have been furnished by war editorials and the writings of field correspondents which the author must have collected and carefully preserved.
Many of these are life-like, and bear the impress and the inspiration of the exciting events amid which they were composed.
There are, furthermore, in this book, chapters which are ingeniously formed and elaborated by quotations from officers who were themselves part and parcel of the campaigns which they describe.
To me, the author appears to have done exceedingly well, and has herein furnished a choice entertainment to his readers.
The part undertaken by me, and to which I have strictly confined myself, has been to review the work, some of it already in proof type, and the remainder in manuscript, going over each chapter with considerable care, and suggesting such changes as I thought the truth of history demanded.
Where one has expressed an opinion and a quotation of that opinion appears, of course no change was admissible; so that I am entirely unwilling to assume that such a quoted writer gave utterance to my own convictions.
For example: different views are given of the fearful struggle during the first day of "Shiloh" at Pittsburgh Landing. A famous journalist takes General Sherman to task for want of epaulements, intrenchments, and other means of defence. He claims that Sherman and Grant were both surprised, as they had known for a week or more that the enemy was close by, and liable to attack.
Certainly the answer to this allegation, and it should be a very clear and decided answer, would be found in any completed history. Our troops had not yet, at that period of the war of the rebellion, made much use of intrenching tools. Grant and Sherman did not design to put their new troops into intrenched camps.
They believed, and very justly, that it was next to impossible to handle them offensively, as we say, against the enemy. But they did have some cover. The woods, ravines, and general contour of the ground gave them protection, and it was in faithful use of this cover that during the battle-storm of the first day near Shiloh church, they were able to hold out till reinforcements came.
This example will suggest others to the reader. Still, the phases presented by the different writers, from whom extracts are taken, afford a kaleidoscopic variety, interesting especially to those of us who lived at the time of the occurrences in question.
Probably none of us can do more than our noble General Sherman, years ago, suggested. He said in substance: We who were involved in the controversies, the battles, and campaigns of the great war, are not the men to write the history. We are like witnesses in court. Each should give his own testimony of what he saw and knew. Somebody else, will in the future, after passion and prejudice shall have subsided, rise up to make a search, a selection, a summation, and so the better evolve the true history.
With regard to General Sherman and his career, in my judgment the more of truthful statements that are made the better. Let eye witnesses give all the evidence they can.
In his heart was a love of truth, a phenomenal loyalty to his country, a fearless and prompt devotion to duty and markedly an absence of aught that was malicious. True, he resented wrong often with a fiery indignation, but he forgave a fault confessed with quick generosity. So that at Lancaster, Ohio, the home of his childhood, at West Point, N. Y., in Florida and South Carolina, where were his early army stations; in California and Louisiana, where he made his civil record; at all places during the war of four years, and at his headquarters, or upon extensive tours; as Commander, after the war, of a military division and finally of a whole army; all his acts, all his orders, and all his writings will bear most careful inspection. They, if truthfully given, will furnish to our youth something for meditation, for instruction, for emulation.
To whatever extent this little volume may contribute such quota, it will be a welcome guest to our people, North and South, East and West.
O. O. HOWARD,
Major-General U. S. Army.
Governor's Island, N. Y. City,
March 19th, 1891.
CHAPTER I.
THE SHERMAN FAMILY.
Honorable Rank in the Mother Country—Early Migration to New England—Settling in the Connecticut Valley—Playing an Important Part at Woodbury—Long Term of Public Service—The Stoddards—A Military Minister—Seeking New Fortunes in the West—An Early Ohio Judge—The Mother of Great Men.
The artificial law of primogeniture has little effect upon the natural law of heredity. In nations where the family descent outranks all other personal or social considerations, degenerate sons—even first sons—of noble sires are often found, and famous families become extinct, or worse. In other nations, where descent is scorned, and the proud individualism of democracy prevails, hereditary genius appears, and families contribute to the service of society and of the State generation after generation of great men. Thus human nature vindicates its disregard of time and places, and establishes itself as the one immutable factor in the life of the world, albeit changeful, capricious, and kaleidoscopic.
In the United States no laws of entail or descent prevail. Yet scarcely elsewhere in the world, within two centuries and a-half, have there appeared so many striking instances of worth and greatness made hereditary. The names that lived at Plymouth and at Massachusetts Bay in the early sixteen hundreds, live now in the late eighteen hundreds, in old plantations, or in the greater and newer England that has risen beyond the Appalachian ranges. With such a name this memoir has to deal.
The name Sherman is not a common one in England, from which country the family migrated to America, but where it occurs in that country's annals it is mentioned with honor and respect. The will of Lord Stanley, Earl of Derby, dated May 23d, 1521, bears the name of Sir Henry Sherman as one of its executors. In the time of Henry VIII. one William Sherman was invested with a knighthood. The Davy manuscripts relating to the County of Suffolk, which are to be found in the British Museum, contain much mention of the Shermans of Laxley, who were the direct progenitors of the American branch of the family. The direct line of the Laxley Shermans is recorded as follows: Thomas Sherman, of Laxley; Thomas Sherman, 2d, of Laxley; Thomas Sherman, 3d, gentleman, of Laxley and Stutson, and afterward of Ipswich; John Sherman, son of Thomas Sherman 2d; William Sherman, eldest son of John. This William Sherman was born in 1588, and married Mary Lascelles, of Nottinghamshire. Their son, John Sherman, came to America in 1634, and settled at Watertown, Massachusetts. He took a prominent part in the military operations of the infant colony, and was known as Captain John Sherman; by which title he is distinguished from his cousin John Sherman, who also lived at Watertown. This Captain John Sherman was the grandfather of Roger Sherman, famous in American history as one of the chief signers of the Declaration of Independence.
