Description:

Sherman William



W.T. Sherman ALS Critical of Secretary of War Belknap, the Same Year his Memoirs were Published

 

4pp ALS inscribed overall and signed by legendary Civil War General William Tecumseh Sherman (1820-1891) as "W.T. Sherman / General" on the last page. Written in St. Louis, Missouri on June 30, 1875. On watermarked cream bifold stationery with partly printed "Headquarters Army of the United States" letterhead. Expected wear includes uneven weathered and toning, paper folds, and isolated minor closed tears along creases, none of which affects the legibility of the text. Docketed verso. 5.125" x 8.125".

 

In part, with unchanged spelling and punctuation. Paragraph breaks have been added for improved legibility.

 

"Dear Hazen,

 

I have just received yours of the 27. and assure you that if I remitted to Anson any letter of yours it was not because it contained anything important but because I must have responded it as simply as an answer to one of mine and not calling for any further reply. As you can well understand I receive a great many letters of a private character that also involve official matters…

 

You merit your Claims to the next detail for recruiting Armies. If I made the detail I surely would take the Roster straight down for the trp, but I do not make the detail as the Adjt Genl regard that as his special province, and 'picks out' - as the Sec of War insists, and he would regard a suggestion from me as impertinent - so I can not undertake to let know now that you expect it…

 

I have to go up the River to Kiohuk tomorrow night to attend a Regular Fourth of July at Hamilton opposite Kiokuk. - will be back next Wednesday, and will always be glad to hear from you…"

 

In 1869, W.T. Sherman had been appointed General of the Army, and his main responsibility in this capacity was the subjugation of indigenous peoples in the West. Sherman designated St. Louis, Missouri as his military headquarters between 1874-1876 so that campaigns against the Nez Perce, Sioux, Modoc, and other tribes could not be interfered with by Washington, D.C. or East Coast critics.

 

Sherman's correspondent William Babcock Hazen (1830-1887) had served under Sherman during the Atlanta and Carolinas campaigns, and during his March to the Sea. A fellow West Point graduate, Hazen had also been assigned to the Indian Territories after the Civil War. His differing stance on Indian policy--honoring treaties, offering clemency, etc.--alienated him from hardliner colleagues Philip Sheridan and George A. Custer.

 

Sherman was friendly with Hazen in part because they mutually disliked William W. Belknap (1829-1890), President U.S. Grant's Secretary of War (1869-1876), referred to disparagingly in the letter. In fact, Hazen was involved in exposing a corruption scandal that later led to Belknap's disgrace and resignation in 1876.

 

One wonders if Hazen's probing about Sherman's sharing his correspondence had anything to do with the fact that Sherman's memoirs were published that year. Memoirs of General William T. Sherman, by Himself (New York, D. Appleton & Co., 1875) covered Sherman's military career from the Mexican American War to Reconstruction. Sherman's memoirs criticized some of his Civil War comrades in arms, including U.S. Grant.

 

Sherman mentions attending a Fourth of July celebration upriver from his Midwestern outpost. Sherman would be traveling about 150 miles up the Mississippi River to "Kiokuk" (Keokuk, Iowa) and Hamilton, Illinois.

 



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