amalgamation, and the Indians give a fair illustration of the fate of negroes if they are released from the control of the whites. Of course no one can guess what the wild unbridled passions of men may do, but I don't believe that the present excitement in politics is anything more than the signs of the passage of power from southern politicians to northern and western politicians. The negro is made the hobby, but I know that northern men don't care any more about the rights and humanities of the negroes than the southerners. At present negroes work under control of white men and the consequence is the annual yield of $200,000,000 of cotton, sugar and other produce that would not be without such labor; and so long as that is the case I don't fear a change in this respect. . .

When the November elections were drawing near, Sherman clearly felt that a crisis was at hand, and wrote (November 3): "I say but little, try and mind my own business, and await the issue of events." A week later he wrote as follows:

ALEXANDRIA, November 10, 1860. We have had a week of cold stormy rains, but it has cleared off and today is bright and warm. I am going into town today and will leave this at the post office. The election came off on Tuesday and resulted in Alexandria for a majority for Breckenridge, next Bell, next Douglass. Of course there were no votes for Lincoln. Indeed he has no ticket in this state. I received a note from a friend advising me to vote. I thought the matter over, and concluded I would not vote. Technically I was entitled to a vote as I entered Louisiana just a year ago, but I thought I ought not to vote in this election, and did not. I would have preferred Bell, but I think he has no chance, and I do not wish to be subject to any political conditions. If I am to hold my place by a political tenure, I prefer again to turn vagabond. I would not be surprised to learn that my not voting was construed into a friendly regard for Lincoln, and that it might result in my being declared a public enemy. I shall, however, rest under a belief that now as the election is over, all this hard feeling will subside and peace once more settle on the country. We have no returns as yet. Maybe the mail tonight will

VOL. XLV.-44

bring some returns from New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, those large states that determine this election, but I do not count on any clear knowledge till next Monday.

No matter which way we turn there arise difficulties which seem insurmountable. In case Lincoln is elected, they say South Carolina will secede and that the Southern States will not see her forced back. Secession must result in civil war, anarchy and ruin to our present form of government; but if it is attempted it would be unwise for us to be here. But I still hope for quiet. . . .

Though hoping for quiet, Sherman could not but see in the signs of the times many warnings of disaster to his country and confusion for himself. The following letters abound in these indications:

ALEXANDRIA, November 29, 1860.

. . . This is a holiday-Thanksgiving and prayer; but holidays and Sundays are my worst days as then the Cadets are idle and mischievous.

Governor Moore has issued his proclamation calling the Legislature together for December 10, and the proclamation is couched in ugly language, different from his usual more conservative tone. It is manifest to me now that the leading politicians of the state have conferred together and have agreed to go out of the Union, or at all events to favor the new doctrine of secession. The Legislature will determine the call of a Convention, and the Convention will decide very much according to the other events that may occur in the meantime. This imposes on us a change of purpose, and it will not do for you or any one to come south unless this state of feeling changes. I know the governor and believe him an excellent thermometer of the political atmosphere of Louisiana. I hear that business is dead in New Orleans, all of which is an evidence that the abolitionists have succeeded in bringing on the "Irresistible Conflict."

I am sick of this everlasting subject. The truth has nothing to do with this world. Here they know that all you in Ohio have to do is to steal niggers, and in Ohio, though the people are quiescent, yet they believe that the South are determined to enlarge the area of niggers. Like Burton in "Too

dles" I say, "Damn the niggers." I wish they were anywhere or be kept at their work. I observe more signs of a loosened discipline here. Boys are careless and last night because the supper did not please them, they smashed the crockery and made a riot generally. Pistols were fired, which scared Joe very much. His education has been neglected, but I think he will get used to it. We have dismissed five cadets and others must share their fate. . . . Still this is a small matter susceptible of remedy, but the secession movement underlays the very safety of everything. . . .

ALEXANDRIA, December 16, 1860. The Telegraph has announced to you ere this that Governor Moore, hurried on by the wild enthusiasm which now pervades the southern mind, has caused the Forts at the mouth of the Mississippi to be occupied by volunteers from New Orleans. Also those at the outlets of Lakes Pontchartrain and Borgne, and moreover that he has caused a large force to surround the barracks at Baton Rouge, and the garrison to surrender. Major Haskin † will be much blamed, but he is a plain brave man, lost an arm in Mexico, but he had only a single company, in an open barracks, and was stationed there, as among friends, to protect the arsenal not against the people but against the negroes. All these are acts of hostility and war. The news will cause intense feeling in the North and West. They were entirely too precipitate, and Governor Moore is even censured here; still, the fact is manifest that the people of the South are in open rebellion against the government of the United States.

I went to Alexandria in a hard rain yesterday, and saw Dr. Smith, Mr. Edgar [?] Wise and others, members of the Convention and Legislature and spoke my mind fully and clearly, that these were acts of unjustifiable war, and that I could no longer remain silent. I asked to be relieved. .

ALEXANDRIA, December 18, 1860.

I cannot remain here much beyond January 23, the time set for the State Convention to dissolve the connection of this state with the United States. The Legislature only sat three days and *"A bugler I picked up in New Orleans, a kind of circus

man."-MS. letter, Nov. 3, 1860. † Joseph A. Haskin.

passed unanimously the bills for arming the state and calling a convention. That convention has only to decree what has already been resolved on and proclaimed by the governor, that Louisiana cannot remain under a Black Republican President. The opinion is universal that disunion is resolved on and the only open questions are

what states will compose the Southern Confederacy? I regard the failure of Buchanan to strengthen Major Anderson at Fort Moultrie as absolutely fatal, as the evidence of contemptible pusillanimity of our general government-almost convincing me that the government is not worth saving. No wonder General Cass forthwith resigned. The banks in New Orleans continue good, and I will endeavor to send you a month's pay at the close of this month; but for mercy's sake be close and mean, for I cannot say how soon all my supplies will come to a conclusion. .

At the opening of 1861 Sherman, as the two last letters have shown, had found his place untenable, and, having asked to be relieved of his post, was preparing for that severance of his relations with the state of Louisiana which is shown, in the official correspondence preserved in the "Memoirs," to have been effected so creditably to all concerned in it. The letters to Mrs. Sherman during these final weeks speak clearly for his more intimate views of the conditions that surrounded him. In the first of them the reader can hardly fail to be struck with Sherman's prescience regarding the attack upon Sumter and the importance of the Mississippi, where his own powers were to be tested, in the impending conflict.

[Date missing: early in January, 1861.]

The Governor recommends the establishment of a large arsenal here. We now have a limited supply of arms. I have announced my position; as long as Louisiana is in the Union I will serve her honestly and faithfully, but if she quits, I will quit too. I will not for a day or even an hour occupy a position of apparent hostility to Uncle Sam.

That government is weak enough, but is the only thing in America that has even the semblance of a government. These State governments are ridiculous pretences of a

government, liable to explode at the call of any mob. I don't want to be premature, and will hold on to the last moment in hopes of change, but they seem to be pushing events ridiculously fast. There is an evident purpose, a dark design, not to allow time for thought and reflection. These southern leaders understand the character of their people and want action before the spirit subsides. Robert Anderson commands at Charleston, and there I look for the first actual collision. Old Fort Moultrie, every brick of which is as plain now in my memory as the sidewalk in Lancaster, will become historical. It is weak and I can scale any of its bastions. If secession, dissolution and civil war do come, South Carolina will soon drop far astern, and the battle will be fought on the Mississippi. The Western States never should consent to a hostile people holding the mouth of the Mississippi. Should I be forced to act promptly I will turn up, either at St. Louis or Washington. Turner knows full well where I am, but he is angry with me about his charge against Ohio of nigger stealing. You remember my answer from Lancaster. I am very well. Weather cold and overcast.

ALEXANDRIA, January 5, 1861.

I have finished my Report, and placed all the papers in the hands of Dr. Smith, Vice President. I walked into town the day before yesterday, poor Clay* being dead and buried. Dr. Smith was away and I only remained a few hours. Alexandria at best is not a cheerful town, but now decidedly the reverse. Everybody naturally feels the danger which envelopes us all in one common cause. I have had nothing said to me at all, and I discuss the questions of the day freely with my equals, and try to keep my peace with loungers about the street corners and ferry boat landing. I always say what is my real belief, that though the Slavery question seems to be the question, that soon it will sink into insignificance.

Our country has become so democratic, that the mere popular opinion of any town or village rises above the law. Men have ceased to look to constitutions and law books for their guides, but have studied popular opinion in bar rooms and village newspapers, and that was and is law. The old women and grannies of New England,

* A horse.

reasoning from abstract principles, must defy the Constitution of the country. The people of the South, not relying on the Federal Government, must allow their people to favor filibustering expeditions against the solemn treaties of the land, and everywhere from California to Maine any man could do murder, robbery or arson if the people's prejudices lay in that direction. And now things are at such a pass that no one section believes the other and we are beginning to fight. The right of secession is but the beginning of the end, it is utterly wrong, and the President ought never for one moment to have permitted the South Carolinians to believe he would not enforce the Revenue Laws, and hold the public property in Charleston Harbor. Had he promptly reinforced Major Anderson, the Charlestonians would have been a little more circumspect. My only hope is that Major Anderson may hold out, that reinforcements may reach him, and that the people may feel that they can't always do as they please, or in other words that they ain't so free and independent as they think. In this view I am alone here, but I do so think and will say it.

As to our own situation it is too bad to think of. I have got pretty near to the end of my rope. I have neither health, strength or purpose to start out life anew.

SEMINARY, January 13, 1861. Yours of the 4th is at hand. Our mails have been irregular, but this came on time. I see no change to note here in public sentiment. The fact that Seward has been named as Secretary of State to Lincoln enables the leaders to show that their suspicions are right, that the Republicans and abolitionists are identical. I am therefore confirmed in my opinion that the Cotton States are off, and it is an even chance with all the Slave States. I take the Missouri Republican and National Intelligencer, which seem to oppose secession, but they cannot stem the torrent. The revolution has begun, and the national government has shown weakness in all its attempts. Anderson is the only one who has acted. General Scott, in sending reinforcements, ought not to have trusted the "Star of the West", the same in which we went to California seven years ago. ture to receive a fire.

She could not venFrigates and strong

war steamers should have gone, which could have forced their way past the land batteries. I hope still this will be done. It will be a triumph to South Carolina to beat Uncle Sam.

Still Charleston is nothing to New Orleans, and I am satisfied the Forts at the mouth and the Lakes will be taken by order of Governor Moore of this state, before they are occupied by the United States. All these are acts of war. War has begun, and it is idle to say that the South is not in earnest. Louisiana has not yet seceded, yet the delegates favorable to such a course are elected, even in New Orleans where the union feeling is thought to be strongest. . . .

In January Sherman was asked to receive and render account for a large quantity of arms and ammunition seized by the state of Louisiana from the United States arsenal at Baton Rouge. This was more than he could undertake, and he asked immediately to be relieved of his superintendency. A letter of February 1 to Mrs. Sherman quotes some of the expressions of regret at his departure to be found in the official communications given at length in the "Memoirs." About the end of the month he turned his face northward, far poorer in prospects than he had been on coming to Louisiana, far richer in knowledge of the Southern people and of the nature of the problems to be solved by the dreaded processes of war.

It was necessary for Sherman, however, to provide at once for the support of his family, and to this end he assumed on the 1st of April the presidency of a street railway in St. Louis. A few days later the government offered him the chief clerkship of the War Department, which he declined. He was unwilling, also, to volunteer for the brief term of service in the army which at first seemed sufficient to the authorities. When the three-years call came he offered himself without delay, and on the 14th of May was appointed colonel of the Thirteenth Regular Infantry, a regiment still to be formed. Before he left St. Louis to report at Washington for orders he wrote, with characteristic foresight, to his brotherin-law, Thomas Ewing, Jr.: "After all the Mississippi River is the hardest and most important task of the war, and I know of no one competent, unless it be McClellan.

But as soon as real war begins, new men, heretofore unheard of, will emerge from obscurity, equal to any occasion. Only I think it is to be a long war,-very long, much longer than any politician thinks.”

Ordered first to inspection duty in and about Washington, Sherman found himself, June 30th, in command of the Third Brigade of the First Division of the army about to set forth on the march which ended at Bull Run. Before the fight there were two letters, July 16th and 19th. "Tell Willy," he wrote in the first of these, “I have another war sword which he can add to his present armory. When I come home again I will gratify his ambition on that score, though truly I do not choose for him or Tommy † the military profession. It is too full of blind chances to be worthy of a first place among callings." In the second, there is a further token of his constant thought for the circle at home: "My faith in you and the children is perfect, and let what may befall me I feel they are in a fair way to grow up in goodness and usefulness." In a brief letter of July 24, full of the humiliation of a defeat, which could not have occurred if Sherman's own spirit could have animated McDowell's army, he exclaimed, "Well, as I am sufficiently disgraced now, I suppose soon I can sneak into some quiet corner. I was under heavy fires for hours, touched on the knee and shoulder, my horse shot through the leg, and was every way exposed, and cannot imagine how I escaped except to experience the mortification of retreat, rout, confusion, and now abandonment by whole regiments.” Four days later Sherman found leisure to write a full account of the battle and his part in it:

FORT CORCORAN, July 28, Sunday. I have already written to you since my return from the unfortunate defeat at Bull Run. I had previously conveyed to you the doubts that oppressed my mind on the score of discipline.

Four large columns of poorly disciplined militia left this place, the Long bridge and Alexandria, all concentrating at a place called Centreville, twenty-seven miles from Washington. We were the first column to

* Sherman's oldest son. A younger son.

The first day of our arrival our commander, General Tyler, advanced on Bull Run, about two and a half miles distant, and against orders engaged the batteries. He sent back to Centreville and I advanced with our Brigade, when we lay for half an hour, amidst descending shots, killing a few of our men. The batteries were full a mile distant and I confess I, nor any person in my Brigade, saw an enemy.

time studying the ground and paid no attention to him. About nine o'clock I was well down to the Run, with some skirmishers and observed two men on horseback ride along a hill, descend, cross the stream, and ride out towards us. He had a gun in his hand which he waved over his head, and called out to us, "You d-d black abolitionists, come on," etc. I permitted some of the men to fire on him, but no damage was done. We remained some time

That occurred on Thursday. We lay in camp till Saturday night by which the whole army was assembled in and about Centreville. We got orders for march at 24 Sunday morning, our column of three brigades-Schenck, Sherman and Keyes-to move straight along a road to Bull Run; another of about ten thousand men to make a circuit by the right, (Hunter's) and come upon the enemy in front of us; Heintzelman's column of about similar strength also to make a wide circuit to sustain Hunter. We took the road first, and about 6 A.M. came in sight of Bull Run. We saw in the grey light of morning men moving about, but no signs of batteries. I rode well down to the Stone Bridge which crosses the stream, saw plenty of trees cut down, some bush huts, such as soldiers use on picket guard, but none of the evidences of strong fortifications we had been led to believe.

no answer.

Our business was simply to threaten, and give time for Hunter and Heintzelman to make their circuit. We arranged our troops to this end, Schenck to the left of the road, and I to the right, Keyes behind in reserve. We had with us two six gun batteries, and a 30p. gun. This was fired several times, but We shifted positions several times, firing whenever we had reason to suppose there were any troops. About ten or eleven o'clock, we saw the cloud of dust in the direction of Hunter's approach, saw one or more regiments of the enemy leave their line and move in that direction, soon the firing of musketry and guns showing the engagement had commenced. Early in the morning I saw a flag flying behind some trees. Some of the soldiers seeing it called out, "Colonel, there's a flag, a flag of truce." A man in the field with his dog and gun, called out, "No, it is no flag of

on the other side of Bull Run. We could see nothing, but heard the firing and could judge that Hunter's column steadily advanced. About 2 P. M. they came to a stand, the firing was severe and stationary. General Taylor rode up to me and remarked that he might have to send the N. Y. 69th to the relief of Hunter. A short while after, he came up and ordered me with my whole Brigade, some 3400 men, to cross over to Hunter. I ordered the movement, led off, found a place where the men could cross, but the battery could not follow.

We crossed the stream, and ascended the Bluff Bank, moving slowly to permit the ranks to close up. When about half a mile back from the stream, I saw the parties in the fight, and the first danger was that we might be mistaken for secessionists and fired on. One of my regiments had on the grey uniform of the Virginia troops. We first fired on some retreating secessionists, our Lieutenant Colonel Haggerty was killed, and my bugler by my side had his horse shot dead. I moved on and joined Hunter's column. They had a pretty severe fight. Hunter was wounded, and the unexpected arrival of my Brigade seemed a great relief to all. I joined them on a high field with a house, and as we effected the junction the secessionists took to the woods and were seemingly retreating, and General McDowell who had accompanied Hunter's column ordered me to join in the pursuit. I will not attempt to describe you the scene. Their batteries were on all the high hills overlooking the ground which we had to cross, and they fired with great vigor. Our horse batteries pursued from point to point returning the fire, whilst we moved on, with shot, shells and cannister over and all round us. I kept to my horse and head of the Brigade, and moving slowly, came upon