YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY COMPLIMENTS OF MAJOR-GENERAL GRENVILLE M. DODGE PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS — of— President Abraham Lincoln, General Ulysses S. Grant AND General William T. Sherman — BY MAJOR-GENERAL GRENVILLE M. DODGE COUNCIL BI.UFI'S, IOWA THK MONARCH PRINTING COMPANY 1914 0c£e.a28Vi PREFACE My personal recollections of President Lincoln and Generals Grant and Sherman, all three of whom, up to the time they died, showed their per sonal friendship to me in many ways and many acts. Many years ago I had compiled data and writ ten most of the following pages, and from time to time I have read papers before different patriotic gatherings upon each of these distinguished men, and have had many requests for copies and have also been urged to publish my recollections. During this summer while on my vacation, I have compiled my data and rewritten the recollec tions, adding letters and official documents that I thought would be of interest. GRENVILLE MELLEN DODGE. September, 1914. PRESIDENT ABRAHAM LINCOLN, 1864 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF LINCOLN If there is any person living who should be grateful for an opportunity to pay his tribute to Abraham Lincoln, it is myself, for as President he raised me from a citizen to the highest com mand and highest rank in the army. He was my friend from the time I first met him until I helped to lay him away in Springfield, Illinois. No one can appreciate what that friendship and what his acts were to me, unless they have experienced the benefit of it as I have. Now, before I take up the subject I am to write upon, I want to give you Abraham Lincoln's own biography of him self, to show you from what a simple and low station he arose to be a great Statesman, a great Commander, a most just and kind ruler — the best of this era. In a letter to Mr. F. Fell he writes : I was born February 12, 1809, in Hardin county, Kentucky. My parents were both born in Virginia of undistinguished families — second families perhaps I should say. My mother, who died in my tenth year, was of a family of the name of Hanks, some of whom now reside in Adams, and others in Macon counties, Illinois. My paternal grandfather, Abraham Lincoln, emigrated from Rockingham county, Virginia, to Kentucky about 1781 or 1782, where a year or two later he was killed by Indians, not in battle but by stealth, when he was laboring to open a farm in the forest. His ancestors, who were Quakers, went to Virginia from Berka county, Pennsylvania. An effort to identify them with the new England family of the same name ended in nothing more definite than a similarity of Christian names in both families, such as Enoch, Levi, Morde- cai, Solomon, Abraham, and the like. My father, at the death of his father, was but six years of age, and he grew up literally without education. We removed from Kentucky to what is now Spencer county, Indiana, in Personal Recollections of Lincoln. my eighth year. "We reached our new home about the time the state came into the union. It was a wild region with many bears and other wild animals still in the woods. There I grew up. There were some schools, so called, but no qualification was ever required of a teacher beyond "readin', writin', and cipherin' to the rule of three." If a straggler, supposed to understand Latin, happened to sojourn in the neighborhood, he was looked upon as a wizard. There was absolutely nothing to excite ambition for education. Of course, when I came of age I did not know much, still some how I could read, write and cipher to the rule of three; but that was all. I have not been to school since. The little ad vance I now have upon this store of education I have picked up from time to time under the present necessity. I was raised to farm work, which I continued till I was twenty-two. At twenty-one I came to Illinois and passed the first year in Sanganaw, now in Menard county, where I re mained a year as a sort of clerk in a store. Then came the Black Hawk war and I was elected a Captain of Volunteers — a success which gave me more pleasure than any I have had since. I went into the campaign, was elected, ran for the Leg islature the same year (1832) and was beaten — the only time I ever have been beaten by the people. The next and then suc ceeding biennial elections, I was elected to the Legislature. I was not a candidate afterward. During the Legislature period, I had studid law, and removed to Springfield to practice it. In 1846 I was elected to the lower house of Congress. "Was not a candidate for re-election. From 1849 to 1854, both inclusive, practiced law more assiduously than ever before. Always a Whig in politics, and generally on the Whig electorial tickets (making active canvasses). I was losing interest in politics when the repeal of the Missouri Compromise aroused me again. What I have done since then is pretty well known. If any personal description of me is thought desirable, it may be said: I am, in height, six feet four inches, nearly; lean in flesh, weighing on an average one hundred and eighty pounds; dark complexion with. coarse black hair and grey eyes; no other marks or scars recollected. My first acquaintance with Mr. Lincoln was in Council Bluffs, Iowa, in August, 1859, I think the 11th day, right after his great debate with Douglass. He came here to look at some property in the Riddle Tract on which he had loaned some money to Mr. N. B. Judd, the attorney for the Rock Island Railroad. Mr. Judd was also the manager in the campaign Personal Recollections of Lincoln. with Douglass. Mr. Lincoln, accompanied by Mr. 0. M. Hatch, Secretary of State of Illinois, came from Springfield to St. Joseph by rail, visited Kansas, then came up the Missouri River by steamboat. He found here two old friends who had lived in Springfield before they came to Council Bluffs, W. H. M. Pusey and Thomas Officer. While he was here the Hon, W. H. M. Pusey gave a reception at his residence that enabled our citizens generally to meet the two distinguished visitors. He was also -induced to make a speech in Concert Hall, and the local paper notices of that speech and the comments were as follows : From the Council Bluffs "Weekly Nonpareil," August 33. 1859. HON. A. LINCOLN SPEAKS AT CONCERT HALL THTS EVENING AT HALF PAST 7 O'CLOCK- GO AND HEAR HIM. Hon. Abe Lincoln and the Secretary of State of Illinois, Hon. 0. M. Hatch, arrived in our city last evening, and are stopping at the Pacific House. The distinguished "sucker'' has yielded to the earnest importunities of our citizens — with out distinction of party — and will speak upon the political issues of the day, at Concert Hall this evening. The celebrity of the speaker will most certainly insure him a full house. Go and hear "Old Abe." From The Nonpareil, August 20, 1859. ABE LINCOLN. This distinguished gentleman addressed a very large aud ience of ladies and gentlemen at Concert Hall in this city, Sat urday evening last. In the brief limits of a newspaper article, it were impossible even though we wielded the trenchant pen of a Babbitt, which we do not, to give even an outline of his masterly and unanswerable speech. The clear and lucid man ner in which he set forth the true principles of the republican party, in the dexterity with which he applied the political scalpel to the democratic carcass — beggars of all description at our hands. Suffice it, that the speaker fully and fairly sus tained the great reputation he acquired in the memorable Illinois campaign, as a man of great intellectual power — a close and sound reasoner. 10 Personal Recollections of Lincoln. The Bugle, edited by Lyronder W. Babbitt, had this notice -. The people of this city were edified last Saturday evening by a speech from Honorable Abe Lincoln of Illinois. He apologized very handsomely for appearing before an Iowa audience during a campaign in which he was not interested. He then, with many excuses and a lengthy explanation, as if conscious of the nauseous nature of the black Republican ros trum, announced his intention to speak about the "Eternal Negro," to use his own language, and entered into a lengthy and ingenious analysis of the "nigger" question, impressing upon his hearers that it was the only question to be agitated until finally settled. He carefully avoided going directly to the extreme ground occupied by him in his canvass against Doug lass, yet the doctrines which he preached, carried out to their legitimate results, amount to precisely the same thing. He was decidedly opposed to any fusion or coalition of the Republican party with the opposition of the South, and clearly proved the correctness of his ground in point of policy. They must retain their sectional organization and sectional character, and continue to wage their sectional warfare by slavery agitation : but if the opposition in the South would accede to their views and adopt their doctrines, he was willing to run for president in 1860, as southern man with northern principles, or in other words, with abolition proclivities. His speech was of the char acter of an exhortation to the Republican party, but was in reality as good a speech as could have been made for the inter est of the Democracy. He was listened to with much attention. for his Waterloo defeat by Douglass has magnified him into quite "a lion here. Among others, I listened to his speech, which was very able, attractive and convincing. His manner of presenting his argument was very simple, his points so clear and well defined that it was easy for anyone to comprehend it. It was his method that made him so attractive as a public speaker. The crowd, as well as myself, was absolutely convinced that what he had said was true, and that his policy in the negro question in national affairs should be adopted. During the summer of 1859 I had been engaged in making reconnaissances west of the Missouri River for the "Union Pacific Railroad. I came back to Council Bluffs with my party, arriving here some time in August. Mr. Lincoln heard from Personal Recollections of Lincoln. 11 someone of my explorations and surveys, also that I was in Council Bluffs, and he sought me out, and on the porch of the Pacific Hotel, for two hours, he engaged me in conversation about what I knew of the country west of the Missouri River, and greatly impressed me by the great interest he displayed in the work in which I was engaged. He inquired particularly as to the comparative merit of the forty-second Parallel, or Platte Valley lines, with the two southern and the northern lines surveyed by the Government. As to the two southern, I had no information; but about the northern survey I had obtained much valuable data. As a boy, I worked on Mrs. Edward Lander's farm in Dan- vers, Mass. Her son, Frederick W. Lander, was a civil engi neer, and I was acquainted with him. He was employed by Lieut. Isaac N. Stevens, who had charge of the northern sur vey from St. Paul to Oregon. Upon the arrival of their party on the Pacific Coast, young Landers left it to examine what he believed to be a superior route — following the Columbia and Snake River Valleys, thence through the South Pass and down the Platte Valley nearly a thousand miles to the Missouri River at Council Bluffs. I met him, and he gave me full information as to the main features of the northern route, and how far superior the nat ural line was he had followed— holding the Snake and Platte River line to be far superior to the northern survey. This seemed to please Mr. Lincoln, and the building of both these lines — the Union Pacific & Oregon Short Line, and the Northern Pacific— has fully proved Lander's statements. He stated that there was nothing more important before the nation at that time than the building of the railroad to the Pacific Coast. He ingeniously extracted a great deal of infor mation from me, and I found the secrets I had been holding for my employers in the East had been given to him. This interview was of the greatest importance to me. It was a milestone in my life, and Mr. Lincoln never forgot it. 12 Personal Recollections of Lincoln. While he was in Council Bluffs the citizens took him up what is now Oakland avenue, to the point where the road turns into Rohrer Park, and he was greatly impressed with the beauty of the landscape. It is one of the most beautiful views in the world. You can look up and down the broad Missouri River valley for ten miles, and can look across into Nebraska and see Omaha, and from Florence to Bellevue. The Lincoln Memorial Association organized in this city in connection with the Daughters of the American Revolution erected on that spot a monument or memorial to Abraham Lincoln. The property which Mr. Lincoln had in the Riddle Tract was joined by that of Mr. C. L. Vallandingham of Ohio, a very bitter rebel during the war; a man of great ability, and who was a member of Congress. He spent his time fighting and opposing the administration with great bitterness — so much so that he was arrested by General Burnside and tried for treason. He was convicted and sentenced to imprisonment during the war, I think at Fort Lafayette or some other national prison, and President Lincoln, notwithstanding the bitterness shown toward him and the attacks made upon him, commuted the sentence and ordered him sent through the lines to the South. Vallandingham went through the lines, but he did not think the South treated him with proper consideration and he left there and went to Canada. He remained there until the war was over, then he came back to Ohio and ran for Gov ernor and was defeated by over 100,000 majority. He then became, to the astonishment of everyone, a great advocate of universal suffrage for the negro. It is a singular fact that Vallandingham met death by a pistol shot, the same as Presi dent Lincoln. He was trying a case in the courts of Ohio — a case of murder — and while he was showing the pistol used by the murderer lie let it fall, and in falling it was discharged, wounding him, and he died from the wound. Personal Recollection's of Lincoln. 13 In 1860 when President Lincoln was a candidate of the Republican party, Mr. N. B. Judd of Chicago wrote me a letter and requested me to come to Chicago and aid as far as I could in the nomination of Mr. Lincoln. I went to Chicago and was greatly surprised when I got to the convention and found that there were only two votes for Abraham Lincoln in the Iowa delegation, the rest being scattered to Seward, McLane, and others. I thought the state next to Illinois should cast their entire vote for a man of Lincoln's ability and standing, and I did what I could to turn them to Lincoln. I was present at the conference the evening before the last day of balloting, when the Pennsylvania delegation led in an agree ment with other states to cast their votes on the next day for Lincoln, and that would insure his nomination. I was anxious that the Iowa delegation should vote for him, which they all did with the exception of one or two. After his nomination and election, I went to Washington to the inauguration. I remember there was with me, Kasson, Allison, Gurley, David, Hoxie, and others, representing Iowa. We hired a house in the rear of the National Hotel, which we made our headquarters, and which became the headquarters for the state of Iowa. We all attended the inauguration and listened to Lincoln's inaug ural speech. It impressed not only us but everyone who at tended. When it was over we returned to the National Hotel. Judge Denio of Springfield, a very tall man — I should say six feet four inches — was very enthusiastic in praise of Lincoln and they induced him to make a speech. He got up on a table and in describing the speech he said: "There has only one address ever been made better than that of Lincoln and that was Christ's sermon on the Mount." During the time we were in Washington, there was great alarm and a great deal of discussion as to what the policy of the Government would be, what part Lincoln would take in it, and what his acts would be. I visited Lincoln with ex-Senator 14 Personal Recollections of Lincoln. Nye and Mr. Davis of New York and we had a long conversa tion with him in relation to the conditions, what should be done, and giving him our opinions. He listened very atten tively to what we had to say, and by referring to my diary I see that he replied that he was not alarmed ; that he felt that he could take this country safely through the crisis. When we left we were greatly strengthened in our belief in his ability, and felt he would carry the country through, no matter what occurred. In the spring of 1863 1 was in command of the district of Corinth, Mississippi. I had just returned from the campaign to the rear of Bragg up the Tennessee Valley. There had fol lowed me back to Corinth thousands of negroes which were a great burden to us. We had to feed them, and as yet there had been no policy determined by the Government as to how they should be treated or what should be done with them. I had them on my hands and made a camp outside of Corinth for them. I put at the head of it the Chaplain of the 27th Ohio Infantry, named Alexander, and endeavored to utilize the negroes by putting them on plantations to work, so as to par tially earn their living, and using them as teamsters and in camp work. I first put over them a guard of white soldiers. but the troops at that time objected very seriously to guarding negroes and there was a great deal of trouble in relation to it. Finally Chaplain Alexander came to me and said he believed. if I would let him have the arms, he could organize two negro companies that would guard that camp much better than the white soldiers. I agreed to do this and, although I had abso lutely no authority for doing so, I gave him the arms and he organized two companies of negroes, officering them with some sergeants from my command. That action caused a great deal of criticism but it worked admirably. Soon after I had armed these negroes, I received an order from General Grant to go to Washington and to report to the Adjutant General. He Personal Recollections of Lincoln. 15 gave no reasons for my going there. I could not but think that they were going to call me to account for the action I had taken in arming the negroes, and I went with a good deal of anxiety until I reached Washington and reported to the Adjutant General, and he informed me that the President wished to see me and he made an appointment with President Lincoln for me. I went in and met the President, who greeted me very cordially, and learned from him that I had been called there for the purpose of aiding him in determining the loca tion on the Missouri River where the Union Pacific Railroad should have its initial point. When I heard this it was a great relief to me. I sat there with him and we discussed that ques tion very fully, and I saw he was thoroughly posted on the sentiment of the country locally, as every town from Sioux City to Kansas City was contending for the location. The people interested at that time remember what a discussion there was in regard to where the initial point of the Union Pacific should be located. From an engineering point of view, I pointed out clearly to the President where the line should start and what our surveys had determined. He listened and discussed this question with me for a long time. I saw from his talk and his indication that his views coincided with mine, and I have no doubt he made his decision at that time, as rec ommended by me, and soon after made this order: I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, do hereby fix so much of the western boundry of the State of Iowa as lies between the north and south boundaries of the United States township within which the city of Omaha is situated as the point from which the line of railroad and tele graph in that section mentioned shall be constructed. This order was not considered definite enough by the com pany and on March 7, 1864, President Lincoln issued the second executive order as follows : I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, do, upon the application of said company, designate and establish Hi Personal Recollections of Lincoln. __^___ such first named point on the western boundary of the State of Iowa, east of and opposite to the east line of Section 10, in Township 15, south of Range 13, east of the sixth princi pal meridian in the Territory of Nebraska. On March 8, 1864, he notified the United States Senate that on the 17th day of November, 1863, he had located the "East ern terminus of the Union Pacific Railway within the limits of the township in Iowa opposite to the town of Omaha." Since then, he says, "the company has represented to me that upon additional survey made, it has determined upon the pre cise point of departure of the' branch road from the Missouri River, and located same within the limits designated in the order of November last." This point is near where the Union Pacific Transfer now stands. After my talk with Lincoln in relation to the fixing of the terminal, naturally the question of the building of the Union Pacific came up. The law of 1862 had been passed but the promoters of the road had been unable to raise a single dollar to build it ; they could not induce the capitalists to take hold of it, notwithstanding the fact that the United States had loaned its credit — it having the first lien on the property while the company's bonds were only second mortgage bonds. There was no one in the United States then who had enough confi dence in the future of the Union Pacific Railroad to buy sec ond mortgage bonds at any price. I discussed that question with him. I thought that the Government of the United States should build this road ; it was too big a job for private enter prise. He said the Government of the United States had all it could care for then, but that he and the Government were willing to do anything they could to aid any company who would take this matter up in earnest and raise the money and go forward with the work. He intimated that he was perfectly willing to have the law changed so that the Government should take the second mortgage and the promoters of the road should take the first. From my visit with President Lincoln. I went Personal Recollections of Lincoln. 1? to New York to see my friends who had organized the Union Pacific road, Mr. John A. Dix, Mr. Henry Farnam, T. C. Dur- ant, Francis Train, and others, and I told them in a board meeting what President Lincoln had said and they were greatly encouraged, and made up their minds to take the matter up, and they went before Congress and in 1864 they passed the law which placed the mortgage bonds of the company ahead of the mortgage bonds of the Government, and with the Gov ernment's and other mortgage bonds they were enabled to start the road, and by 1865 they had built the road as far west as Fremont. When I came back from the army in 1866 I took charge, and in three years it was finished. It was the fore sight, the nerve and determination of Abraham Lincoln that forced Congress to give the promoters of that road the first mortgage bonds and the Government taking a second lien that insured its completion. In discussing this matter Presi dent Lincoln said it was not only a commercial necessity but a military necessity for the purpose of holding the Pacific coast in the Union. I did not see Mr. Lincoln again until in October, 1864. I was given confederate leave of absence at Atlanta in August, 1864. As soon as I was well enough to travel General Grant invited me to visit him at City Point, where his army was lying after the great campaign of the Wilderness and the Potomac. I went to City Point and spent two weeks with General Grant. I saw there the finest of all our armies, the best equipped, the best organized, and it had everything that a soldier could need. Rufus Ingles took us up to their sample room, showing me the supplies they had ready to furnish the soldiers. General Grant said, "Dodge, if you just had this sample room it would be all you would want for your Corps." I met most of the officers of his army. I visited the Army of the James, and I saw the efforts of General Butler, who commanded that Army, to break through the enemies' line into Richmond. 18 Personal Recollections of Lincoln. 1 was greatly impressed as 1 saw the troops move up to the enemies' works and stand so steadily and receive the destructive fire of the enemy without taking cover. In the West, under the same conditions, our men would have gone to cover when they saw there was no possibility of carrying the works before them, but here they seemed to wait for an order, and my anxiety for them was such that I could not help expressing my surprise that they did not either -charge or go to cover, but they stood and took the murderous fire until the command to retire was given. In the West, during the time they stood there, our whole line would have found shelter be hind trees or buried themselves in rifle pits. In the evening, we would sit around the camp fire at City Point, and General Grant, in that comprehensive and conversa tional way he had of describing any affair when he felt at liberty to talk freely, and which is shown so plainly in his Memoirs, told me of his campaigns from the Wilderness to City Point; of many of his plans that failed to materialize for various reasons which he gave. After listening several even ings to the discussion of these matters, I asked General Grant, very innocently and naturally, who was responsible for the failure of these plans, and looking at me in a humorous way. which was in his disposition, he said, "That, General, has not yet been determined." I said, "If it had been in the West, some of us would have lost our heads." General Grant was never known to publicly make a criticism of an officer. I want to say that these were the darkest days of Grant's career in the East, for the country had commenced to talk about his campaign as not being a success, his great battles as butcheries, and there was a great deal of criticism of them. There was about as many .men deserting from that army- drafted men— as there were recruits coming to him, but Gen eral Grant was certain that his next campaign would be a success. Personal Recollections of Lincoln. in When I was starting back to my command, General Grant requested me to call on President Lincoln. He did not give me any reason why I should go, but, of course, a request from him was an order, and I went to Washington on his steamer. There was ou board this steamer, General Rufus Ingalls, the Quartermaster of his Army, and Major-General Boyle, Com mander of the British forces in Canada. Major-General Boyle was an old, gray-haired man. I was a young man and the one thing that troubled the General was that he could not under stand why I, so young, could have the same rank as he did — an old man sixty years of age. When I arrived at Washington and went to the White House to call on President Lincoln, I met Senator Harlan of my state in the ante-room and he took me in to see the Presi dent. It happened to be at the hour when the President was receiving the crowd in the ante-room next to his room. Sen ator Harlan took me up to him immediately and presented me to him. President Lincoln received me cordially and said he was very glad to see me. He asked me to sit down while he dis posed of the crowd. I sat down and waited ; I saw him take each person by the hand and in his kindly way dispose of them. To an outsider, it would seem that they all got what they want ed, for they seemed to go away happy. I sat there, for some time, and felt that I was over-staying my time with him, so stepped up and said that I had merely called to pay my respects and that I had no business, so would say goodbye. President Lincoln turned to me and said, "If you have the time, I wish you would wait; I want to talk with you." I sat down again and waited quietly until he had disposed of the crowd. When he was through, he took me into the next room. He saw that I was ill-at-ease, so he took down from his desk a little book called "The Gospel of Peace." I think it was written by Artemus Ward and was very humorous. He opened the book, crossed his leg's, and began to read a portion of a chapter, 20 Personal Recollections of Lincoln. which was so humorous that I began to laugh, and it brought me to myself. When he saw that he had gotten me in his power, he laid the book down and began to talk to me about my visit to the Army of the Potomac and what I saw. He did not say a single word about my own command or about the West, showing his whole interest was in the Army of the Potomac. While we were sitting there talking we were called to lunch. During the meal he talked about the Army of the Potomac and about Grant, and finally led up to the place where he asked me the question of what I thought about Grant, and what I thought about his next campaign. Just as he asked the question, we got up from the table. I answered, "Mr. Presi dent, you know we western men have the greatest confidence in General Grant ; I have no doubt, whatever, that in this next campaign he will defeat Lee — how, or when he is to do it, I cannot tell, but I am sure of it." He took my hand in both of his and very solemnly said, "You don't know how glad I am to hear you say that. ' ' I did not appreciate then what a great strain he was under — not until reading Welles' Celebrated Diary, showing that Lincoln had no person around him to advise him ; that everything he did was from his own thoughts and decision. It is a wonder to me that he ever got through the war so successfully. I did not know then that Lincoln's table was piled with letters demanding the change of Grant, declaring that his campaign was a failure and wanting to have a different commander sent, etc. When I was ready to leave, I thanked President Lincoln for what he had done for me and asked if there was anything I could do for him. He said, "If you don't care, I would like to have you take my respects to your Army." On leaving President' Lincoln, I returned to my own com mand, or as near to it as I could get. expecting to go to the command of my Corps under Sherman. I was still physically not very strong, and Sherman said that he would not take me Personal Recollections of Lincoln. 21 with him as he did not think I could stand the trip. Therefore, I was assigned to a command at Vicksburg, Mississippi, with a view of taking a command to the rear of Mobile when Sher man marched to the sea. expecting, with the aid of General Canby and the fleet to capture that place. When I reached Cairo on my way to Vicksburg, I received a dispatch from the War Department to proceed immediately to St. Louis. Soon after my arrival I received an order to relieve General Rose- erans, and as soon as I was in command to notify the AVar Department. I learned from a private dispatch that I received from General Grant that he had requested Gen eral Roseerans to be relieved and I to take his com mand, because he and the War Department did not consider that General Roseerans had made a proper use of his command in defeating the movement of Price into Missouri, as Price had a force much smaller than that of General Roseerans. I as sumed command of that Department and Army on the second day of December. I found that there had been a great many dispatches sent to General Roseerans to send all the troops he could spare to General Thomas, who was in a death struggle with General Hood in Nashville. I received a similar dispatch from General Halleck, at the end of which he quoted a part of Grant's dispatch to him giving the order, which was: "With such an order, Dodge can be relied upon to send all that can properly go." I learned afterwards that President Lincoln was present when this order was given, and that it was he who suggested to General Halleck that that portion of Grant's dispatch should be added, saying, it might induce Dodge to make an extra effort to help Thomas out. When I received this dispatch, 1 looked my command over. There were no organized Rebel forces in Missouri, nothing but guerrillas and partisan bands who were robbing and killing, not fighting anyone, and I made up my mind that there was really no necessity for any federal troops in Missouri: there- 22 Personal Recollections of Lincoln. fore, I gathered together every organized regiment in that state and sent Thomas some fifteen thousand men, including two Divisions of the 16th Corps, under the command of Major- General A. J. Smith. At the Battle of Nashville, this force turned Hood's left and started the defeat and destruction of Hood's Army. I found in Missouri a state of affairs existing in no other state in the Union. It was one-half Rebel and one-half Union. It was brother against brother and father against son. There had been a great many murders in the state and they were con tinually being committed. President Lincoln took a great in terest in Missouri. The fact that Blair, Lyons, Siegle and the Germans had held the State of Missouri in the Union against all the efforts of its Rebel Government, made it very interest ing to him, and he had been endeavoring for a long time to bring it back under its own civil government. He assigned General Schofield, a very fine soldier and executive officer, to the command of the department, with a view of his carrying out this policy, but he had failed. General Schofield 's policy did not satisfy either side, it'was too conservative for the radi cals and too radical for the half-Union men; therefore the War Department relieved him. But President Lincoln believed in General Schofield and when he left there he made him a Major- General, but the State of Missouri was strong enough to stop his confirmation in the United States Senate and it was one year before he was confirmed. President Lincoln said he saw his opportunity when he received a dispatch from General Grant in 1864, asking to have General Schofield sent to the command of the Department of the Ohio at Knoxville, Tennes see, and he said lie then put the pressure right on the Senate and they had to come to time and confirm him. As soon as I had gotten well settled in the Department of the Missouri, President Lincoln wrote me a long letter. It was in no wise an order or a suggestion that I was obliged to earrv Personal Recollections of Lincoln. out. It was simply his views of the conditions in the country : also what he thought, not what he thought I ought to do, and as I looked the country over I came to his views — that there was absolutely no necessity for any military forces in the State of Missouri. That state had just elected Colonel Fletcher Governor. Colonel Fletcher had been a good soldier in the service and I made up my mind that if it was in my power I would turn over the Civil Government entirely to him, but as soon as my policy was known, both sides were opposed to it ; one side because they were afraid of the guerrillas, and the other side because they did not want to go under a Union soldier as a Governor. I was in a great dilemma, and wrote the War Department that I had made up my mind to give it a trial, and sent to General Halleck at Washington my plan — that was, to withdraw all the federal troops from the small towns and railroad lines and relieve them from all civil duties and concentrate them at the prominent strategic point in the state where I could handle them as a body, and call on the citi zens of the counties to take care of themselves. I did not get a very hearty response from General Halleck. His response was something like this : "If you do this and succeed, all right; but if you do this and fail, you must not charge any of it up to us." Before doing this, President Lincoln thought I should con sult and get the consent of the Governor of the state; this, I had expected to do. I had to struggle with the Governor quite a long time but he finally consented. He did not feel like as suming the responsibility of enforcing the law without a large military force behind him. There were some eight or ten thousand State Militia that had been mustered into the United States Army for service in the state, and I proposed that this force should be used by the Governor to do the work which the federal troops had been performing. I issued an order that citizens of the state, of southern 24 Personal Recollections of Lincoln. sentiment, must hereafter comply with the Civil Authorities, and those who could not or would not would be forced to leave the state. I gave them permission to go through the lines south or north. This order also provided that any citizens of the state who harbored a guerrilla, or where any of the bands of guer rillas camped upon their land, or where they had any knowl edge of any being present, must, within twenty-four hours, notify the nearest federal post. If they did not, they would be arrested and shot. This was a very drastic order and was complained of , bitterly by the citizens of southern sentiment. A few days after the order was issued, a Lieutenant of one of the companies, discovered a citizen harboring some guerrillas and he took him out and shot him. This, of course, he had no authority to do. He should have arrested the man and re ported the fact to the commanding officer and given him a trial, but the fact of the prompt execution of the order struck terror throughout the state, especially to those of southern sentiment, and they felt that their lives were not safe, and thousands of them emigrated immediately to Idaho and Mon tana, while others who remained entered protests to the War Department, and there was a general complaint and denuncia tion of the order. I was called upon immediately by the War Department for an explanation of this officer's acts. Before I had gotten the order, however, I had investigated the ease and found that the party he had killed was without question guilty, and I wrote the War Department that, while it was a lack of judgment on the part of the officer— he thought he had the right to kill the man immediately— still, it had been of great benefit in bringing peace to the state, and I felt that it was not necessary to take any further action in the matter and assured them that it would not be repeated. It was won derful how quickly the state quieted down and how many re ports went into the different posts of guerrillas or partisan bands, or even people suspected, so that as soon as they found Personal Recollections qe Lincoln. 25 that they did not have the support of the southern sympathiz ers and could not quarter upon them without being reported, they immediately left the state. These complaints, of course, finally reached President Lin coln, but it was a long time after they occurred. In the mean time Governor Fletcher, who was taking great satisfaction in the rapidity with which the state had been brought under Civil Government, had written a letter to President Lincoln stating that the order had had a wonderful effect, and that the state was then as quiet as any other state in the Union. Some of the members of Congress from Missouri called on President Lincoln, quite a long time after this occurred, and still demanded a repeal of the order, but President Lincoln showed them Governor Fletcher's letter and he said that, under the conditions, he would not interfere in the matter. Years afterwards when I went West, to the station oppo site Boise on the Union Pacific Railroad, where they were in vestigating the question of putting in some irrigation works. and while my car was standing on the siding, one day there came up from the Boise Valley a delegation of citizens, who loaded my car with fruit. I was absent and did not see them, but they told the station agent that they were citizens whom I had driven out of Missouri and that at one time they would have hung me if they could have gotten hold of me, but now they were thankful for the movement, and brought me this fruit with their compliments. Within sixty days I had left the Department in perfect peace and had gone on to the plains to make the Indian cam paigns. While I was in command of the State of Missouri, there was hardly a day passed but what I saw some evidence of Presi dent Lincoln's kindness. The appeals that would go to him from the people whose sons or themselves were in trouble, would always have his attention and he would give them one 26 Personal Recollections of Lincoln. of his cards, with a little note written on the back to me, ask ing if something could not be done for this person. He dis liked to have anyone executed, shot or imprisoned. When I went into Missouri, I found the prisons full and over-flowing with prisoners of war and citizens who had been taken up for treason, etc. I therefore proposed to send them through the line or to release them, and I so notified the War Department. In my letter to them I said it was a good deal easier to fight them than to feed them, but they seemed to think that the policy that had been maintained there of holding these citi zens in prison should be continued. When the Indian cam paigns began, some of these prisoners made known to me that they were willing to enlist in the army to go on the plains. I reported this to the War Department and received authority to organize five regiments known as the United States Volun teers, known on the plains as the "Reconstructed Rebs." This emptied the prisons. Nearly all of the confederate prisoners of war were willing to enlist to fight Indians and only took the oath for that purpose, declining to take it to fight against their own people and we did not require it of them. These regiments served up the Missouri River, in Minnesota against the Indians there, and were in my campaigns on the plains in 1865 and 1866. They made splendid soldiers and endured great hardships. Afterwards a great many of them went down on the Union Pacific and into the States of Idaho and Mon tana, where there are now a great many of the members of those regiments, many of whom are prominent citizens. The day before the assassination of President Lincoln, a lady called upon me who had been to Washington to see Pres ident Lincoln. Her son had been arrested and tried for mur der as a guerrilla. He had been in one of the guerrilla bands which had been caught, and it was proved that he had mur dered two or three convalescent Union soldiers. He was sen tenced to be hung in a very short time. This ladv obtained Personal Recollections of Lincoln. 2^ an interview with President Lincoln and, the night before the day of the assassination, she came to my office with the Pres ident's card, with a little note on the back of it to me, which read, "My Dear General Dodge: Is it possible for you to do anything for this poor woman who is in so much trouble?" I took the card, but I did not see my way clear to comply with her request. If I had commuted the sentence of that guerrilla, after the great number of men who had been murdered bv these guerrillas, it would have brought down upon me a great criticism from the Union people in the State. But I treated the lady nicely and told her that I would consider it. She thought that card was an absolute pardon for her son, and was very indignant, and said she would communicate with the President immediately. That night about midnight I received a dispatch from the War Department notifying me of Lincoln being shot. I was also cautioned about making arrangements so that there would be no uprising in the State. They felt that such a tragedy might cause an uprising of the Union men against the citizens of southern sentiments on account of the bitterness existing there. I brought into the city of St. Louis such troops as were near, and issued an order suspending all' business and ordered all the citizens, both Federal and Rebel, to remain in their houses and prohibited any gatherings or crowds on the streets. I found that the southern people were as greatly dis tressed as those of the North. The streets of St. Louis were deserted for two days and there was nothing but sorrow ex hibited on both sides. The lady called the next day and asked me for the card, she desiring to keep it as a memento, and no doubt giving up all hopes for her son, but I did not have it in my heart, after Lincoln's death, to carry out the order of the court and there fore commuted the sentence to imprisonment. At the time of Lincoln's funeral I was ordered to go to 28 Personal Recollections of Lincoln. Springfield with my staff and troops. I went to Springfield on the day of the funeral and took my position in the procession. It was the saddest sight of my life. Those streets were lined with thousands and thousands of people, evidently in great dis tress and sorrow, and at every step we could hear the sobs of the sorrowing crowd and every little while a negro would come out and drop down on his knees and offer a prayer. There was hardly a person who was not in tears, and when I looked around at my troops I saw many of them in tears. As we paid the last rites to this great man the sorrow was universal, for it was one of the greatest calamities of this or any other na tion. Among all the public men in the funeral procession, no grief was keener than that of his War Secretary, Edwin M. Stanton. None of them had tested, as had Edwin M. Stanton, the extraordinary resources of his strong Chief. It was fitting, therefore, that he. as passed the strong heroic soul away, should pronounce its eulogy: "There lies the most perfect ruler of men the world has ever seen. Why the most per fect ruler the world has ever seen? Because he was the per fect ruler of himself." The following letter, that has never been published, shows Lincoln's ideas upon a subject that has often been discussed: Executive Mansion, Eliza P. Gurney, . Washington, Sept. 4, 1864. My Esteemed Friend:— I have not forgotten— probably never shall forget— the very impressive occasion when vourself and friends visited me on a Sabbath afternoon two years ago Nor has your kind letter, written nearly a year later,' ever been forgotten. In all, it has been your purpose to strengthen mv reliances on God. I am much indebted to the good Christian people of the country for their constant prayers and consola tions, and to no one of them more than to yourself. The pur poses of the Almighty are perfect and must prevail, though we erring mortals may fail to accurately perceive them in advance. We hoped for a happy termination of this terrible war loner Personal Recollections of Lincoln. 29 before this, but God knows best and has ruled otherwise. We shall acknowledge His wisdom, and our own error therein. Meanwhile we must work earnestly in the best light He gives us, trusting that so working still conduces to the great ends He ordains. Surely He intends some great good to follow this mighty convulsion, which no mortal could make and no mortal could stay. Your people — the Friends — have had, and we are having, a very great trial. On principle and faith, opposed to both war and oppression, they can only practically oppose oppression by war. In this hard dilemma some have chosen one horn and some the other. For those appealing to me on conscientious grounds, I have done, and shall do, the best I could and can in my own conscience under my oath to the Lord. That you believe this I doubt not, iind believing it I shall still receive for our country and myself your earnest prayers to our Father in Heaven. Your Sincere Friend, A. LINCOLN. A more beautiful letter it would be impossible to write. When the second nomination of Lincoln was about to be made, the people who were dissatisfied and disgruntled at what he had done, many who thought he was not radical enough or aggressive enough in the war, called a convention to meet in Cleveland in May of 1864. The movement was supported by men of prominence in the party, dissatisfied and disappointed with the conducting of affairs, and their action caused much anxiety. This conven tion nominated for President, John C. Fremont, and for Vice- President, John Cochran, and instead of there being thou sands in attendance at the convention, as was expected, there were only about 400. A friend of Mr. Lincoln seeing this, hastened to the White House to impart it. Lincoln, thereupon, reached for his well thumbed Bible and opening it at First Samuel, 22; 2, read: And everyone that was in distress, and everyone that was in debt, and everyone that was discontented, gathered them selves unto him and he became a Captain over them, and there were with him about four hundred. 30 Personal Recollections of Lincoln. Even the London Punch, that criticised and ridiculed Mr. Lincoln during his administration, changed, and after his death, said it was sorry and regretted its course, holding that it was a remarkable man who could indite in a car on a train, while on his trip to Gettysburg, that remarkable tribute so strong in English, so expressive, eloquent and sympathetic, and said that his Gettysburg speech had changed their whole course and opinion of Lincoln. Lincoln was a man of keen vision, of almost prophetic ken. He penetrated almost intuitively the thin veneer of patriotism which often covered pelf. He was not deceived by the wretched shams and pretexts behind which men, under the pretense of serving their country, sought upon to see, in all its naked deformity, the utter selfishness of self, and yet, not withstanding it all, he believed, and rightly believed, that in the main and on the average the plain people wanted to be, intended to be, and were, right. With his trained reasoning faculties, he reached conclu sions which were far in advance of the general thought of the people ; hence, in thought, in speech, in the discussion of great fundamental principles Lincoln was a radical; and yet in ad ministration, in the discharge of executive duties, where he was called upon to act for others, he was a conservative. He said to Greeley, Chase and Stevens, and others of like fiery temper and spirit: You are theoretically right but practically wrong. If I am to lead these people I must not separate myself from them. Whatever my individual thoughts may be. whatever the logical conclusions of my mind, based upon the premises which I admit to be sound and true, nevertheless I must not separate myself from the people. If I am to lead, I must stay with the pro cession. Lincoln embodied in the mind of the people two great issues that were really only one— the preservation of the Amer ican Union and the abolition of slavery. At the root of both Personal Recollections of Lincoln. ;il there lay a moral principle and both appealed with overwhelm ing force to sentiment. They were so plain, so vividly defined, that no sophistry could obscure them, no shrewd debater rea son them away. And so, back of him were the masses of the people, their eyes fixed with pathetic faith and loyalty upon that tall, gaunt, stooping, homely man, who to their minds meant everything that makes a cause worth dying for. Lincoln's great ability, his pure administration, his kind but firm hand has disarmed all criticism, and today no one names him but in words of respect and love, and his name the world over, is coupled in the trinity — Washington. Lincoln and Grant, the creators and saviors of the Union. LIEUTENANT-GENERAL V. S. GRANT Photo Presented to General Dodge at City Point, October, 1864 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF GENERAL U. S. GRANT As a soldier, General Grant stands first in all the history of warfare. As a citizen, his acts, his foresight, and his methods of meeting and settling all great questions, stamp him as the peer of the best statesmen that the world has produced. In fact, in the old world his statesmanship is considered equal to his great achievements as a soldier. As he came to be known only after he was forty years old, the question naturally arises, was there anything in his boyhood or early manhood that indicated the abilities that were so rapidly developed during the Civil War? He says that as a boy he loved horses, not books, and worked on the farm, and that even the uniform of a soldier had no attractions for him ; that he was an indif ferent scholar, and that he preferred to read a novel than study his lessons ; that his great desire was to travel and see our country, and when he was appointed to West Point the only inducement for him to accept was the disgrace it would bring upon him to decline after his father had asked for the appointment ; and, finally, he was reconciled to it because it would enable him to see Philadelphia and New York, and that his long stay in those cities, instead of repairing prompt ly to West Point, brought a sharp reminder from his father. At West Point Grant was an indifferent scholar, had a positive dislike to anything military, and neglected his studies. After he graduated he remained in the army hoping to be pro fessor at West Point rather than an officer in the field. He considered the Mexican war an unholy one. He says: I regarded the war as one of. the most unjust ever urged by a stronger against a weaker nation, from the inception of the movement to its final consummation — a conspiracy to ac- 34 Personal Recollections of Grant. quire territory out of which slave states might be formed for the American nation. The Southern Rebellion was the out growth of the Mexican war. He joined General Taylor's command on the Rio Grande, and, although acting as Quartermaster, he took part in nearly all of the battles of the Mexican war. He says : At the Battle of Monterey, my curiosity got the better of my judgment, and I mounted a horse and rode to the front to see what was going on. I had been there but a short time when the order to charge was given, and lacking the courage to return to camp, where I had been ordered to stay, I charged with the regiment. He evidently took in the tactics, logistics and Strategy, and sometimes criticised them. In one or two of the fights near the City of Mexico he thought the enemy could have been driven out by flank movements, without the great losses in front attacks on the enemy's strong positions. At the gates of Mexico he developed some of those wonderful qualities that were so prominent in the Civil War, when he took his little squad of men to flank the Mexican troops out of their position at the Garita San Cosma, and caused the fall of the City of Mexico, and received the commendation of the commanding officer, and was brevetted. After this campaign in the Mexican war he seemed less in clined than ever to follow the army permanently, and soon re signed and returned to civil life. General Grant entered the service in the Civil War as Colonel of the Twenty-first Illinois Infantry, and brought the regiment to great efficiency. He was sent to Northern Mis souri. His first order was to march against Colonel Harris, who had a rebel regiment near the town of Florida. General Grant says : As we approached the brow of the hill from which it was expected we could see Harris' camp, and probably find his men ready formed to meet ns, my heart kept gettino- higher Personal Recollections of Grant. and higher until it felt to me as though it was in my throat. I would have given anything then to have been back in Illinois, but I had not the moral courage to halt and consider what to do. I kept right on, and when I found that Harris had left. it occurred to me at once that Harris had been as much afraid of me as I had been of him. This was a view of the matter I had never taken, and it was one I never forgot afterwards. Prom that event to the close of the war T never experienced trepidation upon confronting the enemy, although I always felt more or less anxiety. I never forgot that the enemy had as much reason to fear my force as I had his. The lesson was a valuable one. BELMONT. From North Missouri he was sent to Southeast Missouri, and was then made a Brigadier-General, and ordered to Cairo. His first important battle was Belmont, brought about by his movement to threaten Columbus. His orders were to make a demonstration against the Confederate force at or near Co lumbus, Kentucky, to prevent their sending reinforcements to a Confederate command that a Federal force had been sent to attack on the St. Francis River. Grant had no intention of fighting a battle when he started out for Belmont. His orders did not contemplate an attack, but after he started he says that he saw that the officers and men were elated at the pros pect of doing what they volunteered to do — fight the enemies of their country — and he did not see how he could maintain discipline or the confidence of his command if he returned to Cairo without an attempt to do something. This battle first brought the country's attention to Grant, He displayed that confidence, good judgment and self-reliance that afterwards became so conspicuous. FORT HENRY AND DONELSON. General Grant was ordered soon after Belmont to make a demonstration up the Tennessee River, and towards Colum bus, Kentucky, with a view of holding the Confederate forces there while the campaign around Bowling Green was proceed- -36' Personal Recollections of Grant. ing. In this movement General C. F. Smith reported that Fort Heineman, opposite Fort Henry on the Tennessee River, could be captured. Grant believed the true line of operation for his force was by the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers, and asked permission to visit St. Louis and lay the plan before General Halleck, but says : I was received with so little cordiality that I perhaps stated the subject of my visit with less clearness than I might have done, and I had not uttered many sentences before I was cut short as if my plan was preposterous, and I returned to Cairo very much crestfallen. On his return he consulted Flag Officer Foote, who com manded the gunboat fleet on the Mississippi River, and he agreed with Grant, and notwithstanding his rebuff, Grant re newed the suggestion, and on January 28th, wrote General Halleck fully in regard to his plans. On the 1st of February General Grant received instructions from General Halleck, go ing fully into every detail, to march upon and capture Fort Henry. On the 2d the expedition was started ; on the 6th Fort Henry was captured, and Grant wired Halleck that on the 8th he would move on Fort Donelson, not even waiting for orders to do so. On February 16th, 1862, Fort Donelson surrendered to him with its entire force. Grant, in this battle, displayed the tactics which were ever in his mind — that when the enemy attacked, to also attack on some other portion of the line, and when the enemy attacked and turned his right he immediately attacked and turned the enemy's right, and carried their in- trenchments, forcing the final surrender. In writing Mrs. Grant of the capture of Forts Henry and Donelson, he says : These terrible battles are very good things to read about for persons who lose no friends, but I am decidedly in favor of having as little of it as possible. The way to avoid it is to push forward as vigorously as possible. Personal Recollections oe Grant. 37 After Forts Henry and -Donelson had been taken General Grant started to carry out this program, and visited Clarks- ville and Nashville. Because General Halleck. his command ing officer, did not receive prompt reports from General Grant, he issued this order : You will place Major-General C. F. Smith in command of expedition and remain yourself at Fort Henry. Why do you not obey my orders and report strength and position of your command 1 Up to this time Grant had not received one word from Halleck, and all his reports sent to Halleck went to the end of the telegraph line, where the operator was a rebel, who de serted and took all these dispatches with him. Buel, Halleck and McClellan all seemed demoralized by Grant's great vic tories. They, looking for the enemy to recover, while Grant thought of nothing but their demoralization, and the desire to follow them. Grant, on the ground, was the only person who saw the situation, and had any power to take advantage of it. The rebels, in their consternation, abandoned everything as fast as possible, and even evacuated Chattanooga, three hun dred miles away. When Halleck got into communication with Grant he in formed him that lie was advised to arrest him because he went to Nashville, a point within his own command, and no one could hear from him. They could not trust the man who within thirty days had broken through the entire rebel line, driven their forces beyond the Tennessee, and captured their fortified places and all the troops in them. In writing of this to his wife, General Grant says: All the slanders you have seen against me originated away from where I was. The only foundation was from the fact that I was ordered to remain at Fort Henry and send the expedition up the Tennessee River under the command of Major-General C. F. Smith. This was ordered because General Halleck received no report from me for near two weeks after 3 Dee- 19th> 1884. I was not aware until my visit to you on Sunday that you Avere writing a history of the "War of the Rebellion." I know Personal Recollections of Grant. 81 of the articles to be published in the Century Magazine. Dur ing my visit to you at €ity Point, I met with an incident that may be news or of interest to you. You will doubtless remem ber that while I was recovering from my wound, received at Atlanta, I visited City Point and was a guest at your head quarters a week or ten days, and saw the Army of the Poto mac ; was up to see the battle fought on the north side of the James, and brought news of what I thought was a defeat, but which your dispatches made a victory. When I was ready to return to my command at Atlanta, I met orders from General Sherman which stopped me at Nashville and ordered me to Vicksburg, and before I reached that command you ordered me to relieve General Roseerans in command of the Depart ment of the Missouri, with a view of taking my troops to Thomas at Nashville. If you remember, when I left City Point, you suggested I should return by Washington, and call upon the President, and sent me in your boat. General Rufus Ingalls, your chief quartermaster, and Major-General Cyrus Boyle, of the British army, I think at that time in command in Canada, was with me. I was a very young officer, inexperienced in meeting the world, and with a great reverence for position and authority, hence I hardly knew how to reach President Lincoln nor what to say to him when I saw him. I had only a few hours to spend in Washington, and after breakfast I went directly to the White House where, in the ante-room, I met Senator Har lan of my state, who took me to Mr. Lincoln. The President met me cordially, and asked me to wait until he had dismissed the crowd, when he took me into a room back of what I now know as the cabinet room, took down a book which, if I re member rightly, was called the "Gospel of Peace." It was a very funny book, and he read from it, and I laughed heartily, until he made me perfectly easy and at home. He took me down to lunch and pumped out of me everything I had seen at City Point, and what results were to be expected from the movements there. My answer to him was, briefly, I had no doubt as to their success. In detail, as I remember it, my an swer was, "You know out West we believe in General Grant. We have no doubts. Give him time and he will succeed; in what way or how, I don 't know, but you may depend upon it he will succeed." Mr. Lincoln jumped up from his chair, took both my hands in his, and said: "I am thankful to you for saying so " I was a very much embarrassed person, but it made such an impression upon me that I never forgot it. After the war when General Rawlins was with me on the 82 Personal Recollections of Grant. plains I related the circumstances to him, and he said that the pressure and complaints at that time at Washington was very great. My confidence as to results around Richmond came from my faith — not from what I had seen there, and from the fact that all of us who had long before driven from our minds any doubts as to the final results. I well remember how confident ly and enthusiastically I told President Lincoln what I felt, but could not give him a fact upon which to prove my belief. When I arose to leave, President Lincoln thanked me for call ing and said, "If you have no objections you can take my good wishes and regards with you to your army." That night I left Washington more annoyed than otherwise that there should be so many doubts as to your success. General Rawlins may have told you of this interview, or it may be new to you. I give it as I remember it. Yours truly, G. M. DODGE. The purport of all this came to me in after years when I found the anxiety that existed about the Army of the Potomac, and the existence in some quarters of an intrigue against Gen eral Grant. My belief in him knew no doubts, and it never entered my head that the President wanted faith, and I think my earnest belief and faith carried me beyond proper bounds in expressing it before the President. When I left General Grant, I knew that neither he or Gen eral Sherman considered me well enough to join Sherman in his march to the sea, but expected me to be sent to Vicks burg to take command of the troops of the 16th Army Corps, organized there— the two Divisions of the Sixteenth Corps with Sherman having been turned over, one Division to the Fifteenth Corps and one Division to the Seventeenth Corps, and the two Divisions of the Seventeenth Corps on the Mis sissippi River were to be turned into the Sixteenth Corps. This, with such other forces on the Mississippi River, were to be mobilized and the movement which I was to command was to be made against Mobile, in concert with the movement to be made from New Orleans by the United States Navy. Personal Recollections of Grant. 83 In the meantime General Howard had issued an order re organizing the Sixteenth Corps, and placing Major-General N. J. T. Dana, Avho was a stranger in that department, to the command of it, whereas, Major-General A. J. Smith and my self had had command of the two Avings of the Sixteenth Corps in the field almost eArer since its organization, and General Howard's action caused a great deal of criticism and feeling. When I arrived at Nashville on November 3d, I found an order from General Sherman for me to proceed to Vicksburg and report to Major-General N. J. T. Dana, commanding the Sixteenth Corps, as commander of the District of Vicksburg, and left wing of the Sixteenth Army Corps. General How ard wrote me a private letter, giving his reasons for assign ing Dana to the head of the Sixteenth Corps, stating that he had three Major-Generals in his command — Dana, Smith and myself — for assignment, and that Dana being the ranking officer, he had given him the Corps, thus ignoring Smith and myself. From Nashville I went immediately to St. Louis enroute to Vicksburg. At St. Louis I received a dispatch from General John A. Rawlins, General Grant's Chief of Staff, which indi cated General Grant was not satisfied with my assignment, and on November 12th I received a dispatch from Colonel William F. Clark, Assistant Adjutant General of the Army of the Tennessee, ordering me not to go to Vicksburg, but to meet him at Louisville, Kentucky. On November 15th I met Colonel Clark at Louisville, and he notified me that the order sending me to Vicksburg had been suspended at the request of General Grant, that he was not satisfied with General Howard's reorganization of the Six teenth Army Corps, and objected to my assignment under Dana — that General Howard was greatly Avorried over it, and that by order of General Grant I had been ordered to St. Louis, and Colonel Clark handed me General Howard's order, which read as folloAvs : 84 Personal Recollections of Grant. Major-General G. M. Dodge and Staff will proceed to St. Louis and there establish his headquarters for the pur pose of making out reports of the campaign in Georgia. I returned to St. Louis and on December 2, 1864, received the order of the Secretary of War, issued at the request of General Grant, assigning me to the command of the Depart ment and Army of the Missouri, relieving Major-General Rose erans. In speaking of the campaign Sherman was to make from Atlanta, Grant says : General G. M. Dodge, an exceedingly efficient officer, having been badly wounded, had to leave the army, and his two Divisions of the Sixteenth Corps were transferred to the Fifteenth and Seventeenth Corps ; Sherman, after detaching the Fourteenth Corps and Schofield 's army to Thomas, had about 60,000 strong and hearty men, as good soldiers as ever trod the earth, better than any European soldiers, because they not only worked like a machine, but the machine thought. As soon as Grant wired Sherman that he could start on his march to the sea, he naturally felt anxiety as to the move ments of Hood. Grant felt that Thomas should concentrate all his forces except those occupying Chattanooga and De catur, and attack Hood south of the Duck River, and when Hood moved and forced Schofield back to Franklin, Grant naturally became anxious. Schofield, himself, thought that a concentration should be made south of the Duck River, and when Schofield fought the great battle of Franklin so success fully, and Hood's army suffered such a great loss in officers and men, Grant thought that Thomas, with his 70,000 men, should reinforce Schofield from Nashville and that the battle with Hood should have been fought out there ; but Thomas thought otherAvise, and after this great victory Schofield was obliged to fall back within the intrenchments at Nashville. Grant then became more anxious than ever. He knew the dis Personal Recollections of Grant. 85 position of Hood, and Avas fearful he would cross the Cum berland, flank Nashville and move to Louisville, which would drive our forces back to the Ohio River again. Grant's anx iety is shown in his dispatches to Washington and to Thomas, and he finally made up his mind to repair to Nashville him self. He sent the following dispatch to the Secretary of War on December 8, 1864. Please direct General Dodge to send all the troops he can spare to General Thomas. With such an order he can be re lied upon to send all that can possibly go. They had better be sent to Louisville, for I fear either Hood or Breckenridge will get to the Ohio River. I will submit whether it is not advis able to call on Ohio, Indiana and Illinois for 60,000 men for thirty days. If Thomas has not struck yet he should be ordered to hand over his command to Schofield. There is no better man to repel an attack than Thomas, but I fear he is too cau tious to ever take the initiative. On this order I sent to Thomas. Avith the tAvo Divisions under General A. J. Smith which had already gone, 20,000 men. Grant says that Thomas had 70,000 men, and that he had enough to annihilate Hood in the open field. On December 15th Logan Avas at City Point, and was given orders to proceed to Nashville. Grant himself also started for Nashville, and wired me he might Avant me to take command of the troops I had sent to Thomas. The day Logan arrived at Louisville, Thomas commenced his attack on Hood, and he proceeded no further. Thomas' complete victory over Hood relieved Grant's anxiety, and he immediately sent Thomas congratulatory dispatches. Thomas, while a great soldier, was of an entirely different disposition from Grant, Sherman and Sheridan, whose great effort was to always be the attacking party. Grant held that this gave an advantage of twenty-five per cent. Thomas pre ferred to wait until he, was certain, or to receive an attack on his own chosen ground, and in that way destroy the enemy. He was rightly named the "Rock of Chicamauga." 86 Personal Recollections of Grant. Sherman's march to the sea was a picnic for that old army of his. It caused rumors and speculations and great anxiety among the people. The rebel papers were full of mis-state ments, saying Sherman's army Avas starving, demoralized and Avandering without objective point, endeavoring only to reach the sea; and these statements alarmed the people of the north, who appealed to Lincoln, who in turn appealed to Grant, and on his (Grant's) answer, Lincoln in response to these appeals, said: Grant says they are safe with such a General, and if they cannot get out where they want to they can crawl back by the hole they went in at. No one can read the reports of the final movement in Feb ruary, 1865, and the comprehensive plans that first destroyed all the railroads surrounding Petersburg and Richmond, the combination of Terry and Schofield at Wilmington, the at tack of Canby on Mobile, Wilson on Montgomery and Selma, Stoneman from East Tennessee towards Lynchburg, while Sherman moved on Johnston, Sheridan on Five Forks, and Meade on Lee, without perceiving that the story reads like a romance rather than the last grapple of giants. Every move was a success, and by April 15th the war was ended. Grant says: It has been my fortune to see the armies of both East and West fight battles, and from what I have seen there is no dif ference in their fighting qualities. As to the surrender at Appomattox, and of Johnston to Sherman, Grant tells the story in the simplest Avords, that thoroughly describe the man as I knew him from 1862 until his death. He said: What General Lee's feelings were I do not know as he was a man of much dignity with an impassible face, 'it was impossible to see whether he felt inwardly glad that the end had finally come, or felt sad over the result ; he was too manlv Personal Recollections of Grant. 87 to show it. Whatever his feelings were they were entirely concealed from my observation, but my own feelings, which had been jubilant at receiving his letter, were sad and de pressed. I felt like anything rather than rejoicing at the downfall of a foe who had fought so long and valiantly, and had suffered so much for a cause I believed one of the worst for which a people ever fought, and one for which there was the least cause. I do not question, however, the sincerity of the great mass of those who were opposed to us. General Lee was dressed in full uniform, which was en tirely new, and was wearing a sword of considerable value, very likely the one which had been presented to him by the State of Virginia. In my rough traAreling suit, the uniform of a private with the straps of a Lieutenant General, I must have contrasted very strangely with a man so handsomely dressed, six feet high, and of faultness form; but this was not a matter I thought of until afterwards. When the news of the surrender first reached our lines our men commenced firing a salute of one hundred guns in honor of the victory. I at once sent word to have it stopped; the Confederates were now our prisoners, and we did not want to exult over their downfall. As soon as the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia was completed, General Grant went immediately to Washing ton. He sent Sherman the terms on which Lee had surren dered, and authorized him to offer the same terms to Johnston, but Sherman added other conditions — political — but, know ing he was going beyond Grant's terms, he made them condi tional until they could be ratified at Washington. Grant says that Sherman, then being one of the most popular Generals in the land, was later denounced by President Johnson and Secre tary Stanton in most bitter terms. A message Avas sent out di recting troops in the South not to obey Sherman, and to all commanders in the country not to recognize his orders or paroles. Grant was ordered to immediately proceed to North Caro lina and take charge. Of course Grant was greatly annoyed at this uncalled for denunciation of Sherman, but started im mediately for Raleigh as quietly as possible, in hopes of seeing 88 Personal Recollections of Grant. Sherman without his army knowing of his presence. He met Sherman, gave him his orders, and left Sherman to communi cate them to Johnston, and left immediately for Washington, leaving Sherman to negotiate the terms of the surrender sole ly by himself, free and untrammeled, and without the enemy knowing that he (Grant) had been anywhere near the field. Grant says that as he returned he met the mail with newspapers and found in them news of the great excitement in the North over the terms Sherman gave Johnston, and the harsh orders promulgated by the President and Secretary of War. and says: I fully understood what great indignation this would cause Sherman, though I do not think his feelings could have been more excited than mine. Where is there in all history a story of such magnanimity, not only to the enemy, but to his own devoted comrade? These two incidents were quoted to me in Europe as fixing the status of General Grant as a great, humane soldier, and as in dicating the elements that afterwards created a great states man. In the campaign from May 5th, 1864, to Appomattox, the Armies of the Potomac and James lost over 60,000 men, killed and wounded, and in prisoners and missing over 20,000 — a total of over 82,000. This indicates the desperate fighting and appalling results. Under any other commander it would have brought about a halt and discouragement, but under Grant it simply meant more determined efforts. He knew that the enemy's losses were as great as his, and if he continued on the aggressive sooner or later he would win. His determination, after Appomattox, that Lee's and all other armies should be protected in their paroles, is illustrated by his visit to President Johnson when Judge Underwood of Norfolk proposed to punish some of the leaders of the rebel lion, notwithstanding their paroles. Grant demanded that an Personal Recollections of Grant. order should be issued prohibiting such an act. President Johnson was obstinate until Grant declared that if it was done he would hand in his resignation. That settled it, and brought quiet and peace to all the rebel forces. This action of Gen eral Grant's has been greatly misrepresented, for on Memorial day, May 30, 1906, accompanied by General F. D. Grant, his wife, and others, I attended memorial services at Grant's Tomb in New York City. The address there was made by Judge Stafford of the United States District Court of Washington, in which he made the following statement : Not long after the death of Lincoln, Johnson summoned Grant to the White House. When they were alone he said: "I intend to fix it forever in the minds of the American people that secession is a crime. I intend to have all Confederate officers and officials put to a public death." Grant made no reply when Johnson had finished his harangue, but rose in sil ence to take his leave. "What do you mean to do?" asked John son. Then Grant said. "I am going to the camp; I shall move my army upon Washington, I sball proclaim martial law and take command. My reason for doing so is this : I received the surrender of General Lee, which ended the war. That surrender put into my hands the lives and safety of every officer and official on the Confederate side, and I hold myself in duty and honor bound to see that they are protected ac cording to the rules of war and common right." Grant re turned to his camp, issued the necessary orders, and waited for the proclamation to be made. Then he received the word that Johnson had changed his mind. This was such a remarkable statement in which there was absolutely not a word of truth that it astonished both General Grant and myself, and as soon as the oration Avas delivered, I went to the speaker and absolutely denied that there was any truth in his statement. He said he obtained the information from Admiral Dahl- grem I was in hopes no notice would be taken of it, and there fore said nothing more about it. But the Press got hold of it and, of course, commenced to handle it, and for the purpose of showing the absurdity of it, at a meeting of the Society of 90 Personal Recollections of Grant. the Army of the Tennessee at Council Bluffs, Iowa, on No vember 8th, 1906, General John C. Black called the attention of that Society to this statement, and as General Grant had been a prominent member of the Soceity, asked that a com mittee be appointed to take the matter up and make report, which was unanimously adopted, and as President of the So ciety I appointed as members of that committee, General John C. .Black, General 0. 0. Howard, Major V Warner and Mrs. John A. Logan. That committee reported on November 9th as follows : GENERAL BLACK'S REPORT. Council Bluffs, Iowa, November 9th, 1906. To the Society of the Army of the Tennessee : Your committee to whom you referred a motion made at the business session of the morning of November 8th, that a committee of three or more be appointed to whom should be referred the accusation made at the Tomb of Grant on the 30th of May last, and all the proof accessible and bearing upon said accusation, and to make report of their conclusions, beg leave to report that they have examined the matters referred to in said motion and find that during an address delivered on Memorial Day, 1906, at the Tomb of General U. S. Grant, a for mer member of the Society, former commander-in-chief of the army of the United States, and former President, the following statement was made, in substance : Not long after the death of Lincoln, Johnson sum moned Grant to the White House. When they were alone he said: "I intend to fix it forever in the minds of the American people that secession is a crime. I intend to have all Confed erate officers and officials put to a public death." Grant made no reply when Johnson had finished his harangue, but rose in silence to take his leave. "What do you mean to do?" asked Johnson. Then Grant said: "I am going back to the camp; I shall move my army upon Washington; I shall proclaim martial law and take command. My reason for so doing is this: I received the surrender of General Lee, which ended the war. That surrender put into my hands the lives and safe ty of every officer and official on the Confederate side, and I hold myself in duty and honor bound to see that they are protected according to the rules of war and common right. You can communicate with me at my headquarters." Grant returned to his camp, issued the necessary orders, and waited Personal Recollections of Grant. 91 for the proclamation to be made. Then he received word that Johnson had changed his mind. Your committee further finds, as a matter of history, that the intervieAv alleged to have been had between the President and General Grant must have occurred, if at all, while the armies of the United States were in camp in the vicinity of Washington, prior to, or about the time of the Grand Review; that thereafter and from the 12th of August, 1867, to January 13th, 1868, General Grant was the Secretary of War, ad interim, acting on the appointment of President Johnson; that in view of all the circumstances, as shown by the reports from the War Department and well established facts of history, it was impossible for such an interview to have taken place, or for such a declaration to have been made by General Grant, and especially that no such orders were ever issued by him looking to the overthrow of rightful author ity and the placing of the capital of his country under mar tial law. Whatever may be our individual views as to the charac ter of the man who then was President of the United States, we know that the declaration by General Grant of such an intention and the issuing of orders by him as Commander-in- Chief of the armies of the United States, as alleged, would have been an act of flagrant treason, for war was then still the legal status in the United States. We are convinced by the evidence and our knoAvledge of the man that our great Commander never made any intimation, expression or orders, or did any act that might have been disastrous to the laws or destructive to the liberties of his country. On the other hand, we know that every act of his public life as a soldier and as a civilian showed unfaltering regard for the law and devotion to the liberties of the country, as well as a scrupu lous regard for the preservation of our laAVS and the sanctity of the constitution. We have searched in vain for any record of any act of our great Comrade, in the midst of all the vicissi tudes of his life, that could be construed into a treasonable at tempt ; and we present this report as the reply of the Army of the Tennessee, of which he was the first Commander, and to whom his fame now is and ever will be very dear, to every charge, from what source soever emanating, that would con nect his name with an act treasonable to the country and de structive to its government. Respectfully submitted, OLIVER OTIS HOWARD, MRS. JOHN A. LOGAN, V. WARNER, JOHN C. BLACK, Chairman. 92 Personal Recollections of Grant. They also submitted the following papers and documents : From letter of General John C. Black, July 3d, 1906, to Gen eral Robert ShaAv Oliver, Assistant Secretary of War: 1 have the honor to request that you will kindly advise me whether there is or is not any proof in the records of the War Department of the foregoing statement, or any material part thereof. If there is such proof, I will thank you for an exhibition of it, or a reference to it, that I may examine it. If there is no such proof I hope that you will so state to me. War Department, The Military Sect. Office, Washington, "July 5th, 1906. (Respectfully returned to the Assistant Secretary of War.) Nothing has been found of record in this office, either to prove or disprove the statement made within, or any material part thereof. The only papers that have been found of record, and that appear to have even a remote bearing on the subject in ques tion, are letters from General Lee to General Grant, and Gen eral Grant to General Lee, published in the official records of the Union and Confederate armies, Series 1, Vol. 46, Part III Pages 1275 and 1286. F. C. AINSWORTH, Military Secretary. War Department, July 6th, 1906. So far as the records of the War Department are con cerned, the statements submitted by you regarding General Grant's action are without any foundation whatever. ROBERT SHAW OLIVER. Assistant Secretary of War. On the 8th of July, 1906, the folio-wing was written by Major-General Frederick D. Grant, United States Army: Your letter enclosing an extract from the address deliv ered at my father's tomb on May 30th is received With ref erence to the said statement, I can only say that I have heard my father speak of this interview with President Johnson when the arrests of General R. E. Lee and other Confederate officers were contemplated by the President. The statement tnat lather always made in my presence was that he (General Grant) had protested against such action being taken as the arrest of the Confederate officers, so long as they observed their parole, as they had surrendered to him (General Grants Personal Recollections of Grant. 93 upon terms which he, as Commander of the United States army. had a legal right to grant or dictate, and if our government violated these terms agreed upon, it would discredit him as well as our government, and that in case of this arrest of these Confederates he would be obliged to resign his commis sion in the United States army. In the above I am giving you almost father's exact words. I heard him make this statement frequently, and Avhat is at tributed to father in the incident as related does not at all harmonize with my father's character, and in my mind it is absolutely impossible. The speaker was of course misin formed. FREDERICK D. GRANT. Upon the report of this committee, I stated to the Society the actual facts in relation to Avhat did occur at the time that President Johnson ordered the arrest and execution of Gen eral Lee and others, as stated by a member of President John son's cabinet, as follows : After the assassination of Mr. Lincoln, the Cabinet met in the Treasury Department and passed a resolution to arrest and try by Military Commission, the leading men of the Con federacy, beginning with President Davis, General R. E. Lee, and others; meaning thereby to strike terror into the hearts of the southern people. They concluded to carry out this resolu tion, and General Grant must give the required orders. General Grant at that time was seeking rest on the banks of the Delaware. He was telegraphed to come immediately to Washington. Mr. Garrett, the President of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, was at that moment in Washington, and was instructed by Sec. Stanton to go forthwith to Baltimore in a single express car, there to meet General Grant and bring him to Washington as quickly as possible. He was also told by Sec. Stanton to inform General Grant of the resolution passed. which he was expected to execute. Mr. Garrett gives the following account of what General Grant said when the message was delivered to him in the ear : These gentlemen do not reflect that such an action Avould be a stain upon the escutcheon of the country, which never 94 Personal Recollections of Grant. could be wiped out. The assassination seems to have unsettled their wits, to think that such men as General Lee and President Davis had anything to do with the murder. These are gen tlemen whom I have known and esteemed for years, and who are incapable of crime — as well suspect myself. In response Mr. Garrett said, "Well General, the Cabinet are waiting only for you to give the orders, and you will go into that matter as soon as you get there. I hope when you do that you will speak to them just as you have now done to me. ' ' Then came the reply: "I shall go further, I shall tell them that they must first take my sword from me." Mr. Garrett says upon their arrival, General Grant went directly into the Cabinet room, and he remained in the corri dor. After some time the Postmaster General came out and approached him. Mr. Garrett said, "I don't wish to pry into the judges' confidence or secrets, but you know the message with which I was charged. When I delivered it to General Grant, he said that he would tell you gentlemen that you must first take his sword from him." The answer was, "He has done that very thing Mr. Garrett." Mr. Stanton, Secretary of War, also confirmed this to Mr. Garrett. Grant considered the action of France in building a mon archy on the ruins of Mexico, during the Civil War, as an act of War against the United States, but the condition of the United States rendered it impossible for them to interfere, and it is a very remarkable fact that on the surrender of Vicksburg he was so thoughtful of the future, and displayed that re markable statesmanship that in later years won the admira tion of the world. Washington was asking for reinforcements for other armies, and again distributing his victorious arm ies, which he wished to use, Grant, in answer to a letter from Lincoln, wrote the President as follows : Vicksburg, August 9th, 1863. In view of present events in Mexico, I am greatly im pressed with the importance of re-establishing the National authority in Western Texas as soon as possible, and he said he was ready to send a portion of his command to occupy the Kio Grande River, facing Mexico. Personal Recollections of Grant. 95 It is now a matter of history that as soon as Lee surren dered, Grant immediately telegraphed to the Government that action should be taken to force the French out of Mexico ; that Mexico was a friendly nation, and that they should be aided. Our Government acted, not by forcing the French out of that country, but by sending General Schofield to Europe, to make known to the French Government the feeling of our country and its determination to aid Mexico, if necessary,, and, as is known Napoleon immediately telegraphed the French Army to evacuate, but Maximilian declined to go. He was made to believe he had a following in Mexico that would enable him to maintain his monarchy. As soon as General Grant distributed the army, he placed Sheridan on the Rio Grande with a view of crossing, if neces sary. I was in comand of the Department of Missouri at that time, and received orders to prepare to go to New Mexico with a view of occupying Chihuahua and Sonora, if deemed expedient. Nothing ever came from these movements, but General Frederick D. Grant says that he found, in a private letter book of General Grant's, two confidential letters to Sheridan, telling him he must look out; that the administra tion was opposed to breaking neutrality, but if he believed that Santa Anna, who was on the border, was favorable to Jaurzez, then he could befriend him, and also said there were lots of arms left by soldiers on both sides, and if they fell into Jaurzez 's hands he (Grant) did not care, and Sheridan could lose them; he also said that some five or six of our batteries and some 40,000 stands of arms were lost in that way. Grant also informed Sheridan that if any of these arms or artillery fell into the hands of Maximilian he would have to account for them, thus showing plainly his views in the matter, also those of the Government. Mexico, of course, was aware of the friendship on the part of Grant, and was always devoted to him. Its representative in Washington always attended the 9(3 Personal Recollections of Grant. yearly banquet in New York City on General Grant's birth day, and I heard Minister Romero, at a dinner given General Grant, give a detailed account of all the actions of General Grant in their behalf, things that had never been spoken be fore. General Grant was present and admitted that they were true. After the war General Grant took a great interest in the development of Mexico. When President Diaz was here in 1883, he gave him a noted dinner at the Union League Club of New York, on April 4th, at which thirty-six of the most prominent people in New York were present. At that dinner President Diaz made known the great friendship of General Grant for his nation, and their appreciation of it. After Gen eral Grant returned to private life, he was interested in and was President of a railroad running from the City of Mexico to the Pacific Coast, through the State of Oaxaca, which was President Diaz's home. I was at that time building a road from Laredo to the City of Mexico, and General Grant induced me to become Vice President of his company and make sur veys for that line, and he put forth his greatest efforts to complete it. The financial condition of the country became such that the work on both lines was suspended, and while the line to the City of Mexico has since been completed, the other is just reaching the Pacific. In the winter of 1864-65 the Confederates, who controlled the Indian Territory, had sowed a great deal of dissension among the Indian tribes north of the Arkansas River, until they became very aggressive along the three lines of commun ication between the Atlantic and Pacific, the Arkansas, South Platte and North Platte, and the unfortunate attack of Col onel Chivington on a friendly band of Indians on the Big Sandy, near old Fort Lyon, on the Arkansas River, had aroused all the Sioux nation. These disturbances had stopped the mails, also pretty much all travel between the Territories Cali- Personal Recollections of Grant. 97 fornia, and the Missouri River, and there was a great outcry and demand that troops be sent into that country to open it. General Curtis, who commanded the Indian country at that time, did not think that a winter campaign could be made in that country, and so expressed himself to the War Depart ment. About January 1, 1865, General Grant wired me, asking if a winter campaign could be made on the plains. He knew I had had a great deal of experience on the plains during the ten years preceding the war. I answered that it could, if the troops were properly prepared, and immediately received an order from him to proceed to Fort Leavenworth, where I would receive orders. On arriving there I found that the Depart ment of Kansas and Territories had been merged into my command— the Department of the Missouri — and its command ing officer relieved and also found a dispatch there telling me to open up the stage and telegraph lines through to California This was a great surprise to me, and, of course, came from the dispatch I had sent General Grant. I knew there was no way to accomplish this except to take the field myself, which I immediately did, and by the first of March, 1864, had opened all the telegraph lines, had put the stages on again, and had communication through to California. It was a very severe winter campaign — the worst winter I ever saw on the plains. In March we had the worst storm I ever saw, and a battalion of Pawnee scouts I had there nearly perished in the storm, losing all their stock. As soon as I had finished this campaign, which was only a temporary one, I was immediately ordered to prepare a gen eral campaign for that summer and fall, which would force peace with all the Indians from the Red River on the south to the British possessions on the north. This campaign was a long one, taking from July, 1865, until the spring of 1866. My troops marched from the Arkansas to the Yellowstone, and 98 Personal Recollections of Grant. fought many battles. Right after the battle of Tongue River. where General Conner's command fought the Northern Chey- enhes and Arapahoes, and nearly wiped out these bands, in cluding their women and some of their children, there was a great outcry throughout the country, as the battalion of Pawnee Indians that was in the fight did some promiscuous scalping. General Grant wired me to close up the campaign and bring the Indians to Laramie and make peace with them. I protested, and stated that if they would give me three months longer I would answer with my life for the settling all the Indian difficulties. General Grant's answer was that the President was so urgent in the matter, and that there was such a pressure upon him, that I must close the campaign and bring the Indians in. This was a fatal mistake1, and gave the Indians the idea that they were the victors instead of our selves, and the result was to bring, later oh, a war with the Apaches and Commanches, the Sioux and the Sitting Bull war, in which General Custer lost his life and command in the campaign of General Terry. Grant's disappointment at the sudden closing of this cam paign was equal to my own, but, as his dispatches show, there was no consideration given to the judgment of the officers in the field or on the ground. I had expected to leave the army early in 1865, but the Indian campaign kept me in the field until 1866. I resigned in March and was given a leave of absence in May, and bid fare well to the army in this letter. . TT a „ Omaha, July 16th, 1866. General U. S. Grant. General:— I am now a citizen but still take great inter est in the army, and shall always give it what aid there is in my power. I know that to your unfailing support and your confidence in me, I am greatly indebted for what little success I may have achieved, and I desire now to thank you I hope I may be able some day to partly return it. Wherever for tune, may hereafter; place me, I shallnever forget that all true Personal Recollections of Grant. 9!) soldiers owe to you more than they can ever repay, and that the country can never reward your successful labor for it in the army. I grew up under your's, Sherman's and McPherson 's orders and guidance, and I shall take into civil life my lesson that will be of lasting benefit to me. I trust if I can ever be of service to you in any way that you will not fail to com mand me, and that you will visit our section of the country in some of your travels. We are fast civilizing this western country, and I believe our railroad will do more towards tam, ing the Indians than all else combined. General Sherman Avas here to see me a short time ago. I am truly yours, G. M. DODGE. At the end of the war General Grant had a desire to re ward a certain number of the Volunteer Generals that had served under him in the army, who had not gone into the regular army, and he proposed the passage of a bill appoint ing a certain number of Major-Generals and Brigadier-Gen erals in the regular army for life. On this list he placed me at the head to be a Major-General in the regular army. It would have been impossible for me to have accepted the posi tion, as I was under contract at the time in building the Union Pacific Raihvay. General Grant greatly desired, at the end of the war, that I should remain in the army, and kept me in over a year after the volunteer forces were mustered out, but General Sherman, who knew my connection with the Union Pacific, took my view of the matter, and advised me not to remain in the army. His letter giving me leave of ab sence to take the position of Chief Engineer of the Union Pacific indicates his views on this question very clearly. In November, 1866, I was elected to Congress from the State of Iowa, and took my seat in December, 1867. General Grant was then commander of the army, with headquarters in Washington, and we were together very often.' I was a mem ber of the Military Committee of the House, and the re-organ ization of the army was one of the important things before us. There was a great conflict as to what measure should be 100 Personal Recollections of Grant. passed between our Chairman, General James A. Garfield, and General B. F. Butler. It was a difficult problem to reduce the army to> a minimum and take care of the large number of offi cers who had been appointed to the regular army, and were then under commission. The views of General Grant were not the views of the Committee, but when the conflict in the House became acute I offered a substitute for all the bills, Avhich simply provided for the minimum strength of the army, and left it to the Commander-in-Chief, General Grant, to make the reduction in such manner as he considered would be to the best interests of the service. This substitute was passed, and I received credit, as a new member, of defeating two such old and prominent members as Garfield and Butler. During this time also the conflict between President An drew Johnson and General Grant occurred. There was living with me at that time the Honorable James F. Wilson of Iowa, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, having in charge the reconstruction measures. He was a prominent leader of the House, in whom Generals Grant and Rawlins had great confi dence, and all the correspondence that passed between Grant and Johnson was brought to me by General Rawlins, and sub mitted by me to Representative Wilson, who thought Grant showed a grasp and insight of the question that was most sur prising, and he had no reason to suggest any changes, but ap proved entirely General Grant's position and contentions in the matter. Soon afterwards General Grant was nominated for the Presidency on the Republican ticket, and General Frank P. Blair for Vice President on the Democratic ticket. General Blair was at that time a United States Commissioner, accept ing each section of twenty miles of the Union Pacific Rail way as it was built, with headquarters at Fort Sanders, Wyoming. General Grant came to Omaha to go over the road with me, and General Blair happening to arrive at Omaha at Personal Recollections of Grant. loi the same time, I took them both in my ear to the end of the Union Pacific Railway. Blair had been a fine soldier, com manding a Brigade, Division and Corps under Grant, and Grant had referred to him in his reports in the highest terms. When they met they were as cordial and chatty as though they were political friends. Blair's contention was that if Grant was elected President it was one step towards placing the country under a monarchy, for he believed, with the faith the people had in him, his party would take the benefit and make him a permanent President, but one knowing Grant as I did knew he was the last person to think of such a result, much less be a party to it. The population along the line of the Union Pacific Railway, and the working parties were many of them rebels who had gone into the plains rather than go into the Confederate army, or be sent through our lines into the Confederate lines. There had also concentrated along the line and on the work a great many Confederate soldiers I had enlisted from among the Confederate prisoners of war to go on the plains and fight the Indian campaigns. Naturally this population was for the democratic ticket. The presence of Grant and Blair on the line was known, and at every stopping place the people congregated and were all anxious to see Grant, and demanded that Blair, who was known as a fine speaker, should talk to them on the political question. Grant urged Blair to comply with their wishes, but Blair responded that the presence of Grant, for whom he had the highest admiration personally, made it impossible for him to talk to them on politics, and stating that he intended to be down the road again in a short time, and it would then give him pleasure to expound to them the principles of his party which, of course, satisfied them. Soon after I left the service, I was sued for over thirty thousand dollars in the United States courts in Kansas for seizing, by order of . Mr. Stanton, Secretary of War, a 102 , Personal Recollections of Grant. lot of horses and mules that had been driven into Kansas from the Indian Territory — the prosecutors claiming them as private property. When I appealed to the Government to de fend the suit it developed that there was no way it could do so, and that there was no law protecting an officer for acts committed while in the service, no matter whose orders he obeyed, from civil suit, so judgment was given against me and all my property levied upon. You can imagine that I was greatly disturbed, as was General Grant, and he said, if he was elected President, one of his first acts would be to have laws passed protecting all officers for military acts committed while in the service, and one to relieve me. Blair said: "As I am certain to be elected, I will also see that it is done." And'I felt at ease if I could keep off the execution until after election. Grant Avas elected, and the next Congress passed a law protecting officers who had been in the Government Serv ice, and the Government also paid the judgment against me. In the spring of 1868, during the building of the Union Pacific Railroad, the company gave the chief of construction; Mr. T. C. Durant, entire charge, not only of the building of the lines, but also of the surveys for the company. The desire of the construction' company to make headway and meet the Central Pacific as far west as possible, caused them to change a portion of my lines west of the Black Hills. I entered a protest against this, and notified the Company that if my lines were changed without notifying me it would be necessary for me-to resign. I was acting in a double capacity, as chief engi neer for the railway, Generals Grant and. Sherman also hold ing me accountable for carrying out the instructions of the Government. The Government heard of this action of the Company, and Generals Grant and Sherman, accompanied by Generals Kautz, Sheridan, Dent, Gibbon, Harney, Potter and Hunt, came to Fort Sanders, Wyoming Territory, to visit me', and consult with me in the matter. At that time I was in Salt GENERAL GRANT AND PARTY VISIT GENERAL DODGE From Left to Right: — Gen. August Kautz, Gen. Phillip H. Sheridan, Mrs. Potter, Gen. Frederick Dent, Mrs. Gibbon, Gen. John Gibbon, Master John Gibbon, Gen. U. S. Grant, Katie Gibbon, Mrs. Kilburn, Allie Potter, Gen. G. M. Dodge, Lieut.-Gen. Wm. T. Sherman, Gen. Wm. S. Harney, Dr. T. C. Durant, Gen. Adam Slemmer, Gen. Joseph C. Potter, Gen. Louis C. Hunt. Personal Recollections of Grant. 103 Lake City, but received a dispatch from T. C. Durant, chief of the construction force, to come to Fort Sanders to meet them, and at the same time requesting me to withdraw my resigna tion. When I arrived at Fort Sanders, I found that Grant and Sherman had stated very emphatically, to the Union Pacific people, that my lines must be maintained or the Government would take action in the matter; that they knew me and had confidence in me, and there was no person whom they could make chief engineer to whom they would give the authority they had given me for calling upon the commanders for troops for escorts, and upon the posts for supplies, etc., that we might need. Generals Grant and Sherman were all the time in commun ication with me, and both took as much interest in the building of the railway as I did. Their visit to the line was of great benefit, for it put an end to a great deal of friction that exist ed on the Union Pacific Railway, between the company and the contractors, and from that time on I never had any trouble ; in fact the control of the construction of the road was vir tually turned over to me. General Grant in his first administration appointed A. G. Burlingame as Minister to China. He took a high position at the Chinese court, and returned to this country with authority to arrange- fori many innovations in China, among them great internal improvements, including railroads. Minister Burlingame applied to General Grant for some one to take charge of the building of the railways contemplated by the Chinese Government, and General Grant recommended me. I had then completed the building of the Union Pacific Railway, and at Grant's urgent request accepted the position, and commenced arranging my affairs to accompany Minister Burlingame on his return to China. He went to Europe and while there died, and with him seems to have died all the modern views and efforts of the Chinese Government. 104 Personal Recollections of Grant. These efforts of Burlingame in China came through Grant's great influence there, for probably there is no nation he vis ited that was more impressed with Grant than the Chinese, and during his life and after his death they paid him great re spect, and I have no doubt if Burlingame had lived and con tinued his efforts, with the support of General Grant, he would have been able to carry out many of the reforms that were contemplated. It is a singular fact that the Chinese seem never to forget anything, for in 1883, when I was building railways in Texas, the Chinese Government again took this matter up, and remem bering the recommendation of General Grant, they sent to me in Texas and renewed the request to visit China for the same purpose, but I was then unable to accept, and had to decline. The Society of the Army of the Tennessee was organized at Raleigh, North Carolina, on April 14, 1865. General Grant took great interest in this Society, and at its first meeting he wrote this letter to the Society, and his tribute to his old army is the most sincere and the most complete of any I have ever seen : Washington, D. C, November 11th, 1866. Dear General : It is with great disappointment that I have to announce. at the last moment, my inability to attend the meeting of the Society of the Army of the Tennessee, on the 14th inst. I find it will be impossible for me to be absent from the city, for the present, for so long a time as it would take me to go to Cincin nati and return. I regret not being able to attend the first meeting of the Society, composed in whole of officers of the army which (0™«dT''n?y first command" in the terrible Rebellion, and with which I felt myself identified to the end of its service When my command was less than an "army" it was com posed of troops which formed the nucleus of the "Army of the Tennessee" m its organization into an army It was the first army I had the honor to command, and to the end of the Rebellion it was an integral and important part of the force which I had the honor to direct, through the ablest and most distinguished officers of any service _^ Personal Recollections of Grant. 105 It is a proud record the Army of the Tennessee gained during the Rebellion. As an army it never sustained a de feat during the four years of war. No officer was ever as signed to the command of that army who had afterwards to be relieved from duty, or reduced to a less command. Such a history is not by accident nor Avholly due to sagacity in the selection of commanders. Again permit me to express through you to the Society of the Army of the Tennessee my deep regret at not being able to be with you on the interesting occasion of its first meeting. I have the honor to be with great respect, Your obedient servant. U. S. GRANT. General. A speech that called attention to General Grant, and which was one of the most notable of his life, was made at the Re union of the Society of the Army of the Tennessee at Des Moines, Iowa, September 29, 1875. Vigorous and vital in thought, sagacious and sublime in statesmanship, it stands in history as a most notable utterance. General Grant said : Comrades: — It always affords me much gratification to meet my old comrades-in-arms of ten to fourteen years ago, and to live over again the trials and hardships of those days — hardships imposed for the preservation and perpetuation of our free institutions. We believed then, and believe now, that we had a Government worth fighting for, and if need be, dying for. How many of our comrades of those days paid the latter price for our preserved Union. Let their heroism and sacrifices be ever green in our memory. Let not the results of their sacrifices be destroyed. The Union and the free institu tions for which they fell, should be held more dear for their sacrifices. We will not deny to any of those who fought against us any privileges under the Government which we claim for ourselves. On the contrary, we welcome all such who come forward in good faith to help build up the waste places and to perpetuate our institutions against all enemies, as brothers in full interest with us in a common heritage. But we are not prepared to apologize for the part we took in the great struggle. It is to be hoped that like trials will never befall our country. In this sentiment no class of people can more heartily join than the soldiers who submitted to the dangers, trials and hardships of the camp and battlefield, on 106 Personal Recollections of Grant. whichever side he may have fought. No class of people is more interested in guarding against a recurrence of those days. Let us then begin by guarding against every enemy threatening the perpetuity of free republican institutions. T do not bring into this fair assemblage politics, certainly not partisan politics; but it is a fair subject for our deliberation, to consider what may be necessary to secure the prize for which they battled. In a republic like ours, where the citizen is the sovereign, and the official, servant— where no power is exercised except by the will of the people, it is important that the sovereign — the people — should possess intelligence. The free school is the promoter of that intelligence which is to preserve us as a free nation. If we are to have another con test, in the near future of our national existence, I predict that the dividing line will not be the Mason and Dixon's, but be tween patriotism and intelligence on the one side, and super stition, ambition and ignorance on the other. Now, in this centennial year of our national existence, I believe it a, good time to begin the work of strengthening the foundation of the house commenced by our patriotic forefathers one hun dred years ago at Concord and Lexington. Let us all labor to add all needful guarantees for the more "perfect security of free thought, free speech and a free press; pure morals, un fettered religious sentiments, and of equal rights and privil eges to all men, irrespective of nationality, color or religion. Encourage free schools, and resolve that not one dollar of money appropriated to their support, no matter how raised, shall be appropriated to the support of any sectarian school. Resolve that either the State or Nation, or both combined, shall support institutions of learning sufficient to afford, to every child growing up in the land, the opportunity of a good, common school education, unmixed with sectarian^ pagan or atheistical tenets. Leave the matter of religion. to the family circle, the church, and the private school, supported en tirely by private contribution. Keep the church and state for ever separate. With these safeguards I believe the battle which created us, "The Army of the Tennessee," will not have been fought in vain. In 1867, while I was building the Union Pacific Railway, General Grant suggested that I should take with me on some of my overland trips Brigadier-General John A. Rawlins, his Chief of Staff, who had been his ablest and most devoted friend and admirer, thinking the trip would benefit Rawlins, who was failing in health. The four months we Avere in GENERAL G M. DODliK A.N'll PARTY. EXPLORING U. P. RY.. 1SGT , , Left- Standh-iK:— Lieut. J. AV. AVheelan, Col. .1. K. Mizner, Dr. Henry R. Terrv of escort John B. Corwith. "' ^ ¦ lins.^a?^. ^.' £ D^nrA^D.1^'"11 •1°"n "¦ Duff> Qe"' °" M' D°dSe- Gen' J°hn A- Raw" Personal Recollections of Grant. 101 camp together were delightful ones to me, for I listened to the story of Grant's campaign, and the many incidents that oc curred that never got into the reports, 'with great benefit and satisfaction, as no one could describe them as Rawlins did. He explained to me many of the problems of the war that I did not fully understand; Grant's actions in great emer gencies, meeting the great obstacles in his way; the almost uhsurmountable difficulties he had to overcome, but in all the dark days he never for one moment lost heart or faith, or doubted the result. Rawlins became Grant's first Secretary of War. When he died in September, 1869, Grant desired to give me the place, but my duties with the Union Pacific Railway prevented it. ' In 1877 General Grant started on his- trip around the world. I was with him in Paris. I had a house on ' the Boulevard Houseman. The attention paid him in Paris, and the consid eration he received, not only officially, but from the private citizens, occupied nearly all his time, and whenever he had an hour to himself he would come up to my: house to sit and smoke his cigar, and have a complete rest. We were in the habit of going to the Champs Elysees and sit there watching the ; crowds. I had with me my youngest daughter, and Gen eral Grant would take her and go into the Punch and Judy shows and stay an hour or more with her, and seemed to enjoy it as fully as she did. He was more interested in the people', in what they did, and in the manufactures, etc., of the coun try, than anything else, and was absolutely opposed to' pa rades and reviews, and never wanted to; go near the army. He apparently took no interest in military matters of any kind. It was a singular trait of character that a man Avho had han dled as many hundreds of thousands of men and fought as many battles as he had, should have such an aversion to look ing on troops, or having them brought out in any demonstra tion for him. He had to attend in Paris three or four cere- 108 Personal Recollections of Grant. monies each day, and how he stood it and maintained his health as well as he did was beyond my conception, for it was impossible for me to stand any such strain. His visits to the Champs Elysees seemed to be of great relief to him, and ap parently changed him from a great General and President to a simple boy. During the time General Grant was writing his Memoirs I was in the habit of visiting him when I was in New York, and sitting some hours with him, and he would often read to me some portions of what he had written. Illustrating what an extraordinary memory he had, he read to me a portion of what he had written about me, and the rebuilding of the Nashville & Decatur Railway. As this work had not im pressed itself upon my mind as it had upon his. as it was no unusual thing to me, I listened to what he read, and said that my recollection of it was not as he had written it, which seemed to surprise him, and he said if that was so he would have to change it. I said not to change it ; that I would go to my office and look over my records, which I did. I had to sit down the next morning and write him a letter, telling him that his recollection of what I had done was absolutely cor rect, while my oavu was absolutely wrong, and the chapter stood as he had written it. Mr. N. E. Dawson, the Secretary to Avhom he dic tated the greater part of the second volume of his Memoirs, says the few corrections they had to make of dates and data of all kinds showed a wonderful accuracy in all his statements, that the work they had to do was to ar range the different subjects in chronological order, and I know from my own examination that his first volume, written in his own hand, has very few interlineations. The Secretary also said that General Grant seemed to maintain himself during the dictating of the last volume by a strong will to live until it was completed, and after he had written, it all out and read Personal Recollections of Grant. ioh it to him, and it was virtually completed, that moment he im mediately began to fail, and in ten days thereafter was dead On December 8th, 1884, I received this letter from Gen eral Grant, and Major-General Frederick D. Grant says this letter was the last letter General Grant wrote by his own hand. „ _ „ , „ , New York, Dec. 8th, 1884. My Dear General Dodge : I am sorry to trouble you and would not but for the cir cumstances under which I am placed. Since my injury of nearly a year ago I have groAvn very weak. A sore throat of six months standing has given me much trouble. In addition to this I have been a sufferer from neuralgia. I think a visit to the Hot Springs of Arkansas would do me much good. Can you furnish me a special car out and back? If I go I would like to start sometime between the 15th and 20th of this month, to return soon after the beginning of the new year. Very truly yours, U. S. GRANT. P. S. — Mrs. Grant will accompany me. and two servants — maid and a man servant. I brought a private car to New York, and held it there for some time, but General Grant was not able to make the trip or use it. On December 19th, 1884. I received this letter from Gen eral F. D. Grant: No. 3 East 66th, Dec. 19th, 1884 Dear General : I will try and be at your office tomorrow morning. If I don't get there it will be because I will be detained with father at the doctor's. Father has been very ill, but is a little better, and we are trying to get him well enough to go to the matinee to see Ray mond run for Congress tomorrow morning and cheer him (father) up a little. We would be glad to have you call at any time you can, particularly in the morning between 8 and 10 o'clock. Respectfully & C, F. D. GRANT. In compliance Avith this letter, on Sunday, December 21, 1884, I started up to see Colonel F. D. Grant. Stopped at the 110 Personal Recollections of Grant-. Union League Club and found the Colonel there waiting for me. He took me to one side and said that he had just come from Dr. Fordyce Parker, who told him that his father could not live long; perhaps a month or two, perhaps not so long. He said that Governor Fish and Dr. Newman were the only ones that knew it, and he impressed on me the necessity of keeping it a secret so it could not reach his father. I was thunderstruck, for only the Sunday before I was at the house, and the General looked fairly well, though I knew he was much distressed. He told me that he had been working on his history, and writing of my opening the middle Tennessee by rapid construction of the Nashville & Decatur Railroad, and said that while I was an excellent soldier, I was also finely fitted for the construction of the railroad on account of my education and ^experience as a Civil Engineer. . After a long' talk, I told Colonel Fred that General Sher man was in the city, and suggested going down and telling tlie General how sick his father was, and have him come : up. We, went to the Fifth Avenue Hotel ; found the General with Wm. McCrory, of Minneapolis, formerly on his staff, also a staff officer who was examining some papers. The General said he was in good health; was troubled some w'ith asthma, but was full of work and attending meetings, etc. Colonel Fred said to General Sherman: I think my father's history tells more of what you did than your own Memoirs. Sherman said: Well, when Grant writes anything, we can all depend on getting the facts. When he writes and says himself what was done and what he saw, no soldiers need fear; but when others write what he. does and says, it is not always so. Colonel Fred said his father had been having considerable trouble with, the ipublishers or editors of the magazine who were to publish the .war articles— Shiloh, Vicksburg; Wilder Personal Recollections' of Grant. ill ness and Appomattox — that they had made his father very angry — they wanted him to change the word "Rebel" in his article to " Confederate ". and the word "Union" to "Feder al." He said that finally the General Avrote a short letter, demanding that his articles be published as Avritten. Fred further said that his father had written three articles but he did not believe that he would write any more. Sherman said: This trying, to .soften treason by expunging the words of the General was wrong, and that if it kept on, pretty soon the sons of Southern soldiers would consider it as much of an honor that their fathers fought under Lee,- as the sons of Union soldiers, that their fathers fought under Grant; that the line of Union and Rebel, of loyalty and treason, should be kept always distinct. I answered: As long as our veterans live it Avill be; but the tendency all the time is, to wipe out history, to forget it, forgive, ex cuse and soften, and when all the soldiers pass from this age it will be easy to. slip into the idea, that one side was as good as the other. Sherman said: It was a conspiracy until Sumpter was fired upon : after that, a Rebellion. Governor Woodford came in and Sherman related to him what Fred Grant had said but he made no response. Fred also said his father had written his life from boyhood to Donelson; had written Shiloh, Vicksburg, Granada, Chatta nooga, and the march of Sherman from Memphis to Chatta nooga and the Wilderness. He said his father had omitted vmting for four days, but asked me to come up and see him evenings. When you compare the sentiment existing then with that existing today, you can see what a marked change has come in this country. Virginia has placed, in the rotunda of the 112 Personal Recollections of Grant. capitol in Washington, a statute of General Lee in a confeder ate uniform, without any protest from our country, its citizens, and only occasionally one from the veterans. A distinguished veteran in commenting upon this said that he visited the capi tol with a view of looking at Lee to see how he was dressed, but he said when he got there, it was a bronze statue and the only indication that he was a confederate came from the insig nia on the Bronze, but he said he did not feel like some veter ans did. He thought if Virginia was anxious to place Lee in the capitol alongside of Grant, who was already there, it was a good object lesson for all the people who came to visit it, for when they looked at Lee, they would at the same time look at General Grant, who received Lee's surrender and saved the Union, and that the comparison would be favorable in every case to the Union. Right after our interview, General Sherman went up to see General Grant, and that evening I saw him again. He seemed pleased with his visit; thought General Grant was looking well, and as Colonel Fred Grant had requested me not to tell anyone the condition his father was in for fear he might see it, I said nothing to General Sherman. As far as I know, and while the fact that General Grant's disease was a fatal one, it was kept from him by the doctors; also by the fam ily, hut I believe Grant knew it because from that time on, he made great efforts to finish his Memoirs, and the fact that as soon as he completed his Memoirs he commenced failing rapidly, and within ten days was dead. That he maintained his strength by a determination to finish them before he died, the same determination he showed when on the field, and this letter he wrote Dr. Douglas in July, only ten days before he died, shows plainly he knew his end was near : I ask you not to show this to anyone, unless the physicians you consult with, until the end. Particularly, I want it kept trom my friends. If known to one man, the papers will get it Personal Recollections of Grant. 113 It would only distress my friends, almost beyond endurance, to know it, and, by reflex, it would distress me. I have not changed my mind materially, since I wrote you before in the same strain. Now, however, I know that I gain strength some days, but when I do go back, it is beyond where I started to improve. I think the chances are very decidedly in favor of your being able to keep me alive until the change of weather, toward winter. Of course, there are contingencies that might arise at any time that would carry me off very suddenly. The most probable of these is choking. Under the circumstances, life is not worth the living. 1 am very thankful to have been spared this long, because it has enabled me to practically complete the work in which I take so much interest. I cannot stir up strength enough to review it and make additions and subtractions that would suggest themselves to anyone else. Under the above circumstances, I will be the happiest, the most pain I can avoid. If there is to be any extraordinary cure, as some people believe there is to be, it will develop itself. I would say, therefore, to you and your colleagues, to make me as comfortable as you can. If it is within God's providence that I should go now, I am ready to obey His call without a murmur. I would prefer going now to enduring my present suffering for a single day. General Grant died at Mt. Gregor near Saratoga, New York, on July 23d, 1885. I was absent from the city, but the family notified me and I returned and attended the funeral. He was universally mourned and great crowds turned out to show their sympathy. He was laid in a tomb or receptacle, temporarily constructed for this purpose, near the present fine memorial building. There was quite a contention as to where he should be fin ally laid to rest ; he had desired to be buried at West Point, but for the fact that Mrs. Grant could not be buried there by his side he named Galena or New York because of the friend ships shown him by that state in his greatest need. His fam ily selected New York City. I was called upon by the Boston Journal, on his death, for an estimate of his character, and gave this : General Grant is measured from two different standpoints. First, as a soldier and commander; second, as a civilian and 114 Personal Recollections of Grant. statesman. As a soldier General Grant was modest, retiring, unassuming and easy of approach, seldom if ever showing an ger; standing by and supporting those in whom he trusted, or upon whom he had placed responsibilities, even in their fail ures, if he believed that they had carried out his commands to the best of their ability, and Avith the full strength of the force under them. He had no use or sympathy for an officer Avho in battle or holding any position did not use,, to the utmost limit and fight to the utmost strength, every person under him. With General Grant such action on the- part of an officer covered a multitude of omissions. His strength of character is well illustrated by his reply when asked Avhat he claimed for the Battle of the Wilderness. It is well known that Confederate officers maintain the opinion that if this battle had been fought under any other commander, the results ensuing Avould have caused a retreat instead of an advance. General Grant answered, "That all he claimed was that after that battle the Army of the Potomac would never fear Lee, and that Lee's losses could never be replaced, and that the Union troops would have a much smaller force to meet in the rest of the campaign than they had en countered at the beginning of the Wilderness fight." General Grant's fame came from the fact that he was gen erally victorious, and finished successfully the Civil War, but the Adtal question is : Why did the people, with the unerring instinct, look to this unknown man when there were many others more prominent in the field, who were gaining great credit whilst he was under a ban, even after his first great victories? What led them to so firmly support him through all the time he was in the midst of a storm of abuse ? My answer is that Grant was the first commander who gave the North to understand that he would use the force placed under him for all it was worth. They said: "Here at last is a General Avho will not temporize, who will not compromise, and who will fight at every opportunity, regardless of num bers, and will attempt to capture every stronghold of the enemy and beat down his armies by main force." General Grant believed that the North had superior num bers and stronger sinews of Avar, which, if properly used, would cause the victory to finally rest with him. Superiority of numbers and equipment would not succeed unless used with a determination and continued force commensurate with their strength. Grant saw this, saw that the nation demanded ac tion, and the result was that he above all others, met this de mand. The people saw it and demanded his services, no mat ter what the critics, strategists or officials said of him or his Personal Recollections of Grant. 115 acts, and today the world admits that his methods in war are the only ones to bring quick and sure results. It Avas General Grant's determination in every battle to use against the enemy every gun at his command, and when his battles are studied it is wonderful to see how he mar shaled his forces. They prove that he had the genius for con centrating and fighting his command upon a given point; therefore, it was mathematically certain that in the end he would win. He tied to himself Avith hooks of steel all those who served under him, from the fact that he sunk his own personality in his endeavors to giA^e credit and honor to every one who successfully took part in any battle under him. General Grant as a statesman : As the years pass by and his acts are measured by the results of his administration, it is being generally admitted that he was equally as great a statesman as he was a soldier. The Society of the Army of the Tennessee held its Re union on October 8th, 1889, and took part in the dedication of the Grant Memorial in Lincoln Park, Chicago. Mrs. Grant was present, as the guest of Mrs. Potter Palmer, and the So ciety was very anxious to pay their respects to Mrs. Grant. I called upon her at Mrs. Palmer's. She was fearful she could not go through the ordeal of seeing so many of General Grant's old comrades, many of whom she knew personally; but I as sured her that the comrades would avoid anything that would bring to her sad memories. With the aid of Mrs. Palmer I prevailed upon her to receive the old army. At 2 o'clock that afternoon, October 8th, 1889, the officers arrived at the Palmer mansion. Mrs. Palmer, beautiful in a charming costume, received them and they were escorted into the great reception room to the right, where Mrs. Grant await ed them. The widow was attired in black, her silvery hair forming a halo around the saddened features. A meet word of welcome was on her lips as her husband's comrades in arms presented themselves. The veterans were deeply affected. They approached her with reverence that was almost worship — the Avoman who had been the companion of the great General who had led them to 116 Personal Recollections of Grant. victory. Probably no General was surrounded by his officers with such memories of devotion as he Avhose bronze statue was unveiled yesterday, and all their love and admiration was given to the wife he had loved so well. Mrs. Grant was deep ly affected. Many of those who boAved before her were near and dear friends of the long ago. They had fought by the side of General Grant when the fierce clamor of war had echoed throughout the land, and they had been his friends and adA'is- ers when peace had come. A tide of tender memories swept over the soul of that silvery-haired woman as she saw the well- known faces and it well nigh overcame her, but she controlled herself remarkably well and passed through the ordeal with fortitude. The hostess, Mrs. Palmer, with rare tact, turned what would have been a melancholy reunion into a pleasant, enjoy able social event. The veterans, true to their promise, re frained from saddening allusions and the reception passed off most pleasantly. For an hour the officers conversed with their honored guest and then they departed. Mrs. Palmer said : Mrs. Grant has been deeply touched by the kindness shown her. The magnificence of the demonstration yesterday, at the dedication of the monument, gratified her beyond expression. She feels exceedingly well today and I really believe that her little trip will be a great benefit to her physically. Of course, the sad memories which have come to her have af fected her, but she has not been overcome. She was deeply touched by the kind greeting given her at the park ex ercises yesterday. Mrs. Grant was sitting in such a position that she could not see the salutes fired from the boats upon the lake. She arose to change her position, and, catching sight of her, the vast throng greeted her most heartily. The greet ing was unexpected, as Mrs. Grant had no thought of such a thing when she arose. The heartiness with which she has been received everywhere and the sacredness of her husband's memory to the people of Chicago have been sAveet to her, and she will never forget this visit to our city. Her heart, she says Personal Recollections oi- Grant 11? will always be warm to Chicago. I think, moreover, she will probably be permanently benefitted in health by her visit here. General U. S. Grant died July 23, 1885. Soon after his death, the mayor and the leading citizens of the city of New York organized for the purpose of erecting a monument to his memory in the city of NeAv York. They progressed suc cessfully at first in this work, until something like $150,000 had been subscribed. They advertised for plans ; many were sub mitted, and that of Mr. Duncan accepted; then the matter halted and lay dormant until the 21st day of March, 1892, when General Horace Porter called together a small number of General Grant's friends at the Union League Club, in New York, and an organization was made of which General Porter was president, and I Avas vice president. General Porter took up the active Avork of raising the bal ance of the sum needed to carry out the plans that had been presented by Mr. Duncan, and adopted by the original com mittee, an estimated cost of Avhich was about $600,000. General Porter spent day and night addressing the people of the city, until he had organized 215 committees, represent ing all trade industries, etc., which were actively at work, and General Porter would come in from the field about midnight and report to us his success in the work, and plans would be laid for the next day's work, and in forty days, by his personal efforts, there had been subscribed the needed sum. The work had progressed so successfully that on April 28th, 1892, arrangements were made for the laying of the corner stone of the monument in the park where it noAV is located on Riverside. At the laying of the corner stone, the president of the United States with his cabinet members, Mrs. Grant and fam ily, the diplomatic corps, many distinguished officers of the army and navy, representatives of the G. A. R., patriotic so cieties, and many citizens generally, took part. There Avere some three thousand seats reserved which were occupied by 118 Personal Recollections of Grant. the guests and by members of different trades 'and professions who were taking part in raising funds for the building of the'' monument. General Porter presided and delivered the address, giving an account of the monument; and the corner stone was laid by President Harrison with a ' ' Golden Trowel. ' ' He said : No orator, however gifted, can over praise General Grant. The most costly and impressive structure that the architect can plan or wealth execute, is justifiable when the name of Grant is inscribed upon its base. This stone, which has now been laid, accompanied by this magnificent expression of popular interest, is only the top stone of a foundation. It speaks to us of a structure imposing and graceful in its completeness, which shall rise from this supporting base. Then the Honorable Chauncy DepeAv delivered an oration which was received with great applause. It was estimated that about one million people turned out to Avitness the procession, a large portion of Avhich assembled at the location of the tomb. The Grant monument was dedicated on April 27th, 1897. The mayor of the city called together friends of General Grant and made the preliminary organization by appointing and com missioning me as the Grand Marshal of the parade. President McKinley Avas to review the parade and General Horace Porter was to deliver the oration. The arrangements for the parade were the most extensive ever made in NeAv York, and I was over a month attending to the details and completing the ar rangements. I' had a very efficient staff, consisting of Colonel H. C. Cor- bin, General T. F. Rodenbough, A. Noel Blakeman, Captain John A. Johnson, Lieut. Wm. E. Horton, and Colonel William C. Sanger as the working force, and Captain Chester of the United States navy who Avas in charge of the naval parade for me, and 200 volunteer aides. The parade marched from Madi son Square to the tomb, about four miles, and Avas in three grand divisions. Personal Recollections of Grant. 119 . The first division — the regular army, the militia and ma rines. The second — the Grand Army and the Patriotic Or ganizations and societies. The third — the Civic Division. Of the regular army, militia and cadets, there were sixty thou sand in line. Of the Grand Army and patriotic societies, about twenty-five thousand, and of the Civic Procession about twen ty-five thousand — the largest parade ever seen in New York, and it was from 1:30 to 6:30 P. M., closed in solid column, passing the review stand. The day was a cold, windy, uncomfortable day, but the police estimated that over three million of people lined the sidewalks, and whilst there were' bleechers along the road to accommodate fifty thousand people, it was so cold and windy that many of them were deserted, people lining up on the sidewalks, and the handling of the crowd by the police was simply perfect. The guests, many of the noted people of the United States, including the President and Cabinet, General Grant's family, diplomatic representatives of every nation, Congress and Exe cutive officers and their representatives of every state, occu pied seats around the reviewing stand. The naval parade in cluded many of the United States ships, and a representation of naval ships from nearly every country. At the reviewing stand there were seats for five thousand people. The naval parade lined up along the Hudson River, from the tomb clear down to the Battery. The dean of the diplomats, Lord Paunce- fote, wrote me a letter complimenting me as to the perfection of the arrangements and the ability with which the large mass was handled. I also received from foreign countries requests for my orders. I arranged the formation of the parade so that the troops should not stand on the side streets more than half an hour before they fell into line. I ascertained the time that each command would take its place in the column by marching a company of troops from Governor's Island, from the Madison 120 Personal Recollections of Grant. Square to the monument and past to the dismissal of the pa rade, taking the time they passed each street, the time for resting, and in this way, knowing the number of troops in each command, was enabled to place the troops and veterans, the civic organizations, so that no one had to wait over half an hour. The last formation fell into line about 4:30 o'clock. The address of the President of the United States was a very fine one ; but the oration of General Horace Porter was a remarkable one, one of the finest probably ever delivered in this country, and there was no person better equipped, per haps, than General Horace Porter, to tell the multitude of General Grant and what he had accomplished. His closing words in the dedication of the Grant tomb, April 27, 1897, were: Most of the conspicuous characters in history have risen to prominence by gradual steps, but the senior of the Trium virate, whose features are recalled to us today, came before the people with a sudden bound. Almost the first sight caught of him Avas in the blaze of his camp-fires and the flashes of his guns those wintry days and nights in front of Donelson. From that time until the closing triumph at Appomattox the great central figure of the war was Ulysses S. Grant. As light and shade produce the most attractive effects in a picture, the singular contrasts, the strange vicissitudes of his eventful life surround him with an interest which attaches to few characters in history. His rise from an obscure Lieutenant to the com mand of the veteran armies of the great Republic ; his transi tion from a frontier post of the untrodden West to the Execu tive Mansion of the nation ; his sitting at one time in a little store in Galena, not even known to the Cogressman from his district; at another time striding through the palaces of the old world, with the descendants of a line of kings rising and standing with uncovered heads in his presence. These are some of the features of his marvelous career which appeal to the imagination, excite men's wonder and fascinate all who make a study of his life. He was created for great emergencies. It was the very magnitude of the task which called forth the powers which mastered it. In ordinary matters he was an ordinary man ; in momentous affairs he towered as a giant. When performing the routine duties of a company post, there was no act to make Personal Recollections of Grant. 121 him conspicuous above his fellow officers, but when he wielded Corps and Armies the great qualities of the Commander flashed forth, and his master strokes of genius stamped him as the foremost soldier of his age. When he hauled wood from his little farm and sold it in St. Louis his financiering was hardly equal to that of the small farmers about him, but when a mes sage was to be sent by a President to Congress that would puncture the fallacies of the inflationists and throttle, by a veto, the attempt of unwise legislators to cripple the finances of the Nation, a State paper was produced which has ever since commanded the wonder and admiration of every believer in sound currency. He was made for great things, not for little things. He could collect fifteen millions from Great Britain in settlement of the Alabama claims; he could not protect his own personal savings from the miscreants who robbed him in Wall street. If there is one Avord Avhich describes better than any other the predominating characteristic of his nature, that word is loyalty. He was loyal to his friends, loyal to his fam ily, loyal to his country, and loyal to his God. This trait nat urally produced a reciprocal effect upon those who were brought into relations with him and was one of the chief rea sons why men became so loyally attached to him. Many a public man has had troops of adherents who clung to him only for the patronage dispensed at his hands, or being dazzled by his power, became blind partisans to a cause he represented, but perhaps no other man than General Grant ever had so many friends who loved him for his own sake, whose affec tion only strengthened with time, whose attachment never varied in its devotion, whether he was General or President, or simply a private citizen. Even the valor of his martial deeds was surpassed by the superb heroism he displayed Avhen fell disease attacked him: when the hand which had seized the surrendered swords of countless thousands was no longer able to return the pres sure of a comrade's grasp, when he met in death the first enemy to whom he ever surrendered. But with him death brought eternal rest, and he was permitted to enjoy what he had pleaded for in behalf of others— for the Lord had let him have peace. Whilst we were constructing the Grant memorial in New York City, our contract provided, to comply with the wishes of General Grant, that arrangements should be made in the crypt for two sarcophaguses, lying side by side, one for the use 12a Personal Recollections of Grant. of General Grant, and the other for Mrs. Grant. For some rea son only the one sarcophagus was at first provided, which worried Mrs. Grant very much, and she wrote me in relation to it and often spoke to me about it ; but I assured her the de7 lay was siniply the inability of the contractors to get a sarco phagus of the same material exactly as that of General Grant's. When I wrote her that we had obtained the material and had placed a sarcophagus in the tomb alongside of General Grant's, she Avrote me a letter telling me how greatly it had relieved her anxiety. She said to me that when General Grant and herself were in Europe they paid a visit to the tomb of Ferdinand and Isabella, both lying side by side in the tomb. The thought of the royal couple sleeping side by side for cen turies appealed to General Grant, and turning to her, he said : "Julia, this is the Avay we should be in death." General Grant, no doubt, had this in mind, when in a mem orandum he stated that he preferred West Point as his burial place, but for the fact that his wife could not be placed be side him, named Galena or New York. On December 14th, 1902, Mrs. Grant died in Washington. I happened to be in the city and immediately Avent to the house and found Mrs. Sartoris, her daughter, the only one of the family present, General F. D. Grant and family being on duty in Ft. Houston, Texas, and the other tAvo sons, Ulysses S. and Jessie, and their families, living on the Pacific Coast. And at Mrs. Sartoris' request I immediately took charge of all the arrangements for burial, communicating immediately with General Frederick D. Grant at Ft. Houston, who also asked me to take charge. General Frederick D. Grant and family soon returned and the War Department came promptly to our aid and made pro vision for taking the families and funeral cortege to New York. After the ceremonies in Washington, we took the remains to New York where the Grant Memorial Association took charge Personal Recollections of Grant. 123 of them, and made all the arrangements for placing her in the stone receptacle, alongside of her husband, .where she had been so anxious to lie. She was a devoted wife, Julia Dent Grant. After every campaign she visited General Grant, and was welcomed by everyone in his command. She had a kindly, gracious way that captured us. The officers who had annoyances and griev ances they could not take to the General and his staff, ap pealed to Mrs. Grant. She was very diplomatic and knew Avhich to consider, and which she could not take up with the General, and many an officer could thank her for interceding and straightening out his grievance. We went to her with great confidence in Avhat she could do. Although she always asserted that she had no influence in army matters, I noticed none of us Avas «ver concerned about or censured for our ap peals to Mrs. Grant, and there was no soldier who did not love to see her with the army, and who did not regret her depart ure. During General Grant's administrations, his troubles and his sickness, she Avas always the same. She straightened out many little contentions, and a suggestion to the General often pointed the way to settle many little annoyances. After Gen eral Grant's death I saw much of her, and Avas charmed with the great number of incidents she had stored aAvay, and her great memory for what happened. At our army reunions we always had a word from her, and sent her our greetings, and they were happy mile-stones in her life. Many happy hours I have spent with her, as she recalled the many events in the General's life, and any of his comrades received a hearty wel come from her. The Nation will never know how much it is in debted to her loyal devotion and good advice, and it is a singu lar fact that in his own home General Grant was uneasy and discontented when Mrs. Grant was away. He was devoted and loyal to her, and his last request that she be laid at his side, no matter where they placed him, was worthy of the great man, as well as due to his devoted helpmate. The hold she had, not 124 Personal Recollections of Grant. only on her country but on all others, was shown by the uni versal response -at her death and the great respect shown her as we laid her beside the General at Riverside. My relations with General Grant during the war were of the greatest interest, and his marked frindship for me on many occasions, his recommendations for promotion to higher command, were of untold benefit, for I was a young officer, holding commands all the time I served under General Grant that I was not entitled to by my rank, but Avas held in them until promotion came to me. After the Avar my residence and occupation brought me often Avith General Grant and his family, and I was often a visitor to his home. When his son, Frederick Dent Grant, graduated from West Point, General Grant, I think, had an idea of having him go into business rather than into the army ; and he sent him out to me to have him placed in an engineer ing corps, and I gave him a position in one of the corps that was making surveys in Colorado while we were building the Union Pacific Railroad. When he joined the party he made himself one of them— acceptable to them, assuming nothing on his relations or his rank as a Lieutenant in the Army, and performed his duty the same as all the others, and won the respect and love of the party. He remained with the party until he Avent with Gen eral Sherman on his trip abroad. After General Grant's death, the friendship of Mrs. Grant and family grew into a family affection, and at a meeting of the Society of the Army of the Tennessee of my Regiment, the Fourth Iowa, and the Dodge Battery, at my home in Council Bluffs, Iowa, October 11th, 1911, Major-General Frederick Dent Grant paid me this fine tribute : General Dodge, Ladies and Gentlemen, Veterans of the Fourth Iowa Regiment and of the Dodge Battery : I am grateful to be with you here, and I feel deeply hon ored in receivmg your kind welcome to the son of one who was your friend and comrade— General U S Grant MAJOR-GENERAL FREDERICK D. GRANT Personal Recollections of Grant. 125 No distance, no duties — nothing — could prevent my coming to Council Bluffs to meet you on this occasion and to greet your former Colonel, Iowa's distinguished citizen, General Grenville M. Dodge, for whom my father and my father's son have cherished always a heartfelt admiration and friendship. I wish to add my tribute of praise and thanks to him whose work and deeds have been an honor to his country Fortunately for me, I was with my father much of the time during those dark days of the Civil War, and through that ter rible struggle for the Union, I, as a boy, Avitnessed that untir ing devotion to duty, loyalty and unflinching courage of those noble, great men whose names must shine forever upon the rolls of honor in the archives of our Nation. I am thankful to have seen and known those heroes. I rejoice in having dis tinct, personal recollections of those distinguished Americans who, putting aside all selfish or personal interests, when their country was in need, when the Northern people were discour aged, hastened Avith grim determination to sacrifice their all, their lives if necessary, for the restoration of peace in our land. It is to those heroes of our northern armies, to General Dodge, to you A^eterans here, and to those others, your com rades gone before, that we owe this great, beautiful country, with North, and South united, resting in that peace and har mony in which this present generation so triumphs. I have known and heard always of your loyal heroism and that of your Colonel, but I wish to speak a word now, not only of heroes but of a friend for whom I have cherished always the warmest admiration and affection, inherited from father and ever increasing throughout my long association with him. I refer to your much loved citizen, General Dodge. I yield to no one, not to you, his veteran comrades; not to your State of Iowa, nor to his own family and nearest friends, as possessing a warmer or deeper feeling of devotion than my own for General Dodge. In this affection my son, Ulysses S. Grant, III, and all my family join me. It was to General Dodge I confided my distress and grief in first learning that my dear father was stricken with a fatal illness and his days were numbered. When I learned also of that other great sorrow which came to our family in the pass ing away of my mother, I again turned to General Dodge for sympathy and found him as always, ready to extend heartfelt friendship and condolence. Like all brave and truly great men, he has a warm and tender heart upon which his friends may rely always with con fidence. 126 Personal Recollections of Grant. The happy gathering of veterans recalls to mind vividly the great victories and that national glory won by the Union forces during the Civil War — those heroes of the Army who in that fearful strife, by their sacrifices and valor, secured for us in reality and in fact, what our ancestors had organ ized in theory — namely, a land of Liberty and United Nation. Let us never forget that to you heroes of the Union armies we owe all this in which we now triumph. My happiest hours are those passed with you, General Dodge, and the other comrades of my father. This associa tion, with my name, is my proudest heritage I am very grateful to be with you here, and thank you again for your kindness. On April 12, 1912, another great sorrow came to General Grant's family in the sudden death of Major-General Frederick Dent Grant of the United States Army, he being about the age of his father at the time of his death. He stood very high in the records of the War Department. When President McKinley made him a Brigadier-General in the regular army, he said to me: "He needs no outside influence or recommendations; his record in the War Department entitles him to this promotion." He was universally liked by the army and by all those who ' knew him. He had many of his father's characteristics, much more than any other member of the family, and it was generally conceded that, in case of war, he would develop many of the qualities as a General that made his father famous. To the Society of the Army of the Tennessee, his death was a great loss. He took a great interest in his father's comrades, and by his modest and winning ways, won their affections and made himself universally liked and respected by them. He and his family always attended the Reunions. His son, Captain Ulysses S. Grant, III, is bravely doing his duty in command of the United States Engineers at Vera Cruz, Mexico, where his grandfather won so much credit as a Lieu tenant in the Mexican war of 1846-47. General Grant, in discussing the criticisms upon himself said: Personal Recollections of Grant. 127 Twenty years after the close of the most stupendous war ever known, we have writers Avho profess devotion to> the na tion, trying to prove that the nation's forces were not victor ious. Probably they say we were slashed around from Donel son. to Vicksburg and Chattanooga, and in the East, Gettys burg to Appomattox, Avhen the physical rebellion gave out from sheer exhaustion. I Avould like to see truthful history written, and history will do credit to the courage, endurance and soldierly ability of the American citizen, no matter what section of the country he hailed from, or in what ranks he fought. Speaking of those Avho opposed our country during the Avar, Grant gave this opinion : The man who obstructs a war in which his nation is en gaged, no matter whether right or wrong, occupies no emaable place in life or history. The most charitable post-humorous history the stay-at-home traitor can hope for is oblivion. The facts are, that thirty years ago General Grant laid down the policies that the country maintains today on all great questions — the maintenance of the Monroe Doctrine, the settle ment of all disputes by arbitration, the currency, gold stand ards, the upbuilding of the navy, the policy in the West Indies, acquisition of foreign territory, retirement of green-backs until paid out for gold, and the education of our people, upon which subject nothing more clear than his speech at Des Moines, Iowa, has ever been uttered. It has always been an enigma to me to hear people speak of General Grant, and say : "He was a great soldier but a failure in civil life," for his standing throughout the world is as high or higher for his acts as a civilian as for the great victories of the Civil War. Grant as a statesman was the same as he was when a soldier. When we were living in camp and not on a campaign, he was indo lent. It was hard to get a reply to a letter or dispatch, or get any comfort from him, but the moment he got on his horse to lead a campaign it seemed as though he anticipated all events. His judgment seemed infallible, his decision was made in- 128 Personal Recollections of Grant. stantly, and the answer to a dispatch or letter was ready the moment he read it. He never hesitated; he never was am biguous. Any person receiving a letter did not have to ask a second explanation, and he greatly objected to receiving dis patches expressing doubts during a campaign. He said to me that he never doubted what I could or would do from my dis patches, and seldom if ever made a suggestion upon them. When I read them myself now I am absolutely astonished at the positive character of them, and their bluntness. To the subordinates he trusted he gave great latitude and seemed to have the utmost confidence in their success. His orders to them told what he wanted them to do, leaving to them all de tails, invariably saying if they needed help he would sup port them. He tied every officer and soldier to him with bands of steel, for he invariably gave everyone credit for what they accomplished, sinking himself. If they failed and he consid ered they had done the best possible, he shielded them, and as sumed the responsibility of the failure. After the war it was my good fortune to be thrown with General Grant a good deal, and I was associated AArith him in some of his enterprises, such as the railway from the City of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean, and it was impossible for me to meet him as I did and not comprehend that he was in civil life, as in military life, of that peculiar make-up which let small matters go without attention, but in any crisis would rise to command it. He was so modest and so simple that his greatness was absolutely forced upon one from his Arery acts. Nevertheless, so far no critic in this nation, or any other, has ever been able to write a word against his military course or civil life which carried strength enough to be mentioned the second time. General Grant 's greatness was admitted long be fore he left our shores, and although a simple citizen, he was honored as no one ever was before, and his simplicity simply astonished the world. Some critics of General Grant have Personal Recollections of Grant. 129 said that during the Avar he absorbed from others many of his great qualities as a soldier, but no one can read the war rec ords without seeing that the strength of his dispatches and orders, the boldness of his plans, his fearless attack of super ior numbers, and his decisive victories in the early part of the war were equal to if not superior to those of the last year of the war. The great distinguishing qualities of General Grant were truth, courage, modesty, generosity and loyalty. He was loyal to every work and every cause in which he was engaged — to his friends, his family, his country and to his God, and it was these characteristics which bound to him with hooks of steel all those who served with him. He absolutely sunk himself to give to others honor and praise to which he, himself, was entitled. No officer served under him who did not understand this. I was a young man and given much larger commands than my rank entitled me to. General Grant never failed to encourage me by giving me credit for whatever I did, or tried to do. If I failed he assumed the responsibility ; if I succeeded he recommended me for promotion. He always looked at the intention of those who served under him, as well as to their acts. If they failed in intention, he dropped them so quickly and efficiently that the whole country could see and hear their fall. MAJOR-GENERAL W. T. SHERMAN, 18 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF GENERAL W. T. SHERMAN As a soldier of the Union, General Sherman, by common consent, stands second only in a galaxy of great commanders such as no single cycle in the annals of time can parallel. This is the verdict of the most superficial reader and of the most diligent student of history. A reference to the official list of battles, skirmishes, and other contests from April 15th, 1861, to the close of the war, develops the astounding fact that for every day, including Sundays, of those four years there were at least three of these struggles. If in such a death grapple General Sherman rose to the highest rank and command among the victors, it can not but be interesting to turn back to the circumstances of his parentage and scan the surroundings of his youth to find, if we can, the formative influences which moulded the plastic tendencies of his nature into the lofty and harmonious indi viduality which marked him out for eminent leadership. Both his father and grandfather had been learned in the law. His father not only mastered the intricacies of Coke and Littleton, but made himself familiar with whatever was worthy reading outside of the books of the law, and was there fore fitted to shine in the domain of general literature, as well as in the realm of technical jurisprudence. It was this gifted man who, when his third son was born, proposed to bestow upon him the name of a celebrated chieftain — as if seeing the child's future military career. Judge Sherman entertained a warm admiration for the celebrated Indian chief, Tecumseh, and this singular Indian was gifted with rare endowments, which gave him great prominence amongst his tribal allies, and 132 Personal Recollections of Sherman. a commanding influence over his followers of the forest. Na ture had made him a soldier, and he was a statesman by intui tion. Farseeing in plan, wary to win, sagacious to combine, and inflexible to execute, these qualities made him a formid able leader and also a dangerous opponent. He was not habit ually ruthless or cruel in his warfare; on the contrary, many acts of mercy, of generous chivalric protection, are recorded of him that would grace the annals of the knight errantry of old. It was the name of this renowned Indian that Judge Sherman bestowed upon the new-born son. Shortly after, at a social gathering in his house, Judge Sherman was remon strated with, half in play and half in earnest, for perpetuating in his family the saA^age Indian name. He only replied, but it was with seriousness, "Tecumseh was a great warrior," and the affair of the name was settled, never to be changed, even as in the case of General Grant by dictum of West Point and the War Department. A single apt remark will sometimes reveal to the experi enced and observant, a clearer view than will be produced by long and labored description. Such a remark General Sher man once made to a lady, and the story was narrated by her to a party of friends, since the General's death. She was, many years ago, visiting her intimate friends, the family of Judge Wright, in Washington, where she frequently met General Sherman and his brother, the distinguished Senator. The Wrights and the Shermans, as she learned, had been next- door neighbors in childhood, and in their childhood days both families were large. On one occasion the General, in his ani mated way, was describing to this young lady how the two families of children had been accustomed to constantly play with each other, there being a private gateway giving com munication between the two houses. At this point the young lady remarked that she "wondered that they had not some times got mixed up Avhen bedtime came." Personal Recollections of Shehaian. 133 "Oh," said the General, laughingly, in his quick, impulsive way, ' ' we were mixed up all the time ; there was a nightly swapping of bed-fellows, and neither mother could be always sure whether her boys were sleeping at home or at her neigh bors." At another time the General confided to her the interesting fact that he used to enjoy stealing Dominie Wright's Sunday stock of kindling wood, late on Saturday evening, on account of the supposed embarrassment that would result to the pious preacher on the morrow — thus giving away the secret that he had been subject to some of the weaknesses of the aArerage boy. Professor Howe was for many years an educator of con siderable local reputation in an Iowa town. During, and sub sequent to, the war he was in the habit of telling on all fitting occasions, with great pride, of his having been in former years the instructor of the Sherman children, in Lancaster, Ohio. They were, according to his story, very promising and very interesting pupils, on the whole, but very obstreperous on . some occasions, before he finally succeeded in getting them under control. To get to this control he found it necessary to give the brothers a sound thrashing. They resisted; the battle was fierce and protracted, but the pedagogue came out the conqueror, though himself in a sadly dilapidated condition. After Sherman became General of the Army, a gentleman, who had heard this story, happened to be traveling with Gen eral Sherman up the Hudson river to West Point. During the conversation with the General it occurred to him to ask the question: "General, did you ever attend the school of a certain Professor Howe?" "Sam Howe?" was the response, "Why yes, he used to lick John and me like hell." This was regarded as confirmation of the truth of the afore said story. When Professor Howe died at an advanced age, a few years ago, one of his children mailed a copy of his 134 Personal Recollections of Sherman. obituary to General Sherman, which elicited this characteristic response : Headquarters, U. S. Army, Washington, D. C, April 26, 1877. Warrington Howe, Esq. : Dear Friend — I have received your letter, Avith the news paper slip containing the full and just tribute to your father, the late Samuel L. Howe. I regret extremely that in my pre- ambulations over this great country of late years I never had the chance to meet your father, which I wanted to do. And now, though forty long, eventful years have passed since I left his school at Lancaster, Ohio, I can recall his personal ap pearance to mind as clearly as though it were yesterday. I have always borne Avilling testimony to his skill and merits as a teacher, and am sure that the thorough modes of instruction pursued by him prepared me for easy admission to West Point, and for a respectable standing in my class. I have heard from time to time of the changes that attended his useful ca reer, and am glad to learn that he left behind the flourishing academy at Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, with children qualified to take up his work where he left off, and carry it to completion. I beg you Avill convey to your mother the assurance of my great respect and sympathy in her affliction. I recall her also to memory, a young mother, living in the house of "Pap" Boyle, close by the school house built by Mr. Howe in the old orchard, and it is hard for me to realize that she is now a widow and a grandmother. I feel sure, however, that Mr. Howe left behind him hundreds and thousands that revere his memory, and will perpetuate it by deeds and virtues which his example and precepts suggested. Truly, your friend, W. T. SHERMAN. I have thus dwelt upon the youth and parentage of Gen eral Sherman, because in addition to the interest which nat urally attached to that part of this great man's life, but little attention has been hitherto given to it, even in his own incom parable Memoirs. My first knowledge of General Sherman was when I was in command of the Central Division of the Mississippi, with headquarters at Trenton, Tenn. Later my spies brought me information that I thought of importance to the command at Memphis, and General Sherman acknowledged the information Personal Recollections of Sherman. 135 with a letter, thanking me and proposing that whatever information of the enemy either of us obtained that related to our commands, we should note it and communicate it. The letter was such a remarkable and friendly one that it greatly impressed me. The first time I came into personal contact with General Sherman was in September, 1863. I was lying very ill at Corinth; and was Commander of that District. General Grant had ordered Sherman west from Memphis, to rebuild the road through to Decatur, with a view of aiding Roseerans in his campaign against Bragg, or at any rate to make a demon stration upon Bragg's communications. General Sherman brought with him an open letter from General Grant to me. He came in and sat down by my bedside and read the letter, which was very complimentary to me and my command. The substance of the letter was that when General Sherman reached my command I was to take from it whatever troops could be spared, and accompany him in his movement to the East. After Sherman read the letter from Grant, he said : ' ' Now are you well enough to do what General Grant suggested?" I said "Yes." He said, "All right, I will give you plenty of time, and you can bring up the rear, and I will issue the orders. ' ' Sherman was then Commander of the Fifteenth Army Corps, that was crossing the country from Memphis to De catur. Soon after his visit to me, I sent him the substance of reports of my spies and scouts working in my front and inside the enemy's lines, and in answer, I received the following let ter from him, which will show you his method of treating a subordinate who Avas to command one of his units : Headquarters, Fifteenth Army Corps, . , October 22d, 1863. General G. M. Dodge, Corinth. Dear General :— I thank you for the budget of news, which is most serviceable, as we can approximate the truth. Of 136 Personal Recollections of Sherman. course here I am halted by Bear Creek, which is a worse place than was represented to me. I have my three leading Divisions across Bear Creek, and all hands busy at the bridge and trestles. We have lost eight killed and about thirty-five wounded, in all. Among the dead is Colonel Torrence, Thirtieth Iowa. I think it is well estab lished that Lee, who came from Jackson, Clinton and Canton, with about 4,000 good cavalry, is to my front with Rody's Brigade; and I think also that Wheeler's cavalry has been driven out of Tennessee, and it is now resting between here and Decatur. If all of this CaAralry turns on me, I will have a nice time, but can't help it. And if Porter gets me up some boats to Eastport I will checkmate them. The Tennessee is in very fair boating order for four feet, and I expect daily a boat up from Cairo, also a ferry boat. I have had the river examined well and am more than satisfied we cannot ford, even on the shoals. Of course I don't believe the report you sent of the cap ture of Banks and fifteen regiments. Dick Taylor was some where west of the river, between Alexander and Shreveport. That ground is familiar to me, and I know Dick Taylor can not get to the east side of the Mississippi with anything like an army. After the capture of Vicksburg we relaxed our ef forts and subsided. The rascals display an energy worthy a better cause, but as it is, when they come to the finish they don't fight equal to their numbers. Chalmer's dispatch is a sample. He captured the camp of the 7th Illinois, off on Hatch's expedition, and nothing else of moment. But he may again attempt the road, yet Hurlbut has plenty to checkmate him if he don't attempt to follow, but anticipates and inter poses the railroad and Tallahatehee. I propose to finish the bridge and move on Tuscumbia, but in the end may actually cross to Eastport. My orders are fully comprehended in their draAving from Roseerans the cav alry that has heretofore bothered him. I had a regiment at Eastport. A party crossed over Avho saw no one, but here the river was patrolled so as to report all movements. I will fortify this place somewhat, so that if the enemy's cavalry attempt to operate against it they will catch more than they bargain for. Corinth is too formidable a place for them to dream of an attack, but you should keep a couple of regiments disposable to take the offensive. I am obliged to you for all information, and will impart all positive information to you. Keep me well advised from day to day of Fuller's approach. I have one Brigade at Burnsville. and three Divisions in front of Bear Creek. Yours, W. T. SHERMAN. Major-General. Personal Recollections of Sherman. 137 It was about October 24th, 1863, that Sherman was given command of the Army of the Tennessee, and it was the next day I received this order : Headquarters Dept., of the Tennessee. n i ^ j „ • ,, October 25th, 1863. General Dodge, Corinth : I wish you to prepare to make up the best possible Division of troops, to be taken from those now in your own Division and such others as on railroad guard duty, not belonging to any of the organized Brigades of Hurlbut's Corps. You to command it and to accompany the movement up the Valley of the Tennes see. Our object is to secure absolute footing up the Valley of the Tennessee and the river, giving us a certain supply to Eastport now, and Florence very soon. We can risk the rail road, or use it as long as we can. Is your health equal to it? Come up and see me on the subject. Yours, W. T. SHERMAN, Major-General. I got on a locomotive, taking a doctor with me, and visited Sherman. On the 27th of October, while' I was in consultation with him, Sherman received Grant's dispatch to drop all rail way repairs east of luka and move as rapidly as possible to Chattanooga. The plans were then formed for crossing the Tennessee, and I was able from my knowledge of the country to aid him in putting his army across. The history of that rapid march to Chattanooga is well known. I do not propose to go into it in detail. I drew from my commands troops for two' Divisions, and Sherman organ ized them immediately into a Corps command. As we marched along he was in the habit of writing back personal letters to each of us who commanded a unit, and telling us where he thought we would find the best means of feeding our com mands, because we were living off the country, only trans porting sugar, coffee, bacon and ammunition. When he got into the Elk River country with the Fifteenth Army Corps, he wrote me back a note saying : The Fifteenth Army Corps has cleaned up everything as they went along; you had better not follow them: T do not 138 Personal Recollections of Sherman. think you will find a chicken in their trail, and my advice is to push further north, say towards Pulaski or Columbia, and let me knoAv what route you take. 1 changed the direction of my column towards Columbia, as he had suggested, and reported my movements. While on this march I received the following letter : Headquarters, Army of the Tennessee. Dear General: Bridgeport, Nov. 18th, 1863. Your letter, enclosing copy of your order is received. 1 heartily approve your order, and think it right to make citi zens earn good treatment. They can suppress guerillas — I knoAv it, and on my threat at Florence they brought in a man captured by guerrillas at Cravelly Springs. Keep your in fantry so that you can concentrate, and let your cavalry watch ; ,.-. . !:-;, n.- : .-.¦;•.'.'¦¦ Now I have never questioned the right or propriety of you and Bl,aiy, ,|holding!' fast to your constituents by the usual 164 Personal Recollections of Sherman. methods ; it was natural and right, but it did trouble me to have my Corps commander serving two distinct causes, one military, and the other civil or political, and this did influence me when I was forced to make choice of an army commander to succeed McPherson. This is all I record in my Memoirs; it was so and I cannot amend them. Never in speech, writing or record, surely not in the Memoirs, do I recall applying to you and Blair, for I always speak of you together, the term of "political generals." If there be such an expression I cannot find it noAv, nor -can I recall its use. The only place wherein "politics" occur is in the place I have referred to, and whereon I explain my own motive and reason for nominating Howard over you and Blair for the vacant post. My reason may have been bad, nevertheless it was the reason which decided me then, and as a man of honor I was bound to record it. At this time, 1883, Thomas being dead, I cannpt say more than is in the text, viz : That he took strong ground against you, and I was naturally strongly influenced by his outspoken opinion. Still, I will not throAv off on him, but state to you frankly that I then believed the advice I gave Mr. Lincoln was the best practicable. General Howard had been Avith me up to Knox ville and had displayed a zeal and ability which then elicited my hearty approbation, and as I trusted in a measure to skill ful maneuvers rather than to downright hard fighting, I rec ommended him. My Memoirs were designed to give the im pressions of the hour, and not to pass judgment on the quali ties of men as exemplified in after life. If you Avill point out to me a page or line where I can bet ter portray your fighting qualities, your personal courage, and magnificent example in actual combat, I will be most happy to add to or correct the "Memoirs," but when I attempt to explain my own motives or reasons you surely will be the first man to see that outside influence will fail. My course is run, and for better or worse I cannot amend it, but if ever in your future you want a witness to your in tense zeal and patriotism, your heroic personal qualities, you may safely call on me as long as I live. I surely have watched with pride and interest your career in the United States Sen ate, and will be your advocate if you aim at higher honors. I assert with emphasis that I never styled you or Blair "politi cal generals," and if I used the word "politics" in an offen sive way, it _ was to explain my own motives for action, and not as descriptive. Wishing you all honor and happiness on this earth, I am as always your friend, W. T. SHERMAN. Personal Recollections 01 Sherman. 165 General Logan answered this letter immediately, as fol lows : United States Senate, Washington, D. C, Sunday, February 18th. 1883. General W. T. Sherman. My Dear Sir: — I have delayed acknowledging your letter of the 11th inst. up to this time for the reason that I have been so much engaged every moment of the time that I could not sooner do so; for your expression of kindly feeling toward me, I tender my grateful acknowledgments. I am inclined, however, my dear general, to the opinion that had you fully understood the situation in which I Avas placed at the times mentioned by you, that I returned North from the army for the purpose of taking part in the political con tests then going on, that perhaps your criticisms on my then course would not have been made. I did not do it for the purpose of "keeping a hold on my people." I refused a nom ination in my oavh state, for a very high position, for the rea son that I would not have anything to do with parties while the war should last. In 1863 when I went home to canvass in Illinois, and to help in Ohio, General Grant Avas fully advised, and knows that although I had to make application for leave of absence, I did not do it of my OAvn volition, but at the re quest of those high in authority. So when I left on leave, after the Atlanta campaign, for Mr. Lincoln, I did it at the special and private request of the then President. This I kept to myself, and haAre never made it public, nor do I propose to do so now, but feel that I may in confidence say this to you, that you may see what prompted my action in the premises. I have borne for this reason whatever I may' have suffered by way of criticism, rather than turn criticism on the dead. So far as General Thomas having feeling in the matter you mentioned, I presume be entertained the same feeling that seemed to be general — that no one without a military education was to be trusted to command an army; this I think was the feeling then, and is hcav, and will ever be. I find no fault with it; this, as a rule, is probably correct, but the experience of the world has occasionally found exceptions to this rule. I certainly never gave General Thomas any occasion to have strong feelings against me. I did complain that I was not on an equality with him while I commanded betAveen Decatur and Stevenscn : that my passes on the roads were not recog nized, and I have General Thomas' letter afterward, admitting the fact and apologizing to me for the conduct of his officers in this matter. T, at all times, co-operated with him cordially and promptly during my stay at Huntsville and at all other 16(> Personal Recollections of Sherman. times subsequent. Certainly I did for him afterward what few men would have done. When ordered to Nashville, with a view of superseding him, at Louisville I found the situation of matters and I wrote and telegraphed Grant that he, Thomas, was doing all he could, and asked to be ordered back to my own command, Avhich was done. This I say to show my kind feeling for him and to say that if I ever did anything to cause him to complain of me I was not aAvare of it. One thing, my dear general, that I feel conscious of, and that is that no man ever obeyed your orders more promptly, and but few eArer did you more faithful service in carrying out your plans and military movements than myself. I may have done yourself and myself an injustice by not disclosing to you the cause of my returning North at the time I did, but now you have the reasons for it. I felt in honor that I could rest. This letter is intended only for full explanation, and for yourself only. I do not feel aggrieved as you think, but Avill eA^er remain your friend. Yours truly, JOHN A. LOGAN. I now with reverence for his memory, admiration for his heroism in battle, and love for the man, hereby ratify and con firm every word of his letter of February 18th, 1883. I was fully conscious .that General Logan felt deeply what he believed at the time a great wrong to himself, and that he yet continued with unabated ardor, zeal and strength to fight to the end for the cause we both held sacred. For the twenty- one years since the war has ended, Ave have been closely asso ciated in many, army societies, which treasure the memories of the war, have shared the same banquets and spoken to the same audiences. Only recently at San Francisco, Seattle, and Rock Island, we Avere together, each a rival to give pleasure and do honor to the other, and still later, Avithin the past month, he was at the Fifth Avenue Hotel, his rooms next to mine, and not a night passed but Ave were together discussing old or neAv events. Both of us were men of strong opinions, sometimes of hasty expression, yet ever maintaining the friend ship which tAvo soldiers should bear to each other Most un doubtedly did I expect him to survive me. and I have always expressed a wish that he, the then strongest type of the volun teer soldier alive, might become the President of the United States. Tt is ordered otherwise, but as it is, he has left to his familv a name and fame which could have been little increased had Personal Recollections of Sherman. 167 he lived to attain the office for which so many good men con tend, in spite of the experience of the past. WThen the Society of the Army of the Tennessee holds its next meeting in Detroit, next September, if liAnng, I may have more to say on this subject. Your friend, W. T. SHERMAN. The following are the passages from his Memoirs, referred to by General Sherman : Memoirs of General William T. Sherman. Vol. II. pages 85 and 86 : But it first became necessary to settle the important ques tion of who should succeed General McPherson. General Lo gan had taken command of the Army of the Tennessee by virtue of his seniority, and had done well; but I did not con sider him equal to the command of three Corps. Retween him and General Blair there existed a natural rivalry. Both were men of great courage and talent, but were politicians by na ture and experience, and maybe for this reason they were mis trusted by regular officers like General Schofield, Thomas and myself. It was all important that there should exist a feeling of perfect understanding among the army commanders, and at a conference with General George H. Thomas, at the head quarters of General Thomas J. Woods, commanding a Division of the Fourth Corps, he (Thomas) remonstrated warmly against my recommending that General Logan should be as signed to the command of the Army of the Tennessee by rea son of his accidental seniority. We discussed fully the merit and qualifications of every officer of high rank in the army, and finally settled on Major-General 0. 0. Howard as the best officer who was present and available for the purpose. On the 24th of July, I telegraphed to General Halleck this prefer ence and it Avas promptly ratified by the President. General Howard's place in command of the Fourth Corps was filled by General Stanley, one of his Division commanders, on recom mendation of General Thomas. All these promotions happened to fall upon West Pointers, and doubtless Logan and Blair had some reasons to believe that we intended to monopolize the higher honors of the war for the regular officers. I remember well my own thoughts and feelings at the time, and feel sure that T was not intention ally partial to my class. I wanted to succeed in taking Atlan ta, and needed commanders who Avere purely and technically soldiers, men who would obey orders and execute them promptly and on time ; for T knew that we would have to exe- 168 Personal Recollections of Sherman. cute some difficult maneuvers, requiring the utmost skill, nicety, and precision. I believed 1hat General Howard would do all these faithfully and well, and I think the result has jus tified my choice. I regarded them both, Generals Logan and Blair, as "volunteers," that looked to personal fame and glory as auxiliary, and secondary to their political ambition, and not as professional soldiers. During the battles around Atlanta, and after we had gone from the left to the right, it was my misfortune to be given a confederate leave, for I was supposed to be fatally wounded. The doctor reported to Sherman, and he, desiring to keep the news from my family, instructed every telegraph operator to send only his dispatches, but in doing this he forgot that there was nothing that occurred but what went over the wires imme diately. So the news reached my people that I had been fat ally wounded. Dispatches came to my staff, trying to obtain the facts, but they could not reply because of Sherman's or ders. In talking about it afterwards, he said : I acted from my instincts. I simply wished to send the truth, but I only succeeded in making trouble, and that has al ways happened to me when I tried to be extra cautious; I always put my foot in it; some smart Aleck gets ahead of me. As soon as Sherman heard I was wounded he came to my tent with Dr. Kiddo, his chief surgeon, and found a surgeon of my own Corps in charge of me. As soon as the shock of the wound passed away I gradually became conscious as to hear ing, but not as to seeing, and the first words I heard were when Sherman turned on Dr. Kiddo and said: "Kiddo, Dodge is not going to die. See, he is coming to all right." You can imagine what my feelings were on hearing talk of that kind from Sherman. I recognized his voice, and also the fact that probably I was badly hurt. The doctors advised Sherman to send me North, but Sherman said: "No, Ave can keep Dodge two weeks, and then he will be all right; we want him with his Corps." Personal Recollections of Sherman. 169 I considered the fact that he would not let me go to the rear until he was forced to swing around south of Atlanta, and abandon everything to the north, one of the greatest com pliments he ever paid me. I was taken to Greenville, Ind., to a relative, for a rest before I was sent to my own home in Iowa. The first or sec ond evening after I arrived in Greenville, as I lay upon my cot, I listened to the demonstrations being made by the re turn of the delegates who had been to Chicago and nominated McClellan. I was astonished and indignant to hear cheer after cheer given at the station for Jefferson Davis. I could hardly realize that I was in a northern state, not having been north before since the beginning of the war. I now realize what was meant by the term "copperhead" and "fire in the rear." As soon as I was able, I sat down and wrote this to Sherman It was some -time afterwards when I received his answer. which is too characteristic to publish, but it said : We will settle with those fellows after we get through down here. While in front of Atlanta, General Sherman wrote this remarkable letter to an old friend away in Georgia : Headquarters, Military Division of the Mississippi, In the Field Near Atlanta, Georgia, August 10th, 1864. Daniel M. Martin, Sand Mountain. My Dear Friend: — When in Larkinsville last winter, I en quired after you, and could get no positive answer I wish you had sent me your letter of January 22d, which I have just received, for I could have made you feel at ease at once. In deed, do I well remember our old times about Bellefonte, and the ride we took to the corn mills, and the little farm where 1 admired the handsome colt and tried to buy it. Time has worn on, and you are now an old man, in want, and suffering, ana i also, no longer young, but leading a hostile army on the very road I came when I left Bellefonte, and, at the moment, pour ing into Atlanta the dread missiles of war, seeking the lives of its people. And yet, I am the same William Tecumseh Sher- 170 Personal Recollections of Sherman. ma.n you knew in 1844, Avith as Avarm a heart as ever, and anxious that peace and plenty shall prevail in this land, and, to prove it, I defy Jeff Davis, or General Lee, or General Hood to make the sacrifice for peace that I will, personally or of ficially. I will today lay down my power and my honor — already Avon — will strip myself naked, and my wife and child stark naked in the world as we came, and begin life anew, if the people of the South will but cease the war, elect their mem bers of Congress and let them settle, by argument and reason, the question growing out of slavery, instead of trying to divide our country into two angry halves, to quarrel and fight to the end of time. Our country cannot divide by an east and Avest line, and must be one, and if Ave must fight, let us fight it out now, and not bequeath it to our children. I was never a politician, but resigned from the army and lived in California till 1857, when I came back with my Avife and three children, Avho wanted to be near home — Mr. Ewing's, not Mr. Corwin's — but I had the old army so ground in my composition that civil pursuits were too tame and I accepted an offer as presi dent of the Louisiana Military Academy. Therefore, at the time of Lincoln 's election, I was at Alexandria, 'on Red River. I saw, and you must have seen, that the southern politi- ¦ eians wanted to bring about secession — separation. They could have elected Mr. Douglass but they so managed that Lincoln's election was made certain, and after they had ac complished this, was it honest or fair for them to allege it as a cause of Avar? Did not Mr. Breckenridge as Vice President, in his seat declare Mr. Lincoln the lawfully elected President of the United States? Was it ever pretended the President Avas our Government? Don't you know that Congress makes laAvs. the supreme court judges them, and the President only exe cutes them? Don't you knoAv that Mr. Lincoln of himself could not take aAvay your rights? Now, I was in Louisiana, and Avhile the planters and mechanics and industrious people Avere happy and prosperous, the politicians • and busybodies were scheming and plotting, and got the Legislature to pass an ordinance of secession, Avhich Avas submitted to the people, Avho voted against it, yet the politicians voted the State out,' pro ceeded to take possession of the United States mint, the forts, the arsenal— and tore doAvn our flag and insulted it. That, too' before Mr. Lincoln had got to Washington. I saw these things' and begged Bragg and Beauregard, and Governor Moore and a host of other friends to beware. In that was high treason But they answered, "The North was made up of mean manu facturers, of traders, of farmers, who would not fight " The Personal Recollections of Sherman. 171 people of the North NEVER dreamed of interfering with the slaves or property of the South. They simply voted, AS THEY HAD A RIGHT TO DO, and they could not understand why the people of the South should begin to take possession of the United States forts and arsenals till our Government had done something wrong — something oppressive. The South BEGAN the war. You knoAv it. I, and millions of others living at the South, know it — but the people of the North Avere as innocent of it as your little grandchild. Even after forts had been taken, public arms stolen from our arsenals and distributed among the angry militia, the brave and honest freemen of the great North could not realize the fact, and did not until Beauregard began to fire upon a garrison of United States troops, in a fort built by the common treasury of the WHOLE country. Then, as by a mighty upheaval, the people rose and began to think of war, and not until then. I resigned my post in Louisiana in March, 1861, because of the public act on the part of the State in seizing the United States arsenal at Baton Rouge, and went to St. Louis, where I received lucrative employment, hoping that some change would yet avert the war. But it came, and I, and all of military edu cation, had to choose. I repeat, that then, as now, I had as much love for the honest people of the South as any man liv ing. Had they remained true to the country, I would have resisted, even with arms, any attack upon their rights — even their slave rights. But when, as a people, they tore down our flag, and spit upon it, and called us cowards, and dared us to the contest, then I took up arms to maintain the integrity of our country, and punish the man who challenged us to the con flict. Is this not a true picture? Suppose the North had pa tiently submitted, AA-hat Avould have been the verdict of his tory and the world? Nothing else but that the North was craven and cowardly. Will you say the North is craven and cowardly now? Cruel and inhuman as this Avar has been, and may still con tinue to be, it was forced upon us. We had no choice and avc have no choice yet. We must go on, even to the end of time, even if it result in sinking a million of lives and desolating the whole land, leaving a desert behind. We must maintain the integrity of our country. And the day will come Avhen the little grandchild you love so Avell, will bless us avIio fought, that the United States of America should not sink into infamy and worse than Mexican Monarchy, who care no more for you, or such as you, than they care for the Hottentots. I have nev er under-rated the magnitude of this war, for I know the size of the South, and the difficulty of operating in it. But, I also 172 Personal Recollections of Sherman. know the northern races have, ever since the war began, had more patience and perseverance than the southern races. And so it will be uoav, we will persevere until the end. All man kind shall recognize in us a brave and stubborn race, not to be deterred by the magnitude of the danger. Only three years have passed, and that is but a minute in a nation's life, and see where we are. Where are the haughty planters of Louisiana, who compared our hard-working, intelligent whites of the North with their negroes? The defeats we have sustained have hardly made a pause in our course, and the vaunted braves of Tennessee, Mississip pi, Louisiana, Missouri, etc., instead of walking rough-shod over the freemen of the North, are engaged in stealing horses and robbing poor old people for a living, while our armies now tread in every southern state, and your biggest armies in Vir ginia and Georgia lie behind forts, and dare not come out and fight us cowards of the North, who have come five hundred miles into their country to accept the challenge. But, my dear old friend, I have bored you too much. My handwriting is not plain, but you have time to study it out, and, as you can understand, I have a great deal of writing to do, and it must be done in a hurry. Think of what I have written. Talk it over with your neighbors, and ask your selves if, in your trials and tribulations, you have suffered more from the Union soldiery than you would had you built your barn Avhere the lightning was sure to burn or tear it down. Their course has provoked the punishment of an in dignant God and Government. I care not a straw for niggers. The moment the master rebels, the negro is free, of course, for he is a slave only by law, and the law broken, he is free. I commanded in all Tennessee, Kentucky, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia. The paper I endorse will be of service to you. Love to Mrs. Martin. W. T. SHERMAN, Major-General. It was on the 1st of September that I parted with the Army of the Tennessee. During my convalescence I visited General Grant and that magnificent Army of the Potomac at City Point. As soon as able, I had orders to proceed to Vicksburg. and it was the intention while Sherman marched to Savannah that T should take a column from somewhere in that country and get to the rear of Mobile, and at St. Louis I received dis patches from General Howard to repair to St. Louis, and there Personal Recollections of Sherman. 173 fell to the command of the Department of the Missouri, re lieving General Roseerans. The first order I received came from Stanton; it was a complimentary message from Grant, telling me I must send everything I could to help Thomas at Nashville, and I sent out of that department every organized force. When the battle of Nashville was fought I had not an organized Union regiment in my department, I found General Sherman's family in St. Louis, and natur ally, coining from an old commander like him, it was my pleas ure to do anything and everything I could do for his family. Mrs. Sherman was trying to soften the hardships of war by getting people out of prison, and by relieving their necessities. There had been a great many arrests made. I found the pris ons full and commenced emptying them, with the idea that it was a great deal cheaper to let these people talk than to feed them, but I got one or two severe reprimands for so doing. I know that Mrs. Sherman wrote to the General and told him what I was doing, and how kind I was to her, and how I car ried out any requests she made, so far as it was possible for me to do so; and Sherman, still looking after my interests, as he had always done, wrote me a letter and said : You must not issue these orders and release these people simply because Mrs. Sherman requests you to do so. You must use your own judgment in this matter, and only issue orders where you know it is absolutely right. He said it in a kindly way, and he said a great many other things in his letter to me about my policy. He also said : I appreciate fully what you are doing, and why you do it, but, my dear General, you know you must still cling to a sol dier's duty. While I was in command of that department, Lee and Johnston surrendered. I had received an order from Secre tary Stanton instructing me to pay no attention to the Sher- 174 Personal Recollections of Sherman. man and Johnston parole. During this excitement a dinner was given at the Lindell Hotel, that brought together the loyal people of St. Louis, to which I was invited as commander of that department. I was astonished to hear Union people get up and denounce Sherman, criticising not only his acts but his motives. I listened as long as I could to these excitable speak ers, and finally got up and stated that I had served near and under Sherman for two years, and while I knew nothing at all about the terms of surrender of Johnston, except the orders I had received from the Government, nevertheless, I did not propose to stay at any dinner table, or any assembly of any kind where the loyalty of Sherman was questioned; that whatever he had done, whether right or wrong, had been done by a soldier Avho had but one thing at heart — his duty to his coun try and the destruction of the rebel army. It was not very long after this that my words reached Sherman. They brought back the kind of response that he made in such cases, and it was only a short time after this until Sherman himself ap peared at his home in St. Louis. The war being virtually over, and being an old resident of that city, it was natural when he arrived that the people should seize upon him and pay him great attention, take him out to dinners, etc. A great many of histoid friends were rebels', and I suppose they saw in his terms to Johnston an opportunity to break the force of the Union sentiment against them, for there Avas no place in the whole United States where the bitterness of the Union and rebel sentiment was so apparent as it was in the state of Mis souri. It kept the state in dissensions during the entire war. The attentions of the sympathizers with the rebellion to Sher man were very marked, so much so that some of the Union people called upon me and talked to me about it, and when Shermai} came down to my headquarters, as he did daily, I s??fe;t^l,l1.im about it>:and tol said I protested against it —it is folly. I never protested m my life— never. (Laughter ) Personal Recollections of Sherman. 179 On the contrary, General Grant rested on me probably more responsibility even than any other commander under him, for he wrote me, "I want you to move upon Hains' Bluff, to enable me to pass to the next fort below — Grand Gulf. I hate to ask you because the fervor of the North will accuse you of being rebellious again." (Laughter.) I love Grant for his kindness. I did make the feint on Hains ' Bluff and by that means Grant ran the blockade easily to Grand Gulf, and made lodgment down there and got his army upon the high plateau in the rear of Vicksburg, while you people here were beguiled into the belief that Sherman was again repulsed. But Ave did not re pose confidence in everybody. Then followed the movement on Jackson, and the Fourth of July placed us in possession of that great stronghold, Vicksburg, and then, as Mr. Lincoln said, "The Mississippi went unvexed to the sea." From that day to this, this war has been virtually and properly settled. It was a certainty, then. They would haA'e said, "We give up," but Davis would not ratify it, and he had them under good discipline, and therefore it was necessary to fight again. Then came the affair of Chickamauga. The Army of the Mississippi, lying along its banks, were called into a new field of action, and so one morning early I got orders to go to Chattanooga. I did not know where it was hardly. (Laugh ter.) I did not know the road to go there. But I found it, and got there in time (laughter and cheers), and although my men were shoeless and the cold bitter frosts of winter were upon us, still I must go to Knoxville, 130 miles further, to relieve Burnside. That march we made (A Voice — and you got there in time). Then winter forced us to lie quiet. Dur ing the winter I took a little exercise down the river, but that is of no account. But as spring came on, General Grant and I met at Nash ville and talked the matter over, and we agreed that I should take all the armies that I could make out of the Western arm ies and fight Joe Johnston, go where he might, Avhile he took the more ungracious task — the command of the old Army of the Potomac. (Laughter.) We agreed upon the time at which we should be ready, and we were ready almost at the same time, and moved upon the common enemy nearly simultan eously, although a thousand miles apart. The history of that is so well known that I need not tell it. Grant struggled at Petersburg and I at Atlanta, and for a time things looked dark, and as though at last we had come to a dead standstill. But it was not so bad as that. As long as there is a will there is a way, and there was a will there, and that will pointed towards Jonesboro, and we took Atlanta. (Loud cheers.) You cannot attain great success in war without great risks. I admit we 180 Personal Recollections of Sherman. violated many of the old established rules of Avar by cutting loose from our base and exposing 60,000 lives. But when a thing has got to be done it has got to be done. (Laughter and cheers.) I had faith in the army I commanded; that faith was well founded. But there was the old story exemplified — we had the elephant and it troubled us to knoAv Avhat to do with that elephant, and again we had to put our wits together and we concluded to kill the elephant. (Laughter.) We did not like to do it. I come now to a piece of military history Avhich has been more discussed than any other. I contended at first, when Ave took Vicksburg, that we had gained a point which the Southern Confederacy as belligerents, and so recog nized by ourselves and the world — Avere bound to regard — that when we took Vicksburg, by all the rules of civilized warfare, they should have surrendered, and allowed us to restore Fed eral power in the land. But they did not. I claim also that when Ave took Atlanta, that they were bound by every rule of civilized warfare to surrender their cause. It Avas then hope less, and it was clear to me as daylight that they were bound to surrender and return to civil life. But they continued the Avar. and then I had a right, under the rules of civilized warfare, to commence a system that would make them feel the poAver of the Government, and cause them to succumb to our national authority. (Cheers.) I have again and again proffered kind ness towards the people of the South, and I have manifested it on thousands of occasions. I lived among them and re ceived generous hospitality; but at the same time, if their minds are not balanced so as to reason aright, Ave have the right to apply the rod. (Cheers.) So we destroyed Atlanta, and all that could be used against us there will have to be re built. The question then arose in my mind, hoAv to apply the power thus entrusted by my Government so as to produce the result — the end of the war — which was all we desired : for Avar is only justifiable among civilized nations to produce peace. There is no other legitimate rule — except to produce peace. That is the object of war, and it is so universally acknoAvl- edged. Therefore, I had to go through Georgia, and let them see what war meant. I had the right to destroy their com munications, which I did. I made them feel the consequences of their war, so they will never again invite an invading army. Savannah fell as a matter of course, and once in our power, the question again arose, "what next?" All asked, "What next?" I never received any orders from anybody. I had nothing to look to but my own brain. I asked advice again and again but I got mighty little, I can tell you, except from Grant Avho is always generous and fair. (Cheers.) No advice, no Personal Recollections of Sherman. 181 word at Savannah, save Mr. Lincoln's, "what next?" I told him I Avould tell him after aAvhile. Then came that last movement Avhich I do contend involved more labor and more risk than anything else which I have done, or ever expect to do again. I could take Charleston with out going there. First, by segregating it from the rest of the country so that it could not live. Man must have something to live upon. He must go where there is something to eat. Therefore, I concluded to break up the railroad, so the peo ple had to get out of Charleston or perish. Then the next thing was to place the army in Columbia, which I tell you is more of a place in the South than you are aware of. Years ago I thought Columbia would be the scene of the great and final struggle of the Avar. I thought our western army would go eastward and our eastern army southward to Columbia, and that we would fight it out there. The people there regarded it as a place of security. They sent their treasures there and their Avines and liquors, Avhich, my friend Blair remembers so well. (Laughter and cheers.) But if you place an army where the enemy say you cannot, you gain an object. All military readers will understand the principle. And therefore, when I could place my army in Columbia, I fought a battle — reaped the fruits of a victory — bloodless, but still produced military results. The next question was to place my army still further, where I would be in communication with the old Army of the Potomac — Avhere we could destroy the life of the Confederate armies — for it seemed at one time as though they were deter- mind to fight to the "last ditch." So we went to Goldsboro, and then I hastened to see Grant, and Mr. Lincoln, for the last time. We talked the matter over, and agreed perfectly. Grant was moving then. I had been fifty odd days marching on light rations. My men were shoeless and without pants, and needed clothing and rest. I hurried back to Goldsboro and dispatched everything with as great rapidity as I could, and on the very day I appointed, I started in pursuit of Johnston, let him be where he might. Understand now, that in this vast campaign we had no objec tive point on the map, all we had to do Avas to pursue the Con federate armies wherever they might go and destroy them wherever we could catch them. The great difficulty was to bring them to bay. You can chase and chase a hare until the end of time, but unless you bring him to bay you can't catch him. Grant was enabled to bring Lee to bay by means of Sheridan's Cavalry. I did not have sufficient cavalry; if I had, I might have brought Johnston to bay; but with my then force I could not, because my cavalry Avas inferior to his num bers. Therefore, Avhen Lee surrendered, Johnston saAv, as 182 Personal Recollections of Sherman. clearly as I had seen for months before, that his cause was gone. I had been thinking of it for months; therefore, when he met me and announced the fact that he was "gone up," I was prepared to receive it. (Laughter.) It was exactly like a fa miliar song. It seemed to the North a new thing. We had expected it, and when they gave up, we supposed there was an end of it. "How did they give up?" was the question. "Gave up. That was all. No use fighting any longer. " "On what terms did they give up?" "On the same terms that Lee gave up." I have described sufficiently clear in my official reports all the conversation that took place, and all I will say is that the North seemed to be taken unawares, although every newspaper in the land and every county court orator had preached about peace for the last four years, yet when it came they did not recognize it. All I claim is, that I Avas prepared for it from the start. The moment Johnston • spoke to me I saw peace at once, and I was honest enough to say so, but the world was startled by it. "Sherman had turned traitor, and Jeff Davis had bought him up with Confederate gold." I rather think he would have found it a pretty hard job to have bought me up. (Cheers.) Poor Davis. I know he never had enough gold to buy me, al though I won't mention my price. (Laughter and cheers.) But all that is now past, and I am satisfied in my heart that Ave have peace. I am satisfied by the combined armies and navies, and the citizens of the North, and many of the South, that noAV we have peace in the land, and what is the conse quence? It is simply one stage in our history. We have had wars heretofore. Did Ave cut the throats of our enemies? Certainly not; like sensible men, Avhen the Avar was over, we went to work to recover Avhat we had lost by the Avar, and entered on a new stage. Now, if any man will sIioav me how Arkansas may be improved, and Louisiana and Georgia, I will sit down and discuss it with great fairness. And anv improve ment in Georgia, in the cultivation of her rice fields, or other branches of industry will bring in more revenue. As a part of the United States she will assist in paying our debt. It will add to the wealth of the nation; and therefore, anything that improves Georgia will improve the United States of Amer ica. If a man commits a crime, it is necessary he should be turned over to the sheriff and the court. There they are. But so far as the future is concerned, manifestly our duty should be to put every man, woman and child capable of earning a living, or of taking any part in the body politic, to work again where they may earn an honest living and contribute to the National wealth. Anything looking to that end, I certainly Personal Recollections of Sherman. 183 think every American citizen can well do, without being con sidered as conniving at crime, for I say criminals can never be pardoned by military men. Murder is murder and will be till the end of time; arson the same, thieving the same. We cannot deal with these ; we simply deal with men in arms that defy the civil authority; when they cease to do this, our task is done, and we retire whence we came. That is the law of England, France and Austria, and our own country, ever since we had one, and will be till the end of time. As to the usurpations of the civil power by the military, there may be at times cases occur in the history of wars when the passions and feelings of man may be aroused so as to over-ride civil authority, but in time of peace it is impossible that any Amer ican soldier, any American officer, any educated officer, should wish to over-ride the civil power; we just exercise the military power. We look upon the civil power as something below us. We do not wish to detract from its merits. On the contrary, quite the reverse. But it is a different sphere of action — one in which we take more pleasure — and certainly I do not wish to over-ride the sheriffs and common courts. Therefore, my friends, now that the war is over, let us all go to work and do what seems most honest and just to restore our country to its former prosperity —TO ITS PHYSICAL PROSPERITY. As to its political prosperity, I knoAv nothing of it, and care far less about it. (Prolonged cheering.) During the year 1865 and the spring of 1866 it fell to my lot to make the Indian campaign over the plains, and to kill a few Indians, and among them a few squaws and children — when there was a general outcry raised all over the United States, and through the peace commissioners the whole In dian policy was changed from war to treaties of peace ; and, being desirous of retiring from the army, Sherman knowing all my plans, I wrote him in April, 1866, a personal letter ask ing for leave of absence, my resignation not having been ac cepted. I have no copy of my letter to him, but he under stood the matter fully, for we had discussed it together, and in answer to that letter I received the following : Headquarters, Military Division of the Mississippi. Major-General Dodge. Dear General :— I have your letter of April 27th, and I readily consent to Avhat you ask. I think General Pope should 184 Personal Recollections of Sherman. be at Leavenworth before you leave, and I expected he would be at Leavenworth by May 1st, but he is not yet come. As soon as he reaches Leavenworth or St. Louis even, I consent to your going to Omaha to begin what, I trust, will be the real beginning of the great road. I start tomorrow for Riley, whence I will cross over to Kearney by land, and thence come in to Omaha, where I hope to meet you. I will send your let ter this morning to Pope's office and endorse my request that a telegraph message be sent to General Pope to the effect that he is Avanted at Leavenworth. Hoping to meet you soon, I am, Truly, W. T. SHERMAN, M. G. On receipt of this letter I proceeded to Omaha, Nebraska, and on May 6th, 1866, took charge of the survey and construc tion of the Union Pacific railroad. General Sherman in his Memoirs states that in the year 1849 he was sent by General Smith up to Sacramento City to instruct Lieutenants Warner and Williamson, of the Engineers, to push their surveys of the Sierra Nevada mountains, for the purpose of ascertaining the possibility of passing that range by railroad, a subject that then elicited universal interest. It was generally assumed that such a road could not be made along any of the immigrant roads then in use, and Warner's orders were to look further north — up the Feather River, or some of its tributaries. Warner was engaged in this survey dur ing the summer and fall of 1849, and had explored to the very end of Goose Lake, the source of Feather River, when this officer's career was terminated by death in battle with the Indians. General Sherman was too modest to add, as Avas the fact, that those instructions were sent at his own sug gestion ; that that was the first exploring party ever sent into the field for the special purpose of ascertaining the feasibility of constructing a railway on a portion of the line of the trans continental routes, and that they preceded by at least four years the act of Congress making appropriations "for ex plorations and surveys for a railroad route from the Missis sippi River to the Pacific Ocean." Personal Recollections of Sherman. 185 On January 6, 1859, General Sherman addressed a letter to Hon. John Sherman, M. C, and made public through the "National Intelligence." It is one of the most remarkable and instructive short papers to be found in the literature of trans-continental railway construction. He gave many weighty reasons why a railway to the Pacific should be built, but thought it could not be done unless done by the nation. "It is a work of giants," he sententiously declares, "and Uncle Sam is the only giant I know who can grapple the sub ject." That paper alone, in the light of later events, would stamp its author as a far-seeing statesman and an enlightened engineer. He said: It so happens that for the past ten years the Sierra Ne vada has been crossed at every possible point by miners in search of gold, by emigrants going and coming, and by skilful and scientific men. I, myself, have been along a great part of that range, and haA-e no hesitation in saying that there are no passes by wdiich a railway, to be traveled by the most power ful locomotion noAv in use, can be carried through the Sierra Nevada, unless at the extreme head of the Sacramento, near the town of Shasta or Fort Reading, or at the extreme head of the San Joaquin, near the Tajon. And now I wish to say that if there are any two men in the United States who were entitled to the credit of enabling us to construct the Fnion Pacific railway, outside of those who put their money in it, and made it a success, those two men were Generals U. S. Grant and W. T. Sherman. I undertake to say that had it not been for the personal, active and always liberal co-operation of the armies under their direction, the people who built that road and faced its difficulties Avould have somewhere been stopped. During all the time of construction of the Union Pacific, either Grant or Sherman gave orders that anything General Dodge asked for should be given to him, "because he knows under the regulations what he is entitled to." I made some requests upon the military commanders that were unusual, 186 Personal Recollections of Sherman. and I said to the commanders: "I want you to obey this, and I will protect you." When the official reports of what had been done reached Sherman, he wrote me a kindly letter, but he said to me : Don't forget not only what your duties are to the Union Pacific, but also what your conscience tells you is right towards the United States in such circumstances, and what we can approve. Of course, it was a nice, quiet, gentle reminder that they trusted me, and I had gone a little beyond what they consid ered was fair to their trust. General Sherman came up to look at the first section of the road examined after I took charge of the line. If you go back and read the records you will see he was present. Major Bent, a. gentleman who was at one time at the head of one of the greatest industries in this country, was assigned to the duty of taking care of the people who examined the road. General Sherman said to him: "Every time they build a sec tion here I Avill be on hand to look at it, and see that it is properly built." Bent wagered with General Sherman a basket of cham pagne that he would not do it. Sherman's headquarters were in St. Louis, and we were building and examining about thirty miles of road a month. This would have brought him up to examine the road about once every month, and after we built about one hundred miles of road he wrote me and said: "I am not going to come up there any longer ; I am ready to pay my bet." One evening at the Union League Club, only a short time before he died, he said to me : "I wish, Dodge, that you Avould get Bent doAvn to New York and I will pay that basket of champagne that I oAve him." As the road progressed, there was hardly a mile of it that was not built under the protection of the United States forces. Personal Recollections of Sherman. 187 Every engineer that made its surveys had to be protected against the Indians. The men, when they started to work in the morning, stacked their muskets by their Avork, ready to fall in at any moment in case they were attacked by Indians, and I have often known them to fall in and defend their camp. Every year while Ave were building this road Sherman went over it, and I reported to him just as regularly as I did to my superior officers, telling him what I was doing and asking ad vice. He saw through the papers that there was a question betAveen myself as chief engineer and Mr. T. C. Durant, the chief contractor, as to the lines, and that Mr. Durant had declared against the lines that the engineers of the road had said were the true lines in a commercial and engineering point of view, and that if the lines were not sustained I would have to resign. I was in Utah at the time, and I received a dispatch from Durant, dated at Laramie, to return there immediately to meet Generals Grant and Sherman. I immediately took the stage and started for Laramie. When Durant received my abso lute refusal to accept the lines they had adopted, he wired to Sherman, and Sherman to Grant, and both came to Laramie, thousands of miles, showing their interest in the subject. They protested against Durant 's action, and when I stepped off the stage Durant said to me: "General, I Avant you to withdraw your dispatch; the lines you want you may have. I am con vinced that you are right." There I met Grant and Sherman, and went over with them the whole possibilities of the Union Pacific line, and told them, in my opinion, that during the year 1869, with no untoward events, we would have the connection. They discussed its probabilities, and said then and there to me: "If that is your plan, General, whatever you want you may have." 188 Personal Recollections of Sherman. , And they so instructed the commander of that department, and what I asked for I received. General Grant and General Sherman took very strong grounds with Durant and Dillon, telling them frankly that the Government would not stand for any change in my lines, and that they should insist upon my remaining upon the road. I had stated frankly to General Grant and General Sherman, to Dillon and Durant, that I would not submit to such inter ference as had been made; that it was not for the benefit of the road, but simply for the purpose of driving me off the road. They knew they could not have their way while I was on the road, and watched my every movement. It resulted in Durant and Dillon withdrawing all orders for change of location, and Generals Grant and Sherman exacted an agreement from me that I would not resign, but stay with the road until it was finished. This meeting of the largest number of distinguished officers that had met since the Civil War, was a A^ery noted event. The officers present were : General U. S. Grant, Lieutenant-Gen- eral W. T. Sherman, Major-General Phillip Sheridan, Major- General W. C. Harney, Major-General John G. Gibbon, Major- General Grenville M. Dodge (chief engineer U. P. R. R.), Bri gadier-General F. Dent, Brigadier-General Adam Slemmer, Brigadier-General Joseph C. Potter, Brigadier-General Louis C. Hunt, Brigadier-General August Kautz. A local photogra pher took a picture of the groups which included T. C. Durant, vice president Union Pacific railroad, Sidney Dillon, Mrs. Gib bon and Mrs. Potter, and three local officers of the Post, also U. S. Grant, Jr., son of General Grant. I forgot all about this picture until in 1892, when on a trip to Oregon, looking over the Union Pacific interests, I visited General Gibbon at Ft. Vancouver and he showed me a small copy of it. This I obtained from him and had it enlarged, and it has been sought for by a great many persons. It Avas util- Personal Recollections of Sherman. 189 ized by the Union Pacific Railway, who had an immense num ber of copies made for an advertisement. There is a copy of it in my book, "How We Built the Unioji Pacific Railway." In later years the photograph has been sought by many li braries, museums, and by many officers of the army. Generals Sherman, Harney, Kautz, Slemmer and Hunt were going as a peace commission to treat with the Sioux. General Sherman wanted to know my reasons for not making an agre*> ment with the Sioux in 1866, allowing them to come down to the North Fork of the Platte. I told him that my troops, in the expedition to Powder River in 1865, had discovered gold through the Black Hills, through the hunting grounds of the Ogalalla and Brule Sioux, and that I knew as soon as I made a treaty Avith the Indians that Chaffee in Colorado and Fair and others in California were preparing to send men in there. I had with me in that campaign, part of a Colorado regiment and part of the California regiment, many of them expert min ers, and they panned every stream we crossed and had dis covered gold. They were afraid to go in there because my agreement with the Indians in 1866 was that it would be im possible for me to keep the whites out of there, and therefore, I would not sign any treaty of peace which would bring them down to the North Platte. My idea was to hold them north of the Belle Fourche Fork of the Cheyenne, and if they behaved themselves, I would endeavor to keep the miners from going into that country; if they went in violation of my orders, I gave the Indians permission to keep them out, and this, I know, kept the miners out of that country. The Indians were not willing to give up this ground under any circumstances, as it was their best hunting ground.. General Sherman and his commission, under the orders of the President, made the agree ment with them to come to the North Fork of the Platte, tak ing in all the Black Hills north of Ft. Laramie. This treaty had hardly been ratified when the Colorado and California 190 Personal Recollections of Sherman. miners poured in there and discovered the Homestake mine, which has been a great producer. The Government made no effort to keep the Indians out of this country and carry out the terms of their treaty. Sitting Bull, who was the chief of the tribe of Indians who occupied these hills, made protest to the Government, demanding that they should have their treaty carried out; but the Government paid no attention to it; then Sitting Bull took the matter into his own hands, Avhich brought on the war between the Indians and the Government in 1876, in which occurred the Custer massacre. The Indians are not to blame for this, for they were only maintaining their rights, and it was the fault of the Government in agreeing to the treaty and then not living up to it. There is no escaping this fact, and Custer and his regiment were sacrificed because the Government of the United States did not live up to its agree ment and do its duty towards these Indians. On July 29th, 1868, I arrived at Omaha and took General Grant, Sherman and Sheridan to my residence in Council Bluffs. As General Grant had been nominated for the Presi dency, and no doubt would be elected, I took great pains on this trip to post him thoroughly about everything connected with the Union Pacific railway, and especially as to the inter ference that there had been west of the Missouri since we com menced building it. General Sherman, who had been watch ing this also, took an active part in the conversation. They were greatly interested in having the road completed, and my assurances of our completing the road within a year from the time we commenced work, April 1st, which would probably take us into May, seemed to greatly impress them. General Sherman said it was too big a job, he thought, for us to com plete in the time I said, but as I had made good every state ment I had made so far, he would give up his judgment for mine. While General Grant seemed to have full faith that we would be able to do it, he assured me that as far as he was con- Personal Recollections of Sherman. 191 cerned, we would have his support, and on his return to Wash ington he would make known to the Government the condi tions as he found them. I opened up Avith the question, that was then being started, about the Central Pacific overlapping the lines — they claimed to build to Echo and Ave to Humboldt Wells, so that he was fully posted in this matter. I showed him that the Central Pacific Avas trying to enforce the location of their lines over a road which we had graded, and which would have a track upon it long before they could reach Ogden. General Sherman wrote me often during the construc tion, showing his grasp of the whole problem. The folloAving is his first letter : St. Louis, Jan. 5, 1867. My Dear General Dodge: At New Orleans I received your welcome letter from New York, and I assure you, on its faith, I boasted not a little of the vast energy of our countrymen ; 303 miles of railroad finished in one year is a feat that may well be boasted of. I assure you of my hearty congratula tions, and that greater problem of the railroad seems to be solving itself very fast. You are exactly right in making your location independ ent of local influence. When I was at Denver and saw the lay of the land, I felt certain that you would locate north of that city, and said so, incidentally, but some fellow got hold of it and pitched into me. As it was none of my business, I held my tongue and counsel, but still it is not enough to de flect from its course the Great National Highway. I also learn with pleasure that your eastern connection is done within twenty-two miles, and I have ordered all troops and stores for the Department of the Platte to go via Chicago, Clinton and Omaha. The loss of Col. Fetterman's command up at Phil Kear ney may disturb your people; but don't let it, for Ave shall persevere and push that road to Virginia City, and it will divert the attention of the hostile Sioux from your road. The point where "you cross the North Platte and Fort Laramie will become great military points, and you should make arrange ments for cars to land our troops and store's there. I take it for granted that you get along well with Cooke, and his quartermaster, Myers. I would like to know how far this side of old Camp Wahl- baeh you propose to leave the Lodge Pole. It looks to me as 192 Personal Recollections of Sherman. if you could take the divide some ten miles this side, and get up' some 700 or 800 feet before you reach the Black Hills. I remember well the difficulty in California. Our first locations clung to the valleys for some thirty miles out of Sacramento, and then it was too late to rise to the mountains. Whereas, now, the road begins to rise at once on leaving Sacramento, so that they get up near two thousand feet before they strike the mountains. I suppose your location descends into the Laramie plains not far from Willow Springs Station, twelve miles southeast of the new Fort Stevens (John Buford). The coming year, for better or worse, is to be an important one to our country, and if you could, by superhuman effort, reach the foot of the mountains near Wahlbach, it would be a great achievement. That will be the military point for the road. North and south from that point the roads are good by reason of the nearness of the Avood, the abundant grass and water, and valleys that afford good roadways for traveling. I Avill do my utmost that General Cooke Avill haA^e force enough to cover your parties absolutely, which will be easy from the forks of the Platte westward. I came up from New Orleans by rail, saw our old stamping grounds, Jackson, Miss. ; Canton, Grenada, Grand Junction and Jackson, Tenn. I feared somebody would offend me, but such was not the case. I saw any quantity of old rebels who Avere as polite as possible. Wishing the great enterprise as much success in 1867 as in 1866, I am, as ever, your friend, W. T. SHERMAN. On January 14th, 1867, I wrote this letter to General Sher man, giving my plans for that year 's construction : Council Bluffs, Jan. 14th, 1867. Lieut. Gen. W. T. Sherman. Dear General : Yours of the 5th inst. came duly to hand. I enclose a rough map of located line from North Platte Citv; crossing of North Platte River to Ft. Sanders ; crossing of Lar amie River, for your information. It will give you the line better than I could describe it. We run up Lodge Pole Creek 105 miles, leaving it 55 miles east of Camp Wahlbach and not far from where the mid dle fork Laramie and Denver wagon road crosses that stream. You put last year a lot of friendly Indians in camp on this road, near the crossing of Horse Creek. From point where we leave Lodge Pole it is 31 miles almost due west to the R. R. crossing of Crow Creek, and we gain some 700 feet elevation Personal Recollections of Sherman. 193 in this distance. At Crow Creek Crossing we commence as cending the mountains, and we consider this point the eastern base of the "Rocky Mountains." It is on a meridian nearly 20 miles east of Camp Wahlbach, or LaPorte, hence the ad vantage. From Crow Creek Crossing to Ft. Sanders is 59 miles. We get into Laramie Plains in sight of Willow Spring Stage Station. I note what you say about military points. At North Platte City is the end of our first 300-mile division. We shall put up extensiA'e warehouses, round-houses, 20 stalls, machine shops, and have already built a large hotel to accommodate travel, etc., and the place is rapidly building up. I anticipate no difficulty in accommodating here all troops or business that the Government may send over to us. North Platte is also the base from which contractors operate next season. The rail road from Omaha to that point goes into the hands of 'company proper January 1st, to be operated by them. We are piling up there large quantities of ties, iron and all material for this year's work. In May we mean to be at Sedgwick, 80 miles from the end of the track, 40 miles of which is graded, when we can land your troops and stores if desired by 1st of Sep tember at Crow Creek Crossing, and in December at Ft. Sanders. Either at point where we leave Lodge Pole or at Crow Creek Crossing will be the end of our next division, and Avhere we shall change machinery for mountain runs. We shall, no doubt, at this point build up quite a place, and a Denver branch will connect at or near one of these points — I am un- ble to say which just now, but think Crow Creek will be the place; from either point Ft. Laramie can be reached — 60 or 70 miles over an excellent wagon road — either by road along east base of Black Hills, which you have traveled, or by middle Laramie road, equally as good, and I think better. It may be you will finally determine to make your depots for Laramie and Fort North at Fort Sanders, as it is nearer tim ber, coal, etc., than the east base of the mountains, and is not so much farther from Fort Laramie. However, during the sea son you will find, no doubt, use for delivery of goods, troops, etc., to North Platte, then Fort Sedgwick, then 40 miles up Lodge Pole, Avhere first Laramie road crosses to Mud Springs; then point where we leave Lodge Pole, and then Crow Creek. By that time you can determine the best point to settle doAvn on. We are doing all in power of man in getting out ties, push ing forward materials, etc., so that we can accomplish our plan of reaching Laramie in 1867. If we do not have to con tend with financial reverses in the country, I predict we will reach the objective point and more. I have my fears for the 194 Personal Recollections of Sherman. future ; financial matters generally do not look promising ; if country steers clear of that breaker, we are all right. I wrote you about General Cooke. We get along first rate with all the military, and if any new commander comes, I am ready and shall be glad to give him all information or aid in my power, and will do the very best to help him along in tak ing care of the Indian troubles, overland routes, etc. We want to cover our work from Alkali to Laramie River as soon as frost leaves the ground, say in March. Contrac tors are already pushing Avest, getting ready. I hope you will have troops to give us ample protection ; we are going to be short of labor, and any lack of military protection, when In dians are at Avar, Avould render it almost impossible to keep men on the line. What we want is the laborers to have confidence. I believe the moment you get into Indian country with troops for campaign, Indians will leave Platte route the same as they did in '65. But that will not fully relieve me, be cause what you and I know, is going to be hard to make a lot of Irishmen believe. They want to see occasionally a soldier to give them confidence, and that is all we need to get labor on the line. I have made an official application to the department commander for what I consider necessary. General Myers is an able Quartermaster, understands his business and does it. We get along well with the staff depart ment and help each other. I said to you in my letter about General Cooke that you would need 5,000 effective men north of South Platte and east of mountains. To make it plainer, I think in Nebraska, Colorado, Utah, Dakota, Montana, west of the Missouri River, you will need 10,000, and I hope the Government will not do by you as they did by me, get you well after the Indians, just ready to punish them, and then under the hue and cry of wrongs, cruelty, etc., stop youl If you get after them early with good officers who will never give up, but follow them day and night, until doom's day if necessary, until they are severely punished for past crimes, and feel our poAver, so that they will in future respect us, is the way to settle the Indian policy, and it can be easily done. I have always held this and I know Indians look upon us with contempt and with not respect. C. B. & St. Joe road is finished, and running from Council Bluffs, 30 miles south. Northwestern Railroad is within five miles, Avill be at the Bluffs next week. It landed your troops within eight miles of Omaha. You can get all the produce, flour and grain, and perhaps some groceries needed for troops and posts north of Kansas and Nebraska here in Western IoAva, and lay it doAvn in Coun cil Bluffs or Omaha, cheaper than you can"right in St. Louis Personal Recollections of Sherman. !!)."> market, thereby saving time and transportation. The railroad south lets us right into the finest part of Missouri and best of Western Iowa — the road opens up the grain and produce market of Central Iowa, the best of the state. It is hard to get the staff department at Washington out of the old channel. They don't grasp those things as I think they ought to do; hope you will help them. I am now making surveys for the Missouri River bridge ; a knotty or "sandy" question, but will solve it. We Avant to bufld this year. May have to Avait 'til after spring freshets before Ave can do much. I keep General Cooke and his staff department posted in our movements, so that they can take advantage of them in their plans ; and I believe as I have answered all your questions and given you much insight as to future plans, it Avill enable you to take advantage of it. What I have said about points, intentions, etc., I prefer you should keep private, as such things, when they are made public, often annoy or sometimes damage us ; but you understand it all. Mrs. D. and myself desire to be remembered to your fam ily; hope you will come to see us soon and bring Mrs. S. I shall go to Utah in May or June to fix locations from Laramie River to Salt Lake. Will you not go out there this year? I was very sorry to hear of the death of Sawyer. I saw General Grant while east; says he will go to Denver in spring or summer. Was glad to hear rebs continue their respect for you. Do they have much honest respect for us? And do they at heart care anything for the old flag? Will they not side Avith any power that is against, rather than for us? I am truly and respectfully. G. M. DODGE. St. Louis, Januarv 16th, 1867. I have just read Avith intense interest your letter of the 14th, and though you Avanted it kept to myself I believe you will sanction my sending it to General Grant for his individ ual perusal, to be returned to me. It is almost a miracle to grasp your proposition to finish to Fort Sanders this year, but you have done so much that I mistrust my own judgment and accept yours. I regard this road of yours as the solution of the Indian question, and of the Mormon affairs, and therefore give you all that I possibly can, but the demand for soldiers every where, and the slowness of enlistment, especially among the blacks, limit our ability to respond. Naturally each officer 196 Personal Recollections of Sherman. exaggerates his oAvn troubles, and appeals for men ; thus Ord is greatly exercised lest the blacks and whites commence a race Avar, and would have four or five regiments scattered over the whole state of Arkansas to prevent local trouble. I want to punish and subdue the Indians, who are the enemies of our race, and progress, but even in that it is well sometimes to proceed with due deliberation. I have now General Terry on the Upper Missouri, General Auger with you, and General Hancock just beloAV, all young, enterprising men, fit for coun sel or the field. I will endeavor to arrange so that hereafter all shall act on common principles and Avith a common pur pose, and the first step, of course, is to arrange for the ac cumulation of the necessary men and materials at the right points, for which your railroad is the very thing. Auger will be with you before this, and you Avill find him prepared to second you to the utmost of his poAver. I Avant him to study his problem and call on Grant, through me, for the least force that is adequate, for Ave must respect the de mand from other quarters. Of course, I am disposed to find fault that our soldiers are now tied up in the southern states, but in the light they are now regarded, it would be impolitic and imprudent for me to say so publicly. All I can do is to keep General Grant Avell informed, so that he may distribute his army to the best advantage of the Avhole country. As to supplies, General Auger will be and is at liberty to control this question according to the state of facts. The staff officers at Omaha are supplied with funds, and are on the spot, authorized to buy or call for supplies from Chicago or St. Louis. Though West Iowa might supply your market abund antly, yet if suddenly called on for millions of pounds of flour, sugar, coffee and bacon, they would jump the price, but you know we have now quartermasters and commissaries abso lutely disinterested, and qualified to arrange this matter. I will surely be up this year many times, and will, go over every rail more than once. I don't Avant to go to Utah until your road approaches Bridger, which cannot be this year, and I don't Avant Congress to bother itself about Mormon' affairs until then, and the Gentiles would do Avell to hold their ton gues and pens until it becomes feasible to act in case of laAv or threats. It is nonsense now for us to send a large force there, and besides, it is impossible, and would be to the in terests of the Mormons, by the prices they would exact of us for meat and bread. Don't fail to keep in with General Auger, Myers, etc, who can be of service to you in many ways. W. T. SHERMAN, Major-General. Personal Recollections of Sherman. 197 General Sherman sent me this letter he received from Gen eral Grant : I have carefully read the enclosed letter from General Dodge, and in accordance Avith your request return it. Now that the Government has assumed the obligation to guarantee the bonds of the Pacific Railroad, it becomes a matter of great pecuniary interest to see it completed as soon as possible. Every protection practicable should be given by the mili tary, both to secure the rapid completion of the road and to avoid pretexts on the part of the builders to get further as sistance from the Government. I do not see my Avay clear iioav to furnish you further rein forcements beyond one regiment of infantry. As soon as one regiment of the invalid Corps is organized, 1 can have the Canada frontier garrisoned by it, Avith a feAv companies of artillery, and send you the 4th Infantry now on duty there. It might be further practicable to send you a regiment of invalids to occupy such depots as are necessary to be kept up, and thereby relieve more active men for duty in the front. I will not send them, hoAvever, Avithout an intimation from you that they can be made available. You might be reinforced to some extent by increasing the standard of companies to the maximum number alloAved by laAV. General P. St. George Cooke, avIio Avas in command of the department, was relieved and General Auger appointed to the command. As General Cooke had been very active in giv ing us aid and escorts, I wrote General Sherman in- relation to it, and this is his answer : St. Louis, January 22d, 1867. Yours of January 9th, for some reason, did not reach me 'til today. I had nothing to do with Cooke's removal. The order originated at Washington and came to me completed, without my being consulted, and I do not know what influ enced General Grant, but never supposed General Cooke Avas in the least to blame for the Phil Kearney massacre. That post had been completed and garrison increased to the largest esti mate made by anyone up to that time, and I would have vol unteered to General Cooke that explanation, only the instant I sent him a copy of the telegram, he replied that he presumed I was the cause of his removal, which debarred me from mak ing any explanation. As to Auger, I only know him of his old army record, which was very good. He was always a favorite, and Avas, I 198 Personal Recollections of Sherman. think, one of Grant's comrades of the 4th Infantry. The prob abilities are he will be in command of that department a long time, and will soon master all the questions, and be able him self, if necessary, in person to lead his troops. You will lose nothing by the change, for I will make it incumbent on the military to give you earnest attention for the protection of your road. You have General Hancock on the south of you, and Auger Avith you — tAvo of the best officers, and they shall have every man that I can get -and spare. We are pressed for men at all points. I fear the political status has a tendency to make men of property of the south oblivious to their own in terests, for outrages on negroes and Union men appear to increase. It is alleged that the better people don't lend their help to stop it, as they say it is none of their busi ness. If our army has to do all the dirty police Avork of the south, 'you can see it Avill all be absorbed there, giving us a small share of the army for the real public enemy — the Indian. But so far as interest in your success is concerned, you may rest easy, that both Grant and I feel deeply concerned in the safety of your national enterprise. On February 20th, 1867, General Sherman wrote me as follows : I have just received your letter, of February 8th, and map. I now have an engineer officer Avith me, Colonel Merrill, the same, you will remember, who went with Thomas as far as Atlanta. He Avill iioav be able to compile and make useful all maps that are authentic, and T will be obliged for all and any you can give me. By this time you must be well acquainted Avith General Auger, and I hope you will work together like brothers. I will Avant to come up to Omaha soon, and Avould like to have a pass over the road from Chicago to Omaha. I have a yearly pass over the Chicago & Northwestern road, but don't think that is the company that comes to Omaha. Do you know if the railroad from Keokuk to Des Moines Avill join the Boons- boro road by the main valley or move to the Avest by the Coon Line of the Rock Island road? All could save distance by making junction with the finished Omaha road at a point in Carroll county. I am satisfied that our St. Louis and Missouri people are alive to the necessity' and will, Avithin tAvelve or fifteen months, have communication Avith Council Bluffs, via St. Joseph and the Missouri Valley, as also by prolonging the North Missouri railroad to the Keokuk and Des Moines. Con- dit Smith is the contractor on both, and tells me he is making sure and good progress. Personal Recollections of Sherman. 199 I think in another year, by these railroads and the exten sion of your great road to the Black Hills (Sanders, if pos sible) and the Smoky Hill to the neighborhood of Cheyenne Hills, we can act so energetically that both the Sioux and Cheyennes must die, or submit to our dictation. This year Ave are forced to do the best we can, but hope you will keep your men at work, in spite of rumors and even apparent dangers, for both General Auger and I will do all to cover the working parties that is possible, only we may consider it bet ter done by combining all against the hostile Sioux offensively, instead of keeping the soldiers close in, in sight of your men. I think with a little explanation from you, the working par ties will understand that they are more safe along the Lodge Pole Avith our soldiers two or three hundred miles north, than if those same soldiers were close at hand. I also received this letter in May, notifying me of his con templated trip abroad : St. Louis, May 7th, 1867. My Dear General Dodge : I have your valuable letter of April 28th, and am fully convinced that you will complete that road this season to the head of Ctoav Creek, and it may be, to Fort Sanders. Where the spring has been so prolonged, I think you may safely count, on a late fall. I will not be sur prised if you lay rails up to Christmas. I think this year is our crisis on the plains, because every month and year will diminish the necessity for troops in the reconstructed states, and give us more and more troops for the plain's, especially cavalry. I suppose I am in for the excursion up the Mediterranean. We are advertised to sail for Gibraltar June 8, and ought to reach Marseilles July 4. We are then to cruise along the Mediterranean and Black Seas, stopping at Genoa, Leghorn, Naples, Athens, Constantinople and the Crimea (Sebastapol) ; then out to Smyrna, Beirout, Joppa and Alexandria, back to the coast of Spain, and out to Medina, and home in October. If you will keep Nichols here advised, he will reach me through General Dix at Paris, and I will arrange for General Grant to telegraph me should anything of enough importance occur to call me back, in which event, I will he prepared to leave the ship and return by Avay of England. My depart ments are noAv well commanded, and should any combination of the troops be necessary, General Grant will order. I would not go if I thought anything Avould suffer, but. it is vain for me to suppose my presence necessary Avhen General Grant freely 200 Personal Recollections of Sherman. offers to spare me. I will bear in mind your wish and will write you some letters from abroad as a keepsake, and as evi dence of my personal friendship. Wishing you and yours all possible happiness, etc, W. T. SHERMAN. On receipt of General Sherman's letter of May 7, I wrote him fully about the attacks on our forces and the depredations of the Indians, and he answered as follows : St. Louis, May 27, 1867. I received your dispatches, and now have your interesting letter of May 20th. I have had a good deal of correspondence about the protec tion of the country along the railroad, which I deem of the first importance, although to make it effectual I see no other way than first to attack the Sioux, who remain near the Yel lowstone in defiance. If they remain, as a matter of course, they will not confine themselves to attacking the trains that go to supply Phil. Kearney and C. F. Smith, but will come south to your road. I think General Auger should go there in force, and we must also get other troops to defend our working parties. I have asked General Grant for another battalion of cavalry for that special purpose, and if he can he will grant it. You know that the same call comes from every quarter, and it is very hard to say which is of the most importance. I wish to assure yea that I do not undervalue your work for, on its account, I give up my proposed trip to Europe, and if I can, will come up this summer and attend to it in person ; but I know that of myself I can do little without a force in reserve, and that I will try and obtain. If the worst comes to the worst, I will call on Nebraska for a regiment of mounted troops, for the special task of defending interests which are vital to her progress. I don't want to do this if it can be avoided, as every state and territory that has contact with Indians will raise a clamor, as has been done more than once, for local troops serving in their own interest. One would suppose more of the regular army should be among the Indians, where danger is imminent, instead of in southern cities, such as Mobile and New Orleans, but when Mr. Key can announce that he can have all the regular army to back him in his speeches at the south, Ave see that there is a call for troops there, on questions that Congress thinks are as vital as those of the Indian question. I have the same appeals from Minnesota, Montana and Dakota, as Avell as from Kansas, New Mexico and Colorado. Each wants enough of the army to Personal Recollections of Sherman. 201 guard them against all the Indians, but I note your road as of the most important and have given General Auger a very large portion of my whole command, but will increase it if I can get the men. February 22d, 1868, when I Avas in command of the De partment of the Missouri, I located the post of Fort Sanders, where I thought the railroad would pass very near and I made a reservation there of ten square miles of ground. AVhen we came to make our surveys, our line passed through this reservation. We established the town of Laramie City on a portion of this reservation. I had no idea the Government Avould make any objection to our occupying the reservation. But the officers at Fort Sanders reported the fact that we were locating the line and building it through the reservation, and it brought orders from the War Department in relation to it, and on February 21st, I wrote General Wm. T. Sherman to be allowed to go on the reservation until proper authority from the War Department was obtained. On March 3d, 1868, General Sherman wrote me the follow ing letter in relation to the subject which I had laid before him : St. Louis, Mo. I got your dispatch last night and have ansAvered it ; have also written General Auger in general terms to facilitate the progress of the road by conceding the use of ground near Fort Sanders for depot, etc. But what you Avant is a perma nent title, not that mere temporary use that Ave are empowered to grant. I advise you to cause the most accurate plat to be made that you can, and delineate thereon the ground you Avant, with its metes and bounds, and what part of it is included within our Fort Sanders, the indefinite use of the space delineated, or for an absolute title. This paper should go to the Secre tary of War, who would probably send it down through Gen eral Grant and myself, to General Auger, the department com mander, all of whom would doubtless recommend the grant, provided the depot, as you say, be as far off from the posts as two miles. In case the land has been publicly dedicated to use as a military reservation, an act of Congress might be necessary to 202 Personal Recollections of Sherman. convey it to you, but, as the public land surveys have not yet reached the Laramie plains, I take it that our occupation of that reservation can be limited by a simple order of the Sec retary of War, so as to leaAre the railroad company the right of selection, under the bill you showed me in Washington this Avinter. I would not be Avilling to order the modification of the lim its of reservation, after the map has been made and filed in the War Department, as I believe is the case Avith the reserva tion in question, but I would not hesitate to grant you the right-of-Avay and the use of any reasonable part of the reser vation for side tracks and depots, but my grant Avould only be temporary, and could be modified, altered, "or annulled by my successors in office, or by higher authority. In a similar case, at Fort Riley, Congress granted tAventy acres for a depot within the reserve, and a fractional section on its western edge. I had been pressing General Sherman and General Auger to make preparations for the furnishing of my engineering parties Avith escorts and for placing troops along all the lines that Avas to be opened up, for the purpose of protecting them from the Indian depredations. The Indians had been aggres sive since 1867, and from the information I could get Avere pre paring to swoop down upon us as soon as Ave opened up work in the spring. In answer to my letters, on January 23d, 1868, General Sherman Avrote me as folloAvs : January 23d, 1868. Last summer when on the Indian commission. Senator Hen derson repeatedly told me that the subsidy of $16,000 per mile to railroads and the liberal compensation to the stasre lines Avas intended purposely to be in line of "protection" by the mili tary: General Auger has shown me your letter of the 14th, in which you ask pretty large escorts and posts for the protection and the operation of your road. I Avish you Avould see Mr. Hen derson. Show him this, and have a simple resolution passed Congress directing the General-in-Chief, or President, to af ford suitable military protection to the parties engaged in the location and construction of the Pacific Railroad! This will warrant the expenses to Avhich we are put in providing the troops and trains employed for that purpose. THE JOINING OF THE TWO RAILS Promontory. Utah, May 10, 1869. The Kngrineers of the Two Locomotives each broke a bottle of champagne on the other's engine. Personal Recollections of Sherman. 203 We had to bear the blame of precipitating an Indian Avar, because we tried to protect these roads and stage lines, and that was used as an argument Avhy the military should not be used for a purpose antagonistic to the Indian nation. On receipt of this letter, I introduced a resolution in Con gress providing for this, which Avas promptly passed, giving the military full authority in the matter, although Congress thought they had already given it to them. The tracks were joined at Promontory on May 10, 1869, and not forgetting what Sherman had done to make the great transcontinental line a success, I sent him a dispatch Avhen the last spike was being driven : Promontory, Utah, May 10, 1869. General W. T. Sheiman., Washington, D. C. : The tracks of the Union and Central Pacific Railroads Avere joined today at Promontory, Utah, 2,500 miles Avest of the At lantic, and 790 miles east of the Pacific Oceans. Your continuous active aid, with that of the Army, has made you a part of us and enabled us to complete our work in so short a time. I congratulate you upon it, and thank you for all you have done for us. q ^r DODGE. And General Sherman ansAvered as folloAvs: Washington, May 11, 1869. General G. M. Dodge : In common Avith millions, I sat yesterday and heard the mystic taps of the telegraphic battery and heard the nailing of the last spike in the great Pacific road. Indeed, am I its friend? Yes. Yet, am I to be a part of it, for as early as 1*64 I was vice president of the effort begun in San Francisco under the contract of Robinson. Seymour & Company. As soon as General Thomas makes certain preliminary inspections m his new command on the Pacific, I will go out, and, I need not say. will have different facilities from that of 1864, Avhen the only way to California was by sail around Cape Horn, taking our ships 196 days. All honor to you, to Durant, to Jack and Dan Casement, to Reed, and the thousands of brave felloAvs who have wrought out this glorious problem, spite of changes, storms, and even doubts of the incredulous, and all the obsta cles you have noAv rapidly surmounted. W. T. SHERMAN. General. 204 Personal Recollections of Sherman. There is no one who has taken so active a part, and who has accomplished so much for the benefit of the Government, in the building of the transcontinental railroads as General Sher man. He has taken occasion to look after and to speak his mind freely about them since their construction, and in Sep tember, 1888, in commenting upon a paper which I read be fore the Society of the Army of the Tennessee, upon the Trans continental Railway, he spoke as follows : I need not speak to an audience such as this in praise of the historic paper just read by General Dodge. It so hap pened that I was, before the Civil War, during it, and since, deeply interested in the great problem of a Pacific railway. Every word of General Dodge's paper is true to my personal knowledge, and I endorse every proposition he has made. When the Civil War was over, you must all remember that I was stationed in St. Louis, in command of all the troops on the western plains as far out as Utah. I found General Dodge as chief engineer of the Union Pacific railroad, in the success of which enterprise I felt the greatest possible interest. I promised the most perfect protection by troops of the recon- noitering, surveying and construction parties, and made fre quent visits, on horseback and in ambulance, and noticed that the heads of all the parties had been soldiers during the Civil War. I firmly believe that the Civil War trained the men who built that great national highway, and, as General Dodge has so A'ery graphically described, he could call on any body of men to "fall in," "take arms, form platoons and companies," "deploy as skirmishers" and fight the marauding Indians just as they had learned to fight the rebels down at Atlanta I will not claim that they were all of the Army of the Tennessee but the heads of the parties were all, or nearly all Union sol diers. I was particularly interested in that part of the paper ^1he^einT,11s described the discovery of the way to cross the Black Hills beyond Cheyenne. There was no Cheyenne then They were limited by the law to 116-foot grade to the mile. Instead of following the valley of Lodge Pole Creek, as all previous engineers had done, he chose the upper or anti-clinal line, instead of the lower, or sin-clinal line. This Avas a stroke oi genius by Avhich they surmounted the Rocky Mountains by a grade of eighty feet to the mile, whereas by anv other route then known he would have been forced to a grade of 200 feet or to adopt short curves through the Laramie Pass Personal Recollections of Sherman. 205 The Union and Central Pacific Railroads Avere the pioneer trans-continental roads in America, and every man who did his part should receive all honor. Noav there are five trans continental railroads, the last the Canadian Pacific. It so happened that two years ago, having traveled by every other way, I expressed a wish to return from San Fran cisco eastward by the Canadian Pacific, just completed. To my amazement I discovered that the president of that railroad was Sir William C. Van Home, one of our railroad men, edu cated in our war between Nashville and Atlanta. He was then, as now, the president of that railroad, with a salary of from $25,000 to $50,000, and they talked of making him a Duke. He can hold his own with any Duke I have thus far encountered. Anyhow, he acted like a Prince to me. From his office in Montreal he ordered his agent at Victoria, in British Colum bia, to extend to General Sherman every possible courtesy, which was done. I had a special car for myself and daughter, Lizzie, with priArilege of stopping over at any station. On my way eastward I met many people and heard many things of deep interest to me, and, maybe to you. There are three mountain ranges between the Mississippi, or rather the Missouri Valley, and the Pacific Ocean — the Rockies, the Wa satch and the Cascades. These converge to the northwest, so that in the Canadian Pacific the engineers had to meet them closer together than by our Northern Pacific or by the Central or Union. In the first explorations the English engineers saAv no escape from the conclusion that to pass these ranges from their starting point on to the Pacific at Vancouver, a magnifb cent port, they would have to follow the grade of Fraser River, by its Avest branch to its very head, near the Henry House, and thence descend the Athabasca eastward to Winnepeg, etc. This route was about 400 miles longer than the direct line. The board of directors in Montreal then called on the experienced engineers of the United States, and found a man who under took to cut across this great bend or loop. Instead of following the west branch of the Fraser River, he took the east branch, Thompson's, up to the Kampools' lake. The mountains eastward seemed impassable, but he rea soned "where there's a will there's a way." Through brush and trees he forced his way, and found a pass in the Cascade range called Kicking Horse, where his horse had kicked him on the knee. Persevering, he in the next or main range, ob served the flight of an eagle, which did not as usual pass over the highest visible peak but disappeared around a point; so he followed the same course, found an unexpected break, and located a railroad with less grade than the Union Pacific, and 206 Personal Recollections of Sherman. saved a distance of four hundred miles, or twenty millions of dollars. In looking over the usual timetables of the Canadian Pa cific, you will find the Kicking Horse and Eagle Pass through which millions of people Avill travel and millions of dollars of freight will pass. All are, in part, the consequence of our Civil War, and the men it educated. These men Avere S. B. Reed and M. F. Hurd, both engineers in the survey and construction of the Union Pacific railway. General Sherman heard I was going to Europe and volun tarily sent me this letter : Headquarters, Army of the United States, Washington, D. C, April 20th, 1877. To U. S. Counsuls Abroad : I learn that General G. M. Dodge is starting soon for Eu rope, expecting to leave his children at school whilst he returns to America, where he is actively employed in railroad construc tion and management. I take great pleasure in commending General Dodge and family to the courtesy and politeness of all Americans, especially such as occupy official positions, be cause General Dodge is one of the generals Avho actually fought throughout the Civil War, with great honor and great skill, commanding a regiment, brigade, division and finally a Corps d'armee, .the highest rank command to Avhich any officer can attain. He was with me in the west, especially in the Atlanta cam paign, where he was severely wounded, close to Atlanta, and I think that he, and especially his children, should experience the attention of all officers of a government that might have perished had it not been for the blood of just such men as Gen eral Dodge. With great respect, W. T. SHERMAN, General. After the publication of General Sherman's Memoirs, there were a great many criticisms from officers under him and from others in relation to many of the statements in the Me moirs as to the part taken by each, and as to his oavii move ments. In answer to these criticisms, General Sherman said he thought each person should Avrite up the Civil War as they Personal Recollections of Sherman. 201 saw it ; that was the Avay he did and he thought everyone else should do the same; that no tAvo persons saAv the same thing alike. General Sherman wrote me a letter asking me to Avrite up the part the Sixteenth Army Corps took in the campaign as I saw it and when I sent the paper to him, he immediately wrote me that it was of so much importance that he should print it in the appendix to his second edition, which was clone. My communication to him was as follows : Dear General : Your suggestion to send you a brief resume of the part taken by my Corps (the Sixteenth) of the Army of the Tennessee in the Aalanta campaign, was received some time ago. I reply as early as possible in view of absence, and other engagements. I wish to refer to only such parts of the Atlanta campaign as have been to some extent the subject of public comment, through your Memoirs, and to which my personal testimony may contribute light. I shall therefore confine myself to the attempted surprise of Resaca, May 9, 1864, and some following events, and to the repulse of General Hood's rear movement at Atlanta July 22. The Sixteenth Corps, as the vanguard of General McPher son 's army, penetrated, first through the Chattanooga moun tains, and made the attack on Resaca. The same Corps, while moving to a new position around Atlanta, fell across the Avay of Hood's army, and met him on such opportunely good ground that the battle was accepted on the spot. I state these general facts to save you the trouble of ex plaining them again if you should ever make use of this let ter. Your rapid and general summary of a maze of eA-ents, in which the part of a Corps is more or less lost in the movement of several armies, has attracted my admiration for its clear ness, and I can well see how the limitations of your book have compelled a severe distribution of prominence to the many detachments. The left Aving of the Sixteenth Corps, the other Aving not being in this campaign, arrived at Chattanooga in the evening of May 5, in the cars, the batteries and transportation follow ing by road from Pulaski, Tennessee, and Athens, Alabama. The same evening General McPherson 's orders arrived to take the initiative for his army, and to move to Gordon 's Mills. While marching there the next day, verbal orders came to push a portion of my command forward toward VillanoAv, and seize 208 Personal Recollections of Sherman. Ship's Gap. Sprague's Brigade, of the Fourth Division, did this at midnight of the same day, and the next day we had passed through and occupied Villanow. The third clay (May 8), my command, with the Second Division in advance, moved rapidly to Snake Creek Gap, one day before my orders had contemplated, they advising me to march when the Fifteenth Corps had closed up on me. I had heard from General McPherson, personally however, that the object was to threaten Johnston's flank and commun ications, and the Ninth Illinois Mounted Infantry, supported by the Thirty-ninth Iowa, went forward through the Gap to Sugar Creek Valley, a portion of the Corps without transpor tation, folloAving, and intrenching that night, thus holding its eastern outlet. On the evening of May 8, instead of May 9, I was aston ished to find this strong position, the sidegate to Johnston's rear, not only undefended but unoccupied, though a few men might have held it. Having reported the fact to General McPherson, and also that Colonel Phillips reported Resaca occupied by a Brigade of the enemy, I received his orders'to march at 6 o'clock next morning, the 9th of May, toward Resaca, and there await spe cific orders and instructions. The object of the movement was stated to be a demonstration upon Resaca, while other troops were to cut the railroad north of that place. At daylight of the 9th, my advance, consisting of a regi ment of mounted infantry, supported by a regiment of infan try, was attacked by Fergusin's Brigade of the enemy's Cav alry, and Colonel Phillips was severely wounded. We drove the enemy rapidly before us to Rome Cross roads, where I received orders to advance upon Resaca, to press forward until I should succeed in developing the enemy in line of battle, or in his fortifications, but not to attack him there without orders. I was also ordered to hold the Calhoun and Dalton Cross roads, about two miles west of Resaca, if I became possessed of it, until the Fifteenth Corps arrived. These orders were obeyed, my force skirmishing heavily the entire distance to the Calhoun Crossroads. The enemy was discovered in line of battle on Bald Hill three-quarters of a mile west of Resaca, and also in his works at Resaca. I Placed the Fourth Division at the crossroads, formed the Second Division m two lines, and carried the hill and holding them under instructions, awaited my orders from General Mc Pherson, to whom I had promptly reported, sending, I think, my staff officer, Captain Edward Jonas, telling General Me Personal Recollections of Sherman. 209 Pherson that if we could make a prompt attack we could carry Resaca, as the enemy in my front gave way readily, and that though prisoners had reported the arrival of Canty 's Brigade the night before, I did not believe it, as no such force as a Division showed in our front. General McPherson soon came upon the ground in person. He directed me to send some mounted men up the Dalton road to reconnoiter the country and find an approach to the rail road, while he would go back and bring up the Fifteenth (Lo gan's) Corps. Until the Corps arrived, I was to hold the Bald Hill indi cated, and the Dalton and Calhoun Crossroads. I sent all the mounted men I had with me at the time, 18 in number (of the Ninth Illinois) under Captain Hughes. They proceeded to ward Dalton, struck the railroad two miles south of Tilton, and found it strongly patrolled by cavalry. They cut the tele graph wires, burned a wood station, and reported to me again at dark. Meanwhile the enemy came marching out of Resaca up the Dalton Railroad, and I ordered the Fourth Division to march from Calhoun Crossroads and to intercept them, and to take position on the railroad north of Resaca. This order was re ported to General McPherson promptly; he replied that I must hold the crossroads until relieved. It was about 4 o'clock when I finally received from one of General McPherson 's staff officers the information that the Fifteenth Corps was closing up and that I was now at liberty to carry out my movement against the railroad. It was intrusted by me to General Veatch, with Fuller's and Sprague's Brigade of his Division (the Fourth). The Sec ond Division was stationed on Bald Hill, which I had occupied about noon, and the left of this Division was now assailed with musketry, while the marching Division was fired upon as they advanced in column in full view of the enemy. Fuller, in the advance, moved with spirit across the west fork of Mill Creek, crossed an open field, and the skirmish line was up to the timber skirting the railroad, when another order came from General McPherson to look to my right, as the enemy was massing to strike me there. I was with Fuller's advance at this time and the enemy that had come out of Resaca had opened on Fuller's troops in the open field. Nearby was a good cover of woods on the east side of the creek, to attain which I changed the direction of Fuller's col umn more to the north; his skirmish line took some prisoners; the morning rumor was confirmed by them that Canty 's Bri gade had arrived. 210 Personal Recollections of Sherman. ^^ Fuller steadily advanced, however, and as soon as his skirmish lines debouched from the woods, a regiment of the enemy's infantry and a battery in position opened directly upon his right and front. Another notice had been received from General McPherson, as we got to the roads, that Sprague's Bridade was not following us, having been arrested by him to hold the space between the Second and the advance of the Fourth Division. While Fuller was executing the movement to gain the rail road, a final order came to me from General McPherson to halt the column, and to repair in person to him back of Bald Hill occupied by the Second Division. There I found Gen eral McPherson and General Logan with the advance of Lo gan's Fifteenth Corps. They were discussing the propriety of an attack upon Resaca. General Logan asked me what I thought of the situation and if we could carry the place. I re plied I thought we could. Logan responded that he was glad I had so much faith. McPherson appeared to feel the responsibility of his or ders from the Commander of the Army, as well as the responsi bility of holding the gap we had already seized. He listened attentively to the conversation, to my description- of the posi tion, and to the nature of the orders I had given. He reluct antly gave orders for us to return immediately. The Sixteenth Corps withdrew over the eight miles they had already marched that day, reaching the eastern debouche of the gap at midnight. I had with the entire Corps only 17 wagons since leaving Chattanooga. My transportation had not yet come up, and the men and animals had been without any food for a day and a half other than what could be afforded by the poor and picked country we had marched over. A day or two after our return to the gap, General Mc Pherson stated to me the contents of a letter or letters from General Sherman commenting upon the march to Resaca. He seemed to feel that their criticism amounted to censure, but he had assumed the responsibility. He said a part of one of his Corps was still west of the Gap, guarding trains ; that he could not have throAvn his whole force across the railroad, as. they Avere situated, and that he looked for his vindication to the successful termination of the campaign. He said : We had ascertained, from prisoners taken the day of the advance to Resaca, that the enemy knew just what force had passed through the Gap, and where the balance of the army was. He made the final decision to return to the Gap between Personal Recollections of Sherman. 211 5 and 6 o'clock in the afternoon, being satisfied nothing could be accomplished by attacking an entrenched post that late in the day. At Snake Creek Gap we waited three days, seeing the whole army move through the pass we had captured, "to Johnston's complete surprise," and fortifying Sugar Creek Valley. May 13, the Fourth Division of my Corps formed on the right of the Fifteenth Corps, resting on the Oostenaula River, and took part in the attack on Resaca. My Second Division (Sweeney's), May 14, went on to Lay's Ferry, below Resaca, to cross the Oostenaula River and threaten Johnston's communications. General Rice with the advance Brigade crossed in the face .of Walker's Division. As soon as this movement in the rear was accomplished, Johnston began to retreat from Resaca, which he had defended a sec ond time with his whole army, and which he "only evacuated because his safety demanded it." I desire only to refer to the action of July 4, described in the Memoirs as "noisy but not desperate." The Fourth Division of my Corps,, under General Fuller, pressed forward on that day, crossing the Nickajack Creek at Ruff's Mill, driving the enemy before us, until, after tAvo miles of skirmishing, Ave developed him in strong entrenchments and in a very heavy force. The Memoirs imply that this was the head of the column of the Army of the Cumberland, and unintentionally leave it to be inferred that the storming of the works was General Thomas' performance. It was General McPherson who sent me a message to attack at discretion, or if I thought I could, carry the works. A prisoner informed me that Hood's Corps was before me, and I proceeded to reconnoiter their works, which I found very strong, but, as I observed a singular con fusion there, indicative of retreating, and knew that the 4th of July would be a good day to assault, I formed a charging column of a part of the Fourth Division, the 39th and 27th Ohio, and the 64th Illinois Infantry of my Corps, under com mand of Colonel E. F. Noyes. A supporting column was made up of the Sixty-sixth Illi nois and the Second Iowa of the Second Division. Noyes moved forward with gallantry, although he fell at the first fire and lost his leg, but through almost impenetrable abattis and fallen timber, the men went over the intrenchments, and took 100 prisoners, and they so settled the enemy's confusion, if any there was, that the whole of that' line was soon aban doned. I now come to the last subject of my letter, the battle of the 22d of July, where General McPherson lost his life. 212 Personal Recollections of Sherman. — T The movement ordered by General Sherman, of the trans fer of the Army of the Tennessee from the right to the extreme left of the combined armies began June 9. Marching from Sand Town, by the rear to the left, on the 9th of July, the Sixteenth Corps, bivouacked, at 10 o'clock at night, near Marietta, continued on at 3 o'clock, in the dark of the morning, and that day had crossed the Chattahoochee, spanned it with a foot-bridge 700 feet long, covered it with a long tete-du-pont and intrenched on the Atlanta side. The march was 31 miles, the heat Avas intense, yet the men were uncomplaining and ardent, and for nearly three days more they worked in reliefs of 1,000 in the mud and water until we completed, July 13, at Roswell, Ga., a double-track trestle bridge 14 feet high and 710 feet long. The material used was standing timber and some cotton mills. Over this bridge the entire army of the Tennessee, with trains and ar tillery, passed. On the 17th the command moved toward Decatur, cutting a new road so as not to infringe upon the Seventeenth and Twenty-third Corps, Avhich took the old roads, keeping its communication with those Corps ; the Sixteenth advanced be hind its pioneers, preceded by the Ninth Illinois Mounted In fantry, which skirmished with the enemy at Nancy's Creek and drove them across. Here one of my scouts, who had left Atlanta that morning, brought the first intelligence of Hood having superseded Johnston, which was at once sent to Gen erals Sherman and McPherson. « Decatur was occupied July 19, after a heavy skirmish and artillery fighting, and Colonel Sprague, with Second Brigade of Fourth Division, was placed there to relieve General Ger- rard's Cavalry Division, and to guard the trains. As we ap proached Atlanta the converging Corps forced the Sixteenth Corps out of line, and a series of transfers began. On the 21st of July General Fuller, with First Brigade, Fourth Division, Avas put in reserve to the Seventeenth Corps, and United States Regular Battery F, of the Fourth Division, was put in front line of General Giles A. Smith's Division of the Seventeenth Corps. My Second Division, under General Sweeney, moved for ward three-quarters of a mile beyond its old position to a range of hills, the enemy contesting this advance very sharp ly, and intrenched there. At 4 o'clock the next morning Gen eral Sweeney reported to me that the enemy had disappeared from his front; whereupon, I ordered him to push forward a heavy skirmish line. He soon found the enemy in force, in works surrounding Atlanta. Personal Recollections of Sherman. 213 The Second Division being displaced by the contraction of the lines, and the Fifteenth and Twenty-third Corps closing up on each other, General McPherson ordered me to move to the left of the army, and place Fuller's First Brigade on the left of the neAV position to be assumed by the Seventeenth Corps, and hold the rest of the command in reserve on the extreme left. Before this was done, I rode Avith General McPherson from his headquarters to the front on the direct Decatur and Atlan ta road. It was quite early in the morning, the day of the Battle of Atlanta. The sudden evacuation of the enemy Avas surprising to both of us, and gave General McPherson serious concern. He requested me to return immediately to my com mand and get the troops upon the ground they were to occupy and first examine that ground myself and choose a position on the left of the Seventeenth Corps, and also to feel tOAvards the Avagon road running from Atlanta south. I started at once. There was a crossroad leading to the left from the Atlanta road, in the rear of the Fifteenth, and passing through the left of the Seventeenth Corps, by which I gave orders for the Sixteenth Corps to march, while I went forward rapidly with my engineers and a part of my staff to select the neAv position. I rode out beyond the Seventeenth Corps, far in advance and within easy musket-range of the works of Atlanta, passing the pioneers of the Seventeenth Corps intrenching the new line. The stillness Avas oppressive and I thought almost omin ous. I could plainly see the enemy's troops working on their fortifications on the south side of Atlanta, and they alloAved myself and staff to approach within easy musket range, not firing upon us until Ave turned about to return after having picked out the ground for the Corps. As we retired, the enemy opened on us briskly with musket and artillery. I at once sent word to General Fuller to send out working parties to intrench his line on the new position, and for the Second Division to move to the rear of the Seven teenth Corps and bivouac. While passing through the Seventeenth Corps, I left an order for Murray's Second U. S. Battery to join its command and also met General Giles A. Smith, commanding the left Division of the Seventeenth Corps, who told me that the Sev enteenth Corps would not move into their new position until night. Immediately on receiving this information I sent ^enerai Sweeney orders to halt and bivouac his Division (the Second) where he then was, viz, about three-fourths of a mile in the 214 Personal Recollections of Si-ierman. rear of the fifteenth Corps (General Logan's), and on the right and rear of the Seventeenth (General Blair's). At noon I reached General FuUer's headquarters, in the rear of the Seventeenth Corps and almost directly on an ex tension of the line of Sweeney's Division, which had halted upon receiving my order, and was resting by the roadside. While at Fuller's headquarters I heard straggling shots fired to the east and to the left of General Sweeney's Divi sion, which warned me, and I ordered General Fuller to put his command immediately in position, and spoke to him of the gap of about one-quarter of a mile that had existed between him and General Giles A. Smith, and of the exposed condition of the left flank of our army. I called his attention to the' position of the ammunition train of the army, on the right of Fuller and in the rear of General Smith, where they were very much exposed, but I had scarcely given General Fuller his orders when the re port came in that the enemy was in force in our rear, and de veloping far beyond Sweeney. • I sent a staff-officer to General Sweeney on the minute, with orders to immediately close on Fuller, (and he had already sent forward skirmishers in the direction of the enemy's fire) and developed the enemy in large force. The Second Division had just got into position when Hood's army' appeared in force, advancing in three columns. I waited until the enemy Avas fully developed, then dis patched a staff officer to General Giles A. Smith, telling him that the enemy Avas attacking in his rear, that he must refuse his left and join with Fuller. My staff-officer came back with the information that General Smith had not then been attacked, and the enemy was all developing beyond my right in the timber, covering Fuller's right flank, with their' skirm ish line extending around to the left of Sweeney. I observed no movement of General Smith, and became very anxious for the safety of that flank. I sent' another staff- officer to General Smith, giving him fully the position" of the enemy and telling him that a very large force was upon our rear. General Smith was by this time apprised of the fact of the enemy's intentions, from the general attack Avhich had been made along my whole line. It AVas afterwards made plain to me by General Smith why he hesitated to comply with my first request. He Avas in the act of refusing his left, Avhen General McPherson sent him or ders to hold his ground, and that reinforcements would be sent to him, or his left protected. General McPherson had evidently sent this without knoAving the position of the enemy as fully Personal Recollections of Sherman. 215 as I did. I received no orders from General McPherson during the battle. In moving out of the timber into the open field in my front, now the rear of the army, one of the enemy's columns of at tack (the center column) struck a mill pond, or some other ob struction, just on the edge of an open field, and became en tangled, retarding its progress and exposing the flank of the other column. I saw that something had confused the enemy, and imme diately ordered Colonel Mersey's Brigade to charge the ad vance column on the exposed flank, and also sent orders to Fuller to instantly charge the enemy in his front and to take advantage of their embarrassment. Both commands moved promptly, and fell upon the enemy and drove them back across the field, and I have no doubt this saved my command. While this attack was progressing, not hearing from the staff-officer I sent to General Smith, and seeing that the enemy was passing to my right in the rear, and far down the line of the Seventeenth Corps, I sent another staff-officer to that flank, Avho must have passed up the road a short time before General McPherson, for he found General Giles A. Smith hotly engaged and unable to move. Fortunately, two batteries that were in line were in the center of Sweeney's Division, on a knoll naturally strong, covering both the right and left of Sweeney's Division. This knoll being the apex of the formation of Sweeney's Division, and the road turning west at that point, Sweeney followed the direction of the road, forming his line right Avhere his men were resting. These two batteries fired very effectively upon the enemy's advance forces, pouring into them canister at short range. The fire Avas so destructive and Mersey's charge so furious that the enemy soon gave way on their front and fell back to the timber, General Fuller advanced rapidly across the field driv ing the enemy before him, developed them in a gap between General Smith and his right, and drawing a rapid fire on his right flank from the body of the enemy that had poured around the left of the Seventeenth Corps, he promptly changed front with a portion of his Division and, under a galling fire, moved on the enemy in the timber, clearing that point. The Sixty-fourth Illinois pushed in between the main col umn of the enemy and their advance in the timber and cap tured their skirmish line— the same that killed General Mc Pherson a few minutes before and who were then in possession of his papers and effects, including his orders, Avhich Ave ob tained. 216 Personal Recollections of Sherman. The fighting in General Fuller's front was very severe, and the ground contested inch by inch, his artillery doing very effective service. Finally, the enemy fell back along Fuller's whole line, and I swung my right in order to bring it into line with the Brigade that McPherson had ordered up to General Giles A. Smith's aid, which had been forced to take position to the right and somewhat to the rear of Fuller's advance. The Seventeenth Corps reformed its left at right angles Avith the original lines, and joined this Brigade. This brought the enemy well to our front, and there we kept them the rest of the day. Major-General McPherson arrived on the ground during the attack on me ; stood near the ammunition train on the right of my line, watching the result of my counter-charge upon the enemy. As soon- as the tide turned in my favor he followed a road through the timber, leading from Fuller's right before the ad vance of the left of the Seventeenth Corps, still unaware of the advance of the enemy into the gap between Fuller's right and the Seventeenth Corps. About half an hour after my first repulse of the enemy, I received a report that General McPherson was wounded and it was about 3 P. M. before I was aware he was dead. About 4 P. M. General Logan called, in person, for aid to drive back the enemy on the Decatur and Atlanta road, where he had made a sortie and gained a temporary advantage, breaking through General Morgan L. Smith's Division of the Fifteenth Corps. I sent the Second Brigade of the Second Di vision, under Colonel Mersey, accompanied by Captain Jonas of my staff. Mersey's Brigade immediately went into line and moved down the main road, participating in the charge with General Wood's Division of the Fifteenth Corps, retook the works and batteries that had been lost, Colonel Mersey receiving a wound in his leg, having his horse killed under him. General Morgan L. Smith, who witnessed Colonel Mersey's attack, sent by Captain Jonas a very complimentary message as to Colonel Mersey's charge and its success. When General Logan called for Mersey's Brigade, he told me that if the enemy again attacked me and I needed help to call upon General J. D. Cox, of the Twenty-third Corps. At 5 P. M. the enemy made a dem onstration on my extreme left, and I requested General Cox to send me a Brigade, which he promptly did. The enemy, however, only opened with artillery. Again Mersey's Brigade was called into action about mid night, when General Logan ordered two regiments from it to occupy the hill, that had been hotly contested in line of the' Seventeenth Corps, and relieve the troops of that command Personal Recollections of Sherman. 217 Mersey's troops promptly executed the request, crawling on their hands and knees, finding the enemy in the ditch on the outside and driving them out. The time of Colonel Mersey's Brigade had expired; they Avere exempt from participating in this battle, had they chosen to avail themselves of this right, and were awaiting transporta tion north. They fought successfully on different parts of the field, suffering heavy loss in killed and wounded. Gen eral Sprague, who was at Decatur holding that town, covering the trains of the Army of the Tennessee with three regiments of his Brigade and six guns of the Chicago Board of Trade Battery and one section of the Eighth Michigan Artillery, was attacked by the enemy in overwhelming numbers. Tavo Divisions of Wheeler's Cavalry, dismounted, charged upon Sprague from three different directions. General Sprague concentrated his command, and, after a doubtful and determined contest, held the enemy in check and gained a position north of the town, which he was able to keep. In their charge the enemy twice got possession of Sprague's ar tillery but were immediately driven from it. General Sprague, by his good generalship and hard fight ing, saved the trains of the Fifteenth, Sixteenth and Seven teenth Corps at Decatur and en route from Roswell to the army. The trains on the march were guarded by the Ninth Illinois, and the Forty-third Ohio, which regiments, upon their arrival at Decatur, went promptly into the action. The Sixteenth Corps, at the time of Hood's attack, Avas in the rear of the Fifteenth and Seventeenth Corps, stretched out upon a common wagon road. Three Brigades disposed in single line, numbering about forty-five hundred men and not in line with the other Corps, had met the attack of the rebel army, staggered it at the first onset, and driven it back with great slaughter, leaving the dead and wounded of the enemy in our hands. Any failure of the part of the Sixteenth Corps to check the enemy's advance when he was already in our rear and certain of success, would have been disastrous to the whole Army of the Tennessee. The fortunate topography of the ground, the intelligence of the commanders, and the alacrity and bravery of the troops, enabled us to take advantage of the confusion created in the enemy's ranks, on finding this Corps prepared for attack, and to rout the enemy. The disparity of the forces can be seen from the fact that in the charge made by the two Brigades under Fuller and Mersey, they took 351 prisoners, representing forty-nine dif ferent regiments, eight Brigades, and three Divisions. These tAvo Brigades brought back eight battle flags from the enemy. 218 Personal Recollections of Sherman. After the fight, 422 of the enemy's dead were buried in my front, and large numbers of the wounded were cared for in my hospitals. The Sixteenth Corps suffered terribly in the. Battle of Atlanta. Their loss in killed and wounded was 854 out of 5,400 men engaged, and nearly every field officer of my command was killed or wounded. I am, General, very respectfully, your obedient servant, G. M. DODGE, Council Bluffs, Iowa. Maj. Gen. U. S. A. November 30, 1875. There had been, at many meetings of the Society of the Army of the Tennessee, discussions of the Battle of Shiloh, and at a meeting of the Army of the Tennessee in Cincinnati, April 6, 1891, General Sherman gaA^e his views as follows : Comrades and Friends : We are again assembled, pursuant to adjournment of our last meeting in Chicago, and according to the constitution of our Society. It was once said that the Army of the Tennessee could safely meet on any day of the year, and that day would prove to be an anniversary of some one of our battles, but it is plain to me that the local committee has chosen this particu lar day because it is the anniversary of the battle of Shiloh, which gave us much of the fame of which Ave, the survivors, believe we have just reasons to be proud. Nineteen years ago tonight we lay on the bare ground in heavy rain, after a bloody battle, to steal a few hours of rest and sleep, certain the next day to reneAv a struggle which, for better or worse, was to have a tremendous influence on the history of our race. I do not intend to enter on a narrative of events, for I have already done that in print ; nor do I wish to revive any of the controversies to which that great battle has given rise, like Waterloo, Gettysburg, Koniggratz, and hundreds of others, but simply to ask your indulgence for the few minutes of time allotted to me, to illustrate some of the minor phases com mon to all battles. In Badeau's Military History we have recorded, substantial ly, General Grant's account of the antecedent events, and of the battle itself. In Volume 7 of the United States Military Reports of the Rebellion, compiled by Colonel R. N. Scott, we have two hundred and thirty-four pages of the official' re ports of the commanders of divisions, brigades, regiments and detachments; and in Volume 3. part one, of the same compila tion, we have two hundred and forty-eight pages of the Con- Personal Recollections of Sherman. 219 federate reports of the same battle. Besides these, I have in the course of my official life examined thousands of pages of other manuscript matter, all more or less bearing upon this particular battle, and my conclusion is that General. Badeau's condensed account is as near the exact truth as history will likely reach ; and that my own account is good enough to stand by— being the exact truth from my own standpoint. These varied accounts of the same general event illustrate what has been remarked by every lawyer — that the best wit nesses, testifying in court, will describe the same thing differ ently, just as every landscape in nature presents a different aspect from each point of the compass. Every man naturally exaggerates the importance of Avhat he himself has done and seen, and correspondingly depreciates that of which he saw nothing; and it is perfectly consistent with truth that those Avho were near Shiloh church on the eventful days of April 6 and 7, 1862, should vary, in their narrative of events, from those Avho remained at the steamboat landing, three miles aAvay ; or the more intelligent and disinterested observers who Avrote from their offices at Paducah and Cairo. tAvo hundred miles away. Yet for our present purpose it is sufficient for us to know that on the 6th of April, 1862, five Divisions of the Army of the Tennessee were encamped in the woods back of Pittsburg Landing on the upper Tennessee river ; that our numbers were about 32,000 men ; that we were attacked furi ously by the rebel army, ably commanded, composed of at least 42,000 men ; that Ave fought unaided during all that day : were beaten back step by step, till at night Ave formed two sides of a rectangle, the right covering Snake Creek bridge, and the left a ravine about the steam-boat landing: that Ave were not beaten or demoralized, but were abandoned by many of our comrades and dreadfully exhausted, with nine thousand of our comrades dead or mangled on the field, mingled with an equal number of our foes ; that during that night Ave were reinforced by Lew Wallace's Division of our oavii army, and by three Divisions of Buell's Army of the Ohio, just arrived from Nashville, and that on the next day Ave sAvept the field and gained a glorious victory for our country, the moral effect of which lasted throughout the war. Notwithstanding that we now have the official statements of the chief actors in that drama, I ' am conscious that some of the good people of Cincinnati prefer to believe the first ac count of their own "reporters on the spot." viz, at Paducah and Cairo, Avho gathered their knowledge from fugitives and deserters; yet we, who remained to the last, prefer to believe each other; and in this connection I propose to recount some of the smaller episodes not heretofore given. 220 Personal Recollections of Sherman. General James H. Wilson, who commanded a Cavalry Corps about the end of the war, tells of his once approaching the heads of his column, engaged in a noisy skirmish, when he met one of his men hurrying back to the rear, evidently de moralized. He called on him to halt, and commenced calling him hard names, among others, "eoAvard. " The man protest ed he was not a coward, but insisted that "he had lost confi dence in his Colonel." So at Shiloh, some men lost faith in their colonels and naturally justified themselves by decrying their commanders. My camp, or bivouac, was on a small hill near the old log house called "Shiloh Meeting House," which gave name to the battle. We had a colored man called "Bustamente," who was our cook, and looked after our horses. I remember that morning well ; we all mounted our horses after an early break fast and started to the front. The battle soon began and none of us had much time to. think of our camp afterwards. Dur ing all that day we fought, and night found us a mile to the rear of our camp, which was in possession of our enemy. The next day we gained ground steadily, and about 4 P. M. I was again on horseback close by our old camp ; the tents were still standing, though riddled with bullets. At the picket rope in front lay two of my horses, dead. Dead bodies of men in blue and gray lay around thick, side by side, and scraps of paper show what Avas the fact — that Beauregard, Brecken ridge and Bragg, old personal friends, had slept the night be fore in my camp, and had carried away my scanty bedding. That night of the 7th, as I lay side by side with the dead, I wondered Avhat had become of Bustamente. His dead body Avas not there; he was neither "present or accounted for." Several days passed, and Ave had become convinced that our enemy had gone, and gone in disorder and retreat. But where was Bustamente? About five days after the battle, returning from an extensive reconnoissance, tired and weary, who should appear but the veritable Bustamente himself, radiant and undoubtedly happy to resume his place as cook and hostler. "Where have you been, you old rascal?" "Why, master, this Avas no place for sich as me; I done git out, cotched a steamboat and went to Paducah ; heard you was all right again and here I is." And there he was, sure enough, and he served us well for many a weary month afterward. I think Bustamente Avas not only right, but reasonably prudent. The 6th of April, 1862, was not a healthy place for "sich as he " but for some others I can never be as charitable. My aide-de-camp, General Sanger, also had a colored servant whom he had brought from Illinois, who stayed near Personal Recollections of Sherman. 221 us all that day— generally availed himself of the cover of a good sized tree, but I recall with gratitude that at night he came to us Avith some hard biscuit and boiled pork, Avhich he said he had found in McArthur's camp. Again the' next day, April 7, he FOUND in some sutler's camp a big cheese, which he brought to us and spread out on a log; which cheese formed the basis of a claim against U/ncle Sam for loyal property ap propriated by the army in the subsistence of his troops, and for" the evidence of Avhich that sutler persecuted me for years afterwards. There is no movement laid down in tactics so intricate and skillful as the "zigzag" that boy would perform in coming from the rear to the front with a cigar, or anything called for; down behind a log, then a bee line for a big tree, a good peep around the corner, then a run for another tree, till he was in sight of the party sought for, Avhen signals were begun. We have always given General Albert Meyer the credit of being the author of our system of army signals, vulgarly known as the "Wig-wag," but I must testify that Sanger's boy prac ticed them in the Avoods at Shiloh before any of us had ever heard of the army signal service. For some days after the Battle of Shiloh, and during the march to Corinth, my camp was often visited by my old. class mate and friend, George H. Thomas, and his staff, and it was as good as a farce, when at table, to watch that boy hand to Thomas quicker than Signor Blitz, and LagoAv and the Staff rarely managed to get anything else than "commissary," whilst Thomas and his faA-orites always got the best in camp. In the very crisis of the battle of April 16, about 4 o'clock P. M., when my Division occupied the line from Snake Creek bridge to the forks of the Corinth and Purdy road, there oc curred an incident I haA-e never seen recorded. Birge's sharp shooters or "Squirrel-tail's" occupied the stables, granaries and house near the bridge, as a strong flank. My Division occupied a double line from it, along Avhat had once been a lane, with its fences thrown down and the blackberry and sas safras bushes still marking the border of an open cotton field in front, and the left was a ravine near which Major Ezra Taylor had assembled some ten or twelve guns. This ravine was densely wooded and extended to the front nearly tAvo hundred yards, and I feared it might be occupied by the enemy, who, from behind the trees, could drive the gunners from their posts. I ordered the Colonel of one of my regiments to occupy that ravine to anticipate the enemy, but he did not quickly catch my meaning or comprehend the tactics by which he could fulfill my purpose. I remember well that Colonel Thomas W. Sweeney, a one-armed officer Avho had lost an arm 222 Personal Recollections of Sherman. in the Mexican war, but did not belong to my command, stood near by and quickly spoke up: "I understand perfectly what you want, let me do it." "Certainly," said I. "Sweeney, go at once and occupy that ravine, converting it into a regular bastion." He did it, and I attach more importance to that event than to any of the hundred single achievements which I have since heard "saved the day," for we held that line and ravine all night, and the next morning advanced from there to certain victory. In like manner, on the 8th, when I was ordered by Gen eral Grant to move forward with one of my own Brigades and another of Thomas J. Wood's Division of the Army of the Ohio, to ascertain if the rebel army had actually retreated to Corinth, or were simply repairing damages to renew the at tack, I led in person Hildegrand's Brigade. We reached,' about six miles out, an old cotton field with deadened timber standing, fences all down, and mud in the road and in the plowed field ankle deep. Seeing ahead a large number of tents with men and horses moving about, I concluded to de ploy a couple of companies of the leading regiment forward at "five paces interval," with the remaining eight companies in line to support, leaving the rest of the Brigade to follow along the road by the flank. I gave the orders in person, and the Colonel confessed that he knew not what I wanted or hoAv to perform so simple a tactical maneuver. Thus were we forced to teach tactics on the very field of battle. Fortunately, Major Fearing, now a citizen of Cincinnati, spoke out, "I know what you want and can do it," and promptly he de ployed the leading companies as "skirmishers," by the right flank across that old cotton field, with the remainder of the regiment in line following in support. As we approached the ridge, down came with a yell, Forrest's cavalry firing right and left with pistols, over the skirmish line, over the supports, and right in among me and my staff. Fortunately, I had sent my adjutant, Hammond, back to have the Brigade come for ward into line quickly. My aide-de-camp, McCoy was knocked down, horse and rider, into the mud ; but I and the rest of my staff mgloriously fled, pell mell through the mud closely followed by Forrest and his men, with pistols already emptied. We sought safety behind the Brigade in the act of forming forward into line" and Forrest and his followers were m turn "surprised" by a fire of the Brigade, which emp tied many a saddle, and gave Forrest himself a painful wound but he escaped to the woods on the south of the road We promptly moved the whole Brigade in line of battle over that cotton field to the ridge, and captured the LAST of the rebel hospitals in charge of Surgeon Lyle. Personal Recollections of Sherman. 223 McCoy came in afterwards, covered with mud, but in pos session of a jaded horse which he had picked up, different from his own, but there was no one to question his title, and on the whole he concluded he had got the best of the bargain. All who were with me on that 8th of April will recall the scenes of desolation and misery we beheld by the roadside and at the hospital camp of Surgeon Lyle. Wagons hauling in dead men and dumping them on the ground, as cordwood, for burial in long trenches, like sardines in a box. Wounded men with mangled legs and arms, and heads half shot away, hor rible to behold, and still more wounded appealing for water, and for help in any form. If .there be any lesson 1 would im press on the young of today it would be to warn them against the men who make war necessary ; men who, like Jeff Davis, Yancy and Toombs, usually arouse the passions and prejudices of their fellow mortals 'til war becomes a necessity, whilst they, the real cause, hold back and leave their deluded fol lowers to catch all the blows and buffets of the storm which they had no hand in creating. I wish that some man, Dr. Lyle himself, would paint in true and graphic colors, what he saw and endured on that 8th day of April, 1862, on the ridge behind Pittsburg Landing, for I believe it would be bet ter warning against war in the future than all the humiliations of Appomattox and Greensboro. I have seen Forrest since the war; have talked with him about this very matter, and he explained that he was left be hind by Breckenridge to protect this hospital camp, and if possible to check the pursuit of our forces, which was natur ally expected after the close of the Battle of Shiloh. I am sure that had he not emptied his pistols before he passed the skirmish line, my career would have ended right there. War has its ludicrous, its farcial features, as Avell as every day life. Everyone can at this distance of time recall events at which he laughed as heartily as he ever mourned the death of a comrade. I remember today the expression on the face of an Arkansas ranger, brought in as a prisoner of war, leading a sorrel mare into our camp near Corinth. When led up to me he said, "General, he (pointing to the guard) fooled me; he had on a Avhite hat, and called out, 'come over here;' I came over, and he said, 'you are my prisoner.' " It was the white hat that caught him. Then the Arkansas man said: "Gen eral, you are not going to take my horse, are you?" "Certain ly," I said, "your horse is captured property." "But it is a race horse," said he. "All the better," said I, and I think one of my staff-officers rode that same sorrel mare many hundred miles afterwards, but I never saw that ranger again. The provost marshal took him in. 224 Personal Recollections of Sherman. All reliable accounts agree that General C. F. Smith post ed the army at Pittsburg Landing to fulfill General Halleck 's instructions of March 1st, 1862 ; that General U. S. Grant suc ceeded to the command, and exercised it at the time of the battle, and that Division commanders ranked in the order of McClernand, Lew Wallace, Sherman, Hurlburt, Prentiss and W. H. L. Wallace; yet I am often held responsible by the critics for the "surprise and stampede" of the fugitives, al though it is equally well known that McPherson and I had previously reconnoitered the country forward for ten miles and had been skirmishing with the enemy for several days prior to the battle. I have never been in battle but what some body was surprised. A good many persons were surprised at Shiloh, but there were none but what had a fair notice to be ready for anything — for everything that might happen, and the report that anybody was bayonetted in bed has long since been exploded. Prentiss' Division and mine were in the extreme front — were all ready when the blow came, and all the others were behind us and had ample time for preparation. The sim ple truth is that we were on the west bank of the Tennessee with a purpose to attack the enemy's position at Corinth; that General Buell's army of the Ohio was marching from Nash ville to reinforce us, and that the rebel general, Albert Sydney Johnston, resolved not to wait our attack on Corinth, but to attack us before Buell could arrive. His army was divided into three Corps, commanded by Polk, Bragg and Hardee, with reserve commanded by Breck enridge. His object was to capture or destroy us before these reinforcements could arrive. He failed in this most signally, and therefore to us belonged the victory — a victory little ap preciated at that time, and not fully comprehended today. But that victory Avas one of the most important which has ever occurred on this continent. It dissipated forever that nonsense of one southern man whipping "a dozen Yankees." It gave us the prestige, which we had only to folloAV up, as we did at Corinth, at luka, at Vicksburg, Chattanooga, Atlanta, Columbia and Raleigh — yea, to the end of the Avar, to assure absolute success. I have always estimated the victories of the Army of the Tennessee at Fort Donelson and Shiloh as the most valuable of all, because of their moral effect. They gave our men confidence in themselves, and in a corresponding degree shook the confidence of southern men in their own prowess, for at no subsequent battle did they ever attack with as much vehem ence and perseverance as they did on the morning of April 6. The battle of Shiloh was the precursor of many subsequent victories which ended, as all the world knows, in the Personal Recollections of Sherman. 225 TRIUMPH of our arms and of our cause, so that we have reason to assemble here tonight in commemoration of that eventful battle. General H. W. Halleck at that time was in chief command over all the armies in the West, with his headquarters in St. Louis, but soon after, he came to Shiloh in person with many able and experienced staff-officers, among them Colonel George Thorn, then and now of the engineer's corps. He caused the battlefield to be surveyed, and his map is still the standard one. But Colonel Thorn was not present before or during the bat tle. I am convinced he has located on his map the several Divisions incorrectly. I know such is the case with regard to my own, and believe so in regard to others, and, therefore, I have had prepared a tracing of this map and have located the troops as I believe they were at the beginning and end of the first day. The map, as thus modified, tells the story of the battle. The many roads indicated on this map did not exist at the time we first reached Pittsburg Landing, nor at the time of the battle. Then there was but one single road — the Corinth road, which reached the river, affording room for only four or five boats to unload, but as other boats accumulated, other roads were improvised up the hill from the water's edge to the general plateau above, and new roads were made by the wag oners hauling supplies from the boats to the several camps. All these roads as marked on the maps were mud roads ; not roads at all in a military sense, but simply open ways by which six mules could haul about a ton of freight from the river to the camps. The general plateau, excepting the cleared fields, was wooded with oak, maple and hickory, the latter in some places so thick that there was real difficulty in forcing one's way through on horseback. I know there are many present in this room tonight who can verify the changes I suggest, and I will leave this traced map with the Secretary of the Society for future use. General Sherman and his army were very often criticised for acts said to be committed by stragglers, such as pillaging, robbery, etc. If this was true, it was absolutely against all the orders. General Sherman held to the policy, that in the enemy's country, where necessary, they should live off of the country, and he had full precedent in this by every other na tion. The English Avere very critical in this matter, but anyone 226 Personal Recollections of Sherman. can read of the campaign of the Duke of Wellington, who prac ticed and upheld this policy. He followed it in Portugal and Spain. Writing to the Earl of Liverpool, February 23, 1811, he says : The French have shown throughout the war in the Penin sula, but particularly in the last campaign in Portugal, that they operate on the flank and rear and communications of their .enemy, never having any anxiety about their own. And this system is the consequence of the mode in which they sub sist their army. They plunder everything they find in the country, every article, whether of food or raiment, and every animal and vehicle of every description is considered to belong of right and without payment to the French army. His campaigns were noted for the pillaging of his soldiers and the living off of the country. Napoleon quartered his armies on the enemy and subsisted off of the country. Germany, Austria and Russia did the same, but they did not do it in as orderly a manner or under- such strict instruction as Sherman's army did. General Sherman says in answer to these criticisms : The Army of the Tennessee traversed the land from Padu cah to Memphis, and from Vicksburg to Washington, inland, a distance of more than two thousand miles of country, sparse ly populated, with families wide apart, the male members of which were in the ranks of our opposing armies, and in the two years — 1864-65 — I heard of but two cases of rape. Again, all the able-bodied white men of the South were in the arm ies of the Confederacy, far away from their homes, leaving their families to the care of the black slaves. Now I do not know a single instance where the females of any family were abused by the blacks. These black slaves labored for their master's wives and daughters, protected them, and never, to my knowledge, in a single instance violated that sacred trust, although they well understood that our success would be their freedom, and the success of their masters would doom them to another long period of slavery. If for no other reason than this, every southern gentleman, every soutnern man who claims to be a descendant of the proud Chevaliers and Huge- nots, should honor the black man for his fidelity in that dread Personal Recollections of Sherman. 227 period; should protect him in all his acquired rights, and aid him to rise to the scale of social and political life. It is dif ficult, if not impossible, to bring force to bear on the individual living in a prejudiced community, as for instance in Utah, and in the South, where slavery had made the common white citizen (the juryman) regard the negro as necessarily his inferior, because no man in this country can be punished for crime, save on presentment by the Grand Jury, and after trial by a pettit jury on the vicinage. This, our Constitution, our funda mental law, which the President, Congress and all the courts must enforce, was unquestionably meant by our forefathers to protect the weak against the strong, but now it shelters the guilty against the humane purposes of the law. Prejudices will, however, gradually disappear; they have largely disap peared in our day, and we who believe in the triumph of ab stract, have faith that the day will come, in good time, when all men will be absolutely and perfectly equal before the law. Time is the great physician, and we who can compare the state of feeling and of facts in 1861, can measure the future by this scale of twenty years, and thereby prognosticate what will be the probable state of feeling and of facts in this, our country, at the end of the present century. We believe that history will adjudge the Civil War to have been not only one of the great est, but one of the best wars that ever occurred on earth, and that the Army of the Tennessee accomplished a large share in its beneficient results. On December 21, 1884, Colonel F. D. Grant informed me that he had just come from Dr. Fordyce Baker, who told him that his father could not live long ; perhaps a month or two ; perhaps not so long. He said that Governor Fish and Dr. Newman were the only ones that knew it. I was thunder struck, for only the Sunday before I was at the house, and the General looked fairly well, though I knew he was much distressed. I told Colonel Grant that Sherman was in the city, and suggested going down and telling him how sick his father was, and have him see him. We went to the Fifth Avenue Hotel and found General Sherman, who said he was in good health ; was troubled some with asthma, but was full of work, attend ing to meetings, etc., etc. Colonel Fred said to General Sher man: 228 Personal Recollections of Sherman. I think my father's history tells more of what you did than your own Memoirs. Sherman said: Well, when Grant writes anything we can all depend on getting the facts. When he writes and says himself what was done, and Avhat he saw, no soldier need fear ; but when others write what he does and says, it is not ahvays so. Colonel Fred said he had been having considerable trouble with the publishers or editors of the Century, Avho were to publish the war articles, Shiloh, Vicksburg, Wilderness and Appomattox, and that they had made his father very angry; that they wanted him to change the word Rebel in his article to Confederate and the word Union to Federal. He said that finally General Grant wrote a short letter demanding that his articles be published as written. Fred further said that his father had written three articles, but that he did not believe he would write any more. Sherman said : This trying to soften treason by expunging the Avords of the General was wrong, and that if it kept on, pretty soon the sons of Southern soldiers would consider it as much of an honor that their fathers fought under Lee as the sons of Union soldiers that their fathers fought under Grant ; that the line of Union and Rebel, of loyalty and treason, should be al ways kept distinct. I remarked : As long as our friends live it will, but the tendency all the time is to wipe out history ; to forget it ; to forgive, excuse and soften, and when all the soldiers pass from this age it Avill be easy to slip into the idea that one side Avas as good as the other. Sherman said : It was a conspiracy until Sumpter was fired upon, after that it was a rebellion. Governor Woodford came in and Sherman related to him what Fred Grant had said, but Woodford made no response. Fred also said his father had written his life from boyhood to Personal Recollections of Sherman. 229 Donelson; had written Shiloh, Vicksburg, Granada, Chatta nooga, and the march of Sherman from Memphis to Chatta nooga, and the Wilderness; said his father had omitted writ ing for four days. He asked me to come up and see his father evenings. When you compare these statements existing then with the leniency that exists today, you can see Avhat a marked change there is. Virginia has placed in the rotunda of the Capitol in Wash ington, the statue of General Lee, without any protest or criti cism from the citizens, and with only an occasional criticism from the veterans. During a trip from New York to Cincinnati, to attend a meeting of the Society of the Army of the Tennessee, the ques tion of the transcontinental lines came up, and Sherman ex pressed a wish that when the lines from Portland, Oregon, which were being constructed by way of Tacoma and Seattle, and so on north to the Canadian Pacific were completed, we could make a trip, starting from New York and going by way of California, and thence north and back by way of the Cana dian Pacific, ending our trip and making the circle complete in New York. I said to him : General, whenever that connection is made I will take a car and we Avill make the trip. You shall select your party. I have never seen the Canadian Pacific, and I will wait and go with you. A short time before he died, in 1891, he was in my office in New York, and was standing at the window looking at the grand view of New York bay. He said to me: "Dodge, have you noticed that that line between. Seattle and the Ca nadian Pacific is nearly completed?" I answered and said, "I had not, but when it is I am ready to make the trip." While he lay dead in New York the connection of those lines was made. It was the only thing which he seemed to 230 Personal Recollections of Sherman. express a great desire to accomplish before he rounded out his life, and it is the regret of my life that he was unable to do so. I left New York a few days afterward. General Sherman died February 14, 1891. I had left him only a week before, when he appeared to me perfectly well. I was en route to the Pacific coast, attending to my duties, when at Omaha I received a dispatch from his family, telling me of his death and requesting my return. I immediately returned to New York and went directly to the family, and found that the funeral arrangements were un der the direction of Major-General Henry C. Slocum and Major-General 0. 0. Howard, both of whom had been Army and Corps commanders in General Sherman's army. He was given a military funeral, the procession being under the command of Major-General 0. 0. Howard, commanding the Department of the East, and the pallbearers were Major- Generals J. M. Schofield, 0. 0. Howard, D. E. Sickles, G. M. Dodge, J. M. Corse, Wager Swayne, Stewart L. Woodford, Rear-Admirals D. L. Braine, J. A. Greer, Professor H. L. Ken- drick and General Joseph E. Johnston. It was a very imposing procession from the house on 75th street to the Ferry. The streets were lined Avith immense crowds. The remains were taken on a funeral train on the Pennsylvania railroad to St. Louis. There the Society of the Army of the Tennessee was the guard of Honor, and the Mili tary had charge of the procession there, his remains being car ried on an artillery caisson, and the streets there for miles were lined with citizens. The Society of the Army of the Tennessee marched imme diately in the rear of the caisson, and the scenes along the march were very impressive— at times negroes, viewing the procession, would often step out from the sidewalk and drop on their knees and offer prayer as the caisson bearing the remains passed. Personal Recollections of Sherman. 231 At the burial in the cemetery at St. Louis, the services were performed by Father T. E. Sherman. General Schofield stood by my side at the side of the grave, and as the son of General Sherman read the service without a tremor, Schofield, with tears in his eyes, turned to me and said: "How long could you do that?" I answered, "Not a moment." And on the return from the grave to our cars I asked Father Sherman, knowing what his feelings must be, how he could go so quiet ly through the ceremony, even to giving .the order for the fir ing of the salute? And his answer was : "I could not do it, only that it was my duty." General Sherman was born on February 8, 1820, therefore was a few days over 71 years old, and apparently in full Angor, mentally and physically when he died. My own thoughts as to General Sherman were given upon his death to a New York journal as follows : I was Avith General Sherman from Corinth to Atlanta during the war. We implicitly obeyed him, because we saw that he was master of the art of war, and we soon learned that apparently, in an outward sense, he had no sympathy outside of his duties. He was called a tycoon by some soldiers on that account, but no soldier received an order of his with any doubt. They believed any order he gave meant victory. After the war, at the reunion, at the banquet table, in his own house, in business circles, a greater man, a kinder man and a more lovable man it has never been my lot to meet. I speak of him as a friend who, from the first time I ever met him, has been almost a father to me. I speak of him enthusiastically, for my heart approves what my head knows of the General. General Sherman in the war and General Sherman after the war, however, were two distinct persons. During the war he was of, all commanders, most exact and exacting. There was with him but one thing for a soldier to do, and that was his duty. He was sometimes gruff and sometimes seemed a hard task master, and yet, within his heart, no commander thought more of his men and was more wrapped up in their welfare. Since the war he grew gradually milder, kinder, warmer, deeper and more cordial. No great general has been easier of approach to the rich and poor alike. No man has per- 232 Personal Recollections of Sherman. sonally done more to aid those who fought under him and in their need appealed to him for help. His charities to his old soldiers forced economies that he should not have made. Wherever he went he was the center of friends who Crowded around him. Every Saturday he would come to my office, No. 1 Broad way, and watch the foreign steamers go out and come in. You could see them round Sandy Hook, and his comments on them were always very interesting. I do not regard the march from Atlanta to the sea as the great military achievement of General Sherman. It was a bold march, and made the General's name forever famous. The Atlanta campaign was a far greater achievement, with men well drilled, well commanded — a battle every day. The cam paign of Atlanta was a succession of brilliant victories. The march to the sea was a romance. It is sung all over the world, and is the most noted because it split the Confederacy in two without a struggle, and because Sherman cast loose and staked his army, as people thought, recklessly. But he knew there was no force to stop him before he got to Savannah. But infinitely greater in a military sense was the march from Savannah to Goldsborough. Here Sherman had a small army, about half of what he started with from Chattanooga. He was cut off from all supplies and it was impossible for any men from the north to reach him. He marched into the face of all the forces that could be concentrated in all the South, with the enemy doubling up before him. It was an occasion that required generalship of the highest order, military strategy and remarkable courage and fortitude. I know noth ing in the history of the war that was a greater or more bril liant or more successful achievement, except Vicksburg. In a military sense it made Sherman. It is only a few days ago that I was talking with one of the greatest generals of Europe, and he expressed to me the same opinion. I think that down in his heart General Sherman himself regarded the march from Savannah as his best title to military greatness. General Sherman's private life was perfect. He was a model husband and a loving father. His private life is as beautiful and as sacred as his military life was distinguished. On religious matters I don't know the exact nature of his be lief. His wife was a devout Catholic. No one knew her but to love her, a woman beautiful in her devotion to her church, and the General doubtless regarded her religious beliefs with favor and reverence. If General Sherman had a weakness — I speak now of the time during the war— no one ever found it out. He was always the same. He was never despondent. He never seemed to Personal Recollections of Sherman. 233 have a doubt. To all appearances he was too great for dis couragements, too courageous to entertain even a possibility of failure, and of too much faith to entertain an idea of any thing but ultimate success. He rode at the head of the best drilled and disciplined army the world ever saw, as one on whom Avas laid the heaviest weight of a great responsibility, but who believed that the outcome was as certain as the sun was to rise on the morrow. The things that affected others did not affect him. What others hoped, he felt and believed with his whole heart and soul. Grant himself, made greater by the final victory of the war, was in almost all things dif ferent from Sherman ; but in loyalty, in faith and confidence in their own plans, they were alike. General Sherman never had any patience with grumblers and growlers, criticisers of orders and the "I told you so's." I remember well a meeting between one of these officers and General Sherman. General Sherman sized up the growler and said: "What are you com plaining about? You are an officer. You ought to get down on your knees and thank Heaven you are even allowed to carry a musket in the great cause for which we are fighting." The General passed on and the growler was silenced. Upon the death of General Sherman, in 1891, and at the next meeting of the Society of the Army of the Tennessee in Chi cago, October 8, 1891, the following committee was appointed for. the purpose of erecting a monument in Washington in honor and memory of General Sherman : Major-General Grenville M. Dodge, Colonel J. F. How, Brigadier-General Andrew Hickenlooper, Brigadier-General John W. Noble, Colonel David B. Henderson, Major S. E. Bar rett, Colonel Augustus Jacobsen, Colonel W. McCrory, Colonel .Cornelius Cadle. That committee, with the aid of Congress, raised $123,- 969.91 for the erection of the monument. By the act of Con gress, approved July 5, 1892, making it's appropriation, the Sherman Monument commission was created, consisting of the president of the Society of the Army of the Tennessee, the Secretary of War, the Commander of the Army of the United States. The erection of the monument was under the supervision of the following officers of the Corps of Engineers: Col- 234 Personal Recollections of Sherman. onel John M. Wilson, 1895-1897; Lieutenant Jno. S. Sewell, 1897; Colonel Theodore A. Bingham, 1897-1903; Colonel Thomas W. Symons, 1903. At the competition of models, Carl Rohl-Smith was select ed as the sculptor of the monument, and the contract was awarded to him on November 18th, 1896. Dedication of the monument was October 15, 1903. The military and naval pageant was restricted to the United States forces, army, navy and marine Corps, stationed in. the vicinity of Washington, and the National Guard of the District of Co lumbia, under command of Lieutenant General S. B. M. Young. The Societies of the Army of the Tennessee, Army of the Potomac, Army of the Cumberland and Army of the Ohio, attended in a body, and were represented at the dedication orations. The President of the Commission at the dedicatory exercises gave the following description of the monument: At the time of the death of General Sherman, he was presi dent of the Society of the Army of the Tennessee. That So ciety immediately resolved to erect in Washington a suitable memorial to its great commander, and, with the aid of Con gress, has given you this splendid life-work of art. Immediately after the great review of all the armies in Washington, General Sherman went to his home in St. Louis. At that time I was in command of that department, and in describing the grand review of all the armies, Sherman said that he had witnessed the march of that magnificent and splen didly equipped Army of the Potomac, and felt a great desire that his army should make as creditable an appearance. After the review of the first day, he returned to his command across the Potomac, and called around him his commanding officers and told them what he had witnessed, urging them the neces sity of their making known to their commands the necessity for them to brush up and put forth their best efforts in con duct and marching the next day. As he rode at the head of his column up Pennsylvania av enue, Avhen he reached the rise near the Treasury Department, he turned and looked down the avenue and saw his old army coming — with their old spirit, energy and swing — and was sat- Personal Recollections of Sherman. 235 isfied that they would do their best ; and he believed it was the happiest and most satisfactory moment of his life. The crowd seemed to appreciate his thoughts, and welcomed him with a great ovation. The sculptor, Carl Rohl-Smith, has endeav ored to present General Sherman in bronz as he appeared at that moment, and you can all appreciate how ably and satis factorily he has accomplished his work. The two allegorical figures represent "war" and "peace," the effect of which probably no general officer more emphat ically enforced than General Sherman. The bas-reliefs represent on the north front the "march to the sea," on the east front Sherman at Chattanooga attack ing Bragg's right, on the south front the battle of Atlanta on July 22, the greatest battle of the campaign, and Sherman walking before the campfire, with hands clasped behind him, in deep thought, while everything around him was sleeping. This is so characteristic that all who served under Sherman will appreciate it. He once said to me that we little knew how many anxious hours he passed in pacing in front of his tent in thought and planning while we were quietly sleeping. The medallions represent the Army and Corps commanders of the Army of the Tennessee who served under Sherman. They are McPherson and Howard, Logan and Blair, Smith and Grierson, Ransom and Dodge. The four arms of the service, engineers, cavalry, artillery and infantry, are each represented by a soldier as he appeared in campaign. The mosaic walk surrounding the monument has in it the names of the principal battles in which General Sherman was engaged. It was a great misfortune that the sculptor, Carl Rohl- Smith, died with his work only half completed, but it was a very fortunate circumstance that his wife, Mrs. Sarah Rohl- Smith, who is present today, could take up his work where he left it and carry it to so successful a completion, and on be half of the commission, and of the societies of the four great armies here represented, and, I knoAv, of all others who have seen this great work of art, I wish to extend to her our hearty thanks and appreciation of the great success she has achieved in the efficient and satisfactory manner in which this national statue has been completed. The commission, through the courtesy of the United States Minister, has placed upon the tomb of Carl Rohl-Smith, in Copenhagen, Denmark, at this moment a suitable floral tribute to his memory, and in testimony of its appreciation of his great work. 236 Personal Recollections of Sherman. Master William Tecumseh Thorndike, a grandson of Gen eral Sherman, unveiled the monument. The immense audi ence was then addressed by the President of the United States, who was followd by Colonel D. B. Henderson of the Army of the Tennessee, Major-General Daniel E. Sickles of the Army of the Potomac, General Charles H. Grosvenor of the Army of the Cumberland, and General Thomas J. Henderson of the Army of the Ohio. We see then that General Sherman, as a soldier, and Wil liam Tecumseh Sherman as a citizen, were distinctly two dif ferent men. Sherman as a soldier asked nothing, would take nothing except duty from his subordinates, and he gave noth ing but absolute loyalty and duty to a superior. He had the good will of every man who worked under him. I know of no man who ever received an order to make a march or go into battle, but felt he would make the one successful and win the other. Sherman had the nickname in the Army of the Ten nessee of the "Old Tycoon," but the soldiers knew that he protected and looked after their interests, and they knew he would take care of them. General Sherman, after the war, when he came into civil life, was one of the most generous of men. To the old soldiers and commanders who served under him, he could not be too gracious. At every opportunity he would push them to the front. At a dinner at his club, or at his home, he had a nice way or faculty of making every soldier believe that he had done something wonderful, or he gave him the credit of having done something that would give him standing Avhere- ever he was. He spent a great portion of his income for the personal good of old soldiers, and no person could have traveled with him, as I have done, and see the expressions of love, sympathy and respect he received, but would value him as I do— for his large generosity and great deeds after the Avar. And, as a Personal Recollections of Sherman. 237 statesman, his writings and speeches stamp him as able to grapple with any national problem. It seems almost impossible for us who knew him from the beginning of the war to its close, and then to have known him from the close of the war to his death, to appreciate the two distinct qualities that made him superior in each of his two lives. The patience, the firmness, the resolution with which he pursued his difficult campaign against Johnston from Chatta nooga to Atlanta, constitute one of the finest achievements in history. The boldness of conception, the ingenuity of the plan, rhe accepting of desperate chances in giving Lee an opportun ity to crush him in his campaign from Savannah to Golds boro, will forever give Sherman prestige as a bold, fearless, strategical commander. Upon that campaign alone I am will ing to stake Sherman's military reputation for all time. YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 3 9002 01486 3428