ON THIS DAY: Monday, April 14, 2008

“At last I stand redeemed”

Brig. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman writes Ellen today from his camp on the Shiloh battleground. He recounts yesterday’s expedition up the Tennessee River that successfully destroyed an important railroad bridge, but his biggest news is about a message Maj. Gen. Henry W. Halleck has just sent to Washington. The brief letter praises Sherman’s performance at the battle of Shiloh, saying it “contributed largely to the glorious victory of the 7^th.” Halleck is recommending Sherman be promoted to major general.

Coming only days after Grant’s praise for Sherman’s performance, the once depressed Cump is now triumphant. “At last I stand redeemed from the vile slanders of the Cincinnati paper,” he tells Ellen. Sherman is referring to an article Murat Halstead published in the Cincinnati Commercial the previous December 11. Headlined “General William T. Sherman Insane,” the heavily opinionated piece painted a horrific picture of a Sherman terrified by events during his command in Kentucky. While the tightly wired Sherman may have suffered an emotional break in Kentucky, he never was “insane.”

Of course, part of Sherman’s problem with the press is his loathing for it, which the journalists return with interest. Now he tells Ellen how newspaper reporters “keep shy of me as I have said the first one I catch will hang as a spy.”

Then Sherman returns to his personal situation: “I made a fearful mistake in Kentucky and if I recover it will be a wonderful instance. I have made good progress here….”

He concludes, “I think you will have some satisfaction and I know your father will be pleased that I am once more restored to favor.”

ELSEWHERE IN THE CIVIL WAR: Skirmishes occur at Santa Fe Road, Diamond Grove, and Montevallo, all in Missouri, involving, on the Union side, mostly small cavalry detachments from Iowa, Kansas, and Missouri regiments. Nonetheless, two Union men are killed and seven wounded. From such little affairs, families suffer terrible losses while history scarcely notices.

Fort Pillow is a strategically located Confederate installation on the Chickasaw Bluffs overlooking the Mississippi River, north of Memphis, Tennessee. The fall of Island No. 10 to the north has made the fort vulnerable and today Federal mortar boats pound the fort and will continue until the Confederates abandon it in June.

ELSEWHERE IN THE CIVIL WAR: Under pressure from Union troops, Confederate forces are fleeing New Mexico. In Alabama, Brig. Gen. Ormsby M. Mitchel, the “astronomer-soldier” from Ohio, occupies Decatur. In the East, McClellan’s Army of the Potomac is advancing up the Virginia Peninsula, the Confederate capital of Richmond their object. Almost everywhere one looks, the Confederacy is in trouble.

IT’S COMING SOONER THAN YOU THINK: April 12, 2011—less than 3 years from now!—will be the 150^th anniversary of the outbreak of the Civil War. In 1861, April 12 was the day Confederates opened fire on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor.

Your suggestions, comments, and questions about this blog are always welcome. Address the author: Ohioan@bloodtearsandglory.com

For more information about the author and his newest book, please go to http://www.orangefrazer.com/btg

ON THIS DAY: Sunday, April 13, 1862

A Good Day’s Work

Having regained his self-confidence in the battle of Shiloh, Brig. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman spends the day making mischief in the enemy’s land. Escorted by the gunboats Tyler and Lexington, Sherman, 100 horsemen of the 4^th Illinois cavalry and a brigade of infantrymen use two steamboats to sail from Pittsburg Landing and up the Tennessee River, through northeastern Mississippi, and a few miles into northwest Alabama.

Disembarking at Chickasaw Landing, Alabama—about 15 miles from Pittsburg Landing, the cavalry chases some Confederate pickets, who burn one of their own bridges behind them. Next, the Union cavalry destroys 500 feet of railroad trestle over Bear Creek, tears down a half-mile of telegraph wire (throwing it into the river), and wrecks some railroad track, bending rails by heating them on bonfires of railroad ties. This cuts an important line of the Memphis and Charleston Railroad, said to be the main connection between the eastern and western Confederacy.

Blocked by shoals from proceeding further and doing still more damage, Sherman’s expedition returns to Pittsburg Landing and the congratulations of Maj. Gen. Henry W. Halleck, who now personally commands all troops in the area.

“Halleck was delighted,” Sherman will report to Ellen.

ELSEWHERE IN THE CIVIL WAR: Under pressure from Union troops, Confederate forces are fleeing New Mexico. In Alabama, Brig. Gen. Ormsby M. Mitchel, the “astronomer-soldier” from Ohio, occupies Decatur. In the East, McClellan’s Army of the Potomac is advancing up the Virginia Peninsula, the Confederate capital of Richmond the objective. Almost everywhere one looks, the Confederacy is in trouble.

IT’S COMING SOONER THAN YOU THINK: April 12, 2011—3 years from now!—will be the 150^th anniversary of the outbreak of the Civil War. In 1861, April 12 was the day Confederates opened fire on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor.

Your suggestions, comments, and questions about this blog are always welcome. Address the author: Ohioan@bloodtearsandglory.com

For more information about the author and his newest book, please go to http://www.orangefrazer.com/btg

On this day: Friday, April 11, 1862

“I am forced into prominence”

It took four days after the battle at Pittsburg Landing Tennessee, (“Shiloh”) but finally Brig. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman, sits down to write his wife, Ellen. Emotionally fractured by the pressure of his duties only a few months before, Sherman now sounds positively jaunty.

Last Sunday morning he was caught off-guard by a surprise Confederate attack that never should been a surprise, but Sherman didn't waver in his duty. Many of his men, including officers, fled in panic, but Sherman boldly galloped back and forth across the battlefield, waving his sword and rallying his remaining troops. The Confederates’ attack was overwhelming, but, under Sherman’s direction, his remaining 5^th Division men fought stubbornly, giving up ground reluctantly and slowing down the Confederate advance.

“Well we have had a big battle where they shot real bullets and I am safe, except for a buckshot wound in my hand and a bruised shoulder from a spent ball,” Sherman writes, adopting a slightly ironic tone. He admits he had some close calls: three horses were shot out from under him and his orderly and bodyguard, an Illinoisan named Thomas D. Holliday, was killed by his side.

Despite his studied casualness about it all, Sherman admits the battle was a hard struggle. “I won’t attempt to give an account of the battle [Ellen is advised to read the newspapers and “cut out paragraphs with my name”] but they say that I accomplished some important results and Gen. Grant makes special mention of me in his report which he shew me.”

In fact, Sherman and Grant were becoming closely acquainted, with Sherman undoubtedly impressed by Grant’s calm resolve during the battle. Cump is feeling confident enough to accept the possibility of playing an important role in the war to come. “I have worked hard to keep down but somehow I am forced into prominence and might as well submit,” he tells Ellen, reversing his previous resolve to stay in the background and let others be the leaders.

Elsewhere at Pittsburg Landing, something momentous is happening. Maj. Gen. Henry W. Halleck has arrived from his St. Louis headquarters to take over command, relegating Grant to a meaningless secondary position. Halleck has never commanded more than a platoon in the field. Soon, Pope’s Army of the Mississippi, fresh from its victory at Island No. 10, will join the forces already at Pittsburg Landing, and then, under Halleck’s direction, perhaps the slowest and most ponderous advances of any army in the Civil War will begin.

ELSEWHERE IN THE CIVIL WAR: This afternoon, Fort Pulaski, a Confederate emplacement guarding the channel to Savannah, Georgia, surrenders. Union cannon on nearby Tybee Island had fired over 5,000 projectiles against the fort, blasting two holes through its brick wall. Capturing the fort expands the Union naval blockade of the Confederacy.

In Alabama, Union forces under Brig. Gen. Ormsby McKnight Mitchel, an Ohio professor of science known as the “Astronomer-Soldier," occupies Huntsville, an important center for Confederate rail and river transportation.

IT’S COMING SOONER THAN YOU THINK: April 12, 2011—scarcely 3 years from now!—will be the 150^th anniversary of the outbreak of the Civil War. In 1861, April 12 was the day Confederates opened fire on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor.

Your suggestions, comments, and questions about this blog are always welcome. Address the author: Ohioan@bloodtearsandglory.com

For more information about the author and his newest book, please go to http://www.orangefrazer.com/btg

ON THIS DAY, Friday, April 4, 1862

The Peace of Shiloh

The 45,000 Confederates advancing towards Grant were supposed to arrive today at an intersection about four miles from the Union encampment. Thanks to muddy roads, the inexperience of the troops, and Beauregard’s poorly organized line of march, few do.

Even the Confederate commander. Maj. Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston, gets a late start. He doesn’t leave his headquarters in Corinth until this morning, By afternoon he has reached a tiny cluster of log cabins called Monterey He commandeers one of the cabins for his headquarters. Monterey is less than half way to the expected battleground at Pittsburg Landing.

Because of the unexpectedly slow advance, Johnston postpones the attack on Grant until tomorrow. Meanwhile, the Union camp is seeing signs that something is up, but comprehension where it counts—at top command level—is lacking.

There is a small skirmish between Confederate cavalry scouts and a few Union pickets, resulting in one wounded Union soldier.

Somebody in the 77^th Ohio notices small animals scurrying out nearby woods and so three men of the 77^th stroll out to see what the cause might be. They see a swarm of Confederates in the distance—apparently an advance guard—and send a message to their division commander, Brig. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman.

But Sherman, who suffered an emotional break in Kentucky over real or imagined enemy threats, has an entirely new frame of mind. Instead of following up on the warning from the 77^th Ohio, he orders the messenger arrested for spreading a false alarm. (The order was later rescinded.)

In the afternoon, Col. Ralph Buckland orders his brigade—consisting of the 48^th Ohio, 70^th Ohio, and 72^nd Ohio—out of camp for drill. They are expecting to find eight Union picket guards on the camp’s outskirts—but they have vanished, perhaps captured. Buckland’s men go looking for the missing men and get in to a fight with some Confederates. Sent to Buckland’s aid, Maj. Elbridge G. Ricker of the 5^th Ohio Cavalry captures nine prisoners and sees a large enemy force in the distance, including cavalry and artillery. Ricker estimates the enemy force at 2,000 men.

Buckland and Ricker rush to Sherman, warning him an enemy offensive may be in the offing. Sherman scornfully retorts that it must be an enemy reconnaissance in force, sneering, “Oh, tut, tut. You militia officers get scared too easily.”

Only the day before, Sherman wrote his wife, Ellen, “We are constantly in the presence of the enemy’s pickets, but I am satisfied they will await our coming at Corinth or some point on the Charleston Road.”

The relaxed Sherman took time to describe the pleasant climate: “The weather is now spring-like, apples & peaches in blossom and trees beginning to leave. Bluebirds singing and spring weather upon the hillsides.”

Shiloh—the word is often taken to mean “peace” or “giver of peace”—is a lovely place in the spring.

IT’S COMING SOONER THAN YOU THINK: April 12, 2011—less than 3½ years from now!—will be the 150^th anniversary of the outbreak of the Civil War. In 1861, April 12 was the day Confederates opened fire on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor.

Your suggestions, comments, and questions about this blog are always welcome. Address the author: Ohioan@bloodtearsandglory.com

For more information about the author and his newest book, please go to http://www.orangefrazer.com/btg

ON THIS DAY: Tuesday, March 18, 1862

“It will be a big lick”

At 3 o’clock this morning, in his headquarters overlooking the Tennessee River at Savannah, Tennessee, Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant writes his beloved Julia, “When you hear of another great and important strike I can’t tell you, but it will be a big lick so far as numbers are concerned.

“I have no misgivings myself as to the result and you must not feel the slightest alarm.

“With one more great success I do not see how the rebellion is to be sustained.”

We shall see.

A few miles upriver, at Pittsburg Landing, Brig. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman, writes his wife, Ellen. He has less to say about what may be coming, but admits, “We may have fights at Purdy and Corinth.”

Most of his letter describes his failed strike, a few days earlier, at a Confederate railroad line. “The rain fell in torrents…and the Tennessee River rose 15 feet in one day,” he says.

Sherman goes on to describe the countryside as largely deserted by its residents. “In a circuit of many miles I find houses abandoned, the people having fled, because they are told we take everything we can lay our hands on, [including] all the pretty girls…I had an old man who really believed this, and was much assured when I said if he would stay at home & mind his own business I would not permit the soldiers to disturb him..

“On going to his house, his wife & children had fled to the woods as though we were savages—Our soldier do in spite of all efforts burn [fence] rails, steal geese, chickens, &c &c.”

Twenty-two miles from Pittsburg Landing on the Tennessee River, the Rebel railroad junction at Corinth (pictured above) begins receiving its first Confederate troops from Murfreesboro, part of a massive buildup to block further Union advances along the river.

ELSEWHERE IN THE CIVIL WAR: Confederate President Jefferson Davis makes some changes in his Cabinet, most notably naming George W. Randolph of Virginia as secretary of war, succeeding Judah P. Benjamin, moved to secretary of state. However, the Confederacy will find a secretary of war to match the Union’s irascible but brilliant Edwin M. Stanton, a lawyer born and raised in Steubenville, Ohio.

IT’S COMING SOONER THAN YOU THINK: April 12, 2011—less than 3½ years from now!—will be the 150^th anniversary of the outbreak of the Civil War. In 1861, April 12 was the day Confederates opened fire on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor.

Your suggestions, comments, and questions about this blog are always welcome. Address the author: Ohioan@bloodtearsandglory.com
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ON THIS DAY: Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Heading for Redemption

He doesn’t know it, of course, but as Brig. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman moves up the Tennessee River, he is heading for redemption, and soon. Straight ahead lies a large, rolling area of farm fields and woods, with a convenient landing place for boats. A couple miles inland stands a small, log church. It is called Shiloh.

The expedition of which Sherman is part is a huge movement of Union troops, ordered by Maj. Gen. Henry W. Halleck, with orders to sweep the river banks of Confederates and not stop until they reach Eastport, Mississippi, near the Alabama line.

Pausing at Savannah, Tennessee, Sherman takes a moment to write Ellen. He is still smarting over his emotional break while in command last fall in Kentucky, and he is deeply grateful to Ellen for her support during the crisis. “You may rest assured that the devotion & affection you have exhibited in the past winter has endeared you more than ever and if it should so happen that I can regain my position and self respect be restored I will labor hard for you and our children.”

Later in the war and after it, Ellen will have occasion to cherish letters like this. Over the years, her efforts to bring Cump into her beloved Roman Catholic Church when he wants no part of any church will cause serious tensions in the marriage. Words like those in Cump’s letter today will become rare.

Although he is back in command of soldiers, Cump's self-confidence is still shaky. He heads a division of about 9,000 soldiers, mostly “raw & green” Ohio men, but he is part of a much larger force guided by higher authorities, which is just the way he likes it. “As I have nothing to do with the plans, I feel perfectly easy,” he tells Ellen.

ELSEWHERE IN THE CIVIL WAR: Union soldiers under Banks enter Winchester in the Shenandoah Valley. Stonewall Jackson is retreating now, but that will soon change. Confederate President Davis tells one of his generals, “we have suffered great anxiety because of recent events in Kentucky and Tennessee.”

IT’S COMING SOONER THAN YOU THINK: April 12, 2011—less than 3½ years from now!—will be the 150^th anniversary of the outbreak of the Civil War. In 1861, April 12 was the day Confederates opened fire on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor.

Your suggestions, comments, and questions about this blog are always welcome. Address the author: Ohioan@bloodtearsandglory.com

For more information about the author and his newest book, please go to http://www.orangefrazer.com/btg

WEDNESDAY, Jan. 1, 1862

“I…so signally failed”

It is New Year’s Day. From western Virginia, Capt. Tom Taylor of the 47^th Ohio sends his wife, Netta, a picture of himself as a “New Year’s gift.” Also in western Virginia, Lt. Col. Rutherford B. Hayes of the 23^rd Ohio is his usual cheery self, noting the weather was windy and threatening “as if a storm were brewing, but no rain or snow. I set it down as a pleasant day.” In Kentucky, Col. William B. Hazen prepares to take command of a brigade—6 regiments—as well as his own regiment, the 41^st Ohio. Elsewhere, it is business as usual for Brig. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at his headquarters in Cairo, Illinois. He wrestles with problems with army bread, writes an order regarding transport of sick soldiers to and from a hospital, and wonders how to handle with “delicacy” a change of staff in his quartermaster’s department.

And at Benton Barracks, St. Louis, Brig. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman is suffering the miseries of the damned as he thinks back to the emotional flame-out in Kentucky which caused him to relinquish command.

I am here in a subordinate place whilst others occupy posts I ought to. I cannot claim them for having so signally failed in Kentucky and here I could not demand a higher place….The idea of having brought disgrace on all associated with me is so horrible to contemplate that I cannot really endure it.

Cump writes this to wife, Ellen (pictured above), in Lancaster, Ohio, to whom he now clings desperately as his emotional anchor…but he does not mention exactly what he means that he “cannot really endure it.” Three days later he tells his brother:

I am so sensible now of my disgrace from having exaggerated the force of our enemy in Kentucky that I do think I should have committed suicide were it not for my children.

How can Cump and his military career be saved?

IT’S COMING SOONER THAN YOU THINK: April 12, 2011—less than 3½ years from now!—will be the 150^th anniversary of the outbreak of the Civil War. In 1861, April 12 was the day Confederates opened fire on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor.

Your suggestions, comments, and questions about this blog are always welcome. Address the author: Ohioan@bloodtearsandglory.com

For more information about the author and his newest book, please go to http://www.orangefrazer.com/btg

ON THIS DAY: Tuesday, Dec. 17, 1861

“Gloomy & Unnatural”

After a two-week home leave to soothe his jangled nerves, Brig. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman (pictured here) reports for duty at the St. Louis headquarters of Maj. Gen. Henry W. Halleck, commander of the Union’s Department of the Missouri. Still upset over the December 11 Cincinnati Commercial article headlined “General William T. Sherman Insane,” Cump writes Ellen, “I cannot see that affairs here are materially changed in my absence” and “Matters here look gloomy & unnatural.”

Sherman still doubts his ability to command effectively: “I am not yet assigned a command and hardly know whether to push it, or take it easy, leaving Halleck time to assign me.” He also fears the outcome of the war: “If I could see any end to this war, save ruin to us all, I could occasionally feel better, but I see no hope at all.”

And yet others are laboring on his behalf. Brother John had discussed Cump during a long interview with President Lincoln and reported “the President felt kindly to him.” Ellen wrote a blistering letter to a Louisville newspaper that had copied the Commercial story and Ellen and John was able to persuade both the Louisville and Cincinnati papers to publish retractions. Brother Philemon Sherman had already written the Commecial to refute its claim, enclosing a letter from Halleck to that effect. In St. Louis, Halleck spoke reassuringly to Cump (while privately telling his wife “certainly he has acted insane”).

For a West Point-trained warrior, William Tecumseh Sherman is off to a very bad start in this war.

IN NEWS ELSEWHERE: Newspapers arriving here from abroad reveal the anger of the British public over the Trent affair. Suddenly, the U.S. Navy’s halting of the British ship to arrest two Confederate envoys doesn’t seem the brilliant idea it had at first. The New York Times editorializes hopefully that this is no more than “the work of the excited English press, and not at all the utterance of the English government.” The Times is wrong, and even it admits the reaction by English newspapers “threw Wall Street into such a paroxysm of alarm, and created so much excitement in [New York City] at large.”

Washington, we have a problem.

THE BIG PICTURE: So far, the Confederacy seems to be doing well and the Union has made progress here and there, but the situation is troubling to both. The Confederacy controls 11 states, plus significant portions of Kentucky and Missouri. And yet, there are troubling developments. The Union navy is nibbling away at the Confederacy’s coastline, with scattered toeholds Fortress Monroe in Virginia to Ships Island, Louisiana. And, thanks in large part to Ohio troops, western Virginia has effectively been wrested from Confederate control and the largest portion of Kentucky is still in Union hands. Further west, Ulysses Grant is consolidating his grip on southeastern Missouri and thinking ahead to more dramatic achievements. But in the Eastern Theater, Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan’s huge Army of the Potomac is going nowhere

ON THIS DAY: Thursday, Dec. 12, 1861

“Who’s Insane?”

Fuming over a Cincinnati newspaper story headlined “General William T. Sherman Insane,” Cump spends the day writing two letters. One is addressed to his influential father-in-law, Sen. Thomas Ewing in Washington, and is a detailed defense of his behavior.

“In these times tis hard to say who are sane and who insane,” Cump admits, but goes on to explain why he raised alarms in Kentucky and Missouri. In Kentucky, Sherman tells Ewing, “I knew of the impatience of the country for results, but to expect us…with troops many which were unarmed to assume the offensive whilst a well organized army lay at Washington was unfair,” he writes, referring to Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan’s mostly inert Army of the Potomac. In Missouri, Cump says, he became alarmed when he found Maj. Gen. Henry W. Halleck’s troops poorly positioned, and so he re-positioned them.

Sherman also writes General Halleck in St. Louis to ask if the actions the Ohioan had taken in Missouri strike Halleck as “evidence of a want of mind.”

Although Sherman’s apprehensions about Kentucky will not be fulfilled, his reasoning about the state’s exposure to attack and its defensive needs seem persuasive. (And he certainly is right that McClellan’s army “lay at Washington” unused.) In a few days, Halleck--an old friend of Sherman--will reply favorably. And Cump’s wife, Ellen, and other members of his family will rally to his defense in the days to come.

>>> If Sherman’s problem is too much press attention, another Ohioan is complaining of just the opposite. Stuck in winter quarters in western Virginia and seeing no action worthy of press attention, a frustrated Capt. Tom Taylor of the 47^th Ohio writes wife Netta a letter filled with sarcasm:

We have an accomplished German artist in our regiment whom we have excused from all duty in order to embalm our…march through this state in picture. Other regiments are extolled by reporters. Our artist and his pictures will extol us in the future…when the poor newspaper is passed away…. Won’t it be glorious?

Your suggestions, comments, and questions are always welcome. Address the author: Ohioan@bloodtearsandglory.com

For more information about the author’s book, go to http://www.orangefrazer.com/btg

ON THIS DAY: Wednesday, Dec. 11, 1861

“Sherman Insane!”

Brig. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman has been home in Lancaster, Ohio, for a few days, recovering at his father-in-law's house (above) from the stress he had experienced in Kentucky and Missouri. Then he picks up today’s Cincinnati newspaper and reads an article that threatens to blow a hole in his recuperation. “General William T. Sherman Insane” reads the headline in the Cincinnati Commercial.

The story asserts Sherman was “stark mad” while in command of Union forces in eastern Kentucky. The paper claims he had telegraphed three times in one day asking permission to abandon Kentucky, that he had frightened leading men in Kentucky “almost out of their wits,” and that in Missouri “he was a madman.”

None of this was true. Sherman was not “insane,” although he had suffered what we would call an “emotional break,” probably the result of a high intelligence combining with a vivid imagination during stressful circumstances. Nor was his demand for a large buildup of troops unrealistic, although it was dismissed as such at the time.

A 20^th-century psychiatrist who examined the known facts termed Sherman’s distress no more than a “mild ‘anxiety state.’” Contributing to the overheated news report was the inability of journalists to understand Sherman’s idiosyncrasies or see past his hostility to members of the press.

The newspaper article—widely reprinted—“distressed [Sherman] almost to death,” one of the general’s brother’s will report. Sherman spends the rest of the day sputtering and trying to decide what to do. Soon, his family, led by wife, Ellen, will rally in his defense.

IN NEWS ELSEWHERE: Charleston, South Carolina, experiences a disastrous fire, piling more woe on the suffering caused by a Union naval blockade. The fire sweeps across 540 acres, leveling 575 homes, stores, and churches. Unionists, who consider South Carolina the cockpit of secession, are only too happy to see the Charlestonians suffer.

In Washington, however, Abraham Lincoln reiterates his original purposes in the war. He says he regards the Union as unbroken and he will restore national law over the seceded states as soon as he can. He also will protect the all citizens in those states who have not engaged in rebellion. By taking this position, Lincoln is repudiating the harsher plans of the Radical Republicans whose desire is to free the slaves and punish the South.

Your suggestions, comments, and questions are always welcome. Address the author: Ohioan@bloodtearsandglory.com

For more information about the author’s book, go to http://www.orangefrazer.com/btg

ON THIS DAY: Monday, Nov. 11, 1861

In the nation’s capital, President Abraham Lincoln witnesses a torchlight parade honoring General-in-Chief. George B. McClellan. As he watches, Lincoln is probably wondering when McClellan is going to put his army to the use for which it was intended. McClellan never seems to think the time is right to move against the Confederacy.

In Louisville, Ellen Sherman remains at her troubled husband’s side, awaiting the arrival of his successor, Don Carlos Buell. She sent the three Sherman boys home yesterday and has written Cump’s brother John, urging him to come to Cump’s support.

In the western Virginia camp of the 23^rd Ohio, Pvt. William Roach of Company I is killed by the accidental discharge of a comrade’s pistol. He will be buried nearby and after the war reinterred in the Grafton, West Virginia, Military Cemetery. Nearly a century and a half later, he remains there in Section E, Site 610.

The war has subsided into low-level, localized clashes, important only to the men involved and the families who suffer losses. At Little Blue River in Missouri, a detachment of Kansas cavalry is drawn into a clash between secessionists and “Jayhawkers” (Kansas guerrilla fighters opposed to slavery) and seven cavalrymen are killed, nine wounded. And in western Virginia, a skirmish at Blake’s farm, Cotton Hill, involves the 2^nd Kentucky and 11^th Ohio. The affair ends with two Union soldiers dead, one wounded, and six missing.

ON THIS DAY: Saturday, Nov. 9, 1861

This is a big day in the organization of the Union’s western forces—and a stunning day in the career of William Tecumseh Sherman.

The Department of War dissolves the Western Department and replaces it with several new departments: “Kansas,” under Maj. Gen. David Hunter; “New Mexico,” under Col. E.R.S. Canby; “Missouri” (including Arkansas, Illinois, and Kentucky west of the Cumberland River), under Maj. Gen. Henry W. Halleck, and—most significantly for Ohioans—“Ohio” (including Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, and Kentucky east of the Cumberland). Moreover, in Washington the Union's general in chief, George B. McClellan, has approved Brig. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman’s request to be relieved from command, military affairs in Kentucky having strained the 47-year-old son of Ohio’s nerves to the breaking point .

Ordered to replace Sherman, who is being transferred to General Halleck’s command, is Gen. Don Carlos Buell, yet another high-ranking Ohio in this war, and—to his eventual regret—a protégé of McClellan.

Meanwhile, Sherman’s seeming hysteria has caused widespread talk of “insanity.” Yesterday, one of Sherman’s officers had wired Mrs. Sherman’s father that he should send Ellen “and her youngest boy” to Louisville. "There is nothing to alarm you but is necessary to turn Gen. Sherman's mind from the responsibility now resting upon him.” A worried Ellen left within two hours and, with sons Philemon, Willy, and Tommy in tow, arrives in Louisville at 3 a.m. today.

ON THIS DAY: Friday, Nov. 1, 1861

Brig. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman, commander of the Department of the Cumberland (which comprises much of Tennessee and Kentucky), writes an alarming letter to his wife, Ellen. Believing himself outnumbered, outgunned, and unsupported, he is in despair—or worse. “The idea of going down in history with a fame such as threatens me makes me crazy, indeed I may be so now.”

Sherman sounds pathetic. “God knows that I think of you and our dear children all the time, and [wish] that we might hide ourselves in some quiet corner of the world…Now I find myself riding a whirlwind unable to guide the storm.”

Not only Ellen will worry about Sherman’s mental state. Soon, those concerned about him will be taking action.

In Washington, Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan, commander of the Army of the Potomac, accepts Lincoln’s invitation to replace Lt. Gen. Winfield Scott as commander of all Union forces. Lincoln wonders out loud if McClellan can handle the tremendous responsibility, but the cocky Philadelphian tells him, “I can do it all.” It won’t be too long before Lincoln –and many others—will be wondering of McClellan can do anything.

ON THIS DAY: Wednesday, Oct. 23, 1861

Brig. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman—sounding nothing like the great Indian warrior for whom he was named—writes his wife, “Dearest Ellen,” from Louisville. “I have so much to do, and a dread of danger so hangs around me that I can hardly write you with any degree of satisfaction. I am doing all I know how, but to be in the midst of people ready to betray is the most unpleasant of all feelings. I have seen the stories.” (Sherman may be referring to the newspaper reporters who sat in on his upsetting meeting with Secretary of War Silas Cameron, or he may mean Confederate sympathizers and lackluster Union supporters in Kentucky—or all of these.)

“We are weaker and farther from our base, the Ohio River,” Sherman continues, briefly pausing to discuss a financial matter. Then: “I hope [Maj. Gen. Henry] Halleck will be sent to relieve me. I must stay here to direct all, but must share the fate of all in case of disaster, for we have no escape. I have been reinforced, but nothing like it should be. We should have 50,000 men here.

“My health is comparatively good.

“As ever yrs.

W. T. Sherman.”

ON THIS DAY: Saturday, Oct. 12, 1861

From Louisville, Brig. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman writes “Dearest Ellen,” who is concerned about the worrisome tone of Cump’s recent letters. On October 10, she wrote him, “Do write me a cheerful letter that I may have it to refer to when the gloomy ones come.” It was not to be. Cump’s response: “How any body could be cheerful now I cant tell….the forebodings of danger against which I have struggled keep me far from being easy.” Then follows a litany of his military problems. Personally, however, his health “is very good though I have a headache from smoking too many cigars, and being kept down to a table writing.” Once again, he warns Ellen not to move to Cincinnati, apparently fearing Ohio's largest city is vulnerable to Confederate attack.

ON THIS DAY: Sunday, Oct. 6, 1861:

Some time this Sunday—probably in the evening, when the day’s duties are finished—Brig. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman sits down to write a letter to his wife, Ellen Sherman, back in Lancaster, Ohio. Almost every paragraph is freighted with gloom. The “secessionists are armed and flocking” to the Confederate forces. Kentucky’s loyalists won’t fight. “The weather is now cold and miserable.” Because of selfish special interests, “honesty & qualifications are no longer the rule” in appointing officials. Ominously, Sherman writes that he is living in a house, “but am up all night” and “I don’t think I ever felt so much a desire to hide myself in some obscure place….” The question now is: How serious are his worries?