Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1864-09-01
A TaIII with General sherman.


One of the Massachusetts State Agents,
sent to Georgia to obtain colored recruits,
thus describes a recent interview with Gen.
Sherman:
I told the General my errand. He had
passed me and was inside the tent, and half
turned around as 1 spoke to him. He is a
spare built man, Of medium height, with
head Of average size, lank face, Roman
nose, good but not commanding forehead,
and an eye like hawk-daFk gray in col
or, quick glancing, restless, showing fire
there, but indicating also an irritable tenn
per and unsympathetic nature. That is the
first impression the leader of our armies of
the west made on me. =
He was dressed in plain blue pants and
vest his hat and coat of; he had one boot
aud one slipper on an unbleached linen
shirt and blue woollen socks.
His eye showed that he was not in Cne
of his best humors, as he broke the silence
with
aMilledgevills's good place. Savan-
nah's another"
He spoke few more sharp-shootings SEN
tences Of that sort, when 1 explained the
objectof my visit to him. He came out and
sat down on a chair in piazza, and asked
me to be seated.
He said that he had repeatedly written
to the Secretary of War that there were
no able-bOdied men in this country who
we're not either in this army or the other;
that every Niger in the department was
needed for commissary and quartermaster
work, and for building forts. or as pioneers f;
l. rrrrf,lA ha aaid 20
ger l could recruit without salt; when
there were enough recruiting agents down
here he would organize ihem into regi-
ment-he had no doubt they were loyal
men-and put them in the front to fight
the enemy. The rebels had swept every
able-bodied nigger before them, and taken
them down into the corn-growing regions
of Georgia. He did not believe that any
would be found in Atlanta;
l., When asked whether he would forbid
the agents to operate within a certain dis
tance from the front, he replied that he
had nothing to say in the matter Mol
I was here by higher authority than his
that of Congress; but lie seemed decid-
edly to believe Che never believes anything
otherwise than decidedly that aL the
agents would got their labor for their pains,
and only eat his rations, which he does no.
like.
He got over his sharpshooter style be-
fore we finished, for am not apt to be
overawed by the powers that be- and he
saw it clearly enough, and adopted cor
responding style.
This was just about this hour p NJ
exactly seven days ago last Saturday
He took up the Louisville Journal and
read it.
Bending forward in his low chair, rest
ing his right hand on his knee, nervOusly
manipulating with his forefnger and thumt
his chin and moustache (botb, like his hair
reddish and short-cropped,) and with the
latter end of cigar in his mouth, he read
as if hastily eriticising, but rose every few
minutes and went outside, listening anX
iously towards the extreme right Of tht
army for the sound of musketry. Cannon
aiding, sharpshooting, and laundering wer'
going on simultaneously.
He called out an officer to know whethe
he thought the sound from that quartz
was musketry or low thunder.
It was thunder. There ought to hav
been musketry heard; for already for tw,
days the generals at the right had had OF
: ders to move and seize the railroad bu
; they were quarrelling about precedenc
instead, while the rebels were buildin!
breastworks and riae-pits which it vii
now cost US hundreds Of lives to carry.
knew what the Generals anxious listenini
with his hand at his ear meant, and di'
l not wonder that he was somewhat cross.
: 1 left, after staying about half an hour
/ It is said that an ingenious chemist ha
!. invented a wash which, by daily applies
: ton, will prevent the beard from growing