The Dallas weekly herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1885, 1875-07-24
A iOREiGsLR's ysEw ~ SBER-
MAN's MEMOIRS.

General Shermans Memoirs, b.
himself, have been republishcd i
England, aud the London Standard
of June Both, contains II critique Of
the work which, coming from tor
eigner, who IL .,ot supposed to writ
with any feeling in regard to til,
subjects or men discussed by til,
distinguished I'cdcraj General, ma,
be regarded us impartial,
After paying the General quail
fled compliment for having succeed
ed whore others failed, and for hav,
ing the wit to see how completed y
the South was exhausted by IN une'
quail contest, and for making
the most OF his advantages, the
reviewer proceeded rs follows
Abroad, General Sherman must be
judged, not by the mere results he
achieved, but 10y those results as COM
pared with his means-..nd so judged
he is not entitled to rank with the least
distinguished of his opponents, who
for four years, held at bay the
fourfold, siXfold, and at last ten
fold forces of the North. His
countrymen, of course, will take no
account of the mode In which he
waged war, for that mode was insti-
gated and applauded by themselves
but the rest OF the world must try his
conduct by the laws of civilized war,
and by those laws must relegate him to
his place among those who have done
their part To reverse all that civilized
usage and international law have en-
deavored to effect in Limiting the fe-
rocity of revenge and the greed of pill
lage. The writers who in this country
have espoused the Federal cause have
labored to keep out of sight the North
ern neutrality-suspicious. and deliber-
all the laws of war; the whole
sale pillage of private property, with
out a shadow of pretence of military
need; the wanton ravage of vast and
fertile regions; the destruction of pub
ilC VI vi COlltSt5,
and of thousands of defenceless dwell
ings; return, in fact, to the methods
of war (ill-usage of women eXcepted)
practised by lilly. We know of none
who would venture to defend these as
acts of legitimate warfare, and among
the chiefs of the Federal armies few
were mofe guilty In this respect than
General w. Il. Sherman.
We took up, therefore, the work of
such man with little of that bias in
is favour which critic would natural
y feel for "A gallant and distinguished
soldier, whatever the cause in which
le fought for Moltke or MacMahon,
or Canrobert or for Todle3en. We
,annOt say that our perusal of the
work has raised our estimate of the
writer. 1t is intimateu in more than
me place that these memoirs were at
irst written only for posthumous pub
ication, and we could wish that that |
Intention had been carried out. There
$ display of personal vanity, of anX-
ETY. to claim the utmost possible credit
md to throw the blame of all failure on
'thers, petulent spirit of animosity
gainst rivals and opponents, Il cOntrO-
'ersial tone in regard to passages cred
table neither to the General nor to his
uperiOrs, and a childish impatience of
,opulal Glamour, very natural to vain
nan smarting under an immediate
ence of justice, but very unworthy Of
eproduction after ten years of ample
and rich reward, which APP
'ear to us as little consonant with the
imple self-respect of the soldier as
With the exalted position of the second
ersonage in the United States. No
ne could imagine the Duke of We'll
ingtOn or General Lee writing as
herman writes-no one has seen any
hing of the kind from the pen Of Off
ers who have real grounds of com
Mcclellan, who first
reated an army out of the mob of
Inited States volunteers, or Hallick,
Tho maintained, recruited and enlarg-
d that army till it became the irre-
stible weapon which won for Grant
nd Sherman triumphs as easy as
nose of Achilles in his impenetrable
rmour, or of the heroes of fairy legend
18th charmed swords and shoes of
Witness "