The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1878-04-10
AFTER GENERAL SHERMAN.
Tom worthingtoD, of Ohio, Speaks His
Mind
washington Capital. |

One of the saddest spectacles to which
kind hearts can be presented is that Of help
less old age abandoned to the hard neces-
sites of life. This is intensified when the
sufferer looks not to the natural ties of fam
lily, but out upon the cold, busy world for
sympathy and help.
There is an old man who appears here
from time to time, whose intirmities are
aggravated by keen sense OF wrong; for
while fire of wrath, at the abuse he suffers,
burns within until he is half crazed, his
efforts to right himself are pitiable IN their
feebleness. Want and privation have added
10 his seventy years Although cieanly in
his person, he is ragged and fOrlorn. But he
is burdened with an old grievance-an affair
long since forgotten by the public, and so
fierce in his shrill denunciatiOns, so tedious
in his recital, that men avoid him, hurry
away at his approach, and bolt their doors
against his entrance.
And vet that man saved, in one of the
shameful disasters of the late war, our army
from utter humiliation. 1t was no accident
but the result of his own soldierly instincts
and high courage. his grand achievement,
that ought to secure him at least support in
his old age, and lmpershable renown after
death, was the cluse of his ruin.
We met him upon the avenue last Thurs
day. We made no effort TO escape him, al
though, God knows. he holds one as the
dreadful old mariner held the wedding
guest in Coleridge's wild poem. He goes
over the late war again and again. He has
all the facts with fearful tenacity in his
mind, and only forgets that be has given
them to you over and over before. His
pale, ashy face, ooce so strong in its setting of
full forehead, Roman nose and square, prom
inent and solid chin has nothing left but
the CLEAN of an eye in which there turks
touch of insanity. His SLOUGH hats pulled
over his head as If it were night cap. His
clothes, of a past fashion, are ragged and
threadbear, while his feet are clad in heavy
shoes good for ten years wear, that he
greases and wears innocent of socks. Every
part of him indicates poverty, but an indie
pendent, kerce sort of poverty that detes
charitable aid or sympathy.
While he rehearSed the old story of
wrong, he suddenly stopped, and as ugly a
CLEAN as we ever care to see shot from his
gray eyes, He was looking at carriage and
pair that was rolling by. The high stepping
bays in their glittering harness were driven
by colored man. sleek. fat and insolent,
and they carried General Tecumseh Sher-
man. sitting back with arms folded as If ne
telt that the eyes of the world were on hlm
in grateful admiration. Our old friend
lifted his trembling arm and shook his
clenched hand at the carriage and occupants
as they swept by, and cried out:
There goes the id scoundrel-the id
cOwardly, lying scOundrel: the Id traitor
There he goes, damn him."
Fearing that we might be implicated in
this fierce indictment of the neral, we
hurried away. Barring the profanity, the
old man did not give this epauletted fraud
an epithet amlss.
The man who thus mathematical Sherman
was old Tom WOrthington, of Ohio. A
graduate OF West Point he lett the service
for a more active life. and did not return
until the late civil war broke upon the coun-
try, and he then raised d regiment, the Forty
sixth Ohio infantry, and took the field. He
made for the time an extraordinary officer.
His keen sOldierly instincts, stimulated by
an indomitable energy, and sustained
by an iron will, were marred by
quick temper and a coarse, oyerbearing
manner. But for the trying occasion he
was gem of a man, and under n military
power, such rs France and Germany, would
have found recognition in high rank. But
the influences that governed promotion in
our army during the war were of West
Point, and these were, as they yet are, half
social and half pOlitical-the social rather
the stronger element of the two. 1t is not
that the army is refined, but it is exclusive,
made up of cliques and controlled like a
close corporation. There was too much of
the volunteer about Colonel Tom to please
the West Point paupers in fact and aristo-
Gratis through assumption.
Colonel Tom was martinez, and drilled
and disciplined his troops until life getting
to be burden they became gallant in the
face of danger that at worst might afford
relief. His soldierly instincts taught him
that as much could be got from the spade in
the use of raw troops as the musket, and his
encampments could be traced by the earth
works he left behind, and he fought with
readiness that indicated pleasure in the
fighting. These high qualities proved his
ruin on irving occasion when any other
xrnnld hava ScnnrpA fanna anA
Colonel Toms FOrty-sixth Ohio infantry
made a part of Grant and Sherman advance
when it camped at Pittsburg Landing,
probably remembered in history as Shiloh.
The Forty-sixth made the extreme right,
and Colonel Worthington went into
camp full of anxiety. He knew that Grant
had cut his army in halves and was march
ing into the enemy's country with the lead
ing half without the other in supporting
distance. He saw with CONSERVATION that
the army was encamped without reference
to defense, wide gap being left between
the wings for a force that was supposed to
be ten days at least in the rear. This anxiety
was not quieted by the criminal negligence
that left this force without even a picket
line.
Colonel Worthington repaired to head
quarters to find the generals. They were
insolent and overbearing, deaf to all sug
gestions, and he returned to make the best
preparation ne cOulu 10 meet Calamity
he knew 10 be threatening
The next morning the storm fell upon the
military mob in a surprise that spread con-
sternation and death in every direction.
Men at a. m. were shot while preparing
breakfast, and bayoneted in their tents.
1t was the most frightfu. confusion and
slaughter.
There was one point that was not sur
prised, and at which our troops fought with
a cool stubbornness that had not been shaken
by "a surprise. 1t happened to be the key
point of the situation held by Colonel
Worthington, and around this the few men
tnat could be rallied fought that long fear
full day. The rest of the army. with Sher-
man and, we suppose, Grant was huddled
under the bank OF the river, where the gun
boats, with their heavy pieces, afforded
protection.
1t was luck alone that brought Buell. and
Nelson, with their $4,000 men, within hear
ing of the guns that sent their continuous
roar over 30 miles. These gallant officers
and God never created Drawer, truer or more
able men-pushed on, and arrived in time
10, hat Or, al nQpliUanca had Qndan-