The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1881-07-19
General %. II. maury ON General sher-
man.
KxoxvILLs, Tsxs., June 10, 1881.
b me Editors of ne Uispatch

pairing him with Alvs. has given "the Gen.
eral OF the Army" famous occasion TO
thrust himself and his career before the
public.
Several years since, after be bad attained
his present high position, be published 2
Narrative Of his life, which has proved
an exbaustIess arsenal to his enemies.
SherDan's Narrative" Is truly curl
osity OF literature. Never before has sucn
work flowed from the pen OF military
commander. Never before has any writer
been so blinded by egotism as TO sit down
calmly, fifteen years after the events OF DIS
life which be recalls, aud fix such record
OF himself. Either his perception OF right
and wrong has been long ago extirpated,
or his egregions vainglory has obfuscated
and run bin crazy.
In his late futile effort 10 eyade the stigma
of cruelty, under which it Is satisfaction
TO observe that he wiDces, he does not AT all
meet the question. He cannot deny that
he removed ], 16S helpless men, women, ana
cbiId,en from their homes 10 distant land.
but he points to the official report oil the
subordinate officers, who were charged
with the painful duty OF executing DIS
barbarous order, as proof that because they
were merciiuI aud pitful 10 the poor VIC
Tins therefore he was not cruel. It's ron
Se0uitur. Alya's headsman doubtless fur-
nIshed him with the same justification, ana
Lotus the Eleventh might lind the ike VIM
dieatiOn In the caresses bestowed upon his
victims by his favorite bangmen, Tustan
LHermite and Petit Andre.
But IL is all in vain at this day for GEN.
eral Sherman 10 seek TO evade The eonclu-
sion the world has come to on this cbarac-
teristic Of his public history.
Where there are no other evidences
against him, he has himself fixed the record
against himself. His own public corre-
sDondeDce and reports are replete WIN
ayowals OF the fullest purposes and boasts
OF their cruelest accomplishment, and his
autobiography with Puritan's self-com-
placency incredible in man OF sound
mind. he has set them down with graphic
detail which shows that the authors moral
sense still slumbered when he penned the
story.
As a military commander Sherman's dis
tinguishing character was his cruelty. In
this. and this alone, he was prtemlnent
above all the soldiers OF his time.
Butler and others were pitileSs enough,
G cd knows, but Sherman's cruelty was pc
culiar, and chiefly delighted itself in insults
to women.
The writer is familiar with all OF the
raids conducted through the cotton states
by Grierson, Strait, Rousseau, Wilson, and
others. aud knows Of no evidence that they
did not discharge their duty to the Govern
ment, with all practicable regard for the
unprotected people through whom they
marched. None OF them has left such ira
ditions along his route as lie in Sherman's
track.
To burn barns and dwellings did not sat
iSfy his manly heart-Only wOman's tears
and wailing appeals for pity could complete
this great captains triumph.
Nature has given him a cruel counte-
nance and an ingenious inyectiye, which
enhance the harshuess Of his denials OF
mercy, and which are indellibly stamped in
the memories OF the poor women OF Mis-
sissippi, Georgia. and South Carolina, VINO
wrilhed under bis taunts.
In bis Narrative, beginning at page -, he
has furnished the world with very vivid
illustration of this peculiar capacity OF en-"
loving female distress, and his pleasure in
quickening it by insults.
He keeps nothing back, but seems to feel
that all the world will enjoy the gleeful
JUNCTION with which the "General OF the
Army" after fifteen years reflection. re-
counts his shameful story.
He tells US how once in st. Louis be took
his little boy OF nine or ten years with him
and set out to see the Clmp'JacksOn pris-
oners who had Just been captured. On his
way be passed a weeping woman. lady OF
his acquaintance, whose brother was in that
camp, and who with tears told him OF her
anxiety for his fate. He passed on until ne
met the troops, captOrs, and prisoners. AT
this moment, from cause unexplained, the
Union soldiers began to fire upon the peO'
ple. Whereupon Sherman abandoned his
boy while he threw himself down into
safe place until the danger was passed. On
his homeward way be had gone beyond the
residence OF the lady when happy thought
struck him; be returned, rang the door
bell; she came in person he insulted her
with his sarcastic witticlsm, "and," says
he, {" she slammed the door in my face"
III ever before a soldier has been so I'M
manly as "the General Of the Army" de-
scribes himself to have been on this occa-
sion, never before has he been such an ass
as to publish it.
"Sberman's Narrative" is enlvened all
through by similar incidents OF his very
career. Sometimes he gives us
an illustration of his knavery, as when be
opened a lawyers Office in Kansas, under
took a clients case, when he knew be was
incapable OF defending 1t; let it go by de-
fault, and finally advised his client to escape
the indictment of the court by INSIDE
meanor which would have put him into the
Elsewhere he has told us the burning Of
Columbia was undoubtedly the result Of ac-
cident, "but / charged Wade Hampton
with having burned that town, because he
is a great baaggart and it was essential 10
destroy his influence with his own people,
General Sherman has written too much 10
talk as he does, and before he again delights
himself with such flippant, unconsidered
utterances as those he has last INDUCED in
he ought TO buy up and burn every copy OF
SO Sherman's Narrative"
II Sherman has not equalled Alva in his
1t is certain he is not compare
BILE with him in any other characteristic or
The Duke Of AlYa was descended from a
long line Of warlIke lords. From his earli-
est youth he was trained TO arms in wars
against the inidels and heretics.
During a long life Of incessant war, he
always exhibited the most daring personal
and the highest order OF military
ability. He never met defeat, and was as
fierce and as irresistible In attack as he was
skilful in avoiding a double encounter.
His atrocious cruelties were the crimes OF
the dark ages in which he lived. They
were the outbmst Of his fierce fanaticism
and devotion TO his mother church. Had
Alya lived with Sherman, il he could not
have slain and tortured the bodies OF his
be would not have compensated
his cruel propensities by insulting unpro-
cted women; for 1t was certain be was
a very brave soldier. ID. IL. MAURY.
A NAT for Fred. Douglass 10 Crack.
Fred. Douglass gives as one OF his rea-
sons for supporting the Re4dinslers that