Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1886-03-01
.SRERMAN'S DEFENSE
Auainst Gen. Frys's Charges Thai
He MaIIgued Grant.
The Objectionable Paragraph was
From a Private Letter
Which Sherman Did Not Mean tor
the Public Eye.

New YORK, FEBRUARY Li.-AHS
American Review for March contains the
letter from Gen. Sherman to Col Scott
which was the basis of the controversy
with Gen. Frye, preceded BY an address
which was intended to be delivered before
the LOYAL Legion at Cincinnati, but Gen.
Sherman says that the sudden and unex-
pscted death of Gen. Hancock the evening
previous, changed the whole character OF
the proceedings.
To M Comrades and Friends:
Wills. seek retirement ahd peace the
newspapers take great liberties with me as
with every body else. They have publish
ed that my family will soon leave St.
Louis because we are discontinued, each
paper assigning its own separate reason
There is no secret about it. All my fam
ily connections and all who have q right to
be considered understand the case perfect
". Ever since the failure of the Harrison
Wire Company at St. Louis, which involV-
ed my son.in-law, Capt. Fitch, and which
has resulte! in the removal of his family to
Pittsburg, Pa, we have been
disturbed. Three Of my children
and seven grandchildren are now away
from home, and there remains to US only
three of these. The youngest son, nine
teen years old, on whom the family must
soon depend, will graduate at the st. Louis
University in June, 1886; he wants to 60
to Yale College, and we want him to re-
ceive the best education possible. His
going to New Haven will probably result
in the f.. of Us left going to New York
to be near him. l shall, however, retain
all property l possess in st. Louis mot
much, to be sure, but ali that have to
leave the family when ! am laid in Belle
fontsiue cemetery. lam perfectly content
with nv neighbors and friends Of St. Louis,
to whom | am very much attached and
who have done ell they possibly could to
make our stay with them agreeable.
THE FRYE MATTER
is equally simple when reviewed right
| Last summer after Gen. Grants funeral.
which attended while travelling between
New York, St. Louis, Minnetonks and
Chicago, was collecting material for O
tribute of respect, |, as President, was re-
ouested to make to the memory OF Gen.
Grant, our first commander, before the
Society OF the Army of Tennessee at our
meeting at Chicago Of September 9th and
10Th. That address was copied by all the
journals of the day and was the re-
suit of that correspondence. The
special question of General Frye
in the December number of the North
American Review was not made from that
public address, but from one or two private
letters of inquiry addressed to Col. Robert
n. Scott, who had been on General Hal
leck's staff and is now in charge OF the
war records at Washington, of whom all
army officers made frequent inquiries for
scraps of information. Col. Scott is
personal friend whom have known since
boyhood, and his father before him, in San
Francisco. | wrote to him with the same
confidence would to my own brother about
family matters. l keep no copies Of such
letters, and write none hastily or carlessly
and it was only January %, two months
after, that obtained from Col. Scott q
COPY of the correspondence from which
FRYE had made his detached quotation.
This
CORRESPONDENTS
presents the whole story better than can
state it anew. As soon as Gen. tIyes
article appeared Gen. Grants friends
called my attention to it and my
letter book or memory, returning no ex.
preston of opinion so positive as that used,
naturally requested the editor to ascer-
tain from Gen. Frye the source Of his
quotation, that might explain or ascer
tain who had revealed my private letters.
Gen. Frye's answer was evasive, calling on
General Sherman to deny the words and
sentiment" before he would substsntiste
his statement. again called on him and
appealed to the War Department all
without success, generally explaining
to correspondence that thought it impos,
sible | could have used that particular
form of expression and believed General
Fry had malicious motive. received
teo late notice by roundabout! way from
gentleman in Cincinnati that Fry was
cunningly laying trap to catch me, and
il was rot until January % that Col. Scott
himself first revealed to me
THE ACTUAL SOURCE
Of the michievous paragraph detached and
used as text for the sermon it was as
clear o forgery as was ever perpetrsted.
Taking my letter to Col. Scott in its integ.
rity though manitestlJ never meant for
publication. l contend it is eminently
consistent with my constant friendship for
General Grant from Shiloh to the day we
deposited his remains in toe tomb at River
side.
The date September 9th, 1885, is prior
TO the publication Of Grants Memoirs"
in which on page 3e5 the positively rec.
ords that his position at Corinth, June,
1862, had become so UNDESIRABLE" that he
had resolved to 60 to the rear and was dis
suaded By Gen. Sherman, or quoting his
own words, Il then obtained permission to
leave the department., but Gen. Sherman
happened to call on me as / was about
starting and urged me so strongly not to
think Of going that | concluded to remain"
Gen. Sherman in bis memoirs of 1915
states the fact with the further addition
that he learned Of Gen. Grants purpose to
60 back to St. Louis from Gen. Halleck
himself and rode to Gen. Grants camp for
the very purpose Of dissuading him from
committing this fatal mistake. Now it is
matter Of potosiety that from February
to July, 1862,
GEN. GRANT WAS UNDER A CLOUD,
bounded By newspapers and by clique Of
officers, of whom Frye was one, until, as he
himself says, his position became "unbear.
able" And during all that time General
Sherman was his steadfast friend, and dis
covered in him those pure unselish, man
! i ,.l.ok r.o1laI upnh