The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1891-03-05

self an unwilling commander. Looking
| at his field" say Messrs. Nicolay and Hay
in their Life of Lincoln" with u purely
professional eye the disproportion between
the magnitude of his task and the imme-
dlate means for its accomplishment op
| pressed him like nightmare"
His impatient temper soon set his rather
sarcastic tongue in most I'M udicious action.
Secretary Cameron came in person to lis
| ten to his complaints and asked what he
wanted
"Sixty thousand men ct once, and goo, 900
! before we are DONE" was his reply.
| 1t is definitely recorded that for once i'll
his life Simon Cameron was shut up.
When he repeated this to Adjt. Gen. Lo-
renzo Thomas he added: SHERMAN is
crazy. He wants 100000 men sent to Ken
tucky!' The next day it was in the papers
that the secretary thought Gen. Sherman
craZy-a newspaper correspondent was
| present to hear the remark. And every
word that Sherman said to Cameron was
| in print within a week. In another week
! Gen. Sherman was ''relieved and ordered
to report at ST. Louis''-to Gen. Halleck
Shiloh and vicisburs.
! One of the most fortunate things that
happened to Sherman and the Union cause
was the order for him to report to Grant
at Patucah. He had started out with the
same disposition as other generals who
were destined to Eecome gigantic failures,
, to magnify the difficulties in the way and
take discouraging view of his own re-
sources. In Grant he found a man who
was always ready to act with what mate
rials were at hand, who from the first
was looking at his front rather than his
rear. Sherman was n man who could profit
tn fact
| more than any other is due his final tri-
umph as one of the great leaders of the
war.
He was at Paducah when Fort Henry
| and Fort Donaldson were taken On the
| 10th of March, by order OF Halleck, he en-
barked his division at Paducah and at
Fort Henry reported to Gen. G. F. Smith,
By whose orders he joined Grant at Pitts
burg Landing
| At the battle of Shiloh Sherman COM
manGed his division. Fo: the second time
he had an opportunity to take part in a
great battle, and in command of three or
| four times as many men as he led at Bull
Run.
| On the l1th Of April Gen. Halleck ar
| rived at PttsburS Landing and assumed
personal command Commanding his
division with the right. Sherman was
| WlGueSS " I1dliGCk ) lllllSGTdGlOu Ol CQG aTU
of war as laid down in the books by ad-
vancing an army OF over 100000 men, by
regular siege methods, on Corinth, place
+ of no especial natural strength and de-
Tended only by dirt and about $1,000 Con-
federates. Grant knew that the siege of
Corinth was farce, but Sherman, who
was full of impulse and still had Il great
deal to learn, spoke of it as "a victory as
| brilliant and important as any recorded in
history"
Then came the operations about Vicks-
burg and on the Yazoo river. Sherman's
command consisted of four divisions. He
attacked the Confederate Notifications
| above the Chickasaw bayou and was driven
back. having lost 800 men to a Confeder-
ate loss OF 300.
His failure in Kentucky had been fol-
! lowed by his failure at Vicksburg, and he
was neither trusted by the people nor by
| the administration. McClerEand assumed
command of Sherman's army, except two
divisions and Sherman issued IL farewell