MEMOIRS OP GENERAL SHERMAN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XII, Issue 4408, 30 December 1875, Page 1 (Supplement)

MEMOIRS OP GENERAL SHERMAN.

Gexeeax. Shbrmajt has published his memoirs, and the book is reviewed at length in the Australasian. "We give a portion of the review with extracts:— General Sherman begins his narrative in very earlydays, long before any civil war between North and South was looked upon as a possible event. In 1546 he was a lientenant of artillery, and was sent with his company to California to aid in preserving order in that territory. This part of his book contains much that brings before the reader in graphic detail the strange life of those early times. The outbreak of the war found him superintendent of the Louisiana Seminary of Learning and Military Academy. At Bull Run he commanded a brigade. After that memorable rout, Sherman laboured hard to reorganise the men of his command and to impart the degree of drill and discipline that they were seen so much to need. Some of the men, "ninety-day men," who had become tired of the war and wanted to return home, were so mutinous that at one time Sherman had a battery umlimbered, threatening if they dared to leave the camp without orders he would open fire on them. Of this time he tells the following incident :— " The Sixty-ninth still occupied Fort Corcoran, and one morning, after reveille, when I had just received the report, had dismissed the regiment, and was leaving, I found myself in a crowd of men crossing the drawbridge on their way to a barn close by, where they had their sinks; among them was an officer, who said, ' Colonel, I am going to New York to-day. What can I do for you ?' I answered, ' How can yon go to New York? I do not remember to have signed a leave for you.' He said, ' No; he did riot want a leave. He had engaged to serve three months, and had already served more than that time. If the Government did not intend to pay him, he could afford to lose the money; that he was a lawyer, and had neglected his business long enough, and was then going home.' I noticed that a good many of the soldiers had paused about us to listen, and knew that if this officer conld defy us, they also would. So I turned on him sharp, and said:—'Captain, this question of your terms of service has been submitted to the rightful authority, and the decision ha 3 been published in orders. Yon are a soldier, and must submit to orders till you are properly discharged. If you attempt to leave without orders, it will be mntiny, and I will shoot you like a dog ! Go back into the fort now, instantly, and don't dare to leave without my consent.' I had on an overcoat, and may have had my hand about the breast, for he looked at me hard, paused a moment, and then turned back into the fort. The men scattered, and I returned to the house where I was quartered close by."

The same day President Lincoln came over to see how "the boys" looked after "the big scare," and made a short address to the men, ending by explaining that, as President, he was commander-in-chief, and asking any who had any grievance to appeal to him personally :— "In the crowd, I saw the officer with whom I had had. the passage at reveille that morning. His face was pale, and lips compressed. I foresaw a ' scene,' but sat on the front seat of the carriage as quiet as a lamb. This officer forced his way through the crowd to the carriage, and said, ' Mr. President, I have a cause of grievance. This morning I went to speak to Colonel Sherman, and he threatened to shoot me.' Mr. Lincoln, who was still standing said, ' Threatened to sheot you ?' ' Yes, sir, he threatened to shoot me.' Mr. Lincoln looked at him, then at me, and stooping his tall, spare form towards the officer, said to him in a loud stage whisper, easily heard for some yards round, ' Well, if I were you, and-he threatened to shoot, I would not trust him, for I believe he would do it.' The officer turned about and disappeared, and the men laughed at him. Soon the carriage drove on, ana as we descended the hill, I explained the facts to the President, who answered, 'Of course I didn't know anything about it, but I thought you knew your own business best.' I thanked him for his confidence, and assured him that what he had done would go far to enable me to maintain good discipline, and it did."

It would be beyond our space to attempt a summary of the circumstances which led up to the original of Sherman's march to the sea. At the end of the summer of 1864 the war stood thus :—Grant had been raised to the chief command of the armies of the North, and commanded in person in Virginia against Lee, the able general of the Confederacy. In Georgia Sherman, Grant's second in command and cordial co-operator and personal friend, had captured Atlanta, and stood opposed to the Southern general Hood, who had superseded J. Johnson. Sherman had, after taking Atlanta, removed the entire civil population, and converted the place into a pure military depot, which was supplied by railways from Chatanooga, For some time Sherman had to repel the raids and attacks of Hood upon his means of communication. and gradually conceived the plan of resuming the offensive, by sending back all unnecessary baggage, destroying the roads and railways behind him, leaving General Thomas to defend the bar of the Tennessee River, and puslnng with his own force through the heart of Georgia, destroying all the roads, railways, depOts, and machine factories, and coming out at Savannah on the Atlantic He had some work in getting the consent of General Grant and President Lincoln to the execution of his plan, but at length obtained it, evidently as much by their trust in his great capacity as a commander as by their conviction of its wisdom. This is how Sherman describes the start on that celebrated march :—

" About 7 a.m. of November 16 we rode out of Atlanta by the Decatur-road, filled by the marching troops and waggons of the Fourteenth Corps; and reaching the hill just outside of the old rebel works, we naturally paused to look back upon the scenes of our past battles. We stood upon th 6 very ground whereon was fought the bloody battle of July 22nd, and could see the copse of wood where M'Phearson fell. Bohind us lay Atlanta, smouldering and in ruins, the black smoke rising high in : the air, and hanging like a pall over the ruinad city. Away off in the distance, on the M'Donough-road, was the rear of Howard's column, the gun-bwxels glistering in the sun, the white-topped waggons stretching away to the south;—and right before us the .Fourteenth Corps, marching steadily and rapidly, with a cheesy look ana ; swinging pace, that made light of the - thou-

Band miles that, lay between us and Richmond. Some band, by accident, struck np the anthem of 'John Brown's soul goes marching on,' the men caught up the strain, and never before or since have I heard the choras of ' Glory, glory, hallelujah !' done with more spirit, or in better harmony of time and place. Then we turned our horses' heads to the east; Atlanta was soon lost behind the screen of trees, and became a thing of the past. Around it cling many a thought of desperate battle, of hope and fear, that now seem like the memory of a dream ; and 1 have never seen the place since. The day was extremely beautiful, clear sunlight with bracing air, and an unusual feeling of exhilaration seemed to prevade all minds—a feeling of something to come, vague and undefined, still full of venture aud intense interest. Even the common soldiers caught the inspiration, and many a group called out to me as I worked my way past them,' Uncle Billy, I guess Grant is waiting for us at Richmond !'" The book will raise the estimate of General Sherman in the minds of all its readers— not only as a great commander, growing in Strength, and insight, and confidence in proportion to the increasing importance of the work that devolved upon him ; but even more as a citizen and a patriot'aetuated by a perfect singleness of purpose, that of executing to the utmost of his power and ability the task confined to him. From the moment that Sherman cast in his lot wish the Northern cause, he did so simply as a soldier. He exhibited a perfect horror of politics, and whenever he refers to any officers or soldiers who allowed political views to influence their military action, does so with the utmost disapproval. From all such crooked ways he kept himself steadfastly aloof, and devoted himself solely and wholly to the work of fighting the best fight he could for his country. He exhibits through-' out a cheerful submission to authority, even when dissenting from its behests, and it is perfectly obvious from his narrative that the strong personal good feeling and mutual confidence between him and General Grant were amongst the most auspicious of the elements which tended to bring the war to a successful issue.