GENERAL SHERMAN'S CHARACTERISTICS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XIX, Issue 29, 17 April 1891, Page 7

GENERAL SHERMAN'S CHARACTERISTICS.

Id appearance he was rugged, bat tbe expression of the face softened the iie;p lines traced there by age and tbe exposure ani the hardship of tDe w*r. His hair, once reddish, was almost snow white. His closely-cropped bjai and moustache warj white as saotv, and bad been for years.

His manaer wag rm*t cordial, bu he cnal 1n )t sUad long- * iuded people. He made a man come to the point at oace, and his answers were always tboas of a soldier, unhesitating and decisive. He was one of the most accessible of men, and had hundreds of callers.

Old soldiers who fought under him weie sure of a hearty welcome, and he loved nothing better than to talk over old times with hii " boys," as he called them. To unfortunate soldiers he was always liberal. Many is the man who could, if he would, tell of his magnificent charities.

General Sherman was military in all his habits. He ross early and ate a light breakfast. His library and correspondence usually ocoapied him till lunch, after which be took a walk on ths avenue. Tbe Union League Club, tbe Fifth Avenue, and other hotels were his haunts. He waj a great reader, and few men were better informed upon all subjects than he.

Society found a keen votary in him. At dinners and evening receptions be was omnipresent and greatly sought after.

As a writer his services were mucn desired. His memoirs, published by himself, are brilliantly written, and tbe many articles contributed to several magazines form interesting reading.

As an after-dinner speaker General Sherman ranked with General Horace Porter or Chauncey Depew. He often declared that he would never make another speech, but never was able to keep his resolve.

Practically speaking, Sherman was the last of the great war generals. Some of hia subordinates are still left, among them General Schofield, General O. O. Howard, General Wager Swayne, and General Slocum ; but Grant and Sheridan have gone, and now Sherman has joined them.

Modeoty was one of his most noticeable characteristics. Speak ing of bis celebrated march to tbe sea, he said :

" I only regarded tbe march from Atlanta to Savannah as a ' shift of base,' as tbe transfer of a small army which bad no opponent, and had finished its work, from the interior to a point on the sea-coast, from which it could achieve other important results. I considered this march as a means to an end, and not as an essential tct of war. Still, then, as now, the march to tbe sea was generally regarded as something extraordinary and something anomalous, something out of the usual order of events ; vrhereaß, in fact, I simply moved from Atlanta to Savannah, as one step in the direction cf Richmond, a movement that bad to be met and defeated or the war was necessarily at an end.

" Were I to express my measure of the relative importance of the march to tbe sea and of that from Savannah northward, I would place the former at one and the latter at ten, or the maximum.

" The property capture! co isiated of horses and mules by tbe thousand, and quantities of subsistence stores that aggregate very large, and may be measured with sufficient accuracy by assuming that 65,000 men obtained abundant food for about forty days, aod 3,000 animals were fed for a like period so as to reach Savannah in splendid flesh and condition "

I heard a new story about General Sherman lately, says a writer in the Press, illustrating the two sides of his character — the determined figh.Lnc; general and the tender, humane, kind-hearted man. It was told to me by a friend, who heard it in Washington from cm of the soldiers oi the army that marched to the sea with Sherman. The great march had been delayed for hours by severe fighting in the piney woods of Georgia. Toe contest had been goiug ou over a wide field, and the soldiers had been obliged to literally mow down the trees to get at the enemy. At nighttall, when firing ceased, the enemy fell back, and Sherman discovered a clump of trees in his front, which seemed to sbelter some kind of a habitatioo. With the caution of an old soldier he ordered an inspection to be made of the place, lest it might bide spies or more dangerous enemies. Tbe soldiers wbo went forward at his command found a cabin, which showed that it bad suffered frum tbe battle. Its roof had been blown cff , the gable end was knocked io, the windows wne shattered, an i its side i w^re badly battered. Inside, in a sheltered corner, on a couch made of mattrasses and blankets, lay two women, mother and daughter, and by the latter's eide was a new-born babe. Tbe soldiers fell back, half ia awe, while one of their number reported to General Suet-man.

Boated and spurred, with hia Deard untnmmed and hia clothes beghmmed witb the toil of the march and smoke of battle, the old veteran rode up to th« cihin and dismounted. He sent an orderly for bis surgeon, who was directed to tend the young woman and h t offspring. Food was brought for the old lady, wbo was well nigh famisbed. When the roof had been replaced by bis duecion the chaplain was called and the baby christened, the names Anna Shell being given to her. The old General held the infant while the chaplain pronounced the ceremony, and then the General told the boys to

fill (be cabin with coffee, pork, tea, flour, and hardtack. As he got ready to move away the old lady, whose son was io the Confederate arm;, and was the father of the infant, fell on her knees and clasped her arms around his limbs, while she blessed him for his kindaees, invoked loig life and even success at arms for him. Said she : "We did not know the Yanks were kind lika you. We were told yon would be cruel to m. We had no idea th.it yju would be kind. If you are all like this I shall be clad if you conquer." The General smiled grimly as he s d 1 : " We make no war on wom?n and children, and only on men rb long as th >y take arms against the Government."