Life of Wm. Tecumseh Sherman. / Late Retired General. U. S. A.

by Willis Fletcher Johnson

As the mustering out of the army proceeded, many changes in organization occurred. The most notable was that of July 25, 1866, when Grant was made a full General and Sherman was made Lieutenant-General. At the same time political feeling was running high at Washington. President Johnson had virtually left the Republican party, and was at loggerheads with the majority of Congress. Grant was looked to as the coming President, and accordingly many of Johnson's friends manifested much jealousy and hostility toward him. Sherman was in the west and so kept aloof from these controversies and intrigues, for which he had no love. But he maintained his old friendship with Grant, and inclined toward his side of every disputed question.

While travelling on duty in New Mexico, in September, 1866, he was summoned to Washington, in haste. Going thither, he reported to Grant, who told him he did not know why the President had sent for him, unless in connection with Mexican affairs. Maximilian, supported by French troops, still held the imperial crown of that country, but was steadily being driven to the wall by the Republicans, who had elected Juarez President. The United States was about to send the Hon. Lewis Campbell thither as Minister, accredited to Juarez as the rightful head of the State, and President Johnson had ordered Grant to accompany him as an escort. Grant told Sherman that he would decline to obey this order as an illegal one, on the ground that the President had no right to send him out of the country on a diplomatic errand unaccompanied by troops; he believed it was a trick of Johnson's, to get rid of him.

BATTLE OF EZRA CHURCH, JULY 28th, 1864.

Then Sherman went to the President, who was very glad to see him. Said Johnson: "I am sending General Grant to Mexico, and I want you to command the army here in his absence." "But," said Sherman, "Grant will not go!" That startled Johnson, and he began arguing to show the need there was of Grant's going. Sherman repeated the positive statement that Grant would not go, and added that he did not think the President in that matter could afford to quarrel with the General. The upshot of the matter was, that Johnson decided to send Sherman instead of Grant, and Sherman consented to go, believing that thus he was preventing an open rupture between Grant and the Administration.

Sherman and Campbell went to Mexico, and spent some weeks in trying to find Juarez, who was said to be with his army in the field. Not succeeding in their quest, they returned to New Orleans, and by Christmas Sherman was back at St. Louis, convinced that he had been sent as a ruse, on that idle errand. The President, he believed, simply wanted to send Grant somewhere to get him out of the way of his own political ambition.

Now came on the famous "Tenure of Office" affair. Congress enacted, in March, 1867, a law providing that no civil officer appointed for a definite term, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, should be removed before the expiration of that term except with the consent of the Senate. On August 5, following, the President demanded Stanton's resignation as Secretary of War. Stanton, under the above named law, refused it. A week later the President suspended him and appointed Grant to act in his stead. Things remained in this state until January 13, 1868; when the Senate disapproved the President's action. Grant immediately gave up the Secretaryship, handed the key of the office to Sherman, and went back to army headquarters. Sherman took the key to Stanton and gave it to him.

Sherman was anxious to make peace, and strongly urged the President to appoint General J. D. Cox, then Governor of Ohio, to succeed Stanton, thinking he would be accepted by the Senate. This the President would not do, and the storm increased. At the beginning of February Sherman returned to St. Louis, glad to get away from the political intrigues of Washington, and steadfastly refused to return unless ordered, though the President himself requested him to do so. Then, determined to bring him back, the President assigned him to the command of the Division of the Atlantic. Sherman tried to avoid this appointment, and threatened to resign rather than return East. Had the President's plans been carried out there would have been at Washington these officers: The President, commander in chief of the Army under the Constitution; the Secretary of War, commander in chief under the recognition of Congress; the General of the Army; the Lieutenant General of the Army; the General commanding the Department of Washington; and the commander of the post at Washington. And the garrison of Washington consisted of an infantry brigade and a battery of artillery! Sherman protested so vigorously against such an arrangement that the President finally agreed to let him stay at St. Louis, and then appointed Lorenzo Thomas Secretary of War ad interim. And soon the famous impeachment trial came.

Sherman was appointed, in July, 1867, a member of the commission to establish peace with certain Indian tribes. In that capacity he travelled widely through the Indian country and had many conferences with the chiefs. He proposed that the great Indian reservations should be organized under regular territorial governments, but the plan was not approved at Washington.

So the time passed until March 4, 1869, when Grant was inaugurated as President. Sherman was then made General, and Sheridan Lieutenant-General. Under this arrangement Sherman of course had to return to Washington, and there he renewed his old association with George H. Thomas, whom, however, he presently assigned, at Thomas's request, to the command at San Francisco. There the hero of Chickamauga and Nashville soon died, and Sherman thought his end was hastened by supposed ingratitude. Congress ought, in Sherman's opinion, to have made Meade, Sheridan and Thomas all Lieutenant-Generals, dating their commissions respectively with "Gettysburg," "Winchester," and "Nashville."