From this it appears that Sherman fully appreciated his own abilities, and was not willing to have them underrated by others. It should be added in explanation that he had already declined to go Ohio and take command of a three months' volunteer regiment, and that the Government had now decided to add eleven regiments to the regular army. It was in one of these new regiments of regulars that he offered to accept and hoped to receive an appointment.

On the very day after this letter was written, an incident occurred at St. Louis which greatly strengthened Sherman's anxiety to get to work in the national cause. On that day he took his children down to the arsenal. Inside the arsenal walls they found four regiments of the "Home Guards," receiving cartridges. General Lyon, who was then in command, was rushing about in great excitement. Evidently serious business was on hand; whether offensive or defensive did not appear.

But the next morning the city was startled with the news that the "Home Guards" were about to attack Camp Jackson—the State camp of instruction in Lindell's Grove—where, as already stated, secession influences prevailed. Throughout the city people shut up their houses and prepared for fighting. Many of Sherman's friends set out for the camp to see what would happen, but Sherman, although he felt intensely interested and excited, remained at home. With his son Willie, seven years old, he walked up and down the sidewalk before his house, listening for sounds of war. A Miss Dean, who lived across the way, called out to him and asked him if he knew what was going on, saying that her brother-in-law was a surgeon in the camp, and she was afraid he would get killed. Sherman replied that he did not think the soldiers at the camp would attempt to resist General Lyon, who was in lawful command. To this the fire-eating lady replied that the soldiers at the camp belonged to the first families of St. Louis, and that they would certainly fight to the bitter end. "Oh, pshaw," said Sherman, "the first families don't like to get killed any better than common folks." Just at that moment a man came running down the street from the camp, shouting, "They've surrendered! The camp has surrendered!" And Miss Dean, mortified at the cowardice of the first families, went into the house and slammed the door.

Sherman now started toward the camp, his boy Willie still with him. Soon he met Frank Blair's regiment, escorting the Camp Jackson prisoners. There was a great crowd in the street, some "damning the Dutch," cheering the prisoners, and hurrahing for Jeff. Davis; and others, though not so many, encouraging the loyal troops. Much confusion prevailed everywhere. Presently a drunken rowdy tried to pass through the ranks of the troops (Regulars). A sergeant pushed him back. The fellow violently assaulted the sergeant, and then the sergeant knocked him down, and he rolled some distance down a grassy bank. The man gathered himself up, and, with a great deal of drunken backing and filling, climbed up the bank again and drew a pistol. The Regulars had by this time moved on, and a regiment of the Home Guards had come up and occupied their place. The fellow fired his pistol at one of the officers and struck him in the leg. Forthwith the soldiers began to fire over the heads of the crowds, and there was a general stampede. Some of the bullets went low, and several of the crowd were wounded. Charles Ewing threw Willie Sherman on the ground and covered him with his own body. Captain Sherman also lay down to escape the bullets, and Hunter got behind a hillock. There they lay until the firing ceased, when they got up and started for home by way of some of the back streets. They afterward found that two or three men and a woman and a child had been killed. General Lyon put a loyal guard in charge of the vacant camp, and marched the prisoners down to the arsenal, where some were paroled, and others held for a long time until they were regularly exchanged as prisoners of war.

Soon after this, on May 14th, Sherman received a letter from his brother Charles, who was in Washington, telling him to come on to the National Capitol at once, as he had been appointed Colonel of the Thirteenth Regiment of Infantry in the Regular Army. To this there could be but one reply. He wound up business affairs at St. Louis at once and went on to Washington; leaving his family at their St. Louis home, however, because he expected to be allowed to raise his own regiment, and organize it, which he intended to do at St. Louis. On reaching Washington he was gratified to find that, as he expressed it, "the Government was trying to rise to a level with the occasion." Lincoln had taken affairs into his own hands. Without any Congressional authority he had ordered the raising of the new regiments of regulars, in addition to the 75,000 State volunteers. "Even this call," says Sherman, "seemed to me utterly inadequate; still it was none of my business." Sherman took the oath of office and received a list of officers who had been appointed to his regiment. Then he reported in person to General Scott, and asked to be allowed to return to St. Louis and enlist his regiment. To this the General would not agree. "Your Lieutenant-Colonel can raise the regiment," he said. "I want you right here." So, seeing that he would have to remain on duty in Washington, Sherman sent word to his family to pack up and go home to Lancaster. He also resigned the presidency of the railroad company, and thus once more was wholly embarked upon a military career.

"He was now," says Mr. Reid in "Ohio in the War," "in his forty-second year.... His thirteen years of army life had brought no distinction. McClellan, Fremont, Halleck, Hooker, Rosecrans and a score of other young retired officers of the Army were remembered as brilliant soldiers, according to the standard of those old army days. Sherman had left no name. The eight years of civil life that followed had added little to his fortune and nothing to his fame.... But the heart of the man was sound to the core, and his impulsive abandonment of his place in Louisiana did more than all his life thus far to fix him in men's minds. He was soon to enter upon a wider career, but the days of his success were still distant, and a severe probation yet awaited him."

[CHAPTER VII.]
BULL RUN

"On to Richmond!"—Sherman's Brigade at Bull Run—Features of Battle—Sherman's Official Report—The Stampede back to the Potomac—How Sherman Dealt with Mutineers—A Threat that the President Thought he would Execute—Re-organization and Promotion—General McClellan Assumes Command—Sherman's Frank Criticisms and Uncomfortable Truth-Telling and Consequent Unpopularity.