Category: US History

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Culture and Value Uncategorized US History

Sherman’s Stuff

Sherman's Tent, Sherman House Mluseum, Lancaster OH

Lost and Found

Sherman’s Hat– Smithsonian Museum of American History

It’s that time of year when people are spring-cleaning. Garage sales, flea markets and EBay will be selling whatever is not tossed or given away. The proverbial one “person’s junk is another’s treasure” is the operative phrase of this time honored practice. And while looking at this ‘stuff’, we do well us to remember that “all that glitters is not gold” before we click to purchase or pull out our wallets.

I have nothing that would engross profits.

Sherman Family Letters, 1865

Spring-cleaning implies the gargantuan task of sorting; what is kept and what is to find a new place. For the environmentally conscious dumping is the option of last resort. De-cluttering attics, basements, garages and large barns or storage units is not for the faint of heart. But I digress, that’s another topic emotionally charged and too big to include here. More relevant are those items that are kept carefully so as to pass along to future generations as a witness to the past and a legacy for the future.

Sherman’s Sword Smithsonian Museum of American History

Recently I learned of Sherman memorabilia to sold at auction. After the initial shock of noting that these items of prominence (at least in my view) are not within the confines of a museum or library -I sent an email blast to my immediate cousins. “Where did these items come from? “-I asked. They didn’t know. The lot to be auctioned includes the Sherman family Bible. Bibles, I note were often the repository of family events and memories, and in some cases pious commentary. Family trees were also recorded in them. I’m curious if the said Sherman Bible might include his own commentary providing a keyhole into his inner thought. Then again, maybe he never opened it. Also in this collection is another sword, personal correspondence and war memorabilia. My cousins also presumed that such items were safely guarded in museums like the Smithsonian and the Sherman House in Lancaster Ohio and a few universities. This is where our aunts, grandmother and great-grandmother bequeathed most of the items in their possession. A few items remained in their childhood home of my mother and her sisters. But perhaps after some mishaps, like my mother taking Sherman’s rifle (so the story goes) when she was 7 and losing it someplace deep in the autumn New England woods of fallen leaves behind the their house, it probably was decided that family heirlooms would be better suited for museums and centers of learning. At least they wouldn’t be lost.

J.R.R. Tolkien’s illustration Conversation with Smaug
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smaug

Malcolm Gladwell notes in a podcast Revisionist History; Dragon Psychology 101 that there’s a difference between hoarding and collecting. This distinction helps to explain what we keep and sort and why. Collecting and curating objects require some rationale or rubric. While Gladwell defines hoarding as indiscriminate collecting; he observes that there’s still some sort of rational but for different reasons. This would be another instance of “one person’s junk is another’s treasure” as it were. Gladwell notes that hoarders know what they’re keeping for reasons, sometime visceral that the rest of us don’t understand. In this episode Gladwell also cites Smaug the fire belting dragon of J.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and poem The Hoard. The poem tells of a beast that jealously keeps treasures for his pleasure only. Gladwell observes that in addition to some individuals, some large art museums with holdings buried in warehouses that seldom can be seen in the light of day are like Smaug [that] to his belly’s slime gems stuck’. The Hoard J.R.R. Tolkien.


Photo by Sergey Sokolov on Unsplash

It makes perfect sense that other Sherman descendants come to the conclusion that now is the time to off load memorabilia of our mutual grandfather x 3 in their possession. Keeping artifacts in an attic and saving them for the future generations when they don’t even want our stuff doesn’t make sense. Thus, I respect my relatives decision to sell these items. Admittedly though there’s a part of me that worries that they could be condemned to a futile existence tucked away in someone else’s basement or private collection where no one but a Smaug is sitting on them. Stories these items could someday convey will no longer be accessible nor remembered.

Sherman’s wife Ellen was the collector (if not all out hoarder) and memory keeper of the family. Sherman seems to have just been interested in keeping what was useful and most memorable to him. He was willing to part with some of his private collection of books and maps giving them to the Louisiana Military School since much of their holdings were destroyed during the Civil War. For Sherman it was personal—he was the school’s first superintendent resigning from the school when the state voted to secede from the Union. There were other items he also freely parted with: While he was in the last stage of his military campaign and was already celebrated as a war hero, Ellen wrote to him asking if he had anything he could send her that she could sell at a charity fundraiser for wounded soldiers. He responded;

“I have nothing that would engross profits —my saddlebags a few old traps, etc. I could collect plenty of trophies [presumably he means war booty and stolen goods], but have always refrained and think it best I should. Others do collect trophies and send [them] home but I prefer not to do it.”

Sherman Family Letters, 1865
Navajo Blanket-Smithsonian Museum

A traditional Navajo blanket once belonging to Sherman is at the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian. Could it have been gifted to him during the signing of the 1868 Navajo Peace treaty? Did he use it as a saddle blanket or on his camping trips? How it came to his possession remains unknown to me. For now I’m grateful it’s at the Smithsonian accessible for the time when I or others can unravel that story nestled in the weave.

Returning to the upcoming auction, I can only hope that some advocate of history will want to rescue these items from a doomed existence of a private –never to be seen again collection in a place like Smaug’s lair. It’s my hope that the collections finds a new home in a museum, library or place of learning, that is the memory keepers of culture. That way the commentators of our time and indeed all who are curious can delve into the past as to make sense the present world around us. In Tolkien’s words “all that is gold does not glitter”.

You can view the Sherman items to be auctioned on May 14, 2024 here and listed to the Gladwell’s episode Dragon Psychology 101 here. You can listen to J.R. R. Tolkien reading his poem The Hoard here. You can read my previous post about Navajo Peace Treaty here. And if you’re ever in Fairfield County Ohio visit the W.T. Sherman House Museum A thoughtful visit through the house and gardens will transport you to earlier times of our country and the world most familiar to Sherman and his family.

Categories
Art of Living Culture and Value US History

Ellen Ewing Sherman

Ellen Ewing Sherman

Who is Ellen Boyle Ewing Sherman?  

Ellen Ewing Sherman 1824-1888

Childhood playmate, foster sister, friend, confidante, advisor and wife of William Tecumseh Sherman. Like her husband she was intelligent, vivacious, opinionated and strong willed. Together they had 8 children, two died –one in infancy– both during the Civil War. Theirs were no ordinary friendship and marriage. It’s a wonder how their lifelong marriage flourished despite differences of opinion, preferences and tastes as well matters of deeply held beliefs. Biographers offer explanations; useful but insufficient. Most agree that Sherman, would not be the person he was without her. Few women would have so many roles as Ellen. That fact alone makes for an interesting story. The complexity of Ellen and Sherman’s interwoven lives created a dynamic force that shaped not only their family but also the destiny of our nation.

Possibly Young Ellen c.1850 (family archives)
Photograph of a Fern 1850 by H.F. Talbot (WikiMediaCommons)
Photography Mid-19th Century

Eleanor Boyle Ewing was born in Lancaster, Ohio in 1824. The daughter of  Thomas Ewing a prominent figure in Ohio-Washington politics and his wife Maria Boyle also from an influential family of Irish descent and unabashedly Roman Catholic in times when there was no small prejudice against the ‘papist’ religion.  The Ewings and Shermans were family friends and neighbors.  When Sherman’s father died suddenly, his mother unable to provide for her eleven growing children alone, gratefully sent her nine year old son ‘Cump’ (as he was called by his family and close friends) to be part of the Ewing household. The Ewings welcomed him warmly and provided for young Sherman in the same way they raised their own children. There were high expectations in education and work ethics but also an abundance of love and affection. Maria Ewing insisted that Cump not only received the same Catholic religious instruction as her children but also be baptized. Sherman later wrote that he was already Christened in infancy and given the name William by his own parents –in addition to name originally given to him by his father in honor of the locally famed Shawnee leader Tecumseh.  But Mrs. Ewing leaving nothing to chance arranged to have a traveling priest baptize nine-year-old Cump on the feast of St. William. 

Ellen, and her siblings and eventually her children also inherited Mrs. Ewing’s religious views. Interestingly it seems that while family members were relentless in their efforts to persuade Sherman to join their religious ranks he with the same stubbornness refused, preferring to adhere to his own belief compass. And yet their loyalty, and endearing affection for one another held fast. “All is fair in love and war” as the saying goes.

W.T. Sherman 1866
Ellen Ewing Sherman 1868
Portraits by G.P.A. Healy (Wikimedia-Public Domain)

Ellen’s and Cump’s different faith perspectives shaped their outlook and approaches to life. Perhaps their lives together were like navigating a canoe in different wind and water currents each paddling with the stronger stroke at different times; often steering in different directions but occasionally working in unison. Ironically adversity was the force that brought these two closer together. Prominent among these was the sudden death of their eldest son Willie who contracted yellow fever after Ellen had brought four of their young children to visit Sherman’s encampment in Mississippi in the summer of 1863 during a depressingly low point of Sherman and his army Vicksburg campaign.  She had hoped that the visit would revise her husband’s spirit. Indeed it did; nine year old Willie and his father enjoyed the time together riding horseback through the camp and inspecting the troops.  All seemed to have gone well until the return trip home via a river steamboat when sickness was spreading among the passengers. Young Willie was dead in two days. Neither of the parents fully recovered from the loss of their son and deep grief remained with them throughout their lives.

Ellen Ewing Sherman
“She has opened her hand to the needy and stretched out her hand to the poor.”

Ellen and her husband were often apart; first as he worked to establish a way of supporting his family and then due to his military career. Finally in retirement they moved to a townhouse in New York City but by then Ellen’s health rapidly declined in the weeks after the move. It seems that Sherman was in disbelief that his wife’s end of life was near. But when a doctor was consulted he accepted the prognosis of congestive heart failure. Then on the morning of November 28 of 1888 while he was in his study he heard the nurse beckon him; his lifelong companion was breathing her last. He ran up the stairs crying out “Wait for me Ellen-no one has ever loved you more”.

There’s still much to glean from their yin-yang fiery relationship. Maybe I’ll do so on further musings. Here I’ll let their youngest son– my great-grandmother’s brother have the last word:

“Between my father and mother there were, of course many differences; but never did their differences interfere with unwavering mutual respect, consideration and affection. With my mother’s faith and its transmissions to their children, my father was always content. And her judgment and advice were always respected by him and frequently deferred to with consequences that entitled her to much of the credit for his successful career.

P. Tecumseh Sherman 1935, Introduction to Ellen Ewing Sherman by Anna McAllister
“In thee O Lord have I hoped”
Calvary Cemetery, St. Louis Mo
“Her children rise up and call her blessed and her husband praiseth her”
Categories
Art of Living Culture and Value US History

New Year’s Eve in Monterey

This is the season of dancing and there has been a good deal of it, in fact one is looked for every Sunday night.

February 3, 1848, Sherman’s Family Letters

Writes Sherman to his family from Monterey California. More than a year earlier, that is New Year’s eve of 1846  he was still en-route by ship to his new assignment. The voyage lasted close to one year.  And the new year celebration of 1846-1847 was marked by a pleasant stretch of “fair wind and truly Pacific sea crossing the equator in Longitude 117 West”. 

Nautical Clock 1759, By Tatters ❀ from Brisbane, Australia – Wikimedia Commons

While the passage to California provided enough adventures to satisfy anyone looking for them, the tasks that lay ahead at first seemed to young Sherman dull with little prospects of career advancement which he deemed essential to eventually supporting a family. The war with Mexico including the battle of Monterey in July 1846 ended by the time Sherman arrived six months later. Thus, instead of participating in combat, he was assigned tedious duties of managing military affairs in an outpost that also served as the port of entry of foreign goods in Alta California.

The young lieutenant’s reaction to his assignment in California was ambivalent.  Letters to his family and future wife reflect his mixed feelings. On the one hand he lamented that there’s no hope for military promotion and more pay now that the Mexican war had ended. On the other, he was clearly enjoying hist post in a bustling  port town still heavily dominated by Spanish and Mexican customs and ways of life.  At that time it seems that theater productions, dances and horse racing far surpass church activity despite the cathedral being one of the oldest and most prominent building of the town. And so, after complaining of the scant career opportunities he reports on the party life and leisure activities even as he critiques the frivolity with his typical ironic humor.

“The officers gave the ‘great ball’ of the season on New Year’s Eve – wrote young Sherman.  ‘You have no doubt heard of the Mexican custom of filling eggshells with cologne and other fragrant water to break upon passers by. Here it is carried to a great extent but confined to the house and chiefly at balls and dances.The shells are mostly filled with gilt and colored paper cut very fine, which broken overhead leave it covered with spangles. The ladies break over the gentlemen’s heads and the reverse, and so great are the liberties taken to accomplish the feat that some from behind will clasp your arms tight whilst others shower on the Cascarones’ (filled eggshells). They do not like the shell filled with perfumed water as it produces stains on the dresses and also causes colds to which these people are very subject. It is polite to avoid a Cascacron and even to grasp a lady’s hand to crush the shell in it, if she be in the act of breaking it, but  when a gentleman gets a Cascaron on his head he is bound to return it which is sometimes quite difficult when the ladies are skilled in dodging. You can scarcely imagine the extent to which this is carried [out]. At a small party a few nights ago, there were upwards of four hundred Cascarones broken among a party of not over twenty-five persons. “

February 3, 1848, Sherman Family Letters
  • Women’s Evening Dress c. 1842 By MET Museum –
  • Men’s Jacket By MET Museum
Mid 19th cent evening wear https://www.metmuseum.org

He continues describing how ‘the ladies’ can spend the whole day preparing the cascarones, which apparently are still in use today in Mexico to mark various celebrations. And he concludes:

I have often laughed to see a whole party of grown men, myself included sitting round a table clipping this stuff in preparation for a coming dance, but the customs of Monterey are as sensible as the customs of other places, and must be respected.

Sherman Family Letters 1848

While cracking egg shells on the heads of our family, friends and neighbors may not be our thing, may our own welcoming the New Year be as festive and safe as Sherman’s in Monterey.

Photo: By Rubina Shrestha
Categories
History of the West US History

Sutter’s Fort July 4, 1848

Sherman writes of celebrating Independence Day during his first stay in California. At that time the country was rapidly expanding and yet it hadn’t even reached its centennial. He along with other military personnel stationed in Monterey were en route to the American River to inspect and report on the recent findings of gold which had already radically changed the flow of history in ways that merit attention in some future musings. Here I just focus on Sherman’s journey, from Monterey by sailing vessel, dugouts, horseback and foot (which will also warrant a separate entry) to the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountain range some 200 miles north east. Along the way they stopped at Sutter’s Fort built by Swiss John Augustus Sutter a self proclaimed ruler who had established a plantation/colony of sorts under nefarious conditions and circumstances. Sherman makes no mention of this. Instead he writes only of the visit en route towards the goldfields along the riverbeds.

Sherman writes:

The fort itself was one of adobe-walls, about twenty feed high, rectangular in form with two-story block-houses at diagonal corners the entrance was bay a large gate, open by day and closed at night, with two iron ship’s guns near at hand. Inside there was a large house with a good shingle-roof, used as a storehouse, and all around the walls were ranged rooms, the fort-wall being the outer wall of the house. The inner wall was of adobe. These rooms were used by Captain Sutter himself and by his people. He had a blacksmith’s shop, carpenter’s shop, etc., and other rooms where the women made blankets.

We found preparations in progress for celebrating the Fourth of July, then close at hand and we agreed to remain over to assist on the occasion; of course, being the high officials, we were the honored guests. People came from a great distance to attend this celebration of the Fourth of July and the tables were laid in the large room inside the storehouse of the fort. A man of some note, named Sinclair, presided, and after a substantial mean and a reasonable supply of aguardiente   we began the toasts. All that I remember is that Folsom and I spoke for our party; others, Captain Sutter included, made speeches, and before the celebration was over Sutter was very “tight,” and many others showed the effects of the aguardiente.   

Gold Regions of California James Wyld 1849 www.wdl.org

Map of Gold Strikes 1848 -1849

The next day (namely July 5, 1848) we resumed our journey toward the mines, and, in twenty-five miles of as hot and dusty a ride as possible we reached Mormon Island”

W.T. Sherman Memoirs Vol I
(L)US Flag 1851 (California’s entry into the Union),(R) California State Flag

Sherman’s eye witness account of the discovery of gold in California and its rapid chaotic transformation offers perspectives that deserve more attention. Perhaps though the July 4th at Sutter’s Fort was one of the first commemoration of a still very newly formed democratic republic committed –however inconsistently and imperfectly– to the ideals of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Categories
Culture and Value Uncategorized US History

Sherman and the Navajo

Signing of the Navajo Treaty, June 1, 1868

“I want peace and believe it can only be achieved through union.”

W.T. Sherman

This conviction permeated Sherman’s thought during and after the Civil War. It also influenced his thinking and tasks as U.S. Army Lieutenant General in the years that followed. Peace is a fragile reality when it exists at all and often comes at the cost of war. As the westward expansion exploded Sherman had to grapple with responsibility of protecting both the settlers moving westward and the people who were being forcibly moved off of their ancestral homelands to accommodate this expansion. It was anything but peaceful.

Officials in Washington hoped for a peaceful transition, even if was just little more than wishful thinking. Opinions varied to what degree they thought it possible. Nevertheless a “Peace Commission” was formed in 1867 comprised of military personal and civilians who had some knowledge of or sympathies with the Native Americans of the great plains. Ironically Sherman was made the head. The Commission’s task was to negotiate with peoples inhabiting the land between the states whose culture and histories were as different as the languages they spoke and the territories they claimed. Land mass west of the Mississippi through the Rockies was equal or greater than all existing states combined.

How did Sherman accept this new assignment? Perhaps he considered it little more than his job, one that enabled him to feed his family. Or perhaps as in the years of the Civil War, he thought it was his duty to do his best in securing peace for the diversity of peoples in the U.S. and its claimed territories. In either case the Peace Commission’s preliminary meetings and final treaties were layered with complexities. Further, there has never been any agreement on whether or not they even succeeded.  Meetings involved several peoples inhabiting vastly disputed territories. This combined with inadequate resources, poor communication and bureaucratic corruption in Washington DC were just some of the obstacles that continuously worked against making any negotiations relevant or binding. Sherman foresaw these difficulties even before beginning his assignment. His skepticism was well grounded.  Nevertheless he accepted the challenge, hoping for the best. In less than three years after the close of the Civil War he gladly left Washington and  relocated his family to St. Louis. Soon afterwards he met with the Commission and began their travels west of the Missouri.

I hope to God you will not ask me to go to any other country except my own.

Barboncito, Navajo Chief, 1868

After meeting with leaders of several tribes in the northern plains, Sherman and Samuel F. Tappan set out towards the end of May  traveling to Fort Sumner  to meet with the Navajo interned at Bosque Redondo. They had been held for close to four years as prisoners by the U.S. government in lands that were desolate and close to uninhabitable. Several bands totaling by some counts 9,000 persons had been forcibly removed from their homelands and marched 300 miles to the east. Known as the Long Walk hundreds died along the way or soon afterwards. The relocation was a financial disaster and was costing the U.S. government thousands of dollars a day. It was a national embarrassment and disgrace.

What Sherman saw when he arrived at the end of May 1868 must have shocked him and angered him. Hundreds of families lived in squalid conditions, ordered by his government to ranch and farm in an area that was suitable for neither. Many were starving. Some claim that Sherman was indifferent or even antithetical to peaceful resolutions of conflict and negotiations. However, a close read of the preliminary proceedings and negotiations as in those with the Navajo indicate otherwise.

Meetings began with Navajo leaders began on May 28th. Sherman asked them to select their representatives and a spokesperson. Three days of talks followed. He listened through two translators to Barboncito, Manuelito and others.  Sherman sought to resolve not only the main concern-where they wished to relocate but also additional grievances, which included the fact that Mexican and American settlers throughout the South West and Mexico held hundreds of Navajo women and children in bondage. Sherman just fought and won a war to secure the freedom of enslaved people.  Thus it was his sincere belief that the US government would indeed prosecute and punish anyone holding anyone in bondage. And he promised this to the Navajo. As a man who tried to keep true to his word. Sherman experienced repeated disappointments when his own government could not or would not follow through on what were necessary conditions of justice and peace.

When the Navajos were first created four mountains and four rivers were pointed out to us inside of which we should, live, that was to be our country and was given to us by [God]

Barboncito
https://www.discovernavajo.com/discover-the-navajo-nation/monuments/

Probably in his impatience to resolve a complicated matter or more aptly put, a government induced disaster, Sherman proposed that the Navajos move to designated ‘Indian Country’ that is, the territories south of the Arkansas River. These lands were then being used to relocate several tribes resisting assimilation.   He supposed it would be a favorable option because land was suitable for farming and ranching. It was also off limits to white settlers. But the Navajos rejected that proposition and their will prevailed.  Sherman soon agreed that it was to their advantage and the US government’s best interest  that the Navajo return to their ancestral homelands and for the reasons that the Navajos themselves had determined.

Pages from the Navajo Treaty https://www.smithsonianmag.com/blogs/national-museum-american-indian/2018/02/22/treaty-that-reversed-a-removal-navajo-treaty-1868-goes-on-view/

The talks and negotiations concluded with the signing of the treaty, early in the morning of June 1, 1868.  I was ratified by Congress on July 25th and signed by President Andrew Johnson on August 12th.  Shortly afterwards approximately 8,000 Navajo men, women, elders and children gathered their horses, mules, sheep and goats and together began their long walk home to their four sacred mountains.   In his formal greeting to Sherman when he arrived to Fort Sumner, Barboncito declared he had made three pairs of moccasins for the occasion. He had already worn two for the meetings. The third pair he undoubtedly was saving for the journey home with a dream and destiny for the people:

After we get back to our country, it will brighten up again and the Navajos will be as happy as the land, black clouds will rise and there will be plenty of rain. Corn will grow in abundance and everything will look happy.

Barboncito, June 1, 1868
Categories
Culture and Value History of the West US History

Round the Horn to California: Sherman’s first voyage, Part 3

USS Lexington

A few weeks ago, after a few days in Carmel I made my return trip by way of Highway One from Salinas to Half Moon Bay a drive of 100 miles and much of that on the proverbial ‘ribbon of highway’ with open fields on the east and the Pacific on the west. It was a beautiful spring day and some fields were speckled with California poppies now in bloom. In less than two hours  even despite the traffic congestion in Santa Cruz I arrived to my destination.  Having read Sherman’s memories of his days in Monterey, it was easy for me to imagine what it was like for him to travel along the coast in a small sailing vessel to San Francisco or Bolinas or by horseback on the inland route across Salinas valley to get to the neighboring mission towns of San Juan Bautista and further north San Jose and Santa Clara. While driving the coastal route past Año Nuevo and Pigeon Point, I eventually arrived to Half Moon Bay, a small farming, fishing and tourist town. In Sherman’s time the area, was known as Rancho San Benito and it was little more than a collection of farms and ranches on or near the former settlement sites of the Ohlone. The afternoon commute, enabled me to imagine the youthful enthusiasm of Sherman as he first landed on the western coast of the northern continent.

While still en-voyage to his destination, Sherman was delighted with his one-week stay in Rio de Janeiro as the ship Lexington collected supplies and new cargo to begin the last stretch of their voyage to Monterey, California. He enjoyed the cuisine, the topography and learning how water was delivered to the city from the surrounding majestic mountains:

Rio de Janeiro early 19c

“Mr. Wise enlarged on the fact that Rio was supplied from the “dews of heaven,” for in the dry season the water comes from the mists and fogs which hand around the Corcovado, drips from the leaves of the trees, and is conducted to the Madre fountain by miles of tile gutters.”

W. T. Sherman Memoirs-Volume I

He arrived in Monterey the end of January after close to five months at sea. The last stretch of the voyage which resumed after a brief stay in Brazil and later Chile included passing through the waters of Cape Horn and then northward in the Pacific waters.

  • Rio de Janeiro early 19c
  • Cape Horn
  • Chile
  • By Tirpenne por E. Dumont - Copia de una litografía, ubicada en el Museo Histórico Nacional de Chile, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=256888
    Valparaiso, 1830
Rounding the Horn

The ship resumed its voyage around Cape Horn an island, which according to Sherman resembled an oven hence its name in Spanish Ornos/oven. “Rounding the Horn” was the expression to describe the difficult and often perilous task of navigating the ever swelling seas and converging currents of the Atlantic and the Pacific. It took them another sixty days to navigate the waters and make way for Valparaiso, a coastal town of Chile. While the name denotes “Valley of Paradise”, Sherman thought it unimpressive, “nothing more –he writes– than a few tiled cottages along a beach”. Located south of the equator, the season of spring was just beginning and while Sherman didn’t consider the landscape to be anything worth noting, he enjoyed the pleasant climate and the fresh strawberries then in season.

“All the necessary supplies being renewed in Valparaiso, the voyage was resumed. For nearly forty days we had uninterrupted favorable winds being in the “trades” and having settled down to sailor habits, time passed without notice. ”

W.T. Sherman Memoirs – Volume I

Along the way they encountered other ships and learned of news of their destination of California.  Mexico recently ceded their territories and the U.S. navy had already taken possession of the ports. John C. Fremont and his exploration party were scouting the area and General Kearney was en route by overland. The news coupled by avid reading of books stoking everyone’s imagination of what they would find in this new land, made Sherman and his colleagues ever more eager to press on to their military or peace keeping assignments (they didn’t know which) in Monterey.

Sherman reports that they arrived to the coast of California by the end of January. But while both the Spanish and English maps concurred on the currents alongside the coast they did not agree on the longitude. This coupled with a fierce storm, typical in January caused them to overshoot the Monterey port and they weren’t able to make a correction southward for several days.  Once the storm subsided Sherman writes;

“Slowly the land came out of the water, the high mountains about Santa Cruz, the low beach of the Salinas, and the strongly-marked ridge terminating in the sea in a point of dark pine trees, marking out the Monterey Bay.”

W. T. Sherman Memoirs-Volume I
Monterey Bay -Albert Bierstadt

Categories
Culture and Value History of the West US History

Round the Horn to California, Sherman’s First Voyage, Part 2

Continuation of W.T. Sherman’s voyage to California in 1846 based on his letters home.

USS Lexington

This day is usually among sailors a species of April Fools Day when all sorts of practical jokes are enacted upon the persons of those who have never crossed the line….

Letter dated “At Sea” August 28 1846

Writes Sherman as the USS Lexington crossed the equator heading southward to Rio de Janeiro. He continues his description of the rite of initiation or hazing depending on your perspective or experience of the practices on board sailing vessels traversing the equator–the imaginary line dividing the northern and southern hemispheres of planet earth.

19th century etching of “crossing the line” initiation aboard the Medusse (public domain)

Old Neptune usually mounts the bow of the ship, dripping with his brine and accompanied by his beautiful wife. They then proceed to initiate the novices. Our ship is a war vessel and such irregularities are not permitted and it was forbidden to our men for the simple reason that those that have been south of the equator bear too small a proportion to the fresh men that Old Neptune’s decrees might not be enforced by his accepted children. The ship was pronounced on the equator at eight this forenoon…. I was summoned to the Captain’s cabin where a holy stone; [in reality] a piece of hard stone used for cleaning decks–was presented for me to rest my hand for an oath…”

At Sea, August 28, 1846

The solemn moment included a list of prohibitions unless of course one preferred them. The pledge ended  with: 

so help you salt water–a dash of which was sprinkled on my face and I was then duly initiated.

At Sea, August 28, 1846

In turn, Sherman ‘baptized’ his fellow officers, with salt water as he administered the oath. My guess is Sherman added this last detail to amuse or annoy  the more pious readers of his letters, his future wife included.

This is the only ceremony which distinguishes this day from any other, and now as we consult the charts and maps there appears a dark magic line separating us from our friends and homes.  This must again be crossed after weeks of sailing around Cape Horn

At Sea, August 28, 1846

He sent his letter with a small French sailing vessel calculating that his sister would receive it by mid September about the time he would arrive to the colorful tropical city of Rio de Janeiro a welcome reprieve from the monotony of water travel of the first several weeks. 

“Forty-six days have now passed since our departure and looking back upon them nothing is seen that will leave an impression save the monotonous flight of time.”

At Sea, August 28, 1846
The ship’s deck Edourd Manet (c. 1860)

The observant Sherman took note of his explorations of the cultural and natural beauty in the cities of Rio de Janeiro and Valparaiso while their ship restocked en-route to  California.  But by mid November the endless days and nights at sea and under its mercy and vengeance as the case may be exasperated him.  His frank reassessment of the voyage reveals his overall impression of sea travel. As the ship was about to head due north through the Pacific Sherman hints at his budding dream which would become his life long passion; safe and efficient transportation across the continent of the northern hemisphere.

If you hear of a subscription opening to dig a canal across the Isthmus of Panama, you may put me down any amount for really I do not fancy a voyage of twenty-four thousand miles to accomplish a distance of less than two thousand.”

November, 1846
Categories
Culture and Value US History

Round the Horn to California; Sherman’s first voyage, Part 1

Ordered to California by Sea round Cape Horn! Is not this enough to rouse the most placid?

June 30th 1846 Letter

Wrote a young Sherman who was summoned as an army officer to travel to California recently claimed by the United Sates following their war with Mexico. Even before the discovery of gold the value of the land and its strategic location on the Pacific was appreciated if not coveted. John Fremont and other 19th century fortune seekers had written copiously about its bounty. Sherman was assigned to assist in a ‘peaceful possession’ of of Monterey through the Sierras.  In one of his first letters he instructs his sister:

You have Fremont’s map on the parlor table. Look at the map and you will see Monterey and San Francisco with the back country. It is in that region I believe we will be for some time…

Letter to Elizabeth Sherman, 1846

At that time there were two ways to cross the landmass we now call the United States. One could travel overland by foot or beast which beyond the Mississippi was fraught with dangers, mainly from Indians protecting their homelands. Or by sea, which took much longer since it was necessary to travel around the tip of South America and present day Chile. The voyage included crossing the equator line twice, a stay in the ports of Rio de Janeiro and Valparaiso and tumultuous passage around the tip of Cape Horn, where waters of the Atlantic and Pacific furiously intermingled. What Sherman understates succinctly almost laconically in his Memoirs, most likely an editor’s call, he humorously expounds in great detail in letters to his family.

New York Seaport late 19th century Print by George Schelgal, (Library of Congress)
USS Lexington, 1827

The seas of water known as oceans are the “high road that leads from Africa and Asia to the United States” wrote Sherman. On July 17 he along with close to 100 crew, army personnel and some passengers sailed from the port of New York on the USS Lexington, a sloop of war, converted into a cargo ship, which still carried six guns for defense on the spar/or upper deck. Sherman writes that it was well stocked with food, ammunition and other supplies that would be needed on their arrival to California. He appreciated that logistics for the voyage were well planned; “by foresight, the greatest of evils may be avoided”. But he also surmises that

“the certainty of the vast journey bids me be prepared”.  

Letter 1846

Copious and amusing descriptions of the ship and voyage abound:  The upper deck included a strong floor and was surrounded by bulwarks ‘about breast high’. “Our cargo is very heavy as we carry out so may guns for California service, and the magazine of the ship could not contain half our powder which amounts to about eight hundred barrels”.  A coop full of chickens and a few dozen pigs were also in transport perhaps some to be used for upcoming meals. The berth/lower deck included the sleeping quarters. He concludes: “We have many books of all kinds but our voyage will be so long that we will be forced to read even the tables in Bowditch”, a 19th century handbook of navigation by Nathanial Bowditch.

Indeed the first part of the voyage seems like a cruise on a luxury liner.  Soldiers and officers including young Sherman bound for California watched while sailors nimbly coiled ropes and rigged sails. Sherman notes however, that all of the men, himself included were assigned tasks and were required to assist in the event of storms.  There were four women, wives of the officers and finally two children: “ to whom the sailors are fast teaching them all the oaths in their calendars”. I take that to mean expanding their vocabulary in ways that their mothers blushed, lamented and reprimanded.  Or all three. After 57 mostly pleasant sunny days days, USS Lexington crossed the line (the equator) and made port at Rio de Janeiro for close to two weeks giving Sherman and his companions time to explore the colonial city and its surrounding mountainsides.

Rio de Janeiro in the 19th Century Capricio Views-
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Culture and Value US History

Sherman in Savannah

The city of Savannah was an old place, and usually accounted a handsome one. W.T.S. Memoirs Vol II

“I beg to present you as a Christmas gift the city of Savannah with one hundred and fifty heavy guns and plenty of ammunition, also about twenty five thousand bales of cotton. “

Letter to President Lincoln December 22, 1864

Sherman wrote to President Lincoln shortly after bringing the Georgia campaign to a close by establishing the Union army following the city’s peaceful surrender.  An acquaintance “suggested that I might [send] a welcome Christmas gift to the President, Mr. Lincoln, who peculiarly enjoyed such pleasantry. I accordingly sat down and wrote on a slip of paper, to be left at the telegraph-office for transmission.– He continues; his message actually reached him on Christmas-eve and was extensively published in the newspapers and made many a household unusually happy on that festive day; and it was the answer to this dispatch that Mr. Lincoln wrote me the letter of December 28th, beginning with the words “many, many thanks.”

No doubt a gift of a city is preposterous even outrageous. But for Sherman it was Savannah and not Atlanta that marked a change in tides in the war of secession. The confiscation of Confederates’ ammunition and cotton–ironically being sold to northern merchants to pay for their war against the Union– meant that he had effectively cut off their supplies and financial resources. More important by seizing the rebels’ stronghold deep in their own territory Grant’s army could focus on battling the dwindling but fiercely resolved armies of Lee. The end of the long, bloody war was in sight.

Sherman’s recollections of these days are not without understated hubris. They’re also peppered with ironic humor underscoring his relief and profound gratitude that the campaign was over and on his view, with minimal loss of life as he was able to avoid major battles by outmaneuvering his opponents.

The rebel army wasn’t Sherman’s biggest enemy and hence targets of his wrath. He was annoyed and angered by disinformation and ‘fake news’ of the press. Northern newspapers continued to accuse him of insanity and southern newspapers claimed his army was pillaging their land and livestock with no regard for life. He undoubtedly felt the sweetness of revenge when the northern papers had to admit in print that his strategies worked by informing the public of his ‘gift’ to the President. He placed strict rules on southern newspapers forbidding them to publish what he considered harmed the Union.

“No more than two newspapers will be published in Savannah; their editors and proprietors will be held to the strictest accountability, and will be punished severely in person and property, for any libelous publication, mischievous matter, premature news, exaggerated statements, or any comments whatever upon the actions of the constituted authorities; they will be held accountable for such articles even though copied from other papers. “

Special Field Order No. 143. No. 4

An advocate of freedom of press as we know it today, Sherman was not. He was amused that Confederate generals were requesting special care for their families and properties even while they were waging war against him.

“Before I had reached Savannah and during our stay there the rebel officers and newspapers represented the conduct of the men of our army as simply infamous; that we respected neither age nor sex; that we burned everything we came across …and perpetrated all manner of outrages on the inhabitants. Therefore it struck me as strange Generals Hardee and Smith should commit their families to our custody and even bespeak our personal care and attention.”

Sherman Memoirs II
The Entrance Hall in 1864, when it was being used as General Sherman’s Headquarters. A sketch by William Waud in 1864.

 

Sherman remained in Savannah through mid January.  Perhaps he wished to stay longer if not for its beauty but also as a respite from military drudgery. But he was ordered to move his army closer to Grant’s so they could close in on the remaining rebel armies led by Lee and Johnson. Before departing Sherman invited all die hard Confederates and dissenters to leave the city providing safe passage to rejoin their friends and families in Charleston and Augusta. By his count two hundred people left the city ‘to join the fortunes of their husbands and fathers’.  He reestablished the authority of the mayor and city council to managed city’s affairs for the general interests of the people. He reports that: “The great bulk of the inhabitants chose to remain in Savannah, generally behaved with propriety, and good social relations at once arose between them and the army”. Churches reopened for worship. Stores and markets also “reopened, and provisions …were established, so that each family, regardless of race, color or opinion, could procure all the necessaries of life—if they had money.” For those who didn’t which were many, he made arrangement for food and other supplies to be acquired for “gratuitous distribution, which relieved the most pressing wants until the revival of trade and business enabled the people to provide for themselves.”

Amidst the demands of reestablishing public order for a besieged city of 20,000 and making preparations for the next segment of the campaign which he considered as more dangerous, Sherman found time to write a long letter to his wife and children.  Most likely the second half of his salutation is what gave them their most profound joy:

 “This is Christmas Day and I hope truly and really that you and the little ones may enjoy it, in the full knowledge that I am all safe after our long March.”  December 25, 1865 

Home Letters of General Sherman 1909
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Art of Living Culture and Value US History

Giving Thanks

Valley of the Yosemite Albert Bierstadt, 1864

“It’s a good world; it is the best we have now.”

Memoirs of W. T. Sherman, Volume II

Sherman gratefully addressed his friends as they gathered to celebrate his 70th birthday. Perhaps feeling a need to give words of wisdom to a younger audience, he offered advice gleaned from his own life’s experience: “I know that like all others you wish to make the world as good as yourselves… . But the first way to reform the community is to reform yourselves. But you have to take the world as it is”.

Realism and optimism. We need both. The first to keep us grounded, the second to reach for dreams. Realism presents conditions and circumstances around us and optimism inspires us to energetically respond to opportunities and challenges we encounter. Healing and hope. We long for both. Several months of a pandemic and a contentious election campaign have left us tired; realizing we need to come together but wondering how we’ll do so.

It’s not always easy but it’s attainable. It comes about when we consider how hope brings possibilities into clear focus and healing restores vision and strength to pursue the difficult good which in this case is to unite so as to confront the challenge of our communities, country and world together. Gratitude may not be the only way for hope and healing to come about, it quickens the process. Giving thanks for what we have and even what we lack is an antidote to bitterness in all its toxic effects.

Every day’s a good day to give thanks. But this month we have two holidays especially set aside; Veterans Day and Thanksgiving Day.

“Toward the close of the war, I have often heard the soldiers complain that the ‘stay-at-home’ men got better pay, bounties and food, than they who were exposed to the dangers and vicissitudes of the battles and marches at the front. The feeling of the solder should be that in every event, the sympathy and preference of his government is for him who fights.”

Memoirs of W. T. Sherman, Vol II
Sherman (front center) and veterans, Chicago 1884, Library of Congress

Sherman’s connection with his comrade in arms and his concern for them afterwards is legendary. During war he fought, ate and camped with them. “Officers should never seek for houses but share the condition of their men.” he instructs. Later he worked to establish pensions and methods of care. After his retirement he welcomed veterans who came to his door seeking help.

Women and men of the armed forces protect our country and freedom. “Home of the free because of the brave” should never escape our memory. In what ways are we showing gratitude not only on the one day set aside to honor veterans but every day? How are veterans being cared for in our families and communities? The elderly, sick and wounded in veterans’ facilities across our country keenly feel this time of social isolation. What can we do to shorten the time or distance for those who are separated from friends and family or more tragically entirely forgotten by them? In what ways are we grateful for the thousands of our military members deployed throughout the world?

Thanksgiving Day has its own winding history in our country. Significant in its establishment is that Lincoln had hoped that a day set aside for giving thanks to the Creator for all good gifts would also bring about the unity of a bitterly divided country in the midst of a civil war. Division still remains a threat. Looking beyond differences and being grateful together won’t resolve all problems but it will help us find solutions more swiftly. Attention and appreciation inspires generosity.

The president elect chose hope and healing as a theme to end the recent campaign and embark on a new chapter for America. He referenced a well-known hymn based on psalm 91. Here I recall a verse of another hymn; –which struck me years ago as a young chorister singing in a performance of Benjamin Britten’s St. Nicolas Cantata Op42:

Ye fearful saints fresh courage take
The clouds ye so much dread
Are big with mercy, and shall break
In blessings on your head

God Moves in A Mysterious Way, A. Cowper 1773, Melody London New

So, sure there are things in this world that need to change. Some dreams though are within reach when, as Sherman says we gratefully take the world as it is and inspired by hope we make it better by reforming ourselves and doing what we can to bring about even a greater good together.

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