-l.v, 



SHERMAN. 



him, and was twice wounded." Oen. Nelson said : 

 " During eight hours the fate of the army depended 

 on the life of one man. If Qen. Sherman had fallen, 

 the army would have been captured or destroyed." 

 And Grant himself said : " Sherman, with raw 

 troops, held the key-point to the Landing ; to his 

 individual efforts I am indebted for the success of 

 the battle." Of his achievement* in the subsequent 

 pursuit and advance ou Corinth, Grant writes : " His 

 .- i \ices as division-commander in the advance on 

 Corinth, I will venture to say, were appreciated by 

 the new general-in-chief beyond those of any divi- 

 sion-officer." For his services at Shiloh Sherman 

 was appointed major-general of volunteers, to date 

 from May 1, 1S62. 



In December, 1862, commenced that series of 

 operations which culminated in the capture of 

 Vicksburg. Sherman having been assigned to the 

 command of the Fifteenth Corps, he embarked at 

 Memphis on Dec. 20. The plan of operations was 

 for Sherman to advance directly on Vicksburg and 

 assault it, while Grant should follow and move 

 on Jackson by railroad, engaging and holding the 

 enemy's force there. Just as Sherman started, 

 Holly Springs was attacked and .surrendered, with 

 the supplies on which the expedition partly de- 

 pended ; Grant was brought to a halt, and the en- 

 emy on his front hastened to re-enforce Vicksburg. 

 Slierman, ignorant of the conditions, hurried on to 



?lay his part, and, disembarking at the month of the 

 'azoo, made, on Dec. 27, a general advance on 

 the city, and carried the outer defences. For two 

 days the attacks were renewed, but Vicksburg was 

 impregnable to so small a force. Under a flag of 

 truce Sherman buried his dead and cared for his 

 wounded, and then re-embarked. At this juncture 

 Gen. McCleruand arrived, and superseded Sherman 

 in the command of the right wing, which the latter 

 announced to his men in a proclamation closing : 

 " All grtod officers and soldiers will give the new 

 commander the same hearty support and cheerful 

 obedience they have given me. There are honors 

 enough in reserve for all, and work enough too." 

 The work was not long delayed. Seven days later 

 Sherman, with the Fifteenth, and McClernand, with 

 the Thirteenth Corps, stormed Arkansas Post, capt- 

 uring 7000 prisoners, with guns and supplies. Of 

 this achievement Grant says : " The conception was 

 Gen. Sherman's ; his part of the execution was as 

 good as it could have been." 



In March Admiral Porter made an Attempt to 

 reach the city by the intricate and artificially imped- 

 e<l navigation of the bayous and creeks leading into 

 the Yazoo, and was entrapped and would have been 

 captured but for Sherman hurrying to his relief and 

 cutting him oat. In the successive assaults till the 

 city surrendered, on July 4th, to a regular siege, 

 Sherman's corps bore its full part. Even after the 

 capture its labors were not at an end. A fortnight 

 before the surrender, Gen. Jos. . Johnston threat- 

 ened the rear of the besieging army with a large im- 

 provised force. Sherman was commissioned to deal 

 with him, and on his approach Johnston withdrew 

 to Jackson,' Miss. This town was invested, and 

 captured by Sherman, July 13, Johnston having 

 evacuated it. Of Sherman's whole conduct before 

 Vicksbnrg, Grant says: "The siege of Vicksbnrg 

 and lost capture of Jackson and dispersion of John- 

 ston's army entitle Gen. Sherman to more credit 

 than usually falls to the lot of one man." 



After some weeks' rest for him and his men he 

 d, on Sept. 22, a telegram from Grant 

 calling on him to hasten to the help of Bosecrans, 

 who had lieen defeated at Chickamanga. On the 

 2-'kl he started with his corps, and. depite diffi- 

 culties all but insurmountable and the oons'ant op- 

 of the enemy, arrived on Nov. 15, where he 



found Grant, now in command of the department 

 and of the Armies of the Ohio, Cumberland, nnd 

 Tennessee. Sherman was put in command of tint 

 last, and ordered to effect a lodgement on Missionary 

 Ridge, which was held by Bragg, who was I 

 ing Chattanooga. By incessant labor, night and 

 day, Sherman got his army ready for action on tlio 

 23d, and, despite the position of the enemy on 

 naturally and artificially so unassailable that Bragg, 

 deeming himself secure, had despatched Longstrci t 

 to besiege Burnside in Knoxville, the bloody rid^n 

 was carried on the 25th, and the Secession army 

 flung back into the valleys of Georgia. Pursuit 

 followed victory. All throe armies pressed onward 

 Hooker and Thomas sharing with Sherman in tho 

 marching and fighting till the Confederate army 

 was driven out of Tennessee, when Sherman re- 

 turned to Chattanooga. No sooner had he nrrhi-.l 

 than Grant ordered him to the relief of Bnrnside, 

 beleaguered with 12,000 men, 84 miles off. Sherman 

 instantly set ont, but, on his approach to Knoxville, 

 LongHtreet raised the siege. 



Sherman with his wearied men once more re- 

 turned to Chattanooga, after a three months' cam- 

 paign unparalleled in the war. His official report 

 summarized his work as follows: "The men had 

 marched for long periods, without regular rations or 

 supplies of any kind, through mud and over rocks, 

 sometimes barefooted, and without a murmur. 

 Without a moment's rest after a march of over 400 

 miles, without sleep for three successive nights, 

 they crossed the Tennessee river, fought their part 

 in tho battle of Chattanooga, pursued the enemy out 

 of Tennessee, then turned more than 100 miles north, 

 and compelled Longstreet to raise the siege of 

 Knoxville, which had been the source of anxiety to 

 the whole country." 



Sherman now returned to Vicksburg, and at the 

 close of January, 1864, organized a raid into Central 

 Mississippi, setting out, Feb. 3d, and reaching 

 Meridian, where he waited for General Smith to join 

 him with 8000 cavalry. But Smith did not come. 

 Instead of starting on Feb. 1, he did not move till 

 the llth, and the object of the expedition was foiled. 

 After capturing large quantities of stores and dam- 

 aging this hostile region, Sherman returned to 

 Yk-ksburg. On March 12, 1864, (mint was put at 

 the head of all the forces of the Union. The same 

 order gave Sherman command of the Department of 

 the Mississippi, and of the Armies of the Ohio, the 

 Cumberland, and the Tennessee, under Schoiield, 

 Thomas, and McPhorson, respectively. Soon the two 

 parallel campaigns, with Richmond and Atlanta as 

 their immediate objective, were set on foot. On 

 April 10, 1864, the headquarters of Sherman's thren 

 armies were at Chattanooga, Huntsville. and Knox- 

 ville, and all were to be directed against Gen. Jos. 

 E. Johnston, then bring intrenched at Dalton, Geor- 

 gia. "Neither Atlanta, Augusta, nor Savannah," 

 nays Sherman himself in his Memoirs, " was tho ob- 

 jective, but the 'Army of Joe Johnston,' go where it 

 might." 



On May 5 the general movement commenced, 

 concentrating on Dalton, whence, on Sherman's ad- 

 vance, Johnston retreated Parthian-like, striking as 

 he retired. The fighting thereafter may be said to 

 have been continuous, Johnston im]>eding the march 

 at almost every step through a country broken, 

 densely wooded, and entangled with brush, and by 

 roads or tracks (where such were found) of the most 

 miserable description, which became in wet weather 

 and it was often such mere quagmires. Engage- 

 ments took place at New Hojw Church, Kr- 

 Mountain (the hardest fight in the campaign, involv- 

 ing a Union loss of 2500 men), and Marietta, about 

 which two places it. was really a continuous battle 

 from Juno 10 till July 3, when tho cncm\ fell !.;.< -k 



