USA > Ohio > The history of the state of Ohio; from the discovery of the great valley, to the present time > Part 69
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As is generally known, Mr. Waite was appointed in 1871 one of the counsel to prepare the case of the United States and present the same before the Court of Arbitration at Geneva, as provided for in the Treaty of Washington.
It is undoubtedly true that the chief burden of the case, on the part of the United States, fell upon Mr. Cushing ; but if any one will take pains to exam- ine the reports of the case, and of the arguments as recently published by the Appletons, as well as those arguments submitted orally as those submitted in writing, and make inquiries of persons qualified to give an opinion, he will be satisfied that Mr. Waite contributed very materially to the success of the case of the United States, and to the peaceful settlement of long outstanding and bit- terly contested questions of the greatest moment.
Among his associates Judge Waite has the reputation of possessing a vigor- ous intellect, which readily grasps the facts and law of a case. He has a sound and well-balanced judgment, and a large share of practical common sense. He is blessed with robust health, is industrious in his habits, and possesses an equa- ble temper. These qualities will find ample scope and play in his new sphere. There is additional ground for satisfaction in believing that as his appointment to the Chief Justiceship was not prompted by motives of party, or political policy, he entered his office untrammeled by close political alliances, and free from the biases and prejudices engendered and fostered by party spirit and party contests.
Judge Waite was married to Miss Amelia C. Warner, of Lyme, Conn., September 21, 1840, and they have a family of four children living, one having died in infancy.
It is a trite saying that no man is responsible for his ancestors. Is it not quite as true that to a great extent a man's ancestors are responsible for him ?
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It is true that, save in exceptional instances, we estimate men by the rank, age, wealth, or influence of their families ; by what may be called the incidents of their birth and condition in life. The only true tests of character and merit are, however, to be found in the man himself-in what he does and says and is. Nevertheless, the inquiry in regard to any one who comes to the front, and assumes the discharge of important public trusts-what are the traits and quali- ties which he may be justly said to have inherited from his fathers-is not an unworthy or unprofitable one. Let us briefly interrogate the records in regard to Judge Waite's ancestors.
Thus it may be seen that our new Chief Justice comes of good stock. " Blood is thicker than water," and good blood is better than bad. It will be seen, also, that he has inherited an instinct for the profession of the law, and for judicial and administrative functions. This is certain, that he has never failed-in any position he has taken, and it may reasonably be expected that with experience he will fill the office of Chief Justice with credit to himself and to the satisfaction of the people.
GENERAL WILLIAM TECUMSEH SHERMAN. [See page 829.]
Our deplorable civil war developed no higher military ability, in any officer, than that displayed by General William Tecumseh Sherman. It is probably that it will be the decision of military critics, capable of forming an intelligent opinion, that the most brilliant campaign of the war, that which exhibited the highest qualities of intellectual power, of statesmanship and of strategy was the wonderful march from Atlanta to the sea. Physical courage is a very common-place quality. There was never a more gallant soldier to head a charge than the unintellectual Murat. But in General Sherman's campaign there were devoloped truly Napoleonic powers, qualities which would adorn the highest positions in civil as well as military life. A sketch of his life ought not therefore to be omitted in the historical annals of Ohio.
William Tecumseh Sherman was an elder brother of Ohio's illustrious sen- ator, John Sherman. He was born at Lancaster, Ohio, on the 8th of February, 1820. When but nine years of age his father, a man of much distinction, and one of the Judges of the Supreme Court, died. The widowed mother was left with eleven young children, and with but little property. The father justly admired the character of the renowned Indian Chieftain Tecumseh and attached his name to the new-born infant.
The Shermans were held in the highest respect. The members of the bar knowing how light must be the purse left with Mrs. Sherman decided to educate some of the children of their beloved and revered brother in the legal profession.
Hon. Thomas Ewing, then in the prime of his powers, after some inquiries selected William as the child of his adoption. For seven years the bright and energetic boy was kept in school at Lancaster. His frank, generous, amiable disposition won the love of all who knew him.
When seventeen years of age Mr. Ewing secured a cadetship at West Point for his young protégée. In June 1836, William entered that renowned military
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school, and remained there, with but one furlough of two months, until his graduation in 1840. He stood as sixth in his class, and entered the artillery corps. A strong attachment had very naturally arisen between William T. Sherman and Miss Ellen, a daughter of Mr. Ewing. A lively correspondence was kept up between the two, during their years of separation. Many portions of this correspondence have been published. His tastes inclined him very strongly to a military life. Just before his graduation he wrote to Miss Ewing :
" The nearer we come to graduation day, the higher opinion I conceive of the. duties and life of an officer of the United States army, and the more confirmed is the wish of spending my life in the service of my country."
In some respect the campaign, which resulted in the election of General Har- rison, disgusted his friends and must have disgusted the general himself. The intelligent voters of the United States were called upon to place in the presid- ential chair a man, really of high merit and noble qualifications for the office, upon the ground that the leather string of his door-latch was always out and that he could give his guests a drink of hard cider. The innate good sense of young Sherman led him to despise such arguments. He wrote to Miss Ewing : "You no doubt are certain that General Harrison will be our next president .. I do not think that there is the least hope of such a change, since his friends. have thought proper to envelop his name with log cabins, gingerbread, hard cider and such humbugging, the sole object of which is plainly to deceive and. mislead his ignorant and prejudiced though honest fellow citizens, whilst his qualifications, his honesty, his merit and services are merely alluded to."
He had at that age the usual qualities of a frank, impetuous, and very decided young man. He was at the farthest remove from what was called a "iady's man." The frivolities of fashionable life had no charms for him. He loved solitude, books, and earnest employments, which would task his energies. Most of the young graduates at West Point dreaded exceedingly banishment to a mil- itary post, far away in the wilderness, where wolves and panthers roamed, and Indians still more wild. But the poetic nature of young Sherman craved adven- tures in the midst of those solitudes. Just before graduating, he wrote to a friend :
" I propose and intend to go into the infantry, be stationed in the Far West, out of the reach of what is termed civilization, and there remain as long as pos- sible."
He was appointed first lieutenant, and was sent to Florida, mostly on garrison duty, though he participated in several expeditions against the Indians. It was a weary life one was compelled to lead in that frontier post, where every fiber of the body seemed enervated by the sultry clime. There were but few books to be had, and they were soon exhausted. Vigorous study seemed impossible. Lieutenant Sherman endeavored to beguile the hours by surrounding himself with pets. A soldier who can find joy in "tending innumerable chickens, tame pigeons, white rabbits, a little fawn, crows, a crane, and a full blooded Indian pony," must have a warm heart.
In 1842 Lieutenant Sherman was removed, with his company, to Fort Mor- gan, at the entrance to Mobile Bay, and soon after was transferred to Fort Moultrie, in Charleston harbor. Here he could not resist the hospitality of the
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Charlestonians ; and though his choice amusements were hunting and fishing, he passed many agreeable hours in cultivated social circles, which his presence ever adorned.
He was next appointed on a board of officers to examine the claims of Geor- gia and Alabama, for horses furnished the army in the Seminole war. He availed himself of this opportunity to study, with the utmost diligence, the face of the country in a military point of view Little did he then imagine that he was to lead an army through those wide-spread territories, and that the information he was then so carefully storing up, of the topography and resources of the South, would prove of inestimable practical advantage to him in the course of a few years.
We see this same remarkable development of character upon his return to Fort Moultrie. There is, in this respect, much in General Sherman's career which reminds the student of history of the intellectual activity of Napoleon I. He wrote from Fort Moultrie :
"Since my return I have not been running about in the city or the island as heretofore, but have endeavored to interest myself in Blackstone. I have read all four volumes ; Starkie on Evidence, and other books, semi-legal and semi- historical. I would be obliged if you would give me a list of such books as you were required to read, not including your local or state law. I intend to read the second and third volumes of Blackstone again ; also Kent's Commentaries, which seem, as far as I am capable of judging, to be the basis of the common law practice.
" This course of study I have adopted from feeling the want of it in the duties to which I was lately assigned. I have no idea of making the law a profession. But as an officer of the army, it is my duty and interest to be prepared for any situation that fortune or luck may offer. It is for this alone I prepare, and not for professional practice"
After serving for a short time at the Augusta arsenal, and attending a court- martial at Wilmington, when the Mexican war broke out he was sent to Pitts- burgh, Pennsylvania, on recruiting service. Soon we find him on ship-board, sailing around Cape Horn, for California. There he became aid-de-camp to Gen- eral Persifer F. Smith, and assistant adjutant-general to Stephen W. Kearney. These duties he discharged so faithfully as to secure the warm commendation of his superior officers.
In the year 1850 he returned to the States, and was married to Miss Ewing, at the residence of her father. These happy nuptials were graced by the pres- ence of Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, and Zachary Taylor. Soon after his mar- riage he was breveted captain for meritorious services, and was sent first to Missouri and then to New Orleans.
There can be hardly any employment more wearisome to an energetic young man than garrison duty in time of peace. The pay is small, and the daily rou- tine exceedingly irksome. Promotion was very slow. Captain Sherman had now been thirteen years in the army. Acting for a time as commissary, he had been thrown among business men. The practical abilities he had displayed induced some wealthy gentlemen of St. Louis, who wished to establish a bank- ing house at San Francisco, to offer him the position of manager.
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He resigned his commission in the army, and at the close of the year 1853, repaired to the Pacific coast, doubtless intending to make that his residence for the remainder of his life. But man proposes ; God disposes. In this new sphere- of business he gained the respect of the whole community, and established a character of unswerving integrity. For five years he devoted himself to his banking duties, and in 1857 removed to New York, where he again established himself as a banker.
His family connections were numerous and influential. Some of his brothers- in-law had established themselves in Kansas. Captain Sherman yielding to their solicitations, repaired to this new and thriving realm, where he opened a law office, for which duties his previous studies had well prepared him. His brother Ewings were his law partners, and they divided the labors of the office between them. The firm attained much eminence, and exerted a powerful in- fluence in moulding the destinies of the state.
The practice of the law in a frontier town, with all its petty and painful de- tails, was not congenial labor for so impetuous and enterprising a spirit as Gen- eral Sherman possessed. Louisiana was then establishing a military academy. Captain Sherman had spent many years in the South. He was well known, and. his superior abilities were recognized. He was offered the position of superin- tendent, with an annual salary of five thousand dollars. A better choice proba- bly could not have been made.
In 1859 he entered upon these new duties. The spirit of rebellion was begin- ning to manifest itself with ever-increasing strength. Captain Sherman was found to be so very efficient and successful in conducting the affairs of the new institution, that the utmost efforts were made to win his adhesion to the cause of secession. His invariable reply was :
"It is the duty of the soldier to fight for, never against, the flag to which he has sworn allegiance."
Events moved rapidly. Treason and secession grew rampant. When it be- came manifest that Louisiana would join in the atrocious rebellion, Captain Sherman wrote the following noble letter to the governor :
" Sir :-- As I occupy a quasi military position under this state, I deem it proper to acquaint you that I accepted such a position when Louisiana was a state in the Union, and when the motto of the seminary, inserted in marble over the door, was :
"'By the liberality of the General Government of the United States. The Union ; Esto Perpetua, let it be perpetual.'
" Recent events foreshadow a great change, and it becomes all men to choose. If Louisiana withdraws from the Federal Union, I prefer to maintain my allegi- ance to the old Constitution as long as a fragment of it survives ; and my longer stay here would be wrong in every sense of the word. I beg you to take imme- diate steps to relieve me as superintendent the moment the state determines to secede ; for on no earthly account will I do any act, or think any thought, hostile to or in defiance of the old Government of the United States."
Captain Sherman returned to St. Louis. Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated President. Hon. John Sherman, the younger brother of Captain Sherman, was in the Senate of the United States. Captain Sherman hastened to Washington.
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He knew the South and its resources. He knew the maniacal fury with which the southerners had drawn the sword, and that they would not sheathe it until they were compelled to do so by the most direful of war's energies. He did everything in his power to rouse the Government to a conviction of the terrible struggle upon which it had entered.
His warnings, then deemed extravagant, have since been proved to be dictated by sober judgment. The North and the South were alike deceived. The south- erners thought the northerners all cowards, because they despised street brawls and eschewed the duel. They imagined that a few chivalric southrons would chase northern armies as lions pursue the sheep.
The northerners supposed that the South could make but a feeble fight ; that, alarmed by the menaces of a servile insurrection, they would soon throw down their arms and cry for mercy. This was almost the invariable opinion of intel- ligent men in the North. Captain Sherman happened to know better. As he was urging upon President Lincoln the necessity for the most prompt and vigor- ous measures, that sagacious man replied :
"We shall not need many men like you, Captain Sherman, to bring this con- flict to an end. The affair will soon blow over."
A call was issued for seventy-five thousand volunteers to serve for three months. The announcement of this measure to the Secession Congress at Montgomery created roars of laughter. Captain Sherman exclaimed, in sober sadness :
" What folly ! You are sleeping on a volcano. You need to organize the whole military power of the North for this desperate struggle. You do not understand this people. Why, if we should have a reverse beyond the Potomac, the very women of Washington would cut the throats of our wounded soldiers with their case-knives."
He was deemed insane. The fact was that he was almost the only sane man in the nation. We were the insane ones, who imagined that seventy-five thou- sand volunteers would close the war in a three months' campaign. Though not a little disheartened by the languid movements, he accepted a commission as Colonel of the Thirteenth Regular Infantry. Well instructed military officers were then greatly needed to organize the shapeless masses of the infantry. Colonel Sherman reported to General Scott, and was intrusted with the com- mand of a fort near Washington. His regiment was called into action in the disastrous defeat at Bull Run. In this dreadful panic his regiment, notwith- standing the coolness and efforts of its commander, was swept away in extreme confusion by the surging billows of the fugitives.
General Robert Anderson was placed in command of the Department of Kentucky. He knew Colonel Sherman, and, appreciating his high military abilities, asked that he might serve under him. As General Anderson in conse- quence of ill health retired, Colonel Sherman by seniority was placed in supreme command. The responsibility was terrible. The lives of thousands might be sacrificed by an injudicious movement. Modestly the young general remon- strated against assuming responsibilities so immense. He entreated General Anderson and the President not to place him in so conspicuous a position. At the same time he expressed his readiness to enter upon any perils and any sever- ity of labor.
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It was then generally supposed that an army of ten or twelve thousand men was amply sufficient to hold Kentucky in check. The state contained a popula- tion of over a million. Two hundred thousand were able-bodied men. They were mostly violent secessionists, and skilled in the use of the rifle. The ad- joining Confederate States of Virginia, Tennessee and Arkansas could pour in many thousands at a few days' warning, to aid their rebel brethren in Kentucky. General Sherman saw all this with clear vision.
The Secretary of War visited Louisville. " How many men," he inquired, " does your department need ?"
"Sixty thousand," was the prompt reply, "to drive the enemy out of Ken- tucky, and two hundred thousand to finish the war in this section."
Again he was deemed insane. But when a few months afterward a million and a half of men marshaled under the stars and stripes, all candid men were ready to admit that there was at least some method in General Sherman's mad- ness.
It must indeed have been distressing to General Sherman to accept a com- mand with the full assurance that he had by no means the requisite force to meet its responsibilities. The War Department, surprised at the large demand of the general, relieved him of his command and sent him to Benton Barracks, in Missouri, to drill recruits.
But such ability and energy as General Sherman' possessed could not be repressed. When General Grant moved upon Fort Donelson, General Sherman was stationed at Paducah to forward supplies. When the expedition was sent up the Tennessee, General Sherman was placed in command of one of the divisions. Here his military abilities shone with great luster and gave him daily increasing reputation.
When General Grant assumed the command in the place of General Smith, he found General Sherman, his former companion at West Point, in the advance at the unaccountable and fatal encampment at Pittsburgh Landing. We have no space here to describe this sanguinary and awful conflict. Whoever was account- able for the faults displayed on that occasion, it is generally admitted that his coolness and courage did much to check the panic and retrieve the distress of that melancholy day. He had three horses shot under him, and was wounded in the hand. General Halleck, who was by no means accustomed to use the language of unmerited panegyric, wrote :
" General Sherman saved the fortunes of the day on the 6th, and contributed largely to the glorious victory of the 7th."
General Halleck now assumed the command, exercising caution even exceed- ing the rashness which had previously been displayed. General Sherman was assigned to the most important positions. Twice he met the enemy with an ad- mirable disposition of his forces, and his victory was complete.
After the evacuation of Corinth, General Sherman was ordered westward to Memphis. Irritated by the conduct of the secessionists in that region, who were perpetrating nameless guerilla outrages, firing murderously upon passing steam- boats, and as spies keeping the enemy informed of every movement, he issued orders, as he set out on his march towards Vicksburg, which have been denoun- ced as unnecessarily severe. Perhaps they were so. Perhaps a more thorough
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acquaintance with the annoyances the general had encountered in the very heart . of the rebellion, from both men and women, whose malignity knew no bounds, would in some degree modify that opinion.
General Sherman reached Vicksburg on Christmas eve, at the head of forty- two thousand men. The record of this eventful siege would require a volume instead of the few paragraphs which can be allotted to it here. It is enough, to say that the measures won the cordial approval of General Grant. In the her- culean attempt to burst into the Yazoo through the entanglement of the bayouss Admiral Porter testified that " no other general could have done better, or a well as Sherman."
*
I would not detract one iota from General Grant's well-earned fame when we state that General Sherman suggested the plan of running the batteries and marching up from the south, so as to attack the works at Vicksburg in the rear. As an honest biographer, I am bound to say that General Sherman did not, at that time, enjoy the confidence of the intelligent people of the North. Many stories were told, greatly to his disadvantage, representing him as expressing him- self with very undue emphasis as friendly to slavery and hostile to emancipa- tion. I have no heart to repeat those stories, to the injury of one who merits a nation's gratitude. But historical verity compels me to allude to them. To con- ceal Grant's movement, it was necessary to make a feint against Haines' Bluff, which of course could not be a successful attack. The magnanimous General Grant said to his friend Sherman :
"I hate to ask you to do it ; because the ferver of the North will accuse you of being rebellious again."
The measure was skillfully performed, and the end accomplished. And now almost every day brought its battle ; and General Sherman was continually in the hottest of the fight. General Grant, in his official report, bore the most emphatic testimony to the military ability displayed by General Sherman in his demonstration upon Haines' Bluff, in his subsequent rapid march to join the army, in his management at Jackson, and in "his almost unequaled march from Jackson to Bridgeport, and passage of the Black River."
General Sherman's commanding powers as a soldier secured for him immedi- promotion as brigadier-general in the regular army. Ohio had then one hun- dred and twenty-six regiments in the field, which was nominally a force of one hundred and twenty-six thousand men. But the ravages of the war had been such that fifty thousand new recruits were wanted to fill up those regiments. On the IIth of October General Sherman left Memphis to march as rapidly as pos- sible to Chattanooga, to the relief of General Rosecrans.
The march through the heart of the enemy's country was very difficult. It was not till the middle of October that Sherman reached Chattanooga. The great battle was soon fought. To the victory General Sherman contributed an essential part. Soon after this General Grant, in reward for his signal services, was raised to the high dignity of the lieutenant-generalship. Magnanimously he wrote to his beloved companion in arms :
" Dear Sherman - I want to express my thanks to you and McPherson as the men to whom, above all others, I feel indebted for whatever I have had of suc- cess. How far your advice and assistance have been of help to me, you know.
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