General W.T. Sherman's personal tragedy--

[M E Wolf]

Dear List Members,

In doing some 'research' in the Official Records of the Rebellion, I came across this sad piece.

O.R.-- SERIES I--VOLUME XXX/4 [S# 53]
CORRESPONDENCE, ORDERS, AND RETURNS RELATING TO OPERATIONS IN KENTUCKY, SOUTHWEST VIRGINIA, TENNESSEE, MISSISSIPPI, NORTH ALABAMA, AND NORTH GEORGIA, FROM AUGUST 11, 1863, TO OCTOBER 19, 1863.--UNION CORRESPONDENCE, ETC.(*)--#3​

MEMPHIS, TENN., October 4, 1863.
(Via Cairo, 6th. Received 6.35 p.m.)​

Major-General HALLECK, General-in-Chief:
I sent a dispatch up yesterday announcing the arrival here of my Second Division, and the Fourth expected the day after to-morrow. I will push all inland to Corinth and the Tennessee as fast as the railroad can carry them, and will go myself as soon as the Fourth Division is here. My eldest boy Willie--my California boy--nine years old, died here yesterday, of fever and dysentery contracted at Vicksburg. His loss to me is more than words can express, but I would not let it divert my mind from the duty I owe my country. General Blair has this moment arrived from above, and I will send him to Corinth to organize and prepare for my coming.
W. T. SHERMAN,

Major-General.​

-----​

Certainly shows that tolls behind the scene can be just as severe.

Just some thoughts.

Respectfully submitted for consideration,
M. E. Wolf

 

[matthew mckeon]

Great Post Wolf.

Why put quotation marks around research? It makes it sound like you're not really researching!

The high death toll generally in the Civil War era, outside of the fighting is always remarkable. Most figures in the CW endured the death of a loved one, and often more than one. Team of Rivals in giving the background of the members of Lincoln's cabinet, note the personal losses they suffered.
Jefferson Davis lost his first wife early in their marriage. Longstreet lost several of his children. Lee is unusual in that all his children lived to adulthood, and his sons all survived the risks of active duty during the war.

It's not that they didn't feel grief intensely, but it was part of the reality of living at that time, and they went on.

 

[Hanny]

lee lost a duaghter, Lincoln a son, l-Steet lost 2 sons and a daughter during the war to illness, losing children was afairly common thing.

 

[M E Wolf]

Dear Matthew_McKeon, Hanny and List Members;

I like to highlight the information, so that those who hate to read can find the information directly; especially with longer subjects. I also like to include reference information, so others can see for themselves.

As for death of loved ones; yes--it is the sign of the times--many lost their children during the war; however--due to their statue in the war; its better known to most about the death of Lincoln's son; Lee's daughter, Longstreet's wife and children; to whom General Pickett had to take care of all funeral and burial arrangements. I had not known until this point about General Sherman's child dying. Thus, the reason to share for those who did not know either.

Just some thoughts.

Respectfully submitted for consideration,
M. E. Wolf

 

[Beowulf]

Dear List Members,

In doing some 'research' in the Official Records of the Rebellion, I came across this sad piece.

O.R.-- SERIES I--VOLUME XXX/4 [S# 53]
CORRESPONDENCE, ORDERS, AND RETURNS RELATING TO OPERATIONS IN KENTUCKY, SOUTHWEST VIRGINIA, TENNESSEE, MISSISSIPPI, NORTH ALABAMA, AND NORTH GEORGIA, FROM AUGUST 11, 1863, TO OCTOBER 19, 1863.--UNION CORRESPONDENCE, ETC.(*)--#3​

MEMPHIS, TENN., October 4, 1863.
(Via Cairo, 6th. Received 6.35 p.m.)​

Major-General HALLECK, General-in-Chief:
I sent a dispatch up yesterday announcing the arrival here of my Second Division, and the Fourth expected the day after to-morrow. I will push all inland to Corinth and the Tennessee as fast as the railroad can carry them, and will go myself as soon as the Fourth Division is here. My eldest boy Willie--my California boy--nine years old, died here yesterday, of fever and dysentery contracted at Vicksburg. His loss to me is more than words can express, but I would not let it divert my mind from the duty I owe my country. General Blair has this moment arrived from above, and I will send him to Corinth to organize and prepare for my coming.
W. T. SHERMAN,

Major-General.​

-----​

Certainly shows that tolls behind the scene can be just as severe.

Just some thoughts.

Respectfully submitted for consideration,
M. E. Wolf

It is my understanding that Sherman also lost a wife, years later, exactly two weeks after she had been blessed with a Golden Rose blessing...

The account was part of an expose on the Golden Rose Blessing, itself.

I don't remember where I saw it, but you might want to see what took place at that time, to fully round out your studies of him.

Beowulf

 

[blue_zouave]

It is my understanding that Sherman also lost a wife, years later, exactly two weeks after she had been blessed with a Golden Rose blessing...

The account was part of an expose on the Golden Rose Blessing, itself.

I don't remember where I saw it, but you might want to see what took place at that time, to fully round out your studies of him.

Beowulf

Sounds like anti-Catholic propaganda, Wulfie. Plenty of THAT to be found!

Mrs. Sherman died in 1888. She and Cump were at odds their whole lives over religion. She was a devout Catholic and their son Tom became a Jesuit priest, much to his father's chagrin.

Zou

 

[ole]

It is my understanding that Sherman also lost a wife, years later, exactly two weeks after she had been blessed with a Golden Rose blessing...

Recheck the understanding. Ellen was his first and only wife. (Uniquely becoming pregnant almost every time he took leave.) He lost Willie outside of Vicksburg and he was, arguably, never the same. And he lost one he never saw. Maybe it was Eddie, but I don't think it matters.

Lincoln lost three sons. Robert was the only one to survive, and he fathered only daughters. I'm thinking that they died early or at least childless, so there are no direct Lincoln descendants today.

The chances of survival for children then was dismal. The chances of death during childbirth were also dismal. Losing children and wives was not unusual. After the war, Hood fathered 11 children. (Not bad for a one-armed one-legged man, eh?) He lost most of them in an epidemic. No telling what effect that had on them. Losing a few of your kids was routine. (That sounds too cold, doesn't it?) But it remains that, at the time, you could not expect that all of yours would survive. The expectation was not changed until the discovery of antibiotics and an understanding of the causes that this situation changed.

My father's twin died at age two. Obviously, the dad survived the same situation. His cousin died in 1929 from pneumonia, just a bit short of the development of antibiotics. His uncle died in 1952 from having lived far too long. (He was the original "Ole." Other than the gggfather.) Going through all the tree, many died from causes that would now be negligible. Then, it was a mite different.

ole

 

[ole]

Mrs. Sherman died in 1888. She and Cump were at odds their whole lives over religion. She was a devout Catholic and their son Tom became a Jesuit priest, much to his father's chagrin.

It is always interesting to note that particular quarrel between Cump and Ellen. As you've noted, Zou, Sherman wasn't a particularly religious man -- and she was almost fanatic in her Catholicism. Makes one wonder how the match-up lasted as long as it did. Had he been alive at the time of his funeral, I do wonder what Cump would have thought about a Catholic service conducted by his son.

Boggles.

ole

 

[Beowulf]

Sounds like anti-Catholic propaganda, Wulfie. Plenty of THAT to be found!

Mrs. Sherman died in 1888. She and Cump were at odds their whole lives over religion. She was a devout Catholic and their son Tom became a Jesuit priest, much to his father's chagrin.

Zou

You could be right about that! I think it was some protestant religious TV show, now that I recall...

Beowulf

 

[Jules362]

Tecumseh and Ellen

In his book "Grant and Sherman: The Friendship That Won the War," Charles Flood remarked that it was hard to imagine Tecumseh and Ellen Sherman married to each other, but it was also hard to imagine them married to anybody else.

It may have been that opposites attract thing we hear about.

 

[timewalker]

A bit of trivia about Thomas Ewing Sherman, Sherman's Jesuit priest son, including an interesting bit of trivia about his final resting place:

"Father Thomas Ewing Sherman was born Oct 12 1856 in San Francisco. The sixth child of William T. Sherman and Ellen Boyle Ewing, he graduated from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. in 1874 at the age of 18 and went on to earn a Ph.D. from Yale in 1876. He returned to St. Louis where his family was living and studied law where he graduated with a law degree from Washington University. Thomas Sherman had always been counted on by his father, "Cump", to oversee the family's finances and business affairs. But to his great sorrow, Tom decided in 1878 to enter the Society of Jesus. Such was Cump's grief that he refused to attend when Tom was ordained a Jesuit priest in 1879. He then taught philsophy at St. Louis University where he was recognized nationally as a brilliant scholar and eloquent speaker and writer. He served as a military chaplain in the Spanish-American War of 1898 where he was attached to the personal staff of General Ulysses S. Grant, II.
In 1891, Father Tom conducted the graveside service in St. Louis for his father, but was unable to return from London, where he was studying theology, in time to say goodbye to the dying Cump.
Proving that "fact is stranger than fiction," a small cemetery in Grand Cateau, Louisiana, has two unlikely "bedfellows" buried side by side under identical Latin inscribed tombstones. One, Father John Salter, was the grandnephew of Alexander Stephens, vice president of the Confederacy, and on his right, lies Thomas Ewing Sherman, son of General and Mrs. William T. Sherman. Why was the Confederacy vice president's grand nephew buried next to the son of the Union general who was the scourge of the South? Father Salter was simply the next Jesuit in the Province to die following Sherman."