Laid-back Sherman

[pamc153PA]

I've been rereading Southern Storm. and I remember being curious about this the first time I read the book, too.

Sherman always struck me as sort of. . .ADHD, in a way. Even in Trudeau's book, he makes mention of the fact that even when Sherman was sitting through a meeting or a briefing, he always had to have a foot tapping, or paper being folded, or slipping his slipper off and on, like it was hard to keep still, and the motion actually allowed him to expend excess energy and focus better (some of my students with ADHD actually have this sort of thing written into their Individual Education Plans, to allow them to focus on the task at hand). Yet, when his March to the Sea began, for the first week or so, the first "leg" of the plan, he was uncharacteristically laid back. Trudeau mentions how, until Milledgeville or abouts, he several times was spotted "chatting" on porches with locals--black and white, supposed Union sympathizers at heart--and his whole demeanor seemed, well, like he was just hangin' out, so to speak.

Obviously, except for the weather and the resulting mud, he was pleased with how this first leg was going, pretty much according to his plan on both the left and the right wings, but it makes me wonder if there wasn't something more to his calmness. I can't say what, but it just strikes me as so un-Shermanlike to act this way, the man who set out to make the South pay. Any ideas?

Pam

 

[CChartreux]

Pam


I, too, am aware of Sherman's 'Type A' energy levels (it was rumored that he literally couldn't sit still for more than five minutes without doodling or pacing, or something of the sort; foot-tapping comes to mind, as you suggested).

My 'hunch' would be that Sherman's evolution of development (which, IMHO, is one of the most extraordinary evolutions of all 'personas' in the Civil War), lies in the trajectory of how his confidence level developed (during the war).

So - to answer your question (IMHO; and just opinion only) regarding how do we reconcile a Type A (potentially ADHD) person (Sherman) with this 'calmness' in the Atlanta Campaign/March to the Sea is to point out that...while Sherman may very well have retained all of his 'nervous' habits, he did, in fact, finally develop into a confident and poised commander.

To wit - the Sherman in '62 is worlds away from the Sherman in '64. Deemed something of a half-wit in '62 and suffering the humiliation of having his wife come to take him home...after his encounter with the 'dark side,' he emerges as a confident and poised leader (no doubt, in some part due to Grant's mentoring of him; e.g. Grant allowed him the space to be able to come into his own).

So - my answer would be that he 'developed' (e.g., 'evolved') out of this nervous-tic sort of guy into a confident individual that began to be much more in possession of himself and, as a result, may very well have 'calmed down' (relative comparison) to emerge in '64 as almost a different person.


My $0.02.






CC

 

[Severon]

I think CC sums it up.

 

[ole]

"Sums it up" is an understatement. CC has nailed it. Until Sherman convinced himself that he was, in fact, an able commander, he was "anxious."

And here, again, I will recommend "Sherman's Civil War; A Collection of selected Correspondence..." In that book, the reader can watch him grow and gain confidence. The Sherman of 1865 was indeed far different than the Sherman of 1860. And Grant probably had much to do with that.

Fascinating.

Ole

 

[pamc153PA]

Thanks, CC, and I agree with ole--nicely put!

I have to admit to a "soft spot" for Sherman, simply because his was a fascinating trajectory, before, during and after the war. There is something that is both annoying and awe-inspiring, IMO, about his mercurial personality. I am lucky enough to know a man who is an ancestor of Sherman's, and am always in wonder about how like him this man is, in his personality and his looks, right down to those piercing eyes.

I appreciate Grant, as well, but he is more slow, steady and obstinate. Sherman is a perfect foil for Grant; together, they made a perfect team to get the job done, IMHO!

Pam

 

[ole]

Amen, Pam. The settling effect and the combination were one of those happenstances that make history interesting.

On a lighter note, I doubt very much that you are old enough to know an ancestor of Sherman. Did you, perchance, mean descendant?

Ole

 

[pamc153PA]

Oops! Maybe I'm just FEELING that old!

Pam

 

[K Hale]

I am lucky enough to know a man who is an ancestor of Sherman's, and am always in wonder about how like him this man is, in his personality and his looks, right down to those piercing eyes.

Wow -- you don't happen to have a photo?

 

[CChartreux]

"Thanks, CC, and I agree with ole--nicely put!

I have to admit to a "soft spot" for Sherman, simply because his was a fascinating trajectory, before, during and after the war." [pamc153PA/#5]


Thanks!


I have the same 'thing' for Sherman that you do...'soft spot' and I'm captivated by how he went from a bundle of twitching nerves to a formidable (and lethal) adversary in the short space of two years. I've often thought (sort of) that everything that's really great about Sherman is all behind the scenes...getting that knocked off his game in '61 and finding it somewhere within himself to come back after being so humiliated and embarrassed (I'm sure)....yep, what a guy. That takes courage.

Him and Grant were the yin-yang, for sure. Funny how different they were personality-wise (like night and day)...get them both on the same battlefield and there's an unexpected synergy there that seems to align the planets.





CC

 

[pamc153PA]

A little off topic but. . .

That synergy you spoke of. . .makes me wonder if any other CW generals, North or South, complemented each the way Sherman and Grant did.

Just musing.

Pam

 

[The Iron Duke]

Him and Grant were the yin-yang, for sure. Funny how different they were personality-wise (like night and day)...get them both on the same battlefield and there's an unexpected synergy there that seems to align the planets.

That synergy you spoke of. . .makes me wonder if any other CW generals, North or South, complemented each the way Sherman and Grant did.

Hardee and Cleburne. Hardee the extraverted flirt; Cleburne the introverted thinker. Probably the best one-two punch the Confederacy had outside of Virginia.

"One contemporary likened their relationship to that of Napoleon and Murat." -Stonewall of the West

 

[Severon]

Hardee and Cleburne. Hardee the extraverted flirt; Cleburne the introverted thinker. Probably the best one-two punch the Confederacy had outside of Virginia.

"One contemporary likened their relationship to that of Napoleon and Murat." -Stonewall of the West

I would have to agree that Hardee and Cleburne are the same thing in the South that Grant and Sherman were in the North.

 

[The Iron Duke]

Pam I thought you might enjoy this.


At times the cares and anxieties of command told on Sherman. Of one such episode, Major Osborn wrote:

I understand that no one can approach Sherman without being snubbed. His high nervous temperament and sarcasm are now at their highest pitch...It makes but very little difference whether one be a major general or a private soldier, they do not tamper with Sherman during these spells of anxiety and care.

But such episodes were rare. Far more typical was the Sherman who eagerly questioned the passing forager or runaway slave as to the roads or the lay of the land along the line of march. Sherman could be brusque, often supplying the answers as well as the questions. Lieutenant Colonel Ewing dubbed these rapid-fire question-and-answer sessions "Sherman's catechism." "Had catechism yet?" was a familiar refrain around Sherman's headquarters. -Last Stand in the Carolinas pages 54-55

 

[CChartreux]

Thanks for passing that on to us, Iron. Good way to illustrate 'Sherman-ness'.

[Given his misgivings about the Catholic Church in general, it's a particularly sardonic (or should I say ironic?) euphemism...'Sherman's catechism' with a touch of humor to boot! Either way, it 'fits'.]






CC

 

[pamc153PA]

Duke,

I've never run acros that example before, but that's so "Sherman" it's perfect!

CC, the irony about Sherman and the Catholic Church occurred to me, too.

Pam

 

[ole]

Poor Ellen. She worked so hard to get him into the fold. But he'd have nothing to do with it. How ironic that his son, Thomas, the priest, said his last rites.

One gets a little picture of Sherman as a father when his son, Willie, died in Memphis shortly after his Vicksburg triumph. Reading the man doesn't reveal much connubial bliss, although Ellen seems to have become preggie after every visit home. Parenting from afar. I suppose that was the way it was done when one is military. Lots of dust ups in there. Ellen wasn't happy anywhere but in Ohio. Cump dragged her from wherever he found himself. Kansas, California. He even built a house in Louisiana that he intended for her, but that couldn't happen. An odd situation, to say the least. One finds some really difficult situations at that time. Women enlisted as men to be near their husbands. And women, like Ellen Sherman and Julia Grant had remote controls on their men.

Never mind. Just rambling again.

Ole

 

[K Hale]

Sherman's catechisms. I love it!

When the Shermans were living in California in the 1850s, Ellen missed Lancaster so much that she took one of their three (or four?) small children and moved back there, leaving Sherman and the other kids in San Francisco.

Odd.

 

[CChartreux]

K Hale -


I'm not sure that Sherman ever was able to reconcile that his own wife...never really became his wife (i.e., she always felt much stronger ties to her own natal family than she did by 'joining' Sherman in marriage). I suspect it was a bone of contention; to use the biblical phase,...Ellen never really 'cleaved' unto her husband, she always pretty much 'cleaved' unto her own natal family (e.g. she never really left them in marrying him). Given that Sherman was 'adopted' by the Ewings, it might have made some kind of 'sense' to her (i.e., probably hard for her to stop viewing him as a 'brother' and view him as a husband). But that's another story.

On another matter, Ole and PamC are making me sick ()...okay...I'm compelled to post snippets of some of my favorite Sherman letters.


Head. QU 15th Army Corps. Camp on Walnut Hill

June 21, 1863

Dear Willy

[etc., etc.,]

It occurred to me you would like to have a fishing pole from the battlefield, so I had about a dozen cut up nicely and sent to Lancaster for you. Give one to Tom Sherman, one to Tommy Ewing, and the rest distribute among your friends and tell them that they were gathered close up to Vicksburg, right on a battle field of which thousands have already been killed, and thousands more will be.

[...]

You must continue to write to me and tell me everything. How tall in feet & inches, how heavy. Can you side swim? How many feet & inches can you jump. Everything!

[...]

Yr. affectionate father
W. T. Sherman

---------------------------


Memphis
January 11th, 1864

Dearest Ellen

[...]

I dont object to your having strong likes and dislikes & expressing them to me but I do object to your stooping to writing any man with whom you may be as a stranger or putting anyone between me and you. Leave me to play my game of life and I honestly believe you will be satisfied. I am now past forty & according to Natural Law can't change and you must take me for worse.

Yrs ever
W. T Sherman


----------------------------

Head-quarters Military Division of the Mississippi In the Field Kingston Geo.

November 10th, 1864

Dear Tommy,

I have not had a letter from you for a long time, but Mama writes me often and tells me how good a boy you are, and how you like to go to the farm in the time of gathering grapes and apples. That is right. Get your share of fruit now, only be careful not to eat too many at any one time. Do you remember the time you and Willy & I gathered the Chestnuts in the little wagon. In a short time you will be able to drive Old Sam in a wagon & gather your own walnuts and hickory nuts. I well remember once taking Willy out to Mount Pleasant when we gathered a bag of hickory nuts and poor little fellow, not as big as you now are, he was so happy and so proud to carry his own bag of hickory nuts. People write to me that I am now a Great General, and if I were to come home they would gather round me in crowds & play music and all such things. That is what the people call fame & Glory, but I tell you that I would rather come down quietly and have you and Willy meet me at the car than to have the shouts of the People. Willy will never meet us again in this world and you and I must take care of the family as long as I live and then will be your turn. So you see you have a good deal to do. [...]

[...]

Yr loving father,
W. T. Sherman

-----------------------


Willy, of course, died in the Fall of 1863.

Probably like many people of this 'age' - they are much more complicated and multi-sided than we think of them. We usually think of them on the battlefield...we, most likely, rarely think of them as 'loading the dish-washer' (proverbially speaking).


Anyhoo - this venture into sentamentalism is all Ole's and PamC's fault...not that I would ever actually hold them accountable for it!! We should know this side of them.







CC

 

[K Hale]

Probably like many people of this 'age' - they are much more complicated and multi-sided than we think of them. We usually think of them on the battlefield...we, most likely, rarely think of them as 'loading the dish-washer' (proverbially speaking).

Anyhoo - this venture into sentamentalism is all Ole's and PamC's fault...not that I would ever actually hold them accountable for it!! We should know this side of them.

Thoroughly, utterly agreed. That's why I created my site. Thanks for posting those.

 

[The Iron Duke]

Sherman actually became something of a ladies man after the war. I believe there are suspicions that Sherman was unfaithful.


Sherman, for his part, chose "theatres and balls," both because his pleasure in such social amusements grew with age, and because, as he later said, "I was always fond of seeing young people happy." As a dancing partner, indeed, he achieved both reputation and attraction among women old and young, all the more because to fame and charm of manner he now added an increasing courtliness of manners. And perhaps he rather impishly enjoyed putting younger men in the shade. Byers, who saw much of him both at home and abroad during these latter years remarks: "I never saw a man so run after by womankind in my life." -Sherman: Soldier, Realist, American pages 421-422