Laid-back Sherman

[K Hale]

Grant ALWAYS looks like he'd rather be somewhere else. Every photo I've ever seen of him.

 

[Nathanb1]

If I had to sit by Stanton.....and if my bud Sherm had just snubbed him in front of me and I was in charge of my bud......I'd be pretty sad looking myself.

 

[ole]

Toward the end, Stanton stiffed Sherman by issuing orders that Sherman was, if not treasonous, at least not to be trusted, so don't follow his orders. (I believe that this started with Sherman's generous terms to Johnston.) When it came time for the Grand Review, of course Stanton was on the viewing platform, and Sherman wouldn't shake his hand. I seen it several times in histories of Sherman's activities.

 

[Elennsar]

If I had to sit by Stanton.....and if my bud Sherm had just snubbed him in front of me and I was in charge of my bud......I'd be pretty sad looking myself.

I agreed from "had to sit by Stanton". I like Stevens, sharp tongue and all, but Stanton was one of those people only a Lincoln could endure.

 

[K Hale]

Stanton got to smoking the wacky weed there around the time that Lincoln was shot. He had some crazy idea about Sherman joining up with Davis to take Confederate gold to Mexico. Just really nuts. Halleck got in on it too, and he and Sherman had their second and final falling out. Sherman got really abused at the end of the war, IMO...

 

[K Hale]

Doesn't seem as true in earlier photographs (for instance, didn't K Hale post something of Grant as a cadet with him as a handsome young man?).

Yes, but that was before he got beat down by life. I think that look we're all referring to just became part of his natural expression.

 

[Elennsar]

Yes, but that was before he got beat down by life. I think that look we're all referring to just became part of his natural expression.

Yeah. 19th century photography just emphasizes it to extremes that seem like he's suffering from depression or something.

Not sure what a grinning Grant would even look like, though. The image is too fixed.

 

[Nathanb1]

Well, he wouldn't be the Grant we know and love if he'd been celebratin' like Custer, "Whoopeee! Look at me! I'm king of the world!"

 

[Elennsar]

I'd settle for him looking like a man taking a quiet pride in his accomplishments but relieved that it was over. Here, Grant couldn't look sadder if he lost.

But yeah, the Grant we know and love was a serious minded fellow about this. He wasn't in a mood for celebration.

Unlike The Jerk.

Hey, if Forrest is That Guy, Custer is...all sorts of inappropriate words.

 

[K Hale]

I don't think Grant liked public affairs of any kind. To hiim, the Grand Review was probably just a big fancy affair to try and get through.

 

[Nathanb1]

I'm sure he'd rather have been with the family.

 

[Elennsar]

One of the best things about Grant.

How a man so tender hearted by preference could be so good at war is one of the mysteries of the universe.

Somehow, he had just the right balance of issues to be perfectly able to face that challenge, however.

 

[ole]

I've also read that Sherman's men were kept out of Washington until the day of the Review. Seems that there were rumors of the Westerners kicking the stuffing out of the Paper Collar Soldiers.

 

[K Hale]

They had also caught the rumors of what was being said about Sherman. The possibility of there being some kind of collision was probably fairly real.

 

[Elennsar]

Anyone who seriously thought of the Army of the Potomac as "paper collar soldiers" because they wore neater uniforms could have used someone shoving good sense into the void between their ears.

That would not have been pretty had it come to that.

 

[The Iron Duke]

Im trying to find out more about this incident does anyone have anything on it?

Stanton thought that Sherman wasn't doing enough to help out the freed slaves along the Georgia coast. Stanton made a personal visit to the area to check on the situation himself. The local black leaders all had positive things to say about Sherman but Stanton was still suspicious. Sherman was not shy about letting others know that he wasn't particularly fond of blacks.

After the Lincoln Assassination Stanton, along with Halleck, got some crazy idea in his head that Sherman was really a closet rebel and thus couldn't be trusted to accept Johnston's surrender. So Grant had to go down to North Carolina and "oversee" the surrender himself.

Eventually all this talk got back to Sherman and he felt betrayed. He was particularly upset with Halleck because they had been close friends. So when it came time to shake Stanton's hand at the Washington Review Sherman ignored the offer.

 

[K Hale]

In trying to find Stanton's nutty letter, I found this brief summary of the situation...

Sherman had not protested the overruling of his terms, but word of Stanton's charges (Stanton charged Sherman with having made troop dispositions that would facilitate Davis's escape with his supposed hoard of Confederate gold, and virtually accused Sherman of disloyalty.) infuriated him. He wrote to Grant, saying that he had never in his life disobeyed an order, "though many and many a time I have risked my life, health and reputation in obeying orders."

 

[Elennsar]

I would give a great deal to not know what Sherman really wanted to say in that letter.

 

[wilber6150]

Great photos K. Don't think I've ever seen these. Thanks.

I agree fantastic photos

 

[wilber6150]

Thanks everyone, and they called Sherman nuts,lol it seems like all thru the war Stanton was the real nut case causing trouble starting with Sumpter..