BOYHOOD AND CADETSHIP.
WHY HE WAS NAMED TECUMSEH--HIS ADOPTION BY MR. EWING--CHARACTER
IN BOYHOOD--WORK AS A SURVEYOR--APPOINTMENT TO A CADETSHIP--
FROM LANCASTER TO WEST POINT--"OLD HICKORY"--LETTERS TO HIS
SWEETHEART--A YOUTHFUL PHILOSOPHER--CHARACTER AND STANDING AS A
CADET.
William Tecumseh Sherman was the sixth of the eleven children of Judge
Charles R. Sherman, and John Sherman, the great Senator and national
financier, the eighth. It is related that the distinctive family names
had been exhausted upon the first five children, and when the sixth
was born, perplexity arose as to how he was to be christened. William
was presently adopted, but the father was not satisfied with it alone.
Another must be chosen, and it must be a warrior's name; for, said the
Judge, "likely enough this little chap will be a fighter." Finally
Judge Sherman determined to call his baby by the name of Tecumseh,
the illustrious Shawnee warrior and statesman, who had been killed in
battle some seven years before. This Indian chief was well-known in
that part of Ohio, and had often saved the lives of settlers there and
averted bloodshed by his wise counsels and peaceful influence, and it
was in fact more because of these benign features than on account of
his powers in war that Judge Sherman admired him and gave his name to
the boy.
Our hero was born at Lancaster, Ohio, on February 8th, 1820, and was
consequently nine years old when his father fell a victim to Asiatic
cholera. Little is to be recorded of those early years. They were spent
in the customary manner of childhood, modified in a measure by the
breezy, vigorous life of the sparsely settled frontier community, and
cherished tenderly by a fond father and mother. When the catastrophe of
death broke the family circle, "Cump" was a merry, active, bright-eyed,
red-haired boy, fonder of play than of work or study, but truthful and
trustworthy beyond a doubt.
And what now? The members of the bar who had been associated with Judge
Sherman saw clearly that the widow could not properly care for all
those eleven children, and they felt that it would be a privilege to
aid her. The foremost of them, Thomas Ewing, a lawyer and statesman of
national reputation, was quick to act. "I will adopt one of the boys,"
he said; and forthwith he proceeded to the stricken home and laid his
offer before Mrs. Sherman. He was a distant relative as well as a warm
friend of the family, and Mrs. Sherman, with mingled grief and joy,
accepted his proposition. But which boy should he take? "I must have
the smartest of the lot," said Mr. Ewing. "Well," replied the mother,
"come and look at them and take your pick." So they went out to where
the children were at play, but Mr. Ewing was undecided. "They all look
alike to me," he said. But the mother and her eldest daughter soon
made the choice. "Take 'Cump,' Mr. Ewing," they said; "he's by far the
smartest." So Mr. Ewing picked up the nine-years-old urchin from where
he was playing on a sand bank, and took him away in his carriage to
a new home. "He ever after treated me as his own son," wrote General
Sherman of his adopted father in later years; and indeed the boy soon
won the hearts of all the Ewings, so that they loved him as much as
though he belonged to them by birth instead of by adoption.
For seven years thereafter "Cump" was a member of the Ewing household,
and attended the local school at Lancaster. He ranked high in his
classes and was generally regarded as a promising boy. "There was
nothing specially remarkable about him," Mr. Ewing wrote in later
years, "excepting that I never knew so young a boy who could do an
errand so correctly and promptly as he did. He was transparently
honest, faithful and reliable. Studious and correct in his habits, his
progress in education was steady and substantial."
One other thing, however, is to be recorded of these years. Mr. Ewing
had a pretty little daughter, named Nellie, who was "Cump's" favorite
playmate and upon whom "Cump" untiringly lavished all the chivalric
attention of his boyhood. She was his sister by adoption, but even in
these early years the boy seemed to hope that one day she would be more
than a sister to him. And when he left home, at the age of sixteen,
his adieus to her were more tender and more reluctant than to all the
others.
One incident of his boyhood life deserves to be recorded. In 1834 he
was large and strong for his age, and fond of labor and adventure.
Canal construction was then being greatly pushed in Ohio, and it was
planned to build one from the great Ohio Canal at Carroll, eight miles
from Lancaster, and run down the Hocking Valley to Athens and thence
to the Ohio River. A Mr. Carpenter, of Lancaster, had charge of the
preliminary surveys, and recruited his force of assistants from among
the youth of that town. Young Sherman was delighted at the opportunity
for serious work and adventure, and rejoiced when he was chosen
together with three other boys from his school. He was appointed a
rod-man. They worked during the fall of 1834 and spring of 1835, laying
out two experimental lines for the canal, and each boy received half a
dollar in silver for each day's work. This was the first money young
Sherman ever earned.
Mr. Ewing was now United States Senator, and had within his gift an
appointment to a cadetship at West Point. During the fall of 1835 and
spring of 1836, Sherman devoted himself chiefly to grammar, geography
and mathematics, in which studies he would have to be examined
to enter the Military Academy. In the spring of 1836 he received
his appointment. Mrs. Ewing provided him with a liberal outfit of
clothes, etc., and on May 20th he left Lancaster in a stage coach for
Zanesville. There he took passage on a coach on the Great National
Road. Three days later he reached Frederick, Maryland, whence there
was a steam railroad to Washington. But he was afraid of this strange
device, and continued his journey by coach. When he got to Washington
he put up for the night at Gadsby's Hotel, and next morning hunted up
Senator Ewing. The latter lived in a boarding house, and to that house
young Sherman removed at once, for the week which he was to spend at
the Capitol. He saw more of Washington in that week than he ever saw in
his many subsequent visits. "Old Hickory" Jackson was then President,
and at the height of his fame. Sherman spent a full hour gazing at him
with boyish awe through the picket fence that surrounded the White
House grounds. Jackson was pacing up and down the gravel walks within.
"He wore a cap," says Sherman, "and an overcoat so full that his form
seemed smaller than I had expected. I also remember Postmaster-General
Amos Kendall, Vice President Van Buren, Messrs. Calhoun, Webster, Clay,
Cass, Silas Wright," etc.
From Washington he went by rail to Baltimore, thence by boat to Havre
de Grace, by rail to Wilmington, Delaware, and by boat to Philadelphia.
Thence by boat to Bordentown, New Jersey, by rail over the old Camden
and Amboy railroad to Amboy, and by boat to New York. He spent a week
with his uncle on Brooklyn Heights, and with another relative on White
Street, New York, and then took passage on the steamboat "Cornelius
Vanderbilt," up the Hudson, to West Point, where he was duly entered
as a cadet. West Point was not as large a school then as now. But the
routine of military discipline and instruction was fully established,
very much as it has remained ever since. Colonel R. E. De Russy was the
Superintendent, and Major John Fowle, Commandant of Cadets. The chief
members of the faculty were: Professors Mahan, engineering; Bartlett,
natural philosophy; Bailey, chemistry; Church, mathematics; Weir,
drawing; and Berard, French. That was in June, 1836. In the summer of
1838 he had a vacation of two months, which he gladly spent with the
Ewings. With that exception, he was absent from Lancaster and present
at West Point continuously until his graduation in June 1840. His
scholastic career was not unlike that in the school at Lancaster. He
stood high, but not highest, in his class. There were forty-two men in
that class, Sherman ranked sixth. George H. Thomas was twelfth. Other
members were R. S. Ewell, Stewart Van Vliet, Bushrod R. Johnson, George
W. Getty, William Hays and Thomas Jordan.
By far the most interesting feature of his cadet life was the
correspondence he maintained with Miss Ellen Ewing. More
characteristic letters were never penned. Years afterward the stern
War Secretary, Stanton, perusing his vigorous letters from the front,
declared that Sherman wrote as well as he fought. These earlier
epistles were a fitting prelude to the more serious writings of after
years. They were sprightly and vivacious, touched with humor, often
eccentric, sometimes inclining to egotism, but always intensely earnest
and decidedly vigorous. He was not as much a lover of "society" then as
in his later life, for on one occasion he wrote: "We have two or three
dancing parties each week, at which the gray bobtail is a sufficient
recommendation for an introduction to any one. You can well conceive
how the cadets have always had the reputation, and have still, here in
the East, of being great gallants and ladies' men. God only knows how
I will sustain that reputation." As he got nearer and nearer to the
actual army, he was more and more impressed with the responsibilities
that would be placed upon him, and he almost shrank from them. One day
in 1839 he wrote of himself: "Bill is very much elated at the idea of
getting free of West Point next June. He does not intend remaining in
the army more than a year, then to resign and study law, probably.
No doubt you admire this choice; but to speak plainly and candidly,
I would rather be a blacksmith. Indeed, the nearer we come to that
dreadful epoch, graduation day, the higher opinion I conceive of the
duties and life of an officer of the United States Army, and the more
confirmed in the wish of spending my life in the service of my country.
Think of that!"
The commonest topics in his letters, however, related to the practical
details of life. "The last encampment," he once wrote, "taken all in
all, I think was the most pleasant one I have ever spent, even to me,
who did not participate in the dances and balls given every week
by the different classes; besides the duties were of altogether a
different nature from any previous ones, such as acting as officers
upon guard and at artillery drills, practicing at target-firing with
long twenty-fours and thirty-twos, mortars, howitzers, etc., as also
cavalry exercise, which has been introduced this year." He was not slow
in taking to the knack of command. "As to lording it over the plebs, to
which you referred, I had only one, whom I made, of course, 'tend to
a pleb's duty, such as bringing water, policing the tent, cleaning my
gun and accoutrements, and the like, and repaid in the usual and cheap
coin--advice; and since we have commenced studying, I make him 'bone,'
and explain to him the difficult parts of algebra and the French
grammar, since he is a good one and a fine fellow; but should he not
carry himself straight, I should have him 'found' in January and sent
off, that being the usual way in such cases, and then take his bed,
table and chair, to pay for the Christmas spree."
Sherman had already learned to do his own thinking, in politics and
other matters, and he was not at all backward in revealing that fact
to his fair correspondent. He gravely discussed the most important
National topics, and hesitated not to express radical and positive
opinions. His foster-father, Mr. Ewing, was a Whig, but the bumptious
cadet did not approve of that party. In the Presidential campaign of
1840, when Mr. Ewing was laboring hard for the election of William
Henry Harrison, Sherman wrote to Miss Ewing: "You, no doubt, are not
only firmly impressed, but absolutely certain, that General Harrison
will be our next President. For my part, though, of course, but a
'superficial observer,' I do not think there is the least hope of such
a change, since his friends have thought proper to envelope his name
with log-cabins, ginger-bread, hard-cider and such humbugging, the sole
object of which plainly is to deceive and mislead his ignorant and
prejudiced, though honest, fellow citizens; whilst his qualifications,
his honesty, his merits and services are merely alluded to!"
Nor was he overawed by the superior attainments of his instructors,
and of the Examining Board. Rather did he seem to regard the "Board
of Visitors" as subjects for him to examine and criticise. "There
is but little doubt," he wrote, "of the Board being nearly as well
selected as circumstances would admit of. Party seems to have had no
influence whatever, and, for my part, I am very glad of it. I hope
that our Army, Navy, and the Military Academy, may never be affected
by the party rancor which has for some time past, and does now, so
materially injure other institutions." Again he wrote: "I presume you
have seen the register of cadets for the last year, and remarked that
I still maintain a good standing in my class; and if it were not for
that column of demerits it would still be better, for they are combined
with proficiency in study to make out the standing in general merit.
In fact, this year, as well as the last, in studies alone, I have been
among the stars--" meaning among the first five in the class. "I fear
I have a difficult part to act for the next three years," he wrote, as
graduation day approached, "because I am almost confident that your
father's wishes and intentions will clash with my inclinations. In
the first place, I think he wishes me to strive and graduate in the
Engineer Corps. This I can't do. Next to resign and become a civil
engineer.... Whilst 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 possible."
[Illustration: SHERMAN'S BIRTHPLACE, LANCASTER, OHIO.]
In June, 1840, he received his diploma. The class had originally
numbered more than one hundred, but had been reduced to forty-three. In
reviewing, from the point of view of maturer years, his life at West
Point, General Sherman wrote: "At the Academy I was not considered
a good soldier, for at no time was I selected for any office, but
remained a private throughout the whole four years. Then, as now,
neatness in dress and form, with a strict conformity to the rules,
were the qualifications required for office, and I suppose I was found
not to excel in any of these. In studies I always held a respectable
reputation with the professors, and generally ranked among the best,
especially in drawing, chemistry, mathematics and natural philosophy.
My average demerits, per annum, were about one hundred and fifty, which
reduced my final class standing from number four to number six."
It is of interest to observe that Sherman's rank at West Point was
higher than that of Grant, who was graduated three years later. Grant
stood twenty-first in his class. In the details of engineering and of
deportment, especially, Sherman surpassed his illustrious comrade. But
from this fact no moral may profitably be drawn, except that of Mr.
Toots, that such "grades" are of no consequence whatever. For many of
those who far outranked both Grant and Sherman at the school, remained
in after life unknown to fame.