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2 Sherman Takes Command A Baleful Sway WITH ANDERSON GONE, command of the department devolved upon forty-one-yearold Sherman, an officer as psychologically unprepared for the post as his predecessor . Indeed, the Ohio brigadier had accepted his assignment upon the explicit promise that he would not be called upon to command. "I don't think I ever felt so much a desire to hide myself in some obscure place," he wrote his wife Ellen. Inexperienced (he had not fought in the Mexican War) and raked with feelings of personal inadequacies, he reminded one officer of a "splendid piece of machinery with all of the screws a little loose." Sherman's eccentricities had not gone unnoticed at Muldraugh's Hill; he nervously paced about in civilian clothes and a stovepipe hat. The Kentucky Home Guard despised his gruff methods and labeled him "Old Pills," for he was a "bitter pill to swallow." Later warming up to him slightly, the sobriquet changed to "Old Sugar Coated." An ordnance officer, seeing Sherman for the first time at Camp Dick Robinson, described him as "very crabid & nervice," a "perfect bundle of nerves."1 The strain of command quickly took its toll. Sherman went without food much of the day, drank, chain smoked, and paced about until the early hours in his quarters at the Gait House. Rumors began to spread of his mental instability; he suffered from depression and headaches. A curt letter that he sent to Lincoln went unanswered , causing him even greater depression.2 Sherman's eccentric mannerisms continued. As Thomas Crittenden, now a brigadier , awaited a train to assume command of home-guard units assembled at Henderson , Sherman glared at him with either scrutiny or scorn—it was difficult to tell 1. Cincinnati Commercial, Sept. 24, 1861; Marszalek, Sherman, 158, 160; Kelly, "Holding Kentucky," 381; New York Herald, Oct. 6,1861; PerryMcCandless, ed., "Civil War Journalof Stephen KeyesFletcher," Indiana Magazine of History 54 (June 1958): 144-45; Albert Castel,Decision in the West: The Atlanta Campaign 0/1864 (Lawrence: UniversityPress of Kansas, 1992), 42. 2. Henry Villard, Memoirs of Henry Villard: Journalist and Financer, 1835-1900, 2 vols. (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1904), 1:210-11; Charles Royster, The Destructive War: William Tecumseh Sherman, Stonewall Jackson, and the Americans (NewYork: Alfred A. Knopf, 1991), 96; John Marszalek, Sherman's Other War:The General and the Civil War Press (Memphis:Memphis State UniversityPress, 1981), 57. S H E R M A N T A K E S C O M M A N D I/ which. He briefly questioned Crittenden about his eligibility to command and then turned around, stroked his short beard, and muttered, "He'll do." Capt. John Harlan recalled that while he stayed at Sherman's Lebanon headquarters, the general constantly had a cigar in his mouth, usually unlit. He would use Harlan's cigar to light his own and then, without a second thought, would throw Harlan's away.3 Political intrigue now added to Sherman's woes. In late September Senator Johnson and Congressman Maynard conspired with Secretary of War Cameron to replace George Thomas, whom they considered too listless about moving into eastern Tennessee and liberating their constituents. The politicians had also been in communication with Ormsby Mitchel, who slyly coveted command of Thomas's division . Mitchel advocated an immediate advance into eastern Tennessee—precisely what Johnson and Maynard wanted to hear. He wrote the War Department about the expedition, suggestingthat it be placed under the command of one who held the complete confidence of the government—perhaps a veiled reference to Thomas's perceived questionable loyalty.4 On October 11,1861, Johnson and Maynard appeared at Camp Dick Robinson with a War Department order stating that Thomas had been replaced by Mitchel. The news came as a shock; an incensed Thomas submitted his resignation. In truth, the Virginian had been the one bright spot in an otherwise gloomy picture. Amid Anderson's and Sherman's sniveling and lethargy, Thomas had remained cool and worked diligently toward an offensive, although he was hampered by a lack of funds. For his part, Mitchel feigned innocence—"My surprise was great." Within hours of receiving his new command, however, he was funneling orders to Thomas and pretentiously attempting to organize his own staff.5 Sherman resented the political and War Department interference and, in typical fashion, voiced his views openly at headquarters. Mitchel had been a professor and astronomer, and correspondents suggested that a "star gazer" would never suit...

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