Sherman: A Soldier's Passion for Order

Chapter 15: Fame Tarnished

CHAPTER 15 FAME TARNISHED SINCE BEGINNING his Atlanta campaign in May 1864, Sherman had captured the city, marched through Georgia to Savannah, and then made the amazing movement through the water-logged Carolinas. He had rocked the Confederacy on its heels, earned the plaudits of the nation and even the rest of the world, and gained the long-sought-for approval from Thomas Ewing. Cump Sherman felt a self-pride he had rarely experienced before. He had demonstrated that it was unnecessary to kill people to wage successful war, and he believed that everyone now saw it his way too. As he had shown in Kentucky early on and later when he dealt with reporters or recruiting agents or when he adopted war against civilians, he equated his position with the only reasonable reality. Ifhe believed something and asserted it, the argument was over; everyone else had to see it the same way or be guilty of stupidity at best or criminality at worst. His ability to focus made him an effective general, but it also caused him to characterize reasonable differences of opinion as disorderly and harmful. This attitude had prevented him from recognizing problems with reporters and politicians throughout the war and would help cause the greatest crisis of his career, just when he confidently expected to enjoy the fame he had so diligently earned the previous year. As he sat in his tent in Goldsboro, North Carolina, in March 1865 writing to his wife, Sherman was a contented man. "Thus have I brought the army from Savannah in good order, beaten the enemy wherever he attempted to oppose and progress, and made 334 FAME TARNISHED --------------------------*-------------------------junction with Schofield and Terry from New Bern and Wilmington on the 21 st, one day later than I had appointed before leaving Savannah." He had "no doubt," he told her, that she was "sufficiently gratified to know that I have eminently succeeded." It felt good to see no clouds on his horizon.I His army was equally "cheerful and in high spirits at their success in the last two campaigns." They were convinced that "there never was such a man as Sherman." Among the officers, there was talk that someday their commander would be president of the United States. Oh no, Sherman jokingly insisted, the public was too "fickle" for that. He reminded his supporters of the time when stories of his insanity and Grant's drunkenness had nearly ruined them both. No, he had no eye on the White House.2 Just then he was more concerned with supplying his troops, his single-minded military concentration not diverted by his recent success. He impatiently waited for the repair of the railroad from Goldsboro to New Bern, so supplies could reach him. He also wanted to see Grant at City Point, Virginia, to plan their future movements. Until the railroad was ready, however, he had to stay put. In fact, there was no rush. Johnston posed no real threat; "from the character of the fighting ... we have got Johnston's army afraid of us. He himself acts with timidity and caution."3 He wanted to see Grant for personal as well as military reasons. The two men had remained close since before Shiloh, the good feelings between them genuine. In response to a recent rumor of promotion in rank, Sherman had immediately written his brother to quash the possibility, telling Grant that he had no interest in having competition with him. Grant wrote back that "no one would be more pleased at your advancement than I, and if you should be placed in my position, and I put subordinate, it would not change our relations in the least." Grant and Sherman trusted and liked each other. Though different in temperament, they shared a common background of past failure and newly gained success. They stood on the brink of completing the military conquest of the Confederacy, and it would be good to savor the dawn of the final success together.4 When the railroad from Goldsboro to New Bern opened on March 25, 1865, Sherman put Schofield in charge and left for the coast. He arrived two days later at City Point on the James River in Virginia, to be greeted at the wharf by Grant and several of his 335 SHERMAN --------------------------*-------------------------subordinates , some of whom were sure that Sherman was coming to relieve Meade as commander of the Army...