of President of the Fifth Street Railroad in St. Louis at a salary of $2500, and this he accepted, beginning the discharge of his duties April 1, 1861. Five days later Montgomery Blair offered him the chief clerkship of the War Department, with a promise of making him Assistant Secretary of War on the meeting of Congress. But he declined, giving as a reason that he had "accepted a place in this company, have rented a house, and incurred other obligations." He added that he "wished the administration all success in its almost impossible task of governing this distracted and anarchical people."

SHE

CHAPTER II.

DURING THE WAR.

HERMAN, however, could not be happy from the tap of the drum. About May 1, 1861, he signified to Secretary Cameron that he would be glad to serve in the war, which had now been made certain by bombardment of Fort Sumter, and on the 14th of May, 1861, he was appointed colonel of the Thirteenth Infantry.

The Secretary of War first received him coldly, saying that he thought the ebullition of feeling would soon subside. Even President Lincoln did not then believe that the nation would be plunged into Civil War.

"Humph!" said Sherman, in his blunt way, "you might as well try to put out a fire with a squirt gun as expect to put down this Rebellion with three months' troops."

He refused to go to Ohio for the purpose of raising three months' troops, declaring that the

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whole military power of the country should be called out at once to crush the Rebellion in its incipiency. Well would it have been if his advice had been taken. It was worthy of consideration, for his residence in Louisiana had given him an inkling of the tremendous feeling in the South-a feeling which the authorities at Washington did not fully appreciate.

As stated, he was put in charge of the Third Brigade of Tyler's division in McDowell's army, which was at that time goaded into premature action with the cry of "On to Richmond!" His brigade comprised the Thirteenth New York, Colonel Quimby; the Sixty-ninth, Colonel Corcoran, and the Seventy-ninth, Colonel Cameron, and also the Second Wisconsin; and to these Ayres' Battery was joined. With this brigade he took an active part in the battle of Bull Run, and it is interesting to note in General Sherman's report how some of the traits of this eminent soldier were visible on his earliest field. "Early in the day," he says, when reconnoitering the ground, I had seen a horseman descend from the bluff in our front, cross the stream, and show

himself in the open field on this side, and, inferring that we could cross over at the same point, I sent forward a company as skirmishers and followed with the whole brigade, the New York Sixty-ninth leading." Sherman's brigade in that action reported 111 killed, 205 wounded, and 293 missing.

For his soldierly qualities in this battle he was promoted to the rank of brigadier-general of volunteers, and was ordered to join Anderson, the hero of Sumter, who was in command of the Department of the Ohio, with headquarters at Louisville. General Anderson's ill health forced him to resign, and Sherman succeeded to the command.

During a visit of Secretary Cameron to the West General Sherman astonished him by declaring that it would take 60,000 men to drive the enemy out of Kentucky and 200,000 to finish the war in that section. This declaration and other evidences of prescience, coupled with his nervous, energetic manner, actually caused the report to spread that Sherman was crazy; and such a charge was made in some of the news

papers. Viewed in the light of history, his estimates are seen to have been anything but those of an excited imagination. Many times 200,000 men were required for the Western campaigns. But a very unfavorable impression had undoubtedly been created by this declaration of the needs of the West. Soon afterward General Buell relieved him from the command of the department, and Sherman was put in charge of the camp of instruction at St. Louis.

Grant, who still had his spurs to win, stood by Sherman in this opinion, and the latter never forgot it. One day, shortly after the occupation of Savannah by Sherman, a prominent civilian approached him and sought to win favor by disparaging Grant.

"It won't do, sir," said Sherman. "It won't do at all. Grant is a great general. He stood by me when I was crazy, and I stood by him when he was drunk, and now, by thunder, sir, we stand by each other!"

Early in 1862 the movement in Tennessee began, which resulted in the surrender of Fort Henry and Fort Donelson to General Grant, fol