Notes removed out of this book by
mdenney
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Judge Sherman entertained a
warm admiration for the celebrated Indian chief, Tecumseh,
and this singular Indian was gifted with rare endowments,
which gave him great prominence amongst his tribal allies, and
132 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF SHERMAN. >
a commanding influence over his followers of the forest. Na
ture had made him a soldier, and he was a statesman by intui
tion. Farseeing in plan, wary to win, sagacious to combine,
and inflexible to execute, these qualities made him a formid
able leader and also a dangerous opponent. He was not habit
ually ruthless or cruel in his warfare ; on the contrary, many
acts of mercy, of generous chivalric protection, are recorded
of him that would grace the annals of the knight errantry of
old. It was the name of this renowned Indian that Judge
Sherman bestowed upon the new-born son. Shortly after, at a
social gathering in his house, Judge Sherman was remon
strated with, half in play and half in earnest, for perpetuating
in his family the savage Indian name. He only replied, but
it was with seriousness, "Tecumseh was a great warrior," and
the affair of the name was settled, never to be changed, even
as in the case of General Grant by dictum of West Point and
the War Department.
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PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF SHERMAN. 183
During the year 1865 and the spring of 1866 it fell to my
lot to make the Indian campaign over the plains, and to kill
a few Indians, and among them a few squaws and children
when there was a general outcry raised all over the United
States, and through the peace commissioners the whole In
dian policy was changed from war to treaties of peace ; and,
being desirous of retiring from the army, Sherman knowing
all my plans, I wrote him in April, 1866, a personal letter ask
ing for leave of absence, my resignation not having been ac
cepted. I have no copy of my letter to him, but he under
stood the matter fully, for we had discussed it together, and
in answer to that letter I received the following :
Headquarters. Military Division of the Mississippi.
Major-General Dodge.
Dear General : I have your letter of April 27th, and I
readily consent to what you ask. I think General Pope should
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184 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS or SHERMAN.
be at Leavenworth before you leave, and I expected he would
be at Leavenworth by May 1st, but he is not yet come. As
soon as he reaches Leavenworth or St. Louis even, I consent
to your going to Omaha to begin what, I trust, will be the
real beginning of the great road. I start tomorrow for Riley,
whence I will cross over to Kearney by land, and thence come
in to Omaha, where I hope to meet you. I will send your let
ter this morning to Pope s office and endorse my request that
a telegraph message be sent to General Pope to the effect that
he is wanted at Leavenworth. Hoping to meet you soon, I am,
Truly,
W. T. SHERMAN, M. G.
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PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF SHERMAN. 189
Generals Sherman, Harney, Kautz, Slemmer and Hunt were
going as a peace commission to treat with the Sioux. General
Sherman wanted to know my reasons for not making an agre^
ment with the Sioux in 1866, allowing them to come down to
the North Fork of the Platte. I told him that my troops, in
the expedition to Powder River in 1865, had discovered gold
through the Black Hills, through the hunting grounds of the
Ogalalla and Brule Sioux, and that I knew as soon as I made
a treaty with the Indians that Chaffee in Colorado and Fair
and others in California were preparing to send men in there.
I had with me in that campaign, part of a Colorado regiment
and part of the California regiment, many of them expert min
ers, and they panned every stream we crossed and had dis
covered gold. They were afraid to go in there because my
agreement with the Indians in 1866 was that it would be im
possible for me to keep the whites out of there, and therefore,
I would not sign any treaty of peace which would bring them
down to the North Platte. My idea was to hold them north of
the Belle Fourche Fork of the Cheyenne, and if they behaved
themselves, I would endeavor to keep the miners from going
into that country; if they went in violation of my orders, I
gave the Indians permission to keep them out, and this, I
kno\v, kept the miners out of that country. The Indians were
not willing to give up this ground under any circumstances,
as it was their best hunting ground. General Sherman and his
commission, under the orders of the President, made the agree
ment with them to come to the North Fork of the Platte, tak
ing in all the Black Hills north of Ft. Laramie. This treaty
had hardly been ratified when the Colorado and California
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190 PERSONAL BECOLLECTIONS OF SHERMAN.
miners poured in there and discovered the Homestake mine,
which has been a great producer. The Government made no
effort to keep the Indians out of this country and carry out
the terms of their treaty. Sitting Bull, who was the chief of
the tribe of Indians who occupied these hills, made protest to
the Government, demanding that they should have their treaty
carried out; but the Government paid no attention to it; then
Sitting Bull took the matter into his own hands, which brought
on the war between the Indians and the Government in 1876,
in which occurred the Custer massacre. The Indians are not
to blame for this, for they were only maintaining their rights,
and it was the fault of the Government in agreeing to the
treaty and then not living up to it. There is no escaping this
fact, and Custer and his regiment were sacrificed because the
Government of the United States did not live up to its agree
ment and do its duty towards these Indians.
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200 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS or SHERMAN.
offers to spare me. I will bear in mind your wish and will
write you some letters from abroad as a keepsake, and as evi
dence of my personal friendship.
Wishing you and yours all possible happiness, etc.,
W. T. SHERMAN.
On receipt of General Sherman s letter of May 7. I wrote
him fully about the attacks on our forces and the depredations
of the Indians, and he answered as follows :
St. Louis, May 27, 1867.
I received your dispatches, and now have your interesting
letter of May 20th.
I have had a good deal of correspondence about the protec
tion of the country along the railroad, which I deem of the
first importance, although to make it effectual I see no other
way than first to attack the Sioux, who remain near the Yel
lowstone in defiance. If they remain, as a matter of course,
they will not confine themselves to attacking the trains that
go to supply Phil. Kearney and C. F. Smith, but Avill come
south to your road. I think General Auger should go there
in force, and we must also get other troops to defend our
working parties. I have asked General Grant for another
battalion of cavalry for that special purpose, and if he can
he will grant it. You know that the same call comes from
every quarter, and it is very hard to say which is of the most
importance. I wish to assure you that I do not under-value
your work for, on its account, I give up my proposed trip to
Europe, and if I can, will come up this summer and attend to
it in person ; but I know that of myself I can do little without
a force in reserve, and that I will try and obtain. If the worst
comes to the worst, I will call on Nebraska for a regiment of
mounted troops, for the special task of defending interests
which are vital to her progress. I don t want to do this if it
can be avoided, as every state and territory that has contact
with Indians will raise a clamor, as has been done more than
once, for local troops serving in their own interest. One
would suppose more of the regular army should be among the
Indians, where danger is imminent, instead of in southern
cities, such as Mobile and New Orleans, but when Mr. Key
can announce that he can have all the regular army to back
him in his speeches at the south, we see that there is a call
for troops there, on questions that Congress thinks are as vital
as those of the Indian question. I have the same appeals from
Minnesota, Montana and Dakota, as well as from Kansas, New
Mexico and Colorado. Each wants enough of the army to
PERSONAL KECOLLECTIONS OF SHERMAN. 201
guard them against all the Indians, but I note your road as
of the most important and have given General Auger a very
large portion of my whole command, but will increase it if T
can get the men.
February 22d, 1868, when I was in command of the De
partment of the Missouri, I located the post of Fort Sanders,
where I thought the railroad would pass very near and I
made a reservation there of ten square miles of ground. When
we came to make our surveys, our line passed through this
reservation. We established the tow T n of Laramie City on a
- portion of this reservation. I had no idea the Government
would make any objection to our occupying the reservation.
But the officers at Fort Sanders reported the fact that we were
locating the line and building it through the reservation, and
it brought orders from the War Department in relation to it,
and on February 21st. I Avrote General Win. T. Sherman to be
allowed to go on the reservation until proper authority from
t-he War Department was obtained.
On March 3d, 1868, General Sherman wrote me the follow
ing letter in relation to the subject which I had laid before
him :
St. Louis, Mo.
I got your dispatch last night and have 1 answered it; have
also written General Auger in general terms to facilitate
the progress of the road by conceding the use of ground near
Fort Sanders for depot, etc. But what you want is a perma
nent title, not that mere temporary use that we are empowered
to grant.
I advise you to cause the most accurate plat to be made
that you can, and delineate thereon the ground you want, with
its metes and bounds, and what part of it is included within
our Fort Sanders, the indefinite use of the space delineated,
or for an absolute title. This paper should go to the Secre
tary of War, who would probably send it down through Gen
eral Grant and myself, to General Auger, the department com
mander, all of whom would doubtless recommend the grant,
provided the depot, as you say, be as far off from the posts as
two miles.
Tn case the land has been publicly dedicated to use as a
military reservation, an act of Congress might be necessary to
202 PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF SHERMAN.
convey it to you, but, as the public land surveys have not yet
reached the Laramie plains, I take it that our occupation of
that reservation can be limited by a simple order of the Sec
retary of War, so as to leave the railroad company the right
of selection, under the bill you showed me in Washington this
winter.
I would not be willing to order the modification of the lim
its of reservation, after the map has been made and filed in
the War Department, as I believe is the case with the reserva
tion in question, but I would not hesitate -to grant you the
right-of-way and the use of any reasonable part of the reser
vation for side tracks and depots, but my grant would only be
temporary, and could be modified, altered, or annulled by my
successors in office, or by higher authority.
In a similar case, at Fort Riley, Congress granted twenty
acres for a depot within the reserve, and a fractional section
on its western edge.
I had been pressing General Sherman and General Auger
to make preparations for the furnishing of my engineering
parties with escorts and for placing troops along all the lines
that was to be opened up, for the purpose of protecting them
from the Indian depredations. The Indians had been aggres
sive since 1867, and from the information I could get were pre
paring to swoop down upon us as soon as we opened up work
in the spring.
In answer to my letters, on January 23d, 1868, General
Sherman wrote me as follows :
January 23d, 1868.
Last summer when on the Indian commission, Senator Hen
derson repeatedly told me that the subsidy of $16,000 per mile
to railroads and the liberal compensation to the stage lines was
intended purposely to be in line of "protection" by the mili
tary. General Auger has shown me your letter of .the 14th. in
which you ask pretty large escorts and posts for the protection
and the operation of your .road. I wish you would see Mr. Hen
derson. Show him this, and have a simple resolution passed
Congress directing the General-in-Chief, or President, to af
ford suitable military protection to the parties engaged in the
location and construction of the Pacific Railroad. This will
warrant the expenses to which we are put in providing the
troops and trains employed for that purpose.
PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF SUKILMAX. 203
We had to bear the blame of precipitating an Indian war,
because we tried to protect these roads and stage lines, and
that was used as an argument why the military should not be
used for a purpose antagonistic to the Indian nation.
On receipt of this letter, I introduced a resolution in Con
gress providing for this, which was promptly passed, giving the
military full authority in the matter, although Congress
thought they had already given it to them.
The tracks were joined at Promontory on May 10, 1869,
and not forgetting what Sherman had done to make the great
transcontinental line a success, I sent him a dispatch when the
last spike was being driven :
Promontory, Utah, May 10, 1869.
General AY. T. Sherman :,
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