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I came across an interesting article in American Heritage Magazine about how at the end of the Civil War the two Union Armies so hated each other that it was feared the victorious Union would not survive. Civilians in the Fed Govt feared a coup after the victory and the Lincoln Assassination. Stanton hated Sherman and vice versa.
Had anyone ever heard about this? I knew about the elaborate victory parades thru Washington DC, but never knew the reason they were held was to prevent war between the two armies of the Union.
Stanton and the Radical Republicans were outraged that Sherman had negotiated a peace with Gen Johnston without consulting the new President. And Stanton accused Sherman of treason.
Once the South was beaten, Eastern and Western troops of the Union army resented each other so violently that some feared for the survival of the victorious government. Then the tension disappeared in one happy stroke that gave the United States its grandest pageant—and General Sherman the proudest moment of his life.
Two weeks after Appomattox, in Raleigh, North Carolina, Sherman had sat down with his fellow West Pointer and signed a document that endorsed the legitimacy of Southern state governments as soon as they took an oath of allegiance to the United States. It also guaranteed political rights to the ex-Rebels as well as “rights of person and property.” Sherman thought he was following Lincoln’s policy of reconciliation, but to vengeful minds he sounded as if he were reconstituting the Old South, complete with slavery. Stanton and the Radical Republicans were outraged—and frightened. Calling in reporters, Stanton accused Sherman of insubordination, stupidity, and treason. Headlines across the country echoed the Secretary’s condemnation.
The parades must have been amazing as they were 7 miles long and took two full days.
Sherman rode at the head of the column, wreaths of roses around his horse’s neck. His old slouch hat was in his hand, and his red hair glistened in the bright sun. Behind him came the plowboys from Ohio, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan. They took furtive, astonished glances at the signs arched over the avenue: HAIL TO THE WESTERN HEROES. HAIL, CHAMPIONS OF SHILOH, VICKSBURG, CHATTANOOGA, ATLANTA, SAVANNAH, PRIDE OF THE NATION.
The Westerners marched with a rolling, springy stride, perhaps two to four inches longer than that of the men of the East. They were “nothing but bone and muscle and skin under their tattered battle-flags,” said Brie. Gen. Carl Schurz, who had marched with them. Another man thought they marched “like the lords of the world.” The New York Tribune reporter believed their faces were “more intelligent, self reliant and determined” than those of the Army of the Potomac. The New York World ’s man found them “hardier, knottier, weirder.”
Within minutes the Westerners had won their last victory. The spectators went wild. Sobbing women held up babies; others simultaneously praised God and wept. Thousands of white handkerchiefs waved from the sidelines. Rooftops, windows, even the trees were full of cheering civilians. For some regiments the excitement was almost unbearable. Wild cheers burst from their throats. Hearing those yells, Sherman rode in an agony of uncertainty. He could not break his own order and look back. He could only pray his legions had not become the undisciplined mob that the Army of the Potomac considered them. Finally, as his bay horse mounted the slope before the Treasury Building, Uncle Billy could stand the suspense no longer. They were only minutes from the presidential reviewing stand. He whirled in his saddle as he reached the crest of the rise.
What he saw made that “the happiest and most satisfactory moment” of his life. Every man was obeying the order to keep his eyes rigidly to the front. They all were marching to the same beat. “The column was compact,” he wrote in his memoirs, “and the glittering muskets looked like a solid mass of steel, moving with the regularity of a pendulum.”
This excerpt was interesting considering my people in Europe, I had always thought, imagined the UK, France or Germany as having the most powerful army.
On the reviewing stand, as the first divisions passed, the German ambassador reportedly said, “An army like that could whip all Europe.” A half-hour later he gasped, “An army like that could whip the world.” An hour later: “An army like that could whip the devil.”
For seven and a half hours the men of the West strode down Pennsylvania Avenue on those sinewy young legs that had carried them farther than most armies had marched in the history of warfare. In the end the cheering spectators realized the aura of invincibility came from something invisible, intangible, something profoundly connected to the idea of freedom. Lincoln had summoned these grandsons of the pioneers from the nation’s heartland to settle the ancient issue between the founding sections. More than one spectator sensed it was the martyred President himself in his Western prime they saw striding past them on May 24, 1865.
I imagine Americans of the time watching those parades must have felt immense pride the idea of the United States of America.
I know that Politicians in Washington were afraid of Sherman's Army parade.
It was the aftermath of the accusation of treason toward Sherman because of his terms of surrender given to Johnston Army.
The Army was devoted to his General and maybe ready to insurrection. Finally the Sherman's Legions paraded with dignity and the crisis died.
I also think that the two Armies were "rivals" regarding their achievement and Victories.
Sherman was insane, suicidal, and even after suffering a nervous breakdown, was permitted by Ulysses Grant, the drunkard to whom he was confidential advisor...to embark on the "March to the Sea" campaign.
Of course Stanton hated him. Most people thought he was a loon.
Sherman was insane, suicidal, and even after suffering a nervous breakdown, was permitted by Ulysses Grant, the drunkard to whom he was confidential advisor...to embark on the "March to the Sea" campaign.
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Grant was not a drunkard during the war. We have discussed this in the previous threads. The nature of Grant's drinking was such that he only did it when he was separated from his family and had nothing to do, alcohol was his response to boredom. He was not bored while conducting a campaign in the field.
There are three reported incidents of Grant being drunk during the war, once on the Yazoo River, once in New Orleans and once during the siege of Petersburg. The Yazoo incident has credible reporting and apparently was the result of Grant being ill and his doctor advising him to have a drink. The New Orleans incident is most probably false, the only people reporting Grant drunk there were his political enemies. Other eyewitness accounts make no notice of Grant being intoxicated in any manner.
The Petersburg incident is also associated with illness and there are legitimate questions as to whether his sickness was related to any drinking.
Sherman was insane, suicidal, and even after suffering a nervous breakdown, was permitted by Ulysses Grant, the drunkard to whom he was confidential advisor...to embark on the "March to the Sea" campaign.
Even were this nonsense true it wouldn't negate the fact that both Sherman and Grant were very capable soldiers and the men who commanded the armies that crushed the rebellion. They did their jobs.
Even were this nonsense true it wouldn't negate the fact that both Sherman and Grant were very capable soldiers and the men who commanded the armies that crushed the rebellion. They did their jobs.
If you have never read any objective bios of Sherman, a simple Google search can direct you to a plethora of sources that will show you the personal struggles the man was challenged by, and newspaper accounts of his behavior at the time.
Stanton was a duplicitous man, and a humorless, severely demanding boss. This made him difficult to like or trust personally, but there seems never to have been any question of his absolute loyalty to the Union, nor of his integrity and efficiency in administering his department. President Lincoln was a pragmatist, he could live with Stanton's personal shortcomings if it meant getting the most able man on the job.
If you have never read any objective bios of Sherman, a simple Google search can direct you to a plethora of sources that will show you the personal struggles the man was challenged by, and newspaper accounts of his behavior at the time.
Uncle Billy had issues and perhaps a nervous breakdown early in the war but he was not, as you claimed, insane and suicidal. He could hardly have been the effective soldier (and administrator) he was were he a madman.
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Of course it is true.
