Sherman, William Tecumseh | A major unpublished correspondence by the Commanding General of the United States Army

Sherman, William Tecumseh

A remarkable collection of unpublished correspondence from General Sherman to his aide-de-camp Colonel John Mosby Bacon, comprising 58 autograph letters signed (“W. T. Sherman”; “Sherman”) to Bacon (“Dear Bacon”), totalling approximately 209 pages (mostly ca. 204 x 125 mm, mostly on bifolia with Headquarters Army of the United States or other Army letterhead or personal letterhead of 912 Garrison Avenue, St. Louis, Mo.), various places (including Washington, D.C., Malta, St. Louis, Chicago, Green Bay, San Francisco, Fort Vancouver (Washington Territory), Portland (Oregon), San Antonio, Fort Coeur d’Alene, Lake Minnetonka, and New York, 17 August 1871–26 September 1890, the letters through 11 October 1883 written as Commanding General of the United States Army, letters after that date written as a retired, private citizen, eight letters written in pencil, the others in black or sepia (and one in violet) ink — accompanied by related materials including approximately 30 autograph envelopes in Sherman’s hand, a few with his franking signatures or signed in the third person (“Col John M. Bacon | ADC to General Sherman”); cabinet-card size albumen photograph portrait of Sherman on mount of Napoleon Sarony, signed and dated 1889 on the front and inscribed in pencil on the verso “To Col Jno. M. Bacon with best compliments of W. T. Sherman General, Fort Riley, KS, July 16, 1889”; few telegrams from Sherman to Bacon in clerical hands; three photographs of Bacon and his family; some other private correspondence to Bacon. Very occasional browning or soiling to letters; many envelopes torn with loss. Housed in mylar sleeves in a three-ring binder.

After Civil War campaigns that made him the most ferocious and, arguably, most successful General of the Grand Army of the Republic, William Tecumseh Sherman took command of Division of the Mississippi, headquartered at St. Louis, in 1866. He was sent, somewhat against his will, on a diplomatic mission to Mexico that same year. When Ulysses S. Grant was elected president, Sherman succeeded him as Commanding General of the United States Army after Grant’s inauguration, March 1869, and it was during his tenure in that position that the majority of the letters in the present archive were written, to a newly appointed aide-de-camp, Colonel John Mosby Bacon.

The extent and candor of the correspondence is evidence that Sherman respected and trusted Bacon, who joined his staff in 1870 and remained for his full appointment as Commanding General, which ended on 1 November 1883, when he retired from active service and was replaced by Philip Sheridan. The fact that their correspondence continued for another seven years, when Sherman was living in St. Louis and New York City—pursuing business opportunities and avoiding political ones—also demonstrates the compatibility of the two men and the significance of their relationship.

Bacon was, in fact, retained by Sherman as an aide (together with John E. Tourtelotte) for some time after his official retirement, a courtesy he had requested of Secretary of War Robert Todd Lincoln. In his Memoirs, Sherman wrote that Bacon “who utterly ignored self in his personal attachment to me. He was then a captain of the Ninth Cavalry, but with almost a certainty of promotion to be major of the Seventh before the date of my official retirement, which actually resulted. [He] accompanied me to St. Louis, and remained with me to the end.” Yet the editors of “The Complete Annotated Edition” of The Memoirs of General William Tecumseh Sherman (Harvard, 2025) can muster little to say about Bacon in a single footnote: “John M. Bacon (1844-1913) was a U.S. volunteer solider from Kentucky during the Civil War. In 1866 he was commissioned as a captain of cavalry in the U.S. Army. He joined WTS's staff in 1870.”

Perhaps because these letters have remained with Colonel Bacon’s descendants his role in Sherman’s later career remains unexplored by Sherman’s biographers. A wealth of new information can undoubtedly be mined from these letters.

Bacon was, in fact, retained by Sherman as an aide (together with John E. Tourtelotte) for some time after his official retirement, a courtesy he had requested of Secretary of War Robert Todd Lincoln. In his Memoirs, Sherman wrote that Bacon “who utterly ignored self in his personal attachment to me. He was then a captain of the Ninth Cavalry, but with almost a certainty of promotion to be major of the Seventh before the date of my official retirement, which actually resulted. [He] accompanied me to St. Louis, and remained with me to the end.”

The letters provide details, military and domestic, of Sherman’s dizzying schedule of travel to inspect various army installations (as witnessed by the many places of origin of the letters), but on 6 September 1871, he took time to congratulate Bacon on his marriage and urge him to to take his bride with him on his own travels: “Make your mind easy. Send for your wife, and enjoy the years of youth as you best can.”

Some of Sherman’s time is taken up with entertaining dignitaries of all stripes, including other general officers. He notes on 5 August 1875, in a letter written on letterhead of Headquarters Military Division of he Missouri, that “Genl [Henry Warner] Slocum arrived at 8 pm … I find General Slocum most anxious to see the Country west of the Mississippi, and therefore we will probably cross over from Saint Paul to Omaha and reach Saint Louis from the direction of Leavenworth. As to mails, you may send to Green Bay Wisconsin this week—and to St. Paul next week—After that hold all mails for me till I come.”

On 1 September 1876, writing from Washington, D.C., Sherman informs his aide, “I am going with the Sec of War [J. Donald Cameron] to California … and will be back in time for the Army meeting here. … Mr Cameron takes two of his daughters and a son. I take Mrs Sherman, Tom, Elly and Company.”

In a letter of 12 August 1879, Sherman again expresses deep personal concern for Bacon, whose wife and new baby had been ill: “I am glad that you went back to Oakland [Maryland] for your presence was of infinite service to Mrs Bacon and the baby during their critical illness. I now hear that Mrs Bacon & the baby are much better and will soon leave Oakland. … If you come back to Washington I am a little afraid of the effort. … I know that August and September are unsafe months in Washington because of malaria. Still if you return Mrs Bacon can find better food here than at Oakland and probably better physicians.”

A “week of gorgeous luxury,” reported Sherman from San Francisco, 20 September 1880, was spend partly in the company of President and Mrs. Rutherford B. Hayes—the very first presidential visit to the Golden State. Another dispatch from the west coast, Portland, Oregon, 7 October 1880, reads a bit like a Chamber of Commerce endorsement: “We are just back from Walla Walla, the same dusty, dirty place you can easily recall to memory, but very populous and prosperous. The River is as beautiful as ever and the weather very fair, so that we have had occasional glimpses of the peaks—On Saturday we go to Olympia to spend Sunday there. On Monday we take a chartered boat and make pretty much the same tour of the Sound we did, only stopping a little longer at Seattle and Port Townsend to do more hand shaking & speaking.”

Perhaps the most remarkable letter of the archive was written from Washington, D.C., 2 July 1881, at 10:20 a.m., and describes in great detail the shooting of President James Garfield by Charles Guiteau. (Oddly, once in custody, Guiteau wrote to Sherman urging him to seize control of the government. This letter is directed to Generals Philip Sheridan, O. O. Howard, and Irwin McDowall and was evidently intended for Bacon to duplicate and transmit to those three.

The President, Sherman relays, was walking with his cabinet through the capital city’s train station, when Garfield “was shot from behind by a man almost in contact, one shot through the arm, a flesh wound the other in the back toward the right side. the ball ranging downward—this last round is serious—I have just come from the depot. The President was in a Room up stairs with several … competent surgeons. … The would be assassin is in Custody. He seems to have acted absolutely alone. No combination or conspiracy apparent. … I will keep you all advised.” In a postscript, Sherman adds, “The President has just been brought up to the White House and is now there.”

Of equal significance is a very lengthy letter of 29 May 1884, in which Sherman makes clear his own disinclination to accept the Republican nomination for president (their national convention was to meet in Chicago the next week) and also regrets the effects on Ulysses S. Grant of his own successful foray into presidential politics. “I have had one or two [letters] from delegates to the Chicago convention to the effect that I would surely be nominated and must not decline—but my invariable answer has been that … if the convention should disregard my wishes—I will decline with an expression as damaging to them as unpleasant for myself. Henderson was here night before last and I think he can (being a delegate) satisfy the nominating committee that I am in Earnest I am sure Grant damaged his fame by his Presidential Career—still more by seeking a third term, and infinitely more by his recent experience as a Banker.”

The letters continue, detailed and warm, although necessarily of a more personal nature after Sherman’s retirement, until the final letter is reached, 26 September 1890, less than five months before the general’s death. This letter expresses, as so many previous ones had done, the deep personal regard Sherman felt for Bacon and shows that his interest did not diminish after Bacon left his staff. It also contains advice foe advancing Bacon’s career and significant insight into the future of warfare:

  “I am much pleased to receive your letter of the 21^st from Fort Riley and equally so that you had been chosen as the Acting Inspector General for the Dept of the Platte HdQrs. Omaha. You have a good reputation as Post Commander, as also as a Cavalry officer generally. Those are the two foundations for a lasting reputation in the Military Profession. Your new office will enlarge your sphere of Study and observation and will be to your young and beautiful wife much more agreeable than the compliment of garrison life.

“I have seen Omaha from its beginning to the present condition. I am sure you will find there social advantages on a larger scale than at Riley and if you profit by the opportunity you will be better qualified for ultimate advancement. No military officer should cease his struggle for promotion till he is General, and then he must await opportunity.

“War is becoming each year more and more an expensive luxury. And no nation can resort to war without a big purse, therefore in our country—especially wars will be rare but when they do come, that officer who can best organize and command troops will be the first to have a chance to gain Fame. The practical experience of Grant, Sheridan, and Sherman with troops in our late war was of more use to the Country than the Book Knowledge of Halleck McClellan and Meade. For this reason I have always contended that Staff officers should serve with troops before being appointed to Staff duty.

“This you have done completely. … Give my best love to that sweet wife of yours and may happiness and contentment continue with you to the end— Affectionately yours. W. T. Sherman.”