December 12, 1861 (Wednesday): Madness?

General William T. Sherman

                                        LANCASTER, OHIO, December 12, 1861.

Major-General HALLECK, Saint Louis, Mo.:

   DEAR SIR:  I believe you will be frank enough to answer me if you deem the steps I took at Sedalia as evidence of a want of mind.  They may have been the result of an excess of caution on my part, but I think the troops were to much strung out, and should be concentrated, with more men along to guard the track.  The animals, cattle especially, will be exposed this winter.

   I set a much higher measure of danger on the acts of unfriendly inhabitants than most officers do, because I have lived in Missouri and the South, and know that in their individual characters they will do more acts of hostility than Northern farmers or people could bring themselves to perpetrate.  In my judgments Price’s army in the aggregate is less to be feared than when in scattered bands.

   I write to you because a Cincinnati paper, whose reporter I imprisoned in Louisville for visiting our camps after I had forbidden him leave to go, has announced that I am insane, and alleges as a reason that at Sedalia my acts were so mad that subordinate officers refused to obey.  I know of no order I gave that was not obeyed, except General Pope’s, to advance his division to Sedalia, which order was countermanded by you, and the fact communicated to me.

   These newspapers have us in their power, and can destroy us as they please, and this one can destroy my usefulness by depriving me of the confidence of officers and men.

   I will be in Saint Louis next week, and will be guided by your commands and judgment.

   I am, &c.,

W. T. SHERMAN,

Brigadier-General.

Official Records, Series I., Vol. 8, Part 1, Page 819.

In a week Halleck would reply, telling Sherman the newspapers were an inconvenience but nothing to be disturbed about.  He didn’t lie in his response, but he shaded the truth considerably.  In a letter to McClellan on December 2 (see blog entry for that date) Halleck said Sherman had “stampeded” the troops at Sedalia and was himself “stampeded” according to officers there.  “I am satisfied in his current condition it would be dangerous to give him a command here.”  It is likely for the correspondence in the O.R. Halleck did not regard Sherman as “mad” but physically and emotionally broken to the point of being unsuited for duty without a period of rest.  The letter is instructive for Sherman’s views on the dangers of the civilian population, in light of his ruthless conduct later in the war.